#I will also talk about the ships clarify the approach but also why they're not really my main focus

[skania]

Do you think kana would be perfect for aqua once he tells her everything and heals from his trauma? Kana is light his bright shining star and kana long term crush on aqua will be a good payoff for once. Akane will probably see that kana is best for him and help them get together? I see fans theorize on this and I want to hear your opinion

I typed a reply to this and Tumblr lost it! 😭

I'll also replying to these here because they're all Aq/Kan related:

I'd also like the chance to clarify something. I'm not here to convince anyone that Aqua/Kana won't happen! It could very well happen! A part of me is expecting it to happen,not because it'd be the best outcome but because it's the most predictable one lmao

So yeah, I'm not here for that and I'm not interested in doing so either. I'm here to talk about Akane, Aqua and AquaKane and all the reasons why they won me over and why I personally find them much more satisfying!

Forgive me for the PSA anons, I'm answering these but I need to redirect my agenda to the ship I actually ship lmao

To summarize what I wrote before Tumblr ate my reply, of course there are theories like those because it's the most obvious reading of the manga. If you take every Aqua and Kana interaction at face value, it's natural to come to that conclusion. And they could very well be right, maybe Aka is subverting expectations by making us think he is above going for the obvious, only to do exactly that. It's possible! The ships in Kaguya were blatantly obvious, too.

Except. And here is the big thing. Aka has already written a character that approaches love in the same way Kana does. This character is Maki. She was in love with a boy but never did anything about it. The consequence? The boy started to like her best friend and pursued her. What did Maki do? Nothing. The boy and her best friend started to date, a casual relationship turned to love, and Maki did nothing but mope pretty much exactly like Kana. Was Maki's love rewarded at the end? No, because Aka portrayed her inaction as wrong.

Now, the main difference between Kana and Maki is that Aqua may very well be into her, too. But the rest of the picture remains the same: lack of action from Kana, a complete lack of development between them, etc., while Aqua and Akane have gone through like 10 different relationship stages in that same amount of time, growing closer each time.

So which road you find most rewarding depends on which road you personally think has been more developed in the manga. Same goes for whether you think Kana would be perfect for Aqua; I think that at the surface, the manga wants the reader to get that impression. But is she really? Kana is too naive. Whenever Aqua manipulates her, she blindly falls right into it. She wears her heart on her sleeve; this may be refreshing to Aqua, but it also puts Kana at a clear disadvantage because he knows exactly what to say and do to get her to react exactly how he wants her to. Would theirs be a relationship between equals? Right now, I'm not sure I can see it.

But you know what? It's actually impossible to know how Kana would fare around Aqua, the whole Aqua, because we have simply never seen it. Aqua's darkness has always been kept from her. And the scenario you're painting here involves a perfectly healthy Aqua, but he may never be like that. I am definitely hoping he heals and I'm sure he will heal, but that won't magically erase everything he has gone through. Is Kana equipped to deal with that? Maybe, maybe not. We won't know until Aka actually allows her to see all of Aqua.

So all in all, my thoughts are that it's kind of pointless to worry about this. You either enjoy Aqua/Akane's dynamic more or you don't. There isn't a right answer, it's subjective.

I have no thoughts about this lol Akane was just trying to reassure Aqua, she had no idea that Aqua had never done emotional acting before because at this point, she was only getting to know him. Akane isn't the type to force her way through without first having a clear understanding of what is going on inside the person.

Once she sees how he acted in the past, Akane figures it all out and gets to the heart of the matter. What does Aqua act for? Why does he want to act in the first place?

And she doesn't settle for Aqua not giving her a straight answer.

Ai was Ruby's light too. Was Ruby in love with Ai?

In this manga, being someone's light doesn't have to be romantic. Now, I'm not saying Aqua's feelings for Kana aren't romantic; like I've said a bunch of times, the in-your-face reading of the manga is that they are.

I'm saying that Kana being Aqua's light doesn't automatically mean she's his one true love, because being a light for someone isn't an inherently romantic concept in this manga.

As for whether Aqua was "forcing" himself to think he would be better off with Akane...

Aqua dated Akane because he wanted to and he stayed with Akane because he wanted to; because she did him good. Aqua's actions show a dedicated boyfriend who literally calls his girlfriend every night.

But Aqua's happiness was built on Aqua deliberately turning his eyes away from the truth about Kamiki. Rather than face the music, Aqua ran away. Same goes for his bond with Kana. Instead of having a honest talk with her, Aqua let his trauma get the best of him and simply cut her off his life.

