#bc... you know... same person

[anonygowose]

Am I the only person horrendously weirded out by selfcest???

I see SO much Artificer (RW) selfcest, shipping Arti before and after the incident with the pups and..... why....? Just. Eugh.

I do not understand the appeal of romanticizing a character with themself? It's just kinda gross imo? Tags will have more opinions :/

[lazylittledragon]

so uhhhhhhhh. not to be cryptic and bitchy on main but congratulations to everyone in my messages for like 5 months on being right i guess

[bunnieswithknives]

Fop redesigns for funsies but also bcs I saw some star heel boots and had to put Dale in them immediately.

[unknown-cold]

It's weird that people who claim to understand Vi's personality don't notice that she's changed and evolved for the better. And I'm talking about Vi's hatred of enforcers.

I see a lot of posts criticizing Vi for this. They don't know that one of the messages the Arcane writers want to send us is forgiveness and moving on. Holding on to the past, hating and holding a grudge only makes things worse for a character and increases her pain and problems, as we saw with Jinx and her intense hatred of Piltover, as well as her hatred for Caitlyn increased her suffering, problems and making terrible mistakes. The same thing with Caitlyn, her intense hatred for Jinx made her lose people around her, and increased her suffering and making mistakes as well.

So I don't understand why people want Vi to keep hating the enforcers, I get that they killed her family and locked her in a prison, but seriously guys this is not Caitlyn's fault, Caitlyn was the first person to treat her kindly, Caitlyn didn't care that she was from Zaun, or that she was a stranger and different from her, Caitlyn was the first person to show Vi love and care in a very long time, Caitlyn was the first person to show her that there are good people in Piltover.

The show wants to show us that we shouldn't judge people before getting to know them first, and not because of a bad experience. Stopping my whole life and living in hatred and resentment towards the people who wronged me, this will destroy my psyche.

I know that moving on isn't easy sometimes, but we have to do it for a better future for ourselves and the people around us. And that's exactly what the characters in the show did. Caitlyn gave up her hatred for Jinx for her love for Vi. Caitlyn knew that continuing in the cycle of violence and hatred would destroy her. The same thing happened with Jinx. She gave up her anger towards Vi after she joined the enforcers, in order to be reunited with Vander. She also gave up her hatred towards Caitlyn after she learned that Cait was a good person and not the bad enforcer as Jinx thought her to be in S1. Of course, this was after Jinx saw that Caitlyn helped them.

Caitlyn's desire to help Vander changed her mind. and not only Vander's help and Ambessa's betrayal but also something more important that I'm sure made Jinx change her mind about Caitlyn and later say "you deserve to be with her" to Vi, was when she saw that Caitlyn didn't come to kill her.

This and also for me it was Caitlyn's forgiveness. People overlook this moment so much, but pay attention to Jinx reaction when Cait is walking away after their conversation in the bunker. Jinx who minute before was sure that Cait is here to kill her, has her eye widen to the size of the saucer. When Caitlyn says "hating you I've hated myself" and then walks away Jinx is surprised and Jinx is not kind of a person that is easily surprised.

And I believe that Jinx’s reevaluation of Cait isn’t based solely on something about Jinx herself, but that she has seen her being good and selfless in other regards as well.

(and yeah I indeed wished they would delve deeper into Vi and her trauma instead of a 3-minute music video in ep 5, but what can we do? This is what we got) And tbh it's not that bad, the show was so good and enjoyable. It just needs to focus on the details and read between the lines, as well as rewatching the scenes more than once, because the writers tried to tell the story as well as possible in a short time.

After that, who knows? Maybe Vi joining the enforcers is a good thing for her to help her people, and also to be by Caitlyn's side as her deputy, when Caitlyn is sheriff. Like Cait and Vi will try to fix the enforcers system and make them serve the greater good for both cities.

[sunlit-mess]

I can only take so much, but lately, they have replaced my reflection. And realize I'm just as bad as them.

[seasideoranges]

i love your zukka art!! have you ever drawn them in a modern setting? i would love to see you interpret their clothing styles!!

sincerest apologies that their outfits are kinda boring especially sokkas, designing modern clothing for the atla gaang is very difficult for me haha

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

[th3-c0ll3ct3r]

Scott haters be like: "I saw him make a joke. But I took it seriously so I hate him. But the joke about Grian absolutely hating Jimmy's guts? A joke. Clearly. But Scott? Nahhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

OR

"I choose to believe out of context/misinformation about him over doing my own research. Therefore I hate him because I blindly believed someone the Internet."

[moeblob]

cute? D: (thank you so much!)

