#hope adding tags of the guilds i'm criticizing is okay

[shadowkat678]

I posted 26,487 times in 2022

That's 6,310 more posts than 2021!

247 posts created (1%)

26,240 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@acidmatze

@taulupis

@bumblerhizal

@meabeck

I tagged 634 of my posts in 2022

#the legend of vox machina - 30 posts

#tlovm spoilers - 26 posts

#unreality - 19 posts

#critical role - 18 posts

#dungeons and dragons - 16 posts

#tlovm - 10 posts

#the raven queen - 10 posts

#toh spoilers - 9 posts

#lovm spoilers - 8 posts

#the owl house spoilers - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#but i have it on good authority their home blueprints of the layout shows that the true basement should be ten feet deeper from the stairs

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

👀

44 notes - Posted October 1, 2022

#4

So apparently people really like my Dragon Heist remix!

It has been suggested I put all my documents in actual PDFs and sell them on DMS Guild but I have no idea how to do that. Maybe eventually.

But in the meantime y'all can check it all out here!

Anyway tell me what you think. This was a lot of work and yes I do seek validation. Any ideas on areas I could expand upon more? What I should tackle next? Let me know!

45 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

#3

I want to see my writing be psychoanalyzed like I see with media on Tumblr. That’s how I’ll know I made it. I don’t care if I sell like 100 copies of something one day someone can send me a letter digging into the details and writing a ten page essay and I’ll be like “Okay I’m content now.”

46 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

#2

Well I was blocked so let me just put this here.

Asexual cisgender people are, by default, not hetrosexual cisgender. It doesn't matter if they're romantically attracted to the opposite sex or not. They are not cishets, and in places where any queerness is punished by law and by social norms, being a queer identity is enough to put you in danger.

Even if you're operating under the assumption that in places like the USA ace and aro people don't face as much structural impression, that absolutely IS NOT TRUE everywhere. When gay people are thrown off buildings, and someone hears you say you're Xsexual instead of cishet, they are not going to pause to ask the nuances. They will hate and harm you for the sole reason of existing as a queer person.

I've seen aces and aros have to run away from their home countries right alongside trans and gay people who had to.

It's 2022. Can we please stop the discourse over this and realize any queer person, in a good very sizable chunk of the world, will not get you ANY amount of privilege akin to being a cishet.

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk and that is the end of my thoughts on the matter.

51 notes - Posted April 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

So I got this new ad:

And got ~vibes~, so I looked it up and when I dug into it this school is a Catholic organization that's widely been blasted for pushing native cultural assimilation in their past. Supposedly they're currently trying to right wrongs and pushing classes that teach native languages and crafts.

But I know there's been talk about stuff still occuring and being swept under the rug as well as avoiding responsibility for past actions by shutting down lawsuits and supporting laws that protect them from legal action.

I'm not native, but I wanted to draw attention to this new ad and see if there's any native users who know more that can chime in on this.

I'm going to blaze this post in hopes of getting seen by someone with more knowledge on this. On the surface my first impression was it was a school run by native cultural activists pushing to teach kids more about their culture, as I've heard of them popping up more to fight back against historical assimilation. But it's a Catholic school and, uh, they obviously have a HISTORY behind them that's not great, to put it mildly.

346 notes - Posted June 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[thegrunkiest]

Not gonna lie, returning to Skyrim over the past few days has reminded me of just how much I hope TES VI does factions like they did in Oblivion.

!Some critical ranting of Skyrim/positive rambling of Oblivion ahead!

I’m saying this after I started trying to immerse myself in the College of Winterhold, at last, after installing some good magic mods. But I just couldn’t. I couldn’t really care less about this Eye of Magnus or why the Psijic Order wants to talk with me specifically. I couldn’t care about stopping Ancano I can hardly remember what even happens in the questline aside from go into ruin, find orb, go into basement, talk to an aura, go to a ruin, beat up a skeleton dragon and something after that.

This is the same issue I’ve personally had with the Companions, and to a lesser extent, the Thieves Guild. I legit only remember the Companions as ��the guild that gives you lycanthropy”. Thieves Guild is a little better, as I do distinctly remember a few of the characters and their quests could get quite creative. I never felt particularly invested however.

So why exactly do I (and possibly some of you) think Skyrim’s factions don’t work, and that they should look back on Oblivion when creating questlines for the next games? For me personally, it boils down to two components: the state of affairs, and sense of progression.

Sense of Progression

I’ll start with the simplest one first. Let’s use the College as an example again, comparing it to the Mage’s Guild of Oblivion. What do you do to gain entry to the College? Cast the requested novice/apprentice level spell (or alternatively, shout if you’re a Dragonborn or just schmooze if you, for some reason, already have 100 in speech). In Oblivion? You have to gain a recommendation from each of the individual chapters by completing a quest unique to each quild hall, which involve a little more work than simply casting a spell.

