#i'm rambling forgive me

[sneebl]

i think i'm actually the farthest from normal about the hermitcraft charity stream like. it's something about seeing grian and jimmy bicker like children and the pearl and grian hug and just everyone being together physically. as someone who has online friends that id sell my left leg to meet irl it makes me emotional to see them together, and knowing that sometime in my life i will have the same types of moments that the hermits shared on stream makes me so happy i can't explain

[march-harrigan]

That post reminds me I have a headcanon that Jenna Duffy first met Jervis because he was looking for people for repairs and that he's taken an especial liking to her and he called her "The Carpenter, like Alice in Wonderland!" and she embraced her nickname

I'm a couple days late in my response and struggling to think of which post you're referring to, but I love this a lot!

The best/cutest concept of a Wonderland Gang for me is just a sort of found family where Jervis latches onto and names people. It falls so deeply in line with his need for companionship and gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Give me a Wonderland Gang that genuinely cares about and would do anything for each other.

[gingermintpepper]

In my Zeus bag today so I'm just gonna put it out there that exactly none of the great Ancient Greek warrior-heroes stayed loyal and faithful and completely monogamous and yet none of them have their greatness questioned nor do we question why they had the cultural prominence that they did and still do.

Jason, the brilliant leader of the Argo, got cold feet when it came to Medea - already put off by some of her magic and then exiled from his birthland because of her political ploys, he took Creusa to bed and fully intended on marrying her despite not properly dissolving things with Medea.

Theseus was a fierce warrior and an incredibly talented king but he had a horrible temper and was almost fatally weak to women. This is the man who got imprisoned in the Underworld for trying to get a friend laid, the man who started the whole Attic War because he couldn't keep his legs closed.

And we cannot at all forget Heracles for whom a not inconsiderable amount of his joy in life was loving people then losing the people around him that he loved. Wives, children, serving boys, mentors, Heracles had a list of lovers - male and female - long enough to rival some gods and even after completing his labours and coming down to the end of his life, he did not have one wife but three.

And y'know what, just because he's a cultural darling, I'll put Achilles up here too because that man was a Theseus type where he was fantastic at the thing he was born to do (that is, fight whereas Theseus' was to rule) but that was not enough to eclipse his horrid temper and his weakness to young pretty things. This is the man that killed two of Apollo's sons because they wouldn't let him hit - Tenes because he refused to let Achilles have his sister and Troilus who refused Achilles so vehemently that he ran into Apollo's temple to avoid him and still couldn't escape.

All four of these men are still celebrated as great heroes and men. All four of these men are given the dignity of nuance, of having their flaws treated as just that, flaws which enrich their character and can be used to discuss the wider cultural point of what truly makes a hero heroic. All four of these men still have their legacies respected.

Why can that same mindset not be applied to Zeus? Zeus, who was a warrior-king raised in seclusion apart from his family. Zeus who must have learned to embrace the violence of thunder for every time he cried as a babe, the Corybantes would bang their shields to hide the sound. Zeus learned to be great because being good would not see the universe's affairs in its order.

The wonderful thing about sympathy is that we never run out of it. There's no rule stopping us from being sympathetic to multiple plights at once, there's no law that necessitate things always exist on the good-evil binary. Yes, Zeus sentenced Prometheus to sufferation in Tartarus for what (to us) seems like a cruel reason. Prometheus only wanted to help humans! But when you think about Prometheus' actions from a king's perspective, the narrative is completely different: Prometheus stole divine knowledge and gifted it to humans after Zeus explicitly told him not to. And this was after Prometheus cheated all the gods out of a huge portion of wealth by having humans keep the best part of a sacrifice's meat while the gods must delight themselves with bones, fat and skin. Yes, Zeus gave Persephone away to Hades without consulting Demeter but what king consults a woman who is not his wife about the arrangement of his daughter's marriage to another king? Yes, Zeus breaks the marriage vows he set with Hera despite his love of her but what is the Master of Fate if not its staunchest slave?