I think deep down, Aqua was aware that he was running away. But by running away, he was able to spend his days in relative peace. So even when Gotanda spelled out the truth to him, Aqua couldn't find it in himself to stop running.

Of course, this is only part of what weights Aqua down during his "freedom" period. I believe another thing that weights Aqua down is that he hasn't told Akane that he is Goro. Despite all the truths he has told her, he is still hiding this from her, and we know for a fact that he sees this as him "deceiving her."

All of this, coupled with Aqua's inherent trauma which shapes itself into thinking: Do I even deserve to be happy? shackle Aqua to the past he is desperately trying to run away from.

But this is such an interesting topic that it probably deserves its own post lol

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hello! I’ve tried to contact one of the users here who’s making a lot of misguided comments about Instagram trying to explain they’re making things worse, but they’re ignoring me. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, but I think this has happened after people misinterpreted a post saying that the fintan issue happened because the humor is different than in the Instagram, so it caused confusion. As someone who is a poc I’m a little confused about the way tumblr has brought race and racism into the conversation as well. Thank you for reading =)

Hello to you, too! And thank you for reaching out. I'll just start by saying that it's possible that the person you reached out to just hasn't responded yet if you sent them an ask or something. Punctuality varies between the person and the day! But I also don't have all the details of what you've tried to do so maybe that's irrelevant.

That aside, I agree with your points. I don't want this to be a big deal either and am really hoping it doesn't escalate into something significant, as discourse like that is never fun.

However, I don't think the comments being made are helpful, just like you said! I noticed that in the first "round" of discourse a little bit ago it seemed like everyone started with more of a "lol seriously??" attitude, not thinking too much of it. From there that turned into something more significant until we had to roll it back and go "wait hang on jokes aside" and have a serious moment. With the jokes right now, it seems to be a trend of how things are handled with light-heartedness first until it becomes apparent something else is needed.

This is just my personal opinion and approach, but I think when it comes to conflict it's best to start serious and clarify things before making jokes specifically to prevent escalation. Starting with jokes, I think, has a higher risk of leading to misinterpretation like what you're talking about with the humor confusion.

As for the race issue, I believe it was brought up when Tumblr's humor was specifically called "white humor" with the connotation that that was a bad or lesser thing. It at the very least was not meant as anything good. So then the topic of Tumblr having a lot of poc (myself included! hello! buddies!) was brought up and alongside topics about race and racism. So I think race was first brought up on IG and racism on Tumblr, though it didn't have to do with the original topic.

Slightly unrelated, but I think there's an element of...superiority? On both sides. Or like each is trying to find the moral high-ground and be better in some way, which I don't think is helping the situation. On IG there's posts (from one person I believe) asking why the Tumblr fandom is so upset at being called white and asking rhetorical questions like whether or not they're allowed to make jokes about white people anymore, which feels (at least to me) like it's using race to try and claim a moral high ground. The same way people on Tumblr have talked about how some of the things they like (gay ships, diverse headcanons) that are diverse would be an affront to everyone on IG and therefore they are morally superior. (to my mutuals: I greatly appreciate you and like interacting, but these are my thoughts)

It just doesn't seem like a productive conversation on either side or an accurate representation of each other, even if it's fun or entertaining for some. It feels like it's assuming worse of people, but maybe I'm wrong about that. After all, these are just observations.

I'll stop there, but thank you for reaching out and being so respectful about it! I really appreciate the opportunity to talk it through. I think I'm forgetting something, but my overall conclusion is that I agree with you! Race wasn't part of the original discussion and responses on both sides seem to be misrepresentative of each other and making things worse.

I hope you have a good day, night! And if there's anything else, my ask box is always open :)

[frick6101719]

LGBTQ+ & Shipping

I'm a little nervous about posting this in light of the drama from some time ago, but I've decided that it's probably never a bad thing to talk about issues like this. In my experience, a lot of people have questions/thoughts/feelings about LGBTQ+ representation and shipping, and civil conversation can hopefully only clarify things.

I'm going to further preface this by saying that this is not in response to anyone or any drama, and I am saying this without the intent of starting drama. I'm not one for callout/correction posts, and were I ever to do that you may rest assured that I'd be straightforward about it, not messing around with vague allusions to people and behaviour. This is purely me talking about my knowledge and experience and most importantly about the thoughts I had in the shower today.

