#it’s going to be multiple point of views

[transagainstautogynephiles]

Definitely all of this. Also it’s documented political strategy to make groups the elites want to control feel disgusted by those they want to oppress. The billionaires are presented as suave and strategic in mainstream media, and they are “on their side” and helping the in-group by using their power and resources to get rid of those they mutually deem disgusting. They see the progressive side as siding with disgusting cretins and wasting resources on them because the media has raised them to have little to no empathy due to subtly and not so subtly often portraying them in a degrading and disgust inducing manner. Billionaires have had long term good PR pushed in mainstream media that oppressed groups are only gaining a bit of a foothold in.

Conservatives also don’t want to feel gross about themselves, that’s part of why they hate being called weird. They most certainly don’t want to associate with anyone or anything they deem gross, they are like 12 year olds worried about cooties. Conservatives want to feel comfortable at any cost. In their eyes being comfortable means gaining and maintaining power or supporting those who have gained and maintained power who will then use that power to keep the cooties at bay so they don’t have to see that or associate with that ever. They are immensely fear and disgust driven. They are often disgusted with the world they live in so why would they want to have more compassion for the world around them. There has to be efforts in dismantling the disgust element and humanizing the oppressed to have any chance of getting through to conservatives about these groups deserving compassion. Unfortunately celebrities aren’t the way to go because of how messy they are presented in tabloids and the whole Hollywood is a satanic cult thing that the conservatives believe in.

For those who have any emotional availability, deconstructing negative beliefs about oppressed groups in conservative individuals would mainly need to be done over the course of multiple conversations after building a reputation as a solid and sane individual. You also need to be able to at least pretend to see their point of view and find areas where you can agree to give them a sense of security. Have a bunch of relatable analogies on hand for helping them to deconstruct harmful ideologies in their own mind. You can present them with something to mentally chew on and walk them through some logic, but you can’t do the thinking for them.

Try using conservative buzzwords and phrases like “upholding family values” and “traditional”, like that person online who was able to talk conservatives into agreeing public transport was good because it was a traditional means of transportation and trains used to be a pillar in traditional American life, and etc.

Like, immigrants are good for the economy and I believe in traditional American values like welcoming people in so that everyone can try to achieve the American dream. It’s everyone’s god-given right to be able to try and live life to the fullest potential that god gave them, so we should let people come to America to do just that because that’s what America was made for.

I think America should bring some things back from the good old days like when the rich payed their fair share which gave us a golden age economy. The federal minimum wage is at its lowest point in 66 years, no wonder our economy is in the shitter! Nobody has any purchasing power anymore! Back then the minimum wage was x and with inflation nowadays that’d be x, we should bring back the traditional economy.(determine which time period you want to reference that would be most nostalgic for them, or even better also pick one that was reaping the benefits of democratic influences.) That isn’t even accounting for all the price gouging those damn corporations are doing, I wish we could bring back the days where we could really give those bastard CEOs a piece of our minds without those damn pigs getting in the way. All our taxes are going to giving them fancy new gadgets while we can’t even get the holes in roads filled! Can’t even say shit to the elites nowadays without the cops pulling out tear gas or busting your door down cause the elites are scared crybabies that can’t handle consequences. Like it’s straight up just words, they’re such snowflakes. (Redirect that kind of language towards CEOs and fascists as much as possible. Make them feel disgusted at their own side.)

Rich Progressive: "I used to be working class. I became rich when I became an actor, singer, athlete, or something else that I got extremely lucky and could have easily failed at. Anytime I see someone who's homeless, I realize that that could have easily been me if things were just slightly different. I still have trauma from my struggles of being working class, so I want to use my privilege to speak up for others who are currently struggling."

Working Class Conservative: "Oh come on. You're rich. You can't speak for me. You have no idea what it's like for people like me who have to work multiple jobs just to feed my family. Now shut up and move out of the way so I can listen to rich people who were born rich, got richer by exploiting the working class, and openly advocate for policies that will make them richer, but who I worship because they hate the same people I do."

