#just basic thought and criticism

[sunlight-shunlight]

it does still make me wonder how the bioware writers managed to throw in "anders was in solitary confinement for a year" as like an offhand line, rather than something that should shape his entire character and that other people would react to. and then frame solas being put in a similar state at the end of vg as... uhhh... optimistic and plausibly sustainable...

like the ENTIRE veil hinges on this one guy not getting depression too badly after [indefinite number of years] in forced isolation? and no one thinks this is both really precarious on an objective level, and a morally fucked up thing to do to begin with?

weird ass game. unsettling implications. i don't usually like to assume anyone's political views from their work in that way, but do the writers think people in solitary confinement are just chilling? especially in the sort of medieval dungeon type of thing anders would've been in/whatever torment nexus solas is supposed to be in?

[eshithepetty]

"Haha Dream BBQ is so random and incomprehensible" "did they take drugs to make this lol" "you're actually not meant to understand anything in this series it's ok" "Joel G just makes up stuff on the spot based on what would be funny" "it's just random for random's sake" "is this AI" "stop theorising, it's not that deep" SHUT UPPPPPPPPPP

[kataraavatara]

rereading the azriel bonus chapter for fic writing purposes and i feel like we all need to talk more about the fact her vision of utopia contains brothels and her moral upstanding heroes are the men who frequent them.

[brekker-by-brekkerr]

The potential for found family in the Avengers was something that drew me and so many others to the MCU in the early days. Those Avengers Tower fanfics where they were just hanging out were everything to younger me. But in the actual movies, we barely got close to that. There's the Shawarma bonus scene in the first Avengers movie, and we get crumbs in other places (personally I'll always be an Age of Ultron lover if only for getting to see them hanging out for a bit), but it's not a lot in comparison to the total screen time of the MCU.

And then there was Eternals. And they were actually found family. We got to sit with these characters in a way the fast pace of the Avengers movies had never allowed. We didn't have to rely on a post-credit scene to see them spending normal time together; we got to see them bantering around a kitchen table like family! We saw them at their jobs, in their normal lives. Sprite and Sersi chatting on their nighttime walk. All of the past flashbacks. So many moments where you're like yes! This is a family! Like Druig passing the box of Twinkies to Ikaris, the whole reunion scene with Druig, etc.

Sure, I would have loved to know even more about these characters, and a TV show would have given us space to flesh them and their relationships out more, but we didn't get a TV show; we got a movie. For a movie that takes place over centuries and has this huge Celestials plotline going on, I'd say they did a pretty great job introducing us to these characters and their dynamics. Also just the fact that there was still such a huge, save the world, high-stakes plot and YET. And yet we still got to take our time with these characters. We had this character-focused, philosophical, morally complex story (with the best cinematography of any MCU movie) and on top of all of that, more found family than the Avengers movies ever had.

[kirkwallguy]

Idk if you've posted about it before and I missed it, but I saw ur tag mentioning you have a critique on datv's treatment of transness and I'd genuinely be interested in hearing about it :)

hi, yes i have but it's been a while since i last talked about it! i've been meaning to write a long essay on my issues for a while but it would require actually playing the game and i don't want to do that. here's a long rant that got away from me though:

i've complained sometimes about various stereotypes or missteps in the way specific trans characters are represented, but i'd be able to ignore that if it weren't for my main issue, which is that trans characters just aren't properly woven into the world, leaving them feeling alienated in a way queer characters in previous games never were.

it's very clear that the writers haven't broken down their own perceptions of gender and the various cultures surrounding it enough to say something insightful, which is fine because most people haven't, but when people defend the game on the sole basis that its depiction of transness is revolutionary i do have to take some issue. there are books from the 60s that take a more interesting approach to deconstructing gender lol. veilguard may feel progressive in the landscape of aaa video games but i don't think that means it should pass without critique and i don't think that we should have to settle for this when it's possible to do so much better.

the easiest and most frequently discussed example of not properly incorporating transness into thedas is the use of language in the game. you've probably seen the endless arguments about whether taash calling themself nonbinary is an anachronism, and though i'm sure some of the arguments are in bad faith i think people overestimate how many people (on here specifically) are arguing from that perspective. it's been extremely frustrating to be called transphobic by cis people over this when i'm coming at it from the perspective of someone who has actually studied shit like this.

this is a problem throughout the game but it's easier to examine codex entries for this post than go through entire scenes. i've talked about hating the language in this codex entry before, but it really annoys me so let me complain about it again lol.