Okay here goes. Putting this below the cut because it's a bit long, but if you're interested in continuing this discussion and maybe learning a bit then I'd encourage you to read on!

The thing about ships is, and maybe we've gotten a bit away from this, but at the end of the day it is about preference. It's about what dynamics, arcs, tropes, etc. you like seeing in a piece of media. It's not something that you should approach like you're a relationship counselor or matchmaker trying to find the perfect mate(s) for your beloved fictional characters. It's not necessarily about how healthy, problematic, or even realistic the relationship is. Sure, you can definitely find a relationship off-putting because it's unhealthy or even abusive, but you can also enjoy watching those twisted dynamics play out on page or screen. Enjoying a messed-up fictional couple doesn't mean you condone that kind of relationship in real life. I mean lots of people like serial killer documentaries and that doesn't mean they condone murder--that's just not how enjoyment works.

This means you can have preferences about the sexual/gender identity of your ships, too, and those preferences don't necessarily reflect the way you feel about relationships "in real life." Those thoughts and feelings might be related though, and that can be okay too! You might enjoy heterosexual relationships more because you yourself are straight, or you might enjoy queer relationships more because you identify as LGBTQ+. Both of these situations are fine. Some people have a hard time enjoying media when they can't identify personally with it, and that isn't inherently bad. What can be bad is seeing some relationships as somehow superior because they're what you prefer, but the fact alone that someone prefers fictional relationships featuring some sexual orientations more than others does not draw automatic conclusions about that person's view on LGBTQ+ issues. A preference is a preference, not a moral manifesto, and it can be held for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with prejudice and/or homophobia.

The flip-side is, your preferences may reflect your prejudices, maybe even without you knowing. If you have a friend who only ships couples who are in toxic/abusive relationships, you may start drawing conclusions about the way they view relationships in real life. And you might not be entirely wrong to do so. Similarly, if you can't think of a single queer relationship you ship, it may be because you view queerness in general negatively.

The thing is, the person best suited to figuring out whether your preferences ARE affected by prejudice/homophobia is YOU. YOU are in a unique and unparalleled position to analyze what you like and why, and to assess whether or not your lack of interest in certain ships is because you just don't care for the relationship (which is totally valid), or because you find it gross and unpleasant to think about ships "like that" (i.e. that are queer). But without looking critically at your own preferences, being open to thoughtful correction, and committing to fighting your own homophobia, you may be hurting the queer people around you without realising it via the way you interact with LGBTQ+ ships in fandom. And crucially, while you may be best suited to parsing your own interests, you may NOT be the best authority on hurtful/homophobic behaviour. Unless you're already well-versed in the myriad of ways the LGBTQ+ community experiences hate and discrimination, you may not even notice prejudiced behaviours in yourself. For that, trust your queer friends, especially if they're telling you you've done or said something that has hurt them or others.

One last thing: being homophobic is not screwing up one time and being branded HOMOPHOBE for life. Probably all of us, from time to time, have moments where we are homophobic. Homophobia is any words, actions, or beliefs that support the notion that LGBTQ+ people are somehow less valuable than straight people. So you can believe in your heart that queer people are equally valuable and still sometimes do or say things that are homophobic--just like you can love someone and still occasionally do or say things that hurt them. You can even be queer and be homophobic at times; I know sometimes I am.

So it's best to accept that, at times, you will be homophobic. But it's not about being perfectly un-homophobic all the time, it's about being TEACHABLE. It's about listening when someone corrects you, not being defensive, and trying to grow from each correction into someone who is more supportive of the LGBTQ+ community.

[nothesc]

Hey there! Thank you so much for your post about Dani and that he didn't do anything wrong. I don't get the hate he gets here. They're so in love with each other and they have desires. I ask myself, is it only because Dani is a white boy? What are these double standards?! Yousef also leaned in to kiss Sana and Imane kissed Sofian... Where there the same shitstorm? People are so hypocritical sometimes, it's so sad.

Hi!!

I don't even know where to begin. I'm honestly so tired of Tumblr this season. I get not shipping Damira, I really do, but what I don't get is using any excuse to hate Dani when he hasn't done anything wrong.

People have been hating Dani since before the season even started, they were ready to hate him because after seeing Kasim on the trailer for two seconds everyone assumed that he was the love interest and Dani wasn't, when they've been hinting at Damira since s2 so I really don't understand why people were so surprised with Damira.

