#Supporting Role

[nalyra-dreaming]

This will be my last post about this. I’m honestly not trying to argue with you, but I offer a different perspective. I admit my use of the word token was wrong. However, my message is the same. You were the one using Ncuti’s nomination as an example of no racism. I’m simply saying no, it’s not.

To begin with, Ncuti should not have been brought into the discussion. His nomination should have no bearing on Jacob being nominated. It allows the nomination committee to do exactly what you did. See, there’s no racism. We nominated a Black person. Why are you cheering because one Black performer was nominated in a category or because Black performers were nominated at all? That is invalidating. If more than one Black actor in a category deserves to be nominated, do it. You can objectively say they both didn’t deserve it, but don’t use one as an example of anti-racism. That is what makes it tokenism.

No, I wasn't using "only" Ncuti's nomination as an "example".

I pointed out that there were many more nominations.

These were my words on the post that triggered this:

"The way people have screamed racism over this because their faves weren’t on that list while Ncuti Gatwa is right there… while Shanola Hampton is right there... (and so on) well."

Maybe I should have made clear that I see the whole list as nominations, and maybe you should have made clear in the first ask that you only meant the first category. We could have gone over this a bit more nuanced then, but my question remains the same: while I get why you are disappointed, and I get the stance of "only one" black person... why do you devalue Ncuti's nomination like that?

I am not "cheering" because a black actor was nominated, I was cheering because Ncuti does a great job with the Doctor, and because I was happy for him. (Also I didn't even "cheer", lol, I just pointed out.)

Hiroyuki Sanada also did an amazing job on Shõgun.

Award shows have limited lists. For Critic's Choice it seems to be six slots.

They - not me! - nominated the ones they thought deserved it. You obviously see that differently, and so do I (!).

And can I just say, I have seen all except "The Diplomat", and while "The Old Man" was... interesting, and while I love Jeff Bridges - I would have given his slot to Jacob. Like, immediately.

But all the shows and actors on that list did incredible performances.

I would not want to be the one to choose.

You say I used "one as an example for anti-racism" - that isn't true either. I commented on the things I have seen on here, on twitter, on IG of people yelling at AMC that Jacob, Assad and Delainey are not nominated - but "the white man is" (their words, not mine) - on an ask that was commenting on the same. I'm sure you've seen posts on this. That is what I meant by "screaming". The rest... came when you came in upset about another's ask. Again, which I can understand. And I get the bitterness about the missing nomination, too. But please don't try to shift the blame on this to me, or try to put words into my mouth.

Anons I can only react to, and I am the only one putting my proverbial face to it (and I did note you did not come off anon once more...) - if you use things yourself like "token black" then that is reacted to in the context I have, which is... anonymous.

Of course awards shows and nominations have a long tradition of bias. Maybe that even played into it all here as well. But a lot of people conflated the issue to the seemingly obvious answer of "it must be racism", invalidating Sam's work in the process (as well), and then a lot jumped on the chance to hate on him.

And I have watched that, unfortunately unsurprised.

Next season, I fear it will be "they pushed the black actor back in favor of the white one" discourse, because that shift will come. It's in the books, they are doing the books. It's already been stated, too. Rolin literally has said that Lestat will take over, that Jacob will take over the supporting role. If you want to read it, here:

So, again, and thank you for reaching out, and more calmly, too :), but please don't put words into my mouth, nor surmise what I supposedly mean.

And, like, I would never say they didn't deserve it??? Where does that come from? I have said, again and again, that everyone on this show is amazing, and should get all the awards.

But they won't. As also said before, we're lucky if we get some.

And IWTV being nominated for best drama is a big win for the show already, no matter if they win or not (and I suspect Shõgun will win).

But the visibility is now there.

And that is AMAZING.

[macdoodlebrains]

Ok. I’m ready for the Forest to swallow me whole and drop me into another plane of existence where I’m somehow a key part of the main story in the alternate universe. Let’s go.

