#a sense of betrayal i think

[turtleblogatlast]

Don’t think I ever quite said what my LGBTQ+ headcanons are for the boys, so these are my current thoughts! Always changing of course but this is what I feel most strongly right now.

[sysig]

“It could be that the loss of her children drove the Queen deeper into her darker desires...but, I don’t believe she was fighting against them that hard before that particular tragedy. No monster does.” (Patreon)

Bonus:

Hmm, wonder what he could cover those holes with :3c

[buckycap]

something something it's getting extremely tiring seeing people admonish dorian's stance and how no nuance or understanding is ever given to him and how he feels and whenever he shows a stance that's different than the overall opinion he's always looked at as stupid and about to betray the group and it's getting increasingly harder to look at those reactions as anything other than bad faith arguments

[aro-culture-is]

aro culture is not understanding why people don't want to stay friends after a break up from a romantic relationship

.

[dust-and-grave]

hng, i am so frustrated by this whole watcher tv situation. i've been chewing on it ever since i watched their announcement video yesterday + i've been looking around online at other fan reactions. i'm having a lot of thoughts so i guess i want to throw my two cents in + hope it'll make me feel better to talk about it a little.

i think we all agree that creators should be paid fairly for their work; however, not all work is created equal, right? if i commission an experienced (and thus high-demand) artist to do an oil painting of my cat, they might quote me $500+ to do that + it would be fair. if an artist with substantially less experience (and thus in lower demand) spends 30 seconds on a crayon rendition of my cat, should they also received $500+ for their work? i think most people would agree that would be ridiculous.

in some ways, this is what it feels like the watcher team is doing to us right now, imo. we know that shows like ghost files or puppet history are expensive to make because travel costs (in the case of ghost files) + production costs, but we can see the effort put into the work. we feel that what we give for the show, whether that's turning off ad blocker while watching or buying show merch or supporting via patreon, is going toward making the product that we are asking for. these shows are the oil painting in the metaphor.

i don't agree with how mean + rude some people are being about steven lim rn, but frankly, his shows are the 30 second crayon drawing of the watcher channel. anyone can look at the view count on their channel + see that his shows consistently have performed worse than shane + ryan's shows. additionally, we can see that he blows huge amounts of money on his shows ("$913 seafood tower", "$1027 fried chicken") that may leave a lot of viewers feeling as if they're aren't getting as much bang for their buck.

frankly, i think people are valid for being upset that they're expected to directly foot the bill for steven's "i fly all over the world + eat expensive food while you watch" project. while youtube has a shit ton of problems (like, say, not paying their creators enough), one of the cool things about it is that you can gauge directly the amount of the interest in a project (and how many resources you should dedicate to said project) by how many eyes are on it. unfortunately for him (i guess), steven's shows just don't garner enough attention to justify the expense of making them.

which is why i see this shift to watcher tv as such a problem. this feels very much like using shane + ryan's success on the channel to force fans to fuel steven's pursuit of his glory days on worth it. it feels even more strange when they say that they're making the switch because the company isn't currently sustainable, but steven has just hired his friends from buzzfeed + continues to push his series that just don't seem to be making back the cost of production.

to be totally fair, shane + ryan don't get out of this clean either. some of their shows don't deserve to be behind a paywall either. too many spirits is filmed in ryan's parent's backyard with content submitted by their viewers. are you scared is just ryan reading creepypastas/fan submitted content on a minimal set. survival mode is just them playing games like any other streamer or gaming youtuber does. i love all of these shows, but are they on par with puppet history or ghost files? absolutely not.

this is where i think the disconnect is coming from. they're taking everything including the lower production shows to a streaming service where you have to fund them directly (rather than indirectly through ad revenue). they're forcing funding into steven's projects despite them just not doing well enough to justify the cost. they're coming across as disingenuous with their reasoning because their stated reasons for doing this don't align with their actions rn.

i feel like it would've made so much more sense to crowdfund new seasons of shows (which gives them feedback from the fans about what they want too) or put higher cost shows like ghost files or puppet history on patreon or channel membership. i would gladly fund mystery files, weird wonderful world, ghost files, puppet history, etc. with my own money, but i'm one of the ones who isn't really interested in funding steven's quest to eat all of the gold-plated kobe beef when i'll never be able to afford to eat at a restaurant that even serves it.