[inkskinned]

crows use tools and like to slide down snowy hills. today we saw a goose with a hurt foot who was kept safe by his flock - before taking off, they waited for him to catch up. there are colors only butterflies see. reindeer are matriarchical. cows have best friends and 4 stomachs and like jazz music. i watched a video recently of an octopus making himself a door out of a coconut shell.

i am a little soft, okay. but sometimes i can't talk either. the world is like fractal light to me, and passes through my skin in tendrils. i feel certain small things like a catapult; i skirt around the big things and somehow arrive in crisis without ever realizing i'm in pain.

in 5th grade we read The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night-time, which is about a young autistic boy. it is how they introduced us to empathy about neurotypes, which was well-timed: around 10 years old was when i started having my life fully ruined by symptoms. people started noticing.

i wonder if birds can tell if another bird is odd. like the phrase odd duck. i have to believe that all odd ducks are still very much loved by the other normal ducks. i have to believe that, or i will cry.

i remember my 5th grade teacher holding the curious incident up, dazzled by the language written by someone who is neurotypical. my teacher said: "sometimes i want to cut open their mind to know exactly how autistics are thinking. it's just so different! they must see the world so strangely!" later, at 22, in my education classes, we were taught to say a person with autism or a person on the spectrum or neurodivergent. i actually personally kind of like person-first language - it implies the other person is trying to protect me from myself. i know they had to teach themselves that pattern of speech, is all, and it shows they're at least trying. and i was a person first, even if i wasn't good at it.

plants learn information. they must encode data somehow, but where would they store it? when you cut open a sapling, you cannot find the how they think - if they "think" at all. they learn, but do not think. i want to paint that process - i think it would be mostly purple and blue.

the book was not about me, it was about a young boy. his life was patterned into a different set of categories. he did not cry about the tag on his shirt. i remember reading it and saying to myself: i am wrong, and broken, but it isn't in this way. something else is wrong with me instead. later, in that same person-first education class, my teacher would bring up the curious incident and mention that it is now widely panned as being inaccurate and stereotypical. she frowned and said we might not know how a person with autism thinks, but it is unlikely to be expressed in that way. this book was written with the best intentions by a special-ed teacher, but there's some debate as to if somebody who was on the spectrum would be even able to write something like this.

we might not understand it, but crows and ravens have developed their own language. this is also true of whales, dolphins, and many other species. i do not know how a crow thinks, but we do know they can problem solve. (is "thinking" equal to "problem solving"? or is "thinking" data processing? data management?) i do not know how my dog thinks, either, but we "talk" all the same - i know what he is asking for, even if he only asks once.

i am not a dolphin or reindeer or a dog in the nighttime, but i am an odd duck. in the ugly duckling, she grows up and comes home and is beautiful and finds her soulmate. all that ugliness she experienced lives in downy feathers inside of her, staining everything a muted grey. she is beautiful eventually, though, so she is loved. they do not want to cut her open to see how she thinks.

a while ago i got into an argument with a classmate about that weird sia music video about autism. my classmate said she thought it was good to raise awareness. i told her they should have just hired someone else to do it. she said it's not fair to an autistic person to expect them to be able to handle that kind of a thing.

today i saw a goose, and he was limping. i want to be loved like a flock loves a wounded creature: the phrase taken under a wing. which is to say i have always known i am not normal. desperate, mewling - i want to be loved beyond words.

loved beyond thinking.

[sukibenders]

Me, watching some YJS fans justify what Shauna did to Mari by using clips of Mari and Jackie giggling in s1 (normal teenage girl things), or Mari speaking the truth and trying to take Jackie's jacket (even though it was the middle of winter and the group were already sharing clothes), with said fans saying that they've would've done worse to Mari in response, acting like that makes them any better:

[mouse-fantoms]

If ya’ll think I’m not crying like a baby about this then let me inform you 😭😅

[t-u-i-t-c]

can't stop thinking about this moment where leon helps wolf and wolf just pauses for a moment, looking over to leon like he cannot believe he's actually helping him.

[transsexula]

Anyways when are we gonna stop pretending this isn't about "getting back at" an imagined trans guy. Good job! You both finally recognized trans men as men, AND ignored that they are punished for being men in one sentence. Really special work happening here.

The controversy is in only considering trans men as "men" in a way to hurt them. While also in a way misgendering:

"You're only a man because I know implying you act like a cis man in all the bad ways hurts you. In reality I see you all as hysterical bitches out to hurt the rest of the trans community" isn't progressive. It's just being nasty to be nasty.

Imagine hating trans people so much you joke about wishing they all died, then make posts like this, and assume that people will still think you actually care about the trans community.

