#and druids knew it obv

[princess-of-morkva]

i see merlin trending, i wanna post something.

no but seriously how did that happen. not that i'm complaining

[makanidotdot]

How I would have done Teldrassil

There was some Sylv discourse today on twitter, which I totally missed and Nobbel deleted whatever tweet he made so idek what it was about lol, BUT I read some "how it should have been" tweets and I wanted to write down how I would have done Teldrassil:

So, Azeroth just got stabbed and everyone is trying crazy experiments with the newly discovered Azerite. Kaldorei druids end up making some azerite infused super-life substance that has pretty great healing properties, but by accident, they discover it has the opposite effect on undead. It vaporizes undeath. Maybe someone had an undead battle pet out and it touched the goo and it died like a cartoon in roger rabbit.

Anyway, the worst thing to happen to Azeroth in recent history WAS undead and having a potential weapon against that is super good, but there's the whole political problem of ~oops~ we have something that can instantly vaporize a particular enemy race… a race that's not insanely well liked even by their allies... a race that can only keep 'living' by preying on the dead of everybody else, and makes anywhere they live spooky and rotting and gross to everyone but them… anyway we won't keep this secret forever, but, in the middle of this whole azerite-rush, we'll just wait until tensions are not QUITE so high, then bring this all to light in a peaceful and honest way and both factions will have control of supply and security etc., and use it only for the good healing properties, or against any new undead threats, and definitely not against Forsaken.

But ofc, Horde spies end up discovering the existence of this Undead-Away and tell the Warchief.

A good Warchief would handle this by demanding it all fully be turned over to both factions, they would acknowledge the benefit of having that kind of power, studying the tech, but also acknowledge the extreme danger to an integral part of the Horde, and take extra steps to ensure their safety and reiterate the Forsaken's value to the Horde.

Warchief Sylvanas, however, would need to ensure Undead-Away was destroyed, and kill anyone who knew how to make it, at any cost. That type of unique threat to the Forsaken could not be allowed to exist. She would claim the Night Elves had been creating a weapon unbeknownst even to their allies (technically true), and were therefore preparing to be aggressive (a lie). She would omit the fact this weapon only affects undead, maybe even orchestrate an incident that made it seem like it affected the living too, with the help of her alchemists. Even if it came to light that this weapon only really affected undead, the idea of deceitful Night Elf weaponry would still have been planted, that particular knowledge would come too late to really matter.

Teldrassil must be attacked and temporarily controlled in order to purge this substance too dangerous for either faction to control. "USE IT ON THE ALLIANCE" some more bloosthirsty members of the Horde would say. No, no, Sylvanas would say, that would be dishonorable :). For the good of Azeroth, such a weapon must be destroyed. Sylvanas has turned a new leaf after all, she's not blighting anymore, she's interested in stability as Warchief. Both factions should be kept in check.

So, the plan would be to surprise attack Teldrassil, occupy it, purge the city of all the Undead-Away, and then... leave. They would make their intentions clear to the Alliance (after they had started the attack, of course) and actually, pretty true to their word, they would let anyone who wanted to leave the tree go peacefully. Obvs any nobody-druid who knew how to recreate the weapon would wind up dead, and any too-important druid would have to risk escalating the conflict by calling out Sylvanas's lies. But for the most part, there would be no excessive death caused by the Horde forces, Sylvanas would even make a point of publicly punishing any Horde for unapproved violence.

Sylvanas wouldn't need or want a greater conflict than necessary, so there would be none, unless the Alliance wanted to return to all out war against the Horde over what would ultimately amount to just be humiliation.

Because a pre-BFA, pre-Jailer, pre-shit Sylvanas's end goal was this: Don't die. She tried dying before, and she went to Hell, so her goal now is Never Die Again. Never Dying would be achieved by ensuring the Forsaken are a strong race with a secure future. For that, she needs a balance of Forsaken power, but also healthy and happy living races that keep reproducing, so that they keep dying, so that Forsaken can keep reproducing.

