#i don't like playing her but i really admire her as a character in lore

[stoshasaurus]

anatomical atrocities aside, this d.va sketch turned out real cute. thumbs up.

[dorianwolfforest]

I really want to hear all your points regarding hating Sabine I’m super curious.

I don't really hate her as a character, I hate how she is written.

I could start off with the fact that she's an incredibly aggressive, "beastly" character who is also non-white, with native american features, which is a harmful stereotype against native americans (See: the violent savage stereotype, not only something apparent in media (Twilight, for example), but real, tangible racism and propaganda in the united states that is still rampant) and even if she's not native american, she's still an aggressive, beastly non-white character, but I don't know if I am the person to make those claims.

Moving on, she's just poorly managed by the company. She's an evil murderer, a person lacking empathy, someone who seeks to destroy Jorvik and all it holds dear because she is promised power... and she's upset that she doesn't get to play with the other kids on the playground. She doesn't like how the riding clubs are mean to each other. She releases balloons because people are having fun. She's either the darkest, most twisted person on the island or she gets her feefees hurt because other people are having fun without her.

The way they write her, she becomes an extreme hypocrite. The other riders are bad and mean for not letting her participate in the games? She imprisoned someone in a world that would slowly and horrifically kill them. Think exposing someone to severe radiation damage knowingly and with malintent. Yet Loretta is a meanie because she thinks Ginny's outfits suck.

The other part of it is the community response. She is sexualized only and merely for her body, with her audience completely ignoring her character, her traits, her personality and her arc, only really acknowledging her "dark" side if they can sexualize it. "but they did it to ydris too", you might claim, ignoring that ydris knowingly, consensually flirted with the main character and took on the persona of someone who enjoyed and wanted the attention. Sabine would hate sabine stans, and the stans ignore that and push her personality aside because she's hot. It's incredibly demeaning to boil her down only to her body and then act as though she is something she's not, namely a person capable of loving anything other than herself and her quest for power, something that is well established in the lore of her character.

The social media team, in response to the fan admiration, has played up Sabine's character and her appearances on their social media sites, and the fandom has gone so far as to influencing the writers into making her more easy to enjoy. The writers (there are no writers at SSE, but that's besides the point) have gone back on what Sabine is meant to be and represent so that the fans will engage with their story more, and the socmed team has pushed her to the forefront of their existence, making several tweets and tiktoks about her and how hot she is. I personally believe that this goes against what any self-appointed feminist company should be doing, and that SSE has a wonderful cast that deserves the spotlight far more. Jill Goldspur, for example, is a queen and she deserves recognition.

All in all, I don't hate Sabine, I hate everything that surrounds her and, as such, I wish she would simply disappear from the story so I don't have to fucking deal with it anymore.

[dazaispinkietoe]

Obey Me Theory

I've mentioned it but never discussed it so HERE WE GO!!

In my first post I mentioned that I thought the brothers' sins were based on how they coped with their trauma. I'm sick right now so I'm not sure how good this explanation will be but here we go

So, even though most of the fandom knows about the Obey Me lore some don't (SPOILERS AHEAD!!)

Quick rundown: Basically the brothers were all very close to this girl named Lilith, close enough that they considered her a sister when they lived in Celestia. Eventually, she was introduced to a human and fell in love, but that human got sick and she used forbidden methods to save him. This caused a war and ended with her dying as the brothers watched.

So, how did this affect the brothers? They coped with it in their own ways, but these ways seemed to take them over. Which makes sense because nothing about grief is normal, and it can be hard to get out of once you're in it.

In my theory, the different ways the brothers coped are represented by their sins.

Starting with Lucifer, obviously, he is the sin of pride. When he was in Celestia, he was adored for being a model example. He constantly kept up his appearance and was viewed as a leader or a strong figure, so he thought he had to keep up this act to stay admired. After Lilith died, Lucifer likely felt hopeless, he had become the very thing he hated (a demon), lost his sister, and overall failed to protect his family. He covered up what had happened to protect everyone but that didn't change his emotions. Because of how he behaved in the past, he almost instantly latched on to the boss-employee relationship he had with Diavolo, and to distract himself buried himself in his work. He found that he was discriminated against for being an ex angel, but also that the brothers still viewed him as a guide. So, to regain the little control he had, he faked confidence and tried to control how people viewed him, the quality of work, and his strength. This also, however, caused him to become very anxious of the thoughts around him and as a result his pride took him over.

Then we have Mammon. Escapism seems to be a common trend with these brothers, and Mammon found it through money. He tried to buy happiness, and because of Lilith's death I can imagine that he was scared he wouldn't be able to hold onto something, so he bought more than he needed and got more money than he needed, (even though he still ended up broke,) with the hope that it wouldn't have been taken away from him. He also has mentioned that he likes gambling, which not only supports his money hoarding habits but also gives people a rush of adrenaline, that may have changed his mood and made him feel better for a limited amount of time. Like Lucifer, Mammon wants to protect his family even though they don't always agree with his methods. Greed could play a part in this because if he has a lot of something, people might respect him more and in turn respect his family more.

Leviathan's sin is so similar to Mammon's yet so different. Envy can be caused by Greed and make the same emotions, but they aren't exactly the same. It isn't jealousy either. Envy is when you want something that you don't already have and it makes you feel bad about yourself, while jealousy is towards something you feel like you own. This is important to Leviathan's character because in Nightbringer, he mentions how he felt like he could never fit in anywhere. This is likely because he felt like he was missing what others had, and this feeling probably intensified once he was thrown into a pretty much unknown environment where people weren't as friendly to him. Once he had lost his sibling, he probably also became envious of people with full families, or just the thought of someone having one. He ended up really liking video games and animes to distract himself, but this only intensified his feelings because he felt like these were the only thing he had. And if he couldn't be the best or first at these things, then who was he? Definitely not someone important or deserving of others attention, right?

Satan's is a bit different here because he didn't actually lose a sibling. He was more of an addition than a loss. Because of this, and how he was birthed, he felt alienated from most of society. He also felt a lot of feelings he probably couldn't comprehend. He was shaped into who he was by Lucifer, but started to feel like he was no one but Lucifer himself and grew angry with himself for not being able to do anything about it. Because of these emotions he was feeling, as well as having likely emotionally unavailable siblings due to the time of his birth (even though they tried their best) he ended up becoming angry at himself and everyone around him, even his existence. Because he didn't know how to handle these emotions properly and others began to avoid him, he learned to bottle up these feelings, but that only made it worse. Generally, everything that he did made him angry because he just couldn't understand it.

Asmodeus is a bit of a..uh...case with his, but it definitely makes sense. When he was in Celestia, he was praised for his beauty and purity. Ever since he was little he was celebrating himself and what he was, because he was taught to do so. His image was almost all of who he was, what everyone praised him for. So, once he was thrown down into Devildom, he didn't know how to react. Purity wouldn't be praised anymore, and everyone hated him because of where he came from anyways. His entire self image was ruined, and even though he didn't regret giving Lilith even a chance at survival, was it all for nothing? So he tries to fit in. He makes himself look wanted to the public eye, tries and figures out Devildom's social norms, what they like, and what they want to see, but it doesn't work the way he wants it to. He becomes overly obsessed with his self image to the point of self destruction if he's rejected (Solomon found him sobbing because a woman rejected his advances,) but that's not the only reason he's so lustful. He behaves like this to distract himself, too, to not give himself a chance to think about what happened to him, and we see how he just doesn't comprehend the weight of situations both in the original Obey Me and in Nightbringer.