[takenbypeter]

Delivery For Bob

Bob Reynolds x fem!reader

Word Count: 1163

“Okay, so maybe if we come in from this side. Then John can go around from the other angle.” Yelena suggested to the other shoulder length haired man. 

Her and Bucky were in the Watchtower currently working on a strategy for an upcoming mission. The others were scattered about elsewhere doing their own things, while Bob? He was keeping himself busy by reading a new book on his usual chair nearby. 

“I mean that could work but I really think Ava would be best here. Then we can use her there,” Bucky’s metal arm reached across, landing on the screen. 

“Yeah I guess that makes sense. But I think Ava would be best here, no?” She pointed to another area and just as the blonde’s finger was about to touch the device the elevator door glided open. 

The pair's eyes left the blueprint and turned all their attention to…well you. There you stood in the elevator doorway peeking at the two with your eyebrows furrowed. 

“I have a food delivery here,” you held a shake in one hand and then a bag in the other. 

“Who is this? Who authorized this person to come up here?” Yelena asked, turning behind her and that’s when Bob, who wasn’t paying attention before, suddenly scrambled out of his position, practically tumbling towards your direction. “That’s for me! That’s mine!” He came to a stop right in front of you, straightening up a bit as he did. 

Wearing a little smile and tilting his head to the side, he breathed out, “hi.”

You couldn’t help but smile at the man you’ve seen multiple times over the last few weeks. “Hi,” you replied, and when it looked like he wasn’t going to reach for his food you held it out in front of you, “order for Bob,” you said. A surprised “oh,” left his mouth and his gaze shifted to the meal, almost as if he just remembered why you were there in the first place. Using his full upper body, he bent at the hips, reaching out to grab his items. “Oh wait right there, I’ll get your tip.” 

You stood there patiently as he ran off. Feeling a bit awkward you glanced to the side at the other two who were still looking at you. Upon making eye contact you pressed your lips together and offered them a courteous smile, which Yelena reciprocated, her own smile seeming a bit more enthusiastic. 

Bob returned quickly handing you a few rolled up bills. You glanced down, “this is too much, are you sure?”

He shrugged, the smile never leaving his face. “You always get my order right and here on time and you’re always so nice.” Yelena smirked at Bucky who just raised his brows before she turned back around to continue viewing the odd pairing. 

“Well that’s part of the job, but thank you,” you let out a single chuckle as you started heading back towards the elevator. 

“You do it really well,” he confirmed, after you pushed the button and the door began to slide shut. 

“Goodbye Bob,” you send him one last look, as the doors completely shut, leaving Bob swaying side to side with an awed expression on his face. 

With a little content sigh he started spinning back around but met Yelena’s smirking expression halfway through the action. 

Catching sight of her and then Bucky, the brunette cleared his throat and wiped the grin off before heading back to his chair. 

Yelena took a few steps towards him, expression unchanging. 

“Yelena?” She raised up her hand waving off Bucky who just shook his head and let out an annoyed grunt. 

“Bob. Who was that?”

“Delivery,” he answered, glancing up at Yelena from his chair. 

“Right. No I got that but who was that?”

“Food delivery girl.”

Yelena remained quiet, her face being the only thing prompting him to continue. “She’s just been coming by lately whenever I order food.”

“You have been ordering a lot lately. Is she why?”

Bob lifts his head a bit shutting his eyes as he shook his head a few times before then tilting his head and shrugging. 

“If I didn’t know any better I’d think you’d have a crush.”

“Crush. Who has crush? Lena you have crush?”

The blonde rolled her eyes at the man who suddenly appeared from another doorway. “No, not me Alexei. Bob.”

Alexei’s jaw dropped a bit before a wide smile erupted, “Bob! You need help with lady? I can help you! You are sensitive guy and the ladies love that, but something you need is confidence. Next time you see pretty lady, walk up and say, ‘I’m Sentry,’ show some of your moves then say, ‘let me take you out!’”

“Who’s he taking out?” Came John Walker, entering the room. He was battered and dirty having just arrived from a mission. 

“No one.”

“The food delivery app lady!” Alexei answered for the brunette. 