[goldensunset]

hate when people think the only archetype possible for a male sidekick to a female protagonist is a soft boi and/or himbo. like the implication there is that the only reason a man would ever defer to a woman’s authority is if he was a bumbling idiot. love male supporting characters who are smart and strong and confident and can step up when necessary but still kind and humble enough to let someone else take the lead most of the time

[floweroflaurelin]

Wizard of the (Menagerie) Coast 🐸🪄

—

hi I love Padmund so much

[the-crooked-library]

so within the universe of Dune, gender roles abide by a rigid false dichotomy created by the bene gesserit - men lead the noble houses, while the women may join their order, and the powers of both are kept intentionally separate. at the same time, the plot demonstrates repeatedly that the role of paul atreides as a character is that of the border between the concepts juxtaposed within dichotomies: he is both an outerworlder and fremen, both harkonnen and atreides, both a duke and a disciple of the bene gesserit.

as such, it follows that within the in-universe gender structure, he occupies the roles of both male and female, thus being functionally and societally nonbinary. in this essay, i will -

[thegirlwholeftthefridgeopen]

I was so happy to see this man get a role in ‘American Fiction’. It got me really excited to see someone who I only saw their work on youtube making short films and now to see him land a part in one of the best movies of 2024!

[poobirdy]

bingqiu boxing au feat. boxer binghe and manager shen yuan, as requested by @/rev_6_4 for svsssaction!

[somereaderinblue]

Warrior!Penelope Ody in a nutshell.

[beauregardlionett]

i don't think you all understand how much they mean to me

[itsallaboutthebirds86]

I love how Percy always calls Ripley “Dr. Anna Ripley”. Like yeah she may be his mortal enemy but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t recognize the work she put into getting her Fantasy Ph.D

[peace-hunter]

he loves them. really <33. if they could just. shut up for five kliks while he's fighting for his life with his ex that would be. great. please.

haunted au

bonus under the readmore

[whumpypepsigal]

The Night Agent s02e03: “You’re safe. You’re okay, you’re okay.”

[nickmarini]

Ayden’s Build 

TL;DR: Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 8 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 9 (Peace Domain). Feats: Squire of Solamnia, Remarkable Recovery, Warcaster, Knight of Crowns, Spelldriver, Tough.

Building Ayden was a joy and a journey. To begin we were told we had 20 levels to work with and stats of 20 across the board. The only thing I knew about Ayden from the session 0 was that he was going to be a Cleric of the Everlight and that I wanted to make him the best support character I could. I also knew that the Dawnfather was aware of the mission briefing and so would have directed his growth to the task at hand. 

Stats of 20 meant multiclassing into any class was possible and that any ability score based bonuses or proficiency based abilities were going to be very good. I figured that with a warlock and a sorcerer we’d have some pretty good counterspelling and 9th level spell access, so I didn’t worry myself about either of those, instead focusing on making sure we all survived. 

The Dawnfather and The Everlight share 2 of 3 Domains. Life and Light. The Everlight’s 3rd domain is Peace. The Peace Domain cleric is an excellent subclass and its 6th level ability, Protective Bond, was something I knew I wanted to build around. The ability to take hits for, and aid, my siblings while teleporting around the battlefield is an excellent support ability and it also lets allies in the bond do the same, fostering sibling unity and cohesion.

With the Dawnfather having Nature as his unique domain separate from the Everlight, and literally sending himself to Exandria to infiltrate a city full of the greatest mages of the age, the Oath of Ancients Paladin seemed like an obvious path. It is the nature Paladin, (his domain) and 7 levels gives you both Aura of Protection and Aura of Warding. This means as Ayden moves through the battlefield with Protective Bond he will be granting allies +5 to saves from his cha as well as resistance to damage from spells. Incredibly good going up against the wizards of Aeor he knew he would encounter. I didn’t want to go to 10 with Paladin because I didn’t want to be immune to frightened. I just felt that fear played too large a role in the reasons the gods were here and although aura of courage is probably my favorite ability going back to 3rd edition, I felt like it wasn’t right for Ayden. He had to fear in order to reinforce his need to hope. 

These two classes were set relatively quickly and then I began looking at how else I was going to build him out. 

I really liked the idea of being able to grant my allies some extra attacks and so I was looking at battle master to get commanders strike and goading attack as well as maneuvering attack to help take hits for and position my allies. Action Surge is also a great ability that could really come in handy if I needed to save someone and needed one extra action to do so. 