acknowleding that trans as a prefix means "change" is actually a good start here and if wasn't for how this codex entry continues i'd just shrug and move on, but i really hate the absolutist way it uses the very modern "affirming" and "was always" narrative and language as though it's universally agreed upon. you can argue that this is subjective and what taash was told (though which shadow dragon is talking to them like a GIC psychologist lol?), but when the entire codex entry feels like an educational pamphlet for clueless cis people it just comes across as very odd.

and then the rest of the codex entry just abandons any attempt at making the words "work" etymologically and gives extremely bare-bones descriptions of them. some of these words are younger than me, i saw them being coined on various forums and corners of the internet. is it representation if you say the word and put absolutely no effort into representing or even discussing the agender/bigender/demigender/others experience? in another post i compared this to being like if they did a lord of the rings remake and confirmed legolas as being bisexual by making him wear a bi flag pin with no extra context - of course people TODAY use that flag to signal their experience with bisexuality and there's nothing wrong with that, but to link modern language/signals with an experience that has clearly existed since before either of those things were invented comes right back around to being oddly invalidating, as though these experiences wouldn't exist without modern english speaking understanding of them.

as for the argument about whether or not it's anachronistic: i don't personally think you need to adhere to a binary of modern / historically accurate language and culture to make queerness work in a medieval-ish fantasy setting. the previous games (for all their faults) managed a pretty established status quo where they didn't aim to portray a utopia with a widespread queer culture while also not being gratuitous with their homophobia. and as much as queer x-topias can be interesting when done well, i think this is a good thing for a big budget fantasy game - unless you're EXTREMELY in the know about gender roles and queer theory etc, how can you hope to portray a queer utopia? some people write books whose sole point is to portray a world without gender roles or homophobia and they still misstep, i don't think it's the casual inclusive background thing a lot of fantasy authors believe it to be. it would have gone the same way as origins' claim that men and women are treated the same; maybe you make queer people hold hands in the street without being questioned and nobody makes negative comments about your romance option, but do you subconsciously assign gender roles to jobs? do you portray the majority of npcs adhering to western cishet gender norms? what is the ratio of monogamous f/m relationships portrayed compared to other relationships? these are all things people just straight up don't think about when designing a world and they will accidentally create a society that is welcoming of queerness in THEORY while actually replicating our own cishet patriarchal values.

i don't think veilguard is attempting to be a utopia, i don't think it's attempting to be anything but a finished game, but i see people defending it on the BASIS of it being a utopia fairly often.

taash's arc is another pretty big example of this struggle to examine gender in real life beyond the writers' experiences, namely white canadian. it's a deeply racist attempt at a multucultural narrative where one culture (which has already been demonised throughout the series, including in veilguard) is portrayed as less welcoming of queer people while the other culture, which is still a society with binary gender roles despite being a matriarchy, is portrayed as being instantly and unquestionably accepting.

there's a LOT of potential in an arc for a character like taash if they'd been written by someone with actual interest (and probably experience) writing about the queer experience of existing within two very different cultures. the qunari ARE a culture who are fairly big on binaries but they have an established acceptance of transition that would make their understanding of gender fairly fluid, meanwhile the lords of fortune seem ideal on the surface but human/(our) culture has so many hidden binaries that you don't notice in everyday life unless you're the one being alienated by them.

this could have been a chance to slightly turn the racist Othering of the qunari on its head by showing our own society from the perspective of perhaps some aqun-athlok characters taash befriends, a codex entry about an aqun-athlok character from the past that taash finds and takes inspiration from (maybe they start out aqun-athlok then reject the gender binary entirely?), or even from shathann, perhaps as a character who has explored her gender in the past or decides to explore it as a result of taash. (imagine if shathann was actually aqun-athlok herself, having adopted taash, and some of her complicated feelings about the qun involved the fact that her identity was more accepted there. just SOMETHING to balance the scales a little.)

then again, not even rivain gets to be the fully "progressive" society and taash has to go to the shadow dragons for their gender education. i think it's funny that someone seemed to be projecting an ultra-progressive modern activist group image onto the shadow dragons, i think i've said before that they remind me of all the modern au fanfiction about les amis from les mis that i used to read as a teenager, when they're supposed to be a ruthless abolitionist group. i think this choice was largely to facilitate interaction between the factions but it does feel a little odd given the other racist elements in taash's arc.

