#Mea Culpa RP

[ladytp]

Use Your Words

Polonius: What do you read, my lord?

Hamlet: Words, words, words.

Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?

Hamlet: Between who?

Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.

–Hamlet, Act II, Scene ii.

You know the drill. Answer and add some NP Tags. Includes NSFW language. Feel free to answer as one of your OCs or RPs if you like.

I was tagged by @amplifyme – thank you dearly!

A phrase / quote/ word you find funny: “She’ll be right” – which is a typical Australian expression about how it will be all OK - but it has turned at least in my family into an expression that means that everything is anything but OK!

Some of your favourite SFW words: ‘No worries’, ‘cool’.

Favourite cusses, NSFW or otherwise: ‘Oh shit!’, ‘Perkele’ (a Finnish swearword).

What language do you speak? Finnish as my domestic language, and English everywhere else.

Favourite word (s) in a language other than your first: ‘Mea culpa’, ‘Oy vey’.

Movies with subtitles on or off: If it is possible, often with subtitles on – even if the program is in English. I regularly watch movies/TV shows late at night when my other half sleeps and I don’t want to blast the sound out. I also watch a lot of foreign language movies and shows, and then it is must. I am also quite used to it, as in Finnish TV foreign shows are also subtitled, not dubbed – for which I am eternally grateful! Dubbed programs are… *shivers in horror*

Book you’ve read/listened to the most times? Not that many books – but maybe some of Finnish author Mika Waltari’s books would make the list. One that springs to mind is “Johannes Angelos” (English title “Dark Angel”), a story set during the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 – a wonderful, wonderful book!

Do you listen to songs in languages you don’t understand? Of course, all the time! Some of my favourite music channels are internet radio stations on World Music or Ancient music – and languages can be anything from Arabic to Spanish to ancient Greek or old Norse… https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip/radio-monde and https://www.ancientfm.com/  for anyone who might be interested.

Do you express yourself best with words, images or something else? With words, preferably written words – whether for work or other. Writing things down lets me think of what I want to say and how to express it in the best way that is understandable to the reader and deliver the message most clearly. (Not that I always succeed, though).

Do you talk more or less when you’re nervous? More, probably. Or sometimes I can shut down too. Not sure, I am not nervous often.

How do you pronounce February? ‘Fepruari’ (with Finnish spelling) Definitively with the ‘r’!

What kind of accent do you have? Very extremely and exceedingly Finnish! If you have ever heard a Finn being interviewed, for example a rally or Formula F1 driver – that’s me.

If you literally had to “eat your words,” how would they taste? Like neutral saliva. 😊

I’m tagging @zip001, @ownsariver, @littlefeatherr @sister-winter73 and anyone who wants to play! 😉

[inechoingsilence]

All my fandom/RP/AU heart wants for Chanukah is... (it’s not too much)

* Lucemond. All the Lucemond, please give to me. Especially if it is either fluffy and snarky, or dirty and depraved. ABO would be a lovely, lovely treat. 

*Jaegon. See above for preferred. 

*HOTD RPers to interact with my OCs. Canon verse, modern, I could care less. Come at me, please! I’ve been RPing since I was 15...shit that is almost 30 years now. Let’s make it happen, please. Sophia and Acelin are preferred but let’s talk and make something happen, please. 

*For some of my old RP partners to come back to life - you all know who you are. We lost touch, I am totally guilty. Mea culpa. But I have made gentle approaches that have yet to be acknowledged. I don’t have tons of time but I have tons of love and muse. I’ll be patient and gentle if you are the same. 

[wcrriorhearts]

katie the light of my life and one of my bestest friends to ever exist. here's a reminder that i appreciate you so much and i am so glad to have known you for basically forever ! i will always adore anything you write ! you could literally rp a chair and i would be like that is the best freaking thing that happened in the universe because it's YOU ! ilysm okay you're stuck with me !

