heartpleasurre

[lucky-clover-gazette]

[othercrossee]

Volos still the true enemy btw

[a-stone-slab]

Hot take: Kamado gets treated by the fandom the way Volo should’ve, and Volo gets treated waaaay too kindly than he ever deserves.

There’s evidence that shows Kamado was a genuinely good guy who made one misguided mistake and then tries anything to make up for it, and there’s evidence that Volo’s is a predatory psychopath without any evidence suggesting otherwise.

Sure Volo’s hotter, but pokemon fans genuinely need to stop acting like Kamado kills babies in his spare time and Volo was being quirky and “just having a silly moment lol”.

Kamado had a wife. It’s implied she died due to Pokemon. He lost his entire hometown due to Pokemon. Then when he tries to keep his new town (family) safe from creatures that ruined his life, some kid comes along and acts like his trauma isn’t valid or reasonable. But when he realizes that exiling that child was a bad thing to do, he apologizes, regrets his actions, and tries to do anything to make up for it (and even gives them a plate which is partially a key to going back home).

Volo is, from what we know, a guy with a god complex who had stated he would kill a child for a chance to meet god, let alone attempt to kill it. Not to mention the fact that, if he existed in the modern day, a LOT of his behavior would be seen as predatory since he’s acting this way towards a character who is confirmed to be underage.

So sure, you can hate Kamado and think Volo’s hot, but Kamado is definitely the better person of the two, and I’m tired of people saying how horrible he is when he’s an extremely justified man.

[quarterdollar]

SEVERELY obsessed with the character insight here. so obsessed that i typed a long-ass post of analysis, in which i support the argument that volo really isn’t a complete sociopath, he’s just a big emotional short-sighted hypocrite.

as we know, volo’s endgame goal is to subjugate arceus and recreate the world from scratch, implicitly so that whatever pain and heartbreak he’s experienced/witnessed no longer exists. this is of course an intentional parallel to cyrus’s desire to create a world without spirit in response to the emotional pain he experienced in his childhood. while we do not have a concrete explanation on what exactly the painful events volo experienced were like we do with cyrus, he talks about them enough that it’s clear that they impacted him significantly. that is to say i think he’s expressing his thoughts and feelings sincerely when he brings the topic up, he isn’t lying or trying to misdirect you in any way in regards to that.

i bring this up because a big portion of cyrus’s character that to this day flies over many fans’ heads is that he is defined by ironies and hypocrisies. he wishes for a world devoid of any emotions specifically because he is dominated by them—he confesses as much during his rant in the distortion world:

cyrus also famously has a crobat on his team, which evolves through high friendship, despite his steadfast belief that spirit—of which friendship is undoubtedly a part—is an ugly, vague, incomplete thing. in addition to this, usum all but explicitly confirms that the journal of a child who befriended a rotom was written by him. so, in conclusion, cyrus has a heart and is easily swayed by good emotions as well as bad.

so now we come to volo’s new dialogues in pokemon masters. i think that they have made it clearer that like cyrus’s emotional actions, his obsessions with history & preserving memories through photographs are meant to be genuine hypocrisy on his part, rather than intentional obfuscation of intent. think about it—a man who’s dominated by curiosity & love for history also claims to want to remake the world so utterly that all of that history is rendered completely destroyed. yet even in the depths of his post-defeat breakdown he still maintains that defining curiosity of his:

and now i ask, what is curiosity, if not an expression of love for the world around you? despite claiming to want to destroy the current world and all evidence of its existence, volo also still wants to know absolutely everything about it, past and present. it’s inherently contradictory. and this brings me to the recurring themes in his pokemas dialogue: how he not only appreciates photographs as a way to create a tangible record of history, but as a way “to capture and isolate the best moments”. those happy moments worth holding onto and looking back on in the future. see also the photograph of him and togepi in the original game, never commented on, taken for no apparent reason other than the fun of it—or more specifically, as these dialogues suggest, to isolate that moment in time in a tangible form. that is an act of love and of sentiment.

so, what’s the conclusion i’m getting at here? well, because of the ambiguity of his character in the base game. i’ve seen that volo is often interpreted as being a manipulative sociopath motivated solely by his desire for control. everything he does before the postgame is entirely a lie, absolutely none of the facade was genuine, etc. and don’t get me wrong, he is a control freak with a god complex! he does railroad the player into doing what he wants! he is not honest and he is not a good person. but, i think there is very much an intentional irony to him the same way there is with cyrus, in that his road to hell was paved with good intentions. he has the capacity for genuine kindness and i personally believe that his descent into villainy was spurred entirely by an earnest appreciation for the world around him and a desire to eliminate suffering.

as a closing statement, i want to bring up a quote from volo himself regarding calaba of the pearl clan:

i don’t think it’s that volo feels nothing for his pokemon or for the people around him—rather, i think he simply loves the world very, very much.