there's also the issue of the actual topic of medical transition being avoided. we have tarquin and mae, two characters who have seemingly undergone some kind of medical transition. we have top surgery scars in cc. but there's no discussion of how this transition happens - is hrt magical as krem suggests and is that the only option? is surgery affordable? do different countries and cultures have different levels of advancement in medical transition? these are things i'd want to see written about in codex entries, not lists of various identities that anyone can find by googling a list of genders.

i'm a little disquieted by the avoidance of medical transition given everything happening irl, but it's maybe the issue i understand the thought process behind the most. it feels like a very safe attempt at not veering too far into what happened with krem / the decades of weird fascination with trans bodies. my feelings on this entirely hinge on whether or not the dragon king does actually have top surgery scars lol, for my sanity i'll say he doesn't.

anyway, this all sucks because i've seen SO many fans do better for casual oc posting or fanfic. i've seen so many amazing ways trans culture and hrt and surgery could work in thedas and it's depressing that the writers couldn't even attempt to do something interesting with it. i know there was a lot of crunch that impacted the quality of the writing but i do also think some of these issues would have persisted if they'd had all the time in the world.

[theunfriendlyghoul]

scrolling thru the CR and dorym tags after yesterdays ep, watching people way smarter than me interpret and discuss stuff >>>>

[tempestmothstorm]

crazy how the sanshee plush is one of the few actual direct confirmations on what a non-act 2 Natsuki’s home life is like because of how cagey she is on literally everything. Like this isn’t anything surprising or something you wouldn’t be able to extrapolate from the games but unlike everything else we know about her the implications are right there on the tin.

They literally did the character bio trope where where all the likes are normal but the dislikes are about their very specific trauma it’s just so funny they did that on the plushie card

[victoriansnakearts]

I’m genuinely confused why a lot of people find Valentino to be such an amazing character even to the point that he’s some peoples comfort character

His main trait is horny rapist, if you only like the horny part of his character I can assure you there is a lot of other hazbin and helluva characters that could be your favorite that aren’t nearly as problematic

Even if you take it more in a writing standpoint, I wouldn’t say Valentino is a well written antagonist. The writers can’t seem to decide whether hes a goofy cartoonish villain hanging out with his two best buddies or a manipulative vile character. (I’m not saying he isn’t allowed to be “goofy” but they should try to show how he masks his true self in front of others)

It always feels like some people pull these excuses just so they don’t have to admit the real reason they like this character. I’m not saying everyone who likes this character only likes him for that but I just can’t wrap my head around why so many people like him

[simcardiac-arrested]

i’ve been browsing the watcher tag, reading different opinions—both criticisms and defenses of the game. and this is my conclusion of the last few days:

some of you act Very Bizarre about people who dare criticize the thing you like. i think pointing out the broken storytelling of watcher and its other flaws, gameplay or lore related, doesn’t actually mean that you missed the point of the base game or that you never actually liked it and hurr durr, you must be a fakeass downpour fan who only cares about linear storytelling with characters you can help.

some of you are extremely biased against not even people who exclusively only enjoy downpour, but people who enjoy both base game and downpour. some of you are treating these people unfairly because (checks hand) uhh, they don’t enjoy the thing the way you enjoy it so they must’ve been fake fans all along and are probably just here for downpour! clearly you guys don’t even like rain world if you don’t think watcher is like the second coming of jesus christ!

does this sound familiar? if you were here in 2023, it does. if you have been a fan of rain world for a while, and you were here for the release of downpour and witnessed the fandom growing in real time, then boy does this attitude sound familiar. today’s “if you didn’t enjoy watcher it’s because you’re a fake fan who’s only here for downpour” is yesterday’s “if you got into the game through downpour and didn’t enjoy base game then you’re a fake fan”

to understate it—this attitude is fucking exhausting, especially coming from people who are grown ass adults and should be able to handle criticism of their favorite things without instantly jumping to “you guys like this thing in a surface-level, unenlightened way, while i, an intj, like this thing in the proper way that the writers intended”. it’s fucking exhausting and i cannot believe we are still doing this shit 2 years later, with a new dlc, and just switching the word order.

