#just to get more points across

[wangxian-the-zhijis]

✨YiZhan as WangXian✨

(aka YiZhan switching roles)

Bonus: xz and wyb actually playing each other’s roles

[whenthelightisrunninglow]

how's the other guy holding up

[vaguely-concerned]

I really really like that lucanis reaches the 'there must be some way through this' realization 'off camera', so to speak, while presumably looking at rook explaining the situation to spite. it just. hits right. he gets that moment to himself after 'this place is a nightmare, why would I want to stay here' to come back into focus, to gather himself and think it through in peace, outside of the demands of anyone’s gaze (including the player’s!), while rook takes care of spite’s confusion and urgency and distress as he can’t himself in this shattered state. they're inside his soul, but he still gets that moment of privacy, with rook and spite there and supporting but not intruding. idk there's just something so good and right-feeling about it. rook's presence in lucanis' mind at its most vulnerable and frozen could have felt SO invasive if the quest wasn't written as skillfully as it is, and I get skeeved out by that kind of thing incredibly easily so it's a testament to how well it's done that it always feels safe and supportive. lucanis has had both his bodily and psychological (slash spiritual/existential) integrity and autonomy violated so brutally and repeatedly, and having even the way the camera perceives him here grant him the dignity and respect and privacy of soul he hasn’t experienced in a long time… it’s a whole thing huh. No wonder it’s taken me a while to put it into words lol 

(also what a contrast to what solas and rook have got going on, and what a sly way to slide the point of comparison in there to build to the thematic whole. the solas version of this IS of course wildly invasive and skeeves me out but in the intended delighted horror movie way. solas, too, was let into someone’s soul through the cracks in the wake of a traumatic event, and he IMMEDIATELY sought to turn it to his own benefit and use that trauma as a weapon against them fhdsja I’m sorry but it’s just such a character-revealing instinct for him to act on without hesitation and I love how terrible he is, it’s all so unforgivably premeditated and consistent.

rook acting out of the desire to make sure lucanis is ok vs. solas going ‘well. When life gives you oops killed my friend, make dead friend poisoned lemonade and make his loved ones drink it. this sunk cost fallacy isn’t going to perpetuate itself’ is such a neat contrast and it’s not in your face about it but it’s still there, deep and solid down in the thematic narrative. rook doesn’t do anything to or in lucanis’ mind, really — they negotiate their way through the layers of defense and are let through, and they help him make the whole thing more explicable, but they never exert any force or go rooting around for anything that doesn’t present itself to them first. solas goes about gathering ammo for when he's going to nothing personel kid this person from like the first moment fhdskh doesn't waste a second before he's on that gaslight gatekeep girlboss grind. the fact that the game goes out of its way to show there IS a respectful, non-selfish and kind version of this process makes what solas is doing even more deliciously awful (glee) and rook and lucanis’ relationship (platonic, romantic, whatever it might be in any given playthrough) all the more moving to me)

[lover-of-mine]

#*singing* your new girl guy is my clone.

[silkieluv]

It actually irks me that some people don't know the real meaning why Nadakhan called Jay 'canary' that one scene.

Like sure it was a pet name or something, but if you just do 1 google search you'll know that one you call someone a canary, you're calling them a snitch/blabber/rat/synonyms. Which fits the context perfectly. Jay goes to tell on Nadakhan to Flintlock so Nadakhan calls Jay a snitch which makes him so uncool (cuz who wants to hang with a snitch ;-;, not this pirate!) so Flintlock disregards Jay quicker than my dog's speed when I open his food box.

It is very silly though that a canary is a type of bird, and Jay is a type of bird. I find it so funny how someone there's a term for everything in every theme you could possibly imagine

So yes, while it's interpreted as a yucky pet/nickname for Jay, it's important to me that you know the actual meaning

[milezperprower]

i legitimately dont know how to characterize these two anymore

also here's a dump of the other stuff as i actually concept for this garbage fire LOL

tw for blood on the 3rd slide + mildy suggestive joke on the 12th + fake doll guts on the 14th + constant extreme tonal whiplash

id apologize for the ragamaster blast once again but i am but a shell of a man who feels no remorse. LMFAOO