But, at some point during the occupation, Teldrassil burns. And we don't know why. Maybe some Horde did it to be mean. Maybe it was an accident as some Night Elves fought back righteously against the occupying Horde. Maybe some kind of magic + Undead-Away is insanely flammable. We never learn the truth, and if we did, it doesn't matter. The Alliance blames the Horde, and the Horde blames the Alliance.

The leaders of the Alliance heroically and epically rescue most of the citizens still in the city, with Tyrande and Malfurion leading the effort. The Horde occupying the city are not quite as lucky, but they're soldiers. So a lot of them are tryhards and have gliders so they can just jump off the tree :). And some Alliance and Horde still die horribly in flames.

Night Elves lose their home, and Sylvanas prepares for the Alliance's retaliation. It wasn't her goal, but it's something she can work with. The Horde and the Forsaken will not fall, and the banger ass BFA trailer actually makes sense and isn't false advertising.

[ca-suffit]

To go exactlyyy at the other anon, Rice's racism was most blatant when it involved Marius. (Despite enslaver Louis! That's how bad it is!)

So Teskhamen (The God of the Grove from TVL) wanted someone who knew Egyptian/had been to the Lower Kingdom of Egypt to give the Dark Gift, but the Celtic (read: white) druids want a Celtic (read: white) man. Like that is explicitly why Mael kidnaps Marius, because he's a white blonde man (who knows Egyptian). Marius really has no redeeming qualities, regardless of how hard Rice's writing tries to circumvent that obvious fact, besides his whiteness.

I think the reason that Marius de Romanus' flaws and transgressions are so loudly ignored is bcuz he's really Anne Rice's thesis statement. In and by Marius history is literally whitewashed. (Well also bcuz Rice was bad at writing consistent relationships and too hung-up on her Catholic instant forgiveness complex to meaningfully reckon with her characters' actions.) The Pandora-Arjun-Marius "storyline" is probably the most fucked up in terms of sheer racism. God don't get me started on the Orientalism.

As for the pedophilia apologia, I think that has a lot of causes. One is def how normalised pedophilia was in SF/F spaces back in the day (look up Marion Zimmer Bradley), so combine that with people getting into the books in their early tweens and then developing 20+ year long parasocial relationships with Anne Rice so they never dare critically examine her work and... Well. Some fandoms also used to be sort of tolerating towards simulated CSAM, if you don’t know what "chan" was, count yourself lucky. Or look it up on fanlore I guess. Anyway, I think that's where these Marius defenders and Marius/Armand shippers come from. I reckon most of them lowkey got indoctrinated into this stuff.

(This is not meant in defense of them obvs, I just think that's what happened there. Mind you I was never actually in this fandom before the show. I read all the books without ever engaging in this Anne Rice Extended Universe but I am otherwise fandom old.)

Fascinating that they lack the wherewithal to realise the show's fandom won't tolerate them. Or maybe it's just entitlement, since like you've said somewhere before, they feel they're "owed" an adaption of the Vampire Chronicles so they'll "suffer" through IWTV.

Feel free to add to this if you think I missed something. - 🦁

(context)

that covers everything I could think of off the top of my head anyway. sometimes all these details are hard to keep track of bcuz there's just *so much* all the time. it's not just a genre thing either, it was whatever personal reason she put all that in there. most of it serves no purpose to any plot, it's just there. that's why defending a lot of it is even more crazy bcuz u could take a lot out and it doesn't change anything?? that's what makes the books so annoying and ppl who think it's high literature even more so. they don't rly say anything after a point and her themes get repetitive for no reason. she doesn't even write this stuff to make it horror or be critical of it (despite what a lot of book ppl claim), she just liked it for whatever reason. she was also out there in interviews over these time periods saying rly weird shit all the time as an adult woman and nobody ever pushed back about it, which also didn't help anyone to learn to question this stuff.

[serendipizzy79]

Uhh. Turns out I took no pics at all, but we retrieved the evidence that Kagha is aligned with the shadow druids to take over the grove.

So we went back to confront her.

The godsdamn rats were shadow druids?!

That totally goes against all the teachings around the grove! Can you hear yourself?

Actually persuaded Kagha that she'd been a tad silly. There was a fight. We won. Obvs.

Wow, I wonder how they knew.

Anyway. The druids are accepting the refugees, finally. Happy days!