[leggerefiore]

Archer, Volo, and Grimsley reacting to the reader having a crush but not knowing it’s on them? In the mood for some silly miscommunication rn and I’d love to see them all be like “idc who you like haha” (actually cares very much)

I saw ur other ask so I got you lol

cw: confessions, jealousy, misunderstandings

characters: Avery, Archer, Volo, Grimsley

🎩Avery🥄

🔮 When you began seeming more out of it during your times out together, Avery first worried that you were no longer interested in being friends with him. He was fully aware of, while trying to ignore, the way he felt about you. But, it was soon obvious by the way your eyes lingered on your phone that it might be something else. He was quite a bit oblivious, in truth. The idea of you having a romantic interest in anyone did not cross his mind until you plainly said that you did to apologise for your absent nature while being together. For a moment, the psychic screamed in his mind for the abilities that the rest of his family had. Who? Who could you have interest in? He desperately needed to know – his heart raced in response to this, and his laser focus on telekinesis slipped.

🔮 “Well, there is someone I like… They've been on my mind a lot lately,” you told him simply while having tea with him. Avery's glasses could have fogged up from the temperature shift of his, quickly his face warmed. He nodded for a moment, taking in your words. Silently, he pleaded for you to continue on and tell him. For once in his life, he bit his tongue. Part of him desperately wanted to know, while the other half screamed for ignorance. You were too flustered, it seemed. He felt himself slipping. His feelings for you… Were they not obvious? His focus was almost entirely on you – despite his ego, he let you remain at his side so openly (granted, you did often feed said ego with compliments). He tried to think of anyone you could have mentioned that you would have feelings for. He even tried to turn back to telepathy, but he was still quite unable to read minds despite his desperation in that moment.

🔮 Eventually, you spoke again, seeing his intense reaction. His face shifted into an almost pitiful expression. Smiling at him, you shook your head. “I like you, Avery,” sublity was not an art best used on the blond. His slight inferiority complex did not allow for himself to put himself as your first option, despite wanting that most of all. His face became even more mortified for a moment… Pupils shrinking from the shock. Then, he felt his smug expression return. He blinked. Of course, it was him. Who else would it be? All his previous worries flew out the window in the face of this. Instead, he accepted your confession with ease. It was like he was never panicked in the first place. Avery knew everything would end up like this… A Future Sight told him, of course… He will never admit to his immense worry that you had feelings for someone else.

💫Volo📜

⭐️ The merchant is observant of everything. His eyes took note of every little thing – It was part of what made him good at being a salesman and his hobby of history. That eye for detail let him catch on quite quickly to who was a threat to his plans or who was not. You ended up being on the threat side – naturally, since you fell from the sky and seem to just have everything fall into place for you to dismantle everything he worked so hard to create. But, whatever bitter feelings were held mixed horribly with this strange affection in his chest. You were an outsider – like him. You both shared such horrible experiences of being othered. He felt this sick attachment grow deeper and deeper as he spent more time at your side. Your trust… He adored it more than anything. How you looked to him for aid… Which is why he felt himself pause when you suddenly exclaimed that you had feelings for someone.

⭐️ “I… I have this person I love so dearly,” you had told him, while staring into his eyes, “I don't think I can tell them. I doubt they return my feelings…” The first thought in Volo's mind is he certainly hoped they did not return anything you felt. Cruelty meant nothing to him – He did not want anyone else to be with you aside from himself. His new world… His initial intentions to remove you entirely had shifted into keeping you at his side. That was your place. It was with his usual amicable facade that he smiled at you and inquired simply into who that might be. He could give you advice, he claimed. He was familiar with a lot of different people, after all. You refused, saying it was too embarrassing. Volo sighed. Forcing you to admit it might ruin the precious trust he worked so hard to build with you.

⭐️ He then found himself stewing on it for days. Who? Who could it be? The Diamond Clan leader? He always seemed popular. That professor? It was unlikely, but he supposed not impossible. He found himself following you more often, trying to figure it out. Nothing came to him. Who could it be? It was rare that something was so well hidden from him. How could your supposed romantic interest be more elusive than Arceus itself? It was maddening. That was, until you caught yourself alone with him again. You shifted uncomfortably before declaring your feelings… for him. “I… I like you, Volo!” Those words… He felt taken aback for a moment before he could not help but chuckle. Of course… Right… He happily reciprocated your feelings. This was how it should be, after all.

♠️Grimsley❤️

♤ The gambler would consider himself a master of reading people. You, in particular, were an easy read for him due to your closeness. He understood you well. Which is why he noticed quite quickly when your behaviour shifted. It was not like he was intentionally paying too close attention, but whenever he invited you out, he quickly spotted how distant you seemed to be. The first few times, he shrugged it off as off-days, yet it was unchanging. He felt himself growing concerned before it hit him. Teasing you, he asked first, naturally. Though some part of it was definitely sick curiosity. He was well aware that he was straightforward in his attraction to you, but there was an obvious rejection of his advances on your behalf. He wondered who had caught your attention.

♡ “Who's on your mind, hm?” the gambler asked with a teasing lilt while he leaned against the table across from you. Your reaction was to shoot him a glare and refuse to answer. The subtle shift of embarrassment in your expression was noted by him. He wanted to chuckle. Really, who? He wanted to know. It would be a gambler to prove himself a better option, especially with his reputation and vices, but he would try. Giving you up would be a mistake that he would never forgive himself for making. His eyes narrowed as you simply denied that anyone was on your mind, despite it being obvious to him. He gave a smirk in reply.

