#and requires a level of ignoring so much of the plot

[justabardling]

More thoughts on Kpop Demon Hunters Under the thread but you know, spoilers so click with caution

Love the story itself, great concept and honestly strong execution on almost all levels.

The unique things Sony Animation keeps pushing with each of their movies is really great imo. Every movie from their animation division has done something unique with the 3D style and I love that!

The storyboarding and camera angles in this one is fire - there were so many shots that I had to make note of looking up later/hoping they show how they mapped that out.

Storywise, I like a lot of what they mapped out for what could clearly be a series of either movies or an entire season of a show. Yes, a lot of plots holes are left with that final ending sooo idk I am curious to hear from the director and writers about that. Seems a lot had to be done in a short amount of time BUT also I can't complain too much idk what to say the industry amiright.

Love the concept of rebuilding a Honmoon that's based in what the new Hunters believe in.

TBH some part of me is like 'that could have been a potentially interesting thing to explore as part of KPop idols required to live such certain lives/expectations/never shows flaws and these particular fictional KPop stars choose to literally rebuild the system they were brought into/allow Rumi and themselves to live as themselves. Idk I think it would track better with Golden! But I am also not a story writer so obviously a lot of things would have to be retooled for that.

Things I would love to see explored if they get a sequel/series

Rumi's past ofc - who is her dad/what went down with her mom and him and their group of hunters. Where is the other one?? If there's three and one died and one was left to raise her child...idk a lot to explore there.

Ditto how did Celine build Huntrix - do they just hold auditions until they find the right 'match'. I'm assuming less with voices and more with personal struggles - and maybe that's lost a bit with Cyrene anyways since she clearly bought into the older way of doing things.

Also on the subject of Celine - until we're told otherwise I'm going to assume she knew being on one side of the Honmoon meant you were fine bc that is a HELL of a gamble to take with your surrogate kid and knowing they're half demon. Like what if they sealed the Honmoon as 'golden' and Rumi was sent to the demon realm? Again it seems like that's a non-issue movie-wise.

Mira's family!!! We're told she was a problem child and a black sheep so if we get a sequel idk...Mira's brother potentially showing up?? Wanting to connect with a sister who he was never close with but sees her face everywhere?

Likewise - what is Zoey's family backstory, since it's clear in Golden she was a child of divorce - though something that I didn't see until a rewatch is that she's holding a Sunlight Sisters Record!

The tree?? with Celine?? We see it in Rumi's part of Golden and she has her emotional moment with Celine there so is something tied to that other than the grave?

Hope any sequels expand on Rumi's Demon power and yes in a fun way. If she can transport by smoke you KNOW Mira and Zoey are asking her to transport them short distances that are just a stupid abuse of powers. Rumi's like 'idk even know this works I don't want to hurt you guys' and they're like 'yeah we know let's just try it :)'

Rumi starts having this crisis of faith while fighting the demons and what they really are motivated by after she speaks with Jinu but also they are stealing people's souls so you know - maybe some kind of resolution on what happens to folks once they're down there (I'm 99% they just died?? so maybe coping with that in some way in a sequel)

Finally would love to see if they have Bobby either a) brought in on the demon thing and he just rolls with it or b) he thinks it's a new gimmick or c) DOES acknowledge that this is a Thing but also knows acknowledging it is WILD so he's just like 'Gonna ignore this and stay in my lane and do my job' while also knowing the trio is off fighting demons any time they're not on stage. Ngl when it seemed like Bobby was taken I was like 'YES' bc I love the dynamic of bff of some superhero trio needing them but often overlooked so like idk Netflix if you want a writer for a series please!! accept these notes but don't hire me Idk what the fuck I'm doing.

Idk more of the trio doing stupid things together but this movie showed the fun bits of them carbo loading and spa days so I would love more of that with them!!

[pandorem]

Me every time I check out the dead boy detectives tag: *rolls up sleeves* welp. Looks like it’s time for another Crystal Palace defence post

[lemotmo]

I didn't even realize some of this.

Q. You liked Sick Day though, you said so yourself. So I'm a little confused to see you criticize it because that doesn't fit with liking an episode. I kind of feel like you're not going to be okay with certain people getting the spotlight over others and so you should just say that. Buck gets plenty of focus. He's not being ignored.

A. I did like the episode. I have been open about that. But I have also been open about the cartoonish level villain being a bit OTT for me and the glaring absence of Eddie. You can critique something you like. Finding fault doesn't erase enjoyment. I get why they did both things. It's not a 'who done it' storyline. They didn't want to waste time having people try to figure out who the villain is so they made it so obvious it was a little cartoonish in execution. I have also said that I think we were supposed to notice Eddie's absence, I believe that was the point. That doesn't erase the fact that he should have been there.

I haven't really framed any of these replies around Buck but since you brought him up, I will explain. Buck hasn't had a storyline since the lightning strike in the back half of season 6. He has had no real storyline focus since then. He has been on and has been involved in other storylines but he hasn't had a storyline of focus since the lightning strike. His bi awakening doesn't count because that was told in one half of one episode. That's not a storyline. Then they stuck him in a relationship with an actor Oliver clearly doesn't get along with, an issue that seems to be a cast wide thing at this point with that particular actor. So they kept Buck in the relationship in name only and showed very little context of said relationship because the point of that particular relationship had nothing to do with that actual relationship. The point of that relationship was to kick off the Buddie storyline which Tim, inexplicably, decided to tell alongside this god awful Vertigo storyline for Eddie. A storyline that has now been dragged out a full year and a half. That's a problem for both Buck and Eddie as characters. The Eddie storyline has been going on for almost 18 months at this point and we still have no clear resolution. Because it was a poorly constructed storyline from the very beginning. It was a bad original story idea that has been dragged on to the point of nauseating for all involved. And I give Tim credit for trying to fix it but taking 18 months to fix it is inexcusable, especially since it's still requiring Eddie to be separate from the rest of the main cast.

In those 18 months how much screen time has been devoted to multiple Bobby storylines? He resigned from the 118. Took a consultation role on HotShots, a storyline Tim dragged out over 5 freaking episodes btw, got involved with the cartel and lost his home. Came face to face with his estranged mother. Went on a cruise that sank, and helped his wife land a plane. That's 6 different storylines told while Eddie is still going through the Vertigo bullshit. Seven now if you count what's coming as a result of Sick Day and Lab Rats. How about Athena? She had the same cruise ship mishap. The same cartel burned my house down storyline. Revisited her past with an inmate transfer that led to her being in the plane Bobby had to help her land. She had the crazy rookie racist cop partner storyline. The shipping cart vigilante, only one episode but it was more than half the freaking episode. The 911 serial killer Maddie kidnapping storyline. That's six separate storylines for Athena, again all while Eddie's one plot is still unresolved. It's lazy. I understand that the Eddie/Christopher storyline could not and should not have been resolved over the course of one episode but there's been plenty of storytime to devote to it; Tim just used way too much of that time on the same two characters, or on nonsensical Brad bullshit, and that's a legitimate problem at this point.