“Can we stop talking about this please,” Bob asked, his voice a bit small. 

“Aww Bobby old boy has a crush, my teeth are getting cavities from just thinking about it.” Bob shot Walker a look before Walker added, “what’s she look like? She pretty?”

“Ooh yes! Show me the pretty lady,” Alexei shouted. 

“I don’t have a picture of her and if I did that would be weird!”

“Eh not so weird, next time just snap a quick pic, take one second,” Alexei suggested before turning to Bucky who had his back to the group, “Bucky! You see her. What you think?”

Bucky sighed, eyes finally leaving the upcoming mission plans alone, “I think…we should let Bob do this however he wants.”

“Thank you!” Bob shouts glad someone is staying out of this. 

“I want to see pretty lady.”

“Well you can’t Alexei, cause she’s gone. Now please Yelena can we get back to this.”

Yelena raises her hands in defense and starts to walk back to the screen but as she does so, a ding can be heard garnering everyone's attention as the elevator doors slide open again. 

Out stepped you as you cautiously looked around at the faces you’ve only seen in the news before. Typically whenever you delivered a meal it was just Bob there, (that was until this afternoon of course).

“Sorry, I have a delivery for Ava Starr.”

Ava suddenly stepped out from the side, where she’s been for who knows how long reaching out with a mannerly smile on her lips. “That’s me. Thank you and keep the tip.”

You thank her before taking one last glance around the room eventually locking eyes with Bob, who you offer a small grin to before fully turning around and leaving. 

The room stayed silent as the elevator closed and it started to descend. 

Alexei broke the still gushing, “oh Bob, she is beautiful lady.”

Bob just groaned in response, throwing his head back against the chair, knowing he’d never hear the end of this. 

[kiame-sama]

Okay I have a couple questions it's been on my mind for a couple days now and I just have to ask first Kalim dad he's a genie too right doesn't that mean that he's experienced multiple childbirth like wouldn't that like hurt him a lot because how many kids he has or has it gone to the point he's just numb to it now.

Second I'm just curious what would happen if we die like I know they're probably going to lose their minds but like to what exact point cuz I know some of them are going to like overblot again but like do they like deteriorate mentally or is it like a gradual state and like what are the consequences to us dying does Crowley get like jailed or something.

Third this is also similar to the second question what if we like died after we had all our children for some reason like let's say we didn't connect to mal soul thing and we die and now he has to take care of eight children all by itself how will the others react to the death of their wife and how will children react to the death of their mother or we go down a darker path and both us and our children die for some reason you can decide how that happens would that be worse then just us dying I'm just so curious how this would happen I've been brewing on this for a couple days now and I just had to know.

Also love your work keep it up 🥰😍

Warnings; as the ask states, by selecting 'view more' you consent to view content and are of age to view content

Yes. Kalim's father has MANY children and experienced the agony of childbirth for every single one. Some of them even overlapped, so he was experiencing the pain of birthing a child and the intense cravings of his child in the second trimester. He has gotten used to the feeling now, but he does need to be sequestered and guarded whenever another child is born, as it leaves him catatonic for a long time following the birth. He sees it as one of his burdens to bear when it come to having so many children.

~•§•~

If the Human dies before having children, it causes a tidalwave of overblotting that likely cannot be stopped or halted. All the yanderes, platonic or not, will overblot and lose themselves to being feral.

~•§•~

If the Human dies after having their children, there is still the very real possibility of overblot among children and parents. The Human is the Keystone to keeping these monsters and Human-Hybrids calm. Without their soothing aura and addictive nature, the young will turn to one another for comfort. They are nowhere near as addictive as the Human, but they still have that emotional addiction to one another due to their half-Human aura. That aura of theirs soothes them but they will struggle to fully recover without the Human present.

Malleus is overblotting regardless and may even die of a broken heart. Several of the other Harem members feel the same and may suffer the same fate.

[otp-after-dark]

I’m going to die on this hill.

The writers destroyed the book version of Nick. And I don’t care how many press tour interviews try to reframe it — I read the source material multiple times. I know who he was.