LUCY YOU GEM <3 this almost made me cry post midnight <333 okay it did actually make me cry a little, ngl. I have known you for so so long, girlfriend!!! And that is so rare in the whole Dumblr world, because you lose track of people so easily. I feel so blessed to have you in my life and seeing you back on my dash brings me so much joy! I love our vm rambling and listening to the podcasts you send me ( still have to listen to one message, mea culpa ). You're stuck with me as well!!!!

[dontpetmeibite]

OOC ("dashboard commentary")

// Ravage cannot read your mind. Nothing she posts is meant to imply that she can do that or that she has done that.

// I only RP Transformers and I sometimes forget that people from other universes, especially OCs, may not know this; mea culpa.

// I do have two passively telepathic Transformers (Soundwave, and Viridian, the semi-OC daughter of Ravage and Soundwave, but they really don't want to know what is in everyone else's heads.

// Soundwave canonically gets bombarded with everyone's everyday garbage thoughts and roofbrain chatter when his shielding tech isn't working right and Viridian also has this problem. It is annoying and the opposite of useful.

// Any and all intentional plot-related mind-reading by my characters will always be negotiated by all parties concerned.

// "Dashboard commentary" or short versions thereof in the tags are absolutely not meant to imply that characters are reading each other's minds.

// I was also surprised the first time someone dash-commed something I hadn't intended as a direct communication to their character, but after I'd been here a couple weeks, I realised that sometimes we just pretend we're reading our multiversal robot tumblr dash feeds. I tag things I want to keep private/personal for plot reasons or for 'she wouldn't say that to everyone in the room' with tags like "personal," "private" or "only for addressees'. I've never had anyone dash comm a post so labelled.

[visualdialogue101]

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (Las Vegas)

Bold - top fave

Red - character bases

Orange - children are involved

Green - strange but true

Color Bold - rp/fanfic worthy

Season 1

Tempting Bait

Cool Change

Crate & Burial

Pledging Johnson

Friends, Lovers, & Others

Who Are You

Bloody Buffalo

Anonymous

Unfriendly Skies

Sex, Lies, Lerve

I-15 Murders

Fahrenheit 932

Boom

To Halve & To Hold

Table Stakes

Too Tough To Die

Two Faced

$35K Op

Gentle Gentle

Soulds of Silence

Justice Served

Evaluation Day

Strip Strangler

Season 2

Burked

Butterfly Effect

Overload

Bully for You

Skydiving Suba

Alter Boys

Caged

Slaves of Sin

& then there were none

Fathers & Daughters

Organ Grinder

You've Got Male

Identy Crisis

The Finger

Burden of Proof

Prima Donna

Felonius Monk

Bus Chase

CSI Stalker

Cats in the Cradle

Anatomy of Lye

Cross Jurisdictions

The Hunger Artist

Season 3

Accused & Entitled

Revenge is Best Served Cold

Let the Seller Beware

A Little Murder

Abra Cadaver

The Execution of Catherine Willows

Fight Night

Snuff

Blood Lust

High & Low

Recipe for Murder

Got Murder?

Random Acts of Violence

One Hit Wonder

Pandora's Box

Lucky Strike

Crash & Burn

Precious Metal

A Night at the Movies

Last Laugh

Forever

Playing with Fire

Inside The Box

Season 4

For Our Country 1

For Our Country 2

Homebodies

Feeling the Heat

Fur & Loathing

Jackpot

Invisible Evidence

After the Show

Grissom VS Volcano

Coming of Rage

Eleven Angry Jurors

Butterflies

Suckers

Paper or Plastic

Early Rollout

Getting Off

XX

Bad to the Bone

Bad Words

Dead Ringer

Turn of the Screw

No More Bets

Bloodlines

Season 5

Viva Las Vegas

Down the Drain

Harvest

Crow's Feet

Swamp Meet

What's Eating Grissom?