Dragging the storyline out for so long has made Buck stagnant as well. I understand why they're telling the Buddie storyline the way they are. The problem is we get an episode or two of momentum and then we completely lose that momentum to spend time on episodes like this biohazard stuff, which is in no way more important than your character driven episodes. Yes episodes like this have value and merit, but they should be timed appropriately within the season. This event was not. And we also now have proof that the audience didn't like Eddie not being involved. So it wasn't a decision that was beneficial to the show over all. Pointing that out is not an unfair criticism. It's an ensemble show. Spending a year and half on multiple storylines for two main characters at the cost of real and necessary movement in one single storyline for 3 other main characters (Eddie, Buck and Christopher) is flat out bad storytelling.

Thank you Nonny! 😁

I never quite looked at it from this point of view, but Ali has a point here.

Maybe it's time for Bobby and Athena to spend some time decorating their new house, so the focus can go to Eddie, Buck, Madney + baby and Henren for a change.

Just a thought. 🤷‍♀️

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[eddiecore118]

Can I be real for a second amongst all my negativity and complaining? But most of it is driven by how Bobby’s death was executed because it doesn’t make sense for what the show truly represented over the seasons. Some people are making the argument that finally deciding to have a MCD and one related to one of the most beloved characters “ups the stakes and adds an element of realism” in relation to the job of first responders but I think what those individuals and even Tim himself seem to ignore is that the way they went about it wasn’t even remotely realistic to the reality of first responders, especially firefighters.

Like right now the BIGGEST threat to firefighters is cancer and I know no one wants to hear that but let me tell you if you want to talk about dark realism then go look at the statistics. So many firefighters who are in the exact same age bracket as Bobby are receiving cancer diagnosis at astronomical rates because of the level of exposure to carcinogens over their career because protocols and equipment were not even close to offering the actual levels of protection required during those decades. So yes, I understand that cancer storylines can be VERY hard to execute because of how close to home it can hit for many. But at the same time would this not be the level of dark and realistic people are talking about? I mean even to support this point…think about what happened in season 3….Bobby was exposed to those high levels of radiation where there was concern for his health later down the road because of the level of exposure. Could it not have made sense to finally have this impact Bobby where Tim could have crafted a whole narrative arc around it to allow the storyline to breathe while still weaving in B/C plots ( since this is a procedural)… it probably would have had way more of an impact where it would have given the audience time to grieve with the 118 that they would be losing Bobby, if Tim was so set on a MCD. Would this not have been more realistic and more representative of what Firefighters face in the line of duty instead of being killed by a super strain of Ebola for shock value. This is what we mean when Tim doesn’t plan or play the long game anymore…he could have done it so many different ways but instead went for shock and awe from a plot point that wasn’t even realistic to start with. So I know this is very much where my frustration is coming from.

[jevilowo]

Read a fic where out of all nine mercs, SCOUT was the one sent to a fancy gala for Reasons. Surely not, thought I. Would he not be the worst option? Then I got thinking. Anyways here's a ranking:

Worst to Best Ranking: Mercs at a Gala of Some Sort

Soldier

He can't hold down conversation besides ones that involve him screaming about war. He doesn't own any clothes other than what he wears to war. He will strip naked and fight several ceos over the course of the night. Genuine nightmare scenario.

Scout

Doesn't own fancy clothes. Only polite thing he knows how to do is stick out his pinky when drinking. Would flirt with every girl there and ignore everyone else. Would complain bitterly the whole night and pretty much ruin the experience for any poor bastard forced to go with him. Last resort option, as he's at least better than Solly.

Pyro

Also can't hold down a conversation due to the mumbling, buttttt they became a Ceo that one time. If they could get past the communication barrier they'd do just fine. They seem the type to even go to the effort to put on a bowtie over the suit. Only issue is they may set shit on fire but they're still a better option than Scout.

Sniper

Wouldn't, like, kill anyone or anything, and probably owns a suit. He'd be horrible company though. Only knows how to talk about blowing people's heads off and bush survival tactics. Also filled with hatred for rich posho cunts, and that surlyness would definitely show.

Demo

He'd wear a kilt but that's the only issue clothingwise. Would get blackout drunk halfway through the night but before that he'd be a great party guy: witty, charming, full of good stories and generally very likeable. Once he's proper drunk though he'd probably srat sobbing and that's not really the sort of thing one should get up to at a gala.

Medic

Definitely owns suits, capable of normal conversation, but prefers to talk about horrible experiments anyways. One of those guys who says he doesn't believe in small talk. Will fully go up to someone like Hi I'm Doctor Ludwig I Put A Whale Gallbladder In Someone This Morning. Autism amiright. Still, his charisma levels are off the charts so people are more likely to be willing to look past this clear insanity. He's hot.

Heavy

Literally the only issues with him are language barrier and generally looking quite threatening. Still, I think he'd do a pretty good job, especially in a room full of australians who aren't terrified of him, or in a room full of people who speak russian. Intellectuals!! Fuck yeah he's the phd man. Scholarly people would adore him, if it was one of Those galas.

Engie

Can be polite, can talk about normal things, even willing to take off goggles and helmet on occasion. Southern charm! However, he seems the type to not take shit. Will ruthlessly correct anyone who says anything slightly scientifically inaccurate. If he's insulted, he'll be annoyed about it. He threatened his goddamned employer once, just think of what he'd do to people that don't even hold authority over him.

Spy

No shit he's the best. He wears nothing but suits. It's literally his job to charm people. There's literally nothing else for me to say he's winning at being the best guy to send to a gala. Only thing that would trip him up is the presence of the rest of the team, or even just one of the team the that one was below Medic on the list. Rule of funny decrees this will inevitably happen somehow. If valve ever released a gala comic solly and scout would inexplicably be there just because they're the writers favourites and also Funny.

I had no business thinking about all this as much as I did!! It was a fucking nsfw oneshot collection i was reading, Scout only attended the gala because the plot required it. Boo.

[utilitycaster]

Following on the last answer you gave about Laura/Ashley.

What I'm stuck on is that this fear of making a mistake is not a new thing? They've been like this for all of this campaign, note Ashley not wanting to take the shard, Laura's constant fear of letting Imogen's mom stay on the moon, etc. And to a degree, I get it! Exandria is a pretty expensive and important source material - there's an Amazon series!!! - and it's scary to make any huge decisions in it. Additionally, I understand the feeling that there's something specific that the DM wants and you're just not getting it. But I keep wondering, how hard is it for Matt to sit them down and be like. Fuck around man, it's fine! (Or even the opposite! Give them some railroads, they're all over the place!) You know? It just feels to me that Matt can solve so many of these problems outside the stream with a quick convo and I'm so confused why that's not happening.

(I didn't watch this episode completely because the discussion at the end was giving me a very bad case of secondhand embarrassment due to how stupid it was. So if this happened and I missed it, feel free to ignore this.)

Yeah that is where I am at, and this is the MOST speculative I will get to the point that I'm making it nonrebloggable but my personal guess is that like. I watched a LOT of interviews at the start of C2, as a new viewer who was looking for more stuff (which...ultimately just resulted in a C1 binge) and the cast was at the time very cognizant of wanting to prove C1 wasn't a fluke and that they could tell another great story in the world with new characters. But they also prepped EXTENSIVELY for it; and also, in this case, I think a lot of the world was in a somewhat more nebulous state (ie, I think Matt probably had the concept of an ancient archmage plotting to release a god-eater possibly that far back...but I think Liam's concept for Caleb very much influenced the nature of the Assembly and gave Matt a place to put proto-Ludinus).

