#its likely im just simplifying her to the extreme

[deerdeardarling]

Mmmmmmmm, I've been thinking about changing Fiona's design... cause white girl with long brown/pink/auburn/red hair and green eyes doesn't seem so... original anymore...

[powdermelonkeg]

just saw ur gale/mystra analysis post. im new to the game and dnd lore and honestly… ur take on their relationship feels like the most natural/compelling one??? esp since its all too easy to simplify topics that have many facets and nuance….

thanks for sharing i love analysis and reading people’s takes on narratives : D

My pleasure! (Bee from the future here: congrats, you spawned another meta!)

I love complicated characters, WAY more than I like a clear cut-and-dry case. Flaws, to me, are what make a character compelling and lead to interesting stories about them with choices that can get them into situations. I'm both writing a fanfic and running a campaign where I'm playing as Gale, and in the interest of portraying him properly and in-character, I've gone into SUCH a deep dive into all the decisions and facts that make him him.

It helps to, y'know, also be in love with the fictional wizard, but I digress

The thing about Baldur's Gate 3 is that no character in there is perfect. I've seen a couple analyses about the theme of continuing cycles of abuse vs breaking out of them, but in my mind, in terms of the characters themselves, it goes like this:

The origin characters have just come out of the lowest situation of their lives (Lae'zel being the exception; being tadpoled is a gith's worst nightmare. You're seeing that lowest situation in real time).

Not the lowest point, mind. Gale's lowest was probably the day after he got the Orb. Wyll's was probably the day his father cast him out. Karlach's was the day she lost her heart. But the lowest, accepted normal for them is what they've just left.

They're then thrown out of their depth and forced to rely on you to live. That's #1 priority: living. We get the extremes of these characters before we get their nuances, because they're quite literally at their breaking points.

Then once we get to know them, we see their wants, their hopes, their fears, as they open up to us. Every companion's story is at their own pace, but they all have a moment where they ping-pong between despondency and desire. Sometimes that desire is what we know isn't good for them, like Shadowheart wanting to be a Dark Justiciar. Sometimes that despondency is only for a flicker, like Astarion's realization that he's condemned 7000 people to a half-life of tortured spawnhood for as long as he's been a vampire.

Romance lets us crack all that open more, because if you pursue a romantic partner, they see you as their closest confidant. They WANT to trust you, so they're more willing to explain how they see the world and what decisions they want to chase.

And then their endings. Those often get simplified as good/bad, continuing the cycle vs breaking away from it. But how is Duke Wyll on the same platform as Ascended Astarion? He's not evil, he's not even entirely unhappy. He might even have broken out of his abusive cycle with Mizora, if you played your cards right. And Ascended Astarion is overjoyed, even if he is remarkably more cold.

I think that the endings are less a dichotomy of "this is good for them" vs "this is bad for them," and more one of "bringing out their best traits" vs "bringing out their worst."

Wyll's worst trait is being willing to sacrifice his own wants for whatever people desire of him. His best is standing for what he believes in and ensuring people are safe. Duke Wyll leans into that necessity to turn the other cheek in the name of people who count on him, while the Blade of Avernus has seized that moral compass of his and forged it out of mithral.

Shadowheart's worst trait is blind obedience at the cost of her individuality, while her best is her desire to be kind to things that don't deserve to be hurt. Mother Superior Shadowheart's whole life is defined by Shar. Selûnite Shadowheart's life is defined by her hospitality, especially towards animals.

Karlach's worst trait is how willing she is to accept that things are (to quote her) fucked, letting despair override hope. Her best is her durability in the face of horror. Exploded Karlach would rather die than try to work out a solution in the Hells, because she's terrified of facing Zariel alone. Mindflayer Karlach has accepted her fate and decides to give up her heart and soul to go out a hero, losing who she is. Fury of Avernus Karlach is willing to keep fighting for a solution, and by the time the epilogue happens, she's got her sights set on one.

Astarion's worst trait is his desire for power over people. His best trait is using the tools he has to his advantage. Ascended Astarion has let his powerhungry nature and paranoia lead all of his decisions, with his sights set on dominating mankind. Spawn Astarion has embraced what he is, and carved out a life for himself where he can do as he pleases.

Lae'zel's worst trait is her blind fanaticism, while her best trait is her individual dedication, making her loyalty a marriage of the two. Ascended Lae'zel is a meal for the lich queen, turning a blind eye to all Vlaakith's tried to do to her and literally being consumed by her fervor. Champion of Orpheus Lae'zel has turned her loyalty into something productive for diplomacy. Faerûnian Lae'zel has seized her individuality by the throat and decided her own future.

And then Gale. Gale's worst traits are his hubris and, paradoxically, his low self worth. His best traits are his creativity and wonder for the world. God Gale is the embodiment of ambition, having burned away all but that in pursuit of perfection. Exploded Gale has let his remorse blot out all hope for a redemption in which he does not die, because he thinks he's earned it. Professor Gale leads his life by embracing the school of Illusion and letting his creativity thrive, teaching others to do the same. House Husband Gale has multiple creative projects he's working on, and Adventurer Gale is always finding new sights to see and wanting to share them with you.

There are arguments to be made on which ending the origins are happiest in, certainly, or which one benefits them the most, but each ending represents the extreme of a facet they possess.

So with all that, there's a sort of malleable method to figuring out the ins and outs of a character.

You take their endings—all of them, all variables they can have—and reverse-engineer the flaws and details they carry. Then you start to notice how those work into their approvals for minor things: Astarion approving of your taking of the Blood of Lathander, or Shadowheart approving of standing up for Arabella. Getting a list of approvals and disapprovals is helpful, but having those endings on hand tells you why they react like that to a majority of their decisions.

You take their romance-route explanations of how they act, and apply those to earlier decisions. Astarion's confession to manipulating you and Araj-prompted admittance to using himself as a tool brings to light how he reacts to your decisions, regardless of his actual opinions on them. Wyll's fairytale romance and love of poetic adages speaks to his idealistic nature, and why he takes a sometimes-blinded approach to decisions in which the "right" answer isn't always the smart one.

You take their beginning reactions to stress and use that to measure how future decisions impact them. Lae'zel locks down and gets snappy when she's scared, while Gale immediately turns to diplomacy. Shadowheart has gallows humor, while Wyll turns to quiet acceptance. If they break from these and seem even worse, you know the situation is more dire in their minds than having seven days to live.

And then you factor in all their fun facts and dialogue choices and backstories.

A wizard falls in love with a goddess and her magic, attempts to retrieve a piece of her power for her, is scorned for his attempt and is cursed to die.

Give that backstory to a Tav. Look at how it changes.

A chaotic good wizard fell in love with a goddess, thought retrieving a piece of power for her would be a showy bouquet of love, and was punished for not thinking things through.

A lawful evil wizard fell in love with a goddess's power, snatched the most precious thing she owned, tried to use it to barter his way through to the secrets she kept, and was given a swift retribution.

Same backstory. Same class, same act, same goddess. Wildly different connotations. Wildly different conclusions as to who is in the wrong.