Formalities

Ch-Ch-Changes

Mea Culpa

No Humans Involved

Who Shot Sherlock

Snakes

Nesting Dolls

Unbearable

King Baby

Big Middle

Compulsion

Spark of Life

4x4

Hollywood Brass

Committed

Weeping Willows

Iced

Grave Danger 1

Grave Danger 2

Season 6

Bodies in Motion

Room Service

Bite Me

Shooting Stars

Gum Drops

Secrets & Flies

Bullet Beats Rules 1

Bullet Beats Rules 2

Dog eat Dog

Still Life

Werewolves

Daddy's Little Girl

Kiss Kiss, Bye Bye

Killer

Pirets of the Third Reich

Up in Smoke

I Like to Watch

The Unusual Suspect

Spellbound

Poppin Tags

Rashomama

Time of Death

Bang-Bang

Wat to Go

Season 7

Built to Kill 1

Built to Kill 2

Toe Tags

Fanysmackin

Double Cross

Burn Out

Post Mortem

Happenstance

Living Legend

Loco Motives

Leaving Las Vegas

Sweet Jane

Redrum

Meet Market

Law of Gravity

Monster in the Box

Fallen Idols

Empty Eyes

Big Shots

Lab Rats

Ending Happy

Leaping Lizards

The Good, The Bad, The Dominatrix

Living Doll

[avallongifsandedits]

Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds. LIFE Press Junket.

[thclcstgirl]

hi my loves I hope you’re all doing well <3 <3 <3 

[missggullet]

What's the most important safety rule and the most underrated one?

All safety rules have their fair accountability according to their purpose. There's no such thing as “most important” and “most underrated one. They must be adhered to at all time and not excluding subordination standings namely staff members and pupils, children or adults.

Then again what you'd want to know about which of the most underrated rule of health and safety apply to isn't to be quoted from my laboratory rule book neither in the Code itself. It deals with a non concrete matter I'm not even better placed to debate on meself and shall not elaborate on, withal.

You should never fool around with affairs of the heart.

[partallis]

i thought i sent u these omg .. mea culpa - 1, 13, 35 for the ask the mun!!

1. all time favorite fc? apart from mahershala ali and steven yeun,, i want to play van veronica ngo someday

13. biggest rp pet peeve? ship chasing!! i'm bad at saying no to people so when this happens i feel a lot of pressure to miswrite my own character

35. what about the worst thing to happen to the rpc? i'm not really in the rpc i just hover at the corner BUT. i think the push for representation and diversity hasn’t been done in a critical way and sometimes is more like virtue signalling? i feel like people sometimes use fcs of colour in a way that feels more harmful than good, like playing into certain stereotypes, or exotifying them

[allthingsroleplay]

An Original, Supernatural Fantasy-Based Premium 18+ 3-3-3 Jcink RPG               HOME//PLOT//RULES//APPLICATION//WANTEDS No longer content to fit inside of the neat boxes that they have been shoved into, those who have been deemed “different” are breaking their chains. The comfortable world that the citizens of Actica have enjoyed for so long is being turned topsy turvy. Whispers of a rebellion, a magical plague that so many thought was nothing more than the common cold is turning into something far more sinister. Is there substance to the whispers? Will they be able to act in time to save their world before it’s changed beyond repair? Where will you stand? With the rebellion attempting to reclaim their homeland or with the Wealthy Elite who will fight to keep what they have? Brand new Intermediate-Advanced RP with a 300 minimum word count. No character count restrictions. Be part of a community from the very beginning. Come visit us at Mea Culpa!

[dailyjcink]

An Original, Supernatural Fantasy-Based Premium 18+ 3-3-3 Jcink RPG                    PLOT//RULES//APPLICATION//WANTEDS No longer content to fit inside of the neat boxes that they have been shoved into, those who have been deemed “different” are breaking their chains. The comfortable world that the citizens of Actica have enjoyed for so long is being turned topsy turvy. Whispers of a rebellion, a magical plague that so many thought was nothing more than the common cold is turning into something far more sinister. Is there substance to the whispers? Will they be able to act in time to save their world before it’s changed beyond repair? Where will you stand? With the rebellion attempting to reclaim their homeland or with the Wealthy Elite who will fight to keep what they have? Brand new Intermediate-Advanced RP with a 300 minimum word count. No character count restrictions. Be part of a community from the very beginning. Come visit us at Mea Culpa!

