#log analysis

[stackify-by-net-reo]

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[donnatroyyyy]

Jason Todd’s death storyline was perfectly executed because they killed him figuratively (killed his innocence) before actually killing him. It’s a tragedy because he died in two separate ways. And the reason his resurrection is just as much a tragedy is because only one of the things killed can be brought back and it wasn’t the thing that made Jason who he is (his innocence and kindness).

[hongluboobs]

Me when I have to take my Hong Lu’s meaning away because I’m bored

[izumiphoenix]

Astarion: In Search of True Self

Lately, I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 3 for the first time - and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with the game… and the pale elf, of course.

That’s how this character analysis came to life. At the start, I didn’t know much about the game or its world, but I did know that companions were available for romance. So I checked them out before starting, and two characters piqued my interest: Astarion and Gale.

Somehow… I never met Gale in my game (either I didn’t poke that hole in the wall or he just never showed up?), so naturally, I started exploring my options with Astarion.

His romance was described in guides as a bit of a challenge - especially if your Tav is good-aligned and likes helping others. The common conclusion is usually: be evil and he’ll like that.  

I shrugged and decided to try balancing things out. But as I played and got to know him better, that advice began to make less and less sense to me. So I started putting my thoughts into words, hoping to explain why I didn’t agree.

In the end, this turned into something more like a diary - a journey of discovering new sides of Astarion and reflecting on the moments my Tav shared with him.

I hope you will find this analysis/review/Astarion fan diary (?) interesting, even if you don't agree with every part. If that’s the case, please be kind - I poured a lot of heart (and sleepless nights) into this. And if you did feel the same way, I hope this lets you re-experience that journey all over again <3 

Navigation:

The Truth Behind The Mask

Getting Closer

First Bite

Power Or Its Absence?

Reflecting In Their Eyes

The Need To Be Seen

Facing Vampire Spawns

Astarion's Shirt

Softie Underneath

Sharess' Caress

Astarion and Cazador

Ascension Or Not?

Beginning To Live

Incredibly Human

Extras (rediscovering missed cutscenes and lore):

Astarion's Age

Astarion The Elf

The Bear Conversation

(This is the initial plan, but it may evolve. I’ll add links to each post as I upload them)

TL;DR: Not a red flag – cinnamon roll with fangs. Handle with care, love and moonlight.

[carlyraejepsans]

to summarize an unduly rambly post: our control over kris has been steadily growing more and more distressing for them throughout the story. the snowgrave route, possibly the most gut wrenching, violating imposition of our will on theirs AND Noelle's (*homer voice* so far!), explicitly, thematically, and visually represents possession and coercion through romantic imagery, specifically rings and weddings. it's nauseating. it forces both of them into an implied relationship that neither of them is comfortable in by leveraging noelle's desperate wish to reconnect with her childhood friend. it has exactly the horrible connotations you don't want it to have.

ralsei being presented as both a direct callback to asriel—both the undertale asriel we know, and y'know... kris' brother in deltarune—while also setting him and kris up in a clearly romantic context that kris does not seem to either share or be comfortable with, is not a coincidence. it's not an accident. "isn't that a little incestuous" that's the point! kris' agency being stripped away is one of deltarune's main thematic cores: the game is repeatedly setting up a pattern where that theme is reinforced by putting kris in upsetting, unwanted romantic relationships for OUR entertainment. nothing fits the bill better than pairing them with the nostalgia bait companion that literally looks like their brother.

[spadaaces]

Thinking about Akiren and his hometown…. I like to think/headcanon that he doesn’t hate it there. There is a strange sort of comfort being there at times, but it’s not really.. Home anymore. Same with his parents - my hc is that they’re pretty average (he goes through So Much shit all the time I think he deserves a Little bit of normalcy in his life lol). They’re nice and they care for him, but after living in Tokyo for a year and everything that happened that year, there’s this weird gap now.