If you take all there is to Gale, all that the game shows us makes up his character, and apply it to this backstory, you get what really happened:

A wizard, enamored with magic, fell in love with a goddess. His desires led him to want more than she was willing to give. In his well-buried fear of inadequacy, he concluded that the reason she wouldn't indulge his ambitions was because he just hadn't proven himself worthy enough. So he tried to prove himself, but he lacked the context for what he was proving himself with. And the goddess, seeing a weapon that had killed her predecessor, saw this ambitious wizard as losing his way and coming for her just like the weapon's creator had. She was angry, she withdrew his link to her, and he didn't know why. So he drew the conclusion that she took his powers to punish him, and let that encompass his fall from grace.

Was he wrong to reach for what was out there?

If you knew that the answers to everything you cared about were not only known, but kept by someone you loved—someone who adored you—what would you do to ask to see them? What if your curiosities were if there were other planets with life out there, or how dark matter worked, or whether or not we could one day travel in the stars? What if it was the potential cure to an illness that's little-understood, or the way to make a program you dreamt up, or the scope of the true limits of your artistic talents? Would your answer change?

Was she wrong to cut him off?

If you were once hurt, and the person you loved—the person who adored you—brought the thing that caused it to your door, believing you'd want it, how would you react to seeing it? What if that thing was someone you thought you'd broken contact with, like a friend or family member you'd been trying to avoid? Would your answer change?

That's the sort of scope that needs to be applied to this, on both sides. You have to take the perspectives of each party, and apply two analogies instead of one.

Gale saw the vastness of the universe, untold wonders, the solution to every question he could ever dream up, and saw Mystra as withholding this from him because she thought he just wasn't worthy enough. To claim Mystra knew his perspective does her a disservice.

Mystra saw a cruel weapon she thought long gone, in the hands of someone who could use it, brought right to her, and thought Gale was willingly following the path of Karsus. To claim Gale knew her perspective does him a disservice.

Should Gale have researched his prize more, so he knew just what he was obtaining? Should he have kept his hands off a cursed book that would devour him? Of course he should have.

Should he have given up on chasing his dreams?

Should Mystra have understood that Gale's pursuit of power was nothing like Karsus'? Should she have communicated when she was angry instead of giving the cold shoulder? Of course she should have.

Should she have given him the benefit of the doubt?

That's the root of their falling out. That's what leads to hurt being inflicted. Understandable, human reactions to the situations they perceive. Unhealthy, unwise choices made afterwards.

You work backwards from this to figure out their dynamic as Chosen and goddess. You work forward from this to understand more of where Gale and Mystra are during the events of Baldur's Gate 3. Gale reached too high, and understands this. His goddess hates him, and he regrets this. Mystra isolated Gale, and understands this. Her Chosen wants redemption, and she wants to make it happen.

Just like we took Gale's character into account, we also have to take Mystra's.

A goddess is faced with a problem. She uses someone who's desperate for approval to solve it, by telling him to kill himself.

An evil goddess is faced with a threat to her reign. She sees someone who's unfailingly loyal and hates himself, and elects to have him tear himself apart rather than do anything about it.

A good goddess is terrified of the future. She sees someone who tried to hurt her, who's going to die anyways, and tells him to use it to save the world.

Same story. Same act, same power, same pawn. Different character. Different perspective. Different outlook on whether or not this is the right thing to do.

Mystra has died, multiple times, to people trying to stake claim to her domain. Someone appears with the very thing that could do it again, right as she's regained her stability.

She does not see mortals the way mortals do. She is timeless. She is eternal. She has a duty to protect billions of people, and one person lost to protect that number is more than worth the sacrifice.

People like to bring up the Seven Sisters as proof of Mystra's cruelty. For those unaware, Mystra asked permission to, then possessed, a woman, used her to court a man (with dubious consent from the woman), and bore seven children, all of whom were capable of bearing Mystra's power as Chosen without dying. The woman she possessed was killed in the process (reduced to no more than a husk, then slain by her now-husband, hoping to end her suffering), and the husband was horrified by the whole story.

Mystra needed Chosen in order to restore herself in the event that she was killed again, to prevent magic as a whole from collapsing and wreaking havoc on the mortal realm, like it had in the few seconds Mystryl had been dead. Elminster, Khelben Blackstaff, and the Seven Sisters contributed to this. The more Chosen she has, the better; what happens if Elminster dies? She can't afford to have all her eggs in one basket.

Mystra has Volo (yeah, that Volo) as a Weave Anchor, imparted with a portion of her power to prevent the Weave from shredding itself to pieces in her absence. All Chosen of Mystra are Weave Anchors by nature. The creation of Weave Anchors was mandated by Ao, the Overgod, and Chosen are the best way to make sure those anchors aren't drained by ambitious people hoping for godlike power. Chosen can, and will, defend themselves, unlike static locations (which Mystra also has). The anchors are why the Weave wasn't completely obliterated during Mystra's last death, when the Spellplague rose up, because they stabilized the Weave around them.

Everything Mystra does is in the name of the big picture, to prevent a catastrophe like the fall of Netheril from happening again. Her restriction of magic, her numerous Chosen, her creation of Weave Anchors, her destruction of those who would claim her power, it's all in the name of the stability she's been charged with. Dornal Silverhand's grief and Elué Silverhand's death, while regrettable, were worth it to bring seven more anchors into existence to save all of the Material.

So someone appears with the Crown of Karsus, potentially powerful enough to try to kill the other gods in the name of the Dead Three. She can't risk being a target of them. She can't risk the destruction of magic again.

Gale is going to die. He lives in fear. He begs for forgiveness.

In Mystra's eyes, she's offering him the best outcome. She'll let him die in service to her, to save Faerûn, and she'll forgive him. He's going to die anyways, and if he does this, she'll give him everything (she thinks) he could ever want in her realm. She's asking him to do what (she thinks) is the right thing.

"She would consider what she considers to be forgiveness."

Notably, she leaves the decision in his hands. She doesn't have Elminster lead him to the Nether Brain. She doesn't activate him as soon as he's there. When he lives yet, she doesn't revoke the charm that keeps him stable. And when he declines, when he lets it go and starts pursuing Karsus' path, she doesn't smite him on the spot.

She is (she thinks) being incredibly patient. If Gale is going to try to be Karsus II, she's ready for him. If he decides to walk off and keep the Orb, he's dug his own grave in the Fugue Plane (those who don't have a god to claim them roam endlessly as husks and form a wall of bodies around the City of Judgement).

From her perspective, she's not being unreasonable. But from the perspective of a mortal, she absolutely is.

"Now, I have a question for thee: what is the worth of a single mortal's life?"

This is a question she cannot answer properly.

I think a lot of characterization is lost whenever someone paints one of them as being totally in the right. But I also think you have to be invested in them as characters to want to see that characterization. If you want to write about Mystra, you have to try to get into her head, analyze the decisions she made, figure out why she thinks she was right, and follow the pattern.

Gale's sacrifice is a very predictable thing for her to ask for.

[arson-09]

I dont talk much about minecraft youtuber drama here but god quackity is pissing me off with his shenanigans.

In case you missed it admins for quackitys minecraft server (specifically an admin named lea) came forth claiming that the admins were underpaid if paid, were working horrible hours, and generally treated like shit. This is of course paraphrasing but this is worker exploitation and disgusting.

Quackity then did a little stream saying he was “unaware” of anything wrong happening behind the scenes. Which is interesting considering this is his “passion project” and the studio is under his name and hes the one who hired everyone.

