#examples of the former:

[shitpostingkats]

I’m sure this will come as no surprise to anyone who follows me, but I love it when a story lets its characters just be off-the-wall weird.

Give me characters who go off onto tangents about the exotic fur trade without prompting. Give me characters don’t step on cracks in the sidewalk or refuse to eat foods beginning with the letter T. Give me characters who tell incomprehensible funny jokes that no one else seems to get but makes them double over in laughter. Give me characters who are suspicious of alley cats. Give me characters who decide their drink order by the position of Jupiter relative to the zodiacal horizon.

And, (this is the important part) no one remarks on it. Oh yeah, that’s Nine-lives Nelly, she shrieks whenever she feels left out of a conversation, or when she sees a red balloon. Yup, she’s our best weapons specialist. We’re truly lucky to have her on the team.

Give me a world where characters are allowed to be weird, in a world where “weird” is a foreign concept.

[armoralor]

"she isn't mean!!!! she just-" shhhh. shhhhhhh. She's Mean. Let women be mean. Sometimes women are unredeemable cunts and that's okay. It doesn't matter if she has trauma or a complicated backstory, if a woman is mean she's mean. You don't have to try and justify it or give it a different name. Being mean isn't the worst thing a woman can be.

[bhaalsdeepbat]

Hellspawn idea that hit me like a religious vision

Astarion can't stop thinking of the color of this flower Karlach found during one of the more idyllic moments of traveling to Baldur's Gate, and it should have been such an inconsequential moment. It was just a flower. But the delight burning in the embers of her mirthful eyes just sticks with him. And it's mostly annoying how happy she is about everything, but he also can't hold it against her when she, too, is adjusting to sudden, newfound freedom, and hers is much more limited than his.

And it isn't even a romantic moment or anything, right? Karlach just sees it on the edge of where the last bit of life was able to grow between the Shadow Curse and the land beyond it. She's STOKED. Bellowing in that way she does about this flower. She just takes a moment to enjoy it, then moves on. Doesn't pick it. Doesn't touch it. Just moves on with her day.

but this moment sticks with him and he thinks about it when they're curled together under the stars that night, his body fitting against the curve of hers, his cold weight soaking up every bit of warmth her overheated body will give him, and her arms are SO strong, but so gentle in the way she holds him.

The immortal forced to reckon with mortality bc this woman, who truly believe deserves a much better lot in life, only has a finite amount of time to appreciate the flowers and the sunrise and just. everything.

He'll still be able to live his life from the shadows and find beauty in the darkness, but Karlach?

He can see her death coming on the horizon and there's so much he actually wants to do, now that they're trying to make things real. and he just. is feeling the pressure bc he did waste time trying to get Karlach into a position to protect him and he'll forever feel bad about it (but not say anything bc that's his burden to carry).

So the immortal keeps thinking about this flower and what Karlach would look like adorned in beautifully crafted items accented in blue: gilded chains and cuffs adorning her hair and horns, sturdy leather dyed and stamped, fine silk embroidered with expensive floss, of all the nice things he wishes she could experience - because he promised her new experiences once they returned - and just.

When everyone's sleeping, he just spends that time sneakily embroidering this doublet he stole from a vendor the moment they entered the city. He's working against time, too, cus this is a gift he HAS to give her before her time is up. So, his skilled fingers move quickly, embroidering this black doublet with the most beautiful embroidery done mostly in blue, but accented with red, orange, and yellow.

He's almost done when Karlach tells him one night that she thinks she doesn't have much longer. Her heart is in overdrive and she can feel her body beginning to give out, to fail her when freedom was so close she could taste it. and it isn't fair. Astarion is SO angry at the world and at the Gods because he FINALLY has someone and. Time is running out. he feels even more powerless here because it really is just up to Karlach and whether she wants to keep going or not. He tries to talk to her about it, but usually they just end up fighting because they're both stubborn.

So, he avoids the conversation, mostly. Just tries to pretend the end isn't peeking over the horizon.