Beelzebub's is a bit difficult if you don't know how chemicals work and stuff, but I tried my best so here we go. Once Lilith died, Beelzebub carried a lot of guilt over the situation and blamed himself for not being able to protect her. This created a very anxious feeling for him, that could probably be considered very very close to hunger, or like a static feeling in his stomach. Because of this, he tried to fill the void by consuming as much as he can, which must be a lot because lets admit it...he is NOT a small man like wtf, 😭 but it never really worked. The feeling was still there, like something was wrong, and it hurt. But besides that, his gluttony may have also been because of how food affects the brain. A lot of people do binge eat when they're stressed, because it produces chemical reactions in the brain that can stop the discomfort for a little while, especially if you're eating something that you like. This may also be a part of the reason Beelzebub gets so mad when he has nothing to eat, because he has no way (in his mind) to control the stress, and gets overwhelmed.

Okay now I'm sure you're all very tired of me talking about Belphegor BUT PLEASE CHAT JUST LISTEN PLEASE HE'S SO RELATABLE JUST GIVE HIM A CHANCE. Belphegor watched Lilith die, and like Beelzebub very much blames himself for it, and like the other brothers was discriminated against heavily for being an ex angel. But instead of confronting this, Belphegor chose to avoid his thoughts. He slept, hoping that his dreams would be better and that he wouldn't have to feel what he was now. This way, no one could bother him, he didn't have to feel, in fact, he didn't have to experience half the things he does when he's awake. There was nothing for him to look forward to, anyways, so he'd be fine. But once he can't sleep he gets anxious, and we see this once he gets desperate and contacts MC, asking for help to sleep. He thinks that sleep will fix his problems when in reality he's just avoiding them like all the rest of his siblings.

[redninjaoutfit]

Colt De Luca relationship chart with canon characters!

Posting more about my greasy son because the interaction charts reveal a lot of lore that I haven't already mentioned in my previous posts 😈

More under the cut cause it's.. a lot!

The main trio ---------------------------------

His relationship to the main gang is probably shared with a lot of the other clique members at Bullworth - dislike.

Gary - it's clear enough why Colt hates his guts. Gary is a sociopath who manipulates and uses others to his sole advantage. Colt hates all sort of bullying and unnecessary violence towards which Gary has a clear liking. He is chaos and Colt hates chaos.

Jimmy - though he respects him for defeating Gary, Colt still feels unsettled by Jimmy's way of conflict resolution. He thinks he enabled Gary's sadistic nature in a way and is too much of a brute.

Petey - while Petey holds a general respect for Colt's sensitive nature as a Greaser thinking him one of the good ones, Colt considers him a two-timer who, like Jimmy, enabled Gary but didn't even try to stop him.

The Greasers

--------------------------------------

This section is probably going to be the lengthiest since Colt himself IS part of the greaser clique and his relationship with them is the most in-depth. Though he gets along with them and they consider him part of their little found family there is some unresolved tension which his friends either refuse to acknowledge or don't see at all.

Johnny - He and Colt have a friendly relationship which is unfortunately strained on Colt's part. While he appreciates all his leader has done for him, how he stood up for him to the Jocks and the Bullies when they tormented him, he wishes Johnny would give up his obsession with Lola as it inhibits his sense of judgment and, as many greasers think anyway, drives him crazy.

Lola - While he wishes he could enjoy being around her more, Colt is put off her by her toxic relationship with their leader. He thinks it'd be better if they'd split permanently. He feels like a child of parents who refuse to get a divorce but really should. She also treats him rather condescendingly for his age and personality.

Peanut - They're friendly on a day to day basis but there's tension between the two for many reasons, the primary one being their perception of Johnny. Colt thinks Peanut is too much of a doormat for their leader and enables his bad decision, at the same time he feels bad about his obvious unhealthy attachment to Johnny. Peanut senses Colt's pity and hates it but can't find it in himself to confront him about it. Peanut's also sort of jealous about Colt being Ms. Philips' favourite student

Vance - Great friends who share an appreciation for beauty! Though Vance's more about vanity and Colt's about the arts, they find common ground. Colt finds Vance's word-plays rather amusing and creative and tries to convince him to pursue writing

Ricky - They get along rather well seeing as Ricky has been around the De Luca brothers for a long time before they started attending the academy. Though Colt doesn't take much interest in fixing bikes himself he enjoys sitting around the autoshop with Ricky and reading him his own poetry and Ricky enjoys hearing it even more as he is also a sensitive person at heart and wishes he could also write well. They often cause mischief to the Jocks together. CERTIFIED HATERS!!

Norton - one of the most ouwardly sensitive Greasers other than Colt, of course they're friends!! Norton, despite being twice Colt's height and size admires the little guy for being himself and not putting on a tough act like the rest of the greasers, himself included. He also treats him like an artistic mentor of sorts, coming to Colt for advice when trying to improve his own painting skills. He sees a lot of Ponyboy in Colt (wonder why) who's his favourite Outsiders character. Probably got a sunset painting from Colt once or twice. Cried every time! Also the most fiercely protective of him when Lucky's not around.

Hal - with Hal being more brash and rude, they're not as good of friends as for example Norton n Ricky are with Colt but they still enjoy each other's presence. Colt entertains Hal's creepy interests such as true crime and criminal mysteries, though what he wouldn't tell Hal is that he's quite the scaredy cat at heart.

Lucky - well. They are brothers so there's that! Their relationship is incredibly complex. Their parents passed away in a motorbike accident when Lucky was 6 and Colt was 2, got adopted by their neglectful uncle and from then on had to pretty much fend for themselves with Luck doing all the raising for Colt instead of the uncle. Lucky thinks of himself more like a parent to Colt than a brother or friend and though they love each other and are incredibly close both wish their relationship would have been different, that Lucky was less overprotective and Colt was more mature. They never talk about it though cause "if it works then that's all that matters"

Lefty - THEY'RE THE BEST OF FRIENDS I SWEAR TO GOD. Ever since the brothers moved to New Coventry to live with their uncle and Colt was able to roam the neighbourhood freely (with Luck of course) he got adopted by Lefty (and back then Luis) who often spent his days outside cause of his own less than ideal home life. They experienced every part of growing up together and are so attached at the hip when one's not present you ask the other where he is. They get up to mischief together and give Lucky sleepless nights but they wouldn't have it any other way.

The Preppies

--------------------------------------

You'd think a Greaser's relationship to the Preppies would be more straightforward.. well, think again! While his perception of the rich is similar to that of his fellow "paupers" Colt's never been one to straight up despise them despite his gang's expectations.

Derby - dislikes him for obvious reasons - not only is he rich but also ridiculously entitled. He's been ridiculed by Derby countless times for anything ranging from his paint-stained clothes, his Greaser status, his immaturity (ironic) and lack of money. It never felt like it was actually meant to hurt Colt, rather stroke Derby's own ego hence why Colt doesn't really hate him and simply sees him as a spoiled brat.

Pinky - maybe they're not the best of friends but the times they actually had an opportunity to talk they got along rather well. Outside of Pinky being just as spoiled of a princess as Derby, Colt appreciates her indifference towards a person's economic class. He'd much rather be seen as fascinating and "real" than spat on and ridiculed.

Tad - their history is surprisingly loaded for two people who almost never talk to one another. Normally, with Tad being as much of an insufferable git as he is Colt would have no choice but to dislike him like he does Derby or Bryce. It's different, however, with Tad's family history involved. Their relationship started off as pure dislike but morphed into hesitant, conflicted sympathy on Colt's part once he found out about Tad's father's abuse (which i think he'd be rather private about despite him loudly talking about it in game). Tad DESPISES Colt for "pitying" him and either avoids him or tries to make his life a living hell so Colt would stop looking at him like that TM. Tad actively plots against him as he does with Peanut, confusing other preps who don't know about their history.

