#in a good way <3

[raayllum]

i’ve talked about stories Choosing to create malevolent (magic corrupts), neutral (magic is a tool and good or bad depends on the user), or benevolent (magic renews/is sustainable/low cost) magic systems, or subsets, but i really think in TDP’s case, the people who cannot accept that yes, it doesn’t matter how many regulations there’d conceivably be, dark magic is bad, is like

a massive red flag of “i didn’t read and/or understand the Story Contract i was signing”

cause like, I’ve been playing “tears of the kingdom” a ton this week, and the game is effectively using dark magic; you kill mindless ‘monsters’, slap their body parts onto your weapons and shields to use in other battles, or make potions and shit. now TOTK (or indeed “breath of the wild”) isn’t interested in the ethics of this. it’s a game mechanic, monsters are spawns of the villain, they don’t seem to be any more sentient than animals, and they will attack you if you don’t attack them in most cases. this is an example of a game having a ‘magic system’ if you will and going “this is neutral, if not good, because of the positioning of the game’s morals and narrative.” 

TDP is not that. it has never been that. it will never be that. it has a similar magic system, yes, but dark magic actively weakens the user the more they use it. it takes from creatures that are on a ‘human level of intelligence’* (*whatever people have historically decided that to mean is a slippery slope, as we know) with cultures and world views and a range of thought. it’s not sustainable, it’s not neutral. it is actively harmful to both the caster and just about everything it uses for spells, and it can use everything for spells, being a personal moral free-for-all for each individual mage. just a candle and viren’s smoke magic was able to use the assassin’s remains (and souls, implied by through the moon) to wreck international havoc. 

TDP’s story contract uses dark magic to explore the corruptive force of power and desperation. to ignore that is to completely disengage with everything the story tries to explore with its magic systems and its mage characters; if you act like it should all be sunshine and rainbows, you completely de-fang every character that is tethered to dark magic, and reduce them to pointless husks.

TOTK/BOTW isn’t wrong for its more neutral/positive leaning state. it wanted a more neutral/positive leaning magic system for its game play. but TDP also isn’t wrong for having a malevolent magic system. it’s a Chosen Feature, not a bug or a flaw.

you may not agree with dark magic’s in-universe foundation (humans were backed into a corner, yes, but we’ve known they can have access to primal magic for 3+ seasons now) but that’s what you signed on for. it’d be like complaining that the main characters are children when it’s a kid show, or that a fantasy series has magic at all. it’s in the story’s Contract. if you don’t like it, go find other stories with magic systems you groove more with; i promise they exist, and everyone wold probably be happier if you did, yourself included

[kandulce]

This is for the iz fic Final Exam by PatchworkPoltergeist plEASEE read it!!

[hopecountyshenanigans]

I can't remember what chapter but in The Permanent Efficacy of Grace I commented that Jacob was reminding me of LDR's lyric, "your mom called I told her you're fucking up big time". Anyway I saw LDR in Pittsburgh the other day (she was angelic) and now I'm listening to TATUOB and I think Lana would've LOVED Joseph Seed as her cult leader.

ALSO if you abbreviate the Permanent Efficacy of Grace it is PEG which I think is hilarious.

your third eye is wide the fuck open my friend, reading this ask I felt like Wile E. Coyote getting repeatedly battered with anvils

[cryptidsloth]

If Skyler would’ve had one conversation with Gus and Jesse in season 3 the outcome would’ve been completely different

[revenantghost]

your passion and joy for enjoying media (also in trigun brainrot hell, woo) and creating things - don't get me started on your fantastic writing - is honestly such a joy to see on my dashboard, and i just want to cheer you on to keep having a good time. hope you're having a wonderful day or night, too.

Alkajnsdlakjdn oh gosh thank you?!?!?! So much?!?!?!?!?!?!? This legitimately made me tear up when I clicked on my inbox <3 I'm so, so, so happy that anyone gets anything from whatever I create, especially my writing because I have such a tough relationship with that, so seriously--thank you!!!

[lunarw0rks]

https://www.tumblr.com/lunarw0rks/731097052087451648/which-141-member-do-yall-think-is-the-most-into

johnny.

real, he told me yesterday.

johnny is way more aggressive about it tho. more than gaz.

[jjongho]

LET’S GO BESTIES WE GOT THE PROMOTION SCHEDULE !!!!

[i-seeaspaceshipinthe-sky]

#old married couple [insp.]

[eddiesghxst]

I could never really leave you, Rachiekins. I'm just being dramatic, even if I really am worried (to a point) about the things in my previous asks and am pissed off at Richie and still want to see Skank Supreme die a slow agonizing death. Maybe at the end of Lady Applejack's poison soaked kukris after they've been lodged firmly in Skank Supreme's back. 😈

Seriously though. Unlike with some fics I've tried reading in the past, I'm invested and can't quit this close to the end!

IM AJSHSJSKS

LADY APPLEJACKS POISON SOAKED KURKIS PLS, ERICA WOULD HATEEEEEEEE LANY, SHED EAT HER ALIVE !!

i’d pay cash money to see those two go head to head <3

[oasisofgalaxies]

Ok gn my brain is fried

[may12324]

Eadaz and her queen

[beybuniki]

they should go on a fishing trip pt.1

[ryssbelle]

Drew a bunch of Marinettes in a bunch of different artists styles it was a lot of fun!!

Artists who's styles I mimicked: @buggachat @hamsternamedmarinette @ladybeug @sabertoothwalrus and @anna-scribbles all epic artists 🤟😎

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The indescribable tension between an overworked and underpaid smut writer, and his biggest fan hater.

(for @frummpets)

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[birdmenmanga]

I think there's no greater indication that disco elysium is sympathetic towards communism when it literally says "communism is failure" and then the literal gameplay itself rewards trying and failing. The most obvious one being the Shivers check at the FELD mural, which is an Impossible 20 check BUT opens itself up again and again the longer you spend in the world doing things, but even just looking at sheer probabilities, for any given white check, rolling first and THEN putting a point into that skill upon failure is more likely to grant you success than putting a point first and then rolling, but that would require failing first.

Other things too: Precarious world saying you'll 100% fail red checks no matter what (not necessarily a bad thing, btw!! throwing the boule into the sea is a success but like. in some other ways one would want a perfect petanque throw instead. but people wouldn't typically assume that failure is desirable sometimes from the start) persuading you to accept that you'll fail some things that is irrevocable, for a world where everything is just a tiny bit easier.

The faux game over screen when you faint after reading Dora's letter— emulating a sense of failure on the scale of the entire game. When it rolls up most people go "What?? Game over?? No way, what did I do wrong!!" and waking up after that, with no huge or lasting impact on Harry's health or morale really tells the player, "Sometimes things will seem so bad that it all seems like it's coming to an end, but it's not the end, it's really not the end, go drink so water, you can still go on despite this failure"

I'm sure there are other things as well that are eluding me but like. The literal gameplay rewards failing and succeeding far more so than simply succeeding every single time, and I think you get a fuller experience of Elysium that way too