[babblingblondegenius]

Happy Mancrush Monday

July 15th is get out of the dog house day.  An opportunity to make amends to those we have wronged.  As we have seen, apologies are not usually Oliver Queen’s forte but when it comes to Felicity Smoak, she is the exception to the rule; he is usually more than willing to offer her a mea culpa (accompanied by heart eyes and a sweet speech).  <3  Sometimes it takes a little prompting lol.

Season 1 Oliver was in the habit of putting on his playboy facade when he wasn’t wearing the hood.  Most of the people around him accepted this old version of Oliver at face value.  But not Felicity.  The girl who didn’t know him as Ollie and saw the heart of the handsome man who walked into her cubicle knew there was more than meets the eye and trusted him implicitly, even when it didn’t make much sense logically.  In 1x12, Felicity asks him why that is and he gives her the tried and true charming smile and a flip answer, instantly disappointing her.  He is immediately contrite and sincerely lets her know, by both word and deed, that she can trust him.  Even early on, Felicity’s trust and her opinion of him were both things he valued greatly.  

After the Undertaking, Oliver went on a self-imposed exile to Lian Yu.  Felicity let him stew for five months before tracking him down.  She and Diggle then made the trek to the South China Sea to bring him home.  After jumping out of a plane and almost getting blown up by a landmine, Oliver tells her that they shouldn’t have come.  Felicity reminds him what she and Dig endured to find him and calls him out on his lack of hospitality, earning her a little grin and a head nod apology.

When Felicity sees Isabel leaving Oliver’s room in Russia, her surprise and disappointment are evident.  Oliver’s shame and regret are just as evident.  He and Felicity aren’t even together at this point but he has reverted to Ollie-like behavior and because of the woman standing in front of him, he doesn’t want to be that type of man anymore.  The man who used to routinely cheat and not seem to think twice about it is at a loss for words for his actions.

What happens in Russia may stay in Russia but Oliver’s feelings for Felicity are with him everywhere he goes.  He is still trying so hard to fight them but he knows he is breaking both of their hearts by keeping her at arm’s length.

An even Greener shade of the Arrow showed up right after BA arrived from CC and showed interest in Felicity (and more importantly to Oliver, Felicity showed interest in BA).  Oliver digs into BA’s identity and exposes him to Felicity, causing BA to cancel his date with Felicity.  

Oliver summons some Ollie-esque charm to smooth things over with Felicity.  Of course, it doesn’t work.  And he didn’t expect it to, which is why he invited BA.  Our boy showed real growth putting Felicity’s happiness above all else, but he couldn’t resist making a snarky comment about BA getting carded at the bar.  Speaking of the bar, that’s where Oliver heads to get a double shot as he tries not to notice or think about Felicity swaying in BA’s arms instead of his.

Oliver continued to be jealous of Felicity’s attention on BA even after the guy was struck by lightening and in a coma.  That’s gotta be a whole new level of petty lol.  Our growl-ly vigilante directed his grrrr at Felicity and deeply regretted it. Oliver sends Dig home so he can grovel for his wife’s forgiveness in private. ;)

His apology is accepted but he still gives Felicity a beautiful and heartfelt speech about how she is his partner and he relies on her, a soft shoulder touch, and lays the heart eyes on thick for good measure.  

Oliver is convinced that if he is with Felicity romantically, the city will fall in ruin because he’s completely distracted by her.  I mean, that’s totally understandable and TBH that ungrateful city can rot.  Shuck your sorry, grab your girl and GO!

Oliver returns from Nanda Parbat (and being mostly dead) to save the city.  He also offers them an apology for being gone but I like to think this was meant for Felicity who he knew would be watching.