Gord, Chad and Justin - they don't have very bad blood between them outside of the whole class clash shtick between the Greasers and the Preps. Colt DOES dislike Justin more though primarily because of his association with the Jocks and desire to befriend them. After all they've done to him, Colt can't fathom the idea of willingly hanging around them.

Parker - despite being from two completely different factions these two have great friendship chemistry. They met when Colt wandered into Old Bullworth Vale and gotten targeted by the other rich kids with the then rich Bryce at the helm of the attack. He was the one to actually help him clean up and "escort" him around the neighbourhood so he could get what he needed. The selfless act moved Colt and since then they've only grown closer and were it not for clique loyalties they'd be able to consider each other besties. They hang out in private out of the sight of their respective groups and Colt even got Lefty to like Parker!

Bryce - the only Prep Colt actually honest to god can't stand. To him, Bryce is just like Derby but his words are much more cutting and he actually means each insult he spews. He's also been targeted by Bryce as "boxing practice" and ridiculed for his interests and personality. Bryce feels much the same and doesn't understand why Colt "refuses" to hide and repress things about himself that make him such an easy target. Victim blaming much?

Bif - strangely enough Bif and Colt get along rather well! Though he's often used as the muscle and protector of the Preppies, Bif holds little actual honest contempt towards poor people who aren't directly out for blue blood (such as a majority of the Greasers). He has a lot of "pauper" hobbies and interests and is more relaxed and secure in his identity than his friends. Colt sees and admires that about Bif whereas Bif sees his old, small self in Colt and feels strangely protective over the little Greaser who doesn't really go out of his way to instigate trouble with the Preps. Colt would like to get closer to him but knows it's pretty much impossible with Bif being Derby's bodyguard. Doesn't stop both of them from wishing though.

The Jocks

--------------------------------------

It's apparent in the graph but Colt holds a degree of dislike towards every Jock. Like I've already mentioned, it's less the economic status of a person which matters to him and more how they treat others which the Jocks as the top clique have a tendency towards "putting people in their place".

Ted, Kirby and Dan - the least hated of the hated on the football team. They've all given Colt hell but it could be worse. He can see right through their tough guy personas and likes to point it out which makes them all hate him even more. If he's gonna be brutalised either way Colt can count on using his tactic of hitting where it hurts to at least make the beatdown bearable.

Mandy - being the girlfriend of Ted automatically puts her on the hate list and Colt in no way appreciates the way she speaks about other people and how much disgust she looks at him with.

Bo and Bob - dislikes them more out of principle than the pure animosity he feels towards the rest of the Jocks. Same with Justin, he would be neutral towards them if it weren't for the fact they willingly choose to associate themselves with "those blood-thirsty roid monkeys".

Luis - this one is interesting to say the least. He, alongside Lefty, grew up with Colt and they used to be best friends back when they were children. Then at some point during puberty Luis started growing bigger and stronger than both of them and began distancing himself without explaining why (didn't want to seem uncool). They remained friends albeit looser ones but Colt still felt bitter. The situation got bad when instead of joining the Greasers like he was expected to, Luis chose to associate himself with the Jocks who at that point had already targeted Colt pretty vehemently. Worst came when, as part of his hazing, Luis was forced to make Colt's life a living hell for a full week. Which he did despite his brother's and cliques attempts to stop him. So there's that! Colt despises him, feels betrayed and used, leading Lefty to also abandon his long standing friendship with Luis, only ever conversing to get intel from one another on clique business since on group level the Jocks and Greasers aren't rivals.

Juri - Colt's second biggest tormentor. If it weren't for Juri and Luis Colt wouldn't even hate the Jocks as much as he does. Being new best friends and wrestling buddies with Luis, Juri has a natural bias against him, not to mention his personality, appearance, interests and pretty much entire existence being girly enough to warrant and instant beating whenever the Russian does manage to catch Colt. His and Luis' friendship painfully reminds Colt of what the three of them alongside Lefty used to have before Luis betrayed them and Colt does feel resentment towards Juri for taking his place even though he doesn't want it anymore

Damon - since he attacks everyone out of principle of being "better" than the entire school combined, Colt has no choice but to hate Damon. He sees him as nothing more than a terrifying annoyance on his way to and from the Autoshop or when sneaking into Harrington House.

Casey - doesn't have enough spiteful agency against other cliques to warrant pure hatred from Colt. He's a prankster and while he often jokes at the expense of others, he doesn't usually go out of his actual way to make Colt miserable specifically. For that, he gets extra points above the others. Still not enough to put him in neutral category though.. he's a Jock after all.

The Nerds

--------------------------------------

Colt's relationship with the Nerds is forcibly pretty much that of the other cliques - hesistance and antipathy. While he doesn't like to join others in tormenting them like the rest of the Greasers do, he prefers if they don't acknowledge him at all - he's already facing Nerd allegations for his interests.

He also secretly admires them for their academic prowess and wishes learning came to him as easily as it seemingly does to them. He has used their aid on schoolwork a couple of times in exchange for artistic favors such as drawing their GnG characters but makes them swear not to tattle to other cliques, especially the Jocks.

He may pretend like he's just as negative towards them as the rest of the Greasers, once Jimmy brings about clique unity he will gladly interact with some of the Nerds like Melvin, Cornelius and Beatrice and maybe even join their GnG session once or twice (until he realizes most of them are incredibly weird).

The Bullies

--------------------------------------

The Bullworth welcoming committee gladly tormented Colt in the very beginning of his school journey, before he officially became a Greaser. Afterwards, despite nothing about him actually changing, the Bullies wondrously seemed to leave him alone.

Colt dislikes them because he finds bullying in general disgusting and is more of a lover than a fighter. According to him, everybody should feel free to be whoever they are as long as they're not hurting other people which the bullies very much are for no good reason other than pure violence and abuse.

Colt uses his privileged position as member of a clique above the Bullies to sometimes snitch on them to the prefects and get them busted for attacking weaker students, remembering his own tormenting and how much he wished somebody would have helped him out back then.

The only bully he doesn't hate as much as the others is Tom because that boy's never been one to seek him out and give him his commupins of his own volition. Still beat on him but only around his friends.

[salt-hag]

fall 2024 cdrama + kdrama check-in list

haven't done a check in/wrap up post of dramas watched in a while so wanted to do one before the end of the year ✨ hoping to have finished a lot of these and have a list of reviews at around new years

dramas watched

story of kunning palace (cdrama)

8.5/10 for me. This is my year of loving costume period cdramas and I kicked it off with sokp. Really enjoyed the time travel/redemption plot line and Bai Lu as a somewhat reformed evil empress.

the legend of shenli (cdrama)

9/10 for me. A little slow in places but this goes down in my list of fav drama romances. Badass and admirable female lead and quirky oddball male lead who simps for her (as he should). I found the fantasy somewhat goofy but lovably so. This is a *comfort* show for me now. Has the best happy ending/post finale last episode I've seen up to now.

the double (cdrama)

9.5/10 for me for the sheer melodrama. Is this technically a better drama than the legend of shenli? No, of course not. Is it entertaining as hell? Yes, so it's gets a .5 boost. Costume period one-woman's-revenge, absolutely delicious. Hilarious male lead who loves the drama of it all and is very handsome. I was telling a friend about this and she was confused. Weren't you just watching this earlier this year? No, dear reader, she had the revenge stuff confused with Story of Kunning Palace. I have a type, and that is conniving women getting what they want in beautiful period costumes while a handsome, competent man answers their beck and call and simps all the while.

currently watching

RIGHT NOW: Are You the One (cdrama) - ep 22/40

This started out as costume period brain popcorn for me but now there's intrigue and back-stabbing and a clever woman out-scheming men in power so. yeah i'm enjoying this i guess whatever...