I think that with two campaigns under their belt, I don't want to say they rested on their laurels, because as I've said repeatedly the caliber of the vast majority of other things they've put out has remained high. But I think that because Campaigns 1 and 2 came together so well Matt might not have realized that Campaign 3, and his fairly specific intended plot, required more work and different work. Like, it required the level of planning and railroading you see for dimension 20 seasons. Campaign 2 could meander and focus on characters because the main goal it needed to achieve in a presumably 3 campaign story was worldbuilding, and I wonder if the fact that it diverged almost entirely from Matt's vision and still came out great obfuscated the fact that this wouldn't work for C3. Campaign 3 really needed to have realized and invested characters right out the gate with knowledge of the world. Like, I think it could have been solved with a conversation but I also think that there's been some sufficient "wtf" choices (bringing in Abu as the Arch Heart without any specific guidelines is one that comes to mind) that I wonder if the cast has entirely internalized how much this doesn't cohere narratively. And also, to be fair, I've played in D&D campaigns that didn't have a great plot or really any at all but I was having enough fun hanging out with my friends that I didn't really care, and since we weren't being filmed it didn't matter. It's a lot easier to see this stuff from the outside, is my thought. I don't think it's hard in terms of time and effort, but also, I know I kept thinking "oh HERE'S the course correction, finally!" pretty much up until the last ten or so episodes. I wouldn't be surprised if he kept thinking "surely this will pull together."

[sapphicscholar]

Adding to my earlier comment re episode 2 of Late Night with Deborah Vance apparently featuring Nancy Pelosi (which gets dropped in as an absurdist joke but ignored at the level of implications for the show’s content and tenor), the in-universe episode where Ava stormed out (justifiably!) in 4.06 had Al Gore as the main guest! Anyway I just continue to be a little frustrated that the writers don’t seem to have given much proper thought to the *texture* of Ava and Deborah’s work clash. Because that’s how we get all these inconsistencies like a Deborah who won’t use a “CNN word” and won’t talk about anything as liberal as maternity leave, but will happily host prominent democratic politicians and environmental activists, which would absolutely require writing interview questions that take the show closer to the In the Contrary territory Ava is suggesting is so ridiculously far from Late Night.

As always, lots to love about the writing of the interpersonal dynamics, but a bummer to see the detailed, textural world-building work slipping in ways that make the primary plot-driving tension incoherent :/

[thefiery-phoenix]

YANDERE TODOMOMO HEADCANNONS

They were already dating by the time they met you. They though you were like everyone else, just a regular classmate of theirs, however, they had no idea how WRONG they were 

To be precise, you were actually kinda hard to ignore, the way your eyes lit and sparkled when people talked about your favorite thing, the way your dazzling smile could make a person see stars, the way your innocence shone through and the determination you always had to help people out no matter what was what attracted them to you. How could you expect BOTH of them NOT to fall INSANELY in love with you?

However, they were scared and nervous to ask you out since they thought that you might find them weird and creepy and so, they kept themselves satisfied by stalking you or 'keeping a close eye on you so nothing bad happens to you' and admired you from far 

As much as they find your will and iron determination too cute and adorable, they just PRAY and hope that you won't want to become a pro hero in the future since they're really worried about you getting hurt. One time, you had a really nasty gash on your arm after a villain attack and after that, Momo started sniffling and crying saying how she'd be devastated if something bad happened to you while Todoroki looked like he was going to someone's funeral. Let's just say that if they weren't clingy then, they MOST CERTAINLY WILL BE now 

They know their feelings are crazy, but they're so madly in love with you they can't ignore them. So if you find a mysterious love letter in your locker or small gifts for you here and there, that's no doubt Todoroki and Momo since they're rich kids and all, they just LOVE showing you how much they love you by yeeting presents in your locker (Anonymously, of course)

On a scale on 1-10, to you, they'll just be a solid 2 or 2.5 since you're their divine angel sent from the heavens itself for them to WORSHIP!! They have a GOD DAMN WAREHOUSE filled with all your favorite stuff and before you ask how the hell they managed to pull THAT off, as stated before, they're rich kids and so they have all the required resources and necessities for you to be satisfied 

They will get INSANELY jealous and be fuming with rage, envy and jealousy when they see you talking or laughing or smiling at someone else. They have the emotional range of a GALAXY when it comes to you. How DARE that filthy annoying pesky scumbag be right NEXT to you!? Oh gods.... he was TOUCHING you!! He PATTED your SHOULDER!!! Well, this is gonna drive 'em insane over the edge and they'll be plotting murder, that's for sure. Satan spawns 

When you get kidnapped, they'll understand how you feel and they'll be sympathetic. They might kidnap you if they think you're not capable of taking care of yourself and with proper planning, they're gonna keep you under their care. You guys in a mood for surprises? Well, you're gonna get a HUGE one now.....

Endeavour will find out about the obsession his youngest son and his girlfriend have for you and he's gonna actually ENCOURAGE IT, believe it or not (ENDATRASHHHHH I'm coming for ya) and GET THIS!!!: HE'S gonna be the one who's going to make sure you have everything you want and he'll install high tech level security systems around the place you guys are at 

Momo will worship TF outta you. She dresses you up in all sorts of fancy clothing, makes you eat overly rich food till you're gonna be BEGGING her to stop but she insists on treating you like royalty. Every touch is gonna feel like paradise and heaven for her. And she just wants to take good care of her darling little angel, and provide you with comfort and the BEST of the BEST!

Shoto's intentions towards you can be a bit....unpredictable. Momo might be a gullible yandere, ask for something, you get it. Shoto on the other tends to keep a close eye on you, suspicious whether you would be upto something and always makes sure to see what you're doing. His calculating look analyzes your every move before you can even act upon them

When it comes to punishments, Shoto ain't gonna take it easy on you. He wants to freeze and burn you mildly of course as a reminder that you belong ONLY to THEM and no one else but Momo will intervene and stop him and calm him down. At the very least, your punishment might be having your favorite things taken away from you but they just can't hurt you at all. They DON'T WANT to. Momo will NEVER EVER let Todoroki lay a hand on you and treat you wrong though it might take a while to gain back both of their trust

Aftercare with them is like paradise. They'll smother you with lots of love and treat you like a newfound puppy and take care of you like you're glass

When it comes to dealing with rivals and other enemies who want to steal you away from them , your 'protectors', they are a SOLID 100000000/10 and that people is a FACT! Seriously, whoever tries anything with you is just BEGGING them for a death wish and since they're pro heroes, they're gonna make their death look like some sort of accident after they're done torturing them. Lol, they make Sangwoo and Hitler look like Barney the Dinosaur when it comes to murder 

They're manipulative, controlling and possessive of you. Will constantly bicker as to where to take you out on dates after you finally develop Stockholm Syndrome

[bastigone]

My “Bad End” Run of Dragon Age: Veilguard

So one of my top complaints about Veilguard (besides the dialog sounding like AI sometimes and choices not counting from Inquisition) is you really can’t be mean. Your answers are all, well, milquetoast at best, and blunt at the absolute worst. And honeslty, I felt like the game held my hand so much it wouldn't let me make a bad choice. Or a choice at all. So that made me decide hey, I’m going to play the worst Rook of all time and see if the game lets me fail horribly.

