#i just think they are stronger

[halfelven]

i actually literally do not care if tolkien ever wrote in drafts* that elves are seven feet tall and stronger than humans bc it does not match up to his stories. like saeros being scared bc Túrin was stronger than elves and aragorn and boromir bragging about how strong men are in the snow. if legolas is stronger + taller why isn’t he digging them out? elves having lighter weapons and boats. elves not putting men in their tree houses but being okay with the hobbits bc they aren’t scared of them. why would elves need to hide if they’re stronger + have magic? why is the dragon-helm to heavy for them? why is aragorn the tallest of the company if legolas is seven feet tall? how could nienor disguise as an elf?

for one thing it’s boring to have them be both magical and also stronger but also so many of his stories just fall apart. there are entire plots that rely on elves being not as strong as Men. elves of varying heights has always been interesting to me with some reaching ten feet and some under five feet. and average elf soldier being stronger than average not soldier human is fine too but elves have super human strength is just not something that holds out against plots

like i do not care dungeons and dragons** can do whatever they want but from my encounters with folk tales elves being not as strong as Men is very on point and tolkien’s stories literally fall apart without it. not to say elves are weak. just to say aragorn is stronger + taller than legolas any way i’ve ever looked at the story. and i think elves stronger + taller and also having magic is just boring and i refuse to go by it. have all elves be seven feet tall in your stories or whatever. i will continue with my version bc i can’t make sense of tolkien’s stories without it and elves need a weakness for interesting points and to make the plot work

which is to say i don’t want to have to keep saying this in the fanfic i write you are not more right than i am and tolkien can say whatever he wants he wrote a structure into his stories i will keep in mine for Interest

*haven’t been able to pinpoint where this motion is from

**no idea if elves being taller and stronger is a thing from dnd bc i don’t know it but i see it pop up in some video games

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[devsgames]

Me: "hey game developers, especially AAA ones, are getting laid off en-mass and it's awful for our industry" Gamer: "well I only play INDIE games and the problem with AAA games is they are creatively bankrupt"

Me, slamming my fists on the table like a baby: "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THIS IS ABOUT A BUSINESS PROBLEM PERPETUATED BY CAPITALISM NOT A STATEMENT ON CREATIVE DECISION MAKING"

[fluffyartbl0g]

Holy crap this is like world record breaking pace guys

Speedrun/Time Travel AU masterlist

[eff-plays]

You can wizardsplain at a bard, but watch out

[egophiliac]

Hi it's just to let you know that the official romanization of Revaan's name is Raverne ! Also they have romanized Baul's name to Baur !

Twst coming back at us again with the least expected romanization! thank you everybody (oh god my inbox) (no it's great, I literally asked for this and the reactions have been INCREDIBLE, thank you all!)

I do like Raverne though, I think it's got a nice fancy sound to it! (I had kinda suspected it was going to be an R instead of an L, so the fact that it's SO close to Laverne except for that is hilarious to me personally.) and Dragoneye Duke is honestly probably the best translation for his title, I wasn't envying the localizers that one. :') Baur instead of Baul I was NOT expecting, but in retrospect I think his name's supposed to be a reference to the Bauru crocodile, so that actually makes way more sense!

someone else also said Meleanor has become Maleanor, which is the REALLY weird one to me, because I was so surprised it was written as Mel instead of Mal in the first place?! oh god no I can't decide which one I like better. 😭 (I wonder if they might change it to Mal...they have made romanization changes before) (like I remember House of Distraction being corrected to House of Destruction in Playful Land) (I did check and she's still Mel for now, but I dunno, they might Mal her up and some point and save me from having to make a decision about which one to use) (HECK I CAN'T DECIDE)

uhhhh thank you for letting me ramble about anime names, let's just say MONOGRAMMED SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE

[haunted-xander]

She's so cringefail girlboss

[pineappical]

would calling this something like "the sun to his earth" be a little bit too cliche? maybe...

[jakeperalta]

every day we inch closer to the inevitable release of taylor's "all the haters are throwing shade at my relationship but I don't care" music about matty and for that reason I live in fear

[tanglepelt]

Dp x dc 147

The infinite realms houses many souls. New ones are unheard of .

When plasmius fully formed it was felt by all magic users a in every dimension. A sign of a new realms ghost. Whose power level was high but not quite an ancient.

Then a second came nearly 20 years later. A lower lvl one. Still capable of tearing a whole In dimensions to travel.

Then the third. The same year. When phantom formed. It was from pure ectoplasm the very thing that fills the infinite realm. Phantom was created by the realms itself. An ancient in the making.

Somehow a third in a year. But one that felt wrong. Powerful but then it sapped away coming back. It felt unstable before the sensation faded.

The JLD know these have all come from there dimension. Somehow 3 new realms ghost had been created in a year. They had already been trying to track the first. It was constantly coming in and out of the realm.