He doesn't give her the doublet right away. He doesn't want that finality, to give it to her and to know this may very well be the last time he gets to give her something he put his time into for her like this. and he has other gifts for her. a new owlbear to go with clive (even if he thinks that's juvenile, but he's not going to judge....well. he will, but not as much as if it were Gale who still had his stuffies). but he just. cannot bring himself give her this doublet bc he knows it's the first and last time she'll be adorned in something that he put together for her. the embroidered doublet is his labor of love, and the man does NOT like to labor.

embroidering isn't even necessarily his favorite thing to do, it's just one of his skills he actually has. he lacks self-confidence when it comes to what qualities he thinks he has that make him worthy of a relationship, but he can make sure his partners' clothes are mended and presentable.

When he finally gives it to her, it's after they take down Gortash. Karlach spends that very night alone, and Astarion cannot take it. He hasn't spent a single night away from Karlach since before they arrived at the Shadow-Cursed Lands, and now they're literally counting the days until they're taken from one another. He's big mad, seething, but very respectful to her bc he understands. he's not mat at HER, he's mad at everyone that took everything they could from her.

That's the first night he actually sits down and starts coming up with a plan. And it's a genuinely good one, but it's the first good one he's had in almost two-centuries. This is when he comes up with how he wants to convince Karlach to let him go to Avernus with her. He's not ready to let go and he is willing to murder his way through the Hells with her if he gets to see her smile about inconsequential things again.

He gives her the doublet the night before they plan to head for the Morphic Pool. They know it may be their last night together, so after a group meal, when everyone is winding down to turn in for the night, they make their way up to the roof of the tavern. They sit beneath the stars, side by side, but they're just sitting and refusing to look at one another.

Karlach is unusually still and silent. She's exhausted. Astarion swears she had his undead heart beating again, but seeing her like that had it stop cold in his chest. He tries to break the silence, to cut off his own thoughts so he doesn't spiral into despair thinking of the unknown, but just ends up reaching out to take her hand.

She's hot to the touch. He can feel that her temperature IS increasing and just. imagining what she's feeling and how she's been pent up this entire trip. like no fucking release from the pressure of this shitty heart that only does its job in the right environment.

She's the one who breaks it first. to thank him for his company. to tell him that he was a little fucking SHIT when she first met him, but she always could see something good behind the veneer of mischief hiding the fear in his piercing eyes. but she loves him and she's so, so happy to have been given a chance to love someone, to touch them freely, to feel loved in return. it was something she was missing in the last 10 years of the loneliness of being simple cannon fodder in an endless war.

and she doesn't want to talk abt this. she had been avoiding it, took him on their date to pretend like he wasn't doomed to be left alone in his eternity. And neither of them even MENTION the elephant in the room. like they're both talking circles around what's going to happen, but they're being honest about the feelings they have for one another. like the only thing they even voice concern for is not being able to take out the Absolute.

Under the stars, accompanied by declarations of love spilling from their lips, Astarion produces the doublet. Karlach is just ecstatic that she received a gift, but when she realizes HE embroidered it, she's just kinda like.

This is. the most beautiful gift i've ever received, fangs.

and her calloused fingers, fingers that had seen more war and death than anyone her age should have to, gently touch the floss, follow the design, and she realizes the particular shades of orange, red, and yellow are in her eyes, in her body, in her chest, all complimented by the blue thread he used as the main color of the design.

It's a design made of the sun, moon, and stars, trailing up the front, across the broad shoulders, and down the back yoke.

she's his sun. She's the gentle warmth of the sun's rays comforting him when he would rather recede to the shadows and fall back on old habits. she's his moon and his stars, his guiding light when everything seems like it may crash down and suffocate him. She's everything good in this world if you look for it. She's proof that you can be put through shit and still come out a decent person.

Karlach does cry, but it's nothing dramatic. It's a few tears, her own stomach and chest twisting with an overwhelming sense of loss and yearning; the loss of time when her light inevitably extinguishes and a deep yearning to stay. it's in direct opposition to her desire to die in the place she loves simply so she can keep living this life with the man she loves.