[wearesorcerer]

3.5 Cantrip/Spell: Thunderhead

The Problematic Marriage of Spell Design, Power, and Purpose

A little while back while perusing D&D Tools for other matters, I stumbled upon this fun little spell. And got to thinking.

Thunderhead (Spell Compendium, pg. 219) Evocation [Electricity] Level: Druid 1, Sor/Wiz 1 Components: V, S, M (a small piece of copper wire) Casting Time: 1 Standard Action Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 caster levels¹) Target: One Creature Duration: 1 round/caster level Saving Throw: Reflex (5e: Dex) negates (see text) Spell Resistance: Yes (5e: Complicated) You conjure a small thundercloud over the target's head, which stays with the target unerringly. Each round, it strikes the target for one point of electricity damage (a successful Reflex save negates the damage).

Now, after reading the spell, what exactly is the point of this spell?

It's a weak DoT. Damage-over-Time effects weren't new in 3.5, but they were rare. There are three other 1st-level DoTs (burning rage, fiery eyes, and power word pain) and all of them deal more damage.

It's an unavoidable (and thus broken) spell. The save doesn't prevent the spell from affecting the target, it just negates the spell's damage. There are a lot of ways to exploit that.

It's a case of mistaken identity. The spell's mechanics don't reflect the intention behind it.

If you picked #3, you're correct. Thunderhead first debuted on page 49 of Dragon #302 in the article "A Clutch of Cantrips." In that version, it lasted three rounds, didn't specify if you could escape the cloud, was available to Bards, and (obvs.) was a cantrip.

Obviously, this is meant to be a spell form of the personal raincloud trope. However, that in itself has some variety.

First, a personal raincloud as a purely visual trope (as with Eeyore) is a subtrope of the personal weather system and just conveys mood (in the case of rain, some form of sadness). This much can be done with prestidigitation.

The next most common form is for a raincloud (or other seasonally-appropriate precipitation) to follow a character around and affect them; this is meant to illustrate unusually targeted bad luck (as with Charlie Brown).

3. The final form mixes the second with a Bolt of Divine Retribution (rarely other really bad weather) to hammer home the point that the luck is just that bad or inexplicable.

There are rules for weather and other environmental effects that could be made to fit a spell, but they are a little harsh for a cantrip. There are also two design problems with this spell. First, cantrips are supposed to be so weak and simple that they do not need to take up more than a couple of sentences to convey their effect. If the spell is balanced by having a lot of drawbacks, chances are the main effect is too powerful. Second, I know of no other cantrip in 3.x (even in Pathfinder) that applies a DoT. There is a caltrops cantrip, but that's only a DoT if as long as an opponent occupies a space; it's fairly easy to avoid.

This is where the trouble starts.

In writing the article, what designers Kieran Turley and S. Deniz Bucak probably realized is that making a spell that creates actual weather conditions, however comically, might be too much. Thus, they chose the next best thing: use existing mechanics. In 3.x, the standard for cantrip balance is the Elemental Ray: fire a projectile (that ignores Armor and Natural Armor bonuses to AC) at a target within Close range, deal 1d3 damage of a specified type. Since it's not an attack, it can be a DoT; it'll go off of a saving throw instead of an attack roll, which will make magic items of it much worse, but hey, it's a cantrip. It'll last three rounds, which won't matter for anything, and they left it at that.

Then it came time to make Spell Compendium. We had several problems here. First, the design team was so engrossed in 4e for so much of the tail end of 3.5 that they no longer knew nor cared how 3.5 worked. Second, this spell comes with numerous questions it didn't explain (specifically the following bit: the original spell didn't say under what conditions the spell could fail). Third, the spell's duration is highly unusual and demands standardization; however, doing so screws with its balance. This created the perfect storm for our little point of exploitation.

How should this spell work? Well, it needs a few changes:

It shouldn't be Evocation. It should be Conjuration (Creation) -- a la fog cloud -- or maybe Transmutation -- a la control weather. It absolutely should have the [Air] descriptor and maybe a few others, depending.