[transmechanicus]

Really fucked up that two ppl can care about each other and make their best efforts to communicate and still end up hurting each other so badly they cannot stand to be in the same room.

[cdroloisms]

for me the 'he didn't think it would be that bad' really means 'he thought he could handle it better'

yeah yeah yeah this is an aspect of it for sure! and it's also like. the difference we're looking at isn't "c!dream thought he was going to be fed well but actually he was starved," it was "c!dream thought he was going to be fed raw potatoes but actually he was starved and very likely drugged based on that one mcc roleplay" ETC you know what i mean like ???? the bar was six feet under the ground but c!Sam made an industrial drill type beat.

[sweetnsour-stuff]

"The Mimic dropped the elevator and tricked Cassie!" "Gregory dropped the elevator and betrayed Cassie!" Yeah sure ok and what if it was neither? The elevator just dropped on its own.

Maybe it was Gregory in the elevator but he wasn't done talking- "But we can't risk being followed. I'm sorry. You're just going to have to stay there until we can get down and deal with this. I'll make it as quick as possible, promise" Planning to leave her stuck in the elevator or whatever but the elevator just chose the literal worst possible timing to give up and collapse because it's a piece of garbage that hasn't moved in a decade. The real antagonist of this game: The Elevator

This is mostly a joke btw but dumber shit has happened in this franchise lmao

[shellem15]

Was scrolling through the Ludinus tag because I enjoy seeing critters drag his bony ass, and suddenly had some thoughts about ludi and the gods. Keeping the narrative roles of gods and myths in mind, I want to talk about the gods' role in Exandria on a metatextual level, and how it ties into why Ludinus is a big stupid idiot (to put it in simple terms).

So, some preface: in real life religion and mythologies, gods aren't real people (shocker, I know). But the things they represent are real; gods and myths are just ways of explaining real world phenomena. This is why their characterization can be really whack. Zeus, for example, is a dick because in real life, kings are dicks. Artemis is both a protecter of hunters and their killer because, in ancient greece, when you went out into the woods to hunt, either you came back alive or you didn't. You can't analyze the gods as real people because they're not people-- they're concepts. You always have to keep these narrative roles and the historical context in mind when reading these myths. You can't judge them by our modern morals and values, because for one these myths are from ancient times, and also because the characters in these myths aren't humans that follow human moral codes or ethics.

So, in Exandria, the gods are real. And from what we've seen so far, they exist in a weird sort of space. They are both people, and concepts; mortal-like but also not. When analyzing the gods as concepts and roles in a narrative, it's pretty clear that the gods act in ways that align with their domains. The Everlight is merciful because she represents the concept of redemption; Asmodeus is hateful and cruel because he represents tyranny and domination; the Wildmother is both nurturing and brutal because nature is both of these things. You can't remove their actions from their domains, it is an intrinsic part of themselves.

Additionally, the actions they take represent certain themes. The Changebringer defeated Asmodeus in the calamity because freedom is the only way to beat tyranny. Same with the Everlight and the Dawnfather being the ones to strike down the Crawling King (with help from the Moonweaver and the All-Father), because these two gods represent hope, which defeats despair and suffering (I know despair isn't technically Torog's domain but it fits with the rest of his character so I'm gonna throw it in there.) The Raven Queen's ascension is representative of the Age of Arcanum as a whole, of the dominance of wizards over the world. The actions of the gods cannot be separated from their domains, and they cannot be separated from the general narratives seen in Exandria.