My thought process is, if there’s no way to really fail at the game, like be a “bad” Rook, then the gameplay doesn’t really matter at all. Will the outcome of this change that fact that I have eight Rook playthroughs going right now or ultimately change my opinion of the game? No, but I’m curious.

I did the bare minimum on this playthrough, because that’s really the only thing the game lets you do that could be “failing,” so I had it on Storyteller difficulty with the optional setting to not let you die in combat. I want to know if I could conceivably “win” the game without trying, not bash my head against Hurlocks for a half hour.

What I consider failing the game has a lot to do with the final battle, so if you want zero spoilers, stop now, this is going to be so, so spoiler heavy.

Spoilers ahead plus a tl;dr below the cut.

Tl;dr: YES YOU CAN HAVE A BAD END. I actually like the "bad" end enough to recommend you do it!

Tenants of being a bad Rook:

Look like a failson (optional).

Have an Inquisitor who wants to stop Solas at any cost, and also looks like a pathetic failson (optional).

Do ONLY quests required by the main questline.

Choose the “angry suit of armor” option every dialog choice. I had two exceptions to this. I was constantly freaked out by necromancy, so mean to Emmerich, and if another option was going to be meaner, I chose that one. I did also do a couple Shadow Dragon-specific answers, but that’s because I let Minrathos burn and thought it was funny to insist that no really, I’m a good Shadow Dragon. Promise.

Ignore every character moment physically possible, and if you get stuck in a character moment, be condescending and blunt about it.

What I Consider “Successfully Failing”

If I can get several of my companions killed. Not just “kidnapped by a mirror” or “you led the second expedition so whoops into a blight pit” killed, I mean actively choose a horrible option for them in the end battle and have them die horribly.

If I can somehow bring down the entire veil (I doubted this was possible).

If I could make it to the final battle with NO ONE at Veilguard status. This was probably the easiest thing to do during this run, because I clicked absolutely no extra dialogs, did no side quests, and only did what the game gave me under the “Main Story” header.

Things I Actively Avoided

I viewed none of Solas’s memories.

I did absolutely no character quests unless made to by the main plot progression.

I did nothing with Mythal. At all.

I did not clear out a single Blighted Champion. The Crossroads are absolutely CHOKED with blight.

My companions may as well be coworkers because I did absolute jack for them. That didn’t matter really, the game got them to level 6 and up with no character quests done. Which felt like cheating.

I romanced no one because that would be extra work.

I skipped every. Single. Cutscene. Which doesn’t make you a failure of a Rook it really just makes the B button on your controller stick after a while. Caveat, I let the final battle cutscenes play so I could see who lived, who died, who told my failson story.

I did nothing for my allies (think Veiljumpers et al) unless the main story quest helped them. As of rescuing the Dalish from being almost sacrificed, every ally was at a whopping one star strength.

Results

Okay, we’re breaking this down into general stuff I liked, then talking about the final battle where it all matters.

Nice Touches

Even if you skipped every skippable dialog with Taash, the game still tells you about their identity and your character learns their pronouns. Nice touch. No skipping personal discovery here.

Final Battle(s)

Yes, we’re jumping to the final battle (well, two battles, we’ve got the island ritual/eclipse time then the fight in the blighted city) because tbh skipping the rest of the game means, well, nothing really changes for your Rook. You lose a decent amount of approval with Neve because you show no remorse for her city burning (or, I guess, blighting), but that doesn’t result in much of a change, she still follows you, and then everything else is just really damn quick. I probably spent a total of under 10 hours on everything in this playthrough up until the final battle, maybe 12 if we’re pushing it.

In the lead up, Harding mentions your allies are weak and you’re “probably sending them to their death.” Even the game stops you to be like hey, everyone is weak and has so many personal problems, you’re probably going to die.

My Rook did not care and did not stop.

As for the Eclipse Ritual quest, while I sent Harding with party two (primarily because seeing Asaan dive into that blight pit again would break me) and had Bellara go through the mirror (I did Neve my OG runthrough), nothing else really changed. At least, not during the Ghila’nain fight, nor the lead up, nor the Fade prison. I mean sure this Rook has a lot more to regret but none of it is brought up or mentioned.

Now it’s time for the stuff everyone cares about:

What Changed

To start, the final fight gauntlet was about to get a whole lot harder.

I immediately got missives from the Lords of Fortune telling me the Dragon King was around, and then Rana telling me Aelia is making trouble on behalf of Elgar’nan. Cool, I assumed I’d have to fight them in the coming battle as mini-bosses since I ignored the character quests about them.

Here’s my strategy: I’m going to assign the worst possible people to each critical quest and see if it lets me pass still.

Results:

Sent Lucanis after the construct (Actually Hezenkoss’s skeleton thing, cool), died to a boulder.

Sent Taash to guard the Veiljumpers, Strife died.

Sent Neve against the mages (this time, Aelia), Neve lost the beam battle and died.

Viper died to the blight (sorry Matt Mercer).

Taash later died to the Dragon King during the Inquisitor’s siege/last stand.

Bellara died on the throne stopping the Blight.

Emmerich and Davrin died to Solas, when I attempted to stop him.

Rook died/got pulled into a Fade prison to bind Solas to the veil.

So, technically the game let me get down to only two party members (Davrin and Emmerich, because I needed a healer) who didn’t die before the Solas showdown/conversation (sorry Bellara).

But, big thing here, the game let me fail. It let me get a bad end.

So you know how if you play the game nicely, and do every quest, you get to choose to trick Solas? You don't get that option to trick him, or even give him stuff. The Inquisitor wasn't even THERE. No, Solas freezes you in the air, steals the dagger, then as he turns with you suspended in air, your party members attack him and get turned to STONE. Anyway this had some of the most hardcore moments and dialog in the entire game, it's worth your time to do a run through.

Final Thoughts

The ability to fail really did change my opinion of the game for better. Helping my companions actually meant something to me, and helping them did change the ending. Do I still wish that the quests themselves had "bad" options or gave me choices? Yes. But knowing that I chose the "bad" options (in this case, not doing them) and did get repercussions for that, did in fact make me appreciate the game more.

Being honest though, killing Lucanis hurt me physically, so I will not be doing this kind of run through again.

[self-loving-vampire]

How would you personally define agency? Most people seem to give a definition that's close to what willpower is, being someone's personal drive to enact change in their lives, but then there's concepts like political agency which also factor in whether or not someone actually has the power to enact that change into reality. I've been thinking a lot about the latter lately, and wondering if someone can truly be an active agent in their own life if so much of it is being destroyed through no fault if their own by outside forces/actors.

That is because here are different types of agency for different contexts and I'm not sure if anyone has properly categorized them before.

For example, I have previously posted about how I consider self-actualized trans people to have extremely high agency.

It's not that trans people have a lot of power in society (if anything the opposite is true), but that their goals often require deliberately overcoming many obstacles and going against normative influence. The world around you often does not want you to transition and will try to prevent it, so to do it anyway suggests a frankly beautiful level of independence and determination, even if they don't necessarily have the power to match.

This will seems to be the first type of agency you are describing, and I know from experience that it can have better outcomes than one might initially expect too.

In contrast, billionaires have a different type of agency in that they have much greater power and resources with which to influence the world around them. Their goals generally not require the same type of drive, but their decision-making has significantly less constraints.

