#he's my rotten soldier. my sweet cheese. my good time boy. and the little sister i never wanted

[elvesofnoldor]

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[markantonys]

One thing that is very different in Donal’s and Barney’s Mats is that Barney’s Mat is sort of… he is sort of tired. I mean he is depressed, while Donal’s is in recovery, obviously, but there was sort of defeat in the way Mat was from the very first episode of the first season, that is just not there in season 2.

For show!Mat it is very, very normal to react positively to the blowing of the horn, although I think Barney’s Mat would have not been so open about it. It’s a very interesting change, and I missed Barney a lot this season, A LOT. I wanted the bad boy vibes back, I wanted him to be a bit of an asshole, because Donal’s Mat is not like that at all and I constantly felt sorry for him and it clashed with the Mat in my head basically. The best way I can explain it is that with Barney’s Mat I sort of had the feeling, that if he decided that he likes me, I could really rely on him. Like he WILL come through and he will bitch and moan, but he’ll be with me. With Donal’s Mat he will try to help even if he dislikes me and maybe even won’t bitch about it, but he might do a shitty job? Which are two very different approaches.

But after the scenes where Rand and Mat meet again, where Mat waits for Rand to leave the city, where he takes drugs and where he feels relief that he is one of the heroes, and then immediately hurts Rand on accident? Like these scenes have sold me on Donal’s Mat. He is my sweet cheese, my rotten soldier. Nynaeve patting Mat’s cheek and not even looking at her supposedly dead friend who is now dying for real? Like I get it, I was “no you are so good you need to know”. It’s a completely different vibe though. I love this Mat and I don’t want any other Mats now.

This change suits show!Mat a lot and I wonder if they planned this change for Barney too, and if they did how would he approach that? He was never that sweet and I doubt that he would have gone for it?

if you are the same anon who worried about tumblr going insane and sending me either 1000 asks or no asks about mat, rest assured i got just the one here! all is well!

to me the differences in the two versions of mat were largely due to them being in different circumstances. even pre-dagger in the first 2 episodes of season 1, mat is a) having a bad time at home and then b) getting dragged on a roadtrip from hell. season 2 when mat gets out of tar valon, that's really the first time we've seen him almost completely carefree, so naturally he's much lighter (and i did see some of barney's darker & defeated mat in donal's Captive Mat in the first 2.5 episodes of s2, just like how i see some of donal's lighter mat in barney's Jokester Trying To Cheer Up His Friends Mat in the first 2 episodes of s1).

but at the same time i do feel some kind of difference in Vibe between barney's mat and donal's mat, in a way i can't really put my finger on but is just down to the fact that of course two different people playing the same character will each put their own little spin on that character! for example, i definitely get what you're describing of s2 mat feeling more like a lovable doofus and s1 mat more like an asshole with a heart of gold haha

it's also interesting to consider that barney's mat was written entirely with the original plan for mat in mind, and donal's was written entirely with the revamped plan for mat in mind, so that could also explain some differences! it is quite possible they wanted to make mat more of a lovable doofus in s2 because they knew him staying behind at the waygate was an unplanned change that made him look bad in the eyes of many viewers (not me though!), so they wanted to try extra hard to make him sweet and likable and pitiable in s2 to compensate. and there was for sure a shift in motives for mat between s1 and s2: in s1 he's a reluctant participant in The Plot because he's getting dragged along and just wants to go home to his sisters (more of the "doesn't WANT to be a hero" vibe) whereas in s2 he's a more eager participant in The Plot because hates himself for abandoning his friends and desperately wants to make up for it (more of the "doesn't think he CAN be a hero" vibe).

yeah, now that i'm writing it out i've convinced myself that it WAS the unplanned changes to mat's arc due to the actor switch that's really the key difference between barney's mat and donal's mat! and specifically the changes to his motivations and his willingness to participate in the plot. because s1 mat WAS a grouchier and more reluctant hero even without the dagger's influence, but s2 mat is so desperate to be good and to do good specifically because of the Great Waygate Abandonment. so i certainly don't think this change was planned or would've happened if barney had continued in the role, because his departure was precisely the thing that necessitated the change!

anyway, cosigned on mat being my sweet cheese and my rotten soldier and on him needing to know that he's good!!!!