Then the baby ancient formed. The three newest realms ghost were often felt together. The three frequented an area in Illinois. On the maps a wooded area.

No one was expecting a town. Nor the baby ancient desperately defending a green glowing dog that wasn’t moving. Or the ghost who looked like. Gender bent younger version.

Especially not for the younger ghost to turn back into a living and breathing human.

Why where these guys in white even attacking the realms ghosts?!?!

[ninemelodies]

you ever think about how prompto had literally the worst week of his life and then immediately had the worst 10 years of his life and THEN had to watch his best friend die like

best friend says really awful things to him and then pushes him off a train -> he discovers that he’s a fucked up lil escaped science experiment & he was meant to be part of the military that killed his best friend’s family & destroyed his home -> he is tortured by the guy that is ruining all of their lives -> he gets rescued -> his best friend disappears into a crystal -> he lives through 10 years of darkness and daemons -> his best friend is back!! -> his best friend dies.

[tobi-smp]

you know, with hindsight now what it is I really do think a more literal reading of c!techno's chat would have helped his characterization a Lot

and mind you, this was originally intended to be the case, and very well may have been intended all along even if it wasn't usually emphasized within the lore

and don't get me wrong, I Get why it fell out of favor within the fandom. it coincides with a Very storied ableist trope that demonizes DID and disorders adjacent to it, and Can be spoken about in a way that is essentially indistinguishable from it depending on the word choice.

but the thing is ! not only does it not Have to be an allegory for DID, I straight up don't think it is At All.

because we Know what it's an allegory for. It's His Chat. there's technoblade playing the game, and there's the thousands of people watching with expectations and wants that he's compelled to meet (or, at the very least, pacify through Entertainment).

and this makes much Much more sense when conceived of as Supernatural. be that spirits, gods, demons, or anything that could fill that role. separate entities that, for whatever reason, only techno can sense the presence of and be affected by.

and of course, to an extent this is true for all creators. everyone had an audience that they were meant to entertain and the choices they made were influenced by that fact.

but technoblade came in with a Very distinct set of expectations that heavily impacted the choices he was Expected to make and the kinds of stories that he could tell. he was more or less a living legend in real life just as much as he was in roleplay, and these things were inherently connected.

and it's like !

when c!technoblade says he was peer pressured into killing tubbo at the red festival he Is technically talking about what happened within the roleplay. schlatt was demanding it from him, there's a sort of pressure there. but schlatt was also the dictator they were set to kill, and techno has never had any trouble fighting people he considered a dictator before, and certainly not Schlatt of all people.

but he WAS being peer pressured By His Audience. by thousands of people, most of which were demanding blood Because It Was The Expectation, because it'd be Fun.

out of universe technoblade made the decision he thought would be the most Entertaining, and he was right! consistently he made choices that would let him do the most bombastic Spectacles possible. And It's Great. he's Excellent at pulling dramatics and making a compelling scene that give other people room to work off of. in that sense I'd consider techno an Excellent actor, and I have to imagine that he was fun to work with.

the problem is when you then have to justify it from an in character perspective, grounded in those mushy things like Feelings with characters that can be traumatized and sustain lasting damage, Especially Without acknowledging the out of character incentive.

mind you, it's not Impossible to Create a backstory that could justify it. why a character as consistently powerful and feared as technoblade would feel pressured to kill an ally by someone he not only Can kill but Wanted To Kill. why a character as seemingly secure and in control as technoblade would lash out the way that he does to perceived betrayal, and yet consistently puts no weight onto having killed and permanently scarred an ally that trusted him.

what that'd need is tragedy. a storied history of being hurt and having to survive. building up To an untouchable god from a much much more vulnerable position. Long Lasting trauma that's lead to this deep insecurity and paranoia. and that's Possible and that's Compelling.

but it's just not in the text.

not only did we never learn basically Anything that c!technoblade was up to pre-series, we actually know Less by the end than when we started because of the sbi retconning.

it's a Theoretically Possible interpretation that's technically never Contradicted by canon, but would have to be created by scratch. it's a compelling idea for a fan fic (and one I'd like to read) and it's compelling for a theoretical recontextualization of the character, but it's just not In The Text.

meanwhile, we have the video above.

we have the Objective Fact that technoblade's decision making was often subject to the rule of cool (very Very effectively) to entertain his audience.

and most compellingly, these concepts Don't Need To Be Separate. in fact, in my opinion they're Stronger when you put them together.

because the thing is. it's Difficult to imagine techno as ever being in a vulnerable position. he is just Objectively more powerful than everyone else on the server, both in real life And within the lore. How could he have ever been afraid when he was stronger than anyone and everyone combined? when we saw with our own eyes that techno could face nearly the whole server at once and win.

but he Is a tragic character, at least he's meant to be. and that tragedy makes much Much more sense as something Inward.

technoblade as a character who Needs connection, who Needs stability, who Needs security, who Needs friendship and community and Love. but Lashes Out, Obliterates to the core of the earth, because of something that's not only out of his control but that other people Cannot Understand.

how do you explain to a child that you killed their best friend because a chorus of the undead called for his blood and you (in all the glory that he'd idolized) were unable to do anything but comply? how do you explain to that child that you beat him senseless in a pit as the restless dead jeered and laughed?