RIGHT NOW: Cinderella at 2am (kdrama) - ep 3/10

I haven't watched a kdrama in a while and I wanted a comforting, brain-popcorn modern rom com. I think this will deliver.

My Journey to You (cdrama) - on ep 20/24

I am DETERMINED to finish the gorgeous scheming assassin ladies period drama. I WILL. It's just the main plotline made me snooze a bit at ep 20 so it's taking me a while.

The Princess Royal (cdrama) - ep 6/40

Snowfall (cdrama) - 17/24

dropped or on hold (I'm a mood watcher)

[on hold] Love Like the Galaxy part 2 (cdrama) - ep 12/29

[on hold] Meet you at the blossom (uncensored period BL, Thai) - ep 4/12

[on hold] Lost You Forever season one (cdrama) - ep 17/39

[on hold] In Blossom (cdrama) - ep 22/32

Another one I am DETERMINED to finish!! But I don't vibe with the main actress. I loved the one who played the female lead before the body swapping. Otherwise this drama has everything I would ever want: costume period murder mysteries, a very beautiful man who devotedly simps for his nice wife, a clever female lead with quirky interests, BODY SWAPPING AND IDENTITY SHENANIGANS.

[can't decide to drop or not] Only For Love (cdrama) - ep 21/36

I can't really stand modern-setting cdramas, I'm sorry. I was watching this one for Wang Hedi. I somehow made it to episode 21 despite the cringe. Might finish watching this while pmsing.

[can't decide] Tale of the Nine-tailed 1938 (kdrama) - ep 9/12

Idk why but I just found the plotline kind of boring?? I loved the extra character and world lore. But I had problems with the original TotNT too so.

[dropped] Till the End of the Moon (cdrama) - ep 20/40

This was gorgeous but I like sweet romance, I'm sorry. This was too dramatic for even me. I wanted Bai Lu to love her problematic malewife!!

[dropped] Miss Night and Day (kdrama) - ep 2/16

Loved the concept, found the show too painful to watch.

____

anyway hoping to get back into kdramas this fall or in 2025. we'll see!!

[paradox-time]

@basil-does-arttt

Heeeeyyyy, thanks for giving me an excuse to ranttt <3<3

Ok so, I saw a post of yours that was something like "what about gortash do fans find appealing?”

I'm going to try my best to answer why some of us are fans of this Absolute Shitbag (pun intended)

Some of my credentials, I've played the game for over 700 hours over about 4 months, seen, made, and interacted with tons of fan content and talked about it at length with other fans and unwilling friends. I make it my job to know every single scrap of Lore the game has to offer, going to stupid lengths to read all the books and letters hidden throughout the game, I also savescum the hell out of dialog options so I don't miss any exposition. I've played a tav twice and a dark urge 8 times, plus started but never finished other origin playthroughs.

Safe to say. I am deranged. (Yay hyperfixation)

Anyway, Enver Gortash is one of my favorite villains in fiction. This does not, in any way, mean that I admire or excuse any of his actions. I don't find him handsome or charming. He isn't redeemable or even likable in any capacity as a person.

The entire main theme of the game is whether or not the characters perpetuate the cycle of abuse or break it. You see that with Astarion, he either kills Cazador and forges his own future as a freed spawn, or ascends, and becomes someone who is just as bad and abusive as Cazador. You see it with Shadowheart in whether she chooses to live a life under Shar's cruel influence, or leave her past behind her and embrace Selúne. You see it in Gale and whether he ascends to Godhhood and is nothing like the kind and inquisitive person he once was, or leaves Mystra and his life as an archmage behind to live a life of quiet comfort where he can follow his passions and teach people like he should have been taught instead of isolating students like how mystra and elminster isolated him.

Many more examples blah blah blah

Ok, a lot of people (wrongly) try to justify and apologize for everything gortash has done by pointing at his backstory like a gotcha thing.

Gortash's parents sold him into slavery when he was very young to pay off their debts. The person who then raised and owned Gortash was none other than the ultimate slimeball, Raphael the Cambion. In this environment, Gortash grew incredibly bitter and started to worship Bane, the god of Tyranny, Dictatorship, Strife, and Subjugation. This was because he believed he was owed power over others for everything he was put through. He then becomes a slave trader, selling Karlach to Zariel is one notable example, a war profiteer and arms dealer, he keeps the families of his prisoners held hostage in an underwater prison that was rigged to explode and then subsequently flood if any of his factory staff tried to escape. His workers were also made to wear fucking bomb collars. He sews bigotry in the general public by not letting refugees in the city and controlling the media (newspapers and posters). His entire goal and religious doctrine is founded on the belief that it is his divine right to control and oppress people.

It has been so freaking long since I've found a piece of media that had an actual villain, but still kept said villain's story and motives interesting! Lots of modern media really tries to go the formulaic propaganda villain route. “Character A wants to do the right thing. Character B wants to do the right thing but does it in a BAD and DiSrUpTiVe way!! Gasp!! Villain!” I think it's supposed to endorse and enforce moral superiority of centrists, yuck. but that's a Different Tangent™.

I feel like there are a lot of fans that think that in order to like a character, they have to be morally palatable and pg or whatever. I see lots of fans that can't fathom liking a character that is genuinely evil and a bad person. So they just. Ignore the entire central point of the character.

Gortash sucks ass. If I met him in real life I would beat his ass into the dirt. But he isn't real. And fiction, especially interactive fiction, is an amazing way to explore darker themes in a safe and controlled environment. This is amazing for dozens of reasons, including exploration of catharsis.

I like Gortash because he amazing as a Villain. His story is super connected to the themes of the game. His acting is done with so much care and talent from the production team at Larian.

Fans who fawn over and woobify him. Umm. Do better. Get media literate please. No hate, love all the gortash content, especially in relation to the Dark Urge's story line. But please stop pretending he isn't as bad as he is. That's one of the main things I find compelling about him as a story device in the first place. You can like evil characters because they're fake.

Ummm conclusion…. Yeah. I like Gortash because he makes a fun story.

[mediaevalmusereads]

Dracula. By Bram Stoker. Dover Thrift Edition, 2000 (originally 1897).

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Genre: Gorhic, horror

Series: N/A

Summary: When Jonathan Harker visits Transylvania to help Count Dracula with the purchase of a London house, he makes a series of horrific discoveries about his client. Soon afterwards, various bizarre incidents unfold in England: an apparently unmanned ship is wrecked off the coast of Whitby; a young woman discovers strange puncture marks on her neck; and the inmate of a lunatic asylum raves about the 'Master' and his imminent arrival.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: disturbing imagery, blood, animal cruelty, racism

OVERVIEW: This was my book club's pick for June 2024. I've read Dracula before, but it was a while ago, so I loved having the opportunity to revisit an old favorite. It reminded me not only why Dracula was so influential, but why I fell in love with Gothic storytelling in the first place. It gets 4.5 stars from me for no other reason than it being a classic that I adore.

WRITING: Stoker's writing is interesting in that it makes use of a lot of scientific language, blending it with the supernatural to create an atmosphere that is sometimes dark and ancient, sometimes modern and philosophical. I love the way Stoker blends these modes and champions characters who are smart and have an open mind (though that openness is lacking when it comes to things like gender and racial dynamics).