Then recently Lea (i apologize if im spelling her name wrong she is french if i recall) did an interview saying that quackity was basically lying, the ndas he had the admins signed were fake, and reiterated the horrible working conditions and the fact he knew everything.

Then today he streamed again saying he was stepping back because of the hate and threats we was receiving which of course is never okay but this is the first time he’s ever spoken on that subject (which is interesting as his twt fandom is known for being incredibly hateful and threatening people) and he was stepping back from the server. Again this is a simplified version, just hitting the major points of everything.

this is not accountability, this is him making someone else fix what hes done. He wont even openly admit to everything but his silence shows everything. What he has done to his workers is horrible and incredibly wrong but the majority of his fans dont care and are upset at dream stans of all people for “making him step back” (dream stans havent even been the main group doing this shit btw. they are just the group pointing out the hypocrisy the most as dream fans have received copious amounts of hate from qsmpers for the fact they like dream. Let it be clear that the allegations against dream have been proven false and as of me writing this post he has not done anything genuinely bad. like exploiting his workers)

Regardless of who you stan or hate, you have to realize that what quackity has done with his server and the admins is wrong and he should take accountability and discuss what hes done wrong. hes was/is a law student for heavens sake. This is only the tip of the iceberg of questionable things quackity has done (for example his merch company is extremely shady. there is very little information available about it online, people have trouble with shipping and receiving their orders, merch quality, and much more) and it saddens me that while the mcyt community preaches accountability and recognizing when a cc has done wrong, they fail to do it 99% of the time. I dont hate quackity, and i dont want him to get doxxed and receive death threats, but i need him to be transparent. To admit to his mistakes and be honest and actually change shit. Because right now him stepping back isnt fixing anything, its not helping the people who have been hurt by his actions. Im also really sad that the qsmp has been riddled with these mistakes as theres so much potential with it. It was the first bilingual minecraft server then multilingual. it united so many different parts of the minecraft community but it is not stable, its not going to last at this rate and thats so sad. Qsmp seems to just be a money maker for its creators, every part of it meticulous planned to see what will bring in the most views (as well as its the first server i have personally seen have a merch store? i wonder if the admins that play the characters are getting any of that money…)

Anyway, i just wanted to say my piece on it after ive been apart of the minecraft youtuber fan community for a long time and have seen a lot of shit :/ just a psa if your first reaction to this post is to get all upset in my comments i will block you. I do however appreciate genuine comments on the situation, as a fan or not of quackity. Worker exploitation is never okay but most of everything else is just how i see the situation.

(just wanted to add a quick edit cause i got a good anon but accidentally deleted it🧍🏻)

I am not making fun or trying to make the fact quackity is getting harassed less important. Doxxing and threats are never okay, and even if i dislike him i dont wish that on him. I am only disappointed that it took to this point for him to say something. Of course he couldve been planning something but he never explicitly said so so lots of people, me included, weren’t sure if he was going to ignore it as he does have a track record of not saying anything unless forced. As well as hes never condemned his fans for the fandoms habit of doxxing and harassment. Ofc Q cant control his fandom, but openly saying “hey stop doing that. i dont want yall to do that” would be nice. I thankfully have never experienced it but i had twt moots who got doxxed by qsmp fans and thats why i said i wish he had said something earlier. But i am not trying to take away how severe the fact hes getting doxxed is. Just wanted to make that clear👍🏻 Dont fucking dox or harass people, be critical but dont be horrible people.

[powerpolyculeshowdown]

Lime for the poll runners’ ask game?

Lime -> participant(s) you’re rooting for the most?

i don't want to sway the votes so i won't do any propaganda for them after the poll starts BUT it's Wu Zetian/Li Shimin/Gao Yizhi from Iron Widow i just love the way their relationship develops so much and as someone whos unable to actually pick up a book and focus on it, the fact that i read iron widow in 4 days is amazing im still proud of that as silly as it is

yknow what ill use this as an opportunity to ramble about them askdgakdjk spoilers ahead but ill try to keep the major stuff out

for context the book has pacific rim style mechas, but instead of being drift compatible or whatever its usually a male pilot and his concubine whose life force he usually drains in order to pilot the thing, but theres a LOT of propaganda that makes girls want to be concubines, or families might wanna send their daughters for the money. im simplifying it a LOT especially cause theres more info u only learn later on as zetian herself finds out but anyway

at the start of the book zetian and yizhi are besties who obviously have feelings for each other. zetian is poor while hes very rich so their friendship is kind of a secret and they meet in the woods which i think is cute, point is its p clear zetian tries to mantain a distance, not allowing herself to admit her feelings. for reasons i wont say zetian decided to become a concubine to one of the like bigger more badass guys even if she doesnt believe the propaganda and knows she might die, she only tells yizhi this the day before

he shows up at her house the next day begging her family to let him marry her?????? which is sweet because he wants to protect her but that isnt gonna work bestie sorry she's a woman w a mission

so anyway she goes to the concubine thing and shes surprisingly powerful "for a girl" which yeah thats a super common trope but shes so much more than just the strong protagonist. shes extremely powerful in every sense of the word imo and i love her so much and i wish the world hadnt been so cruel that she had to become so strong. but anyway the guy she wants to pilot w picks her. MAJOR SPOILER they have to pilot the mecha on day 1 cause they're under attack and uhhh she kills him lol lmao she drains her life force instead which supposedly is UNHEARD OF

so they cant just kill her off cause that'd look bad instead they send her to be the concubine of the strongest guy (all of his concubines die after 1 fight) and thats Li Shimin my beloved my little meow meow hes looked down on and kinda treated like an animal cause hes a criminal and the only reason he gets to be a pilot is his powerful qi. anyway shes forced to live w him and turns out hes just a lil guy. like hes very big and scary looking but hes just a tired man pls he needs a break. she fucking survived piloting w him which nobody expected. so now theres a lotta stuff going on i wont get into but some ppl arent happy w this duo cause they're both very powerful and not exactly happy to serve. and Shimin has a drink problem.

IN ENTERS GAO YIZHI hes back babey!!! and he decides to help shimin w his alcoholism. its funny cause when they first meet his crush on li shimin is so fucking obvious zetian is like "huh i always suspected he liked guys too" but li shimin is just pissed cause this is the guy who wants to make him stop drinking

theres like 1 moment of jealousy that i can remember when li shimin realizes zetian and yizhi have a thing going on but its settled very quickly and they all kiss.

back to the drift compatible thing: at one point in the final battle zetian and shimin need more power and yizhi literally lends them his qi (its extremely rare for a third person to help) and its beautiful and they are so in love and i cant wait for the sequel

idk if any of that is coherent i kinda stopped thinking and just typed sorry for rambling on ur ask im just very passionate about them i love them so much i love iron widow so much i love xiran jay zhao so much (the writer) (you might know them from the live action mulan analysis video that went viral back when that movie came out) (check out their yt channel)

[picckl]

i hope its okay to ask but is there anything you can tell us about saffron or his story? all of the art you make of him is so wonderfully made and im interested in learning more about them :)

Yes! I cant go into his backstory bc it hasn’t been revealed to the party yet, but I can give you a little overview of his character-

Hes a feylost warlock, serving under the archfey Titania (who is also his ex girlfriend). He does not remember anything outside of being a member of the summer court, and he doesn’t know how he got there.