As I said elsewhere, agency and free will in general are also always limited in some way in the absence of true omnipotence, which means agency is relative.

A billionaire's money can buy them a lot of power, but not literally infinite power. The fact that they don't have literally infinite power doesn't mean they lack agency, and in the same way the fact that I am not a billionaire doesn't mean I lack agency.

I could not just press a button and transition instantly with full acceptance from everyone around me, but I can scheme a daring plot to escape to Canada and start HRT, so I did that.

I can't change the outcome of the recent US election, but I can still try to help those close to me get out, and I already am.

I can't make it so everyone in the world stops aging or bring everyone who has ever died back from the dead, but I can motivate some of the people around me to live, and I already have.

I can't just decide to stop having a disability, and I can't just ignore its effects on my life and my abilities either, but there are still things I can do to train and become stronger anyway.

I think to me this is at the core of having agency: Taking action.

Even if you don't have access to the perfect actions omnipotence would grant you, you take action anyway. Smaller actions are not meaningless.

[ilikekidsshows]

about 'Derision' , it's the episode that I can't understand. But what's makes it bad was the fact its part of s5. Maybe... If, say, it happened in s1 I think it would be much better episode because s1 Chloe can be nasty, like what happened in Dark Cupid and Kim is still a 'delinquent' kid as shown in Stone Heart where he bully Ivan. But also make it so Marinette not easily shut Chloe up and don't make her be friends with Kim in Origin episode because of her trauma.

Because the weird thing about Derision is the fact it showed us Chloe and Kim is such a nasty character that caused Marinette trauma yet she seems fine to talk to them in Origin, and in Kim case, she even want to help him and talk to him like she talk to her friends.

I know s4 and s5 is a product of retool, it's even obvious in Derision because the math just not mathing there. At least when they want to retcon something make it so it won't be dissociated much from the older episode!

Derision should show us why Marinette is reluctant to be friends with Kim and make her hard to trust Chloe but instead it's the episode about 'why she's so tongue tied around Adrien who's actually has nothing to do with the bullying that happened before but get the burn out of it'

---

‘Derision’ really is such an utter mess of an episode. Chloé and Kim were created as archetypes. Chloé was the McKenzie clone, I mean, mean girl bully archetype, and Kim was the jock archetype. But they hadn’t really put any thought into the pasts of these characters, because middle school drama shows usually only go into backgrounds when it’s to explain a new inclusion into the cast, like they did with Socqueline. The reason ‘Derision’ doesn’t work with the rest of the show is that it wasn’t thought out at all.

There is one thing that makes sense with the episode, though. I can see why it was made, and it’s all part of the show’s new priority of excusing any criticized writing decisions. Yeah, the episode explains the current arc of why Marinette can’t be as close with Adrien as she wants to in order to keep milking the love square for plots that don’t require the writers to actually change anything or develop characters, but it’s also there to counter the “stalker allegations”.

Marinette’s stalking of Adrien has always been as much of a hot button topic in the fandom as Cat Noir’s constant flirting. How seriously and realistically are we supposed to take it, how much of it is just exaggeration for light-hearted appeal and how much these behaviors should be frowned upon in-universe were always questions that were kind of up to fan interpretation since the show didn’t commit to any specific angle on them. So, in the season where Cat Nor apologizes for being in love with Ladybug and easily falls out of love with her afterwards, we also have Marinette go through a traumatizing experience that makes her obsessed with knowing everything about any boy she likes (ignore how this behavior is only directed at Adrien when she’s had several other crushes she was fine about).

‘Derision’ couldn’t exist before the retool, because the writers weren’t trying to backtalk parts of the fandom before the retool. And that’s what ‘Derision’ is, backtalk. It has the characters saying stuff that is obviously aimed at the audience just as much as ‘Simpleman’, yet ‘Derision’ is less hated because it’s angsty, dramatic and Marinette stans gobbled up the excuses, because they live for excusing their fave.

���Derision’ really proves that the writers care very little about things other than Marinette and vindicating Marinette. Chloé is never this much of a menace again, not even in ‘Miracle Queen’ or ‘Queen Mayor’. Chloé is a sitcom-level threat that the show outgrew in the second season, yet ‘Derision’ is trying to convince the audience that she’s secretly always been a villainous mastermind who no one has ever dared to talk back to, who everyone’s scared of, who got rid of Marinette’s only defender, and that the characters are aware of this. Chloé goes completely undefeated in the past story of ‘Derision’, yet, all it takes for Marinette to completely defang the great evil that is Chloé for the rest of the show is Alya saying: “You need to stand up for yourself” and then standing up to Chloé once, in ‘Origins’, the original chronological starting point of the show. Except we are still supposed to consider her a big, active threat to Marinette and cheer when her neglectful dad sends her to live with her abusive mom.

Also, what they did to Kim with ‘Derision’ is character assassination. Full stop. The episode had Adrien almost Cataclysm him and it was treated as a cool moment because we’re meant to hate him for what he did to Marinette and cheer when Adrien is willing to kill someone for hurting her. And yet, despite his crime supposedly being this bad, Marinette treats him as a friend and teammate throughout the series and Kim gets easily forgiven at the end of the episode. This is another one for the pile of episodes where the Miraculous crew can’t keep their story consistent through even a single episode. In one moment we’re meant to want Kim dead and soon after we’re meant to cheer when he and his girlfriend make up, all because he said “sorry” to Marinette one time.

This episode wouldn’t even have worked as a season one episode, that’s how inconsistent it is with even the most basic ideas presented in the show.

[vasito-de-leche]

I have some thoughts in my mind lately in the Self aware au R1999 (I'm invested so badly), I was wondering are there any arcanist that resented the player maybe at first or still having resentment on them? Because if the player wasn't there they would be " free " (which I would doubt since there are many players and it would still happen nonetheless but just speaking from there perspective) did they just helplessly or casually got over it after some time and accepted the fact it was a game I mean they were levelled up by the player,the player was the reason why they were getting stronger and winning every battle but I have a feeling some arcanist would have some doubt in them since everything was just a script in the first place all the things that happened to them were meant to happen for the plot, I don't about how to reach when they find out that the player was a human though.. But just like earlier if the player never was here then they would be " free ",they wouldn't know it was just some game (they gonna go bree since they wouldn't exist)(RAHHH I might have wronged what I said in this😭 I just have a thought in my mind about them doubting, feeling frustrated and all...Btw I am badly down bad for your writing 💜💜💜 I admire it so well.. 🥹🫶🫶 can I get a hello Please.. ?💜🥹💜 I'd go crazy being noticed on a writer I admire)

hiiii helloooo hola bonjour and many other greetings o7 really glad you like my writing!

your question is very broad, so I can only make a quick list to categorize all the characters and how I think they'd feel overall towards the Player within this AU! since you only mentioned arcanist, I assume you mean the playable characters only, so that's also the group I'll be tackling

I don't have a good grasp on every single character, so some of these are subject to change as I learn more about them too o7

It's very, very complicated.