There should be numerous ways to get rid of this spell, just from precedent: wind effects, going submerged in liquid (or a solid, like meld with stone), entering a vacuum, teleportation, otherwise crossing planar boundaries, possibly various wards or magical forms of concealment, and of course an initial Will save to avoid being affected by it at all.

The spell's primary effect should be to conjure a localized precipitation system over the target, providing similar penalties (and situational utility) to such weather conditions as described in the DMG. The penalties should be lessened to be comparable to other cantrips and make sense with the volume and duration of precipitation. (You could give the spell variants based on precipitation: rain, snow, least sleet storm, etc.)

Any damage the spell could do (via lightning bolts or maybe hail) should work like produce flame and reduce the remaining duration of the spell for each time the cloud "attacks."

Now, all that said, this fits the tone of a cantrip, but it might not be able to fit the power of a cantrip ever. That's kinda why Reserve Feats exist: the least powerful are somewhere between cantrip and low-powered 1st-level spell. Even the next tier trades some power from replicating a 1st-level spell in exchange for being usable at-will, though I'm not entirely keen on that. Point being, this spell would work well as a Reserve feat and be less difficult to balance, but at the cost of being a Reserve feat -- and a relatively weak one at that.

[thewickedkat]

okay. *cracks knuckles*

--so the Replenishment brings Avalir's stores of magical energy to Cathmoira in order for the land to thrive, since at this point in time the magic is tied in so closely with nature. i'm wondering if Laerryn realises (indeed, if it even matters to her) that shifting a leyline so drastically will fuck up the magical biome of the land? if everything is so closely intertwined, that could mean crops would fail, those who rely on the magic from the city would be unable to accomplish what they need to; disease might be untreated, people might not be able to heal, economies would thus collapse, industry would as well--like, imagine your entire vascular system being shifted into, like, your left leg. nothing would work.

also, tangentially, i wonder if this feeds further into the mages' hubris: 'look upon our glory, for we bring you magic juice for your lives; behold, surely we are like gods, yes?' bah.

--everyone's drive in this city for knowledge makes me think of an adage from the Kushiel book series: 'All knowledge is worth having.' and...given what we know is coming, i have to ask, is it? is it really? even if all you're doing with that knowledge is hiding it in some misguided sense of 'keeping people safe,' is it really worth pursuing to the detriment of all else?

--Nydas asking (seemingly casually) Alessander to reallocate valuable resources during the Replenishment (again, upon which thousands of people depend) and expecting a 'sure, dude, whatcha need' in response is simply amazing to me. yes, Nydas was an orphan once (and presumably not of the affluent persuasion), but his casual entitlement nowadays makes me think that he wants to...not quite erase that past (at least not when it serves him), but he acts like he is dismissive of his roots. he participates willingly in the classism we see in Avalir and doesn't behave in the traditional 'guttersnipe rises to high society' tropey sort of way. i dunno if that's even a conscious choice on Lou's part as far as RP is concerned, but my brain went that way.

--Evandrin's locket given to Laerryn is sweet but also tragic (obv) and maybe i'm reading too much into it, but i can't help but think that Laerryn interprets it (perhaps unconsciously) as a sign of ultimate forgiveness. as in 'no matter what you do, however it breaks bad and wherever the chips fall, i will be your friend' forgiveness. the type of friendship understood by young children before they really grok nuance and how difficult friendship can really be, you know? not to say that Laerryn is naive, but i think (maybe especially since Evandrin is no longer with them) that if Evandrin confronted her about what she's been working toward for whatever reason, she'd be like 'well you're my friend, you're supposed to support me in whatever i do so why are you questioning this?' when friendship does not mean auto-forgiveness, or a clean slate. it isn't like an Etch-A-Sketch. friendship takes work and effort and most definitely calling your friends out on bullshit like re-routing magical pathways so they can yeet yourself off to fuck knows where just for funsies. i personally think the locket is more of 'i will always be your friend even if i don't like what you're doing for you are important to me.'

--what the fuck is up with Nydas' prototype automata that he brought to Laerryn? he calls them Taxmen! they have big fuck-off blades on their backs! no one but Alessander and that poor porter they're gonna mindwipe knew about them! they make me fret, okay?