The campaign plot started about a month and a half after he escaped the feywild, and he was introduced as a little bit of a stuck-up asshole to the rest of the party. Warmed up to Klaus, the Owlin who also spoke sylvan, pretty quickly, and when he was downed in our first big fight Saffron kinda snapped and got his first example of his full power- usually hes. Not very good attack wise but whenever he has enough emotion to bring Titania out it becomes pretty much a slaughter, he ended up ripping the attacker apart and turning him into stone which was the official start to his character arc. His dynamics with the other members are all very different, I made a chart a while back to help explain it

There is a Lot of plot that I’m working on making a kinda wiki for, but to simplify things hes warmed up a lot to the party and is currently trying to keep Titania from killing them by promising her he’ll go behind their backs to get info on their skills. Almost all of his previous rudeness is gone and he’s become a bit desperate, as his magic is extremely unstable and he’s terrified of it (ripped out a guys heart 2 fights ago and he ended up completely shutting down for like an hour). He’s also got below average hp for his level, which makes him pretty tricky to maneuver in fights. I really really want to find a way to share the story we have going on bc of how much I care about it, but theres so much involved it’s very hard to fully explain hdhfh

Basically he’s just a very desperate man who doesn’t really know who he is and cares far too much about his teammates, but is also extremely flawed and a bit of a coward. Love him tho he is so much fun to play

[morguemaw]

Why did you shit your pants

But also will the puppet be in the most recent au you made?

mmm it slipped !!!!!!!! LAOS YES!! Though they will be probably complex since the Puppet has alot of diff views Its believed they are possessed by the first ever victim thats a she/her who was killed in a alley but since theres not alot of info on her and even official FNaF stuff say the Puppet is a male, im going to go with them being a male with a preference of He / They!

I will quickly clarify i know the robots will come off as just plain humans, this is intentional bc there is lore pieces in FNaF where robots can be extremely humanlike ( Example Charlie from the Fourth Closet. FNaF 1-2 will be mostly referenced in my AU along with SB, Sister location, abit of Pizzeria Simulator and Custom Night. Fourth Closet and other books within the FNaF series as well. This is mostly due to mechanics or lore tid-bits )

His mechanics will still work the same, he instead works behind the prize counter and gives gifts to kids who come and go! His mechanic is also super helpful for Mikey because its the most ideal thing to keep him occupied The others still do their own thing, as we easily know that in FNaF 2 the Puppet can be a handful with the others, again ideal with Mikey's mechanics

The best way i can explain how this world will work is: They all are together in a huge pizza-plex inspired location, however theres only one office for Mikey, while everyone has their own section kinda themed ( Again im only using limited amounts of robots, both to simplify lore but also so i dont have too many characters ) The Puppet is also the only character who sees through Willi, he has a terrible hunch about him and has 0 trust in the little purple Rabbit Im also personally making the Puppet the tallest, even if canonly Baby is 7.2ft and the Puppet is only 5.6ft, i feel like kinda combining Puppet and Nightmarionne ( Nightmarionne being around 10ft allegedly ) because atm im figuring its alot easier to combine certain bots, yes ik alot of them have different functions but its both a time saver but also a space saver, bc once again im not adding every single last robot yk?

[mawofthemagnetar]

there are lots of theories about the plane crash rn, my main one is that the federation (the shadowy organization controlling the island and not letting the players leave) was involved in the plane crash somehow, probably actively sabotaging the plane. i think the pilots could also be involved, bc the plane was supposed to be going to france and somehow ended up on the island, which is supposedly at point nemo, the point in the ocean furthest from all land, and if they were going to france then they should’ve been nowhere near there. however its also worth mentioning that the fact that the island is actually at point nemo is kind of iffy, bc as ocean nerd apollos-boyfriend mentioned in a post, the whole thing about point nemo is that it’s the furthest point from any land, if there was an island there then it would no longer be that. it could be just suspension of disbelief fantasy logic, or bc the info about the location came from sofia, a hyper intelligent ai built by maximus using plans he got from a strange shadowy figure who claimed to want to help them escape the island, the info could just be completely false and sofia might be infected by a virus or something that affects the information she tells the players (or she could be evil but i love her and i tolerate no sofia slander). so all in all, it’s a lot of theorizing and speculation and we just don’t know enough yet

the official video shows a chicken shitting out an egg that gets sucked into the plane engines though. which is funny, but not good for lore

so that’s basically a simplified version of it, sorry for the infodump im just obsessed with qsmp rn lol

Thanks for the breakdown!

I can't speak to going to point Nemo, but. How? Like literally, how? How the hell did they get approval for that flight path? Deviations aren't some minor thing, and having just checked their flight path, they're running a serious risk of running out of fuel over the Pacific Motherfucking Ocean. You know, a Minor Issue (/extreme sarcasm.)

Getting back onto the engines, though...

I'm only going off what I saw in the video, which was the chicken egg going into the engine. If the plane was truly in the cruise, most birds wouldn't be anywhere near that altitude- on top of that, plane engines, as I've said, are tested by firing an entire frozen chicken into them and if they blow up, they're not allowed to be installed on planes.

On top of that, planes are designed to fly with only one engine, and from what we saw, the plane was in stable, level flight with one fully functional engine at the time of the egg ingestion- there is less than zero reason the plane should have rolled over into a catastrophic dive short of a deliberate input from the pilots or some secret third thing I'm not aware of.

So all this being sabotage by this 'federation' or by the pilots or both is honestly kind of plausible, because the entire crash, based on what I saw, makes less than zero sense.

Thanks for the breakdown! This was fun to read!

[baeshijima]

its midnight and im sobbing over episode 8 of tot i hate it here

(SPOILERS KINDA UTC BUT NOT REALLY BUT ALSO KINDA???? not really story related but moreso character related stuff,,,, but there is ome big spoiler so this still counts 🐥)

first off

HELLO!???

THE CGSBSKANDNSKSN SOBBING SCREECHING CRYING THROWING UPSLANSNS

IM NOT A VYN STAN BUT I CAN APPRECIATE BEAUTIFUL PPL 😭😭🫶

no but this episode was so heavy and extremely emptional holy fuck?? ngl i enjoy the stories for the plot and thriller aspects bc they are really good + do represent real world issues, but my god i think this was one of, if not the most emtional ones???

genuinely my heart aches for rio and especially lowe :((

on that note pls look at how beautiful my beloved lowe lear is hes so babygirl skrunkle and i wanna give him all the hugs and headpats in the world bc he deserves them and so much more pls can we see him appear again in future eps ahhdk 🥹

okay no but laura… literally breaks into tears just thinking abt her sacrifice so that lowe could be free and wouldnt tie his life down to make a cure to save her….

no but as soon as tot said she hid the knife i knew how it was gonna end but i didnt think it would be THAT emotional 😭

honestly the scenes from the laura-lowe confrontation to the sacrifice scene on the deck of the cruise was so tragically beautiful and im just???? why cant anyone be happy in this game gdi hyv im outside ur window rioting so make the npcs happy 🐥

once again so thankful i use simplified chinese voiceovers bc my god that was so impactful…. lowes pain and desperation…. rios distraught…. lynnes pain…. lauras weak and soft speech… god im such a sucker for angst and just pure heart-wrenching plots and this took the cake 😔 the further we progress main story wise, the more my heart strays from happiness :’>

but on a lighter note, look at my awkward baby howard owning up and knowing the true rights and wrongs :(( honestly made me go 🥹 when he said this BDKDK

AND ALSO HUEY 😭😭 i love him sm and im so glad we got to hear from him??? plus the fact hes happier now, has a good relationship with his parents and made friends makes my heart so full and was such a nice way to close off the ep (we ignore the reveal artem gave followed by the pov switch ahahhabdms)

and the fact he asked us to save lowe :((( dw sweetie if hyv wont let us in game have more lowe cameos i can always imagine them 🫡

bUT ALSO HELLO?????

hi sir u look like every black hair red eyed manhwa dad ever and i think thats so hot of u haha 🫶

also f jerome in the end scene when this guy talked abt him detonating the bomb on the cruise 😭

[catboybatman]

Finally read detective comics #1000.... shits disappointing tbh.