She puts the doublet on, wearing it that night while he cuddled against her side. They held each other beneath the stars, until it was time for Karlach to get some rest for the upcoming battle. Astarion spends that entire night just watching her, playing with her hair, getting every last touch he can, then makes a vow that he WILL save Karlach, just as she saved him.

[dollarstoreartsupplies]

see in terms of hatchetfield str8 ships we all know that the dynamic apparently, legally, has to be a magical, powerful, effervescent woman/Just Some Guy-- but a very important aspect of that dynamic is the magical, powerful, effervescent woman in convinced that their Just Some Guy hung the moon and stars in the sky and would kill anyone who insinuated otherwise

EXCEPT (this is so incredibly important) for paul and emma

like does emma love paul? obviously yes! but also she knows he is Just Some Guy, Just A Dude, a wet paper towel of a man-- this is a large part of the appeal

[ivan-braginski-2001]

Genuinely what in the actual fuck could this possibly mean

[rincewindsapprentice]

Something they don't tell you about grad school is that you'll meet international grad students who are 1) the nicest and most humble people you've ever met that fundamentally change your life and orientation towards the world, and 2) Olympic class divers, award winning poets, nationally renowned artists, and the activist in a given social movement

[supercityboys]

Boostle is so blatantly implied by placing them in positions normally occupied by lovers. My favorite instance of this is when they are contrasted against other couples. For example, in Heroes in Crisis, the end panels show Ted and Booster back on their couch, but this time right next to each other laughing their asses off and Harley and Ivy, deeply in love, walking hand in hand.

Edit: I found the screenshot

[lulu2992]

While I’m at it, in 2015, I also made a video compiling the different endings of BioShock 2, and I’ve decided to finally upload it!

So there are 8 endings in total. I call them:

1.1 – A

2.1 – A

1.2 – B.1

1.2 – B.2

2.2 – B.1

2.2 – B.2

1.2 – C

2.2 – C

I also made two visual representations, a table and a diagram, of how to get them:

The text version of this and what Eleanor says in each ending is under the cut :)

Part 1

1.1: Eleanor forgives and saves Sofia Lamb.

Condition: Delta rescues all the Little Sisters; Delta spares at least one person among Grace Holloway, Stanley Poole, and Gilbert Alexander.

"And then, Father, the Rapture dream was over. You taught me that evil is just a word. Under the skin, it’s simple pain. For you, mercy was victory. You sacrificed, you endured, and when given the chance, you forgave. Always. Mother believed this world was irredeemable, but she was wrong, Father. We are Utopia, you and I, and in forgiving, we left the door open for her."

1.2: Eleanor hates but saves Sofia Lamb.

Condition: Delta harvests at least one Little Sister; Delta spares Grace Holloway, Stanley Poole, and Gilbert Alexander.

"And then, Father, the Rapture dream was over. You taught me that right and wrong are tidal forces, ever-shifting. To survive in Rapture, Father, you took what you needed from the innocent. But, when the guilty posed no further threat, you simply walked away. I wanted Mother dead. But, broken as she was, how could she hurt me? Now, she will grow old and die, knowing that I rejected her."

2.1: Eleanor loves but drowns Sofia Lamb.

Condition: Delta rescues all the Little Sisters; Delta kills Grace Holloway, Stanley Poole, and Gilbert Alexander.

"You taught me that justice is a contract: once broken, it can never be mended. You sacrificed so much to preserve the innocent. But, to the guilty, you offered no mercy. I loved my mother, and I never wanted to hurt her. But with what she did to us, she gave up the right to exist. My hands were shaking when I did it… But you were there to steady them."

2.2: Eleanor hates and drowns Sofia Lamb.

Condition: Delta harvests at least one Little Sister; Delta kills at least one person among Grace Holloway, Stanley Poole, and Gilbert Alexander.