i really want the rain world fandom to be a place where many different opinions coexist, a place of discussion and constructive arguments. i want to be able to talk about the elements watcher succeeded in, and the many elements it could’ve done better—without people implying that one of my favorite games, one of the most important games in my life, actually means nothing to me and i missed the point of it. i want this fandom to be a place where i can listen to differing opinions, where people can try to prove me wrong and i can try to prove them wrong in a way that gives me—or them—a new light to see The Thing in. because that is what criticism is about—letting people change your vision of the thing you’re criticizing, letting them give you new things to consider, and vice versa. it’s about listening to each other, and respecting each other.

disappointingly, this is not what the rain world fandom is, and maybe never will be—just by nature of how much each story contrasts with each other (no, i do not think that watcher captures the base game perfectly, i think it’s pretty damn removed from base game the same way downpour is, but i digress), but, still. what i’m seeing is just…upsetting. i am not seeing respect. i’m not seeing any constructive discussion. i’m seeing people invent yet another echo chamber where They’re the True Fans and Everyone Else just doesn’t get it. i’m seeing people once again dividing themselves into factions of basegame vs downpour vs watcher vs basegame & watcher vs downpour again (because there’s never enough treating downpour like it is some kind of black sheep of the family). i’m seeing people literally say that if you want the watcher to be 0.2% clearer or 0.2% more accommodating, the game is not for you. and much, much more that i won’t list here, because you can literally see it for yourself if you just go in the tag.

all of it feels very dissonant in relation to the game—the game where you have to think, to consider different perspectives and interpretations to fully piece the story together, and even then you might not get all of it…it seems like the fans refuse to do just that. to me, at least.

i’m sorry if you saw yourself in this post and my words hurt or offended you—this was not my intention. i am not trying to go after anyone, call anyone out, or make anyone think like i have a personal vendetta against them because they have a different opinion. i tend to use hyperbole and strong language, so i understand if people misinterpret that, but the main point of this post was to just bring light to the issue and, i don’t know…feel less insane? feel less like i’m living in a separate reality, because most people i’m seeing seem to think this is just normal behavior that should be supported?

and, well, to let my emotions out. because as much as i am angry, annoyed and tired of this, i am also just profoundly sad that we’ve managed to cultivate such an environment that is antithetical to everything the game was trying to say. i am sad, because i am itching to share all of my thoughts and hear others’ thoughts, i am itching to understand what people take away from this dlc and how it differs from my experience. i am itching to just…post, to just talk about it. to put my own thoughts on my own blog.

i am sad, because i don’t feel like these thoughts are welcome.

so, yeah. this post turned out pretty emotional and kind of vague, so here’s a pretty emotional and kind of vague conclusion to it:

i did not enjoy the watcher as much as i wish i did, as much as i hoped i would. and it is not because i’ve actually been misunderstanding the game all along and never truly liked it for what it is, it’s not because i’ve constructed some personal version of rain world in my head that i expected the watcher to 100% adhere to.

i really wanted to enjoy it. i wanted to like it as much as everyone else did, wanted to be blown away by what it meant for the story and the characters and the worldbuilding. i wanted to look at it and see what everyone else sees in it.

but the reality of the situation is this: i did not enjoy the watcher as much as i wish i did, precisely because of how much i love rain world.

and that is not a mutually exclusive statement.

[glitter-hound]

what kills me about lottie is that despite the consequences of what she says and does she's basically the only yellowjacket to never act out of frustration or anger. everything she does comes from completely kind-hearted intentions

(trying to help travis about losing javi)

(trying to help shauna during birth)

(trying to help shauna with her rage)

she only ever wanted to help!! she didn't even want to be a prophet or a leader

she just wanted to help her friends the only way she knew how!!!!!

[patopq]

Hey so this is my list of Molly character traits i gathered through talks and various sources

Thought it could help anyone figuring out how to write molly, if you even care? Take this however you want, ill just leave this here

These are factual shit taliesin or others said about him, my personal opinions or notes are between the [ ] thingies

(in case someone wants the source of X thing, just ask me)

• contrary to percy de rolo (who is trying to find his place in the world) molly ALREADY found his place in the world, the world has to contourt around him and he's not changing anything about himself, fuck all

• he has a clear, strong moral code that he follows strictly, even if his actions seem random. [and thats why i dont consider him "chaotic" in the alignment chart, even if he SEEMS chaotic]

• talking about alignment, he also doesnt have any, he def doesnt fit into the "lawful" category, but also "neutral" doesnt sound like him, which makes sense because taliesin based molly (among other things) around the idea of a character NOT being able to fit into the alignment chart, as if if he ever picked a weapon that only worked for people of certain alignment, the weapon would never work with him. Everything explodes [this is all mentioned in the m9 wrap up, regarding mollys creation]

• molly doesnt want to be lonely / is lowk afraid of being so. He doesnt know what its like to be alone because he literally has no memory of ever being so; he has always been in company. And so he's NOT eager to find out.