I was also looking at the 2nd level Divination Wizard ability Portent. The ability to fully dictate 2 rolls is very powerful in certain circumstances, especially if the numbers are very high or very low.

Both these seemed good but weren’t feeling totally right from a character perspective. They felt too forced.

As I was playing around with these two classes I was also building Aydens backstory. I really liked the idea of him being agriculturally focused, as this aspect of the Dawnfather is actually his youngest. Sun begets days, and thus time and seasons, and as civilization evolves agriculture follows. The fighter levels lent the idea that he has spent some time training under a knight or some such warrior, and I knew that he would eventually find his way to Trist to begin his tutelage and become her cleric. I liked there being these different eras of his life. 

It was around this time that I got an awesome email asking me to describe Ayden visually so that the incredibly talented Hannah Friederichs and Cael Lyons could begin to bring Ayden and the Dawnfather to life. I wanted Ayden to be a simply dressed with a shield he took from his mentor, but no sword for striking. They sent 4 sketches and told me I could mix and match as I desired. Image #1 however was exactly as I had envisioned him. It was the simplest and had this depth to his eyes that told the story of a much older soul in this 15 year old body. It was so perfect that it made me realize I had been going in the totally wrong direction with fighter and wizard. The concepts of nature and agriculture were suddenly staring me in the face. It was not wizard, but druid, and his mentor could have taught him to be a paladin as easily as fighter, but if he is the bringer of agriculture who has he brought it to? A remote tribe still hunting and gathering was the answer. Barbarian therefore replaced fighter. I can’t tell you how influential the sketch I received was. It felt like a bolt of lightning suddenly clarified everything. 

I was for sure cleric 6, Paladin 7 and now looking at druid and barbarian. 

I didn’t know Druid subclasses very well but Circle of the Stars jumped out from the pack just with its name. The Sun after all is a star. When I read its 2nd level abilities Starmap and Starry form it was so obvious. I can cast Guiding Bolt to set up those attacks I wanted to grant, and I can glow instead of wild shape and either heal more or have a massive bonus to maintain the concentration spells I knew I wanted to cast. For the keeper of time to know how to read the stars just felt right. It also feel right that the druids of a tribe that had been hunting and gathering during the tumultuous Calamity would have learned to navigate by the stars, a singular constant in an every changing age. 

Barbarian has a number of interesting subclasses but none felt like they clicked. 1 level of Barbarian though, for a character with 20 dexterity and 20 constitution, catapults your AC to 20 and it also gives you a proficiency in Constitution saving throws if you take it as your first class, again reinforcing those concentration rolls. He was found as a child by this barbarian tribe and his first class is also his first community. Barbarian was the strong foundation I would build upon. 

I was now Cleric 6, Paladin 7, Druid 2, Barbarian 1. Reorganized to be the order Ayden would have taken them in it becomes the following:

Barbarian 1, Druid  2 (Circle of the Stars), Paladin 7 (Oath of the Ancients), and Cleric 6 (Peace Domain)

4 more levels to distribute. As a player who has mostly played 3.5 (I think downfall just about doubled the amount of 5E I have played) feats are my absolute favorite things, so getting to multiples of 4 in class levels to grab some was something I wanted to do (also I didn’t have to worry about ability score increases)! I had already given one feat up by taking barb and druid but I made up for it with the human variant. I also took the Knight of Solamnia background to give me Squire of Solamnia, the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns which would give me the ability to grant attacks to my allies without needing battle maneuvers. 

So I upped paladin from 7-8 for a feat and then decided to take Cleric from 6-9 because it gave me a feat and access to the spell Dawn. I mean the Dawnfather should be able to cast Dawn after all! 

Now to feats

1) Background: Squire of Solamnia to give me the prerequisite for Knight of the Crowns

2) Human Variant: Remarkable Recovery. I knew I’d be taking extra damage so having 5 extra hp from any healing I get might just be the difference. It also plays into his background. He had to leave the Barbarian tribe he brought agriculture to because his skin could not retain the ceremonial tattoo ink that would have symbolized his initiation into the community. 

3) Cleric 4 Warcaster to get advantage on those concentration checks, that along with proficiency and starry form of the dragon means I need to take 28 damage (56 if it’s a spell) to even have to roll, and when I do I get advantage and proficiency on the check. Getting me to lose concentration is gonna be a task. 

