#and DT said he identified with his character the most

[directdogman]

Super stoked for the Roger DLC and WILL be playing it on release, but something that’s been bugging me ever since the first few teasers was Peter, his personality feels quite different to me and my Peter obsessed friend, is there a reason for his personality change or was it completely unintentional?

He feels a lot more hot headed now, not completely the same as but similar to Steven, which feels like a complete 180 for Peter, I always remember enjoying him more in DSaF 2 because he was the more relaxed Phoney who when he had geniunely serious moments, it was incredibly impactful and gut wrenching when Peter would yell at me. 😔

Also, will Steven ever be real in dialtown please sir I miss my wif-

The comparison just always bothered me slightly.

Different universes. I should note that while Peter IS chiller in DSaF 2, if the restaurant goes under, the main consequence is that the company will get mortally wounded and he might die. The other employees will (for the most part) be fine. Peter cares. He cares if you hurt employees, he cares if you fuck up but is also willing to look the other way a few times if the fuckup isn't bad enough (without letting it slide, because he still cares what you do at work too.) I'd say his attitude at work namely stems from that, rather than the other way around. Steven does NOT care. He is literally willing to throw you under the bus to save himself and his sole goal is keeping the place open specifically so he can save his own hide, and his hot-headedness comes from that.

In DT, Peter is at the end of his rope and has had to deal with a LOT up until this point, arguably even more than his DSaF counterpart in terms of his day to day job, as shocking as that may sound. There's also WAY more on the line this time. He isn't the one that's going to face the worst of what'll happen if things continue at their current trajectory (unlike Peter or Steven in their original games.) He explains this pretty early into the DLC, which may explain why he's testier than you remember him, namely what's on the line. He's trying his damndest to fix it but is failing. He's stuck between a rock and a hard place with Roger, recognizing his bad leadership is sinking the plant but caring too much about the guy to effectively deal with it until this point.

His guard is up because it has to be, but he does have a few nice moments where it's clear how much he cares and if you listen to Roger's dialogue carefully, you'll see just how much Peter has put up with that would've made any sane person walk away. He's also noticeably nicer to Gingi if you don't waste his time and seem to actually care about Roger, and he acts closer to how he does in the DSaF 2 screenshot you showed off, though perhaps with slightly less energy (since he is, like I said, at the end of his rope.) There's even a scene in the evil route where you can identify this and use it against him in a pretty sinister way.

To mention another thing that even Gingi sees as far back as his original scene in DT: He's a natural manager who's playing second-fiddle to someone who clearly doesn't know what he's doing.

I didn't just wanna do more of the same, so I played with the dynamics a lil. Peter is in a very different role here, one that he's not exactly suited to. He's out of his element. He's inundated with work and in this scene, is thinking about the lives of the employees who are going to be laid-off in a week or so time if things don't change FAST, and while this is happening, his boss is bantering with a weird cryptid on the street and talking about random garbage.

There are times in DSaF 2, like you said, where you do see him get like this. It's not as much that his character is different in my eyes, but that the context is. This is a version of Peter who is one bad day away from having to make a difficult decision. Literally. I'll gladly talk more about it when the DLC's out (namely I could compare + contrast certain decisions he makes!) For now, I don't wanna spoil anything that isn't explicitly stated in the first major scene he has.

[tea-and-conspiracy]

One Ishgardian's Unsolicited Take on DT

...Which is a bit of a misleading title, I realize, because I did DT on Laelia first (cowboys and cyberpunk, I had to) and I'm only now doing it on Eliane, but this is my main XIV account here on tumblr, so whatever.

Spoilers and Opinions below the cut, obviously! If you aren't prepared for either, please don't read. :)

I guess I'll begin with the good.

Tural

I really liked the first half of this xpac. I enjoyed how casual and low-key it was, I loved how it was about engaging with people and getting to know them rather than racing to save the damn world again. By now they've established narratively that the WoL really needs a break and I'm glad they got to get it for a bit.

To this extent, the first half of the xpac felt like ARR in a good way. You were back to being a nobody (why would anyone in Tural know or care who you are?), so the most that was ever asked of you were random, easy tasks. You got to adventure. There was worldbuilding aplenty. Every once in a while you punted a threat that got too big for its britches. That's what ARR was too.

It's hilarious to me that the WoL was there to basically be advisor to Wuk Lamat, because our cute little fragment of that goblin Azem is simultaneously the best and WORST qualified for the position. And I also loved how we would just be pointed at whenever somebody went, "Or else what?" Or else her, obviously.

Tural is breathtaking and might be the team's best round of environmental design yet. I find Urqopacha especially striking, but as a whole it was so refreshing to be back in colorful and vibrant environments again. This includes the dungeons, especially the earlier dungeons.

The Characters

Wuk Lamat started to exhaust me and I still love her. She's sweet, she's genuine, and she's a nice departure from...well more or less every other character in this game. I have a weak spot for shonen protagonists and that's basically what she is. Hell yes, Power of Friendship.

It was hard not to be on Team Koana after the rescue scene. Boy is that cat hot when he's mad. His VA really nailed the subtleties of "guy-who-is-super-intelligent-and-thus-can't-People-as-a-result", and while I can't claim to be particularly bright, I identified with his awkwardness. :P

Otis. Nuff said.

I, uh. I'm definitely confused about the Bakool Ja Ja love but I think I get it. :P Internet Things <tm> aside, I do love a good heel-face turn, although the execution of his turn was, uh. Hm.

I guess it's time for the bad.

The Scions

Didn't need to be there. They didn't add a single thing to the story and were clearly shoehorned in for marketing purposes. A case can be made for Krile obviously, but outside of her, only G'raha made sense because of his specific experience and expertise.