• he likes complex group dynamics because he's used to them, so being with the nein feels comfortable. (Taliesin said, he literally just went from shifty group to another shifty-unhealthy-group) Still, he knows theres some shit they have to work out in terms of "you fuck everybody over, but THIS group of people you dont fuck with"

• to the previous point, molly is very serious about the little group he has, be it the circus or the nein, you DONT fuck this people over, you may start a war with the dynasty, but THIS group you dont fuck with, and i believe molly has explicitly said this himself (i think around ep12. not the dynasty part though, he doesnt know what a kingdom is in the first place)

• hes damn functionally illiterate, dont care about books, and hes not that bright [*looks at that 10 int*]

• hes a classisist (no explanation needed. I also am not going to rewatch 26 episodes rn to psychoanalyse this part of him. Give me 2 years)

• he doesnt care about anybody's backstory, he doesnt have one, "doesnt see the point in the mess" he will wait until you ACTUALLY do something fucked up and then we'll see [taliesin said that he doesnt think thats a good way of thinking,, but well. NEVER think that their dnd characters are right, ever]

• he didnt learn any name of any Town he went to "because WHY. BOTHER." [This is very conected to the whole illiterate deal, he really doesn't know anything about the world and doesnt care (take for example this moment)]

• he's his own moral compass. He's the center of his own moral reality. He's a deep believer of "I am smart enough to not do anything wrong UNLESS its entirely by accident. So anything i do on purpose cant possibly be wrong because i'm never a wrong person" [yes, thats fucked up LMAO, & im quoting this from taliesin]

• he has a "experience everything" mentality because of the fact that he lost an unknown number of years of his life, and suspects that his past will eventually come and bite his ass and.. he probably wont survive it. so he doesnt think he will be here for long

• theres a definite fear of mortality (?said taliesin) [which is weird since i thought he didnt care? aw man, now his death is even sadder -> this was written when i wasnt over molly's death, okay?]

• he thinks all tm9 is attractive "this is a very shaggable group" [-said taliesin in a panel-]

• he was a BAD roommate. Take this however you want, but for example, he would be casually naked, [at least often enough for taliesin to say this]

• he takes advantage in people making assumptions about him and hes comfortable with it

meaning, if you're a weirdo who enters a room, the way people react about you, tells YOU all you need to know about THEM

[In case its not clear, skip this if it is: if when people see you the first thing they do is side-eye you and make assumptions about you, then you easily learn you dont even need to engage with them, "why talk with someone who makes assumptions abt ppl like that? They've got problems"]

There are more things, if i didnt add them, i probably just didnt even think about adding because i thought of them as obvious, or i actually missed it.

[subtle-knife]

so deeply in love with trinity santos and the way she is outspoken and sarcastic and derisive but not rebellious. never rebellious. ESPECIALLY with authority figures. which could mean nothing

[keefscafe]

not to be dramatic but tony gilroy may as well have come to my home and spat on me with that people are going to have to reorient their thinking quote

[zytes]

something’s wrong?

[burning-sol]

You know what? I realise why the Sinsmas episode is pissing me off so much, it's because it's juggling so many different ideas that it doesn't spend enough time committed to a single one. Let me just break it down the way I see it...

The first idea we're introduced to is one about Stolas' depression but then when he sits down with Blitz we're introduced to the idea of Stolas' poverty.

The previous ideas are what you think that the episode might focus on until you get hit with the Octavia B-Plot. Okay! A-Plot is about depression and poverty, B-Plot is about Stolas not being able to contact Octavia... (I might be using those terms incorrectly, but you get the idea,)

But THEN you get Sinsmas introduced which is about the idea of indulging in your sins, which is shown to be important to the audience because it's expressed in dialogue, right? Wait, no, it's about Stolas's depression/poverty, okay then....

But THEN you cut to the office and we get a Millie and Moxxie bonding scene, so you think, "wait, is there going to be another DIFFERENT plotline introduced into this episode about their relationship??" AND YOU GET MORE ABOUT SINSMAS, multiple shots about the holiday and the idea of indulging in your sins!! So wait, the idea of Sinsmas IS an individual idea from the depression/poverty point? Or isn't it??