--i wonder, a Lot, about the Gau Drashari. if they're truly connected to the modern-day Ashari druids. if where the Primes defeated the Primordials during the Schism created the planar points the Ashari tend. i have a lot of thoughts, okay?

i also wonder precisely why the Magisterium chose to alter the Pact of Crown and Thorn after the Raven Queen's ascension. they didn't have to, really. they already had the City, the top of a gotdam mountain, and they were already bringing magic back for replenishing. so what was in it for them? they had the upper hand and all the advantages. and then we find out, further, that not only did the Magisterium agree, but that the Gau Drashari were basically like 'here's this thing you have to use and no we won't tell you what it really is or what it's for. just do it.' and the Magisterium acquiesced!

and what happens if Avalir chooses not to honour the Pact? are there consequences? i mean, Laerryn wants to explore and gain knowledge, as 'the promise of Avalir was exploration and knowledge-gathering;' and Patia outright calls the contract with the Drashari 'long-withstanding handshakes with people who have long shuffled off this plane.' like girl, your grandpa, the dude who put Avalir together, is still alive (if in his dotage), and this is a contract! not some backroom deal over cheap ale! but of course the Ring of Brass thinks rules and laws are for others, not them.

--what was Loquatius' 32 deception check. what. why. i know Brennan normally doesn't leave unfired Chekhov's guns, but. why. what.

--further with Quay, his 'insight on the world' check, the 'if the apocalypse happened, you'd notice it.' well, maybe. but thunder is rumbling. and most people, when they hear thunder they think storm, not avalanche. and once that thunder is heard, it can't easily be deflected or rerouted.

--as an aside, it's deliciously fitting that Lacrytia Hollow, a necromancer, is the one who invited Purvan Suul, the Champion of the Raven Queen. and had further plans to assassinate him. i dunno what her end was, other than maybe spitting in the Matron's eye, but i guess we'll find out tomorrow night.

--why are Evandrin's files from Elena Tuvaris gone? but the file header is still in the filing system? sus.

--'All were happy to watch as my gifts were not seen as i intended them to be.' Asmodeus. Azzy. darling. dear. you absolute lying buffoon. if this is true (i am Scepticism), you expected mortals--who were given free will--to honour that which hurts them irreparably? you expected to grow fat on lies and deceit and treachery and then wondered why no one wanted to hang out with you at parties?

--Patia: 'Those who are privileged, those who are given everything, do not know how to fight.' first, that's not how the adage goes, and second: is it hard talking around the golden fucking spoon in your mouth? she acts like her tenacity and patience and resourcefulness set her above the other gifted mages of the world. i love Patia (Marisha is doing brilliantly with her), but wow i would not wanna have a drink with her.

--lastly for this post, i come to Zerxus. i really think, despite knowing he was speaking with the Father of Lies, he does not believe he actually entered into a covenant with ol' Azzy. i genuinely think that to him, he was just talking, and the deal he made was something along the importance of 'i'll trade you my oreo cookies for your baseball card, cool?' even if he were enlightened otherwise i don't think he would consider it binding in any way because he does not believe in the gods. not disbelieves their existence, but disbelief in that he has no faith in them. thus, any 'deal' would be unenforceable.

to Zerxus, the gods are just beings with metric fucktons of power, but i think he believes that it's faith that gives these beings any sort of dominion over mortals. 'i have no faith, thus my faith cannot be corrupted.' i think this is one very very dangerous aspect of his own hubris, perhaps the most dangerous one.

also i wonder if he had any faith in them before Evandrin departed this plane.

[miqojak]