◇ It did weigh on him despite everything. Really… He was trying far harder than he did for anyone else to charm you. He did not understand what would appeal to you. Truthfully, he was at a loss. Part of him needed to meet whoever interested you so he could grasp what they had that he lacked. (Integrity, he assumed.) But, it barely had time to fester before you caught him off guard for the first time in your time together. “It's you, Grimsley,” you said simply after he pushed you to tell him again. He stood stunned for a moment, mouth falling open and brows going up. Him? Really? Why had you…? He barely had time to consider it too much before chuckling. Well, whatever. He would figure out that later. It seemed that you were not immune to his charms, at least.

🐕Archer🚀

♦️ It was rare that he felt any kind of attachment towards anything unrelated to Rocket or Giovanni. But, you certainly had managed to keep his attention. An annoying rival – a nuisance to everything he worked so hard for. He only agreed to be around you to keep an eye on you. It was obnoxious, observing what you did and listening to what you said. He despised the idea of you pulling a fast one on you. Despite this, the Rocket Executive supposed it was not the worst experience. There were definitely worse tasks to be assigned, he knew. He knew you somehow had come to view him as a friend – how, he did not know. And, well, unfortunately for him, his own feelings began to make him react strangely to you.

♦️ “There's this person I'm interested in,” you told him during one of your various outings that you bad invited him to join you on. Those simple words had unleashed a strange sense of madness in his mind. Interested in? Who? Part of figured it would be good to use against you if you kept being a nuisance for Rocket, but the other half genuinely seethed at the thought of you liking someone. Why? Were they as good a trainer as you? He only wanted someone worthy to be with you. … And he only found one person worthy. Though, he dared not admit that to himself. He bit his lip and kept his cool facade to ask who it was. He simply needed to know.

♦️Your gaze shifted onto him as you smiled far too sweetly. It was not something that he often saw in his line of you. “… Well, it's you, Archer,” you admitted. He blinked. For a moment, he has heard your words but failed to process them. Yes… Him, right. That makes sense. Then it hit him. He blinked. Him? You were interested in him? It was like… a golden opportunity. He could hardly believe it, but he supposed you found him to be a friend despite everything, getting a crush was not so far off. He swallowed. The idea of being with you did not bother him as much as he expected, either. It was with a trained ease that he accepted your confession. This might prove fruitful in actually stopping you… And he supposed he was allowed to indulge himself now and again.

[mr-jack-letterman]

I thought it would be fun to give some insight into how the circumstances detailed in Covalent Twins are effecting the characters :D.

So, here's Covalent Emmet Progress Report #1 (as I will probably end up making more of these)(maybe)

Despite popular belief, Emmet....is not doin too hot with this new situation.

The 2 years Ingo spent in Hisui were the worst years of Emmet's life. When Ingo finally returned, naturally, he was overjoyed. Hearing about what his brother faced in Hisui however....was quite concerning.

Every scar on his brother's body felt like a bullet wound to Emmet's heart. He hated seeing his brother so hurt and scared of what used to be their everyday lives. Thankfully, the amnesia almost entirely cleared up after a few months. But that didn't change the fact his brother was hurt, and there was no way for him to fix it other than supporting him the best he could.

Immediately jumping from that to their apartment being haunted by the dead ghost of Ingo from an alternate timeline made Emmet want to rip his hair out.

It's all just so unfair.

Emmet and Elesa had done nothing to deserve having Ingo torn away from them. Ingo did nothing to deserve his sudden derailment nor his treatment in Hisui, but most of all, Warden did absolutely fucking nothing to deserve being left for dead in the past by a God.

Emmet didn't care if the space-time continuum was at risk if Warden's timeline wasn't created. Emmet didn't care if Warden being sent to the future the same way Ingo was might have caused even more problems.

In Emmet's mind, there is not, and will never be, a riotous justification for Arceus leaving Warden stuck in the past. Not. One.

Not after all the pain and grief it caused Warden- his brother.

Warden is as much as Emmet's brother as Ingo is. And Emmet with never forgive Volo or Arceus for what happened to them. Not ever.

The worst part about it all is that the ones truly to blame aren't even here for Emmet to pass blame onto.

Volo is dead and gone, nobody can survive 150 years. (Unless you're Warden and live on as a ghost, of course.)

Giritina was only a tool, a terrifying and powerful tool, but still, only a tool for Volo to get what he wanted. Even through all his pain and resentment, Emmet can recognize Giritina as somewhat of a victim in all this as well.

Arceus is quite literally nothing, and also everything. Aside from pieces of Arceus (that Dawn allegedly fought and captured at one point.) Emmet would get nowhere trying to make an entire deity take responsibility.

The entire weight of Emmet's guilt, resentment, grief, and fury just sits in his hands. And with no one around to give it to, he keeps it close. Emmet blames himself.

Logically, Emmet knows it's untrue. He knows it's ridiculous. He knows he doesn't deserve any of the built up emotions he's taking out on himself, but he simply doesn't know what else to do with them all.

He knows it was all out of his control, but that alone is what makes it all so scary.