Stolas sobs on the phone, there's a very obvious depression/poverty breakdown, but then we get MORE NEW SHIT introduced because it's about Stolas' cheating. And I understand that that's meant to tie into Octavia's B-plot, but there's a subtle difference between that and THIS that adds another layer of shit on top (elaborated on later).

Which, BTW, I just wanna point out how this idea is contradictory to the Sinsmas idea since CHEATING is about INDULGING in LUST - as is established in your PREVIOUS. IMPORTANT. SEASON ONE FINALE... So WHY would you make a character shame a sin that's meant to be in the process of being celebrated which confuses the Sinsmas idea and was also the CORE of the Stolitz will-they-won't-they before now?? If it was to trigger Stolas' breakdown you already HAD the poverty story beat, this is just needless and confusing redundancy??

So then we actually get to Octavia and we get a scene about the idea of Stolas and Octavia not being able to get in contact with each other - the B-Plot - and followed by her introspective song and the discovery of Stolas' pills. And now we suddenly feel like we're back to where we were MEANT to be, with the Octavia B-Plot taking a pause to cut back to the Depression A-Plot. This builds up tension as we naturally feel the two characters drawn together.

And theeeen it cuts to the I.M.Ps and I'm banging my head against the wall because you're like, "Oh! The Millie and Moxxie relationship idea! This is going to be about them!"

But then OH MY GOD a NEW idea is introduced about Blitz wanting a FAMILY WITH STOLAS. I want to shoot someone because the cheating was a set up for Blitz to fantasise about wanting a family??? Is this meant to be a parallel to episode 1??? Am I meant to feel like Blitz has developed as a character?? In an episode that has been about every character OTHER than Blitz???

And then it's meant to be likeee like about Millie's pregnancy because she wants to kill the family instead of leaving them be, but it's also about Moxxie's relationship with her, but it's ALSO about being "demon enough" (WHATEVER THAT IS, IT'S NEVER ELABORATED ON), but it's also ALSO about Sinsmas.

Okay! Okay, back to the REAL plot except- Wait, Octavia walked in??? Wait, so this plot is now about Blitz wanting a family and he's going to bond with Octavia?? No! NO because they don't have any emotional connection and so there is no reason for this scene to exist if either way Blitz was going to know where Stolas went and Octavia was going to end up there as well anyways.

And can you tell I'm tired of writing at this point? Cus I'm losing my mind. FINALLY the A-plot and B-plot that should have been the center of the episode all along gets a fuck ton of screentime and it's beautiful and it's the peak of the episode.

And theeen it's back to Millie and you think, "Okay, so a big part of the pregnancy plot is clearly meant to be about Millie and Moxxie's relationship based on all the scenes we've gotten between them! That means that Millie and Moxxie are going to have some sort of important dialogue-" And then she WALKS OUT on him and she has her emotional moment with her sister! Which isn't a bad thing but need I remind you she isn't even in the center a FULL LENGTH episode, she's from a SHORT... WHY would you NOT integrate Sallie into a proper episode if she's going to be key to a future INCREDIBLY important plotline??

The episode ends with Blitz and Stolas and the credits roll blah blah blah...

This post is basically expands on some of the points of my post about my first impressions, because I just wanted to give a run down of the structure properly so you can understand why this episode is making me feel like I'm losing it. And I get it, if you put in the effort you can get an idea of how all the ideas were meant to tie together... But it doesn't! It's badly written! It makes me want to rip my hair out!

Ideas are established and then sit there uncomfortably without resolutions to them! Like even the shit. That was meant to be the main shit. The poverty and depression stuff? NO conclusion. Stolas says, "you don't have to refer to me as your highness" I guess?? But like, nothing to show him settling in with everyone else in the celebration to show he's like. Poor? And okay with it? By partaking in the holiday of those that are meant to be "beneath" him? No mention of his medication???

Just!! Okay. To understand the way shit in the writing could have been better, let me list some ways you could change the episode to be more coherent or cut down on redundancy if my points have so far not landed.

Establish Sallie towards the BEGINNING of the episode and her dynamic with Millie, and show how that compares to her relationship with Moxxie, and show WHY she would call Sally instead of talking with Moxxie first. If you're going to make the episode about family btw, this would be the point where Millie could bring up HER family and how much she values them or something in order to establish that as being important. Also, use this to explore what Millie and Moxxie's feelings on having a baby WOULD be, so that if there's conflict there then you have more understanding of why Millie made the decision she did.