He was not, I repeat NOT:

A Commander

Involved in Gilead’s inception

Married to a Gilead wife

He was, canonically:

Ambiguous, low level driver

A double agent — both an Eye and Mayday

The person who rescued and saved June: “The heart remains a factor.”

Underground in The Testaments, where he was still alive and resisting

Someone who survived to reunite with June and Nichole someday

And the show threw all of that away.

They didn’t just rewrite his arc — they betrayed the book’s thesis, rewrote resistance as betrayal, and turned one of the only characters to grow through love into a cautionary tale.

I just finished rewatching The Hunger Games and I’m even more angry. Because that story — YA dystopia and all — actually understood what it was trying to say. It stuck with the book. It followed the emotional truth. It delivered a better version of revolution.

And The Handmaid’s Tale? It collapsed under its own cynicism to sell some rad fem view of the far right.

The only reason I even stayed past Season 2 was Max Minghella. He’s the best part of this show. The only performance that carried emotional weight without ever needing to yell. The only actor who played restraint like it mattered.

This adaptation is the worst book-to-screen betrayal I’ve ever watched. I can't even think of another one that comes close.

No chance I'm watching this finale. I will never watch another Hulu original again. They've been canceled. You don’t get to sell yourself as prestige while butchering the point otherwise don't buy the rights to the book.

[inmyowndelusion]

CHAT SHOULD I START WRITING THE CREEPYPASTA FIC IVE BEEN WANTING TO WRITE?!

[highfantasy-soul]

My view on the Elrond/Galadriel kiss:

Cultures be different.

Kisses on the lips are not always sexual/romantic. (I, as an American, have kissed certain friends on the lips in completely platonic ways)

In many cultures, closed-mouthed kisses on the lips are a sign of love and emotional connection in a platonic/familial way.

Specifically American aversion to affection in any form is rotting people's brains - here, a lot of men won't even HUG each other because they think it's 'too intimate'. Other cultures kiss on the hand, cheek, forehead, nose, and yes, lips too, in completely platonic ways. [And we're not even going to get into the large portion of the population who thinks that men and women literally CANNOT be just friends, if a man and woman are close, it HAS to be romantic/sexual.]

Just because YOUR culture/personal preference reserves lip kisses for romantic/sexual feelings only doesn't mean everyone else is wrong for feeling differently.

I didn't read the kiss as Elrond secretly having romantic feelings for Galadriel at all - to me it was clear it was a platonic show of how much he cared for her and how sorry he was that they had been at odds all season (and largely in S1 too) and was afraid it was really going to be the last time he saw her. He wanted to show her just how much she meant to him - PLATONICALLY - and a tender kiss (while also using it as a distraction to slip her a lock-pick) was the way he did it.

Obviously it's ok for people to interpret it as romantic if they ship Galadriel and Elrond, but to say that's the ONLY interpretation based on your own limited cultural understanding of what a kiss could mean is just frustrating.

[morlock-holmes]

Yeah, it's a good point. I'm mostly thinking of the parallel media ecosystem that the right wing has built to counter "indoctrination" of children. To some extent people with left-wjng ideologues haven't needed to build such an ecosystem, but there's not a left-wing Pureflix, you know?

I'm particularly musing on that bizarre libertarian cartoon, The Tuttle Twins, which is heavily advertised as a way to counter socialist indoctrination in the mass media, but multiple episodes contain messages that can be boiled down to,

It's important to be able to listen to opposing opinions and take good ideas even from flawed people;

Workers should be able to keep most of the surplus value they create and dispose of it as they see fit.

And like... A child who actually takes those positions seriously is going to notice all the cracks in the libertarian view of freedom really damn quickly. And not because of outside indoctrination by the mass media.

Huh, I'm starting to realize that conservatives really like narratives of outside ideas corrupting their children.

Their kids don't disagree with them because they thought carefully and came to different conclusions, rather, their kids were exposed to misleading propaganda and sort of just... floated along with it because they aren't really capable of understanding anything.

I don't know, I guess that's obvious? But it's so foreign to how I was raised.