Maybe its bc it ended on Tom King's part idk (i had already read the arkham knight part so for me it ended there). Idk.

Its just okay i guess. (Clenches fists)

Also it reeks is sexist writing tbh like. Jason and Duke get this fun moment (yea. I kinda liked that part. Just like seeing Duke.) Dick and Damian had this conversation that,, sure happened. What do the girls get?

Steph just wants to make out with Tim (in front of the entire gang, mind you).

Selina says 2 whole things: a meow and a greeting, just calling Bruce "Bat", in typical Tom King fashion. (He has ruined those nicknames for them for me.) Literally could just have been Alfred the Cat. At least then the panel with the two of them would have been neat then.

And Cass and Helena have a conversation thats okay i guess? I just dont think Cass would fuck with Helena that much actually idk (might have missed stuff that proves otherwise) its not really saying much about them other than "hrm the boys are loud and dumb" (shorthand for funny girl writing) like ok. See me care.

And Kate and Babs have the most ridiculous, borderline stereotypical "men writing feminism but 'accidentaly' making it sexist" conversation in recent comic history. Im not sorry but Neo-batgirl Babs annoys the shit out of me and Tom Kings writing made it worse.

"Have you been to war?" (<- kate) "ive dated dick grayson" ma'am your spine got reconstructed by the joker, your brother is a serial killer, etc. You have had bigger issues. Also the whole thing about "why are you -woman and i -girl?"

A) BECAUSE BABS CHOSE IT WHEN SHE WAS A GIRL (and to yk, entice younger readers/viewers. In this case also bc it was a callback to Betty Kane, from when there was a Batwoman and a Batgirl, bc they differed in age. Its not that deep tbh. So many comic book discussions could be solved by realizing the context in which the characters were created/written in)

AND B) BC THE MANTLE SHOULDNT BE HERS ANYMORE. You're literally proving why she should not be wearing the cowl. (Simplifying it ofc but like. Cmon.) (Even tho she is acting like a child nowadays. God.)

Also maybe its bc im slowly making my way through the Batman Bronze Age (peak era) and bc im most familiar with Babs as Oracle through 90s comics and Batgirl (2000) but this neo-babs batgirl is so annoying!! She's so immature!

How to fix this? (Pspsp DC pspsps Its free psps)

Option A) Read: Oracle Code (or any other proper run but im assuming the writers dont wanna so im giving them a good and easy option) -> adapt into moderately mature arc for mainstream Babs where she grows and changes as a person -> breathe easy. Balance restored, etc.

Option B) keep her as Batgirl (bad choice) and just write her like a damn adult that doesnt create feelings of extreme violence in me (easy option) or

Option C) just reboot all of this (perfect choice) and create something based on pre-52. Entirety of DC tbh.

[darklesmylove]

it seems so easy for some people to write jesper fahey off as nothing but a funny, entertaining character that is only there to keep things lighthearted and interject humor into the things. but he is so, so much more than that and im frustrated to see him being depicted in that way and even just overall simplified to a one dimensional version of himself by fans and even the production itself.

for starters, jesper is extremely intelligent. he got into ketterdam’s university which was a huge accomplishment, and he often helps kaz with solving problems whether its heists or otherwise. pretending he’s dumb just because he is a great source of humor and levity is just insanely and utterly untrue, and i feel like this is a common trope with characters that are designated to be “the funny one” and are seen as nothing else but that.

glossing over his struggles also bothers me to no end. his gambling and addiction are absolutely real sources of pain and hurt for him, and even in the show it is used for comedic effect. diminishing it to something that is merely lighthearted is completely disregarding a very important and real part about who he is. gambling is an immensely difficult issue and a real addiction that he faces to the point where it risked his friendships and even his life at some points. making light of that has implications that people don’t take it seriously in reality either, which i do feel is a huge issue in society. 

simplifying his sexuality also is a huge source of frustration. i absolutely adore wesper and wylan, but jesper is bisexual, not gay. his relationship with wylan in the books is so SO important because there aren’t a lot of mlm relationships in YA that come to fruition. but to be honest i really do hope they make it very clear he’s interested in women in the show or even have him have a brief fling with a woman because male bi erasure in mainstream media AND fandom is even more of an issue than gay erasure. often people claim that bi men are really gay that don’t want to admit it, so i want clear evidence to subvert that harmful stereotype.

he also is so incredibly kind and loving to the people he calls friends. even during the times when kaz treats him horribly he still stays by his side to make sure he knows he still truly cares about him through it all. he is also a constant confidant of inej, especially when kaz hurts her or says and does stupid shit to make her feel bad. he does little things like fixes kaz’s cane without even being asked, or lifts up wylan’s confidence when he’s down on himself and calling himself stupid even before they were together. 

so yes, while jesper is (in my opinion) the funniest character in the grishaverse, while he’s witty and hilarious and literally made me laugh out loud so many times in the books and the show, that’s absolutely not the only defining quality about him as a character. he’s multi-faceted, he faces prejudice and hardships and through it all tries his absolute hardest to remain a good, kind person and friend. 

give jesper fahey the love and respect and recognition he deserves!!

[mikarchive2]

okay i think i have to stop watching the show after four episodes im 100% sure its just not for me . in fact it is pissing me off so badly i keep writing and deleting angry essays on tungle dot com . i understand that if you watched the show without knowing the source material it seems alright but for me its just unbearable they butchered so many things ... will keep reading and posting abt the comics but i give up on the show . sorry

# hater moment paragraph: aside from the netflixcore writing and uninteresting visuals i really dont like how they simplified the plot of 1×03 ... i feel like the show made it seem like the sand was harming constantines girlfriend for basically no reason while in the comics the point was that she was addicted to the sand . she kept willingly using it as a sort of drug so she wouldnt have to deal with reality which was a good metaphor for how living in dreams, even if theyre good, isnt healthy . her body looked like that because she didnt even eat or sleep properly, only living in her dreamworld . and like all of this is a pretty interesting concept and it just wasnt there ! they were just like well the sand is Bad for humans and didnt explain why ... when its in fact very much like the ring of power, not malicious on its own but dangerous because human beings cant resist abusing its power

hater paragraph #2 cause that one got too long: listen im all for babygirlification of morpheus he is a pathetic wet guy in a way but he is also supposed to be an extremely powerful immortal being and i feel like the show almost never shows you that side ... the fact that he needs matthew to win the fight in hell is so insanely stupid . my girl can do that without some comedic animal sidekick giving him ideas . how are people who dont know the comics even rooting for his guy he looks like hes abt to cry half the time and apparently cant do anything on his own

[ben-the-hyena]

Hey. Demonologist here. I saw your comment on you making Stolas a villain in your story. All Im gonna say is...Please dont. Especially with the way you described it is extremely disrespectful and feeds into toxic Christian Fundamentalism. And that DEFINATELY will piss me and other demonolators off, as we already face a lot being the fact that we practice the opposite of Christianity.