Still, I get that people wanted a Muslim love interest, I get that they didn't want a white guy. I honestly get that, but hate the writers don't hate the character especially because he's not just some random white dude, he's been friends with Amira since they were 5, they share a bond.

The one thing that Dani has done wrong was the Al Qaeda joke in the first clip, a month ago. And listen, I'm not entitled to judge if the joke is offensive or not because I'm not Muslim so I'm not the one that the joke is offending and if Muslim people were offended by the joke then I'm not one to say they shouldn't be offended because their feelings are valid. (Though I have to say as a Spanish girl that knows the type of jokes that are made here that if the kid was blond with blue eyes Dani would've said Nazi and if the kid was from the north of Spain Dani would've said etarra, doesn't make it okay, but I just wanted to clarify and again I'm not one to judge)

But apart from that one joke Dani hasn't done anything wrong at all. Even when he kissed Eva he wasn't doing anything wrong because it was the first episode and Amira and Dani hadn't even had a date (unlike og skam and other remakes where the yousef kisses the girl after having dates with the Sana).

And still, people keep hating him. I've seen people saying that he was toxic for texting Amira when she didn't go to practice, saying that he was a stalker for going to Amira's, saying that he was pressuring Amira to tell everyone when he was only giving her a solution because she didn't want to keep lying, saying that he's awful for taking Amira to a bar during Ramadan when we've seen Amira do that in previous seasons and she never had a problem with that and Dani didn't even drink alcohol so Amira wouldn't feel out of place, saying that Dani is a coward because he didn't stand up for Amira with his friends but then also saying that he's aggressive for wanting to have said something and that Amira doesn't need a man to defend her, saying that he's lying to Amira because he had doubts and didn't tell her when we don't even know when he talked to Rubén and even if he did he's entitled to vent to his friend and it doesn't mean he doesn't love Amira, saying that he's offensive for learning a dance for Amira that she loved and made her laugh, that he doesn't respect Amira for looking at Amira's lips on Monday's clip, saying that he's too unrealistic and that they want us to think he's a knight in a shining armor and that it is racist.

And now, the new excuse is saying that Dani should apologize for wanting to kiss Amira yesterday and that backing off is only his responsibility. First of all, Amira is the one that approaches him in the first place. They both wanted to kiss the other person, and they both back away when they realize what they're doing. And Dani doesn't even look disappointed or mad, because he knows what the deal is and he accepted it. And then he comes up with something to make Amira laugh. And I just don't get how people are criticizing that, because I think the moment was necessary to show that couples have these moments of weakness and that it's okay to have them, that it's what you decide to do about that what matters. Like imagine girls that are in Amira's situation seeing that and knowing that they don't have to be perfect all the time, that they can have moments of weakness and doubts and that doesn't mean they don't have faith because what's important is that you remember your decision and don't succumb to weakness. I think that saying that the responsibility to stop that kiss is only Dani's is a way to invalidate Amira's feelings and expect her to be perfect all the time and that's just not realistic. And like you said the almost kiss is something that happened in skam Norway, druck, France etc but somehow it only stings when it comes from Damira.

If Dani had insisted on kissing Amira after she backed off then I would've been the first one to hate on him. But he didn't. He took a step back and did something to cheer Amira up and let her know that everything is okay.

So again I completely understand that some people don't ship Damira and that they're disappointed with Kasim's plot and that they just don't like Dani as a love interest, but this hate towards him???? It's just too much and makes no sense. It's making me hate Tumblr, I'm not comfortable here anymore, I can't go in the tag because I get mad every time. I'm not saying everyone should love Damira and Dani but this hate is too much and I'm so tired.

And before someone comes at me about this post, I respect everyone's opinion and I won't get in any fight about this topic, if you people want to keep hating on a character that hasn't done anything wrong for no reason, go ahead but don't bring your hate to me.

[tearlessrain]

Follower meme: Jial-ro Lhir

I wasn’t tagged this time I just wanted to do another one.

Class: Jedi Sage

Weapons: Lightsaber (gold). Also the ground, I guess.

Recruitable by: Smuggler, Nar Shaddaa. All classes after stopping Saresh’s attempted coup in KotFE.

Likes: Compassion, idealism, standing up for the oppressed,  questioning authority, unorthodox solutions

Dislikes: Rigid adherence to rules/tradition, cruelty, anti-alien sentiment, supporting the Empire

Selection lines:

“Oh, good, I was getting restless on the ship.”

“Where are we going this time?”

“I’m ready!”

“Great! Let’s go do something exciting.”