Lately, I'm also thinking that a lot of times people end up rejecting an ideology that the people around them want them to have because they start taking the ideology seriously and then look around and realize that none of the people who are telling them that it's the most important thing in the world take it anywhere near as seriously.

[trlvsn]

also sorry for being aro on main but friendly reminder to view characters as individual beings if you want to fully understand them and analyze them properly. while relationships can be a way to push a character to a certain point of development and explore them better you gotta snap out of the fanon ship-enduced mindset every once in a while you just gotta

[maldupay]

people are of course free to feel how they want about things regarding isat and what parts of the story/characters/gameplay etc they like and dislike.. Hell i sure have things i dislike along with all my love for the game. but i feel like a lot of the grievances i've seen about the artbook are just taking something that's clearly a joke too seriously, in an extra content book that's just meant to show some behind the scenes and creators thoughts. Like komaeda's in this book ok lets chill out

[vaniliens]

Im not even sticking around for the drama that stuff gives me heart diseases im just here to see where this guys gonna lead us and to make fun of him if it ends up bad and ignore it if it was good

[the-jason-todd-murder-weapon]

I will admit that the going to hell for his kids thing is a good parenting thing he did but uh. The rest of this is literally just either a. What any parent should be doing or b. What any good superhero should do. I think the post you were responding to is more talking about the fact that Bruce has been shown and written as abusive- intentional or not- for a very long time. He victim blames a child for dying, and then takes him to the same place he died in an attempt to force him into a panic attack to save Damian when Jason states he would have told him what he knew without that, he barely views one of his kids as human and doesn’t even really care about helping her learn to read. DAVID CAIN was happier seeing cass be free then bruce ever was, and he is almost consistently emotionally abusive to all of his kids. you cannot look at bruce as a character and just ignore all of the abuse he puts his children through because it’s “out of character” when it’s been happening consistently, to say he “does nothing but try and protect” is also blatantly wrong. Bruce has beat up petty criminals who resorted to stealing to survive to the point of them needing to be hospitalized multiple times, and yeah, sure you can argue that it was the grief for Jason that caused that but bruce is a grown man who chose to put himself into a position of power where the only people who can punish him are other superheroes, if grief is all it takes for him to do that then he shouldn’t be a hero, plain and simple.

i keep on seeing this post that’s like what if one of the batkids hit bruce and the gist is that we’re supposed to feel bad for bruce about it but come on. if any one of the batkids hit bruce they would be objectively correct to do so. he could be minding his own damn business eating breakfast and any one of them could walk up and punch him clean across the jaw and i would be cheering them on the whole time. even if he isn’t doing anything to earn it in this moment he has certainly done something to deserve it in the past. i bet it feels good as hell to belt bruce wayne across the face.

[unnecessarilygrandiose]

finished dark heir just now and googled if there's any updates from the author on the last book of the trilogy and clicked a reddit link to check... got gobsmacked with the worst possible opinion in human history... never talk to anyone about a piece of media you like Ever

[mylove-thresher]

new mechanical pencils so fayahhhhh

[fantasyinvader]

@electricprincess96

I know what you mean.

Like, the whole thing with people championing Edelgard just shows how bad the writing actually is. The story needs to get it’s point across, that if her ending is meant to be bad the player should walk away understanding that. And yeah, I know the localization plays a large part of this due to it’s bizarre attempt to try to tone down the truth the game wants players to figure out and make Edelgard out to be more heroic than she was meant to be. Hell, I remember the Edelgard subreddit flipping out when their retranslation of Flower got to it’s ending and they were left realizing they ended up supporting everything they thought they were fighting against. It’s even to the point that when they learned what the actual intent of the writing was, they began throwing around death of the author in order to justify their views on the game (saying the writers didn’t know their own characters or story) while acting like their interpretation is how the game is meant to be read. Games journalists don’t want to touch it because it would mean that all their praise for Flower was misplaced and the game isn’t sending the message through Edelgard they said it was. Nintendo even sent out surveys asking players if they “understood” the story.