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

for the ask game: homestuck

I want to preface this with that anything I say about these characters is going to be incredibly abnormal because Homestuck was my hyperfixation media from the ages of 13-16 and it was there for me at a time when nobody else was (half joking) so basically I'm shifting into autistic teenager mode, which is the cringest of all possible modes for this answer.

Blorbo: Dave Strider for sure, although I do want to give a special shout out to Roxy Lalonde here as well because my friends got me into Homestuck by diagnosing me with Roxy-kin. I'm a strilonde girlie to my core, but Dave is my forever girl.

Skrunkly (my baby): Again I have two, there are truly so many characters in this comic. Nepeta reminded me of my little sister at the time, so I instantly developed the weirdest older brother parasocial relationship with her. I'm kissing that cat girl on the forehead but I am also bullying her affectionately in an older brother way for being cringe. And the second if Feferi because look at her. She was my platonic waifu when I was 13, she has a special place in my heart.

Scrimblo Bimblo(underappreciated fav): The Mayor. It might just be because of his proximity to Davekat, the ship ever, but I think he's a neat little guy. There weren't enough cosplays of him because he was a chess piece wrapped cloth. my rotten soldier my sweet cheese my good time boy.

glup shitto(obscure fav): Kankri Vantas. I was a verbose autistic teenaged communist incapable of experiencing self cringe so you know...

Poor Little Meow Meow (problematic fav): You remember how I said I was a strilonde girlie to my core. You how I'm a complete fag? Take a guess. You were right, it's Dirk Strider. I will always stan a king who mailed his own severed head to a cute boy in an attempt to get a little kissie.

Horse Plinko (Character I would torment for fun): I think I'm gonna go with Vriska, but like the main timeline post retcon vriska, the one who was on the meteor with everyone and is dating Terezi, not the dead Vriska who is dating Meenah, Dead Vriska is a queen and I will not hear a negative word about her. Yes she did kill all those people, god forbid women do anything.

Eeby Deeby (Character I would send to superhell): Eridan. He'll pay for putting the incel moves on my waifu. I hate him. (not that much he's still like 13. but I do hate him a little bit)

[dungeonsandblorbos]

Meet the Blorbos: Cerris Tempescu

today we have my beloved baby boy Cerris Dalca Tempescu!

made just this year for a "Curse of Strahd" campaign DMed by my husband, Cerris was not a character i expected to get so attached to. my husband's version of Curse of Strahd is largely homebrew, using the book as a scaffold to make a much more rich and detailed and frankly more horrifying and dangerous gothic horror campaign. like, real dead dove do not eat shit. i started this campaign knowing that permanent PC death was a very real possibility, and initially i was okay with the idea of rolling a new character once or even twice. now, literally only thirteen sessions in, however, i've decided that actually no, if Cerris dies, i will not be rolling a new character. instead i'll just bring him back as some sort of undead thing. there's already so many undead beings in Barovia he really wouldn't stand out all that much--and if comics can do it then so can i!

look. listen. Cerris is a solid 80% of the reason i made this sideblog. i just love him, okay? he's my comfort character. my pathetic little meow meow. my rotten soldier, my sweet cheese, my good bad time boy.

so. how to describe him?

Cerris is basically if Clark Kent were a classic gothic hero. he's a hunky farmboy who grew up somewhat isolated from his peers because his mom was worried he got cursed by the Tempest, the local storm god, as a baby. she named him after the oak tree (quercus cerris), as the oak is held to be protective against lightning, and thus she hoped the name would protect him against the Tempest's wrath. fortunately, he was not actually cursed by the Tempest. unfortunately, he was blessed by the Tempest, claimed as an offering, as a servant on the material plane to remind people of His power and glory and to do the dirty work He's too busy for. the plaything of a god

like the DCEU Superman, Cerris has been burdened with godly power he never wanted, and holding such power has made a lot of people frightened of him. unlike the DCEU Superman, Cerris is nonetheless determined to use that power for good