I also appreciated the way Stoker tries to differentiate between character voices. Though not every character sounds unique, there is a difference in how Mina writes versus how Dr. Seward writes versus how Van Helsing speaks. It makes the book as a whole feel more polyvocal, which in turn enhances the sense that the story is made from pieces of diaries and newspaper excerpts.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows a number of English characters as they try to defeat a powerful vampire known as Count Dracula. The story is told from a number of perspectives in the form of diary entries and occasional newspaper clippings and memoranda, all of which detail the strange occurrences surrounding the Count.

This book is less of a spooky horror and more of a classic Gothic novel. That isn't to say that there aren't some disturbing images, but if you go in expecting a lot of blood, gore, and jumpscares, you might be disappointed. Instead what we have is the gradual realization that there is a vampire in England, and after some bizarre occurrences and a tragic death, our protagonists team up to defeat the monstrous Count once and for all.

I love the Gothic flavor of this plot and the way Stoker plays with folk belief and superstition in the age of science and advancing medical knowledge. I also just generally love Stoker's descriptions and some of the absolute weirdness that pervades the novel, from fly-eating lunatics to bats and wolves acting unlike themselves.

If I had any criticism, I would say that there are places where the pace seems a bit slow, but I don't know if it's slow because Stoker actually wrote it that way or my perception is off because I'm familiar with the story.

TL;DR: Dracula is a classic and influential novel for a reason. With evocative supernatural imagery, a clever multivovalic narration style, and a Gothic flavor that is sure to delight lovers of the genre, this book stands out and is worthy of its place in vampire lore.

CHARACTERS: There are a lot of characters in this book, so I'll try to keep things brief.

Jonathan Harker, our first narrator, is relatable as an average working class man who gets caught up in the world of the supernatural. He seems rather brave and sweet, as evidenced by his devotion to his wife, Mina, and his heart always seems to be in the right place.

Dr. Seward, the head of a psychiatric institution, is sympathetic in that he has to watch the girl he loves suffer. I really did feel bad for him and admired the way he stepped up to lend his expertise, even though the situation has little to do with him personally.

Mina, Jonathan's wife, is just so great. Everyone seems to adore her and I love that her intelligence is constantly praised. Stoker isn't without bias, however; there are numerous instances when Mina is said to have the "brain of a man" or is described as a woman in opposition to a man. The gender essentialism is sure to make some readers uncomfortable, but it's not particularly surprising given the date of this novel.

Characters who do not get POV sections are still charming in their own ways. I liked that Van Helsing was eager to assist people he didn't know and constantly championed having an open mind. Renfield was interesting and his fly-eating helped create some nice parallels with vampirism itself. Lucy, who has a couple of POV sections, sounded sweet and it's a shame that so many adaptations portray her as overly sexual when in reality, she's a victim who just wants to make people happy.

Most of my criticisms regarding character lay with weird gender politics and racial prejudice. I've already described the gender stuff in my discussion of Mina above. The racial dynamics, while not overwhelming, are present enough to be noticeable. Stoker describes a number of Romani and Romaniam peoples as superstitious, which in itself might not sound horrible, but does play into some negative stereotypes. Again, these dynamics are not so present that they distract from the main storyline, but they are on the fringes and shape the way we understand Stoker's world.

[pom-kia]

A post on the lore implications to this month's IS2 Monthly Squad!!

(It's mostly on Hellagur I'm sorry I'm a simp,,,,)

First off before we go into any dialogues... The item we get alongside the squad, Ribbon of Honor!! It is made very clear that this robbin belongs to Hellagur, the several medals on it and the red ribbon that signify his ranks as an Ursus general.

What stands out to me about the ribbon is its description though.

"Numerous actors have played this character, yet none of them are able to save the character's dearest friend."

It's clearly referencing Hellagur's best friend who is a Higashi general that Hellagur is assigned to kill. When he reached the location of his best friend Hellagur found his friend already dying and all he can do is sit there and watch his best friend died similar to how no one can save the character's dearest friend. At least Hellagur adopts Neon :'))

Now the first part of the dialogue. It is clear that Zima have issues with both meeting the Ursus general and the topic of Ursus itself, for Absinthe she seems to put the past behind and had a better time talking to Hellagur. For Hellagur himself he seems to see them both as children he wants to protect. The conversation give implications with his laugh and soft language that he is probably smiling and being gentle with the two. Which is pretty huge as most of Hellagur arts are of him not really smiling or anything. So showing that the general have a soft side, especially to children is very nice hhhh.

The second dialogue focuses on Zima's struggle on both her obvious admiration for the general's tenacity and a resentment towards how the government never did anything for the Ursus citizens. She WANTS to be respected and gain medals like generals do but at the same time she hates them for what they stands for. Absinthe and Zima's discussion on the medals and ribbon brought up a very very nice lore tidbits that Hellagur tried to sell the medals and ribbon for money as to him the children's safety is a lot more important to him than these medals and ribbons that are given to him. Zima also mentioned how she never seen any clinic treating an infected to which Hellagur cuts in saying that that's a good thing since that means the children and Zima is living in safety. My thoughts on this is that during the Ursus war it is probably very dangerous to make it more publicly known that there are clinics like Azazel that helps the infected as the Ursus government is biased against the infected. So the more common people not knowing about these clinics make it safer for the patients of the clinics and also shows that Zima and her colleagues are not infected and needed treatments from the clinic themselves and so Hellagur seems content with that fact.

The last dialogue focuses on what the prior dialogue shows with Zima. How she both wants the respect the general had but also despises what the general stands for. She then asked to look at the general's ribbon to which he gave her with no mind at all. This clearly shows that he truly doesn't see any worth or importance in it anymore which he specifies later on in the dialogue. As he is now far removed and in a sense is in hiding from Ursus themselves he sees no meaning and importance in his medals and ribbons at all. He suggest finding better things to give Zima to which she asks for a book written about his past. Hellagur mentions how he don't think his past is interesting but said he will look for something that might catch their interest and offers them candies in the mean time. I find it very very cute and heart warming that when the kids rejects his offer of candies he laughs and told them not to be shy about liking sweets as they are still kids. And his last line about how winter in Ursus is long and they have to tough it out to see the snow melting hits quite hard considering the fights against Frostnova and Patriot both kind of occur in this environment.

Also here's a small extra tidbit!! Gopnik is Hellagur's war buddies before. The scene 'Gopnik's memories' and the item 'Worn-out Group Photo' clearly shows Gopnik and Hellagur in their younger days. The scene description "Time flies, but he no longer." implies that Gopnik believed Hellagur is dead. He clearly isn't which I believed that it meant that Hellagur probably faked his death somehow to escape from the Ursus government which explains why Patriot also mention how he though that Hellagur is dead when they first met.

Anyways that's it for the post thanks for reading it this far!!

[crissaeatscake]

Legendborn Wiki

Who tf is writing the legendborn cycle wiki bc there are so many details in it that were not mentioned in the books and I can't find tracy saying it online either. If you know where this info is from please tell me

Like where was this mentioned? We literally don't know anything about Sel's relationship with his mother outside from the fact that he admired her abilities.

In the books we just see Bree looking at a picture of fetus Sel at a violin recital, it's never mentioned if he still plays and where.

NOW ON TO TOR BC FOR SOME REASON THIS GIRL HAS SO MUCH LORE ON THE WIKI. We know Tor is racist, but it was never mentioned that she was racist towards Sar's dad. We also know she dated Sel but where was it mentioned that they cared about each other, bc they really don't seem to. It's clear she doesn't like her parents all that much or at least enjoys pissing them off but the whole sexism thing is literally never mentioned.