The nuance is there. Even in his most bizarre actions, the nuance and logic and reason is there. The Ancient Greeks weren't a daft people, they worshipped Zeus as their primary god for a reason and they did not associate him with half the vices modern audiences take issue with. Zeus was a father, a visitor, a protector, a fair judge of character, a guide for the lost, the arbiter of revenge for those that had been wronged, a pillar of strength for those who needed it and a shield to protect those who made their home among the biting snakes. His children were reflections of him, extensions of his will who acted both as his mercy and as his retribution, his brothers and sisters deferred to him because he was wise as well as powerful. Zeus didn't become king by accident and it is a damn shame he does not get more respect.

[crowleyholmes]

The thing that gets me so much about the kiss though, among many other things but this one i just never stop thinking about (and i'm sure it's one Crowley doesn't stop thinking about either), is how despite how shocked Aziraphale was by it and how scared and overwhelmed he was and how dangerous he knew it was (because he knew the Metatron was most likely watching), and despite the fact that he Forgives Crowley for it afterwards and breaks his heart, he didn't pull away. He didn't push Crowley away, either. And he easily could have, I'm 100% sure. Sure, Crowley was holding him in place by his coat lapels but still. Aziraphale could have turned his face away, could have pried Crowley's hands off, could have pushed him by the shoulders, could have verbally protested... but he didn't. In the end it's Crowley who ends the kiss and lets him go. Aziraphale wanted it just as much as Crowley did. But he was scared and confused and completely overwhelmed, and of course he falls back into old patterns. Plausible deniability!! Put on the front of the Good Angel! What do good angels do? Oh yeah, they forgive! It's their favorite thing! The good angel forgives the evil demon, look, Metatron, we're both doing exactly what we're supposed to be doing!!! Aziraphale is - stupidly? pointlessly? maybe!! - throwing up this facade, this ancient front they have always been forced to hide behind, to keep them both safe!!!

But at the same time, he IS angry. There is definitely some sincerity in that "I forgive you" he spits at Crowley. Because if there was one thing he never wanted to say in response to Crowley finally, finally kissing him, it's "i forgive you". It's pushing him away and breaking his heart and breaking them up, to keep them both safe. To give them a chance to do what they have to. But Crowley forced him to. And he doesn't even see it. Of COURSE Aziraphale is fucking devastated.

[monstermonger]

Your dragon art brings me so much joy. Would you ever consider adding larger prints to your shop? The red dragon on the bridge you recently posted and the dragon painting on the cave entrance are some of my favorites but I struggle to find ways to display smaller prints that make sense

:""") This is so amazing to read, thank you for the kind words! Really...

And aaa I'm sorry, I'd love to add bigger prints, several people have asked this too :""""D sadly I just draw very small, my favorite sketchbook is this purse-sized moleskin. it's comfy but I do regret it for these situations...

I suppose i could try forcibly up-scaling the size, the quality would suffer though... T^T

... I'm curious now, anyone know if you can scan images so that they're bigger than the original (but still good quality)? I would definitely do that for my future images.

[masonjarcollector]

Not to be melodramatic but "you've got to get better, you're all that I've got"/"I've got to get better, I'm all that I've got" might be one of the most beautifully raw and heartwrenching lyrics I've ever heard sung before. Like. Shoot, man. I really am all that I've got.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Hi. I've calmed down a bit, and I think it's better if I just take a break from Tumblr for a while. Right now, I don't feel the fandom to be the same chill and safe space as I felt it to be, so I'd rather take some time until I can feel comfortable again with posting. All my side blogs will be on hiatus too. I'm terribly sorry for any discomfort this may cause.

A deep, wholehearted thank you to anyone who reached out in the last hours in replies, asks and dms to share their support and love. Seriously, you can't imagine how much it meant to me, how meaningful every single message I got was to me. Yesterday I was really believing my blog didn't bring anything but negativity and hatred to the community; thank you for reaching out to tell me I was able to share a little happiness, too. Words cannot express how indebted I am to you; you made me feel again like the posting I made on my blog was worth it, for you alone.