Look HOW many times did you write to me, it's like the 5th time you write this to me through notes on @chaifootsteps' post. Guess it was not enough and you want to post it into my asks ?

In my story, angels and demons are different from the way we desrcibe them because we barely remembered them correctly, all religions are wrong but demons are demons because they thought mortals were a waste of time to help while they coumd habe the world for themselves, therefore this fictional Stolas too. By "evil" I mean it as opposing the angels main characters of my story then, angels and demons being enemies, and him not minding if humans were destroyed by his other demon fellows (he gave them knowledge, he could still teach the next batch if the previous died in his opinion), but he mostly sees himself as a teacher to other demons, as well as a powerful Prince. He is a villain in the sense he does nothing to stop the other villains and is officially on their side even if hr is mostly cold and inactive and does not like angels who again are the main characters of the story

And even if I did make him evil, in the end of the day I see angels and demons as fictional. Any version of demons and angel is tolerable in cartoons. If I had made him eeeeviiil, it would have meant I followed Christian dogma for instance. You may believe in them (I do believe in demons and angels but I see it as "the ones we named and designed are fictional or based on those we met) and summon them, the majority of people see them as mythological and God (no pun intended) knows how many different adaptations and interpretations of Zeus there are, faithful, simplified, flanderized etc I know I said I hated Vivziepop's work but it was in the sense that it made it popular, some thinking they could summon demons to meet them as fangirls, think they behave this way and all being horny and interchangeable. Any change is tolerable, as long as it is not irritating and unoriginal like hers. So I am sorry for my story not to be 100% accurate, it is not the aim, so I warn in advance for both demonologists AND Christians, Jews, Muslims, it will have names and bases but not be an adaptation of beliefs but rather an inspiration

I respect your faith, but the same way Christians ignore shows with gay angels or Kemetics shows where Egyptian myths are seen as ancient legends, you should see those as just works of fiction to ignore and not an insult to your beliefs. I just warn you, it would not be a story for you where you could expect accuracy for it is not its goal

*edit*

Oh wow I didn't know it was possible to become anon AFTER having sent the ask

[gt-adventures]

The Ice Princess (summary/pitch)

So the Ice Princess is a fantasy comedy soap opera i came up with to exist in the world of Mystic Woods that Princess Sophia is OBSESSED with but as it grew in my mind, it became its own thing. though the show became populated by MW characters though altered heavily.

If you want to read my rambles about it on a google doc, its here but thats not GT specific. it doesnt mention giants at all really. Because the Ice Princess isnt a GT story, its a fantasy story. It just so happens that many of the characters are members some sort of giant or small species because im me and i love GT! This again, isnt mentioned in the link bc the link is a plot summary, characters arent described.

But to ramble about it here.

The Ice Princess is a modern-ish fantasy world run by guilds (well, at least the countries the main story takes place in are). There are 6 major guilds and dozens of minor guilds.

The major guilds are: Witches, Wizards, Warlocks, Bards, Magicians, and Archeologists

These guilds are always in conflict, sometimes working together, often not. And the main plot is about the guilds all trying to find and take control of The Ice Princess, a mysterious and legendary magical diamond that recently was confirmed to not be just a legend!

The main story centers around a group of rookies sent by each guild to find The Ice Princess. So in essence, 6 main characters. Rookie does not mean kid. These characters are adults.

They all converge in an area as they set off on their quest. Initially they are all suspicious of each other but agree that alone they would certainly fail so they will be allies. For now. They all plan to betray the rest the moment they see the ice princess.

Of course as they adventure they bond and stuff (its a fantasy soap opera and uh... many of them end up sleeping together. its for comedy. im very ace and think sex is funny. If i ever wrote the story there be no sex scenes bc i cant and wont write those).

at least one of them dies before the reach the ice princess's location. idk how. so many options. killed by a criminal gang. turned into a doll. blown up by a wayward spell. got cursed and didnt realize it. eaten by a monster (side note: this isnt a v*re story, even if a character or two end up eaten by a monster. No giants will eat people. that's that).

In fact, upon finding the ice princess, one is instantly killed and another mortally wounded.

Note that in true Telenovela form, its rare that a character that dies stays dead. How does one come back from being blown up??? fuck if i know this aint a logical story its illogical!

But thats enough about plot! it continues of course and i massively simplified it here (read the google doc for more .the google doc has a lot of details actually) but lets talk Characters! lets talk giants and tinies.

The Grand Master Witch is a Fire Witch named Emmett Ha'Aish. He's married to a giant and has two half-giant kids. Well. one half giant. another is more of a giant fire demon that safegauards something important.

The Grand Master Wizard is a dragon! 350 years old and has been guild master for nearly 230 of those years. She's big! about 100ft from nose tip to tail but her tail is very long and so is her neck. She is extremely possessive of her guild, treating the members like her hoard.

Wait I meant to describe the rookie group! the six rookies.

Rookie of the Wizard Guild: Yonah Ha'Aish. The half giant half fire witch. He's about 18ft tall. Emmett wants Yonah's HEAD on a stake for his betrayal of the witch guild. A lot of comedy in this show comes from failed assassination attempts on Yonah. Yonah is secretly dating someone in the witch guild (no this doesnt disqualify him from the sex shenanigans of the rookie group)

Rookie of the Witch Guild: Maya (last name not decided on yet). Youngest of the group. Found sanctuary in the witch guild and escaped from an abusive step-father. Maya is a naga! Naga can be Mini, Midi, or Giant. Maya is mid-sized which is is human. Loves nature and has a tiny Dridder friend that sits on her shoulder. His name is Artie.

Rookie of the Warlock Guild: Avshalom Teitel. An ambitious human who yearns for adventure but lacks true direction in life. They become really good friends with yonah really quickly, but only after they have a big fight. Avshi tried to test their adventuring skills on this half-giant fire person who, by definition, is a monster/beast. Yonah doesnt really mind being thought of as a monster, as long as its understood that being monster-kin doesnt mean one is not a person. But Avshi needed to be taught that a bit.

Rookie of the Bard Guild: Ophir Shel Peh. Less of a rookie, actually experienced, but was heavily demoted for serious copyright infringement. He's not a rookie but he was demoted from high master rank to apprentice (the lowest rank!) and thus qualifies for the mission. He will be blacklisted if he fucks up again, this is his chance to redeem himself. Ophir is an interesting mixed-race man, fairy and pixie. Fairies are not small in this world but pixies are. and he ended up closer to Pixie sized. 2ft tall he is glad he has wings.

Rookie of the Magicians Guild: Elisheva Tor. Eli is another small one! A brownie. 1ft tall but with a foot long tail to make up the difference. She's actually in two guilds, the magicians, and the attornies. Like a bard, she has a way with words. Shes from a rather important brownie family, where one side runs a sizeable amount of the criminal underground, and the other is a few generations of wealth from being magical attornies and owning property and buying companies and stuff.