Emmet has never done well without a protocol or a script. But there is no script for this type of situation, let alone such a complex trauma. Emmet doesn't know what to do, and it seems like the only thing anyone can tell him is what not to do. Which for Emmet, isn't helpful in the slightest.

Emmet is veeeeery scared, and the total lack of proper answers and the uniqueness of his situation has only left him paranoid and flighty.

He's getting better. He will get better. The fear will slowly fade with time.

It's just gonna take a lot longer than originally expected.

[happyflux]

Saw a really long post today where someone was talking about D&D vampire lore, compiling what different sources say about it (including the Baldur's Gate games) and, y'know, for the most part it was a good post, it's a useful and good quick reference on what the different sources have said about vampires.

(readmore because this turned out long oops)

But then at the end, and in an addition to the post replying to a tag someone had put, the post began talking about applying all this lore to BG3 specifically, and it made me think. Because the takeaway that post had seemed to be that the things about vampire lore which are consistent to the rest of D&D do apply to BG3 as well, and that Astarion is simply an exception due to his extremely strong willpower and sense of self. And that just doesn't seem right to me at all. It feels like missing the point.

BG3 did some very specific, very interesting things with the lore of D&D. In terms of vampires, yes, but also more generally, BG3 pretty consistently gives the message that the things that are said in the rulebooks are not necessarily true, but are oversimplifications and generalizations that are believed to be true in universe.

BG3 got rid of racial ability scores, giving every race the same "choose a +2 and a +1" that variant humans can have in D&D. BG3 not only got rid of racial alignments, but got rid of alignments entirely - there is no detect evil and good, protection against evil and good has been replaced with a spell that mechanically protects against outsiders of various kinds, there is no alignment selection for player characters, no alignment showing up on inspection despite pretty much entire stat blocks being visible, and the companion characters all have complex morality that doesn't fit neatly into any alignment box. BG3 establishes and many times repeats that Volo, the in-universe author of a lot of the texts we have access to about Faerûn, is an incredibly unreliable source. BG3 has Halsin, a large-built and hairy elf (something which the rulebooks claim is impossible as elves are slender and graceful and have no body hair), say that "sometimes I think conventional wisdom is too narrow about what someone can or cannot be".

On the topic of vampirism specifically, BG3 has Jaheira (who is established to be wise and knowledgeable due to being an experienced and well travelled adventurer) say "They say that the only thing a vampire can feel is hunger. Nothing else touches them - not grief, or mercy. Or any sense of what is just. Who knows. There is often more ignorance than insight in what 'they' say", in response to Astarion remaining a spawn. And, on an Astarion origin run, it is established that at least half of his siblings can be convinced to want to oppose Cazador (it's just that non-origin Astarion chooses to antagonize them instead), and they can be persuaded not to feed off of people, and even without Astarion suggesting it Dalyria will take the initiative to help and take care of the other spawn. And, and this I think is crucial, every vampire we see in BG3 aside from possibly Vellioth is established to have been through circumstances which could easily twist someone and turn them horrible, no magical twisting of emotions or inherent existential evil required.

To play Baldur's Gate 3 and take away from it that the things which D&D lore has previously said about vampires apply to this game, and that Astarion is just somehow Special because of his Extremely Strong Willpower and Sense of Self feels like completely missing the point. Vampires in BG3 are evil because they're stuck in a cycle of violence and suffering and aren't able to escape, and when they are given an escape from that cycle they are able to heal and recover and be more than what they were made. Astarion does not have exceptional willpower, Astarion got lucky. He got out, he made some connections, he got a chance to heal and unlearn the things he'd been taught before being thrust back into Cazador's presence, and that's why he's able to break the cycle. Or, alternately, if the people he finds when he gets out don't push him to unlearn the things Cazador taught him and instead reinforce those beliefs, he becomes just like him. Again, no magical twisting of emotions required.

[kharmii]

The slutty pose in manga form.

I'm done watching the Black Clover anime so should move on to the manga, but instead I found a bunch of visually appealing Zora panels on Twitter:

Where they left off in the anime was kind of good but kind of aggravating at the same time. I liked how it was finally revealed who Yuno actually was. That would mean he's not in the running with Asta for Wizard King, like I was hoping they'd be co-Wizard Kings someday. They have that 'Two Halves of a Whole' aesthetic with their one wing on opposite sides of their bodies...light and dark.

They went and introduced new characters right in the last couple episodes. I thought Liebe was cute with his Inosuke voice. Nacht came across a douche. He reminds me of Volo with his smiling all the time but having a contract with a demon (like how Volo has the relationship with Giratina but he's secretive about it whereas Nacht is out in the open). I didn't like how Nacht said he hated the Black Bulls only focusing on their faults without acknowledging their virtues. I'm like...screw you then, Dick Bag.

Whoa, behind you!

Look at that sexy mofo. At the end of the anime, the fights with demons drug on too long. I was sitting there thinking, "Ya know...I wish my guy Zora would get more screen time. -Like they could have him in the bath, and Gordon would spawn like a Minecraft creeper saying, 'Hey bestest best friend Zora. How about I wash your back, and then you wash mine?' Zora would reply, 'I'm down..' (Because that's an actual running joke. *eyebrow wiggle*)"

How many aura points does Zora get for putting his arm around the Wizard King and giving him rizz eyes when they've only just met?