“Miss me?”

[Smuggler PC] “Which crimes are we doing today?”

Dismissal lines:

“I’ll go explore on my own for a while.”

“Bye.”

“Have fun!”

“I wouldn’t mind a nap.”

“I guess I'll... go meditate, or something.”

[Smuggler PC] “Don’t get arrested without me!”

Battle lines:

“I didn’t want to hurt you!”

“The Force is with me.”

“You can’t beat us!”

“Just surrender!”

“I am not feeling serene right now!!”

“Too slow!”

[screm]

Exiting battle:

“Are you all right?”

“That was exciting.”

“This is fine, right? They basically attacked us first.”

“Jedi aren’t supposed to be prideful, but we were awesome.”

“Why do people keep looking at us and thinking they’ll win?”

Low health:

“I don’t want to die.”

“Everything’s... going numb...”

“There is no death... there is no death...”

“Not doing well right now!”

“Help.”

Resurrected:

“Let’s not do that again.”

“Oh, I’m not dead. Nice.”

“I’ve heard near-death experiences can bring Jedi closer to the Force. I think this is just a concussion, though.”

“...Ow.”

“I guess I really am too pretty to die.”

“Okay, so now I know another way not to fight.”

Misc. click lines:

“What do you need?”

“Mhm?”

“Still here!”

“Right behind you.”

“What? Is my outfit crooked?”

“Does my mane still look okay?”

“Not that I don’t like talking with you, but shouldn’t we get going?”

“I always learn a lot watching you.”

“Huh? Sorry, I was watching that bug.”

[Smuggler PC] “Captain!”

[rare] “Jedi are never supposed to abuse our power, but I really want to know if I could use the Force to make someone think they’re a monkey lizard. I won’t, but I want to.”

[rare] “I'm not saying I agree with the Sith philosophically, but we should just admit they're better at fashion than us.”

[rare, Smuggler PC] “We’re taught how to talk to politicians and diplomats at the academy, but not... people. You make it look so easy.”

Situational:

[Nar Shaddaa promenade] “It’s so... shiny here. I LOVE it!”

[Coruscant] “I never got to see this place before the attack, but it’s still impressive, isn’t it? I could live here.”

[Tattooine] “Do you know how long it takes to get sand out of fur? Don’t expect me to leave you any hot water when we get back to the ship.”

[Hoth] “Why would you bring me here? My ears are going to freeze and fall off. Maybe my nose. Nobody should ever come here.”

[Quesh] “Hey, that toxic cloud kind of looks like your face! There... no, never mind, it’s gone.”

[Voss, non-Force user PC] It’s peaceful here, but... something isn’t right, can you feel it? Oh, no, I guess you wouldn’t. Uh, sorry.”

[Voss, Jedi/Sith PC] It feels strange here, right? It’s not just me?”

[Voss, Shrine of Healing] “I don’t know why the Council are so afraid of the Mystics. This place isn’t really Dark, it’s just... the Force. There must be things we could learn from them.”

[Corellia] “How could Corellia’s leaders let this happen? These people were just living their lives, they didn’t ask to be dragged into a war.”

[Corellia zoo] “You know, we could just take a sleen right now and I bet nobody would notice. It would... probably fit on the ship, right? I think that one likes me.”

[Axial Park] “It used to be beautiful here. Do you think it will ever be the same?”

[Odessen base, ambient conversation if Khatte is recruited] Jial-ro: “You know you can talk to me, don’t you?” Khatte: “Fine, if letting you interrogate me is the fastest way to get back to my job.” Jial-ro: “Don’t think of it as an interrogation! Just, you know, an open and honest discussion about your emotions.” Khatte: “Get away from me.” Jial-ro: “Or, alternatively, you could think of it as an interrogation if that’s... easier. For some reason.”

Gifts:

Courting | Cultural | Delicacies | Imperial | Luxury | Maintenance | Military | Republic | Technology | Trophy | Underworld | Weapon

Love:

“This is perfect! How did you know?”

Like:

“Oh, this is nice!”