Sarah just mentions her father being Venezuelan but never mentions him being an alcoholic, unless I'm mistaken. Sar and Tor's relationship isn't given this much depth like who is making this up

Above is Sar's birthday. We literally don't have the exact birthdays of our main characters but for some reason hers is there? Did Tracy release this?

Same with Alice's birthday

I don't think it was never stated that Alice had a crush on Bree. And what is this spelling

Ok this is just straight up made up😭 again with the spelling

[themonotonysyndrome]

Your thoughts on the newest audio from Desmond ?

sndfjksndf I was just thinking of posting my thoughts on Prince Renae today; you have great timing, Anon! I was lowkey worried that I might spoil those who haven't listened to it yet.

What I ❤️❤️❤️ about it:

-Tigress's new origin story is hella interesting! I actually like that she's not a captain in this one because a captain would be too busy to try and infiltrate the Imperial royal circle. Tigress is playing the long game and I'm here for it!

-Little Prince Renae was the one who gave Tigress her nickname! Awww! Even after all these years, he still remembers her.

-The SFX!? SNDJSKDNAS I can clearly visual in my head during that scene where Prince Renae and Tigress were dancing. The footwork, the background music, and the soft conversation around them? IMMACULATE.

-Tigress is still a badass and a badass that Desmond clearly 'shows' instead of having the characters just say, "Oh wow, Tigress. You're really strong." Once again, to all the creatives out there, the golden rule is: Show, not tell!

-Prince Renae's admiration for those 'Southern Warriors' and how he only admits it in a drunken haze because it might come across as treasonous is adorable. I imagine that he has heard of Castin by now, and I would love to write a fic where the Baroness and Castin are attending an Imperial Royal Ball, and the Prince is trying really, really hard not to fanboy while Castin is so confused at this Tsundere 😂

-Also, I love how everyone in the tavern couldn't care less that Tigress killed the owner sdnfjdkfsdf though, Tigress, that was very stupid of you. YOU'RE TRYING TO STAY LOW PROFILE! NOW WE HAVE WITNESSES!

-The dramas and intrigues came in swinging like a wrecking ball! Who framed Tigress' dad!? I'm so sus about the Captain, don't trust him Tigress! I don't know if Tigress can continue pretending to be a merchant girl for long because the Empress and Prince Renae are upset about her face and the ending, too!? Tigress is fully back in Imperial high society and mingling with royalty - there's so much potential here for where the story can go, AND I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT! Oh, the fallout is gonna be so angsty!

-Last, I hope Desmond will release the official names and their spellings somewhere soon.

What I 🤨🤨🤨 about it:

-Once more, Desmond, why? Why with the clickbait thumbnail and title? Tigress only took a bath in her new room in the Imperial Palace, and Prince Renae walked in. There was no brothel bathhouse or whatever 😭 I was disappointed in that.

-Speaking of which, the title - now, we know that Tigress and Prince Renae were childhood friends, and at the very least, he has a crush on her and now MAYBE believes himself to be in love with an idea of Tigress instead of ya know, her actual self. But calling them exes is not really... right?

-The name change from Prince Desmond to Prince Renae. I remember in the old lore that Prince Desmond was given that name to honour Gang Leader!Desmond, the first King of the Coastal Empire. I don't know if I remember that wrong, please correct me if I'm wrong, but yeah, I always did like that bit of lore. But hey, I can fuck with Prince Renae eventually.

And... yeah! That's pretty much it!

[demcnsinmymind]

⭐️ ― convincing portrayal of a canon character

💻 ― excellent writing

🐝  *  ―  𝑺𝑯𝑶𝑼𝑻-𝑶𝑼𝑻𝑺 𝑶𝑭 𝑨𝑾𝑬𝑺𝑶𝑴𝑬𝑵𝑬𝑺𝑺.  (  send in one or more of these symbols for me to pick one blogor multiple i wanna shout out that i think fit well into the category. explanations optional.  ) | OPEN!

⭐️ ― convincing portrayal of a canon character

(looking through my following list I notice that I don't follow many canons lmao)

You obv. Seriously, I love how you don't shy away from the fact that Klaus is a terrible asshole, can and will be a ruthless monster who's not exactly right in the head. You don't soften the character and improve on things that canon messed up and that honestly make more sense in your divergences, and I think that's awesome!

@walriding and @mslangermann it's been eons since I played the Outlast games and don't remember every last canon fact in detail, but the care, lore, headcanons, aesthetics and just overall vibe that those two have put in their characters is just top notch and all I accept as canon, honestly haha. Just the way they keep true to the worlds and characters while adding to them so much is just *chef's kiss* @thatslayer Because boy can you just hear Faith in that writing. Keeps me and the boy completely on our toes and unable to anticipate what comes next but all in the best way. Also the sheer amount of years, writing and effort and love that has been put into Faith, just...admirable! @bitchheroine For also staying true to canon Meg while greatly adding to the general vibe and depth of the character, be that with sheer badassery and vulnerability. You see this Meg and you just want to hang out with her in a bar and chat about both the 'good side' and the 'bad side' kinda being shit birds, while also being aware of the danger she can pose, just like in canon. Also bonus points for being so friendly and excited about our threads OOC! Just a joy to see on the dash.

@innerwar couldn't ever forget to put Tommy on here. I'm not much one for following multimuses most of the time, but we've been going back years now, and it's honestly just such a joy to see how much love and attention to detail the vast selection of canons get here! Really don't know how he pulls it off to stay so faithful to so many canons at once, but this blog got it going!

💻 ― excellent writing

@shellcrack just writes me into a corner each time I get a reply. Just the way the visuals, scenes, and headspaces are set is so beautiful and tangable. And the general lore, vibe and idea behind the character really comes through in the replies, absolutely amazing.

same goes for @sprnkles - especially with the focus on how different each character is, it really shines through in every reply, the way the characters think and speak is so distinct and unique, constantly floored by that writing! Entirely beautiful.

@kxllerblond I can hear and see the monotone mildly bothered boredom in that writing, and I don't mean that in a negative way, but as praise. The way each reply and writing is just ...so Clark and representative of all the lore and care that has been put into this character is just crazy. I also can never appreciate enough how arachno manages to say twice as much with much more elegance in half the word count compared to me haha

tbh basically just all of my mutuals haha

[plounce]

i havent talked about my wol on here in a hot minute but ummm her lore has developed a lot :) she's co-wols with my friend hawke's wol and she has terminal tank disease and of course it goes without saying that she's hopelessly dependent on the catboy bestfriend. she's selectively mute (silent player character = autism legend) and mikh'a, because he has the echo, can understand the sign she uses (which is half cobbled out of sign languages from the shroud but also from around eorzea and half her own creation) without many wrinkles and also he's just very nice and shortly before she met him she got ejected from her family group so she was like YOU'RE MY PERSON NOW and imprinted. also in ARR she was deeply uncomfortable with any social stuff and so mikh'a handled a lot of it for her. it was a very vulnerable time in her life and she will always feel deeply grateful to him for that. but then we get to hvw and mikh'a (that's the other wol) was engaged to haurchefant before That Happened and it destroys him and he's basically out of the game for the rest of hvw msq from the debilitating grief. so that's the real genesis of her life attitude being "i have to take care of everything and shoulder all of the burdens and duties so that mikh'a has room for HIS burdens". also she has that autism feeling of like "i don't feel as much / as strongly as other people" (yknow) and it's something she really admires about mikh'a, how strongly he feels things (even as the trauma starts to make him an asshole), so. yes. he's the face and she's the shield. due to her terminal tank syndrome. anyway in shadowbringers she gets brought over to the first right before mikh'a does, like 6 months in first time, and the way that their deal works out is that mikh'a is the one who is able to channel the light into tomte so she contains it, leaving her with light poisoning and him with the light aether scraped out of him, so that she's gradually growing more and more blank and stoic and unfeeling while he gets more volatile and emotional (light = stasis, dark = change). anyway tomte decides to go off the empty alone because she's operating on her most basic MO of "other people cannot handle this burden, but i can, i must, i will" and just wakes up, has a very one-sided argument with mikh'a, and then teleports away without telling anyone her plans. and then has an even bigger fight with mikh'a in the tempest as all the scions watch in distress and discomfort and then ryne manages to get through to her and tomte like. cries. and that's a big deal. we've rp'd much of this and more.

