#character blathering

[inherstars]

So I've been on a Gears of War kick lately (obvs).

I played the games when they first started coming out in 2005 (I heard someone refer to them as "old school" and holy fuck, shut up), played through 1-3, and tried to play Judgement, but couldn't get into it. I haven't touched 4-5 at all.

I also read a couple of the books written about the universe by Karen Traviss, because that was really what drew me into the franchise. I'm not really a FPS shooter girl (although these are technically over-the-shoulder shooters), and I failed miserably at multi-player, but the campaign and gameplay were actually fun and engaging, and the world-building was absolutely brilliant. Just a super well-constructed universe, especially if you have any love for urban decay. It's funny how bad the graphics are in the first and second game, re-watching playthroughs.

Anyhow, GoW is probably a very "dude bro" type game on the surface, and that's definitely who got into it the most, but on a rewatch of the games I am absolutely jarred by how completely fucked up the protagonist, Marcus Fenix, must actually be. Like, all of the soldiers in the universe have seen and done some shit, but this goes well beyond "soldier tough guy".

His mother dies. He watches his father die after deserting duty to save him (and goes to prison for abandoning his post.) He watches his best childhood friend die, and becomes the unofficial guardian and protector of his dead-best-friend's little brother. He lives through the death of said little brother's children (of whom he was probably Godfather.) He sees one of his good friends commit suicide directly in front of him, with the weapon he literally just handed him. He helps the little brother euthanize his wife after finding her in a vegetative state. He also lives through the little brother dying in a suicide mission to save him. He realizes his father is alive, and watches him die A SECOND TIME.

And that's not covering decades of blowing up other living creatures and watching various other soldiers and friends die horribly.

The games cover most of these events, but they sort of gloss over them a bit. (Although Dom saying goodbye to his wife before he kills her was A LOT to rewatch.) Karen Traviss was a hell of a writer, even if I fucking hated her Mary Sue self-insert character SO FUCKING MUCH, and she took the whole story and ran with it, writing in a LOT of back story.

But holy shit. This dude was SO FUCKED UP. Like, although I haven't played them, I know he eventually marries Anya and has a son with her... AND THEN SHE FUCKING DIES, and he becomes estranged from his son.

How does nothing good ever happen to him? He's had like 15 minutes of happiness stretched across his entire lifetime, in little drips and drabs, and the rest has just been one horrifying atrocity after another.

Which is why, on the surface, it's so interesting to see Marcus Fenix presented to the average 20-something male gamer as "Oh yeah, such a badass," when -- after you dig into it -- it's like. My dude. No. He needs therapy and a hug. This is the most broken human being you've ever met. Don't glorify that.

[galadriel-blue]

TROP S2 Spoilers:

I am not seeing enough appreciation for my girl so everyone cheer with me okay? Here we go-

ENTWIFE, ENTWIFE, ENTWIFE, ENTWIFE, ENTWIFE, ENTWIFE-

YAY WOOOHOOO LET'S GOOO I LOVE HER!! SHE'S SO PRETTY!

[retroautomaton]

☕️🌻🍮

[phongdraws]

Blathers 🦉🏛️✨ (Animal Crossing)

[shaydh]

cannot believe i got so horny about a space elf that i realized my asexuality probably is caused by dysphoria and now i'm motivated to address that and like. not die alone or whatever. like thanks marzipan i GUESS

[quetzadrawshere]

Characters I like with no context on why whatsoever yay

[masterqwertster]

When FCG goes murder-bot mode, they say the mean thoughts they would normally never voice, or even give much of a second thought to.

So I find it interesting that FCG told Fearne "You don't deserve this. You don't fuckin' deserve it. You should have given it to Ashton."

FCG did not need to offer an alternative for who gets the Spark to explain why he thought she didn't deserve it. Telling Fearne she's not worthy, that he doesn't support her choice, can be hurtful enough on it's own. Or he could have said she doesn't deserve it because she already turned it down before.

Instead, FCG specifically states their opinion that Ashton should still get the Spark. Ashton, who wanted the Spark enough to try when Fearne wouldn't and no one else was volunteering anyone but Fearne, who already had such a rough time surviving his attempt to absorb the Spark only to get rejected, who is their best friend and worried them so much with that previous attempt.

It's just very interesting because that means that either FCG was spreading more mean by saying "Give it to the person it will (most likely) kill, again, that you (and I) really like and care about." OR some part of FCG wanted Ashton to try again and (hopefully) succeed where they had failed before by keeping the Spark down this time.

I dunno, just having Thoughts about FCG being kind-of supportive of Ashton while in Murder Mode.

[imadhatt3r]

What if the next valentine's day skullector 2-pack will be Clawdeen and Toralei...

[azzandra]

I had to give up playing mobile games because of the psychological toll of all those torture porn game ads.

[bubblyernie]

Mom says its MY turn to Yassify the Animal Crossing Villagers!! 

art tag // commission info

[guesst]

sometimes i think about sullivan and how his n iruma’s relationship progresses and what made him choose iruma. i mean it was probably something to do with delkira that made him pick iruma up but i also think about that comment he makes early on in the series, that the others in the 3 greats have grandkids and he doesnt and how hed love to have a grandkid. and how he sends iruma to babyls partly because thats what a proper caretaker is meant to do. and how at the beginning maybe hes playacting and thinking yes this is the boy i have brought over for unspecified reasons, My Grandson, and i am the Grandfather (yay!) but its only later on that The Grandson becomes Iruma Suzuki first and then Sullivan’s Grandson second. and then i get happy about it

[batsplat]

sometimes pecco pops his pussy so hard that i’m like wow you really are 3 time world champion! other times he decides to go play in the gravel when leading and i remember that he scored 0 points in his moto3 rookie season

when the commentary during the sprint was like 'you know, he could have been on five consecutive race wins now if he hadn't crashed out of the catalunya sprint on the last lap', I had to laugh because that's the pecco bagnaia experience right there isn't it. even when he's winning four races in a row, a part of your brain is still remembering the disaster that directly preceded it. when he got that track limit warning, I was convinced he was gonna mess it up. not because it's something he usually messes up, because it isn't - just because you're always waiting for something to go wrong and that seemed as good an opening as any. but no, apparently he's just in the bit of the season where he wins stuff. for whatever reason. or maybe he'll crash on sunday. who knows

[galadriel-blue]

TROP S2 SPOILERS

Nobody better say anything bad about my girl Earian she is being manipulated through her grief by the men in power around her and it's making it hard for her to discern right from wrong. I'm not saying that her actions are justified, I'm just saying that she misses her brother and dearly needs her dad, but at the moment she is all alone and that can mess a person up

[plusultraetc]

I’m pretty sure I ended up figuring out that, timeline-wise, AFO still had eyes at that point, but this is still funny

[captain-crowfish]

GUESS WHO FINALLY THEIR SCRIPT FOR THEIR SUPER SPECIAL BOXTROLLS IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS VIDEO THAT THEY HOPE TO RELEASE ON THE BOXTROLL'S 1oTH ANNIVERSARY!!!!!!!!!!!!

read the tags for more info xoxo

[shaydh]

One time I saw a Sabretooth fanart so good that it kicked off the Sabretooth obsession that’s been dormant within me ever since I saw X-Men Origins and I spent a few weeks reading every comic he’s been in I could find, despite having never cared about or read a marvel comic before. I don’t care about wolverine.