Use the actual environment in the background of the montage to show the passage of time instead of it suddenly being Sinsmas. Have demons setting up holiday decorations, in the stores put up discount signs about a "Sinsmas sale!" This makes the story flow more naturally, as well as adds characterisation and makes Stolas' depression more real as he's shown to be so absorbed in his own world he doesn't even realise it's the holiday until Blitz brings it up.

Octavia's phone and the device she listens to music on is the same (I checked S1E2 to confirm it), which causes a sloppy writing issue. Like. If the episode is meant to show Stella is controlling and it's not Octavia's choice not to get in contact with Stolas, then you need to explain why she hasn't called him despite having access to her phone when Stella isn't around. If it were me, I would have had Stella lock it in a drawer that Octavia picks the lock on so she can listen to her music. THEN you can keep the original scene, OR (this is what I would have done) have her check her phone logs so you can see not only how many times Stolas has called but how much time has passed. Maybe this could also be used as another reason to drive her towards the closet as she hides from Stella and Andrealphus. Maybe this could be used as an interesting metaphor about her desire to leave but she doesn't know what she's going to do once she picks the lock on the door... Like how she could call her Dad now that she has her phone but she doesn't know what she'll do when she does... Something like that.

DON'T have Blitz and Via meet up if they're not going to interact. That entire scene is fucking pointless as is and I hate it. Either dedicate a PROPER amount of time and dialogue into making Blitz want to and try to connect with Via, or have them not talk at all. Cut out the whole thing about Blitz wanting a family with Stolas honestly, it's just not well explored enough.

Again with the sloppy writing, the gang did NOT need to stumble into a room of weapons to have weapons. That's pointless. They're assassins, they've been established to bring a stash of weapons with them to fights before. I can think of something much funnier where Moxxie is surprised by Loona's transformation and there's a joke made about her being a noble steed and Moxxie pulls out a sword only for Millie to be like, "Why did you bring that?" And Moxxie says something about how it's a posh weapon cus that's his thing. OR you could have some badass impromptu weapons the gang makes from the ice or they use Sinsmas decorations scattered around. IDK.

Already made my point about Stolas and the poverty idea. Show him settling in with the others during the celebration and him opening up to the idea that he's no longer rich or well respected. The "you don't have to refer to me as your highness" would work if the text bothered to show his mental state properly, instead of him just looking depressed and like he kind of hates everyone there.

Have Blitz PLEASE react to Stolas' depression. Like. Acknowledge it. And share his feelings about it. AND GIVE STOLAS HIS MEDICATION FFS he clearly has clinical depression!! Blitz is sooo head empty in this episode, PLEASE give him more internal thoughts other than :) I'm holding my head in my hands.

And I'm so tired of writing at this point I'm going to stop it there but I hope that was thorough enough to get across my points. And if not then I guess that speaks to how loopy this episode made me that I can't even articulate myself 100% because dear god.

[sieglinde-freud]

Hello , I would be interested to know how you view Olivia , especially as Chrom's wife if you don't mind sharing it :)

hiii!!! thanks for the ask :3 i think to get into how i view olivia specifically in her relationship to chrom and also as the. what do they call it in ylisse. is chrom’s spouse a queen? i’ll say that. so, i think how i view her as queen of ylisse versus normal olivia (ie olivia who did not marry chrom!) is a little different mostly because of one very simple fact: ylisse is. a little racist! CW LONG

i think standard olivia is just. what u see in olivia in the game. but when u add on the fact that she’s suddenly the queen she’s suddenly a way bigger player (which is true of anyone who becomes chrom’s spouse) in a nation she’s not from! something that is also present with robin if they marry chrom but that one is a little different if only because robin doesn’t remember anything about plegia or their past (not saying that means robin wouldn’t face discrimination but it would be. different. also racism against plegia and racism against regna ferox are wildly different but not what the post is about today) which i think would honestly be a really fun angle to analyze chr*bin from but. theres like a million people way more brainrotted on that ship than i am so yk. someone else’s job. all this to say that olivia’s role as queen is unique to her in the sense that her experience would be completely different than everybody else’s (especially from chrom’s other three spouses who are all ylissean and maybe noble. is sumia a noble. i dont remember but the other two are!)