"And then, Father, the Rapture dream was over. You taught me that innocence is chrysalis, a phase designed to end. Only when we are free from it do we know ourselves. You showed me that my survival, my joy, are all that matter. I indulge, nothing else exists."

Part 2

A: Eleanor is at peace and hopeful. Delta dies but willingly lives on in Eleanor.

Condition: Delta rescues all the Little Sisters.

"The Rapture dream is over. But in waking, I am reborn. This world isn’t ready for me, yet here I am. It would be so easy to misjudge them. You are my conscience, Father, and I need you to guide me. You will always be with me now, Father: your memories, your drives… And when I need you, you’ll be there on my shoulder, whispering. If Utopia is not a place, but a people, then we must choose carefully, for the world is about to change. And in our story, Rapture was just the beginning."

B: Eleanor is in doubt...

Condition: Delta rescues at least one and harvests at least one Little Sister.

"You made a monster of me, Father, but I wondered why you saved the others. You left me in doubt. Didn’t you want me to be like you? I knew I could save you, but if you felt regret, if you wanted me to choose for myself, I would have to let you go. To let you die."

Delta chooses to sacrifice himself and not live on in Eleanor. Eleanor is alone and unsure about her future. "The Rapture dream is over. And in waking, I am alone. Mother, I left behind, and you chose to die rather than to have me follow you. But you gave me the greatest gift of all, something I have never had: my freedom. There is no name for what I am, but the world is about to change. I thought we would seize it together. Yet, as I sat there with you, I wondered if even I could be redeemed. Your sacrifice gave me hope. But, Father, wherever you are… I miss you."

Delta chooses to save himself and live on in Eleanor. Eleanor is evil. "You may not have wanted me, Father, but you defined me. You chose to survive, no matter the cost, and I will not let your instincts go to waste. The Rapture dream is over. And in waking, I am reborn. You’ll always be with me, Father: your memories, your drives... When I need you, you’ll be there, whispering from my shoulder. There is no name for what I am, but the world is about to change, and with your help, they’ll never see me coming."

C: Eleanor is a monster. Delta dies but unwillingly lives on in Eleanor.

Condition: Delta harvests all the Little Sisters.

"The Rapture dream is over, and in waking, I am reborn. You may not have wanted me, Father, but you defined me. You chose to survive, no matter the cost, and I will not let your instincts go to waste. You’ll always be with me, Father: your memories, your drives... When I need you, you’ll be there, whispering from my shoulder. There is no name for what I am, but the world is about to change, and with your help, they’ll never see me coming."

[pattern-recognition]

my Soviet M1968 telogreika and my partner’s US M1965 field jacket. can love bloom on the battlefield? is Red Army and NATO yaoi possible?

[leporellian]

why is it that every time there’s been a full-length magic flute Movie(TM) the director has been like “i am aware there’s already two characters who try to kill themselves in this work but like What If there was MORE suicide in it”

[aegonbeingfakeisracist]

what would you change in the dorne storyline? And why would it be to add more Dornish povs and more of the relationship between the characters? Hahahaha it's to little even the iron islands get more

So true.

I've said time and time again that Arianne is my favourite character and I utterly adore her chapters and think they were fantastically written and well constructed. That is absolutely true - everything in them makes it so clear where Arianne is coming from and why she makes the decisions she does. I can even defend the decision to dedicate so much of the time spent in Dorne to other characters' perspectives, because even that gives us interesting insight into Arianne: the man that met her as an adult sees her entirely differently from the man that has known her for her entire life. She presents herself completely differently. She's great with people. There's so much about her that she simply does not reveal. All that being said, something really lacking in the Dorne storyline is enough Arianne.