"What about trusts?" A lot of early trust dungeons use random NPCs. We're out here to engage with other cultures, why can't I have a Hanu healer or a Yok Huy DPS? That makes more sense to me than forcing Alisaie to heal.

Mad we didn't get to duel Urianger and Thancred though. >:(

Erenville was done completely dirty and didn't catch a break this entire expansion. Thanks for coming with us as a guide, buddy! One of your childhood friends turned evil, your village is now destroyed, and your mom is dead! That's it, that's all you get. :)

The Story

Like I said. The first half of this story was nice. I really wish the rest of the xpac had stayed that way.

The problems began around about the time I hit Yak T'el. Unfortunately, there's some content there that started hitting a little too close to home for me, and yeah, it hurt me a lot. I don't think the devs realized what they were engaging with, which is kind of par for the course for this particular subject matter. :/

That aside, I agree with others that the Mamool Ja's story is a bit of a stretch in general. Part of the reason the Yok Huy and the Mamool Ja exist -- at least to my understanding -- is so that the game can explore what fundamentalist cultures look like without them being linked to any one culture in the real world, and I think that's a good thing. But the writers seemed to lose either their nerve or direction with the people of Mamook, and it undermined Bakool Ja Ja's character progression as a result.

We didn't spend much time in Shaaloani, and I had a feeling we wouldn't, even if I was hoping for more good ol' fashioned spaghetti western tropes. But more importantly...where tf are the Whaalaquee (sp?)? Erenville even mentions them but they're not physically present? Wasn't the whole conflict there due to ceruleum being dug on their sacred lands?

But anyway, let's just get to the elephant in the room: the latter half of the story. Why. Why did we have to do any of this? I don't understand Zarool Ja or anything about him. He had a loving family, he had everything, and instead turned into Varis 2.0 because he felt...inadequate? How do you go from, "Man, I'll never measure up to my dad" to, "I need to fucking take over the world?" Shit, even Varis was at least a little sympathetic in that he was hoping to free his people from Emet-Selch. I never bought into Zarool Ja and found him a really shallow and boring antagonist.

ALSO WHO DID HE FUCK? I'M AMAZED HE WOULD EVEN TAKE THE TIME TO FUCK. WHAT OTHER MAMOOL JA WAS EVEN UP THERE? FHEJAKRFGHJKE

This might be a weird take, but I'm tired of the leadup to the endgame zone being the people you previously helped out coming together to get you to a place you cannot reach. That was *incredibly* moving in Shadowbringers, because you spent the entire game getting to know these people personally. And a callback to it in Endwalker worked because this was the culmination of your adventures on Hydaelyn. But we had to do it with the train again and it just felt...lacking. Like, "here's the obligatory cooperation scene!" We don't have to keep rewriting Shadowbringers, guys. Also, these scenes work better when it involves individual characters; since Dawntrail was more about getting to know the cultures instead (and that's ok!), it unfortunately lacks a bit of that more personal connection.

We didn't need Alexandria. I am so. Tired. Of the end game zones being megatech. It was a fun and wild shift ONCE in Heavensward, but you can't keep doing that on repeat, especially when you keep amping up the technological advancement. What made Alexandria/Solution 9 worse is that there's way too many hints of real life in there. You know, government employment offices and recycling bins and advertisements and stuff. I play this game to get away from real life, not be reminded of it. And yeah, Garlemald had cars and stuff, but it at least felt justified because the Garleans can't use magic. They are a mundane people, so of course they'd be more like us. Solution 9 feels like it belongs in another game.

I found Sphene exhausting, not sympathetic. We've already done this before with Emet-Selch and then again with Golbez, and she didn't have a fragment of the depth of the former. I personally dislike the trope of "the leader so universally beloved that they're practically worshiped". I can never buy into it and it always creeps me out.

While I love Vrtra and the first brood, I was mega bummed that getting outside help was the solution to protecting Tuliyollal. Like, Koana's been hyped up as a brilliant engineer this whole time, I was fully expecting him to engineer a defense for the city. I guess time was a consideration but there's some kinda eeeehhhh implications in the Turali being unable to defend themselves, and it's a little cheap imo that the solution was apparently Draco Ex Machina.

But what made Alexandria most exhausting of all is that we literally just finished this storyline, almost beat for beat, in the 6.X patches.Right down to having a flashback dungeon set in a medieval kingdom in the middle of the calamitous war that destroyed it, like what the actual hell. Do we really have to keep doing a narrated dungeon at the end of every xpac, btw? It worked for Amaurot. It was already a bit much with Meteion. But we're just rewriting Shadowbringers again forever, I guess.

I didn't like the end zone at all for the same reasons: another reconstruction of a long-dead place and long-dead people for the third expac in a row. Please stop. I loved Shadowbringers but for the love of god please move on from it. By the end I was just rushing things along because I was just so tired of it all. It's lost its emotional impact by now.

Which is all a very long way of saying that I wish we didn't have to save the world again, I guess. We were supposed to be done with that but either the devs (or more likely the execs) didn't trust that we'd remain engaged if the stakes stayed low. I wish they would trust us like they used to.

ARR wasn't about the end of the world. Heavensward wasn't about the end of the world. Stormblood wasn't about the end of the world. We already know they can do it. We already know people enjoy it. It's safe to relax and take your time building back up, dammit. It was kind of disappointing.

In Conclusion

Despite all my whinging, I actually enjoyed the xpac a fair amount. I'm not hooked, but I didn't hate it. There's a lot of good, and a lot of endearing things too. But ShB was clearly too successful, and I'm wondering now if we'll ever get away from it. The new writing team is proving very hit and miss and I really do miss Ishikawa.

We'll see where things go from here. :think:

[hardheadedbighearted]

Since Hayley is dying of no-Covid juice and I don't have any other watermelons stuffed with hamburger meat to chase around my enclosure for enrichment right now, I thought it might be a good chance to talk about some of my characters' relationships with gender.