This is not how good writing works. And while it’s fun to analyze the game’s overuse of symbolism in order to get it’s point across, symbols mean nothing if people don’t pick up on them or understand them (especially when the localization attempts to erase them, like the whole oudou/hadou dichotomy). Maybe we could argue the original text is better written, if that sub’s reaction to Flower’s ending is any indication, and that the localization damaged the script, but you can’t help but feel like that wouldn’t have happened if the writing was tighter. If the writing was more direct with what it was trying to say rather than rely on multiple types of symbols that people may not even be familiar with. Or if they wrote the characters like actual people living in the world rather than fluff-brained NPCs that go along with the script.

Even with the localization issues, people still understood what Fates was trying to say. Revelations is, and always was, meant to be the good route. Nohr and Hoshido were both flawed and their issues made the conflict worse. The war was bad, and committing to either side rather than looking for the truth leads to the real instigator getting away. Engage was even more straightforward, but both of these games are considered inferior to Houses for some reason all while the fandom operates on the belief that the conflict is morally grey because it can’t be. Not when there’s stuff like the aforementioned oudou/hadou stuff, the use of light and shadow, one route being used to uncover the truth while the other follows the lady of deceit.

Houses is not that complicated, the fans make it out to be in order to spare their own feelings.

Out of curiosity, but regarding the Fates vs. 3H comparisons, aside from CF, do you think the other routes try to downplay the consequences of waging a war like that, or not as badly as the story does with Edelgard?

One of the things I loved the most about Fates is how much it doesn't want you to feel good for waging a war and killing hundreds if not thousands of people by the end of your campaign, in gameplay alone. No matter what faction you choose, they're both victims in the conflict, and they will suffer if you don't choose them. You have loved ones on both sides, and it pretty much shreds to pieces the idea that you're fighting the "right" side. Even Birthright does this as much as Conquest does, if far less explicitly; the fact the overwhelming majority of maps in Birthright are rout maps, the humanization of the Nohrian recruitable characters and you effectively mowing down waves upon waves of them while the game humanizes you and Corrin continues to rationalize "what needs to be done"... if it makes you feel terrible, IMHO that's the point. That's the entire purpose of the ludonarrative dissonance, especially given IMHO Chapter 26 is the most heartwrenching part of the game and just hits like a freight train in terms of feels. Even on the "good guys" route, it gives just enough feelings of lingering doubt as to make you wonder if you're truly the good guys.

By contrast, we all know Edelgard sucks and the story goes out of its way to excuse her for her wars of aggression by emphasizing how she feels and not the death toll of her imperialist ambitions always come with (enough so that a genuinely irritating part of the FE fandom is how the fandom accuses Fates of "excusing" itself when 3H does that far more readily), but I'm curious, do you think the other factions do to that too, or not as readily as Edelgard?

Thank you for the question!

Regarding the Fates point first, I totally agree! I think the game, for as much as it likes to skirt details, has a really solid intent at making sure you know that you're taking lives and what that means in the context of war and the future. Even beyond the playable characters, there's humanization abounds. In Birthright, when a wolfskin NPC gets blasted by an unknown party (later found out to be Iago trying to provoke a fight between them and Corrin's party), Keaton cries over the body of said NPC. Yeah he has dog sensibilities, but it's meaningful and sad. Same with villagers in the Ice Tribe maps on both BR and CQ, as well as the Cheve villagers in both routes, the port town in CQ, etc. There's also helping Layla in BR, meeting Cassita in BR, Kilma in CQ among others. The world feels lived in and alive, which adds the weight necessary for one of the points that Fates is trying to make, that taking life is a big deal.

As for the actual question, while I do undoubtedly think CF is the worst at this given its core premise, I also believe the other routes are bad in this area as well. Not nearly as bad as CF is, but still.