Rookie of the Archeologists guild: Sophia Orrione. Sophia is a heiress to one of the 12 noble families. but she's a bit of a black sheep, and is fourth in line (out of 8). She does what she wants and what she wanted as to join one of the 6 guilds! Yonah was once her babysitter (when he needed money for college). Sophia is mostly human but somewhere in her lineage snuck in some elf. so she has pointy ears and fangs

and thats it. if you want more info though i cant promise its organized, ask me, read that document.

[atalana]

[copied over from my cr blog, also this is gonna get long, i’d apologise but im not sorry]

okay, so

this is a rant probably about 7 years in the making, bc when i first watched lok i had not done any music study, i had not done any composing of my own, my knowledge of music theory was at a primary school level and i still thought tv soundtracks were just made by one person composing a whole cache of music and then the audio editors pick and choose what track to place where

(spoiler alert that’s not how film and tv scoring works, i have now done a music composition course where we had to score a short film, among other things, and i have so much more respect for tv composers jesus christ)

but this one stuck out to me even way back then, bc me barely knowing what a leitmotif was was like “hey this one little refrain keeps popping up whenever bolin does lavabending, and i like it, i’m gonna see if it’s on the soundtrack”

it was not, and that’s sort of where i left it back in 2014, but i actually did a rewatch of lok pretty recently out of nostalgia, and then noticed it even more

and to explain why (and this is also a little bit why five’s stuck out to me in tua, i’ll get to that in another ask), let’s cover, leitmotifs, and tv scoring in general

so a leitmotif is basically just a short musical idea that represents something in a piece of music. when i studied motivic development we were encouraged to make that motif four notes or less, and then develop it into something longer (aka a theme), because if you can constantly come back to a really short idea while keeping the piece moving, that’s what makes a piece of music memorable

(you can ignore those rules on purpose but that’s a different essay)

so the most common way that a leitmotif shows up in soundtracks is to represent a character or a location - you play the motif when that character shows up or when you’re in that location and boom, the audience associates that motif with that person place or thing, and you can then use this to tell the audience things without actually telling them. for example, star wars playing the imperial march whenever someone does something darth vader related - darth vader isn’t on screen, but you can feel his presence, because his music is playing

and if we were a film score, where we have two hours to show one particular character’s development, great! we give them a simple motif, and then as they grow as a person we change their motif to reflect what is happening to them, until we end up with something that communicates on a subconscious level how much they’ve grown. we toss in as much symbolism as we can, and we have a really great soundtrack that’s instantly memorable

tv scoring, is harder. partially because of time constraints (have you ever composed half an hour of original music a week, and had to make sure it fits perfectly with every beat of what’s happening on screen? these guys have), partially because there’s a much larger focus on ensemble casts

so what atla and lok do, for the most part, is not score individual character motifs for everyone. this is fairly common in tv soundtracks, instead we score ideas, concepts, and feelings - these’ll come up a lot more and give you more information than just “oh hey this character’s on screen”

the avatar state, for example, has the strongest and most recognisable theme across both shows. i’m linking an atla track in here because it has the best example but you’ll know this shows up with korra too - and with particularly important moments for wan, for kyoshi, etc. they also appear in the opening of both shows, four strong notes that start and end on the same note (in the case of what i’m linking, it’s an F#)

the first part of this track is the more uncertain, pensive theme that comes up when both avatars are feeling doubt/worry/sadness, but then it transitions into the more recognisable four. worth noting though, those are both basically the same motif. if i write them out back to back, you’ll notice they both have four notes and start and end on F#. if i had to guess, four notes four elements, and it comes back to the start because the avatar is a cycle.

korra has a theme for when she’s fighting, but not an individual character theme. the airbenders as a concept have a theme, republic city has thematic instruments, as do some big name characters, like iroh and his tsungi horn (this is also a cross-series thing, he’s always playing it in atla, it shows up when zuko has to make big moral decisions, and when we first meet iroh in the spirit world in lok, it shows up there too, to let the audience know who this is before we properly see him)

so, if korra doesn’t get a single theme and instead has several for different aspects of her life, and mako and asami follow along with the mood of the story like all the other characters, the fact that bolin has a personal leitmotif at all, let alone a solid, developing one, is pretty remarkable!

now, granted, it mostly starts with book 3, before then he was like every other character, but it has clear symbolism through those last two books! and, initially i thought it was related only to his lavabending, since that’s most of when it shows up, but since my rewatch, i’ve started calling it his hero theme

see, when people wanna criticise mako and bolin, usually the comments they get are that bolin’s too immature and mako’s too serious/uptight. but like, that’s how they work, you can’t analyse either of them without the context of the other. since they were little kids on the streets, bolin chases his heart and mako makes sure they don’t die from it, that is their entire childhood. and neither would have got here on their own because mako wouldn’t take the necessary risks and bolin wouldn’t take the necessary precautions. (like. remove either one from the equation and they’d still be working for the triple threats bc s1 and their flashback miniseries make pretty clear that bolin got them out and mako kept them out)

and then book 2 proves it! because it splits team avatar up, and what happens? bolin is totally taken advantage of by varrick and used as a pawn in his evil plan and mako ends up in jail

so what’s book 3, to them? it’s, being able to find themselves without having that codependency. mako no longer has someone to protect, which is what he’s based his whole life around so far - bolin’s doing fine and he’s no longer dating either korra or asami. and bolin’s trying his hand at some of that responsibility (look at how he immediately adopts kai who is explicitly them but younger because he wants to be the older brother for once). most importantly, they find the rest of their family, and stop being defined by being orphans. they don’t have to be that singular piece of a puzzle, they can just be themselves. and that’s where bolin’s character really starts to shine, because that’s when they bring in the bending plot, and bending, perhaps more than any other character, really gets to the heart of who bolin is

if you want more of my thoughts on that i have an essay here, but tl;dr: bolin’s an extremely powerful earthbender, but he’s not a metalbender because metalbending requires you to double down on the earth characteristics and think like an earthbender, and bolin doesn’t, he’s too fluid for that, which is one of his major strengths, so of course he can lavabend

and finally - to his motif itself! (as a note, i’ve put all of these in the same key to show where it repeats, but there’s a variety of keys used in the show)

as far as i can find, it first shows up in s3e8, when bolin stuns p’li with this well placed shot

[Edit: it first showed up in the s2 finale, but again in a simplified version and again with him doing something heroic with earthbending, so we can still start the analysis here]

mako volunteers bolin for that job, because he knew bolin was capable of it. why? because bolin landed an identical shot earlier in the episode, after trying to metalbend, getting frustrated he can’t, and cheating with some extremely well aimed earthbending. it’s just a short refrain and you barely notice it, but it’s the first connection of this motif with the theme of bolin’s bending

it looks like this, and it’s always played on a trumpet, which is part of why i call it the hero theme, because, if you’re looking at music from a western perspective, trumpets were used to herald kings, and then used to represent military glory, and then when superhero themes started happening, they used trumpets too - it’s basically western music shorthand for hero these days

(it’s also symmetrical so that helps with the good vibes)

and he’s saving everyone here, so it’s linked to his bending, but it’s also linked to his heroism

it ties the two together, and they are tied together.