and that's the state he's in when he winds up getting trapped in Barovia, an unfortunate country banished with its ruler to a demi-plane of evil called the Shadowfell. there, his naivety and heroic drive stand out, but at first, it all seems like it's going to be okay. he and his new party help people, and the dread king Strahd is tall and suave and finds them all interesting rather than a threat. Cerris even has a blossoming romance with a fiery young noblewoman named Ireena. only problem is, Ireena is the reincarnation of Strahd's sister-in-law/ex (sort of), and Strahd has unfinished business with her--and unfortunately, Cerris's naivety and heroic drive make him a very useful pawn in Strahd's efforts to finish that business

[bandluvr97]

mbb 🎅

omg you’re probably right about this being the last comeback before Shownu comes back. I hope there’s a little bit of a gap before the rest of the 93ers leave, I would love to see them have a comeback together before the next person leaves. Minhyuk has to go soon, but I’m pointedly not thinking about that, we’re gonna get another comeback with both of their vocals on it, I have to believe that. But did you see that one song is produced by Changkyun and Wooki???? I am LOOKING!

I like participating in celebrations, even if I don’t necessarily believe. Not barge in uninvited, of course, but I’m always delighted to be there, especially if there’s music. And my dad always makes this amazing date and chickpea dish on Christmas night that I would put up with anything for lmao.

Oh cool! So, do you help with, like, housing or job hunting or financial assistance or what? (or just everything) I know social workers who do emergency help and only work with clients for about a month, and some who do longer term work, what kind do you do? One of my besties is frustrated because they don’t let people “be political” at work, which limits how well she feels like she can help people, how have you been handling big political changes? And you can ask about my work, I wouldn’t give like the street address lmao but it’s not terribly interesting day-to-day.

He really is, we love a pretend vegan king. He’s got such amazing vocals, I can’t wait to hear them again. I’m not usually into ballads, but his voice hits different. He absolutely commands the stage in an easy, casual way, and yeah he has the benefit of being physically larger than a lot of idols, but he’s just so present on stage. No shade to the others, they’re fabulous performers as well, they just perform in a different way than Shownu showing up and just being, if that makes sense. Sorry, once I pick a sweet cheese rotten soldier good time boy I have to hype him up extensively.

Seonghwa’s literally just on another level. His stage presence is insane, his opening to “Guerilla” at Song Festival was just walking and yet he ATE. And his vocals? His register shifts are so good. He and San are two of the most interesting 4th gen singers imho. When will they get live mics smh we all heard San in the It’s Live performances of “Turbulence” like I will save this chord there will be no tritones on my watch and yet he’s stuck fighting the sound techs on stage even though he’s a dykon and doing the most for us lesbians. And Hongjoong is the definition of “standing 5’8, voice 6’5.” The whole Short King Anthem is about him, so small but so powerful and he knows it and thank god he uses it for good.

“God Damn” was just so much omg I could go on forever and I frequently do I have so many opinions. I didn’t love his most recent song as much, but I will take anythingggggg. Give me all the evil slut music you’ve got, Changkyun. I want to Cause Problems. I’m so excited for “Deny”, it’s going to be good, I can feel it in my bones. And his solo contract could be entirely back end and we see no difference, but it’s still cool that he’s negotiating better terms for himself.

You don’t really need to know much about the different techniques, I’ll nerd out about them in a heartbeat but don’t want to bore you. It was just really drilling down into it starting from the very basics. And yeah I used to sing, I always liked chamber choirs with tight harmonies best. Now I don’t sing except for myself and to belt along to the radio with my sister, these small-time producers and rappers don’t want to pay for vocalists, and I don’t do it for free if they’re gonna make money off it. And I rarely traveled for performances, but we’d play in new venues all the time, and feeling it out is ROUGH, especially in the orchestra…

We’re going to see my dad meet the Pope as part of this business trip. He doesn’t care if we’re there for that or not, but his partner is spiritually twisting our ear like “You saw a miracle, your father’s no longer in a wheelchair, you are GOING.” My boss is big mad I’m leaving for a week two months in a row, but I’m like dude I will take care of it, you won’t even miss me. This is like the one good thing about being hourly, let me have this!