He knows his wife well :)

Oliver learned that while Felicity loves the Green Arrow, she doesn’t like the green-eyed monster and does his best to keep his jealously/insecurity over RP to a minimum.  He is supportive of a stressed-out and guilt-ridden Felicity who apologizes for lashing out and he extends an olive branch of his own for not being a better listener (while shirtless + adorable). Make-up sex was inevitable ;)

Oliver is overcome with guilt after Felicity is shot and feels helpless that he hasn’t brought DD down.  Felicity reminds him not to lose sight of who he is and what they are fighting for.  Oliver reminds that he is with her ‘for better or worse.’

Yes, I know Oliver was apologizing for accidentally fatally arrow-ing Felicity’s rebound but I’m taking it as a blanket apology for 4B and the majority of S5.  

She hates it when when he doesn’t listen to her but in this case, I think him ignoring her request to let her fall to her death might be appreciated.

Felicity in the field sends Oliver into overprotective hubby mode...but he realizes the error of his ways.....

....and gets an adorable shoulder kiss from his appreciative wifey.

Things Oliver still needs to apologize for:

Answering his phone during dessert

Going to Slabside instead of Aruba

His season 7 hair and wardrobe  

That last one was for the Hairwatch Crew ;)  This got a little more angsty than I expected so I tried to finish it in a humorous (hopefully lol) way. <3

Thank you to all the wonderful gifmakers! :) Gif credits: 1x12-- @hope-for-olicity;  3x23 & 2x07--Rebloggy.com; 5x09 & 5x20 --WeHeartIt.com;  3x01 -giphy.com;  6x22 --forums.primetime.com;  3x16 --forums.previously.tv.com;  6x22 jpg --i.pinimg.com

[liminal-storage]

2019 Writing Masterlist

I’ve sorted all of my writing from this year into “categories” for easy access. Many of these entries were also part of the ffxivwrite challenge. Not included are any IC letters or responses to asks. Many of these have some kind of content warnings, so be mindful of those. 

Attuned to the Rift: Various stories dealing with fc plot-related happenings. 

Gift

Black Strands

Silkworm

Visions: Stories that are standalone happenings, typically at least a little spooky in nature or are musings on spooky things. 

Hart

Threads

Shiver

Shards

Kaidankai

Lost

In a Grove: A plot that I began in my old fc, continued through writing, and ultimately resolved through rp!

Foster

Scour

Wilt

Distilled: A series on Eva. Though she’s now retired, I’m still proud of my writing here. Most stories are connected somehow. 

Cuir 

Neroli

Ambrosia

Mea Culpa

Indigo

Monarch

Bargain

Shifting Blame

Vault

Wax

Jitter

Obeisant

Radiant

Slosh

Forgiven

Random Tidbits: Standalone writing not connected to anything else or really fitting into the other categories. 

Nothing

Voracious

First Steps

Small Talk

Snuff

Etched 

Trust

Palaver 

NSFW Tidbits: Exactly what it says on the tin. Smutty or suggestive stuff goes here.

Parched

Dark Woods, Paved With Snow

Hesitate (Featuring Eva)

Fingers Crossed (Featuring Eva)

[avallongifsandedits]

Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds. LIFE Press Junket.

[tanadrin]

hey *whispers* hey. hey. i saw your post in the wow tag. i would read THE SHIT out of your interpretation of wow lore. i have homework right now but i think i might just read through your blog a bit. the characters have always been such a high point for me (listen. i know knaak did a lot of shit. but you can pry Krasus from my cold dead hands he was EVERYTHING to middle school me) and i feel so conflicted over what theyve done to the characters - sylvanas, anduin, everyone. would love ur take

You might be a little disappointed, most of my blog isn’t about WoW (it postdates my WotLK raiding/RP guild phase, and I’ve only just recently got back into it with Classic). Lots of opinions on WoW characters below the cut.