That's interesting. That's Compelling.

technoblade is idolized like a god, feared like a force of nature, and in an instant cut himself off from nearly everyone who'd considered him an ally. and that seems to be a pattern, over and over and over again. he's left isolated, and in return he faces retaliation, and in return he's always Waiting for retaliation.

and what do you say to someone who wants to kill you for being a monster? that it's Fine Actually because you only did what you did because you have a curse that compels you to? that the supernatural guided you to destroy their homes and kill their people? (rip jack manifold you will be missed)?

That Doesn't Quite Help Your Case.

technoblade as someone who is beholden to this literal cycle of violence and Loses those things that could ground him, community, stability, People, as a result. who Tries to overcome this very fact (to become a better person, in his own words as per the clip above), but is pulled back into it as a consequence of his own actions.

that's a tragedy !! that Makes Sense. that allows him to be Both this force of nature that other characters have to survive And A Person Who Is Hurt By The Same Conflict.

"I'm a person!" that fear of dehumanization makes So So Much More Sense when you see technoblade as someone who Already fears himself. who fears being a monster, who fears losing control, who has faced isolation again and again and again.

and, importantly, it doesn't have to be anyone else's Fault.

by making the source both Internal and Completely External (something that none of the other characters have any awareness or control over), you can Have techno as a tragic character without demonizing anyone else Or erasing the impact that c!techno had on them.

and in that sense, it Can be an allegory for mental illness, but not in that direct "oooooh how scary he hears voices" kind of way that people fear it looks. but in that sometimes people Will do things that can hurt others while not feeling in control. anger and mania and paranoia, things that you can't always Control and yet that impact that you have on other people still Matters.

and the answer to that is, often, vulnerability and accountability.

I think a lot about technoblade isolating himself so near entirely from the rest of the server, and slowly gathering a support system Back by the end. and I Really Do think that framing of it through this lens is a Very impactful way of breaking it down.

tubbo, tommy, wilbur, ranboo, niki, I think they'd All understand not feeling in control. lashing out, maybe even feeling justified in the moment, but hurting people they care about and furthering their own isolation.

There's Something There, and it's already In The Text. it just needs to be expanded on.

and why not do that ourselves now?

[nibbelraz]

i think the changes should also apply to him but like. in ways where he will not realise it. lqg throws a really heavy carcass or smth at him and everyone is all "a candle for the soon to be crushed peak lord" but sqh catches it just fine. >:( be careful shidi!! they're so confused. someone else tries to pick it up and- oh, jesus, fuck thats way too heavy. how is sqh handling it fine?? mobei finds out because theres a trap or array and sqh just scoops him before it activates. holding a whole ass demon man with one arm and his sword with the other. hes going to be boasting about it for WEEKS. his human is so much stronger than other humans AND some demons. your stupid princess shizun could NEVER

YES YES YES 100 PERCENT I can see everyone gaping at him like WHAT. WHEN? HOW? HUH?

I actually think Qinghua is pretty strong, especially being from An Ding with all the work he has to do, but with the whole god business, it's a whole other level he's rivaling DEMONS!

I'm actually obsessed with the idea that once Mobei Jun gets carried he immediately thinks about how much better his husband is compared to the emperor's consort the image of how smug he is thinking he got the better human is so funny to me

Rough sketch below of Qinghua carrying Mobei cause I think he deserves to get carried by his God

[trans-cuchulainn]

favourite Irish phrase I've learned from reading books is "beidh ár bport seinnte" (or tá, depending on how hypothetical the situation is). our tune is played, lads. it's over.

[imminent-danger-came]

But you are, my love, the astronaut Flying in the face of science I will gladly stay an afterthought Just bring back some nice reminders Yes! You are, my love, the astronaut Crashing in the name of science Just my luck, they sent your upper half It's a very nice reminder

—Astronaut by Amanda Palmer

[beaulesbian]

I was once again thinking about this goofy Luffy moment after his Lucci punch™ and i had to see it frame by frame.

first the force of it throws them both away, and while Lucci is seen on screen tumbling for a long moment, Luffy is just away in a blink of an eye.

and then his funny scene - his legs are like jelly that he tries to get under control,

he stumbles, falls, rolls into a mix of all his limbs and eyes,

and then only the cloud behind him cushions his fall

- which would be interesting if he can subconsciously control that while he tries to regain the control over his movements - that the environment around him still adapts to his awakened Devil Fruit abilities and morphs to help him. Where others would probably fall through that cloud, for Luffy that cloud backs him up like a trampoline.

It's just fascinating!