(eta: Apparently it's non-binary people's day so I'm going to pretend that's why)

So, it doesn't get many opportunities to come up, but while most of my characters use the pronouns given to them by canon, that doesn't mean all of them are binary; it just means they all have binary pronouns (for various reasons, which I'll get into in a second). Along with "not really coming up much", another reason is that the characters themselves aren't really there yet, or because even I don't know what their gender will do once they actually get there.

Anyway, all that said, here are some of the characters that I know are non-binary, or who otherwise lack what we would think of as a traditional relationship with gender (which I'll explain in a minute).

-Neopolitan {Redacted}: Neo is the most obvious example, and the only one I've been able to have come up on screen that wasn't an oc. Neo's gender is "all", and "all your gender are belong to us", and "this gender is mine", and "gender: yes". When it comes to pronouns, her stance is not so much "I use all pronouns" as "all pronouns are equally correct". Most people default (herself included) to she just because she is to all appearances a woman, but if someone were to break out a he or a they or a xe or a hir or etc, she's not going to care or likely even notice unless a big deal is made.

However, Neo does at times take on personas in order to do her job, and her personas will sometimes have very different stances on their genders. Gideon, for example, uses exclusively they; if memory serves, the sphynx cat from the raid was a he, and the black cat with the green eyes that is underneath Neo's many illusions is exclusively a she. (There's a reason for this, but she informs me it's none of your business.)

(In before, the black cat with the green eyes is not Neo's "true" identity; insofar as she thinks of any of her personas as the "true" self, that would be Neo, the black cat with the green eyes is just her natural form. This is why the black cat with the green eyes doesn't have a name and is usually referred to using the name of the strawberry calico. The reasons for this are, again, none of your business.)

-Yang Xiao Long and Weiss Schneebird: I'm listing both of these together because they're both in the camp of "haven't gotten there yet" with a healthy dose of "I don't know what they'll do when they do get there". I know that I, personally, don't see either Yang or Weiss as binary girls, nor do I feel the urge to rub my trans man fingers all over them (that's for Ruby... maybe. we'll see). I think Yang will likely end up somewhere on the Butch side of the Butch/Trans cusp; I've been reading a lot of blogs from trans men and transmasc individuals recently and them talking about their experience, and I feel like Yang will probably settle in somewhere in that arena. Weiss, on the other hand... look, okay. Honesty time: years ago during an event I won't talk about, I threw out "nonbinary Weiss" as a counterexample to a point I shouldn't have even had to make, and that single, throwaway suggestion has lived in my brain rent-free for years. Now that I have finally moved past the part of me that is still bitter about what happened (okay.. I'm still bitter, but not as much as before), I feel safe to explore that without the negative associations. Also, I saw an edit last year of Weiss with short hair, and it unlocked something in my brain. I think Weiss will end up somewhere unadjacent to binary (contrary to Yang moving along the feminine to masculine line), with an attachment to certain specific identity labels as removed from the context of a binary identity. Also given how long this turned out probably I shouldn't have made them the same bullet point. (Side note, this early gender questioning is why Yang took care to ask Neo's pronouns.)

-Qrow and Raven: Okay, so this one is the one I meant when I alluded to "non-traditional relationships with gender". While both twins do exist on what we would think of as a binary axis (while not identifying either as binary or nonbinary man/woman, respectively), they didn't get there in the traditional "assigned at birth" or "transition" way.

See, here's the thing about ravens: they don't have much sexual dimorphism to speak of. Males are typically larger than females, but with such a broad overlap that even size isn't that reliable. From this, I headcanon that in DT society, ravens (and other birds that have matching genitals and no dimorphism) don't really have a concept of "assigned at birth gender". You find out what sex you are once puberty hits, and gender is something that ravens just explore, sometimes settling very quickly into one thing and sometimes trying on lots, sometimes moving fluidly throughout their entire life.

When it comes to their actual sex, we know that Raven is female. Qrow... I genuinely don't know. I know based on certain things coming down the pipeline it's a high probability that he's also female, but those are just loosely based on my assumptions about how those loose ideas will play out, and are irrelevant and unlikely to come up anyway.

As far as their relationship with genders go, Qrow settled into male sometime during childhood, while Raven tried on genders for awhile before deciding sometime in her twenties that female was "close enough". However, for both of them gender is about how they're perceived externally, and doesn't mean much as far as their internal relationship with gender goes (which is basically nonexistent).

Will also say that there was a time when Raven was absolutely prepared to try on male for awhile to see if it would get James into bed with her, but that was more out of horniness than anything else. When it's been awhile and your best friend is hot, just got fitted with a metal dick he should probably take for a test run, and is pining for your identical twin, a girl will consider anything. Apparently.

Note regarding Yang re: raven genders, Yang is half-tanager and appeared more tanager than raven until adolescence, so Raven kind of got vetoed by Tai and Summer (not in a deliberate way, just sort of happened like that). However, both Yang and Ruby were raised to think of their assigned gender as a "default setting" that they could change at any point they so chose.

-Reese Chloris: This one will come up as soon as I get the opening for it; Reese is a transmasculine woman, and is in fact early into hrt (this is why I took care to specify her as a peahen when she first turned up). She is also a straight transmasculine woman, something that she's only recently come to accept about herself, because of course a woman who wants to look like a man to the point of taking hormones to make that happen has to be sapphic, right? Reese is still on a journey when it comes to her gender and identity; the three things she knows for sure positive are: 1, wants to kiss boys, 2, doesn't want to be boys, 3, wants to be mistaken for boys.

-Emerald Sustrai: Listen, Mercury's comment that "Emerald's not a girl, she's Emerald" is easy to dismiss as Mercury not thinking of his partner as a potential romantic pursuit until you remember that Mercury and Emerald share a dreamscape and a mental connection and that Mercury is trans, and you start to wonder if maybe he just knows something we don't.