obviously, when you’re playing through awakening, ylisse is made to be the “good guy” nation who values peace and love on planet earth! what do you mean chrom’s father was an imperialistic war mongerer? whaaaat??? shove that one under the rug and never bring it up again! lol! no, seriously, why is no one bringing this up. but, it doesnt matter, he’s dead, and now chrom and emmeryn are heading ylisse and it’s fine they’re so good and peace and love and all that. but then, if ylisse so good, why constantly making racially stereotypical remarks about every other country????

plegia, regna ferox, chon’sin, the wholeeeeee continent of valm, the shepherds are lowkey. not. nice 😭 to any of them. sure, some of them become your allies, but the language chrom and co. use to describe them sometimes is very…???? i’d say that regna ferox and ESPECIALLY plegia get the worst of it, but we’re only with the shepherds during war time. who knows how the rest of ylisse views these people?

all that to say that i think if chrom were to choose a queen from regna ferox, it would be. interesting. and not only is his queen a foreigner from a country perceived entirely as meathead warriors who only know violence and nothing of diplomacy (insane coming from the country who’s past exalt did the. the. well you know), she’s also 1) a commoner, 2) a dancer, and 3) she has known chrom for probably not very long! how do you think this comes off to the general public who do not get to unlock the support conversations upon beating the game? not well, i’ll tell you that! it doesnt matter that chrom was just in love with her really fast, it doesnt matter that they are peak awakening romance (to me… 🥹), it doesnt matter that olivia is acting purely with good intentions, nobody can see that. and maybe chrom will come off okay, or at least recover quickly if his reputation drops, but olivia has had like. no time to garner good will with anyone outside the shepherds (even IN the shepherds honestly. sounds like a lot of people just kind of went home during the two year break) and its not like i’d call ylisse a super feminist/anti-misogyny nation so what do you think she looks like to everybody else?

olivia is a performer first and foremost, so even if all of this bothers her on some level, she can probably hide it decently well. i know that olivia can come off as kind of like… “airheaded” in some support conversations (not how i view her, ive just seen different opinions of her) but she’s not an idiot and she’s honestly a lot more self-aware than people give her credit for. so, i think she survives. but for someone like her that already has such a low opinion of herself, i’d imagine she’s not always in the best place mentally! and you know, she has a good support system—chrom is obviously there, and i’m sure people like lissa and maribelle would be willing to support her. but then, the problem: they’re all ylissean. as much as she might love them, they don’t get what olivia is going through and how fast of a transition it is to go from regna ferox servant (? what is her role to basilio. servant feels wrong but she works under him, no?) to ylissean queen because they’ve been there their whole lives! and after all that’s said and done, it’s just lonely.

i do NOT think that that means that olivia is doomed to life of sadness and depression if she becomes the queen of ylisse, though. most of that concerns the two year timeskip and the bad timeline. i think that post-awakening story, after she meets lucina and inigo and is able to get closer with the rest of the shepherds, especially characters like panne and lon’qu and henry who are also eternal outsiders, i think she’s able to cement her place in ylisse and become more confident in who she is and expand her circle of friends and confidants. one thing that i enjoyed about the very few queen olivia scenes that we see is that when chrom says he’s off to valm, olivia asks to come with, saying she could dance for their hosts, which essentially tells me that despite everything, that passion is thankfully still there. olivia is not beyond hope and she just needs time!! in that same vein, i think inigo specifically coming back to her is SO good because him existing the way that he is—half feroxi/half ylisse, going through ylissean politics (similar to how she did—and i like to think that lucina is visually more ylissean while he is visually more feroxi—another post for another day), and still dancing because she inspired him so much is just really so important to her. obviously olivia and inigo’s relationship is important to olivia regardless of whether or not they’re royalty and it really is one of the most beautiful mother/child relationships in the game (IN MY OPINION. i understand im biased…) but i just think if there’s anyone that can understand her completely in a situation like this? it’s him.

so i think, once awakening is over, queen olivia is in a really good spot! and as relationships with other countries and ESPECIALLY regna ferox improve, she’ll be fine. but i also like to expand this train of thought to bad timeline olivia who never got to have any of that. in fact, chrom fucking died. i dont know how the ylissean line of succession works exactly??? i think it’d go to lucina, but because lucina was so young, i’d imagine olivia did a lot of the heavy lifting for her. but don’t you think it’s a lot for one person to go through losing her husband, mothering two young children, and ruling a country full of people who still have not had a chance to warm up to you and have been openly hostile towards you before? well! yes! and then she dies. rip queen olivia, we hardly knew you