when’s the next time it shows up? episode 10, when the brothers are in prison in ba sing se, and bolin tries to metalbend them out. again, he’s doing this to save people, and this motif gets a few notes added on to the end in a raising pattern - they’re inspiring, but they don’t go anywhere. which is exactly what happens in the scene, because he’s trying to go about this in the wrong way. mako believes in him, but it won’t (and doesn’t) work

it appears in episode 12 when bolin saves everyone from ghazan destroying the temple, in a more fancy orchestral remake of the first version - it’s impressive, but it hasn’t actually developed yet, it’s just his discovery of it

the book 3 finale already has its own fucking amazing soundtrack, i love that entire episode’s score, but it gets its own moment there too, and the first real development!

because what we hear is not what we’ve heard before. we know it’s the same theme, because it’s using those signature trumpets, but it’s the second part of this phrase, the answer to the question supplied by the first one. why? because bolin’s figured out who he is and he’s starting to use it. it still hasn’t settled yet though, it’s early days and he’s still just turning ghazan’s lava back on him, so again, it raises, leaving it on a question mark

it doesn’t appear in s4e7 when he lavabends as a warning against the escaped prisoners, because he’s using it as a threat, not to help people. but it does later in the episode when he uses lavabending to save them from kuvira. and that’s when we get the first full phrase, question and answer

it keeps the first motif identical, takes out the first note of the second, and ties them together - except now it’s not open ended, now it knows where it’s going - it’s been three years, at this point bolin is confident in both himself and his bending

and then that phrase appears all over the place in the finale, because all bolin does is save people - everyone from the exploding building, he slows the giant mecha with lavabending, he saves opal, he slows the giant mecha again by collapsing a building on it, and most importantly, he’s the one rescuing his brother this time, instead of the other way around (though that one doesn’t get a motif appearance bc admittedly a fuck ton of other things are happening in the soundtrack at the time)

so to that question asked in book three - who is bolin when not next to someone else? well, funnily enough, we saw it in book two as well, just in a warped way, playing nuktuk. it just wasn’t truly him because it was created by varrick, and he needed to get away from varrick too. the question put forward by the narrative is who is bolin, and the answer given by the music is, he is a hero. and i don’t know why bolin is the only one to get a theme like this, but i think it may have something to do with the fact that, while everyone in team avatar has been a hero and saved people, he is the only one who has, from the start, solely been motivated by wanting to help people. he follows his heart, and his heart cares, about everyone. it’s been the driving force behind almost everything he’s ever done. and i love him so much

[philsmeatylegss]

I think people do simplify the john mulaney situation a lot, I for example dont think he just suddenly decided to break up with his wife for no reason after having been in a stable relationship, there were very likely problems that we have no idea about, and it could be that anna wanted to divorce him and not the other way around. And secondly, I absolutely agree him having a child right after rehab with another woman was irresponsible, but I dont think the baby was planned. Its not like they decided to try for a baby, it was probably an accident. I also dont think its fair to say (not that you have said this at all, just I've seen other people have this take) that they shouldn't have kept the baby, because while everyone should absolutely have the right and the choice to have an abortion, that is not something everyone can just do. I know for me personally, if I ever got pregnant, regardless of circumstance, outside of me being in physical danger, I could never make that choice for myself. The point of freedom of choice is that people have the freedom to choose either option.

Anyway I think the situation is far more complicated than people give it credit for, and as much as we may not like the situation, its not our situation to deal with, and we can only hope that that kid grows up loved and cared for and im sure they will.

no you’re totally right about the part where it’s a lot more complicated than what we see. the baby definitely wasn’t planned no offense to him but def an oopsie baby. the one thing i will always have the same opinion on is that the baby is the biggest victim as he had literally no contribution to what led up to him, yet he will have to deal with the consequences. john used to have a mindset of not wanting kids and more importantly he is freshly out of rehab literally barely a year. and i think she got pregnant two months after he was out. this is totally my opinion and i’m not saying i’m right, but john should’ve been spending this period working on himself and making sure he stays sober forever. a baby is so unbelievably stressful and for someone just out of rehab for a substance that makes you feel good and not present in the moment, even if he didn’t relapse, he probably thought about it and that’s not a person who should be a parent. at least at this point. i wouldn’t be as upset if this happened a couple of years after rehab where he was steady on his feet and happy with being sober. when i say i don’t think he should be a father, that’s also not meant in a mean way. it’s in a way that he’s not steady. obviously we know nothing compared to what actually happened, but basic knowledge is that the weeks and months and even years after going sober are extremely hard. john should’ve just focused on that and be proud of himself for making it. i also have complicated feelings about anna because it’s more than likely there is more to the story. then again, even if the marriage was rocky and all that, it doesn’t make it any better that in the months after the divorce john got a girl pregnant. no matter what details we don’t know that’s just a shitty thing. but it is true we don’t know everything. so i still don’t have any hard opinions towards her. nicole (i think that’s her name? the mom of the baby) is someone i really don’t like for the fact that, at least from what we know, she knew john was freshly out of rehab and it may have been better to take it slower. but i feel that way to an extent. it takes two people to make a baby so the blame is 50/50. i don’t like her but in her defense i don’t know much about her. but no matter what it will take a lot to convince me that it was a shitty thing to bring a kid into a shitty situation is okay. one last point is i also saw people who wanted the mom to abort the baby and that also made me so upset. being pro choice is being for a women to decide if she wants to keep a baby or not. and no matter what we think about her and john, it is not our fucking place to say what she should do with her body. if you claim to be pro choice and you thought nicole should’ve aborted the baby, you fucking suck.

that was way longer than i meant oops. i have a lot of feelings because this isn’t even all my feelings.

[arundolyn]

What characters are the easiest/hardest to do swaps for? Which one did you get the most? The least?

hmmmm.. good question.

im not sure theres like an "easiest" vs "hardest" cause theres a lot of factors at play, so much as there's like... the way things are laid out tends to make things naturally look pretty good. or how fun they are i guess. which would be like... lambda, nine, celica, es, tsubaki, izayoi, rachel. in no order. those are fun. and then like.. hakumen, arakune, bang, susan, and maybe a teensy bit tao are less fun imo cause their indices are largely simplified and it hampers... customizability. i guess. if that makes sense. hakumen and arakune in particular ngl, but that's mostly cause they were there from the start and shit was weird back then so i get it. (yes i see there's a pattern here it was not intentional hjfhdkahf) tager is an honorable mention cause he looks godawful with any skin color that isnt red its so terrible it physically pains me. put some red on that beast.

in terms of numbers, that would take a lot more investigative work than i would give it by virtue of a) checking the volume of all the character palette folders ive made would be extremely tedious (derogatory), b) i dont save all the requests i get, and c) i dont post everything i do, not by a long shot, so off the cuff i'd say... the most is like kagura or nine? leaning more towards nine cause i was actually going through stuff i have saved for her and its well over 100 files. celica's actually high up too just cause i think she's fun, and the least is probably valk just cause idk i dont do much with him and not many people ask for him i guess

thats just blazblue tho. uhhh in terms of unib... linne's kinda difficult sometimes. wagner's pretty fun. vati hyde carmine and orie too definitely. ive probably been asked for hyde or seth the most but i genuinely have nooooo clue there. and wald the least almost definitely. maybe akatsuki. sorry chesto man

this is all mostly half educated guesses so anything not opinion based is probably wrong hjdhfhsdjkah