Anyway, Emerald's not a girl, she's Emerald. What that will mean for her... well, that's actually one of the ones that I already know, but Emerald hasn't gotten there yet. Give her time. :)

-Lie Ren: He's never actually onscreen, but I always sort of envision Ren as menderfluid- never a woman, not always a man. He's also aro-ace, but that's unrelated. I just wanted to put that out there. ("But Theo! What about Renora?!" What about Renora?)

-Neon Katt: Nonbinary woman. There's not much to say about this one; Neon just considers the box of "cis woman" to be too stifling for her taste. Strictly speaking she's a she/they and even has a pin advertising this, but it's never come up outright.

-Roman Torchwick and Robyn Hill: Binary man and woman, just not in the traditional way. Not gonna elaborate, they just belong on the list. Don't worry about it.

[dontletthishappentoyou]

Shows Bonding - I had mild concerns in the first season that were absolutely addressed in the second. Overall, this was what I was looking for. I realized that I’ve been mostly doing cartoons for the past couple years, and it was nice to have some live action stuff that pulled off what it was going for with its characters as well as this one. 

Community - Going into this one not knowing if it’ll have the things I like or the things I dislike about Dan Harmon. Turns out it has both, but right now I’m mostly enjoying it for the same kinds of reasons people enjoy Friends or all those other shows that let lonely people vicariously feel that they have friends, or a community.  Ratched - What the heck was this? Somebody read and watched One Flew Over the Kuckoos Nest and thought “Nurse Ratched needs a spin-off seiries.” And then they actually clearly put a ton of effort into it? It kinda worked. I kind of wish I had known what to expect a little bit. Basically, what you should expect is kind of out there historical fiction that addresses things like coming to terms with your sexuality in the age of inhumane conversion therapy, mistreatment of the mentally ill, and also petty drama with the coersion and manipulation you might expect from a spy movie and a sitcom at the same time. It works if you’re ready for that.  Russian Doll - Bingeable. I wouldn’t watch a second season, but enjoyed it for what it was. I’ve been super into digging into characters lately, and this hit that spot. I found it by just searching for ‘sadcoms’ and this was exactly what I’d hope for.  After Life - Ricky Gervais. Very very Ricky Gervais. To the extent that the whole time I was kind of cringing hoping, but not confident, that some of his character’s flaws would be addressed by the end of the series. Most of them were, which I guess is fine. It kind of felt like watching someone figure out how to do something you consider simple. The character arc was a mediocre version of some stuff addressed in Bojack. If you really need more Bojack and can’t find anything good, go for it with this, but meh.  She-Ra - Here’s the winner for things I’ve watched this past year. The plot does get convoluted, but I might do an actual video essay about its portrayal of a psudo-leftist utopia, although the political issues it addresses are very limited, since it obviously doesn’t really get into economics or anything like that. But heteronormativiy is out the window, body types are what they are and are portrayed as unquestionably lovable, acceptance is the default, while still refusing to tolerate intolerance and imperialism. It’s interesting to pair it with a series like Ratchet that addresses homophobia directly, but I don’t think it’s failure to recognize the challenges that these people have in the real world is a downside at all. It just exists to show what things would be like without any of that. The antagonist team is generally portrayed as imperialist, stuff you’d safely call evil, while still humanizing its individual members, often delving deep into the manipulation that led them to become a part of the Horde. Which of course gets back to character. Zuko tier stuff here. Not just with the obvious one. At first I kind of disliked the main characters arc, but watched a bunch of videos about it and actually kind of figured out that some of it is largely related to my own personal failures as a person in some of my ineffective attempts to avoid negative attributes. Anyway, there’s nothing I’ve watched that I’d recommend more highly than this in a long time.  Movies The Irishman - I didn’t finish this one. It had a pretentious feeling to it that made me feel like I should take the intellectual respnosibility for enjoying it myself or else risk admitting a failure of sophistocation. But it is way to telly over showy and I felt comfortable just not participating in that after the first hour went by without anything I’d clearly identify as the inciting incident.  Marriage Story - Watched this with Ivy on Valentines day. Wouldn’t recommend it in that context, but once again, dug into character. Made me freak out about custody, but I’m assuming it won’t have that effect on most people. People said the acting was good, and I completely see what they mean. If I hadn’t been occasionally paying attention and having that in mind, I’m not sure I would have noticed, but that did make it extremely engaging.  Room - I really enjoyed the structure of this one. It felt like halfway through it could have been the end and we would have successfully surpassed a hero’s journey or whatever, but that would have ignored the emotional consequences of the kind of issues that the story addressed, so it kept going, introduced a whole new set of characters an hour in, and I don’t think there would have been any other way it would have worked for me. Definitely something I’d recommend.  Music  Red Velvet - I’ve been listening to this alongside BTS and Black Pink in my dive into K-Pop. With prog and indie, you get CDs, download stuff, listen one way or another, you get your friends to listen to it, then you go to concerts to get closer to the music, witness the viruosity in the case of prog, or connect more humanly with indie. With ska and electronica, you have friends who vaguely like the genre, you go to concerts because they’ll be crazy and fun. But I’ve been kind of exploring how different musics interact with culture over the last few years. Classical, traditional Celtic, folk, and now K-Pop.  Y’all have seen the culture around K-Pop. People get deep into it in a different way. I can recognize Petrucci’s solo style, with the rapid picking in the middle register fast stuff, I know Mike Portnoy used a double pedal on a single bass drum in LTE but not DT, I’ve heard people talk about the different distortion pedals Steven Wilson uses, but when people get into Kpop, they know what year RM had different hair colors, what kind of family he comes from, they might have memorized a couple interviews with him, and it’s just taken a bit farther than boy band fandom was taken even in the 90s.  I definitely used to see all that as extremely shallow, believing that music should be about the music, but I don’t feel so fundamentalist with my approach to how music ‘should’ interact with culture these days, so I’m seeing if I can get into it. Of course I’m failing a little bit. I mention Red Velvet specifically here because that’s the band who’s music I’ve gotten into most. I just listen to it in the background. I don’t know the names. I’ve been trying with BTS a little bit, but it’s tough when I don’t emotionally connect with the band. I’m trying to see if Red Velvet’s breaking of that barrier with their mildly complex harmony, occasional counterpoint, and diverse instrumentation and style can kind of be a gateway into that culture and I can stop listen to BTS thinking “they have seven dudes, why don’t they utilize their potential for awesome vocal harmonies?" and start listening to it on its own merits.  100 gecs - Nice. It has a playful tone to it. I can imagine doing similar things if instead of having Garage Band, I had been given and taught to use some more intricate production software. Often it sounds like they do the kinds of things people do when they discover new instruments and want to try it out and push it to its limits with no hesitation that people trained might have with more critical ears, but then it’s refined a bit and comes across as authentic and energetic with just a bit of the punk spirit to it, but adjusted to the modern zeitgeist.  Other than that, music consumption hasn’t been as prominent in my life as it has and I’d like to get more of that going. I’ve been introducing kids to a variety of things, but that kind of gets me listening to stuff all over the place that I’m already very familiar with and have set associations with. 