I don't think I'll deactivate for the time being. The temptation is still very strong, but I've poured so much time and dedication and love on this blog, I don't think it'd be fair to delete it. I hope in the future there'll still be people who my posts can make happy.

Lastly, I want to apologize once again to the people for whom my posts evoked so many negative sentiments. I know it's impossible to avoid, but I'm still sorry that happened. I apologize to you.

Please, be kind to each other. Make some ss/kk posts on my behalf while I'm away :)

[moonstrider9904]

I also love how much it feels like Mayday was Crosshair's equal while still being utterly different.

The witty banter? Glorious. The way Mayday asked Crosshair what his name was? Fuck. The mine scene where Crosshair makes the deadweight comments, only for him to carry Mayday all the way back to the outpost despite the latter having told him leave me, as in, leave me and save yourself, and Crosshair still carried him anyway? I hope the hatewatchers saw that too. The way Mayday was mocking Crosshair regarding the pressure mine, but as soon as he was done, wiped the sweat off his forehead revealing how nervous he was? If I didn't know better, I'd say Crosshair would act similarly if the roles were reversed. The way Mayday asked what squad Crosshair used to be in and the pain with which Cross answered? Yes.

And it's tragic because, deep down, maybe Crosshair came to think he could find what he lost with one family in Mayday - a brother - and he lost that too. He did what was in his power, more than that, and he still lost it.

[rune-rambles-art]

Okay I have to yell about Koleda Belobog Zenless Zone Zero because I feel like I love her in a very specific way that I haven’t seen a lot of people talk about. More under the cut because I have,,, so many thoughts.

Koleda is such a good portrayal of someone who struggles with their perception as an adult. A pretty easy conclusion to make with the first thing she usually says on the character select screen being “Hey, don’t look down on me!”, but it definitely goes a lot deeper the more you spend time with her. Specifically, she seems to struggle in her perception of herself as someone much more mature than her younger peers, but still not on the same level as the adults in similar positions of power as her. I kinda. Hate zenless for not explicitly stating how old she is, but given she rose to her position at Belobog “when she came of age” (which honestly, I still can’t give a concrete answer to what hoyo means by this? Some searches I found claimed the working age to be 16 in China, I’ve seen others online claim 18 but that’s not reliable. Hoyo I'm begging you put official ages on your characters it's a cool and based practice), she waited for a significant amount of time before taking up her role as president. She is an adult from what the game implies, and a core part of her character is fighting against the constant infantilization she faces due to how she looks.

Let’s start with her love of desserts (and a honestly this is the reason I started writing this). It’s her most highlighted character trait (it is also the first known attribute in her trust rank profile when you unlock her), and most of her trust events on 6th street revolves around them. Initially, she hesitates in proclaiming her love for them, likely to avoid being perceived as childish.

Her rank 4 trust special event is, admittedly, my favorite, but it’s one of the best breakdowns of this.

In order to maintain her image as a mature adult, she uses her position as company president to get around having to request a special dessert drink by name (in her defense, "Sweet Girl Fluffy Marshmallow Lambkin Milk" is an insane mouthful of a product name). At the end of the event she admits that saying its name “wasn’t as bad as she thought”, but her initial kneejerk reaction was a complete rejection of even entertaining the idea of doing something that could put the image she worked so hard to create and maintain at risk. Despite this, she still refuses desserts that aren't tooth-rottingly sweet, even if they are seen as the more mature or "refined" option. It's only around people that she really trusts does she allow this part of herself to be known, because she knows they wouldn't misconstrue this behavior as childish.

I also think her perception on the differences between kids and adults is interesting ("thank you agent story quest" we all say in unison). She doesn't ever feel like she fits in with other kids, probably due to all the responsibility she had to take on as the eventual heir to her father's company. But she also holds a vocal distain for many of her adult peers. Her declaration of "When I was younger, I thought the whole world was rotten, trying to make people just as rotten when they grow up." is a reflection of how she struggled to find her place in the world as she was forced to suddenly transition into adulthood, while still trying to understand the actions of the adults around her.