Sewing is so cool, it must be gratifying to be able to use something you’ve made like that. Hoodies seem extra hard, but I believe in you! Every instrument has its challenges, I’m just overwhelmed by the idea of the two hands working separately, so I’m impressed. And no shame on playing fun music, I play kpop on the violin all the time, it’s literally just fun.

I’m taking notes on all your suggestions, btw. I’m very familiar with Seattle and somewhat familiar with Chicago, but not at all with Canada, I’ve only been to Vancouver once and that’s it. It sounds like you like going to cities more, is that right? I’ve traveled a lot, it’s been a priority in our family, especially since we’re so spread out. Dad loves travel and swore if he got out of the wheelchair he was going to travel even more, and I guess he’s somewhat fond of us and likes to bring us along on his business trips.

I hope your week is amazing and happy Hanukkah!

Hey love ❤️ happy almost Christmas!! Aw thanks 😊 are you excited for the festivities? Sorry for the late reply the week was a bit crazy with work and figuring stuff out but it’s going better now lol also got two days off next week so that’s a nice break from the hustle and the bustle lol hope your week went smoothly love!!

Right??? It’s a very exciting thing to think about lol but yeah they should do one last comeback as the 6 of them before minhyuk goes away for a bit but I’m sure he’ll be back before we know it lol bruh I was listening to that all week!!! Woooo boy 😂😂 it’s so good!!!! Idk how he does it every time but he slays lol wbu? What do you think about the song? Lol I am looking respectfully through my hands 😂 it’s hard to not look sometimes!!

Ooo that dish sounds delicious! Is it a usual holiday staple in your family? What other meals do you usually make around the holidays? I hope you have an amazing holiday season love ❤️

Yeah I help with making referrals to job programs for clients that want to work and give them forms to find homes and places that rent along other resources that they can use so it’s a nice time 👍 yeah that part of the job is tricky to avoid with some clients that want to trigger some political stuff with workers but sometimes it’s best to just move onto the next question 😂😂 it can also depend on what the client is there fire like sometimes it’s financial help like they just need a cheque to get by (which may or may not work because sometimes people like to use and abuse the system but we catch them eventually 😂) and the timeline is the same with my job where I get them set up for a month and then once a review comes up and things are resolved then send them on their way to a permanent assigned worker 👍👍 lol I don’t expect you to give the coordinates for the job location 😂😂 is it a tough business where you work? Like do you see a lot of things go down like fights or deals or drama with the customers? Have you had to put on the big boss shoes and say I’m here bitches? 😂 Not too sure what to ask but I’m so curious to find out info about your work!! Lol

Darn right we do!! We love a hella smexy part time vegan strong boy who is a total softie and just slapping us one minute with his visuals and vocals and then being a sweetie the next minute 😂😂 like how the hell does he do that? And I totally understand the lazlo reference (what we do in the shadows is amazing btw I’m obsessed with it) and I agree he is an amazing leader and just captures the mood of the group and leads them with ease and composure lol oh absolutely everyone in the group complements each other in their own way BUT we are shownu biased 100000% and I take responsibility for that fact lol

Bruh seongwha did more than ate he devoured the stage and everything else he does! Like you can tell he was meant to be on a stage and preform and be a total sweet cheese good time boy 😂😂 him and san are the mood bringers of the group tbh they create the atmosphere and the mood and get everyone lit and hype (mingi is another level though lol) he is definitely doing the most for the alphabet soup babies and that’s a fact he represents the mood and the team and it’s so true (and I’ve seen a lot of us wear his crop tops and edits and it’s a mood and I have to take a breath sometimes 😂😂😂) and Hongjoon is the definition of the short king anthem like you cannot go wrong with his vibe and energy lol btw you know what gets me- the eye contact that this man has (and you know which performance I’m talking about) is absolutely one of the hottest and scariest things I’ve witnessed on Instagram and Tumblr 😂😂

Lol!!!! Evil slut 😂😂😂😂 he is an evil slut! And yeah even if the song or solo stuff doesn’t work out then it’s gonna be good and it was worth the shot but holy shit he’s doing amazing stuff! ❤️❤️❤️