NOOOO!!!! Don't die Zora!!1!1! -Or maybe the thing just wants to disintegrate Zora's clothes, like, "I've seen most of it, and now I want to see the rest."

This is a good look for Zora. (Sassy hand on hip).

Do you mean it like 'back door to Hollywood' you hoe?

The gang of delinquents.

Zora's secret base where he puts together the most complex spells ever made.

I'm guessing that's not a fist bump between bros. Zora has the runes written on his own body, which means he's in real trouble. I hope they animate the rest of the manga someday because it's probably epic, and my guy gets more screen time.

The Purple Orcas cape covers up too much tiddies.

*A non-Zora related side note* I like how they prettied up the based Praying Mantis Guy (kekek), like I used to ship Jack x Nobody, but he's in the running now.

[volodei]

Volo and Otto Apocalypse should totally meet and share their ways of overpowering god. And maybe even swap outfits XD ...I have a thing for pretty tall blondies who fight against god, ok?

clowned myself when i decided to fall in love with the most complex outfit that dude (probably) owns 🫠 i couldn’t find a character ref so i painstakingly recreated that outfit from all the refs i could find (and filled in the rest with my own bs) 😭

BUT it was totally worth it because hello those are some very pretty men 💕🥴 ty ty for the wardrobe recommendation 💕✨🌸 i sure hope they’re having a nice, safe conversation 🫶

(read below if u wanna see progress pics)

[pyrrhiccomedy]

quick Heretic ask if you don't mind - I'm developing a similar kind of 1:1 campaign and my partner doesn't particularly like combat - do you think the 3-2-1 system you mentioned using would be amenable, given it's often over quickly, or does it require too much tactical thinking for someone who sort of just wants to get it over with? Second, maybe I missed it in the OG post where you explained it, but how do you determine how many D10s a character gets? TYSM! Game seems super cool.

I designed Heretic's combat system for my wife, who always hated combat and just wanted to get it over with. Now she loves it! So I definitely recommend it.

The number of d10s your player gets to roll comes directly from their stats (for Heretic, and Emily's character Bastian, 90% of the time that's a Fitness+Swords check). Bastian has Fitness 5 and Swords 4 (I think), so he gets nine dice to roll. If he doesn't want to swing his sword, and just wants to use magic, it's a Charisma+Occult check.

It's only as tactical a system as you make it. Emily now runs Bastian + a party of 3 NPCs, all of whom have different abilities, stances, spells, armor, & weapons, and she manages just fine, but we've been playing Heretic for ages. When we started, the party Emily controlled was just Bastian and his squire, Volo, neither of them knew any magic yet, neither of them had more than 7 dice to spend on a roll, and they used the same equipment loadout, so it was extremely simple. I can recommend starting with something like that, and scaling up complexity over time.

The dice also determine how complex a given turn will be. Like, if you roll your dice and you just get a pair of 7s, cool. Bastian does 3 levels of damage to his chosen target and it's on to the next character's turn. If you roll a pair of 2s, s pair of 5s, a pair of 8s, and a pair of 10s, then he gets a dodge level, he gets to do a maneuver, he gets a 2nd degree spellcast, and he deals critical damage. But you need quite a large dice pool before you'll start seeing outcomes like that with any regularity.

If you're only rolling 6-7 dice, you'll usually get one pair, and on a lucky roll you'll get two. When you start getting dice pools of 10+ dice, things start to get complicated, but you shouldn't have that many dice to roll until you've been playing the game for a while, and leveled up quite a bit, by which point your player will hopefully be comfortable with the system.

[neon-moon-beam]

Not Again: Ableism Post-Teal Mask Edition

Hey, how about NOT being ableist towards Carmine and Kieran?

We've already dealt with N and Submas experiencing this since Gen 5's initial run, we've dealt with Volo and then Nemona, and definitely more but those are the big ones.

Lately there seems to be this tendency of people to want to diagnose every character and you don't actually need to give every single character an armchair diagnosis right out the gate. While representation is important and some characters have enough in their characterization to suggest an illness or disability, or even seem outright coded, not every character is, or needs to be. If a character strongly resonates with your experience with an illness or disability, that's one thing; many autistic people feel seen and validated by Submas, for example. But if you're grasping at straws or stretching a character's actions or situations to make them "fit" a diagnosis, it often comes across more as pathologizing characters rather than humanizing them. It's important to not only think about why you want to portray a character this way, but whether or not it fits with their characterization and if you're using it to show an accurate portrayal, or if you're just using it to excuse/dismiss their hurtful actions, or even demonize the character.

Spoilers for the Teal Mask DLC ahead. CW for ableism.