[doctorwhos]

Hello! I just read your post on the thing around Crowley’s nose (i’m jewish) and I have to thank you because I always felt uncomfortable about it but never had the words to explain why Anyways, you said something in the post about the decision to cast DT as crowley and I was curious about your thoughts on that?

thank you for the kind words love !! i made the post because i was feeling uncomfortable and unsettled by how some people were drawing crowley, but it took me a while to finally figure out why ! when i did, i had decided to write the post ! i’ve been putting off answering this question for a while, since ive also had other people send me asks with the same thing. but ive finally decided to do so (for a second time, bc i lost my original answer from a power flicker at home).

i probably could have worded what i said better in my post, but i didnt, so now its time for me to explain what i meant by saying that david tennants casting decision was antisemitic. im going to preface this by saying i dont think the casting director OR gaiman came into the decision for antisemitic reasons, nor do i think david was cast ‘just because of his nose,’ as some people have been claiming i said. i just think it was an unfortunate side effect to the decision. gaiman said that david was picked bc of his unique silhouette for the church scene, but that doesnt change the impact it has. im also going to touch a bit on his character design in the show, because this is my post and i can do what i want. 

gaiman said that crowley was based off of him (though this might just be tumblr lip service, since i cant seem to find any source saying this, so feel free to correct me if im wrong). so, my initial thought would be that gaiman wouldve and shouldve cast a jewish actor for the role. he was raised jewish, and is jewish, even if he doesnt actively identify with the faith, and if crowley is based off of him, why wouldnt he pick a jewish actor to play him? we all know he didn’t, because he picked david. david isnt jewish in any capacity, just really really scottish. but, he looks like he could be jewish. im pretty sure i have an uncle that looks uncannily similar to david, and im 100 percent jewish, which isnt much, but is something i just think is funny.

if i remember correctly, gaiman has also claimed that he wrote crowley in response to an antisemitic scene he observed in a play. two defining explanations for who crowley was as a character before he had ANY kind of character traits were that he was based off of gaiman, and he was written as a response to antisemitism. this screams pretty jewish to me, but again, a goyish man was cast to play crowley.

why would it be antisemitic for this to be the casting decision for our resident snake man? im glad you asked, my fellow jew in arms, cause i have many things to say and no word limit.

we were all first introduced to david in mainstream media from doctor who, where he had a very different look compared to crowley. now, both the tenth doctor and crowley are very different characters, but there is something they both have in common. theres a persona that is settled deep within both of them that they dont like anyone to see, sans a single person (rose and aziraphale respectively). the time lord victorious versus the nice demon, obviously there are other similarities, and david has played characters that aesthetically are much more similar to crowley than the doctor was. there was that one movie about lesbians where he played that goth hipster dude, among others. but, fanart for david for these two characters are so drastically different its sometimes shocking to remember that they are played by the same actor.

david reminds me of my uncle who loves to wear the locust mask at a passover sedar because he thinks its the funniest one. david has the same nose as my grandfather. crowley uses yiddish in teh show. has was cast out of heaven for questioning G-d and the infallible plan, which are two very jew-y reasons to be kicked out of heaven. hes the serpent of eden, which is supposed to be the first real icon of evil -- as well as something a lot of christians will attribute to judaism. 

crowley is almost undeniably jewish, but he is also littered with antisemitic features. as i said in my original post, a lot of the features that really define crowley, when combined, points towardsA a very antisemitic caricature. crowley in the book is described as having dark hair, which most fans interpreted as red. gaiman and the costume designer decided on red hair for crowley, as well as making it curly when its long. both of these decisions are deliberate alterations from the book description. one could argue that gaiman would have the best idea of what crowley looks like because he and prachett wrote the book together, but they also purposefully left the descriptions to a bare minimum. 

it was the combination of (antisemitic) character design decisions with david tennants jew-passing goyishe look, that i feel the casting decision was unintentionally antisemitic. no one intended for it to be that way, but to have a non-jew play a character that is so visibly interpreted to be jewish, its insulting. especially when you add multiple layers of antisemitic character design on top of it. 

id be glad to further elaborate, but i feel like this post has gotten long enough, and is a little obnoxious. everyone is free to reblog this post, as well as my original one, goyim especially. if youre not jewish, do not make a negative comment. come talk to me, and we can see why you refuse to acknowledge antisemitism. 