Her relationship with her father becoming strained contributed significantly to her world outlook as well, and may have caused such a specific distinction of what she deems "the world of adults". I don't want to dive too specifically into that because spoilers and the game is only a few weeks old so. Pin that for another time maybe? It definitely matters in the sense that the loss of her father is the catalyst for the loss of her childhood, but a lot of the specifics in how that affected her are speculative (and I don't wanna get too headcanon-y in this particular post) and she explicitly chooses not to discuss it too in-depth with the proxy (which, girl. Valid). But she's slowly learning to cope with that loss, at least it seems that way by the end of chapter 3. Honestly I could probably find more to add about the agent story in particular, but I would have to replay it to get a better idea.

To me, Koleda Belobog is very solid representation for women who had to grow up too fast, struggle with the perception of being seen as an adult, and hold guilt about indulging in acts that can be perceived as childish by their peers because they never fully got the chance to just be a kid. It truly did resonate with me, and it feels like such a specific "if you know, you know" kind of experience that I don't feel is talked about as much in media, especially with people who identify as female during their youth.

Also, also! I hope they dive in a bit more on how she got/has so much hollow corruption at a young age. Because they imply that she is so short as a result of this hollow corruption. Like that's so damn interesting conceptually and I know they delved on it more in Rina's agent story but. It was more of a mental affliction than a physical one.

Anyway I've been working on this for like 2 days now but that's all I have in terms of like. A canon-compliant character analysis.

TLDR; Koleda is such a perfect example of "God forbid short women exist" and I love her for that. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[mirpkechi]

going to bed after this post because im tired and literally just came online to check two things but GET THIS ZIONISM OFF OF MY DASH!!!!!!!!!!! STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!! AREGJEDJEJDJDKF I HATE YOU

[meraki-yao]

(Thought of this since I did theatre earlier lol)

There's a bunch of stuff from rwrb production that I want: more bloopers, all the deleted scenes, alternate takes... basically I want everything they filmed because i literally can never get enough of this movie and firstprince

but something that I suddenly realized I also want to see

is the table-read

for those who don't know, a table read, or a read-through, is a full-cast organized reading of the script around a table

And while I was in drama club and now attend weekly theatre workshops, I never did a proper read-through of a script, which is part of what makes me so curious about it

Like, it's the first time the actors read their lines together, so it's most likely a different delivery than what ended up on screen: what would that be like? Like, think about it, especially heavy moments like Kensington: what was the first iteration of the scene like?

Also, for heated moments, like the first hook-up, like Paris, in a table read, it's only the lines: was the delivery during the table read also delivered with the passionate heat or the delicate vulnerability?

Like, I'm just really, really curious about what the first line interpretation/delivery was like, and how the physical scenes were done as a read-through, and the cute moments between the whole cast

So yeah add one more thing to a already mile long list of rwrb content I need!

[another-tevinter-heist]

OKAY OKAY OKAY

So below is a screenshot of my tags on this post courtesy of @dreadfutures and I didn't want to steal the post from it's original point BUT I JUST REALIZED.

Think of all the characters in each of these games that is telling the story of our character that is getting some variation of devoured by the narrative or their role. I've just nearly finished my first full playthrough of 2 and Varric is and has woven this story about Hawke for Cassandra to protect his friend. Is it a true story? Is the Hawke I'm playing even the same as the Hawke that went through these events? How close is the story to representing the Champion of Kirkwall? How is it different to the Tale of the Champion? Varric tries to preserve Hawke through artistry.

Artistry that Solas uses to preserve the Inquisitor.

But the CONTRAST in that! They're already somewhat opposed on what to do with Cole, right? Physicality or spirit? But Varric tries to protect Hawke from the world by telling this larger than life story about his dear friend. Sure it's based on truths, but Hawke was given a spot to hide in that narrative from loving hands. Varric knows the world will take what they want and damn the rest, so may as well hand them something you know they'll take so you can have some control, right? But Solas. Oh, Solas has had this happen to him, as the previous post says! And he must, more than anything, want to have the core of him remembered because has he not lost himself on this hero's path he set himself on? If only there were a depiction, a memory of him, a spirit left who remembered Solas as he was.