These overarching narratives can also be seen in the actions of mortals, too. The Age of Arcanum fell because of hubris. Because mortals thought they could best the gods and the world itself and it backfired on them. It's those rich guys who tried to go to the Titanic and their submarine got imploded by the water pressure. If you fuck around, you're gonna eventually find out. You can't beat the world you live in.

This detail of besting the gods is one I want to focus on with Ludinus. His whole thing is killing the gods to get revenge and "free" Exandria. But how is killing the gods freeing Exandria? The gods are Exandria. Even if they can't physically manifest avatars, they're still a part of it. The gods, being concepts, are written into the fabric of Exandria itself; you can't separate them from the world because they are the world and the world is them.

This fact is why the complete banishment of the Betrayer Gods didn't work; they are a fundamental part of Exandria and how it functions. Their return was, narratively, inevitable, because you can't remove concepts like violence or tyranny or betrayal from the world; they are here to stay, whether you like them or not. That doesn't mean you can't minimize their impact, just that you can't remove them entirely.

This is also why the Matron's ritual did work. When she killed the god of death, she wasn't destroying the concept of death itself, just putting it under new management. The same with Vecna ascending and becoming the god of secrets-- he took over an already existing domain. No fundamental concepts were created or destroyed, it's just that the faces that represented them changed.

Ludinus, in his denial of the gods, is denying the world itself. Both the good and the bad parts of it. He thinks he can remove the gods but keep Exandria mostly intact, but that's not how that works. He's so caught up in his trauma and revenge that he misses the bigger picture. In forsaking the gods, he forsakes the world. In killing the gods, he would be killing Exandria as we know it. (And that's why he's a big dumb idiot).

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

Anyways

[in-asterism]

a psychic and a clairvoyant walk into a room

'does it hurt, knowing what you know?' one asks

the other laughs, and says nothing at all

[foxstens]

genuinely can't imagine how kevin even got through his first few months at psu

[kaseyskat]

hi guys so I relistened to the lark and sparrow scene at the dance three times and I am having some Thoughts re: motivation and love between the twins because like. I know. I know we all focus on sparrow telling normal he's not proud of him I know. but also I feel like we tend to gloss over some of the other moments in this scene: bits like, sparrow repeating I love you I love you I love you so much like a mantra: because I think it is a mantra? another example of sparrow self-iding as loving so hard it comes off almost forced?

and another thing: there's such a stark difference between the twins motivation and it's so in your face and yet I don't see it discussed much so I'm adding it here too: sparrow is familial. he tells normal he wants normal to rescue him explicitly because he wants to see him again. he only confesses his disapproval in normal because he thinks if they can meet in the middle, it'll boost their daddy magic: ie, sparrows willing to hurt normal a little to help him a lot later, which is definitely a parenting style he inherited from henry ahskfkkdlflg

but lark's motivation is alllll self-sacrificial. "don't come save us we can either handle ourselves or die for our sins and it'll be fine either way" he says. coupled with the reveal of lark sleeping with rebecca and the amount of times he tries to talk over sparrow when sparrow is actually the more helpful one really hammers in the concept of how lark views himself and his relationship with sparrow vs how sparrow sees it: lark tends to view sparrow as an extension of himself, and sparrow never corrects him (and probably made this worse in the process) while sparrow views lark as someone in his family who he will love and forgive even if he's not proud of him, and I just think that is such a neat thing to explore!

[macbcth]

love the implication that mori himself glued on chuuya's fangs

[villainanders]

i had so much fun with my evil durge playthrough but resist durge makes me sooooo crazy just thinking about it. what if the worst person in the world forgot everything that had made them who they were and started fighting with everything they had to be good

[ayda-agueforts]

one week out and personally I think it would’ve been more compelling if armand had directed the play AND saved louis bc it would give armand more agency and loumand more complexity and still wouldn’t change the fact that armand built the last 50 years of his and louis’ relationship on a lie but maybe that’s just me