And that's because of two big reasons:

-First, the world doesn't feel lived in, meaning it feels as if every NPC or side character only exists to exposit details or serve as a puzzle piece in a grand mystery. This isn't just because of being locked to the monastery 80% of the time either. For example, Judith objectively has a bigger role in the story in 3H than Kilma does in Fates, but I'd argue Kilma feels written more like a person than Judith does. Kilma has identifiable morals, stakes, and traits separate from the the plot being told in the moment, whereas Judith feels less like an actualized character, and more like... and object? An object used to glean more info about Crests, the Alliance, Claude's capabilities, etc. And that's how I feel about most NPCs in 3H, save Aelfric and maybe Rodrigue and Jeralt. Other objectively important NPCs are Glenn, Holst, Count Bergliez and other various nobles, most of them have no faces or dialogue, and Glenn was the only one with a reasonable excuse given that he was dead (though that didn't stop Lambert). It took a whole extra game to actually put portraits to these people we're supposed to care about. Both the writers and the fandom heavily excuse this by complimenting the game's story as being "bigger than what you see" in a good way, but I vehemently disagree. I think the dissonance between being told a character or event is important, yet never getting to meaningfully experience it, means the story is half-baked, stretched thin, and shallow.

-The other reason is that the stories of Fates and 3H feel as if they serve different roles. Fates wants to tell a story for the player to experience and 3H wants the story to serve a player's preferred perspective. While both games have split routes through similar mechanics, and have unbending plots to follow, when it comes to gameplay and auxiliary/implied storytelling, they follow different approaches. Fates, as mentioned before, pulls no punches in reminding you-through Corrin-that there's weight and consequence to the choices you makes and the lives you take in this war. Frequent use of passive voice, characters making decisions outside of your control, negative character development that's unavoidable, deaths that are unavoidable, etc. 3H meanwhile goes out of its way to give the player an out. Don't want to hurt your scrunklies? You can recruit them if you tea time and lecture hard enough. Don't want to feel bad about the lives being ruined in this war you're taking part in? Don't worry, when named characters aren't just talking about other named characters or ~Le Worldbuilding~, they use passive voice to talk about the horrid violence happening offscreen and outside the comfort of your church. Don't want to feel responsible about things you think are bad while still feeling good about things you think are good? You're in luck, because the game was developed to ensure that any non-plot important character can be easily replaced by a generic and there will always be a dialogue choice to absolve yourself of any sadness.

I know that's not really specific enough to each non-CF route, but it's a pervasive problem with 3H at a whole, CF just makes it worse. Like, I do think it sucks having to fight other characters in 3H, take Ignatz for example. But that's something dependent on how much energy I put into him in multiple levels prior to actually fighting him, and the philosophy ends up at odds with itself.

If you're fighting Ignatz on Azure Moon, that implies you didn't care enough about him to know him and recruit him. Yes he's nice and sweet, but you don't know jack about him beyond that. Couple that with the timeskip adding other potential changes to him, and he could be totally different than he was in school.

If you do take the time to know him and recruit him though, well... then you're not fighting him. He's on your side. You saved yourself the heartbreak and the consequence of this war that wants you to feel bad about the characters you're at odds with.

Therefore the only way this gameplay-story integrated player gutpunch can work is if you put time into Ignatz but still somehow not recruit him, which is unlikely unless you're deliberately doing so, which... why would you do that, you're wasting time and resources. And this applies to every recruitable character in the game. So because of this, the game is basically crossing its fingers, hoping you just feel real bad about fighting these students you passed by in the halls sometimes.

You don't get moments like the retainers in Fates putting themselves in harm's way for their lords. You don't get Saizo and Kagero having the Mokushu chapter. You don't get Flora committing suicide over guilt and grief. You don't get the deaths of siblings who have unavoidable development parallel to Corrin as a result of being his enemies. And as stupid as they are, you don't get character deaths like Izana and Scarlet, where they still mean something and Corrin still feels bad when they die because he's a competently written character with a personality and traits.