I think one thing that was really lacking in the Dorne storyline was sufficient emphasis on the efforts and machinations not on page. For example, think about how Arianne ended up in a position to launch her queenmaker plot. She learned Quentyn had left Dorne with papers sealed with the sun and spear of Dorne through her own information network. She learned about the Golden Company breaking its contract. She deduced those two things were connected. She developed such a good relationship with Myrcella that Myrcella trusted her without question. She seduced Arys Oakheart, seemingly before she knew for sure what she was going to do, just in case she needed him. She brought in a group of friends and decided it was best to keep limited numbers. She determined Hellholt was the place from which she ought to call her banners. She convinced Myrcella to lie to Balon Swann. Every one of these things occurred off page, but is an important part of Arianne's story, and they really do highlight how capable she is. A major part of Arianne's struggles are to do with the fact she has no choice but to be reactive. Getting more information on how she chooses to navigate the choices she has would be so good.

When thinking about how Quentyn had been seen in Planky Town, she mused about what "a clever man" (or herself, because she's the one speculating!) would have done in that position instead - gone to Oldtown where it would be likelier to fly under the radar, without anyone to recognize him and question why a prince and a lord's son were using false names and leaving Dorne. It would take longer, but it would be safer. This highlights how "impulsive" is not Arianne's natural instinct, just as much as the fact she did not rush to confront her father after first reading that letter. Arianne, at her core, is cautious. Arianne is Doran's daughter, through and through. Her impulsive actions come from the fact that she's usually not in a position where she gets to decide how to act purely of her own volition - if Quentyn is off hiring sellswords, she's got to do something fast. When she suspects that Haldon Halfmaester and Lysono Maar intend to put her on a ship to Storm's End regardless of her thoughts on the matter, she does not think it wise to test the theory. She is smarter than people think she is, regardless of if she is or is not good at cyvasse. Having her successes on page, rather than just off page, would emphasize that fact.

I don't believe that writing decisions should be made to spell things out for the audience. Of course not. Fandom not being able to understand that Arianne isn't the stupid and impulsive character it reads her as does not mean that the story should slow down to explain that. But still, Arianne is such a good character, I want to see more of her, and there are so many places where we could have had that.

Stylistically, I do get having the Dorne story ramp up only after Oberyn's arrival and death: out goes the old generation, make way for Princess Arianne. I even quite like it. Same as I like getting to see her from other characters' perspectives. But I don't like the fact Arianne doesn't show up until the fourth book, and then even after that, despite being the central figure of the Dornish storyline, gets a grand total of two chapters to herself. We're talking about the woman that's the niece of both Oberyn and Elia. The daughter of the man whose loss of his sister completely shook him to the core. The cousin of women undoubtedly old enough to remember Elia that are now grieving their father. The princess of a realm full of people old enough to remember the last war, who's notable for having friends from all walks of life. Dorne is a nation state, and through Arianne, we could learn a lot about how people in this nation state are reacting to things. I don't even necessarily need more perspectives from Dorne. But I would have loved to see Arianne conversing with all these other people and reflecting upon their different reactions to things.

[that-ineffable-devil]

Interviewer: And you are...?

Gale, proudly: Gale of Waterdeep! Former magical prodigy and ex-lover of the goddess of the Weave!

Interviewer: Mmhmm... And now?

Gale, deflating: I... Um... Have a... Worm... In my head... And... I have to eat magic boots or I will explode and level a city.

Interviewer: I'm sorry, I didn't catch--

Gale: I HAVE TO EAT MAGIC BOOTS OR GO BOOM, OK? HAPPY NOW?! *storms off*

[cerastes]

The thing with a friend group being a kind of community and a community not necessarily being a friend group is that a friend group is together because the people in it gel together and are there to hang and fuck around and do shit together because they like each other, the onus being that there is no one specific topic, people are there for the people.

A community exists around a certain something, so while a friend group could be a community, a community is not necessarily a friend group, and the onus of the community usually is a topic, a show, a game, something that you have congregated to celebrate and enjoy regardless of who you find in there, because you’re not there for the people per se, you’re there for people in general, and some of them you’ll like, and some of them you will not have a single droplet of chemistry with.

Friend groups also exist because interactions are made in good faith: It is normal to assume that whatever encounter of interests or opinions is ultimately not personal, and you just move on, because you like each other or at the very very least you don’t want to shit it up for everyone else and you’ll be good with whoever you have a disagreement in like 2 hours from now, anyway.