Alright, alright, so what do we do once we’re in? At the College, we engage in a little lesson with our many (see: three) fellow students. Cool (it’s also our only magic lesson from what I recall - great education system!). Then we’re immediately thrust into the questline, with no real or necessary deviations from the main subject regarding the Eye of Magnus. Then guess what - you’ve become Arch Mage!... wait what? I thought I just joined not too long ago?...

I find it hard to feel good about gaining the leadership role, despite me having just stopped a potentially devastating crisis to earn it, because I never felt more than a junior beforehand. This is how Oblivion does it right with its ranking system in my opinion. While I admit I might have chosen a bad example to draw from, as the Mage’s Guild quests also heavily concerns the main threat in at least some way, but what personally makes it more immersive for me is the fact you’re promoted whilst you’re playing - even to the point you’re being passed onto a different superior for more daring assignments! This is where the little things really count.

Then there’s the Thieves Guild. Unless there’s some backstory I’m glancing over, I don’t see why the Thieves Guild of Skyrim couldn’t have shared the same ranking system as the Oblivion branch, if no one else. In Oblivion, you can only initiate the quests after you’ve passed a certain threshold of fencing stolen goods, something that encourages you to actually be a thief to progress as a thief. I’m not just going from Pickpocket to Gray Fox, as I feel I am from an initiate to Nightingale/Guildmaster in Skyrim; you have various titles you earn in between.

If I had to summarize the point I’m trying to make - I’ll use Oblivion’s Dark Brotherhood. Arguably one of the most popular questlines in TES. Now, could you imagine an Oblivion Dark Brotherhood without Whodunit?, The Assassinated Man, Permanent Retirement, etc. - just axe those unrelated quests in favor of focusing on rooting out the Traitor. No promotions, just primarily finding ways to stop a person who, probably, has killed assassins much more seasoned than you! A deadly threat! Why? Because you’re you! And you obviously deserve to become the Listener after being a Murderer the whole questline.

Which leads me into my next point....

State of Affairs

Skyrim’s questlines seem to have a fixation on factions that are destitute and/or are on the brink of extinction. Business is dry with the Thieves Guild; in the Dark Brotherhood, all but the Falkreath sanctuary is destroyed and the Old Ways are abandoned; the Companions are struggling with the lycanthropy that plagues its strongest members; the College of Winterhold have little reputation in quite an anti-magic province; hell, even the Blades, who were previously slaughtered and run into hiding. The Dawnguard factions I feel are an exception (a reason I like that DLC so much), as the Dawnguard can excuse its low wealth and reputation with the fact that it was just reformed, and the Volkihar Clan have, for all I know, have just been... existing, in the shadows.

Admittedly, Oblivion also has a bit of a running theme among its faction - stable and well-organized factions plagued by a specific threat. The Blades have their Oblivion Crisis, the DB with their traitor ordeal, the Mage’s Guild with the necromancers/Mannimarco, the Fighter’s Guild with the Blackwood Company, Court of Madness with Jyggalag.

The reason why I prefer Oblivion’s guilds over Skyrim, I suppose, is related to my personal problem of power fantasy. Skyrim is a big old power fantasy. You’re the Dragonborn, the chosen one, the Hero of prophecy. So obviously you need to be the savior of each guild, right? You have to be the one the Night Mother deems Listener; the one the Psijics talk to; the one Nocturnal makes a Nightingale.

One might say it’s more realistic that way though, as it adds to Skyrim’s aesthetic of a darker, more unstable time with the Civil War and return of dragons. That’s a fair point. But did 90% of the guilds have to be restricted to poor little groups? Surely the Companions could’ve had other bases in some of the cities somehow, or the Thieves Guild have another hideout in, say Solitude?

You could argue you’re also chosen in Oblivion, sure. But while Uriel saw you in his dreams, you’re place as HoK wasn’t in part due to a superpower, either. I felt I was closing the Oblivion gates because my characters were who they were. You aren’t the only one who can enter Oblivion gates, but you were determined and skilled enough to make it through to the end. While in the factions, you were, for the most part, a newbie working through the ranks until eventually, you’re trusted to confront the threat. In Skyrim it feels less like organizations, and more like ragtag groups that were waiting for you to come in and fix them.

Coupled with the sense progression, this makes experiencing Oblivion’s factions much more organic and satisfying - in my opinion. That’s what’s most important. I’m not ragging on anyone who likes Skyrim’s factions, and I still love Skyrim despite my endless complaints. I understand I may have missed a few points (like the Civil War and Arena), and the ones I made could be disputed.

TL;DR: Skyrim’s fondness for power fantasy and the lack of ranks makes its faction questlines less immersive and more forced, whereas in Oblivion climbing ranks as a sort-of average joe feels organic and more rewarding. This is just my opinion. I don’t hate Skyrim. You’re free to agree or disagree and add to the discussion.