Akiren went through so much in the span of that year and he changed a lot during that year. We obviously don’t know too much about pre-game Akiren, but it seems like he’s always had this strong conviction, but acted more reserved than he actually is, similar to how he keeps his head down when he’s put on probation. And then he does not only awaken to his persona and is able to rip of that mask both figuratively and literally, but he finds a place where he can truly start being himself. He finds people who also discover themselves and grow alongside him, and makes him stronger - and he finds people he truly belongs with. And despite all the shit they had to go through, it’s also some of the most fun he’s ever had and these people are so special to him and they understand him and he them and -

And then he has to go back home. And he knows they’re gonna miss each other, but also that he’ll see them again. And it is a little nice to be back, it’s peaceful for a change and at least he has Morgana with him. But it’s a bit too peaceful. There’s not the buzz of the city anymore, he’s not used to it being so quiet - he’s not used to having so few people around him anymore. The town is the same, his parents are the same, but he isn’t. And it feels weird cause nothing is necessarily wrong or bad there, he’s just so. Out of place. He’s a completely different person but no one in this town knows that. And so it’s really easy to slip back to how he’s always acted when he’s there. Because this isn’t where his real self is supposed to be.

Then summer rolls around, and he travels back to Tokyo and all his friends are there to welcome him and Morgana back and it finally feels like he can breathe again. Like he’s finally back where he belongs and he’s able to be his full honest self.

He’s home.

[waterme-stories]

I knew it. I spent like three hours drawing a Joe's Pizza box one time, I knew it was the same fucking font (or very close). That diner is a goddamn varient of Joe's Pizza from Spider-Man 2.

[colonthreedotexe]

Cars 2's stance on eugenics is problematic

agreed. the movie portrays disabled people (or cars i suppose) and their struggle to physically stay alive and not literally break down as being an insidious global plot to sabotage progress for the able bodied cars. the movie posits that it is morally wrong of the disabled cars to have the gall to want to *checks notes* not die, rather than quietly dying out of sight of polite society. disabled people being used as a shorthand for evil is nothing new in the movie industry but it's almost surprising with how overt cars 2 got with its messaging.

i also find it quite ironic that during cars 3 mcqueen's battle to avoid being replaced by newer and "better" race cars is shown as a noble battle of some sort when that so closely mirrors the motivation of the cars who were meant to be the antagonists in the second movie. it could also be said that in a way cars 3's finale doubles down on the second movie's message by having mcqueen's retirement and fading onto the sidelines be shown as an honorable act of making way for a more able bodied racer to take his place but i think that would be entering shakier territory at least when it comes to my ability to analyze the cars movies using only my memory and not rewatching them and taking notes specifcally on this topic.

but yea cars 2's message of "disabled people should die slowly, and painfully but also out of our sight and any attempts to stand up for their rights are morally wrong" is quite problematic

[catboygirljoker]

Free Pass Ask to talk about In Depth Luxu Analysis in case of no one sending in the right question to go off with

ok! here's my ~1600 word post about That One Scene At The End Of Dark Road. grins smilingly.

You know the one. Right after we see Baldr easily kill most of the cast of the game, right after a boss fight against him, right after we witness firsthand how powerful he is, we see a flashback of him confronting Bragi with the intention of killing him. And Bragi just...casually flicks his keyblade out of his hand. Bragi fully knows what Baldr's actual deal is, knows that Baldr has killed people, and is completely unthreatened by him. For good reason, it would seem!

So, Luxu's a badass, obviously. He made the big villain of the game into a jobber. And I think that's certainly one of the purposes of the scene. Luxu is about to be one of the primary antagonists of the franchise, and this sets him up to be very powerful!

...But I don't think it's the purpose of the scene. That is, I don't think that's the entire story. Because there are a couple questions left by this scene.

What happens at the end, there, when Baldr runs up to him and attacks him? And why doesn't Bragi reappear until long after Baldr is already dead?

I think we can piece together at least part of an answer.

In the earlier montage where Baldr says he killed everyone, we see a brief scene of Baldr slamming Bragi down onto an island in the Underworld. I assumed that this was a visual representation of Baldr lying and claiming he had killed Bragi when he didn't. But Bragi is the only character in this montage who we don't see die on screen. I believe we're meant to understand that this scene actually happened, and that this is what immediately follows the Luxu reveal cutscene.