[elena-captain-moving]

💀 ~ Either Imperial Iden or Rebel Iden is cool, take your pick.

Send me 💀for a drabble of my muse killing yours.

@commanderversio​

“Captain.” was the simple greeting from Commander Versio. The atmosphere was nothing but professional, exactly as it should be. With a crisp salute which was quickly returned, and a quick gesture to the seat at the desk, the pair sit down in Justicia’s Readyroom

“I apologise for not greeting you when you came onboard, Commander, but things have been quite busy. I’ll make this brief. Your team is required to hit an organisation of pirates that have heavy links to the Rebellion. They all but openly support them, and are targeting Imperial Military convoys with ruthless efficiency - this has to stop. These people are smart, they’ve eluded us so far and I do not have a habit of letting my targets slip away. We think they’ve been trained by Commander DT-4261. Until recently, she was an instructor in the Death Trooper programme. If she is with them, she must be taken out as well, otherwise we’ll have this exact problem on our hands in a matter of weeks, if not sooner.”

Iden took this all in carefully, studying each little bit. A traitorous Death Trooper? Well, that was cause for concern indeed. “Do you have their locations?” The Commander asked, raising a slight brow.

“We do and will guide you to them. The Justicia will play escort and fire support as is needed. We can depart immediately, and be at the first coordinates within four hours. At most, this entire Operation shouldn’t take more than 48. And of course, a copy of the mission brief will be given.”

“We’ll get started immediately, Captain.” With that, the very brief briefing was concluded, just how Captain Tarunt preferred it. She wasn’t lying when she had said things had been busy. As they both left the Ready Room, Iden spared a glance to the bridge, noticing a distinct lack of a 6′4 Officer, carefully pacing up and down the hallway of the Bridge. A sight she had grown used to on the Justicia. “Captain, forgive my curiosity but is your XO still present?” Neither of them had expected the question, and Iden had failed to hold her curiosity when she had noticed it.

“No.” Was Elena’s initial answer. Brief and to the point as she looked to the Bridge. “Commander Alquesta was Killed In Action defending this vessel.” Not a lie at all, and the sadness Elena felt from it was all too real.

“Ah. My condolences.”

The next four hours proceeded with nothing of note. Inferno Squad prepared themselves and so did Captain Tarunt and her ship. Things were tense as this group had eluded them for so long. But no longer.

When they arrived, the battle was swift and bloody. The Victory Class hit like a hammer, its ion cannons disabling most defences. Inferno Squad went in like a scalpel, ripping out the heart of the operation. It wasn’t long before the operation was well and truly underway.

The next one went without a hitch, and the next. And the next. Soon, just 36 hours later, and the last installation fell. Among the bodies, DT-4261 was identified. Strange, Commander Versio thought. It wasn’t much of a fight from her. Whilst Captain Tarunt was right, they were well trained, something had just seemed a little off with them. Like they weren’t expecting the Imperials to be knocking on their doors.

However, like good Soldiers, they returned to the Justicia and reported their success. Captain Tarunt met them at the hangar bay to debrief them.

“You have done great work, Commander. All of you, in fact. Have done a great service. Soon we can start reparations on the damage this group has caused. Your next orders, are to regroup with Admiral Versio. He has, apparently, something special planned and wishes Inferno Squad to be at its head.” And then it hit her. Like a hammer. The cost of letting your guard down for one second, in a place you thought was home. The Stormtroopers patrolling the hangar bay catwalks, up and down the hangar itself. The deckhands working away. Even Captain herself, now had blasters in hand. There was no explanation, there was no warning, no go signal that they knew of. Just the firing of blasters. Only one shot was fired back. Hask, reacting just quick enough to bring his blaster to bear before firing. Unfortunately for him he was hit right before he managed to squeeze the trigger, causing the shot to go wide.

“Right. Inform General Madine that Inferno Squad have been dealt with.” Elena ordered with just a sigh in reaction at the butchering that just occured.

“With this character’s death, the thread of prophecy is severed. Restore a saved game to restore the weave of fate, or persist in the doomed world you have created.”

[lauraxxtennant]

I think DT's mindset might be the other way around. Especially having grown up with a minister for a father and being a notorious nice person that's anxious about never being nice enough, he's trying to find the light in bad people. He's trying to find the redeemable and relatable qualities in people that do shitty things and how they justify them to themselves.

Well, not really, because when dt defends his characters he always without fail brings up how ~~everybody’s flawed, so he clearly justifies things through a prism of ‘everybody’s bad in some way.’

But yes of course he does what you say too, tries to find the light in bad people, but tbh I don’t think that’s necessarily as noble a pursuit as people make out, and it certainly isn’t difficult to pick out those positive attributes, anyway. I’m not naive or an idiot. Obviously people who do bad things in one respect are also capable of doing good in others. 

Someone might be cruel to their own family while deeply compassionate towards strangers (RD Laing.) Someone could be a jealous, power-hungry politician who violently assaults his wife, but also a loving dad and someone who rebuffs the advances of another woman because he’s married (Aiden Hoynes.) Someone can be an abusive psychopath, but having experienced a tragic childhood, the roots of such amoral behaviour can be identified (Kilgrave.) Someone can be a loving husband and dad, and yet cheat on his wife the minute his first gf reappears in his life (Nick from True Love.) 

I’m not saying that people aren’t complicated and multi-faceted. What I object to is dt equating these flaws like for like, usually by talking about how everybody is ~~morally grey, and him professing to root for these characters. I refuse to be made to feel like I should sympathise with these dudes he plays who do terrible things, just because a) something bad happened to them too (bad things happen to people all the time, and most people don’t let it turn them into abusive arses in return!!) and b) david tennant happens to think they’re redeemable. 