There's a huge difference between say, Submas who are so heavily autistic-coded you'd have a harder time arguing they aren't, and someone like Kieran who shows rejection sensitivity that may or may not be a symptom of something else, or Carmine, who appears explosive and a cruel bully, but it turns out her anger comes from places of worry as well as being angry about innocent people and Pokemon being wronged. Her decision to not tell Kieran they met Ogerpon was because she knew how much Ogerpon meant to him and how bad he would feel knowing he missed her. People have been quick to decide she has low or no empathy, when the game literally shows her having a lot of it! We also don't know Carmine and Kieran's whole stories yet. We're going to see them at Blueberry Academy next (and Kieran does tell the player that Carmine does everything for him there, which is a reason he wants to get stronger). We don't know why they're going to school there, if they have friends there or a community or if they’re outcast and bullied, or where their parents are. Their attitudes, actions, or even potential symptoms may be situational. Carmine certainly appears to be acting out to the threat of her hometown being overrun by tourists (and considering how tourism tends to impact places and its locals IRL, can you blame her?) Kieran has the conflicting situation of his sister looking out for him at school for reasons we haven’t seen yet, while also verbally cutting him down. He also identified with Ogerpon even before the player arrived at Kitakami, and maybe even projected onto her for a reason. There’s a potential for a lot to be going on here without either of them needing an instant armchair diagnosis before their story arcs are complete.

A character desperate for friends doesn't necessary indicate a personality disorder, especially when their backstory is that they were left out, bullied, or even considered an outsider to a degree in the town they grew up in. Someone like Nemona or Kieran wanting to have friends after experiencing a lot of rejection and isolation doesn't instantly mean they have a personality disorder, and even if the story ended up indicating that they did, that does not give anyone the excuse to write them as "scary" or "yandere". Personality disorders are complex in potential causes and how they manifest, and using them as shorthand to write a character being a "yandere" or abusive is ableist.

And once again, it is time to bring up the subject of “feral” or “unhinged”. Whether or not Carmine has anger issues that can be given a diagnosis or Kieran has a personality disorder or anything else that can be diagnosed doesn’t matter here. Making characters “scary and unhinged” for experiencing basic human emotions is…dehumanizing. When you decide Carmine should snap and go around hurting people, you actually sound just like the people in Kitakami who are ostracizing her and whispering behind her back, making her feel like she has no place in her own community. And the same with Kieran. The last scene of the storyline in Kitakami has him vowing to defeat the player. It comes off as a bit creepy, but it doesn’t mean he’s supposed to have been a creep all along or is turning into one; from a developer/storytelling perspective, it’s literally just creating suspense for the Indigo Disk story. While Kieran is shown to be rejection sensitive, jealous, self-isolating, and at times inconsiderate (Carmine had to remind him that Ogerpon’s feelings on who she should travel with mattered too), he’s also a kid. We don’t have an exact age, but my impression was he might be a bit younger than the player. Carmine does mention him having “teen angst” but it could be a joke as she herself is a teen claiming to be over it, and it could be one of those “older kid jokes about younger kid as though older kid is an elderly person” type of jokes. But if he is a teen, he’s a younger one, and he still has a lot to learn about managing his emotions and expressing himself constructively. Nobody is always mature about that at 13 (heck, there are adults who lack emotional maturity altogether). He shouldn’t be expected to react maturely every time to things that upset him, and he shouldn’t be pathologized or considered “unhinged” every time he doesn’t. Depicting him as “unhinged” also detracts from his positive traits that we see in conjunction with, or even in spite of his negative ones. He’s jealous of the player character’s strength and skill, but he doesn’t actually resent them, despite becoming obsessed with the idea of defeating them. Ogerpon was bonding more with the player, but he still decided to help with the situation with the masks and the Lousy Three. He’s jealous that Ogerpon wanted to go with the player, but he’s still happy for both of them. It’s much more likely that we’ll see him mature as a person and recognize his own strengths independent of Carmine and the player at the end of the Indigo Disk then see him become a “madman consumed by jealousy and pursuit of power”, because Pokemon doesn’t really tell stories like that, and certainly not with non-villain characters! And if Carmine and Kieran end up fitting a diagnosis for an illness or disability, continuing to depict them as “unhinged” based on those traits is very ableist. I and others have said it in regards to Submas so many times, but it’s true for other characters too.

And this is by no means an exhaustive list of examples of the ways people are being ableist after the Teal Mask DLC has released.

With all that said, a headcanon diagnosis doesn’t excuse a character’s actions that have hurt others, and neither does a character who’s acting out is situational. Carmine still lashes out at Kieran and hurts him, even when her intentions are to protect him. Kieran still ended up causing the revival of the Lousy Three and put the player and Ogrepon in an uncomfortable situation, and will likely put the player in an uncomfortable situation at Blueberry Academy. In the end, they’re characters being portrayed with virtues and flaws, and that humanizes them much more than slapping on a diagnosis and absolving them of every hurtful action, and certainly much more than slapping a diagnosis on them and in turn using it to demonize them. And if you’re really interested in writing characters with mental illnesses and/or disabilities, and especially if it’s not based on your own experiences, you need to do some actual research, not just watch a few short videos listing symptoms by a non-professional on the video app du jour. If you’re not sure where to look, Wikipedia articles cite their sources at the bottom of the article; you can read the page you’re interested in, but please check out the cited sources too!