📖

How about this - I’ve been headcanoning a DnD campaign for a long time now (and keep postponing it), but here’s the schtick. This world has a dragon trapped in it - some great, ancient battle in the cosmos between good and evil, and obviously the good one won. (This was all before I knew anything about FF and dragons hatching out of moons, mind you.) The continent I’ve been sort of slowly plotting out is, in fact, shaped like a dragon. This ancient tale (that needs names and embellishment, obvs) of the creation of the world of Drakisfal is all but a myth, or a religion, now. (Hell, maybe the bad dragon is locked on one side of the planet, and the good one on the other. I’m digging the idea that this is the only way to keep things stable. Apparently I think like writers at SE, since this was before my FF time. Hire me Square Enix.)It is a high magic, high fantasy world where the races are as varied and fantastical as you can imagine - but I was very heavily inspired by Karen Marie Moning’s ‘Fever’ series of books about the Fae (a kick-ass female protag) and how they affects modern day life and effectively results in a post-apocalyptic fantasy hellscape in the end (I use the word ‘end’ loosely, she’s still writing in that universe and I recommend the books!). That said, I want the main ‘conflict’ to be less about good and evil, at least to begin with, and more about law and chaos - this world has many, many hidden (and not so hidden) portals to the First World/the Fae Realm. This causes a lot of bleed over of magic, and a widespread devotion to the ‘gods’ of the First World and the creatures therein that are powerful and capricious…and very upset with the way Drakisfal is being butchered and colonized. (Zealous forest druids/shifters/rangers who guard portals to the First World, anyone?)I have all these ideas for dark and light courts, but neither Paizo, nor Wizards of the Coast has any genuine established lore for this concept so I’m running off of a little third party lore and my own imagination, and I’m daunted at the level of creation it would take to make NPCs for the courts.The world is as varied and fantastical as it is, due to the…world-sized dragons entombed within and the magic ‘bleed-off’ from their seemingly eternal slumber. I feel like the knowledge of their existence is mostly tall tales and religious belief…and the knowledge that this is real is probably some deeply guarded secret held at the end of the world somewhere. Having a cult try to awaken one of the dragons could also be a fun twist at later levels! There’s most standard fantasy races (except orcs! Too many things rely on them as bad guys. I’ll definitely have strong gnolls as the ‘savage bad guys’ though); though there’s lots more that are less often seen! ‘Egyptian’ Catfolk (get ready for Siamese and Hairless catpeople!!). Ratfolk. Strix. Syrinx. Dragons. Wyverns. Kobolds. Lots of fae. There are so many, they are too numerous to list, and too varied to describe; from beautiful to frightening, and from honorable knight, to as wicked and twisted as they come.Also elitist dragons who live in the mountains and have kobolds serve them, and wyverns guarding the forests that approach the mountains? How about a spooky marsh with scary, monstrous trees and oversized spiders and after all the hidden dangers, there’s a dark, ex-Queen of the Fae in a tower of onyx that seems to absorb all light around it, and you’ve been collecting shards of her magical mirror to stop her shenanigans, but now you need to stop her but also you gotta go through her loyal undead servant? Yeah there’s so many threads here. The Enchanted Wastes, which is a vast, magical desert with djinni and lots of illusions - maybe a nymph guards the only oasis for miles and you can’t make it another night without water? How about haunted tombs? And if you survive the journey there’s grand cities of foreign catfolk who don’t trust you. The Red Wastes - which I think I renamed - that are full of ravenous bands of Gnolls who ride dire hyenas, and the only force that rides in defense of the border is a band of halflings who ride the green prairies on their dire corgis? What about an abandoned magical wizard tower guarded by a dragon at the end of those red wastes full of magic lost to time??There’s a lot in my head that I want to get out, so I don’t know how to start setting it all down ‘on paper’, so to speak?THANKS IF YOU READ ALL MY RAMBLINGS, and thanks for the prompt!

[servingliesarch]

there are some people who probably think i’m exaggerating when it comes to how badly merlin felt, and how much he lost, and i know there are, i got questions about it, so let me provide you with a list of what merlin life was like and why he fell into a pit of despair even tho being strong enough to keep his shit together.

born into a world where his sole existence was a crime, had to hide who he was from day one, never knew his father or even who he was, fearing he might be a monster because there was no one like him

born into poverty even though without great purge, though most likely be never born, he’d also be titled accordingly and respected for his station and level of power

had to leave his home at eighteen, sent by his mother into the heart of a kingdom ruled by a man who committed a genocide on his people

was appointed a manservant to his son, who though they did develop a very important relationship eventually and were meant to change things, was a mean bitch to him for a significant time they spent together

had to fight countless monsters, kill people, fight battles, drink poisons, get beat up, saving everyone’s lives countless of times but never getting any thanks or recognition for it

while also having zero friends who knew the truth about him in the castle

he lost his childhood friend will early on, to a pointless death he probably blamed himself for

was constantly forced to make life and death decisions, choices affecting the grand scheme of things without any support and no recognition for it whatsoever

had to constantly live a lie because otherwise he would be sentenced to death and executed, and even if he wanted to tell people, people who were his mentors constantly told him to shove it.