Which seems contradictory with Bragi being such a badass, right? Was Bragi disarming Baldr a fluke? The thing is, when Baldr attacks Bragi at the end of the cutscene, Bragi is completely off guard and unprepared for the attack. We already know that Luxu can misjudge people/situations, to his own downfall.

Consider in Dream Drop when he seems to fully believe Sora will join the Real Organization XIII, or Days when he's unthreatened by Xion right up until she knocks him out and leaves, or Re:Mind when he finds out Luxord decided not to simply obey orders without question this time. So him being defeated by Baldr doesn't necessarily mean Luxu is weak if Bragi was defeated due to hubris.

(As a side note—I do think that this would be part of the reason the cutscene cuts off when it does. Luxu still needs to be a threatening villain in the upcoming games, so the audience has to have a strong impression of how threatening he is. We get the full cutscene of Luxu being cool and powerful, and only little glimpses of the fate he meets directly afterwards.)

I think what happened is Bragi sauntered off all cocky and smug, not believing Baldr would attack him. Then Baldr attacked him, and Bragi, realizing what a threat Baldr actually was, pulled a trick we've already seen Luxu pull before. (Seemingly so well that Hades himself is fooled.)

Baldr believed he killed Bragi and saw no reason to be like, "yeah, and also Bragi said some weird mysterious stuff I didn't understand, but the point is that he's dead, too."

Now for the question of why Bragi didn't reappear until long after everybody else was dead. If he's such a badass, surely he could have helped stop Baldr and saved lives. Why didn't he?

From here, I can really only speculate. In my view, there are a few options:

Luxu didn't care about his classmates and left them to die as soon as he realized what a threat Baldr was.

This is...possible, but not very interesting to me. It's the option that results in the least emotional complexity. I think it's most interesting to read Bragi in Dark Road as the second-to-last step on Luxu's downward spiral, rather than just another point on a straight line—that his personality as we see him in the current-day games is informed by the trauma of him losing all of his friends to an opponent he could have stopped but didn't.

Also, maybe this isn't very convincing as evidence, but in his appearance in the graveyard, Bragi's attitude isn't smug or mischievous, it's somber, possibly remorseful. If we were meant to understand that he didn't care about his dead classmates, we'd get, like, a smug grin or something.

So the other options assume that he did care about his classmates:

Luxu sincerely cared about his classmates, and wanted to help them, but was injured so badly in his fight with Baldr that he was physically unable to come to their rescue.

Like I said, I think this is more probable and more compelling than if he didn't care at all. And there's potential tragedy in him trying his best and still failing, or having the best intentions and being unable to follow through on them, for sure. However, in general, I'm more interested in characters failing because of the mistakes they make and the flaws they have, rather than failing due to chance or unavoidable circumstance.

Also...we already know Luxu is the kind of person to stand by and allow terrible things to happen without doing anything to stop it. We know he has been specifically instructed to do so. I think it's more interesting and more consistent with his character if he could have saved his classmates and stopped Baldr, but didn't.

This last option, then, is my favorite, and in my own writing would be the interpretation I go with:

Luxu sincerely cared about his classmates and had the power and strength to protect them from Baldr but, through his own decisions or inaction, still let them die.

Luxu's classmates were all children or barely adults, younger than him by perhaps centuries. But he hung out with them. Actively participated in conversation with them, asked them questions, joked around with them. He seemed to like them. They were his friends. And he let them die.

There's variety in the potential specifics. Maybe Bragi fled and hid until everything was over just to save himself. Maybe he grit his teeth and made the conscious decision to do so; maybe he was motivated by pure animal fear for his life. In either case, he still had a role to carry out, after all. A role that, as I mentioned, has already required him to stand by and allow people to die. If he could swallow the keyblade war, he could swallow the events of Dark Road.

Maybe he believed he had an excuse to run away. In his confrontation with Baldr, Bragi says Xehanort is onto Baldr, and seems to believe Xehanort would be able to stop him. This is before Baldr attacks and seemingly defeats Bragi, but maybe even after that, Bragi still really believed in Xehanort, and believed he could let Xehanort do the rest—misjudging Xehanort's ability to stop Baldr before any more death could occur.