In 3H you sort of get a sockpuppet that everyone is obsessed with, you're allowed free rein to ignore the icky parts of the story that can be tied back to you and your choices, and you are the final arbiter on any and every ~Good, Resonable and Responsible~ decisions made. You're leaned on the most for Dimitri's development despite his already present support group, you're there to act as the "tie" between Claude and the other Golden Deer because otherwise he's 'too sneaky', and you're made the leader of the new Fodlan through the church in all routes, especially apparent in Silver Snow because Seteth said so I guess. It feels all tied back the player through Byleth in a way that just feels deliberate and artificial, without regards to Byleth's actual role in the story, that being just a good mercenary, a good listener and a surprisingly good teacher. That's cool, but it's not proportional to the reverence he gets in the story, it's simply not enough. Were he to reveal he's basically the goddess reincarnated, then that's going somewhere, but only Rhea and the Green Gang care about that, and Sothis fucks off before part 2.

In Fates, yes it's tied back to Corrin as well, but with Corrin's established backstory, connections, and personality, it makes sense. Being royalty, being a brother, being a lord of various retainers and servants, being trusting to a fault, being compassionate and pacifistic. These things are actively utilized in the narrative, and make sense with how the plot flows.

Anyway, sorry that it was long, it turned into a rant lol.

[idolsummons]

i'm reading blood of the old kings, which is a korean novel translated into english, and so often i'm thinking that it must have been written better in its original language...

[gillyeowalters]

Because it is the anniversary of his death, I wanted to share a small story about my grandfather.

Before I knew that I was intersex, I identified as a trans man. And I went the way any trans man has to go if he wants to transition in my country. My parents thankfully were supportive but I was afraid to tell my grandparents. My grandparents were German and lived/were raised during the third reich. While both of them never said or acted in a way that suggested that they had fascist views (my grandfather was until he died part of a leftwing political party), but there still was this fear in me. "They are old, they grew up surrounded by abhorrent beliefs...". And then there was my aunt. Who would constantly claim that my grandfather was homophobic.

The problem was, back then, there were no openly out gay people in our area, so I never got the chance to see my grandfather interact with someone who was queer. So I just believed her. Because she was so insistent on it. And because it confirmed my fears and my brain loves to be constantly afraid.

But I knew I wanted to come out. I had to, eventually, because I had stopped my estrogen treatment (back then, I did not know that I got that because I was intersex) and went on testosterone instead and first physical changes began to show. We all lived in one big house, so my grandparents would eventually notice.

I was so afraid that my father at some point offered to talk to his parents. I waited outside in the hallway that led to their kitchen and listened.

My father explained, easy to understand, that I was going to transition from female to male because I felt terrible in my body. My grandfather asked, "Is that why the child* is so depressed all this time?" I had been in and out of multiple clinics for manic depression at that point. My father gave a yes. And my grandmother made the incredibly selfish comment, "Can't that wait until I am dead?"

Before I even got time to be upset, my grandfather slammed his fist down on the table. I had never seen or heard him do anything like that before. He was a very calm and collected man who preferred to leave the room before he got too angry. "No, it can't wait. The child gets to get well now. And if that is what is going to help, then it needs to be done."

From that day on, he never used my deadname again or used the wrong pronouns for me. Sometimes, he would stop in a sentence to think and remind himself, but he did always address me correctly.

He celebrated with me when my name was legally changed. He built the bed frame for me and my boyfriend's bed when we moved in together, just like he had built the first adult sized bedframe for me when I outgrew my small bed. He drove my boyfriend to his chemo sessions because my grandfather also had cancer and knew how terrifying it was to go alone.

Did he fully understand what it means to be intersex? To transition? No. But he understood that one of his loved ones was suffering and that he could help to alleviate that pain. And so he did.

He taught me calligraphy. He taught me how to sew. He taught me bookbinding. He gave me many gifts.

But the biggest gift he gave me was, that when someone hated me for what I am, I could stomach it. Because this man was willing to unlearn the bigotry he had been taught for decades so he could love me for who I am.

*in my grandpa's dialect it was normal to refer to children as just 'the child' (genderless)

EDIT

I was blown away by how many people have reblogged this post. I believe my grandfather would be very happy to see that he can give some hope and love to others even now.

I do not want him to stay faceless; so here is a piece of art I made for his obituary, with a slightly altered quote added now.

Dahlias were his favorite flowers. Orange ones especially. They reminded him of the home he had to flee from as a child.

EDIT 28/03/25

Happy birthday.