legit died a bunch of times and went back to life. would have been dead at eighteen if he wasn’t immortal.

met freya, whom he was willing to love, even run away with, who could understand him and knew the truth about him, got killed almost immediately after.

was subjected to believe morgana, who was his friend, would turn bad and betrayed them, so he had to poison her.

learned the truth about his father, got to know him a day before he died and had to save the day once again without knowing it, using his new dragonlord powers.

made a new friend, gwaine, who was this great person but of course he had to be sent away bc Uther i guess.

still zero recogniton, zero thanks. a lot of being killed or hurt or whatever it is.

morgana was in camelot then and he knew she was going to hurt them all but there was nothing he could do.

got legit sat down at arthur’s right hand, but you know, only like when no one sees because it makes sense that arthur who values his friends no matter who they are, elevating them to have a voice and have his back, knighting even strangers, marrying gwen, would not do shit about his closest friend merlin, whom he sat at his right hand.

you’d think things were getting better and merlin had friends finally, and lancelot was there where he deserved. oh right now, because then dorocha happened, and he died, and then lancelot went and died in arthur’s place, and they didn’t even have a body to bury it.

every time he hopes arthur might see magic in different light, shit happens and backtracks him like ?? so hopeful he will see that if merlin as dragoon saves uther even tho fuck should be dead, but morgana’s thing backfires, so he loses hope rly.

naturally one takes a hint and can no longer tell anyone his secret. do your friends notice you become distant and alienated tho? no. fuck character development.

oh, arthur’s uncle is a traitor in love with morgana who almost got gaius killed and no one would listen to you? yeah. that happened. it was great.

stabbed more times. died more times as well. zero recognition, arthur still refuses to listen or acknowledge most of the time. keeps saving the world, and it gets a bunch of people killed by him.

legit zero friends at this point when you’re being reasonable.

so like, he saves the last great dragon egg, helps it be born, hopes for once that dragons will not go extinct, but then kilgharrah fails to care for it, and dragon betrays them siding with morgana which could be okay if aithusa didn’t get crippled and wouldn’t live for like five seconds later.

murders arthur’s uncle but that one felt good for once.

his friends? knights, a queen. merlin? a servant. mordred, who was a druid and arthur met? a knight. the round table? is there but merlin stands at the back still. so what arthur listens to him the most, he has zero Real Voice.

is hardened, burdened, there isn’t much left of that young boy from season one in season five. legit depressed when you look at the signs.

and shit is going down so all of this destiny is back on him, with looming war and arthur dying, and morgana, and mordred there who will kill arthur, having more respect than merlin, and it’s all really fucking hard.

uther’s ghost comes back to haunt them and like....... i guess at least he got to like, tell him off so it’s not as bad.

gwen gets possessed, a bunch of people die including people he grew to care about because of morgana’s doing, plus fearing he might lose gwen after all. saves her tho, but still zero thanks.

merlin’s still extremely alienated from everyone tho.

they lose elyan, who’s gwen’s brother and who was always so kind to merlin.

almost dies again, is gifted a prophecy from his followers he literally never meets bc why let merlin have friends. so, arthur will die and war is neigh. great.

they lose mordred, who tells morgana what he is, and it wouldn’t have happened if perhaps merlin actually had a real voice but i guess not.

so anyway, the war comes, merlin seemingly loses his magic, sees his friend gwaine for the last time and rly misses a significant part of the battle in which arthur is mortally wounded. but at least he gets back his magic, tho morgana did him dirty there.

so anyway, wins that war, finds arthur, arthur’s stabbed, merlin after ten fucking years reveals his secret.

takes two days to get over it and the entire arc of this episode deserved to be more than just on episode for both of their sakes since arthur was dying.

merlin has to kill morgana for good and it’s terrible. he blames himself for her.