hawke (my friend if you forgot) has been ensorcelled by bg3 so he has not played past 5.1 so my further building of tomte's co-WoL story lore canon is sort of on pause right now but i think the end of shadowbringers really freaked her out and she stops tanking because she couldn't handle it. she wasn't able to. it didn't work out and it wouldn't have worked out, and she realizes, when the light is no longer poisoning her brain, that she probably would have doomed everybody if she had gone through with her plan and walked into emet-selch's lair alone. she needed her loved ones to hold her back. and in endwalker i switched to samurai because i capped on warrior so im imagining that in endwalker she also puts down the axe and takes up a sword. still throwing herself into the middle of things, but uncertain about taking responsibility. i think this general level of uncertainty and anxiety is compounded by the fact that she's the WoL zenos is fixated on - she's the muscle, she's been the one really taking on most of the primals and lightwardens. so it's like arrrghhh everything is my fault and my arrogance and my hubris (which is so sad because she is so quiet and humble). anyway. idk how we're gonna do the azem of it all (i have numerous ideas and possibilities in my brain - maybe emet tried to resurrect azem at some point and botched it, leading to the rejoined souls splitting from the source soul, and tomte is the rejoined souls and mikh'a is the core source souls? maybe it's a 3 and 4 split? maybe tomte is a different person altogether? i just know that mikh'a should definitely be azem since his themes and story of destructive grief align really well with emet)

anyway. that's a glimpse of the evolving tomte lore. click and post

[skyfumgus]

It's that time! I try fitting more of the holy quintet into honkai star rail till either a crossover comes out officially or I've gone insane enough to start drawing it

Today I've decided who of the holy quintet would get along with Honkai star rail characters.

( spoilers for madoka magica )

OKAY so I'm starting first with Sayaka because she's gonna be the easiest.

I think she would get along with argenti, and yinging primarily because the fact argenti is a knight she has knight theming in her magical girl outfit, and Yinging because of their chaotic energy.

Not to mention, I feel like argenti would be kinda like a father figure to her, or at least a supportive figure in her life, giving romance advice and confidence to the girl.

Also because ( fun fact, Sayaka always becomes a witch if she's a magical girl in that timeline ) the pure tragedy for argenti and yinging seeing her turn or as a witch, or wondering why she stopped showing up. Not to even mention the possibility of having to kill her witch form is the angst I fucking love.

Mami is next, and I feel like she would get along with himeko, natasha, Primairly because of her love of tea and caring nature. and babysit sometimes for Clara and Hook because of her relationship with Bebe in the rebellion.

I don't have any angst for Mami because I can't think of any ( if you have any ideas, tell me ) but I think she's one of the few that can drink himeko's coffee.

Madoka I think, would be friends with sushang, HuoHuo, and Asta, and there's no illogical reason this time. I just think they would get along.

But I do think once she became a God and all memories of her were erased, I do think HuoHuo would always feel a pleasant feeling of someone nearby at times, even if she's alone, like someone is watching over her..

Homura, well I don't think she really cares for any honkai star rail characters, but at times would hang out with the stelleron hunters, primarily because of elio's scripts, and because she finds witches easier.

But she does have a soft spot for March 7th because of how She reminds her of madoka. Even at times wondering if it was possible that she was another version of madoka from a different timeline.

Finally kyoko! She was the hardest because I could not for the life of me figure out who she liked, but I decided she would probably admires seele and hang out with quinque and Natasha. Due to the fact she's seen playing games during certain scenes, and I don't have one for seele but it's her ideals and strength.

I have no idea for angst, but maybe for a period of time, she hanged around Natasha's orphanage due to the fact she didn't have anywhere else to go at the time. So she's gotten familiar with her and the depleting resources.

And that is it! I hope I was somewhat accurate to the characters and lore, and if you have any ideas I'd love to hear them!

Also no apologies to the angst >:]

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

Hi! Rarepair alphabet Helen/ranna A, H, Q and R please : )

Hiiii! Thank you! :)

From this ask game.

A - What made you ship it and why?

This sounds so bad, but I don't really remember the what. 😅 I started shipping them at the end of December/early January, which was a little hectic for me with the holidays and all the fics I was churning out in a race for the end of the year and the ones I was reading too. I *think* it was that I rewatched Pax Romana trying to dig up some lore on Kali and then I was like.... Ranna? 😍

As for the why... Helen and Ranna fit very neatly into the category of characters I always obsess over (middle-aged women for the win!!!!) and putting them together, after I latched on to Ranna's character, was a no brainer.

They're wonderful separate and the real why is because I thought they would be awesome together. And Helen being canonically bisexual was something I wanted to explore and it seemed natural to ship her with a woman she had chemistry with and Ranna is such an untapped character.

Long story short: I saw two characters I was obsessed over and decided to smash them together like dolls.

H - If you were introducing this ship to someone else, what reasons would you give to convince them to consider it?

Hmmm.

I think I would start with saying that they're both awesome, capable women that don't need a partner, but they would find a very good one in each other.

They're in similar positions to one another and would understand the pressure and struggles very well, without having to speak about it.

They also have natural chemistry, in my opinion.

Honestly, I might just try to convince someone by saying two badass women with natural chemistry make for a very interesting pairing.

Q - What do you think were their first impressions of each other? Did their opinions of each other stay the same or change over time? Why do you think that is?

Well, canonically, Ranna kind of hated Helen on sight and Helen wasn't exactly feeling friendly towards Ranna herself. 😆

Though I think both of them probably had thoughts along the lines of 'well, she's hot' in there too.

Their opinions of each other 100% changed over time, going from that initial dislike and grudging respect to admiration and understanding.

The why would be their whole little arc in saving Kanaan and Hollow Earth. They saw each other for more than what they assumed each other to be and admired that instead of being annoyed or jealous. The realization that they understand the positions of power and being pulled at all sides came later (and was probably nudged along by Gregory on both side) and they were able to share that without even speaking.

R - Are there any songs you associate with this ship?

Buzzcut Season by Lorde

So much so that it's my theme for my AU where they're together. Right now, I think it's the only song that I associate with them together and not separately.

This bit is what really did it for me:

The men up on the news They try to tell us that we will lose But it's so easy in this blue Where everything is good

And I'll never go home again (Place the call, feel it start) Favorite friend (And nothing's wrong when nothing's true) I live in a hologram with you We're all the things that we do for fun (And I'll breathe, and it goes) Play along (Make-believe it's hyper-real) But I live in a hologram with you _ Basically, I heard one song, latched on to it and was like "Good enough!"

[furrylibrarian]

I want to talk a bit about Tears of the Kingdom.