4) Paladin 4 Knight of the Crown getting to grant an attack proficiency times per day combos wonderfully with Starmaps free guiding bolt, conveniently also proficiency times per day. 

5) Cleric 8 Spelldriver I’m gonna be casting a bunch of spells so the ability to cast multiple each turn is going to make my support spells come out much faster. I have a big fam to take care of!

6) Paladin 8 Tough I really went back and forth between this and Inspiring Leader. Granting all my siblings 25 temp hp is amazing but ultimately I decided that as I’d be tanking a bunch of damage I’d need toughness. Toughness gave me 15 more hp than Inspiring leader would have, and I ended up going down to 14 at one point so it was a decision that very much paid off by a single HP! Don’t wanna pop a deathward if you can help it!

Last but not least we were granted 2 magic items. One very rare and one uncommon. For my uncommon I chose a cloak of resistance, a parting gift from the tribe that Ayden could not join. This upped my saves to 11s or 17s and took my AC to 23. For his very rare magic item I took a spellguard shield, inherited from the knight who brought him from the remote tribe to Trist‘s school, giving me advantage on saving throws vs spells and magical effects and inflicting disadvantages on spell effects targeting me. Combine that with resistance to spells from Aura of Warding and that’s a nasty nasty combo v wizards. 

All in all Ayden’s build is an incredibly hard to target tanky support character who can move through the battlefield protecting his allies and being an absolute nightmare for enemy spellcasters. The only thing I really didn’t fully consider was just how much damage he would take from Warding Bond which totally bypasses all those wonderfully crafted defenses. As crazy as it is, I think we barely got to scratch the surface of Aydens full potential and it’s probably good those mages decided to cast spells at everyone else because Ayden was going to be a tough character for a spell caster to crack. The Commanding Rally did get to shine allowing characters who specialized in weapon attacks to get a little extra out of those 20 level commitments. Ayden’s build was crafted to keep his siblings alive and let them shine as bright as possible together. I’m very proud of him!

If you read all this then you’re as nerdy as me and deserve a reward!

[triaelf9]

New cards in the store, that are a little Pride specials of some CR ships! ^_^

Get 'em while they're hot!

https://ko-fi.com/triaelf9/shop

[ravenpureforever]

On one hand, Young Justice is kind of neglected by the actual superheroes that should be looking out for them in a lot of crucial ways and very much failed by the adults around them

But on the other hand Red Tornado straight up hosts a parent-teacher conference where their respective legal guardians all show up, barring Batman who’s in traffic so Nightwing fills in instead because Robin’s dad does not know he’s a vigilante which is objectively hilarious

[aroaceleovaldez]

the dynamic of demigods thinking which other demigod is the most powerful is always amusing to me because. like, we know the big 3 kids are all the most powerful. That's just a fact of their universe. And then we know nearly every character views Percy as the strongest demigod, and most people are very rightfully intimidated by him.

and you look at the powers of the Big 3 kids and there's Percy, but then you realize Nico is just kind of objectively more powerful than him but simply chooses to hang out in Percy's shadow like he's Percy's scary dog privileges. Like, the two of them are pretty equally capable of causing multiple different apocalypses. Nico just also has like four different instakill powers and it's not like he doesn't use them. He very much uses them! Not infrequently, even! And they don't seem to take a significant amount of energy from him! And other demigods are pretty intimidated by both of them! But Nico makes a conscious point to keep his cards close to his chest and not let on exactly how dangerous and scary he can be if he wants to. People are already scared enough of him without knowing anything about him and he doesn't like that. Percy doesn't think about that nearly as much, and so usually just goes in guns blazing and that's part of why he's considered a wildcard. And then Nico himself puts Percy on a pedestal, so those who do know more about Nico's abilities then presume Nico knows something they don't about Percy that implies Percy is even stronger than him.

And even on a meta level Nico's narrative role requires him to be functionally more powerful than Percy, because he very often serves the purpose of getting Percy out of situations he can't handle on his own. That's just part of his function as a character! But also narratively he can't overshadow Percy so he just takes a backseat of his own accord and that's very amusing to me.