Sadly, this is at least the third time in just under three years that people have immediately started depicting characters introduced, or reintroduced in Pokemon, in ways that have ended up becoming ableist. It’s disappointing and disheartening to see, and to be honest, it gets tiring for those of us talking about the issue to keep talking about it. Many of the people making the ableist depictions aren’t personally affected by the issues they misrepresent, and they can just post their art or fic, and continue on their way. But for those of us who have the illnesses and/or disabilities being misrepresented, even misrepresented as entertainment, we can’t just log off and go on our way. The reality is a series, characters, or even fandom that could be our break from everyday life, and should be our refuge, instead has a fandom that  just plays out our everyday difficulties for laughs, brings up our trauma as an excuse to write a character as “haha unhinged! ooh feral!”, treats characters the way so many of us were treated by bullies, by parents and teachers who didn’t understand, and ends up alienating us from a space that should be ours, a space some of us helped build, only to have to leave as others made it unfriendly to us. It gets so tiring to have to avoid content that should be enjoyable but isn’t, to have friends ask, “Is this really how others see me?” when yet another autistic-coded character is portrayed as unhinged and creepy, or to have them tell you how yet another fic or art dehumanized them via their favorite characters, to watch people describe a character the way your peers once described you as they made fun of or ostracized you for your neurodivergence. It’s tiring to have other fans of the same series make a space alienating, inaccessible, or even antagonistic towards you, instead of fostering community.

Come on people, please do better.

Thank you for reading my post and your consideration. And if you think other people would benefit from reading this, please give it a reblog. Likes don't do anything as tumblr has no real algorithm.

[girasolen]

Is Volo Evil? A Balanced Analysis

Each of his controversial actions will be discussed and judged as evil or not evil.

1) Trying to subjugate and/or become God

Honestly, he had a point with this one. Plus he looked great while he was trying to do it. Not evil.

2) Trying to kill the protagonist

We all have bad days sometimes. Not evil.

3) Attempting to destroy the entire universe

See above. Not evil.

4) Not doing his job for the Ginkgo Guild because he's too busy looking at ruins

Shirking retail work is virtuous. Not evil.

5) Saying he was going to "help" you hunt for the Plates and then only contributing the Spooky Plate and making you find all the rest

Not pulling your weight in a group project is the eighth deadly sin. Evil.

6) Arceus hair

No. Evil.

7) Having shoulder cutouts on his temple outfit

I don't need to explain this one. Evil.

8) Being too pretty for his own good

See above. Evil.

Conclusion

With an even balance of evil and non-evil traits, Volo is a complex character. It's difficult to know if he's truly evil or not.

[a-spawn-on-my-lawn]

so yes, today i stumbled upon that post with multiple 10 k likes that made a very good point on why astarion is angry when you help others etc. and i was thinking, "what a marvelous post". until i read the last sentences that went like:

"astarion is a dick. accept that or stan someone else. "

post has reblogs deactivated, so i just gonna put my humble opinion out here: my bro. what is this take. 🤌💩💩💩💩

i stan astarion because no, he is not a dick. he is a complex (not human) being. he has a developement arc. (ascended astarion is, for sure, a dick). spawn astarion starts to care about people (telling us how life's unfair after karlachs meltdown at gortash's, commenting we should save volo even though he hates bards etc.pp). it's actually up to the player which path he walks; we can show him a direction and he happily takes it. from the beginning, he had a potential to become a better person. he might have been a dick in the beginning, but he doesn't need to stick with that. unlike many people irl, he takes the opportunity for change.

spawn astarion starts to learn compassion and empathy, which can surely be developed if he's with the right people. he's actually one of the happiest next to halsin in the epilogue (my opinion).

Ofc he will never be a goodie in two shoes, he's most likely considered chaotic neutral by the end of the game when not ascended, but this still means: he is a multifaceted character and cannot be categorized into "this or that".

so no, i will not accept that "astarion is a dick" and i will not stan someone else. ;_; (what even is this statement)

[lucky-clover-gazette]

How do you think Volo would interact with the FSA boys?

oh YAY thank you for this ask >:)

i'm going to mostly answer this with both the manga characterizations and my personal characterizations in fics (in my fics they're adults, not related or clones, shadow and vio are characterized how i like them, etc.)

i'll do the easy ones first. i think in general, volo would dislike the four links on principle for being the goddess's chosen heroes. obviously. either volo is jealous, or just overall resentful and uncomfortable with the entire situation post-game.

he would almost certainly keep up the fake merchant act with green, blue, red, and zelda. privately, hero stuff aside, he would have a neutral tolerance for them, kind of how i imagine he feels about most of the people in hisui. not particularly interested or attached, and oftentimes annoyed, but mostly just not paying them much mind at all. he's got more important things to think about.

conceptually, i think that volo would vibe with manga shadow's entire premise. he would relate to shadow in his dealings with vaati and ganon (giratina), but he would disagree with shadow sacrificing himself to save the heroes. volo would have tried to dethrone ganon in shadow's position, not destroy him, and he wouldn't have cared about helping the other links or princess.