It's hard for me to do that, because all my feelings about it are contradictory and tangled up. I think its storytelling is incoherent and is actively hindered by the game structure, but it also has unquestionably some of the best story beats in the series. I find the open-ended creativity encouraged by its mechanics wild and engaging, but in practice I tend to just fall back on a few simple solutions and get frustrated when they don't easily apply to the thing I'm trying to solve. Most of all, I think it (alongside BotW) represents a much-needed shakeup to a series that was getting entirely too stale, but it is those very games that stagnated the franchise that made me fall in love with it.

Expanding on the second point I just made; I think TotK might be the only game I've played (that isn't a fighting game, anyways) that makes me feel inadequate. I know enough about its mechanics to understand that, conceptually, there's an incredible amount of potential Nonsense you can do with Ultrahand, but I just don't know how I should tap into that potential. I think it's admirable that the game doesn't tutorialize everything and lets you discover functions on your own, but because of that I've missed critical information about mechanics and felt like a complete fool for having to look up the information online (case in point; I had to consult the internet to figure out that I had to hit devices to activate them). I often have this background feeling that I could be doing something more interesting and effective when I'm playing TotK.

But really, most of my issues with TotK come from the lore implications. Gonna put a break here because spoilers. It's kind of just a rant after this point.

I've always been sharply aware that the devs aren't really concerned with adhering to an extended continuity and would rather craft a self-contained experience, but I just can't get over how weird TotK's story and backstory are. I'm still not sure what to make of the revelation that APARRENTLY there was just a SECOND GANONDORF the whole time who nobody knew about, and I'm still not really sure if Calamity Ganon was the classic Ganondorf degraded to a primal form after millennia of reincarnation (as I believed before TotK dropped), or if it was related to this game's new ancient Ganondorf? It's a messy situation that's only a problem when you're thinking about BotW/TotK in the context of the rest of the franchise WHICH IS COMPLETELY REASONABLE

Also the memories are just so strange. They feel like a warped retelling of OoT's first act, especially since a main character shares his name with an OoT character, a name which is not one of the many continually-recycled named the series uses which makes it sound way more significant! Like when I was playing through, I had this weird creeping feeling that this game was trying to replace OoT with this new backstory? Like obviously, no, it isn't, but it hit so many of the same important beats! Ganondorf allies himself with the king of Hyrule (even mirroring a shot from OoT), Zelda realizes he's up to something and tries to stop him, only to fail spectacularly such that Ganondorf gets the exact empowered artifact he was gunning for the whole time. Even Zelda transforming into a dragon to repair the Master Sword and sacrificing her identity in the process reminded me of Link in OoT drawing the Master Sword and losing his childhood, LIKE THEY'RE TELLING THE SAME STORY, WHAT IS GOING ON

I don't have a conclusion, I don't have a thesis, I just have opinions and I needed to vent them

[eryanlainfa]

I just realized that even though i see your art of him and you talk about him a lot, i don't actually know anything about aiden. so. infodump to me about your OC lore please.

!!!! hi <3 I have SO MUCH to say about Aiden- and yet I don't share that much about them! I draw them a lot but never give much context, my bad xP

I did answer an ask a while ago about them here if you want! it has all the basic infos you might need and I've just updated it a bit because some stuff was outdated and I wanted to add some details. I also think you can find (very) few things in the eryanwrites tag

But you're asking for infodumping so!!! Imma infodump MORE >:3c

(this is in addition to the post I linked- you might want to read said post before, to have more context)

⚙ Backstory stuff

Despite being born in Old Corona, Aiden spent half of their childhood in another village even farther away from the capital. This village is run by a small saporian community and was mostly filled with travelers so people tended to come and go, lots of witches came by looking to seal their power to pass as human. So Aiden and their parents were easily welcomed there.

When Aiden was a child, the local Grandma (Aiden never learnt her name- she was just referred by everyone as Grandma) used to play with Aiden's hair a lot while she told stories. Aiden avoided cutting their hair for her, and even after her death they still refused to cut it.

Said Grandma was the village's healer and quickly became Aiden's role model. She was the first person to mentor Aiden in their quest to become a physician.

Aiden's second mentor is the current royal physician, the only one who didn't leave when the Queen got sick and no one could find a cure. Both of Aiden's mentor were/are unhinged and definetly shouldn't be trusted to teach children but that's why I love them.

Aiden is very not normal about human bodies. Both because of autism and the way their mentors educated them about it. Aiden is pretty desentisized about stuff most people would find gross.

⚙ Aiden's relationship with other characters

Aiden has a pretty good relationship with their parents. They're very loving people but a tad overprotective, it kinda made Aiden avoid talking to them about big problems because he was scared to worry them more than necessary, but overall they all love and care for each others. Aiden is just terrible at understanding and communicating his own needs.

They have many friends within the castle since they've been working here for a while now. They're also known outside of the capital since his mentor sometimes send them away, either on errand or to take care of villages without doctors.

Aiden isn't close to the main cast of tts, beside Varian. He respects and admires most of them but he doesn't consider them friends since he never really got interested in getting closer to them. They do know they can count on him when any of them gets hurt or sick, it's his job after all.

Aiden has a bestie- his name is Daniel, he's the son of the merchants proccuring most herbs for the physicians, and is currently part of the royal guards. He isn't a very fun person but Aiden enjoys how down to earth he can be.

⚙ random stuff

During the series Aiden went through like... 4 different leg prosthesis in one year because people (bad guy of the season) kept on breaking it. (I'll admit it was my go-to excuse as to why Aiden doesn't appear in canon. They're always off screen doing random things or laying on the floor stuck somewhere 😔)

They're very sensitive to temperatures since the Storm that made them lose their leg.

Aiden's magic got sealed by a tattoo on their back when they were very young, so as they grew up the tattoo got deformed and the seal weakened. Their extended family is the ones completely getting rid of it- by removing part of the skin. Hopefully for Aiden he was under hypnosis when that happens and he has no memories of it whatsoever. Varian is the one who found out about it and it made him really mad.

So you know Venefica's magic is linked to mind control. And Aiden caught feelings for Varian long before he caught feelings for them himself. Varian is very obvious about his feelings, yet Aiden doesn't acknowledge it at all. That's because they're somehow convinced Varian's feelings aren't genuine and is caused by their own magic they never learnt to control.

I mentioned witches cannot break promises so they avoid doing any, since it can easily end badly for them. Aiden (so far) made 2 : one to Quirin and one to Donella. The first one lowkey resulted in the loss of their leg. The second brought distrust between them and Varian. So yeah. Promises bad.

The only reason Hugo is allowed to call them Hobble is because he helped a lot with their prosthesis and still does

⚙ shipping stuff

At this point if you don't know I ship Aiden with both Varian and Hugo then-.. Idk how you escaped all my posting about them but I admire that, this is impressive. Anyway-

I wanted to try doing an actual love triangle so when each of them catch feelings it starts with : Aiden -> Hugo ; Hugo -> Varian ; Varian -> Aiden. Then things just... happen and at some point they all have feelings for both of the other and they are struggling to figure out what to do about it.

The first two to get into a relationship are Aiden and Hugo, but it's not really romantic, they're just having fun. Hugo quickly understood Varian was the team leader but the boy kept Aiden in high regard, so getting Aiden on his side would eventually bring Varian to it too. Aiden is very aware of it and is fine with it as long as Hugo isn't actively trying to get them hurt.

I have.. the worst love triangle dynamic chart ever :

I don't even know if its readable to others but oh well-

Anyway. I think that's enough! If any question rises I'll love to asnwer them! About Aiden or other ocs or timeline stuff- or aus- anything is fine