Vertin. Door. Mesmer Jr. Bkornblume. I consider these characters to be "outliers" in terms of how they perceive the Player--in the sense that their opinion fluctuates and varies a lot, so they cannot be easily labeled in any of the other categories. They're contradicting or find themselves at odds with themselves, seeing the figure of the Player and everything the Player represents as positive and negative influences simultaneously. To them, you're a close friend and a distant stranger, a saviour and a harbinger of ruin, a source of knowledge and the end of everything--you're all of these, all at once.

as for the rest, I only described the opposite ends of the spectrum and the neutral category!

Extremely resentful and hateful

Desert Flannel. Erick. Mondlicht. Oliver Fog. Pavia. Sonetto. Sweetheart. This one is pretty straightforward--these are the characters who are defensive, who feel like your mere existence is mocking them, who have gone through so much and feel humiliated to know you're casually looking at them from above, so out of reach and superior and unbothered by their pain. But also characters who are combative or quick to identify you as a threat, such as Pavia and Sonetto, because you go against everything they believe in.

Stressed, requires a lot of time to get over it

AliEn T. Bette. Bunny Bunny. Charlie. Ezra. Kanjira. Matilda. Pickles. Ulu.

Mostly troubled, but open to change

6. Mr. APPLe. Darley Clatter. Diggers. Druvis III. La Source. Lilya. Melania. Ms. Moissan. Poltergeist. Zima

Neutral, indifferent and/or unaffected

Baby Blue. Click. Dikke. Jessica. John Titor. Rabies. Sputnik. Tennant. Tooth Fairy. Twins Sleep. These characters remain neutral, but do not confuse their indifference or lack of reaction for ignorance. Some of them aren't quite lucid, conscious or old enough to fully understand their surrounding, such as Rabies and Twins Sleep, but I would say the rest are grounded enough as to not let a figure such as the Player affect them in any intense or extreme way. Some of them simply don't care because this entire reveal doesn't exactly change their routine nor perception of the world. Some are choosing to remain neutral until they gather more information to form a solid opinion.

Mostly curious, but open to change

A Knight. Cristallo. Kaalaa Baunaa. Ms. NewBabel. Necrologist. Satsuki. Spathodea. Voyager.

Eager to learn, requires a lot of stress to be affected

37. An-an Lee. Centurion. Eagle. Horropedia. Leilani. Nick Bottom. Shamane. Sotheby. X.

Extremely intrigued

Eternity. Medicine Pocket. Ms. Radio. ONiON. Regulus. TTT. The Fool. Regardless of how your existence affects these characters, their curiosity and the new opportunities and possibilities you bring along are much more important to them. These are characters who seek to profit from you in some way, who see you as a fascinating subject to study, who may even relate in a way to the role you play as the Player, who may pity you.

[rahuratna]

Heyyyyyy 🫶

So I was thinking about how the relationship would be with Nanami and a low maintenance partner. Low maintenance as in

- not Gojo is the first thing that came into mind LOL 😂

- values simplicity and is already very content with just being in the presence of Nanami, no matter the activity. Like cleaning together or just resting on the couch together

- probably a homebody like Nanami, doesn’t need expensive gifts or to go out on fancy dates

etc etc… basically someone with similar interests (cooking, drinking, reading, staying in, according to the JJK fan book) and chill energy level as a Nanami

I bring this up because it’s typically the grumpy x sunshine or black cat x golden retriever pairings, but I haven’t seen much of a chill homebody x chill homebody duo. Maybe I don’t read enough or maybe because there wouldn’t be much of a plot line other than the two characters just snoozing in bed or staying in and watching movies or enjoying simple domesticity… but that’s honestly my definition of ultimate happiness 😂 😂

Maybe on the outside it would seem boring to others but I’d like to think (for my sake) this type of relationship would have its own special type of quirks and connection.

What do you think? 👀

@courtneedsleep Gojo 😂😂😂 God, I LIVE for easy going, low maintenance relationships. I'm pretty much a homebody myself, so it bleeds a lot into my writing, whether I'm writing a pairing or not. I love describing cosy settings, creature comforts, food, things that are nostalgic or provide a sense of comfort.

My headcanon is that this kind of relationship would be very comforting to Nanami, and one he enjoys immensely. As someone who does work a fairly stressful job, I value the moments of calm, when I can simply exist in a beautiful space, do physical things, like cooking, gardening or going on a long drive, activities where you can switch off and go into autopilot. Having a partner who can match that energy and is comfortable with it is a blessing.

There is beauty in muted physical contact, touching someone to simply remind yourself that they're here, with you. The little unique sounds and scents that belong to them, the way they clear their throat or shuffle their feet, the weight of their head in your lap, the tiny changes in their facial expression as they read something; these are all the small, but precious treasures of intimacy, the sweetness of companionship. Nanami strikes me as the quiet, but observant man who would find so much value in those aspects, as would his partner.

As much as Nanami states clearly that during his time as a salaryman, he thought of little else besides making money, there's a strong contextual side to this that can't be ignored. He was never after luxury, he just wanted to ensure a simple, ordinary and comfortable life for himself, one he could pursue free from the stresses and tragedies that had been heaped upon him.

Being as pragmatic as he is, he would have been fully aware of the value of money in providing that for himself. For Nanami, it was never about the wealth, or some kind of high status lifestyle. Money was a means to an end. This is why I'm convinced that the most precious aspects of Nanami's relationship with a partner would be the myriad small experiences he has alongside them, from sharing books, to lazy commentary on a movie on a Sunday afternoon, to baking a loaf of bread together, to drinking coffee on the balcony on a quiet morning with the same sun on his skin and theirs. These are the things he'd love.

Nanami strikes me as a man who values his space and privacy, and that sharing it with someone else would require a very high level of trust. Sharing space with Nanami would be the equivalent of dusting out that high, unreachable shelf in his heart, and occupying your rightful position there. I do think that someone like him would want their partner to understand the significance of opening their homes and lives to each other, in the simplest of ways, ways that he will always cherish and never take for granted.

I think that a partner like this, who can provide that safe shelter away from the storm, who creates a space for Nanami to grow as an individual, who is comfortable in the warm silence of true companionship, who treasures those golden hours of calm repose, would be someone Nanami would definitely consider spending the rest of his life with.

His heart is an ordered garden, but when you wander long enough, the wild flowers that bloom in sweet silence are the rarest and most beautiful.

Thanks for another lovely ask! They give me so much joy 🌻🌻💛💛

[sami32e]

Modern Eggette Concept Art

DeviantArt Mirror

So hey, remember that one Sonic OC that was born out of a misinterpreted upside-down Eggman sprite in Sonic Mania? Remember when she basically took the fandom by storm for a few months and then most people slowly forgot about her? Well...

I never forgot

Continuing my trend of showcasing not-widely-known to downright obscure characters and adding them to this Sonic AU I'm slowly developing, here's Eggette. I love her, I've always loved her since 2017. I don't care that she might be a Bowser Jr. clone, I still love her.

So, I've made a modern design for her!! It took me a good while but I'm very proud of it. I know her main color is supposed to be black, but I'd argue there's still plenty of it.

Her design has a lot of inspirations from other creators, and I mean A LOT. But to name a few there's JamoART, ArsworldS, UnamusedYams, Blazyneko (Maria AU design), WaitoChan, Heroart111, and the CEO of Eggette herself: MightyMilkyWay.

Anyways, enjoy this, actual character info is under the cut. And I know I wrote it in the art itself, but this design is free to use (even for Sonic things unrelated to my AU), only condition is giving credit.