I actually don’t hate Krasus as a character. He’s fine, he’s not a Designated Idiot Ball Carrier like some of the others are. In re: the dragons generally, I don’t like the simplistic thing WoW lore does a lot where one faction leader going bonkers turns the whole faction into baddies for no apparent reason, because all political entities are monoliths except when they’re not. I’m also not a huge fan of how crowded the, erm, metahuman bureaucracy on Azeroth has become in the lore–like, the Keepers and the Dragon Aspects serve similar roles, and the lore could have done fine with one or the other, and the dragons were here first (and Ysera and Alexstrasza are BAMFs), and so should get to stay.

Sylvanas is bae, obviously, and Sylvanas as Warchief was a terrific move plotwise. I think it’s a pity they had to kill Vol’jin to do it (because I am also very here for Warchief Vol’jin), but she is obviously the more interesting choice. Speaking of Warchiefs:

Thrall doesn’t have the Green Jesus Marty Stu quite as bad as some people think, but he does kinda have it, and I don’t see them grappling quite with the fact that he done fucked up. Like, not only did he install a Warchief who should have had all smart members of the Horde tugging at their collars nervously when he started his rule, Garrosh turned into a Sha-summoning Old God-corrupted, casual-atrocity-perpetrating maniac, not to mention all the bullshit on Old Draenor I do my best to forget about lest my blood pressure spike. We don’t really get a satisfying mea culpa from Thrall for that, and then his response is to fuck off to fiddle around with the Earthen Ring for a bit, before retiring to a farm in Nagrand. Keep in mind, one of the whole reasons the Horde came together in its current shape in the first place is because of the charismatic, hopeful figure of Thrall. It ran the very real risk of splintering under Garrosh for good (ESPECIALLY after the murder of Cairne, RIP Cairne Bloodhoof, you were too good for this world), and even the most unifying successor (which I think Vol’jin was) didn’t have Thrall’s inclusive, unifying vision. Sylvanas doesn’t, either, and even more, is sort of low-key hated by everybody else, so while I don’t think she’s a maniac like Garrosh who would recklessly divide the Horde, she’s also not, I am forced to admit, necessarily the ideal Warchief from a political standpoint.

Even if he didn’t return to the post of Warchief, Thrall had a moral obligation after the Garrosh debacle to try to help hold the Horde together and heal the divisions his negligence caused. At least to throw his support behind Garrosh’s successors, and not to pretend that Deathwing’s death meant everything was OK forever, job done. And if he wasn’t going to do that (and he has excellent motivations for not wanting to do that!), I think the consequences of that have to be explored. I think some people would blame him, and be justified in doing so. I think somebody like Varok Saurfang, who has had decades of experience with the damage bad leaders could do, would rightly be a little pissed, even as he sought Thrall out for help, that Thrall had let the Horde he built languish under subpar leadership. Thrall has been selfish–and that’s great, because he desperately needed some character flaws more significant than “cares too much” and “believes in people a lot.”

Anduin: better than Varian, still a little bland? Varian was a Professional Idiot Ball Handler, who seemed to do stuff not out of a coherent conception of his character, but just because the plot required a Generic Human King to do it. Plus there was all that stuff with the cloning and the kidnapping that never really made any sense. I like Anduin’s optimism; I like that he feels like a thoughtful, reasonable guy, who’s doing his best in often-impossible circumstances. I feel like they could show him being a little more frustrated sometimes, though, and a little pissed at people like Jaina who obstinately refuse to do the strategically correct thing even if it means setting aside their resentments for a bit. Disclaimer: I play almost exclusively Horde toons, they may address this better in the Alliance quests in WoW.