Everything else:

“Thanks!” it’s an avocado

Story:

Smugglers will first encounter him on Drooga’s barge trying, ineffectively, to talk his way out of being fed to a rancor. After witnessing the Smuggler’s audience he will enthusiastically (and somewhat desperately) volunteer himself to help recover the stolen shanjaru in order to escape Drooga. He will meet up intermittently with the Smuggler throughout (subsequently revealing that he was also trying to track down and stop Lazae, but got caught up trying to free Bowdar when the trail led him to the barge) and eventually join the confrontation with Lazhae. Before the Smuggler leaves the planet, Jial-ro will express his admiration for them as well as his frustration with the Jedi’s detachment from the galaxy at large and how badly being raised by them prepared him to actually navigate life beyond the academy. He’ll ask to travel with you for a while to broaden his own horizons and learn how to avoid being fed to any more rancors, and assures you that in exchange having a Jedi along will open some doors and help you avoid suspicion. For a DS Smuggler he will also suggest, somewhat obnoxiously but with good intentions, that you could use the moral guidance.

He’ll have a conversation early on where he second guesses his decision to travel with you and worries that he’s falling to the Dark side. The Smuggler can either reassure him that he can still keep his core values even if he isn’t following every tenant to the letter (for LS points), suggest that he embrace it and give up the Jedi code entirely (for DS points), or tell him to figure it out himself (neutral), but regardless he’ll come to the conclusion that he doesn’t want to abandon the basic values of the Jedi even if he’s interpreting some of them loosely.

When he’s recruited or reunites with the PC after the time skip, he’s far less conflicted (and less intermittently preachy) and has settled comfortably into seeing himself as more of a Grey Jedi. He’s also much more disillusioned with the Republic and has an uneasy relationship with the Jedi Council, but still considers himself basically on their side and will disapprove of supporting the Empire.

Romance:

Romanceable by male PCs only; a romance can be started either in the base story (for Smugglers) or after he joins the Alliance (all classes). If a romance is started in the base game he will happily flirt back and forth from the start, but will never take initiative himself to move beyond that. After a while you have the option to clarify that you’re genuinely interested in a relationship, at which he will immediately panic and leave the conversation. The next time you speak to him he’ll apologize for his reaction and ask if you meant what you said. If the player says yes, he’ll express that he’s also interested but will need to talk through his conflict with the Jedi code. He’ll be very open and affectionate in private but it will take him a while to feel comfortable about anyone else knowing. With some prompting he’ll admit that he’s gotten in serious trouble for this kind of thing before, while he was still a Padawan.

Post time skip, again, he’s much more chill and forward about it. For Smuggler PCs he’ll make it clear that he no longer cares about the Council’s opinion of his personal life and either ask to pick up where you left off (if previously romanced) or confess that he was attracted to you before and was afraid of taking initiative (if not). The player can either have a one night stand with him or start/rekindle a more committed relationship, but if turned down he will back off and want to remain friends. He will not initiate with non-Smuggler PCs but will still be very receptive if approached about it.

[wittyy-name]

Hey, Wittyy, do you have any tips on planning a dnd campaign? Especially as a first timer. Advice? Lifehacks? Warnings? (to clarify first timer, i know a lot about dnd and even read some worldbuilding guides but I'm not sure if they're working for me, maybe you have a little different, unique approach to planning process?)

This ended up being a very long post about me rambling about my experience world building my first campaign, so I’m just gonna slap it under a cut lol

Idk how much advice I can give?? I’m running my first long term campaign and kinda just flying by the seat of my pants at this point. World building is a PAIN and it can be hella frustrating, but it’s also kinda rewarding?? And I have experience with it from writing stories that definitely helped.

I built a world from scratch, which is a first for our dnd group. We’ve done a campaign in Skyrim, and we’re also doing a campaign in the Witcher universe. Mine is the first where the players can’t just google world info, which I like a lot. 

My campaign started with an idea of having a party of bards. And I wanted them to have a REASON to stay together. Not just the typical dnd “we’re together bc why not”. I wanted them to KNOW each other but still have secrets to hide?? So it wasn’t just strangers?? So THAT was my starting point. And I asked myself, how do I make that happen? So I had the idea that they all have to start bard level 1. They were in a band for a year together, but then they broke up. They haven’t seen each other in five years. ALL of them have gone through hell and back ((bc what’s dnd without tragic backstories??)). They’re level 4 now, and they got to multiclass into whatever they wanted to. So they’re forced back together through circumstance, and they’re stuck in this party of people they used to know but are now so different. 

My goal for my group was simple: I wanted a story where every player feels like the main character. I wanted them to have their own secrets and quests and things to figure out and pursue. I wanted each and every person to feel like they’re leading the group. Everyone to feel important. So I had several brainstorming talks with each of my players. I figured out what they wanted to play, and ideas they had, and then we expanded on them and build up their characters together (bc it’s easier when you have a dm to build with you). Another goal I had was to give everyone a personal rp challenge. Which is unique to the player. It’s mean to help them build up some of their weaknesses and gently guide them out of their comfort zones. 