[sunjestic]

director's commentary for the Kintsugi comic i posted last week. i put a lot of thought into it, and i really wanted to talk about it.... i am a yapper

i am once again begging y'all to read this fic-

[ladyofchroyane]

‘the black bastard of the wall’ moniker is the exact opposite of the ‘white wolf’ moniker and this perfectly highlights the irreconcilable differences between book Jon and show Jon

[navree]

"that you could be so cruel" ok correct me if i'm wrong but does penelope featherington not run a gossip rag that exist solely to publish unsubstantiated rumors about women she doesn't like for various reasons that have profoundly negative repercussions on those women (didn't the publication of marina's pregnancy lead to marina almost dying in her quest to terminate said pregnancy??????) and has in fact used that same rag to put not just colin's entire family but also specifically colin's sister, her best friend, through a significant amount of grief and strife that came as a direct result of that rag?

but colin's the cruel one? because she happened to eavesdrop on a conversation where he said he doesn't wanna date her? that's cruelty but all the other stuff isn't?

[oneshotgremlin]

Fake Peppino Speech Headcanons (that nobody asked for):

Hc that Fake Peppino thinks "forwards", Pizzahead just messed up their brain to mouth connection during creation so they speak backwards:

(I find the ciphers some peeps use for Fake's speech very cool, one that comes to mind being atbash [where in a way he's speaking backwards, just alphabetically]. Personally tho I can't really see anyone naturally speaking in ciphers unless it's like Stanford Pines lmao)

Since only their speaking is backwards, they can reverse their speech forwards w/ effort or assistance:

(Their tone still goes forwards! Hence why they can still get across that they're questioning something even though the words itself are backwards)

Not all "assistance" is helpful, however:

(Did I really commit to a whole ass headcanon just for the sake of this dumb joke? Of course I did who do you take me for)

[vaguely-concerned]

powerful mental image of lucanis expounding passionately about any given one of his limited but extremely deep areas of interest (the wyvern/knives/coffee/cooking/murder continuum of lucanis dellamorte special interests if you will) while rye lounges around and Beholds him with palpable twink boutta pounce energy

[sillygoofyqueer]

scratching at your walls, wailing at your door, grabbing your foot from under your bed-- mad scientist wwx au thoughts??? crumbs?? brain worms??? pls give me something to live for

I have no excuse for not posting yesterday I just Didn't Want To. I got distracted playing solitaire then it was eleven o'clock and I was like "my brain isn't WORKING" and then I fell asleep. Anyway get OUT from beneath my bed, that's where my cats stay, they don't like strangers, dude. Anyway, mad scientist AU. Wei Ying is just very tired, but he's got adrenaline from the battle and from the thought of seeing his family after so long of relying on the dead for comfort and company, so he basically leaps at the chance to talk to someone. That someone is Lan Wangji, who is carting him back on his blade with a gentle but firm grip, as though scared he will slip away from his grasp if he even loosens his hold. He starts yapping about anything and everything that comes to mind, not wanting to be silent ever again after all of the time he has spent in silence, with his own thoughts being his only company. Through this yapping, Lan Wangji learns a lot about how Wei Wuxian thinks, how his genius mind works, flitting from one topic to the next. He also learns a lot about the teenager's new-new cultivation method.

Wen Ning watches and listens along as well, watching how Lan Wangji listens and hums slightly when it calls for it, very occasionally uttering a soft word or two that is lost to the wind to all but Wei Ying. He gets more excited with whatever Lan Wangji says, acting as though there is truly nothing wrong with him despite literally everything visibly wrong with him. He has resentful energy crawling through his skin like cracks and he doesn't seem to be blinking and his arms are barely even moving which can only be due to a build-up of resentful energy, something that he had always struggled with even before The Incident. He is so pale and malnourished, but he smiles and laughs like nothing has changed, one hand gripped so tightly around the flute he has made that his knuckles are a pale grey.

They make it back to the war camp and Lan Wangji lets go of Wei Wuxian (with some difficulty), ignoring everyone else as he steps away and lets Wen Ning take over. Wen Ning drags Wei Ying through the camp, ignoring how silent it gets when people start to notice the two of them, when they notice Lan Wangji standing there and watching worriedly. All he cares about is getting Wei Ying to the rest of their family in the medical tent. It's thankfully pretty empty in the moment, due to Wen Qing being a girlboss that drastically improves how efficient the place all is. They find Wen Qing unpacking the new supplies that have just been sent in from Gusu, while Xue Yang is generally being a nuisance and only helping out when he wants to see what something in the package is.