So he must paint. He must give the Inquisitor something to remember themselves and their path with. And he carves the Inquisitor out a spot with duty in mind. The kind of duty he hates the Grey Wardens for. The kind of duty he hates himself for. But duty can be corrupted and forgotten, can't it? The Grey Wardens have been led astray, haven't they? But the Inquisitor is still lost to the narrative and weight of their title and their task of stopping him and the things he's done. And what is the Inquisitor left with? Next to nothing but a lonely spot on a lonely hill looking down on a lonely path walked by The Dread Wolf himself.

I'm rambling but I'm pacing over how good Varric and Solas are. Of course it has to be Varric who tries to talk down Solas. Of course it must be. If anyone could carve that spot of love and safety out of this story for the Dread Wolf, who better than Varric fucking Tethras? It's what he fucking does.

[vorekody]

This isn't just about me, honestly, you're the real star here.

I may be the instrument to your demise, but you are the melody, you are what they jeer for.

What will you do when you're faced with a mutilated oblivion?

There's so many options.

You could run, but in here? Not many places to go, you're stuck with me, and fleeing will only make me chase you down all the faster, it'd be a shame to end things so quickly.

Some stand their ground, trying to face me down with the supplied simple weaponry. That's fun. I'll swat you about, pick away at you between each futile jab. Because we all know that it's only games, those pointed sticks are toys just as much as you are, there to fulfill a role- a mimicry of fairness. To give the idea that you'd stand a chance.

Attempted escape artists are a joy. To drag you back kicking and screaming after watching your efforts to scale the walls is pleasurable, and dashing those fragile hopes with a few simple tugs always seems to get the crowd going.

I can't help but be amused by intimation, you're face growing dark with every yell or toss up of your arms, limbs that will soon become dettached, really you shouldn't be waving them around like that if you'd like to keep them. I am no bear, I will not cower to you.

I've heard cries of mercy too, whiney pleas for life that don't make sense to sound in a arena catered to death. On the other end of the spectrum attempts to sympathize, to rationalize - which are equally as inappropriate, why rationalize the irrational?

But some just don't know when to let go, Read the room. Play your part.

This isn't simply a feeding, it's a performance, a show of the food chain put on display for the morbidly curious, and to grovel is so unbefitting of what we're here to do.

[lulu-the-bugaboo]

From a writing perspective, I love how clearly you can see some of Ace's traits (*cough* flaws *cough*) in Luffy

Like how harsh he is with Shirahoshi and Momo despite really caring for them

And the way he didn’t want to run away from Big Mom or Fujitora and continue throwing hands

It's such a fun and natural way to show they grew up together

But there is part of me that just wants to grab him by the shoulders and shake him like not you too dammit

[phantom-of-the-501st]

"Charles, will you ride with me?"

"Always."

I just got to the Murfree Brood mission again and I just can't with the two of them. Just peak Arthur and Charles. And this line

[unforth]

I just saw a post like "no one tells fairy tales to their kids anymore it's so sad."

And I'm like.

Look I'm sorry I don't want to tell my kids the "be careful about going alone because a man will murder your grandma and then eat you" story, the "god help you if you're born poor and your family is mean to you because your only way out will be to luck into marrying a rich person" story, the "the only way to keep some asshole from destroying your house is to build a better house out of more expensive materials because otherwise you're just asking for it" story, the "strange old women will try to bribe you then eat you" story, or any of the others.

I don't tell my kids fairy tales because, to be honest, a lot of fairy tales made me super uncomfortable as a kid, I didn't like them, they made me afraid of everyone outside of my family in the world, and those aren't lessons I want to pass on in those terms.

We still tell are kids stories. I just have way more options now for WHICH stories they're exposed to.

This isn't a bad thing, ffs.