So now I have six players with crazy unique and complicated backstories. They all have secrets and weird quirks. They all have goals to pursue and things to keep from the others. And most of them have aspects of their backstories that THEY dont’ even know. Missing memories, secret bloodlines, unknown curses. This is really important to ME. Since these are secrets even from the players, they get to learn surprising new things about their characters as the campaign goes on. Even THEY don’t know everything about themselves, and that’s exciting to them. It means more work for me as a dm, but it’s worth it for them. 

This was an important factor for me in planning my campaign because my group plays online. With online dnd, it’s harder to keep engaged. When you’re not in person and you can’t feed off the energy, it can be easy to lose focus. I noticed that from previous campaigns, and I tried to come up with ways to help it. What I came up with was this: the best way to keep online players engaged is to make them invested in their characters. Simple, yeah? By having complex characters that they put so much into, they love those characters, and thus love playing them. By giving them an rp challenge specifically suited to them, it forces them to pay attention, to constantly be in the mind of their character so they can consider how that character would act and react at any given time. By giving them individual goals to pursue, they’re constantly trying to figure shit out. By keeping aspects of their characters unknown, it gives them a feeling of excited anticipation. All these things help keep them engaged and locked into their character’s minds, which makes the whole experience a lot of fun. 

As for the WORLD, I kinda just... figured out an aesthetic that I thought was cool and tried to run with it?? I don’t remember how I got to this idea, but I thought the feywild was cool, so I said “what if something cataclysmic happened and the material plane and feywild are now mixed together and people have adapted to living with a constant fey presence?? And then one night I was almost asleep when I thought of SKY SHIPS and FLOATING ISLANDS. So I said “what if a lot of the material plane races raised sky cities to get away from the fey threat on the surface??” And so I had my aesthetic for the world, I just needed specifics. 

I thought “well, if there were old kingdoms before the Cataclysm, how would they have been affected when the planes merged??” So coming up with an old political climate, and how things have changed since. How the surface and the sky cities function now. Where do all the races fit into this map? Into this world? The feywild and Material Plane are only two of the three mirror planes, how does this affect the Shadowfell? Okay, the shadowfell is starting to leak through the thin veil and we have pockets of shadow portals that are becoming worse and worse as the centuries go by. 

I had the area where the Cataclysm happened, but what happened there? This was admittedly the hardest part, and I got a huge writers block here, but I figured it out. What society lived there. The magic they used. How shit went wrong and they merged the planes. 

What gods exist in this world? Well, I picked a single pantheon in the dnd handbook and said “these are the gods” bc I didn’t want to incorporate ALL of them. But the idea of this pantheon was that there was no afterlife, which started play into ideas I had for the lost city that started the cataclysm. And it kinda all started to come together. 

The whole time I was building the world and history, I kept my character’s backstories in mind. I wanted all of them to be important SOME HOW. All of their importance differs. But I wanted them all to be tied to big world big picture things SOMEHOW. So they could all feel chosen, in a way. 

But the best part?? This is an open world campaign. There are things in the world that are happening, and they’ll happen with or without the party’s interference. But their interference can cause domino affects in world events. I didn’t want to set my party on ONE QUESTLINE. I wanted them to CHOOSE. So I slapped them down in a town, got them used to their characters, and now they’re out of the “starter zone” so to speak. They can choose where to go. What ideas to pursue. They all have driven backstories, so it’s interesting to see who kinda pushes theirs to the front of the agenda. And there is no Good and Evil. I wanted a whole world of gray area. So the party’s opinions of world events will probably change depending on who’s backstory they follow first. Who they meet first can shape how they think and what side they get on. Which is super exciting. The whole campaign is malleable and the party has free rein. In fact, they can choose to never interact with world events and just do small time fuckery quests. It’s all up to them. But shit will be happening and the world changing. And it’s exciting to see where they get to go.It’s a very character and roleplay driven campaign, which is what we all wanted. And seeing them so invested in characters is so nice. Seeing them love my world is great. And knowing what I have in store for them is exciting. 