Xue Yang is the first one to spot Wei Ying on his way into the tent, basically going stock still for a few seconds and then trying to sprint forwards but being forced back by the chain attaching him to Wen Qing, who just thinks he's still being a pest. He may be fucked up and insane, but he is still only twelve years old so he doesn't even care that he's crying when he sobs out a "gege", basically trying to wrench his arm out of the cuff. Wen Qing finally looks up just as Wei Ying steps into the tent, and then Wei Ying is being tackled for the second time that day, this time by two people. Xue Yang clings to him as he cries and cries, refusing to even think about letting go of his gege after being without him for so long, while Wen Qing is more efficient, wiping away her tears as she takes stock of the situation and immediately drags Wei Ying over to a bed.

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji reports back to his own gege about the entire situation. Lan Xichen takes note of how his didi describes Wei Wuxian's choice of cultivation - "it is not demonic. It seems to act as another form of liberation for otherwise unreachable spirits." - and then asks about Nie Mingjue the battle itself. They're obviously just stalling to give Wei Wuxian and his family as much time alone as possible, but there comes a point where there's nothing else to report about and Lan Xichen simply has no excuse to not go and see Wei Wuxian - out of respect. He isn't going to just sit around and not show concern for a teenager who has just saved so many peoples' lives, who he had left to rot despite knowing that Wei Wuxian was being brainwashed.

Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen go to the medical tent, where Wei Wuxian is chilling in a bed with Xue Yang laying beside him, arms wrapped tightly around the teenager's arm and face buried into his shoulder, trembling slightly despite his attempts to hide it. Wen Qing is scolding Wei Wuxian with little remorse despite the pout on his face, and Wen Ning also has the guy's other hand trapped both of his own hands. Lan Xichen exchanges pleasantries with him, then asks Wen Qing how he's looking when he asks Wei Wuxian himself and gets a "never been better!" in response. Wen Qing explains that the teenager naturally has a unique cultivation base that balances both resentful and spiritual energy due to dealing in both from a very young age, but the resentful energy is far outbalancing the spiritual energy right now.

However, the resentful energy seems to be the only thing holding him together. He has a sickening significant amount of internal injuries that the resentful energy seems to be carefully attempting to heal - amassing in many different areas of the body. To fix such a thing would require long term cleansing of resentful energy mixed with an increase of spiritual energy until the two are rebalanced in his body. Lan Xichen is like "oh bro we can totally help with that" and Lan Wangji goes "I can help with that. I can play cleansing for you :(" From multiple angles, this seems like a good option because one, the Lan are well-known for their healing cultivation tactics, two, Lan Wangji is the best cultivator who is not beset by multiple other responsibilities that he can't plan around, and three, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian actually seem to get along.

[cent-scratchnsniff]

Mermaid

[luck-of-the-drawings]

POOR GABRIEL MONTEZ! YOU NEVER SAW THIS COMING DID YOU? ALL YOU WANTED WAS POWER. SECURITY. SAFETY. & THATS EXACTLY WHAT YOU GOT! JUST IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR BODY. LETS JUST HOPE NO ONE FUCKS THIS UP. LETS JUST HOPE YOU WONT HAVE TO CLEAN UP THE MESS.

[devilsskettle]

The X trilogy + "psycho-biddy" influences

[mcybree]

I prepared this ask in the Notes app only for Tumblr to not let me copy and paste the text so here’s a screenshot bc I’m not typing all that again lol

there’s this funny trend i see in trafficblr art, in that, when there’s a lineup of every past winner, most players will be surrounded by symbols that were relevant to their POV, and perhaps drawn with the last emotion they’d felt just before death (or maybe just whatever emotion the artist most associates with the character). The winners might be doing something, or in a pose that reflects how they won—there are a million ways to make a life series winners’ piece. What’s funny about it is that no one ever seems to know what to do with Scott. He’s most often just standing there looking mildly disgruntled. And for the symbols he’s most depicted with, it’s typically poppies, which are only relevant to the first season; last life scott does not place any importance on poppies, poppies dont ever come up beyond a brief interaction in episode 1, and jimmy as a whole is less relevant to scott’s pov in last life than he is in every other season.

not that this is an issue with the art; the pieces are beautifully done, it’s just representative of how little fandom discussion there is about scott’s win thematically. Most discussion I see are about the watchers and how they hate scott for defying him or whatever, but watcher lore is not discussion of the series itself as much as it is a fan creation that is retroactively applied to create meaning.