But oh man, besides the Draenei, I hate most what they did to Jaina. Jaina was that rare jewel, an optimist in a world whose setting demands perpetual chaos. Yes, yes, Theramore and the mana bomb, I’m not suggesting she should be made of stone, but it breaks her character to have her suddenly go from someone trying to forge a lasting peace between the Horde and Alliance in WC3–to the point where she would see her own father dead–to someone who now blames the whole Horde as one no exceptions for what happened at Theramore. Should she struggle with grief and pain and anger? Absolutely. But she should deal with them in more complex ways than “now I am become the mirror image of Daelin.” Nevermind that even if she did that she should at least regret not listening to him back in WC3. (Do they address that in BFA with the introduction of Kul Tiras? Idk, I haven’t played BFA at all yet.) It seems like Jaina’s role now is to be the Person Who Hates The Horde, and honestly, that’s a tired trope. It’s just not interesting, it has no nuance, it has no interesting outcomes. You could maybe get away with it with the generation of leaders from the Second War like Daelin and Genn who knew the Orcs only as the fel-corrupted servants of the Burning Legion, but it’s obvious to anyone with two brain cells to rub together than the current Horde is a very different animal politically and strategically, so even if you hate the Orcs with a burning passion, that is not going to transfer to the Tauren, nevermind onetime allies like the Blood Elves.

Gul’dan: oh my god the time travel plot was so stupid. Did the whole universe get duplicated in the alternate timeline? Since travel between the universes is cheap and easy that means there’s a whole nother Burning Legion with a whole nother Sargeras out there that’s still a huge fricking threat! Not to mention a whole nother Azeroth! Did just Draenor get duplicated? That doesn’t seem to match up with the fact a lot of the Burning Legion characters in WoD seem to be parallel universe versions of Burning Legion villains we already know, but it’s not directly confirmed or disconfirmed. Is it some sort of weird Bronze Dragonflight timey-wimey thing that doesn’t have its own independent reality? Ok, fine, but obviously this alternate Draenor has enough of an independent existence for us to visit it again and see what it’s like decades later, not to mention bring some of the people there back. Gul’dan was a fine, if one-dimensional villain but bringing him back from the dead was dumb, dumb, dumb, in a setting where death often feels meaningless and seems to be reversible at random. And the general incoherence of magic in the setting combined with the perennial incoherence of time travel plots (Gollum voice: *we hates them!*) really just reduced WoD to a quivering mess of plot holes, like febrile fan speculation made manifest.

Tirion Fordring: good example of a purely heroic character done well, which WoW has few of. I think because he actually has challenges to overcome, and he doesn’t feel like an idiot.

Bolvar Fordragon: Literally did not know or care who this guy was until the Wrathgate cinematic, but what they did after that with his character was terrific, 10/10.

Malfurion, Tyrande, Illidan: These characters all bore me to tears. My WotLK main was a druid, and I’m a big fan of the druid lore, so I wanna like Malfurion, I really do, but he’s just so dull. Partly because it doesn’t feel like he has any real limitations on his power, just whatever the plot demands he be able to do or not do at any given moment, partly because he just feels like a stiff-necked scold. Tyrande is even more one-dimensional. Illidan is pure 3edgy5me, and the demon hunters in general feel like they get to be too cool to actually traffic in any of the pathos of what should be their emotional equivalents like the Death Knights and the Forsaken. It’s like, “oh man, my life is so tormented, I have these bitchin’ horns and tattoos, and I’m, like, totally immortal, here, hold my rad sword thingies for a second.” At least with the Death Knights you get the feeling that being a Death Knight is a genuinely miserable experience, so there’s some genuine conflict at the heart of the class: sure, you play as a hero, but not the kind of hero you’d necessarily want to be. Demon hunters are just pissed they don’t get to sit at the cool kids’ lunch table, and Illidan genuinely acts like a giant asshole and then gets self-righteous and whiny when his friends and family are like “Dude! Stop being such an asshole!” There’s room for a prickly character, who’s a dick, but who’s our dick, and maybe that’s what they were going for, but Illidan is just the worst.

Azshara, Lady Vashj: The Naga were a giant fucking mistake. A symptom of the inability to let backstory stay backstory, to have to resurrect and retread the same events over and over again that plagues serials when lesser writers without original ideas get let loose on them. Settings like WoW (like Star Wars, like Star Trek, like Dune) are whole universes. You should be expanding the borders, making them feel bigger, more fine-grained, more alive, not beating the same major characters to death over and over again. The ancient Kaldorei are way more interesting as a lost past and a lesson in hubris than fish-snake-people who live under the sea.