arthur dies anyway, and like why does he even have all of this magic.

has to give him a funeral and send the only weapon that can kill him away as it is his duty, all the way to avalon.

finds out gwaine is dead too which is just the worst blow really.

kilgharrah is also seen for the last time, because he’s old and has to die so it’s just  a lot of loss all around.

and they achieved nothing but the dragon makes it like they did, which they didn’t, and then doesn’t even rly warn him he’s not gonna die, tho he probably already figured it out. like give him something solid, not like a maybe thing that MAY happen but who knows, and when ?? WHO KNOWS

then obvs other things happen, but the truth is merlin stops aging, can’t die, but everyone else do, so he’s rly just subjected to an eternity of watching everyone he’s ever known die, everything he’s ever known disappear and he’s alone forever, no dragons, disappearing magic, the last of his kind.

[transgalaxy]

voltron s2 liveblogging

episode 1: 

so basically they’re gonna kill off shiro or put him into retirement

bc its obvs now that keith can pilot the black lion

and i love all the paladins and i dont want any of them to die omfg

thace is keith’s dad, i stand by this, and all the ‘thace leads investigations’ fanfic i read are now canon it is known

episode 2:

hunk is husbando material 

i love lance and his adventures looking for mermaids

i’m just gonna say rn, i dont trust these mermaids

“safe and warm” my ass

knew it

so it’s some kind of space leviathan

episode 3:

so there’s a whole insurgency within zarkon’s ppl

and they’re rebelling and tired of his ass

and it’s not just thace rebelling

that guy’s ears though

okay so thace might not be keith’s dad, but he’s def an agent

but omfgggggg keith asked about the fucking blade alskdjasl

but when allura finds out that keith is galra, the emotional strain will kill me

omg that dudejustsacrificedhimself for voltron

keith my son and his blade omg

episode 4:

spore snowball fight in space

lance and his face masks yo

all im saying is keith is galra

episode 5:

the amount of vomiting in this cartoon

lance and keith are going to swim together i just cant

spoke way too soon

allura/shiro confirmed

episode 6:

omg keith thinking that zarkon is tracking them through him bc of imprinting jfc

my son is having nightmares that he’s galra omg

squishy aliens dont seem right to me

yeah keith and allura may end up having problems if he’s actually galra

it took y’all that long to realize it was the black lion

episode 7:

GALRA MALL COPS

it’s almost as if the writers read a lot of fanfic prior to writing season two omg

GALRA CHEFS

okay so like what i really like about this season is that you really get to see how culture in the galaxy has been literally taken over by the galra, but you also see that not every galra is a soldier. they permeate the galactic society and are still loyal to zarkon but they really galra-nized everything

there’s a fucking shamwow guy

episode 8:

the foreshadowing in this fucking episode i cant

WHO THE FUCK IS KEITH’S DAD!!!!

he’s galra he’s fucking galra my son

episode 9:

wow i knew things were going to be really tense between them

‘galra keith is way funnier than regular keith’ -prophet hunk

who the hell is this?

my only problem w this show tbh is there arent enough lady characters and like all the galra soldiers are guys

hunk just got farted out of a space worm omg this show

episode 10:

omg pidge found her brother, well at least footage

i s2g pidge and shiro’s sibling relationship is what gives me life, like he doesn’t take the place of matt but he takes care of her and she always looks up to him *sobbing*

episode 11:

i hope to god that thace doesnt get caught omg

omg omg omg omggggg

omg did that laser hit keith and turn him purple?????

ugh nevermind

wow allura, c’mon he’s been your friend way before he knew he was galra jfc

omfg thace

episode 12:

so does haggar finally realize zarkon has been losing it

is keith gonna get his dad?

even if thace isnt his dad, their father-son fight against the druids is everything

and then thace, his fATHER, dies protecting him that is all that happened

episode 13:

omg did they kill off allura????!??!?!!

now the question is: is haggar allura’s mom????!

im begging them not to kill off shiro

omfg i new it!!! haggar’s altean!!!! gtfo! everybody go home!

and allura can fucking be druid, my queen

well....

first of all: where the fuck is shiro

and second of all: omg they’re bringing in lotor!!!!