Scott’s Last Life win, to me, was achieved through accomplishing what Third Life Scott could not.

Scott spent 3L waiting for his day one ally to die. He kept Jimmy at a distance, often fully gearing himself up first before backtracking to help Jimmy along. There’s a funny disparity in episode 5, where Jimmy spends the entire episode trying to get good enchants on his iron armor, while Scott sets up a villager and gets good enchants for the full diamond set that he’d already had in storage, in about half the time Jimmy took trying to accomplish his own goal, iirc. This disparity is also something scott acknowledges with the “I’ll always be more powerful than you” line, but it’s been a while since ive written a post like this so i unfortunately do not have the episode number memorized on that one anymore. But Scott goes on to explain that he’ll always have better armor and weapons, which is why Jimmy could never kill him. This is all to say that Jimmy and Scott do not stand on equal grounds in their alliance, and, more importantly, Scott does not depend on Jimmy. The progress Scott makes in Third Life is entirely his own, with Jimmy as more of an afterthought than a teammate.

This is what landed Scott his all time lowest placement. After Jimmy dies first, Scott loses sight of his priorities and dedicates his remaining time alive to avenging Jimmy, rather than focusing on his own longevity (like he’d go on to do in future seasons). And, in that way, Scott’s attitude towards Jimmy (disposable, going to die, unreliable) was an indirect contributor to Scott’s low placement.

In contrast: Scott could not have won Last Life without Pearl. Scott has to rely on Pearl from day 1, having only two lives to start with himself. Pearl gives Scott two lives total. Pearl and Scott are almost always together. They made it to the final four by each other’s side. And that forced day 1 reliance on pearl breaks down the role scott typically assumes (*he’s* supposed to be the person people rely on, he’s supposed to be the one bringing everything to the table) which curbs his tendency to see himself as above others, which then allows for the most genuine happiness i have ever seen him have in an alliance.

The comparison between the way Scott talks to Pearl and the way Scott talks to Jimmy is like night and day. Scott doesn’t compliment or otherwise say anything supportive towards Jimmy (save for the “I believe in you! MCC has trained you for this moment!” during Jimmy’s dare to flare attempt) until after Jimmy has already died. With Pearl, however, Scott is much more open about his care towards her, saying that she’s his best friend and that he loves her as early as episode 2. There’s more examples but between last life and third life, Scott’s attitude towards his primary ally is completely different, and i think it’s symptomatic of Scott allowing himself to love and be vulnerable rather than keeping himself at a distance. And i think that it’s so special that scott won the season where he was so close with his day one alliance, directly because of his day one alliance.

because, to me, one of scott’s defining characteristics is his self reliance. He will have allies, yes, but he often assumes a supportive role and acts as a supplier. He doesnt like taking things from other people. Last Life is different because Scott relies on Pearl, too. It’s also not a coincidence that last life is the only season where scott is normal about jimmy but that’s a different post

tldr yes scott won last life with the power of love but not in the way people say he did (ignoring the boogeyman curse was strategy ☝️)

I SHOULD NOTE, though, that the boogeyman curse was still a fail. Although purposeful, Scott receives the penalty and apologizes to his team. He says he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. I do think that his words here aren’t fully honest— he’d admitted earlier that this choice was fully for strategy. But I also think his apologetic attitude here is genuine. Scott is a perfectionist, he needs to succeed; failing, though purposeful, still hurts. He feels the need to apologize. It means so much to me that his win in last life directly follows the choice to fail on purpose. I’m insane though idk

third life scott embodies scotts flaws while last life scott is him overcoming them 👍 is what im trying to say 👍 last life scott is everything that third life scott could not bring himself to be, in allowing himself to love and depend on other people and overall just be a person.