Also, water levels are dumb and I hate them. This applies to coral-and-shellfish themed zones regardless of whether swimming is involved.

Cho’gall: I loved the “insane nihilist death cult” reincarnation of the Twilight’s Hammer Clan in World of Warcraft, and Cho’gall as the many-eyed crazed ogre mage with two heads was great. Would much rather have more Cho’gall than Guldan 2.0.

While I’m on Cataclysm: one thing you don’t often feel in worlds like WoW is the possibility of real defeat, because for extradiegetic reasons, it’s impossible to truly lose in any long-lasting way (or, in quests like Battle for the Undercity in WotLK, they just… don’t let you, which feels dumb as heck). I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, a world where the bad guys won, and all the worst things the good guys feared came to pass. I think this is one reason I loved the original interpretation of the Draenei so much, because we saw in Draenor what that really looked like. It was bleak, and it was poignant, and even though it was set within a silly melodrama, it actually moved me. Cataclysm did something similar with the postapocalyptic time-travel instance (time travel being used well for once in WoW!), where you saw that Deathwing’s victory wasn’t just an abstract possibility, but a thing that could actually happen. It made the possibility of defeat feel more real, and it gave you a taste of that same bleak, poignant feeling: this, it said (just for a moment!) is what failure looks like, an Azeroth without life, without hope, in which everything you ever struggled for was utterly in vain. And that motivated you to work even harder to prevent it.

Alleria, Turalyon: “You last saw us in WC2, and since then we’ve been fighting a thousand years (subjective) of endless war against the Burning Legion and been irrevocably changed by the experience” is actually pretty great! But if I were going to rewrite WoW lore, I would make that a thousand objective years and set the final victory over the Burning Legion in the future, at a time when the Alliance and Horde have made a durable peace, and Azeroth has moved on from decades of endless war. I think there’s a real problem with trying to make the player one of the heroes that brings down Sargeras for good because it’s *such* an epic battle, but it’s a massively multiplayer game. Making every player the grand master of their class order was bad enough, but when you are obviously playing out entirely different diegesis from everyone around you, even if you didn’t have problems like sharding and a glut of phasing and cross-server activities and instant teleportation to dungeons, it really feels like a single-player RPG with a chat function. I mean, conflicting diegeses is always going to be a problem with questing-based MMOs, but suspension of disbelief worked when you were plainly one person embedded in a larger effort, like in vanilla, BC, and WotLK. But “you are one of thousands of people who is the Best Warrior Ever and sole Leader of the Warriors, and who has the Only Artifact Weapon that somehow also has thousands of copies”… yeah, that just doesn’t work for me. I feel like I’m being pandered to, and not in a fun way, like with the Pandaren.

Sargeras: I like that they retconned Sargeras to have a better motivation than “demons made me nihilistic.” The idea of a void-corrupted titan being something so terrible a member of the Pantheon would shatter worlds to prevent it is interesting. But the Void gods still feel… kinda non-threatening? We don’t see them actively working to threaten anything we really care about, the Void is mostly a pretty passive abstract force like the Light, and in general I feel like the setting isn’t really dualistic, but er… trialistic? Is that a word? In that there’s a three-way opposition between the Void, the Light, and the Nether/Arcane, from the perspective of which each is the opponent of both of the others, but that’s never laid out explicitly anywhere.

[strongwilltm-archive]

Week-end away : DRAGON BOAT BOOT CAMP

Maybe some of you were aware. Probably most of you didn’t know. But i’m part of my university’s dragon boat team. it’s a nautical sport and we have a few competitions during this summer that will take saturdays off my plate. but before the season begins, we have a boot camp this week-end (May 10-12). No phones allowed except in the sleeping quarters so basically i will be mostly unreachable between like May 10 - 3PM EST and May 12 in the evening. Not that i’ve been a reliable rp partner lately. (Mea culpa, i’m gonna work on writing more). but this weekend i really can’t do shit. thanks for the understanding!