[yi3248]

was looking through your ghostroach art and just thought of a confession scene where ghost is trying to be romantic by saying something like, “Even if I was six feet under again, if it were you I was buried with, I’d be closer to Heaven than ever.”

and roach is like “What do you mean “again”?! And with someone???” and his mind is so focused on That that he completely misses the fact that ghost is trying to confess to him 😭😭 just a whole mess

(after that ghost just mentions its time for lunch and starts walking to the mess while roach is still trying to figure out his words)

ANON PLEASE REVEAL YOURSELF YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST BRAIN

u have no idea how much this kept me up at night imagining ghost either mustering up his courage, trying to confess casually (but still wanting his sincere feelings to come across), or he simply blurted it out while they were heading out for a mission

ghost's confession have me in shambles and i hope you have a great day

[maythedreadwolftakeyou]

perhaps my most #cancelable videogame take i can post on this website is i think that the kind of people who say that anyone who picks the "morally wrong" or "mean" options in video game dialogue should, as a player, feel bad about their own choices/morals in real life. is that those people are just another flavor of the kind of dudes who play Disco Elysium and get mad for not being rewarded for picking the facist options. both of these groups are reducing games to "a thing I want to agree with me and everyone else who doesn't either suffers or does not have the option to play a character who behaves otherwise" rather than "a medium where you get to (or even Have to) explore different kinds of characters in order to experience the full depth of the story and characters in it."

When I want to pick options in a game that are mean, negative, arrogant, or ignorant, it's because I want to explore what would push a character into becoming that kind of person. Sometimes I want to see how the NPC characters who I-The-Player like/agree with react to someone who is fundamentally different from them. I think it's GOOD actually when the narrative allows you to push limits and especially when it has the option to then punish you for it in some way, such as losing options/routes later on, or companions straight up abandoning you for your choices. It DOES often make me deeply, viscerally uncomfortable to make choices in a game that are so counter to my own, but it means I get to experience that discomfort in an isolated environment and also think about what it means, what would push the character or even yes a real person into actually feeling those things. And I get to play with what ways the narrative could challenge them/make them grow over the course of the game--or on the other side, it can let me make a character who does start off more open/accepting but let the events of the narrative push them into being more reactively closed-minded instead.

I like that we have invented a medium where you can play a game multiple times and experience it differently depending on the character you play as. Books and TV and movies are all static--the greatest draw of games to me is the ones that are responsive, that can tell a slightly different story every time--when other characters in the game respond differently to you because of it, or some paths open up and others don't. And so yes it did disappointment me when a franchise that previously had these elements, Dragon Age, did not include them in the most recent installment. I don't think games should have options where you get to just hit a button to say something racist with no consequences or exploration into why a character would do that. but like, if i can only ever play a game as an upstanding person who is morally right all the time in basically the same flavor for every dialogue. I only get to truly play that game Once, you know? And I only get to see the way the companions react to someone they like and trust. And never really go deeper than that.

So like... I just sit and think about the scenes you can get in Inquisition. with Cassandra breaking down, because she fears she placed a would-be tyrant at the head of a powerful organization--that she searched and searched and chose wrong. Of Varric who is desperate to convince you not to become a monster, like the last person he feels betrayed him. Vivienne intentionally pissing you off because she wants to see how far you'll go when angered, how much she has to worry about your reactions. They say so much about the companions, what they fear most, and where they will draw the line. And especially in Inquisition, at these crisis points--you don't have to double down. Your character can have a come-to-Andraste moment where they go "woah... is that really how people see me? is this what i want?" and I think that kind of option can do way more for encouraging actual players to examine the choices they make in stories, more than locking the player into supportive, non-aggressive options does.

now. do i think all games execute these flavors well? no. writers and devs will have their own biases and blind spots, even if they are otherwise well-intentioned. and I don't think the ends of the scale need to extend from "absolute angel" to "horrible bigot", because the real complexity of course lies in the middle. I am not asking for games to let me be bigoted at every turn, what I want is games that let me make the protagonist deeply flawed in one or more ways--fearfully closed-minded to things outside their upbringing, or afraid of change to the status quo, or who want to advance their own aims regardless of consequences to others. I actually agree that the game was correct not to include any options for disrespecting Taash and their personal journey for example, but I do wish... idk maybe that we could have had a scene where if for instance the player character avoided outside-world missions relating to clearing away blight, they could confront us on how this might devastate the natural world and its creatures like dragons, and push us into trying to resolve it. Or in the other direction, if you spend the (currently meaningless) time giving money to background NPCs begging in the cities, Neve could could have a special cutscene thanking you for your attention to people otherwise beneath notice. You know?

And of course not every game can do this, I can write those sentences up there that represent hundreds of hours of dev time, of course they can't do it all. But the prior games usually did have at least a little of this, and that was enough to make me really fall in love. I KNOW the tumultuous development cycle, restarts from scratch, interference from higher-ups all contributed to why Veilguard was unable to hit those same marks this time. And we probably won't ever know how much of the loss of options/reactivity was intention vs a side effect of these things. But I wish people wouldn't frame players who miss these aspects as insane/morally corrupt. When for most of us it's because we genuinely enjoy challenging and exploring these aspects of reality in fiction in a way entirely unlike what we actually support in real life. i fully acknowledge not everyone desires to play this way. and that's fine!!! i am glad people can enjoy doing a "good" run each time that brings them joy. but for me it really limits the potential bounds of my enjoyment i guess. I like media that is complicated and messy and makes me think, and extra so when I get to see how playing that way impacts the greater story around it.