There is zero need for me to like or sympathise with RD Laing as a person in order to enjoy the film, or find his work fascinating, or find his way with his patients caring and empathetic. I can hold all of that in my head quite easily at the same time: the idea that he was a compelling man who had out-there ideas which in some cases hugely benefitted his patients, but who was also a massive dick who hit his gf and walked out on his family. There’s no need for me or david tennant or anyone to talk about this man as though the latter aspects of his personality/life are outweighed by the positive contributions he made and therefore invalidated. Nahhh. He was a dick! 

In an effort to sit on the fence all the time, dt usually ends up tipping back over into justifying the bad stuff by pointing out ~we’re all terrible humans anyway~. It’s not actually all that hard to find the good stuff, the light side, of bad people. It really isn’t. That’s why dt ends up making sweeping statements about the human condition, as though everyone’s actually dark and sinister at some level, even if just inside their own head. Which is in fact incredibly cynical! He does this constantly, even with Kilgrave, when he was like ‘wouldn’t you do what he does if you had his power?’ No?!??!!? 

I’m not saying myself and everyone I know are all pure and innocent and never makes mistakes or upset anyone or say mean things occasionally or think mean thoughts;  but to act like everyone is only at the mercy of society’s expectations, a breath away from giving into amoral behaviour...that’s deeply disturbing to me, and the way that is met with such resistance whenever I mention it makes me wonder wtf is going on inside most people’s heads. 

Look. He’s played other characters who are also deeply flawed, who do bad things, or morally questionable things, but who are also redeemable or even good. The Doctor is the most conspicuous example. Then there’s Will Burton, who is, you know, a murderer - but I absolutely root for him in The Escape Artist, and the reasons why are obvious and heart-breaking so I won’t delve into them. Dave in Single Father has my sympathy because while it’s kinda grim that he falls for his dead wife’s best friend within six weeks of said wife’s death, you can clearly see that he’s a decent bloke in extraordinary, deeply tragic circumstances, and besides, the too-soon nature of his new r/ship is recognised within the drama itself and they break it off for a bit to concentrate on, like, grieving and bringing up several children, til they’re in a better place. Alec Hardy is a grumpy sod who can be abrasive and rude and mostly doesn’t seem to care about being those things; he’s also one of the most compassionate, compelling, and generally decent male characters on television, particularly within the detective-drama persuasion, which is otherwise full to the brim with cold, angsty, philandering men. These four characters are no less fascinating or complex for their mostly-good/decent nature. It is easy to see why one would and could justify their actions. 

By this I’m not saying he should only play good-at-heart dudes (although it would be nice if he could play a few more of them, given his repertoire is heavily skewed in the other direction), I just happen to roll my eyes at the idea he has to insist every character he plays is, in fact, no worse morally-speaking than anyone else. When, in fact, they are. And I find it exhausting that this opinion seems to be so controversial on here, just because we happen to all be huge tennant fans.

[shadykingdomyouth-blog]

5 Things To Chuck When Turning 40

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Unlike the iPhone, the amount of committed pc gaming controllers for Android phones is actually a bit more bland, as there aren't as a lot of for details phone designs ... and the video games that sustain them could be differed too. Most new game consoles harbour hidden expenses in some kind, however Switch over's modular nature means there are a hoard from additions and peripherals you could want to take into consideration. That was pretty depressing sometimes, but I ensure you would know that just by reviewing the review. What you must understand: Ami professional Alexandre Mattiussi has brought in a fashion trend career out of turning that stylish French je ne sais quoi into incomparably wearable (and also evenly valued) luxurious apparel. Secondly, I don't know if this is actually a well-known infection however it disables the character matter even though I have it allowed in Message Environments. Thankfully it is going to grow back, and also you've received your longhaired brethren taking for you. NHL can be a challenging video game to obtain a deal with on, due to the fact that its own commands are actually complicated, and also because it in fact is actually a dead-on simulation from hockey- you should contend the very least an essential understanding of the sport just before you could genuinely know the flow of the computer game. More Info 'll find the 5th Empire Hearts 3 trailer at D23, the big Disney convention, and also we are actually hoping to recognize when the game is going to launch by then.

[friends-call-me-wobbly-hands]

Truly Exceptional

An Undertale funfiction

Summary: In Underfell, Alphys starts her experiments on DT. She demands more subjects. She receives what she asked for.

Word count: 1609

Characters: Alphys, Asgore, Undyne

XX – XX – 206X

I managed to extract what appears to be the main source of a human’s soul power. It is seemingly clear enough to be used in following experiments. All the files on this research from now on are to be marked as “completely confidential”.

01 – XX – 206X

I decided to call the source DT, or the “determinant trait”, since it seems to be the only way we can put those souls to use before we have all seven. The previous tests on raw soul power were discarded as fruitless. All the documentation can be found in the royal archives, listed as the Soul Project and marked as “confidential”.

12 – XX – 206X

DT behaves differently from magic. The theory that it can be used as a power source was proved implausible (it would be too costly in any case). The readings I got recently show that monster souls are compatible with DT. This sounds very promising. His Royal Highness has requested a proper research of weaponry on more than one occasion, and I suppose living weapons will be enough to meet his needs.

22 – XX – 206X

The tests are disastrous. Monsters exposed to the DT either melt and dust or stay just alive enough to be a constant source of litter. Failure. Probably the cause of such a catastrophe is in the injections; the DT may be not clear enough. The tests will be continued upon an investigation. The remaining subjects will be classified accordingly and reduced to thirty percent for further experiments and research.

 30 – XX – 206X

 The studies showed that DT, no matter how well refined, leads to the same effects. It is obvious for me now that the main mistake lies in the weakness of chosen monsters. His Highness received my claim and agreed to solve this problem. I did not dare ask how.