i don't think volo would have any strong feelings about the shadow i write in my fic. my shadow doesn't actually have a very big ego or god complex or anything, he's usually characterized as desiring attention and belonging more than any kind of power. the subversion of his dynamic with vio, in my writing especially, is that shadow is a pretty chill guy with conventional moral values, and vio is... vio. if shadow was to be assigned a role in a story based on who he is alone, he would be the hero, not the villain. a strange and theatrical hero, but a hero all the same.

volo is strange and theatrical too, and i do think a core aspect of his character is his desire for attention and belonging. however, he wants to acquire those things in a very different way from the shadow i write, and he does not possess conventionally heroic qualities at all. so much of the volo we see in the game is an intentional deception, which means we don't actually know a lot for sure about his true self. however, based on his mask-off moments and the way he went about his plan and constructing his fake persona, i don't think "fixing" him as a villain would work in the same way as "fixing" shadow typically does/did in the manga and my fics.

volo would fucking despise manga vio. specifically, he would hate the fact that vio does ultimately attempt to break the mirror and abandon shadow, and that he (and the others, but specifically vio) reform link at the end. a couple reasons for his hatred of the character:

he'd really like vio from the forest scene to the confrontation at the volcano. he'd probably be like "holy shit this is the realest bitch i've ever read, fuck being a hero, let this theatrical nerd go apeshit with the evil demon"

but then he'd basically flip his perspective when vio fakes killing green and continues to lie to shadow. volo says in the game that he resents the way the world is unfair and causes pain--i think it's safe to assume that some part of that is due to the way other people have treated him in the past. i can definitely see volo relating to shadow's attachment and trust of vio, and the sort of high he got from having vio on his team. the devotion of it all. so to see this heroic character balance his conflicted interests and ultimately choose his destined responsibilities over the stuff he'd gotten up to with shadow, would piss volo off. after all, volo is the guy who got so engrossed in his unique hyperfixation, and doing it in his own way, that he chose to work retail part-time instead of joining the survey corps under people who thought they knew better. the man genuinely believed that he could do a better job being god, than god itself. he'd see the way manga vio enjoyed being around shadow, and doing non-heroic shit, and then the way vio eventually kinda just gave up and lost that part of himself, and hate it.

volo would feel less hatred, but not much else, about most of my fanfic vios. especially in the fics that are mostly just ab ship stuff with shadow, i don't think he'd give a shit. i don't really see volo as a person who thinks often about romance, given the fact that his only real friend is a sentient egg. he would hate my vios less, because i don't think i have written a single fic in which vio ended up exactly how he did in the manga, but he'd still kind of just be like whatever about him.

corruption but it's unchill au vio could probably give volo an existential crisis. that vio has crazy beef with god, but his solution isn't to defeat and subjugate god and then become god himself--instead, he and his friends tell god that her creations could do better, and then use the power she gave them to banish her from the realm entirely.

i don't think volo ever considered that an option during his storyline, because he was so convinced that the world wasn't worth saving, and he had no one truly on his side. like, it must have been so deeply isolating for him, to share his true self with no other human beings at all. vio in cbiuc has shadow, and as i repeat multiple times in the fic's prose, it matters. i think volo would be a little jealous of that. maybe if volo had been less of a misanthropic freak and teamed up with some people, he could have found himself in a world worth living in, with people who understood and loved him. one of the fic's main themes is "misery loves company," and volo spent his story both very miserable and very alone. so maybe seeing vio's arc in cbiuc would make a post-canon volo realize that it's the company he's really missing.

(maybe eventually i'll tackle that in a fic about volo, but i'm still kinda detoxing from the process of writing cbiuc even like months later. that shit tormented me.)

[legacyshenanigans]

Just here to express Volo appreciation because I love all of him 🖤🖤🖤

One of my favorite things about Marvolo is that he’s such a complex character

Like he obviously looks like perfection personified but I also really love the way you e developed his personality. He feels like he could be a real person between his family issues (to put it lightly), the realistic way you write interactions between him and Ominis, his love for Rerek and MC/friendship with Rowan, and just all the different ways you’ve added to his character.

Like yes he’s absolutely stunning and can kill somebody without a second thought but I love that he’s also got so much more to him than that 🖤 (though I’d love him regardless tbh and still love his murdery side ��🏻)

Thank you so much Nox! Love youuuu 💚

I'm glad you've noticed everything in his development! 😊 that makes me happyyyyy💜

And I feel you, I bet the people who aren't into him look at us like we're freaks. 🤣🤣

And, I mean, I will only speak for myself, but they wouldn't be wrong. 😅🖤

~

[pokemonruby]

it's been a bit of a debate for a while now as to whether volo genuinely cares about his pokemon and i always in the camp of he does, in fact, he just grew up in a harsh environment so he had no choice but to depend on them as tools of survival which is perfectly valid in my opinion, but i like to think that he has bonded with them in his own special way, evil machinations besides.

i think that paints him as a far more interesting antagonist; the mistake i've kept seeing was that people were trying to make him out to be like ghetsis when at the end of the day volo is just a guy suffering from intense religious trauma, though not necessarily overlooking the matter of his outrageous god complex, but with the way that they've decided to take his character it's clear their intent is to go down the path of redemption which could theoretically work, and this could act as foreshadowing for the personal dilemmas he would have to face later on when his plans come to a head that challenges his longstanding nihilism.