Agatha Elaina Robotnik, better known as Eggette, is the niece of the infamous Dr. Eggman and one of the highest ranking people in the Eggman Empire, only overshadowed by others with equal ranking (Even though she was here first!!) and, of course, her dear uncle.

She can be as bombastic, loud, egotistical and cruel as Eggman, with and intelligence worthy of the Robotnik family name. However, though she's not without her fair share of pettyness and anger, she can be... weirdly alright?? Like, when she's not busy conquering your home in the name of the Eggman Empire, she can be pretty chill to hang out with, barring her low-key terrible social skills.

That's not to say she isn't dangerous, oh no, she is still very much aligned with her uncle's goals and ideals, but generally speaking she's not one to start torturing people just because she feels like it... Usually. She certaintly can admit when she has respect for her enemies, unlike her uncle. When she's all business, however, she's probably the most feared person in the empire outside of The Doctor or Metal Sonic.

She usually isn't front-and-center in her uncle's big plots, other than the ocassional boss battle, but she does help make sure everything goes smoothly(ish) and she also helps with designing schematics for new creations with her beloved uncle (something that both of them genuinely enjoy more for the fact that they're spending time together over any actual work they may produce).

As for her age... It's complicated. So apparently according to SEGA only a year has passed from Sonic 1 all the way up to Frontiers?? That feels impossible in so many levels, specially if you account Forces' 6 month timeskip. And yeah, I know this is my AU and can do whatever I want for it, and while I'll ultimately will, the backbone of it is supossed to be the games. Still, this'll have to be something I'll ignore for the AU.

So I imagine she'd be around 10-11 during Mania... So let's say this modern version is between 12 and 14 years old (depents on the game you're in).

Extra Factoids :)

Loves bugs and spiders a lot, specially spiders.

Finds Grimer creepy and avoids him unless she's required to interact with him.

Has an alright relationship with her father despite everything. Her sister, however, she does not like at all (gonna let you guess who she is >:])

Can be a jerk most of the time sometimes, but she also loves intimidating and torturing other jerks within the Empire. She has a less harsh treatment of those who joined out of necessity or for sympathetic reasons, so long as they exhibit loyalty to her and her uncle, of course.

Has a relatively small interest in music. Takes DJ lessons from Stone from time to time.

She's got the Toy Line of robots (Toy Sonic, Toy Amy) as personal assistants, which she created herself.

Has destroyed her uncle at videogames on more than one ocassion.

Definitely does not sneak out once a month to meet up with Snively in The Groovy Train café to catch up. No siree, it's totally a recon mission to gather intel on G.U.N. no her uncle doesn't know about these missions but that's not important, what's with all these baseless accusations.

[foxufortunes]

Some random tips and trivia for anyone wanting to take a slightly more realistic look at exy and sport in their fanfics:

Long jogs are not good for sports like exy. The best you can say is they're good cardio, but most exercise they should be doing anyway is good cardio. To oversimplify: long term energy and fast action energy have different power supplies and training one doesn't really help the other. There's a reason sprinters and marathon runners are not the same people. Exy is a sport of fast bursts and in some cases long jogs can actually be detrimental to your ability to play these sports.

Dear lord, warm up and cool down. I know most of us just assume this is in there and glossed over, but if you're going into details, warm up and cool down and wear warm jackets after. Especially cool down. I know Kevin and Neil have already fucked their bodies but don't make it worse. Also, rest days. You body needs time to recover. Kevin and Jean will be lucky if they recover enough not to have any career after college given how much Tetsuji has fucked the Ravens with his training. Thea is probably in agony the entire time and she doesn't have long left playing.

Goalie's lead the defence line. If you want to throw around a defence captain type plot, it's your goalies, it's always goalies. Because they have the best view of the entire court. You dealer should control the entire team's plays, as the person who should be going from defence to offence and back (assuming they work similarly to other sports with a similar position) but the defence is always run by the goalie, and your goalies are usually really fucking loud about it.

Your division/class is actually nothing to do with your team's skill, but your school's sports program and budget. The Foxes are not a Class I team, Palmetto is a D1 school. To get this status, your school has to have a certain level of sports program, featuring a certain number of sports, sports for women, upcoming/rarer sports and certain required sports. While EAU blatantly ignores all of this as presented in canon (they seem to be D3 status, maybe D2 at best) who got their status through bribery and corruption and their coach, Palmetto, as presented in canon, clearly meets D1 school status. Your school's division also affects what kinds of scholarships they offer. Typically, only D1 schools offer full ride sports scholarships. It's most likely Palmetto was looking to fund an exy team and Wymack went to them because they're a D1 school, or they approached Wymack, unlike the Ravens who clearly don't understand how this works.

On the topic of Wymack: the ERC couldn't have had anything to do with Andrew's miracle in October. We'll get to this but the ERC is just not that powerful, and, see above point, they have nothing to do with Palmetto's status. Now, Nora actually gives us a far more likely and better reason in the EC, that she then overcomplicated in canon trying to make the ERC more powerful for no reason, especially given Kevin wasn't even with the Foxes at the time. In the scene where we see Wymack recruiting the cousins, Andrew brings up the idea that Wymack's initial four year will be on it's last year that year and he needs results or the school will decline renewing his contract and rebuild the exy program from scratch under a new coach. This is far more likely a reason for him to need Andrew's miracle. It's his final year of his contract, the school wants results, and if they drop out now with so few games won, he's done for. And given how many NCAA rules he and Abby help the Foxes break, it won't be long before the rest of the Foxes lose their scholarships too.

Four years might seem like an odd amount of time for an initial contract, and it sorta is, but one thing mentioned in TSC that's never brought up in the original trilogy is redshirting. Basically, for all you have a five year contract, you can only play four seasons. One season, you get to practice, but not play games, this is called red shirting, and in my experience and what I've heard from others, it's typically the freshman, for obvious reason, but this does bring up issues for Wymack's team design, and means Neil will have to take a year off eventually. And don't even think about how this affects the Ravens.

Speaking of Ravens, this is honestly one of the most basic NCAA rules: you cannot play professionally and play NCAA. Kevin and Riko literally cannot be playing for professional teams and be playing for the Ravens, the NCAA would boot them instantly. And, up until very recently, you also cannot be paid for your photoshoots, or using your likeness or sponsorships. To play NCAA, during the period AFTG is set, you cannot make any money as a player. Now, there's an argument that Tetsuji could probably make that Kevin and Riko didn't make money as players, but as celebrities in their own rights, but that's a very grey area. But, no, they weren't getting paid for photoshoots or interviews or sponsorships or anything like that. The only exceptions are tournament winnings, and there is a very strict cap on that, and stipends which there was a lot of debate over whether that counted as payment or not. They cannot be paid for anything related to exy because the second the NCAA makes an exception for exy, every other sport wants it too, and I'm sure some of them are mafia backed too. Mafia bribery doesn't fix everything, and if your trying to write your mafia as not a bunch of idiots, they'll know where to stop.