Communities are not necessarily based on good faith. In fact, it is a very common story that like cliques within communities try to undermine others in a vie for “influence” or “power” within that niche microweb context. You are united by an interest, one of the weakest bonds possible, so it’s not at all surprising to see person A misrepresenting person B, engaging them in bad faith, or taking them out of context for the express purpose of stirring the pot. The members of a community are also not necessarily your friends, and the context isn’t necessarily one of friendship, so you have a lot of, pardon the bluntness, socially maladjusted jerks that would just get the boot in any other context hanging out and shitting things up with toxicity.

What I’m trying to say with this is that you should not consider a community a friend group, and likewise, your friend group is invaluable and is a community, but it’s also home.

[wonder-worker]

are there any books you'd recommend for Isabelle of Angouleme?

Hi! I’m really not an expert on Isabella of Angouleme so I'm probably not the best person to ask for recommendations for her. Here are some I've heard of, though I haven't read all of them:

"Isabella of Angouleme: John's Jezebel" by Nicholas Vincent (King John: New Interpretations). I haven't read it myself but I've heard good things!

“Maternal Abandonment and Surrogate Caregivers: Isabella of Angoulême and Her Children by King John” by Louise J. Wilkinson (Virtuous or Villainess? The Image of the Royal Mother from the Early Medieval to the Early Modern Era). It focuses more-so on Isabella's tenure as queen, the period shortly after John's death, and her decision to leave England. Despite what the title may imply, it's sympathetic to Isabella and analyzes her situation in detail.

“Co-Operation, Co-Rulership and Competition: Queenship in the Angevin Domains 1135-1230” by Gabrielle Storey, her PHD thesis which collectively focuses on Isabella of Angouleme along with Empress Matilda, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Berengaria of Navarre. You can read/download it here, it's an excellent piece for all four women.

Sally Spong has written/is writing:

Isabella of Angouleme: The Vanished Queen (Norman to Early Plantagenet Consorts). You can see her conclusion here. It's nuanced and sympathetic, though not without its issues and pre-conceived notions.

Isabella of Gloucester and Isabella of Angouleme: Female Lordship, Queenship, Power, and Authority 1189-1220 (PHD thesis University of East Anglia).

“Isabelle d’Angouleme, By the Grace of God, Queen” by William Chester Jordan. You can read it online here, though I will say that it's ... very very questionable, accepting the sensational claims of lot of unreliable sources (including the idea of John abducting Isabella in a fit of uncontrollable infatuation) entirely at face-value.

“The Marriage and Coronation of Isabelle of Angouleme” by H.G. Richardson, available here on JSTOR.

Isabella has also been the subject of two complete French biographies till date:

"Isabelle d’Angoulême, reine d’Angleterre" (Aquitaine: 1998) by Sophie Fougere.

"Isabelle d’Angoulême, comtesse-reine et son temps (1186-1246)" [Actes du colloque tenu à Lusignan, 8 au 10 novembre 1996] by Gabriel Biancotto, Robert Favreau and Piotr Skubiszewski.

There are also a few blog posts about her (here and here) which may help if you want a brief overview of her life, though they can get a little sensationalistic sometimes.

Hope this helps! If anyone knows any others, please feel free to add on!

[aroaceleovaldez]

[maslows-pyramid-scheme]

I'm a tad worried about the political bias embedded in some of the presidential debate memes I'm seeing, like that Biden had clear memory problems (his answers sounded like he'd memorised them from a script, so I wouldn't say he had memory problems ((more cognitive problems?)), or that Biden wasn't answering questions (he answered the vast majority of them, unlike Trump, who used questions to respond to previous questions ((e.g. using a question about the climate to talk about immigrants)).

But I suppose the reactions to the debate perfectly encapsulate the problems with the US (and western politics more generally): image is more important than policy, and social media summaries are more important than actually listening to the thing.