I know this isn’t so much TIPs as me just rambling about my experience, but maybe it’ll help??The best actual advice for building the world... come up with an aesthetic you want and the goal for your campaign. Those are your keystones. Now ask yourself why? How? Where? Who? You want a king to be insane? OKay, why? You want there to be a world that’s mostly water with ship travel? Okay, what’s the history? How have the people adapted to this world? How are cities constructed and what social constructs come about in a mostly ship/water based world? 

I can give you some specific examples from my campaign about how I designed social constructs for different societies if you want, but I feel like I’ve rambled enough for one post lol. Good luck!

[dmjammes]

Death in Disney Movies

17/05/2020

« Death is an aspect of life »

Characters in movies do have a psychological impact on our children, and these effects can be both positive and negative. We can use them as a tool to engage a conversation about topics such as death and dying, which could be a difficult topic to approach with our young ones. Using characters as an example may help you to go all the way through, in such difficult times.

But, of course, if you're not leaving your child in front of the TV all day long! (Your TV is not a Babysitter!)

In the films sometimes, they do have to deal with a death scene, for example, you could find: Gaston in the Beauty and the Beast, the Evil Queen in Snow White, McLeach in The Rescuers, Professor Rattigan in The Great Mouse Detective or Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Those characters: most of them, they fall, or they die "by accident".

Think about it; you have the mean guy, falling to its death. It gives an excuse to the hero from having to killing him. This death means he is not guilty of murder, and so, it means that he still is a hero figure. Young viewers do not have the impression that "killing" is the answer to justice.

What about Ursula? Eric killed her after all!

Well no, actually, he impales her with the ship, which stops her, but it is the bow that got struck by lightning, so she died by electrocution, not by Eric.

Still, she had it coming!

Killed by his brother. I mean, really?

The exception is with Mufasa's death and. Get the tissues ready everyone. We see it's the ugly Scar who kills him; it wasn't an accident.

Death is something you can not avoid, and it could also be painful, especially for children.

People respond and react to it in different ways. Children do not yet have the experience that we have. Most of them are unprepared or not mature enough to deal with death in real life, with their loved ones and even with a character's death in a movie. They are still in an experiencing and playing "phase".

Which means they haven't made up their mind yet, and they do not have experienced enough to realise what the real world is and what imaginative world is? They are still very impressionable young beings.

The Comprehension of Death

A five-year-old does not understand that death is final and permanent. He/she does not have the notion of time yet. Children manage to understand death as being a fact around the age of 10-12 years old. Their comprehension of death depends on their experience and their psychological development. In that situation, a child may not understand that death is permanent, and it is final.

It is why how essential to understand that death is inevitable and, well "normal". We can see the development in two stages:

The first development stage is to understanding what death is and being able to recognise it when they hear it. At this point, a child should feel self-protected, they need to know that just because someone passed, does not mean the child or a parent is in danger.

The second development stage is to understanding that death is real. And accepting the emotions that they could feel. We know it as "the grieving process", a process, which we all need to go through. Reassure them that there is nothing wrong about remembering the time they've spent with them in the past. And maintaining those memories isn't wrong either. We should never give a child the hope that a loved one may "come back" after death. However, they're still present in our memory, and we can again feel connected to them.

They need to image it.

Depending on the age and the developing progress, a child may use expressions, you may have heard already, such as "that person won't wake up anymore" or "he's taking a long trip" or "nap". It helps them to reduce the impact of death in their minds, and it is also to protect themselves from this sad thought. Although describing death as a long "sleep" might be a bit confusing, and it may also create a new fear when going to sleep at night. Like if death will happen to them or others during the night.

It is a parent's job to watch films with them, and Disney films may help you to talk through about a death scene. It's also the occasion to clarify that some views are quite exaggerated. So, helping them realising facts from reality to fiction. And, of course, spending some quality time with your child.

Don't worry! It is OK to say "I do not know". I do not know what happens after death, how it feels. Your child is not going to blame you for that. But he is going to be thankful to hear from you, telling the truth.

Some parents say that grandpa is still watching over you; he is in the sky; he is with the angels. But you may be wrong! It is fine to give a comfortable image to your child. But please, make sure your child understands that you do not know for sure what happens after death. But you BELIEVE that he may still be around. It is your opinion, not necessarily the truth. Ask your child what he believes if he has an idea about this.

Sniff...

#drawing #draw #sketch #child #dmjammes #art #mickeymouseart #disneyfanart #children #mickeymouse #disney #illustrationartists #article #illustration #london #blog #blogger #blogpost #cute #death #dying #psychology #grieving #sad #sniff #disneyworld #disneylife #toddler

[icycute-blog]

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