Lol your not gonna bore me love I am fascinated with new things! Bring on the ted talks and the vents! I am here for it ❤️❤️❤️that’s so cool that you sing!! Even if it’s for fun now it’s still an awesome thing to keep for yourself lol if anything it makes you unique ❤️

Really?? Your dads going to meet the pope? That’s so cool!! What kind of business trip is it? Agreed like let me have this time to myself and to spend time with the fam please l!! Lol

Aw thanks love ❤️ it took some time but it’s a fun project to work on (one handed or two lol) and for the sewing there a whole bunch of easy patterns to follow so that part won’t be difficult but it depends on the type of fabric to use lol oooo kpop on the violin sounds difficult but very impressive ❤️❤️

Lol! Aw nice!! I’m glad your excited to travel new places love ❤️ yeah I’ve been to my fair share of cities and what not lol but it would be fun to travel outside of the countries I know lol really? How far out is your family? Where are they all located now? How often do you travel? Now your dad is the definition of dedication 😂😂

Hope you have a great day love ❤️

[sic-sempervirens]

Taio, a timeline

Okay, receipts:

Taio 1.0. OG Taio. Cutie Dummy. Wide-eyed soldier of fortune. More or less beyond reproach. First playthrough of that weird open-world dating sim my friends had been talking about a couple years ago. Over the course of the game as we encountered weird cutscene angles or janky texture shadows or whatever, we did little refinements which ultimately resulted in:

Taio 2.0. Husky adult sword man. The hero of most of the screencaps you’ve seen me throw around like sweaty pictures torn out of Tiger Beat. He’s our most complete game. Little more grown-up, leaning a little more into typical qunari features (not all visible head-on tbf) with the broader nose bridge, less turned-up nose, rectangular jaw. My roommate and I split this playthrough pretty much 50/50 so she got to give him the poofy lips. Dorian is grateful. We got busy and never got to TP, and after I was playing Niamh and Cato a bit in the interim, we got curious about...

Taio 2.5. ~MAGE BABY TAIO~. PRECIOUS SQUASHED BEAN. NICE AND GOOD LAMB. We consider this an AU where he’s about 10 years younger than usual and it SHOWS. Big gooby cartoon eyes. Smooth face smooth brain. Gave up on the endeavor once we got to Skyhold because honestly, it just didn’t feel right to have a Taio who couldn’t go smashy smashy. But STILL. LOOK AT HIM. HOLD AND CUDDLE HIM AND GIVE HIM YOUR PROTECTION.

Reminder at this point that we played the entire franchise widdershins: Inquisition first, then jumping back to Origins (oh, so THAT’S Morrigan...) and finally DA2.

By this point I’ve got a shitload more playthroughs. Reed, Niamh, Ari, Cato. A couple deleted dwarves. Reed’s twin sister Lark who’s more manly than he is. Sarielle who’s going to be our dirtbag solasmancing assquisitor who I just can’t bring myself to work on.

But honestly, we keep coming back to Taio. We can’t stay away. He’s our pal, our homeboy, our rotten soldier. He's our sweet cheese, our good-time boy

So we fill out the DA Keep with all our best choices, figuring we’ll start a fresh game on my roommate’s PSN, no golden nug, no shortcuts, no skipped characters, and do it all and take our time.

So we get into the generator to whip up Taio from memory for the fourth time. And this happened.

Taio 3.0. Ultimate Taio. Platonic Ideal of Taio. We’re back to the chestnut hair. We've got 1.0′s wider-set eyes and lower-set ears. We’ve got 2.0′s heavy nose and jaw. We’ve got Mage Taio’s more vivid eyes and ridiculous cheekbones. We’ve got a heavy brow situation because we forgot to go in for those sliders and wound up with deep-set eyes that stare into your very SOUL.

I know there’s at least one of you who’s gotten to this point and I’m going to cut you off right now -- NO, these are NOT al the same picture, YES, I CAN tell the difference, and Why Do You Hate Nice THINGS? Why can’t you just love him?