 02 – XX – 206X

 The first new subject has arrived. She is a volunteer, as unbelievable as it is. His Highness has personally given her quite a flattering characteristic.

 She is… exceptional.

 06 – XX – 206X

 The new subject has been holding surprisingly well. Her body takes in DT like a sponge. As exciting as it sounds, it may prove to be detrimental for her on the later stages of the project. The results of the previous tests show that monsters that were most receptive to the positive effects of DT succumbed to it sooner. There is almost no chance to prolong her existence in case of a sudden crisis. It is both exciting and disappointing to work on such an exceptional specimen.

 14 – XX – 206X

 The subject has been on her best behavior. Today’s test required an operation on her left eye; it is a lucky coincidence that it was lost before she came in for the program, so less surgical intervention was needed. The scar is seemingly fresh. The remains of flesh and tissue were to be removed. Halfway through the operation the pump with the anesthetic broke down.  Much to my shame, this fact slipped my attention completely. I became aware of it only when I met the stare of the subject’s remaining eye while putting the bandages. She did not emit a single sound during the whole operation. Truly, such behavior can be only praised, as it allowed me to finish the procedure smoothly. It does feel somehow saddening to know how quick and inevitable will be her eventual demise. However, the job of a Royal Scientist requires emotions to be put aside for the sake of the majority. Single monsters can be sacrificed if that means breaking the barrier, defeating humanity and ensuring the rule of His Highness.

 19 – XX – 206X

 I demanded that the subject gave me the details of the accident that caused the loss of her eye. It was necessary for the treatment of her eye. She consented. Apparently it was lost as a result of a sparring session with His Highness, after a blunt trauma to her face. She stated that her main reason for coming into the program was a desire to regain her fighting abilities, and thus “to continue serving King Asgore as well as he deserves”. As noble as her reasoning is, I cannot help but remember that she will meet the same end as the others. It is probably in vain to try to prolong her existence, and yet I will do anything possible to get her at least a couple of months more. After all, this is exactly what His Highness wants me to do…

 28 – XX – 206X

 It seems that conversations with the subject have a positive effect on the subject’s psychological state. I thereby made a decision to arrange daily meetings with the subject in order to preserve this result. After all, it will only be a nuisance if I will have to deal with more problems than I already have. And maybe her emotional wellbeing will affect the outcome of this test as well. Anyway, such conversations may prove interesting and even pleasurable for me as well, even if it is not the main reason by any costs. As for now I will attend those meetings singlehandedly. I will try to find a therapist to handle them instead, but I am mostly sure I will not succeed as they are quite underprepared for such a task.

 16 – XX – 206X

 The subject is holding surprisingly well. She has proven to be quite an interesting person. The zest and passion she shows when finding a theme she likes are truly enviable. It seems she has a very close bond with Asgore, which can explain the characteristic he gave to her. Also this fact only made me admit that my subject is honestly exceptional (His Highness wouldn’t bother with her otherwise). Aside from her fighting skills, she also can boast with a sharp mind, which is an unusual combination, I dare say. If the test is a success, she will be a remarkable achievement for the monsterkind and the knight we could only hope for. She asked for a chance to continue her trainings. I am afraid we cannot provide her neither with a room nor with a sparring partner, and excessive physical activity can mess with my results, so I decided to give her some of my books instead. I bet she would not mind to learn more about the “human history”.

 25 – XX – 206X

 Un – The subject has proven to be possibly the finest colleague I could ever desire. It is truly a shame we cannot work together. She seems to catch my ideas about human history and characters so well. The DT seems to blend into her system perfectly, and the readings do not cross the margin of what was predicted. I could only dream of such a result. Then again, her opinions on the human fighting techniques prove to be so very interesting too… I appear to be in a hurry right now. I will continue this entry after the following meeting with the subject.

 30 – XX – 206X

 Attention: no talks are allowed with the subject aside from naturally neutral remarks and interrogations.

 01 – XX – 206X

 The worker that put a name on the subject’s cell should be properly punished. I should always remember that the subject, after all, is disposable, and the test will most probably end just like the rest of them did.

 12 – XX – 206X

 She is disposable.

She is disposable.

She is disposable.

 18 – XX – 206X

 Feelings like those are unprecedented and shameful for a Royal Scientist. Truly disgusting.

 27 – XX – 206X

 Today’s operation had to be painful. His Highness demanded a higher dose of DT to make the process quicker. This is the part that always challenged my composure. Even though the job of a Royal Scientist means that my emotions should be discarded so they don’t go in the way of my work, it doesn’t mean that sometimes I cannot feel a fleeting feeling of distress or disgust.

Even she couldn’t hold the screams.

The belts were fastened tight enough to prevent her from hurting herself, and the anesthetic was administered to numb her sensations, according to the common procedure. That was all I could do. However, even with the drug in effect the agony seemed to be almost unbearable for her, just as it always is for the subjects at this stage. I came in to check her. She fell silent when seeing me. I told her not to hold it in – after all, I am a mere scientist, and not someone to impress. She growled, but she didn’t scream anymore. I came close to her. She watched me for the whole time. I couldn’t identify the emotion she showed. I took her hand. I told her that the sensors were overloaded (this can be proven by the readings gotten from 01.23 to 02.01), and the only way to get her heart rate was to do it manually. She stayed silent for the whole time I was there. She closed her eyes. I told her I couldn’t count her pulse properly, so I held her hand a little longer.

 XX – XX – 206X

 The experiment is a success. It shall be classified properly and marked as “more than completely confidential”.

 XX – XX – 207X

 The former subject Undyne came back for a checkup. As always, it showed that her system works just fine. Hopefully, without any excessive physical strain, she will last for a long, long time.

She asked me for more of my history books – she said that our conversations were a perfect mind training. She asked if we could continue them.

I see no reason not to agree.