And then the ERC. They're just not that powerful, y'all. I get that Nora wanted to make them seem powerful, but given how Riko does most of the shit not Tetsuji, even that's pointless. So, for a start, the ERC needs specific scope. It's cool to call it the Exy Rules and Regulations Committee, but for what? Sports tend to have an overall ruling body, but they don't actually control everything. They control things like national tournaments and teams. Then you have the country's body, that controls things like the leagues, and they often have different rules that take time to catch up to each other. Different leagues within the same country can have slightly different rules. And often the NCAA also has its own rules. (To use volleyball, because that does have wildly different rules, in the NCAA liberos can serve in certain conditions, and that's about the only place in the world this rule exists). Basically, they only have control if you're competing in their tournament or affiliated. For the ERC to have such control over the Foxes, they're likely an NCAA committee, this means the ERC only has power over rule and regulations of Class I exy (oh yes, each division has their own committee), meaning they control things like gear regulations, rules on bench size, foul rules ect. Not which class the Foxes are in, not if Andrew's allowed to play with them, nothing like that. It's strictly the rules of the game. And they are the bottom of the power chart. Above them you have things like the division committee, the student athlete's committee and so many others. The ERC actually has very little power because the NCAA is a massive, slow moving, complicated bureaucracy. Even if they could drop the Foxes a division or get rid of Andrew, it would take years.

[utilitycaster]

Pls ignore if the spectre of ruminating on old god-diskhorse is far too obnoxious but it's rather a jump-off point for a more general question; an issue brought up pushing back against the most obnoxious "vanguard is right eradicate those tyrant gods rq stole vax hate that bitch" ppl, aside from other things like just being deeply myopic even just from an in-universe perspective, but on a wholler narrative level requires completely ignoring or discarding campaign 1 and 2's theses and genuine connections. Largely i think these ppl's takes are more interested in self-validation than concerned with what they're actually saying when they want these things to be true (which they aren't, Matt and cast and plot progression from the peak of those discourses have made that clear), but now here's my wondering: what would it say if c3 were to be these things? By what metrics do you judge a sequel installment should it, in the pursuit of its own story, undermine or contradict the earnest, complete, already told story that preceded it and was built upon?

Hi anon,

This is a good question, and necessarily one with a subjective answer, so I hope I at least explain my thought process below! Also: this does have some spoilers for a Midst episode in Season 3 (which aired a few weeks ago). I mention this because it's a really useful example for me but this wasn't a question about Midst so you might not be expecting me to talk about it.

Firstly, I agree with you that a lot of the people who want this want the story to validate their personal beliefs. Some want it to validate political/philosophical beliefs, which is a complicated thing: on the one hand, I very much don’t want to watch a show that’s like “hey slavery is neat-o!” and doubt such a show would have much merit. On the other hand, when we’re dealing with much more complicated issues like religion, which simultaneously exists as a tool of oppression; an aspect of identity that makes one a target of oppression; a source of meaning and comfort; and a source of justification of terrible practices all in one; I think it’s extremely valuable to be exposed to a multitude of perspectives and to not just endlessly look for those that validate one’s own experiences.

Others just want the story to validate their feelings about the happenings within the narrative, which is on the one hand usually less close-minded, but on the other hand, kind of stupid. You are permitted to dislike that Vax died. I disagree, but you can feel however you want (indeed, you don’t need my, or anyone’s permission to dislike that Vax died). The story saying “The Raven Queen isn’t perfect” or even “The Raven Queen is Bad” isn’t necessary for you to have those feelings; and the Raven Queen being slaughtered isn’t per se necessary for Vax to come back (which I think would be cheap and stupid, but like, if that’s what you want you could just have him come back.) You don’t need to story to tell you that your response to the story is good, so this is ultimately a case of “why are you even doing this."

I also suspect there’s just some degree of subversion for subversion’s sake (or change for change's sake) people who were into the idea of killing the gods just to flip C1 and C2 on their respective heads. The thing is, subversion for the sole purpose of subversion has always been the province of the dull. There’s a reason why culturally we treat M. Night Shyamalan as a joke and it’s because “THERE’S A TWIST” without a strong and compelling build-up to said twist nearly always is, as the post I recently reblogged said, something that only hits hard if you’re stupid.

What I need from a story to be good is internal consistency and a strong execution. I am frequently surprised, in a very positive way, by stories that are so well-executed that they sell me on a premise with which I was less than enamored. If you’d told me that I’d feel sad about FCG’s sacrifice or extremely in favor of Phineas and Jonas’s romantic relationship during early C3 or, frankly, even the minute before I listened to Trustfall, respectively, I would have said “huh, really?” But both of these events were thoughtfully built to a point where they felt like meaningful and interesting choices for the story to take, even if that was not apparent to me earlier on.

So: the metric I’d use to judge a god-killing C3 is the same as that of any long-running story. I think there is a universe in which Campaign 3 could have made the demise of the gods a good and compelling story. But that work simply has not been done. The atrocities of the Vanguard, Weave Mind, and the Dwendalian Empire under Ludinus Da’leth; the callousness shown towards all Exandrians and Ruidians by the Vanguard and Kreviris Imperium; and most importantly the fact that there haven’t been new reveals of terrible things done by the gods and the story has instead striven to paint them as more fragile and complicated than what we’ve seen in past means that a sudden twist would, well, be cheap and only hit hard if you’re stupid. You can contradict a past story in an installment (or the earlier work in a long-running series) in a way that is not undermining if you are able to tie it together and show new information that was not available earlier! But that’s the key: it needs to be clear that the earlier works were showing a specific perspective (already a very tall order given the protagonist-only POV of D&D campaigns) or that the situation has drastically changed. If you fail to do this, then as you said, it’s undermining and it’s poorly done and a bad story.

I think that last point is also really important in thinking through the fandom response. I mentioned that I can be sold on a premise that didn’t win me over initially if the execution is strong. I think some people, and especially those gunning for a “The Gods are All Bad” story are so terrified of not being validated or of being wrong in their predictions or of criticism from other fans that they can no longer enjoy a story or comment meaningfully upon it. To which I say skill issue. I am thrilled and even grateful that, as previously mentioned, FCG had an arc that deepened their character and addressed my earlier criticism such that I could enjoy episode 91 as much as I did. I was mildly spoiled on the potential of Jonas and Phineas getting together and was, to be honest, slightly dreading it as I’d always preferred a platonic interpretation of their relationship, and then the scene in which it happened (and everything since) has been so deftly handled that I’m fully on board.

I am a far better analyst and critic of fiction than a creator of it, and I’m open about this. I am constantly surprised in ways both positive and negative by how other people tell stories, and that’s why I come back to them. I want the story to be so good that it expands my horizons and comfort zone and shows me something new. I find little joy in a story validating who I already am and what I already think. I want the story to make a better argument for what it has to say than I can make against it. If this is a competition between the story and me, I am rooting for the story to win over me and in doing so, win me over; and I am disappointed when it doesn’t.

I am also a physicist, and, famously within our understanding of physics, pretty much anything can happen; it’s all just a matter of probabilities. And so it’s hard for me to say “there’s no way this could ever be done well.” It’s very easy, however, for me to say “the eye of the needle one must thread to do this well is a micron in diameter and constantly moving.” I think it’s possible to turn the concept of a god-slaying Campaign 3 into a story that, rather than clumsily ignoring or discarding C1 and C2’s theses, transforms them and puts them in a new and unexpected light. But the narrative dexterity check required for that has always been high, and only gets higher as the actual Campaign 3 story continues along its current path.