If you wanna get really angsty with it, maybe Bragi did try to save his friends. Maybe he rushed to the scene of Baldr's next murder and saw children with keyblades fighting for their lives, heard the clash of metal on metal, and was suddenly immobilized by the voice of his Master telling him to watch. And by the time he was able to overcome this trauma response, it was already too late.

Whatever the specifics would be of why he left his friends to die, I'm aware that this is the option that casts him in the worst light. If he didn't help them because he didn't care about them, then he's just a coldhearted villain and we can't expect much better from him. If he cared about his classmates and tried his best to help them but failed, then he's a sweet goodboy and uncomplicatedly sympathetic. If he, for any reason, decided not to try to save his friends from a powerful entity that has killed and will kill again, then he's pathetic, morally repugnant, a weakling or a fool or a coward or a combination of the three.

But I like when characters are flawed and stories are messy! I like that, even before you get to the events of Dark Road, Luxu is a messy, complicated, but still sympathetic character! Many of my other favorite Kingdom Hearts characters are messy and complicated in ways that I feel get frustratingly flattened by the fandom. I'm Team Messy and Complicated forever. I hope the games keep making Luxu even worse and more sympathetic and more tragic.

anyway thats my post i hope you liked it haha whee! i once again had to keep deleting detours and tangents about like. redemption arc flags, riku/terra/luxu parallels, luxu/MoM and luxu/xehanort parallels. but they were just that, tangents, and quite a lot of them were more headcanony/watsonian/speculative than i usually like to go with my Analysis. in any case thankyou for coming with me on this journey

[ultrakillmmmyes]

i wanted to get better at drawing creatures and then hakita’s iconic ultrakill character got involved???

[a-flickering-soul]

people will log on and say with their whole chest "glinda is for the girls who want to be their authentic self! glinda is for the girls who wear their hearts on their sleeves!" bitch glinda wakes up every day and comes up with a new way to lie to herself. glinda cant admit to herself that she sometimes has bad feelings. glinda's biggest goal in life is to perform to a manufactured image of herself and pretend there's absolutely no issues with that. and yes. she is my favorite character.

[leveebreak-s]

Thoughts on Big Log

Big Log, to me, is an interesting entry in the Robert Plant cannon. It’s a very classic Robert rambling song. He talks a lot in his work about his nomadic impulses. In Becoming Led Zeppelin he described “Ramble On” as “the story of [his] life.” See also: “I gotta roll, can’t stand still, got a flaming heart, can’t get my fill” ; later, “Farewell my wanderer's home.” If I’m totally honest I don’t love it, musically. It feels very 80s cheesy. Journey-esque. But LYRICALLY??? Extremely compelling. The exact sort of song that, if I were trying to explain to someone who Robert is and why he and Jimmy keep falling apart and coming back together, I would point to as evidence.

Let’s do a Jimbert reading of Big Log because I think it would be fun :)

(disclaimer: this analyis is not me trying to prove the existence of Jimbert. I’ve done that elsewhere, as have others before me, but that’s not what i’m doing now. I’m just reading Big Log through a Jimbert lens because I think that doing so yields interesting results. This is one of many possible interpretations of the song. Suspend your disbelief! Consider the Jimbert with me!)

My love is in league with the freeway

Its passion will rise as the cities fly by

Awesome. Here’s how I understand this: it’s the thesis of the song, and it’s: “distance makes the heart grow fonder.” When he says “my love” I think he is literally referring to HIS experience of being in love, and not “My Love” as in “my beloved,” given that he refers to it as “it.” Its passion will rise as the cities fly by: the farther I go, the bigger and more intense my love gets. It’s in league with the freeway, the freeway and the love serve one another. It is because of my tendency to ramble on that I am able to love so deeply and widely. To me this also implies that Robert believes in the possibility to return to a lover he’s already had. If, as you venture further away, your love grows, then you do not spend the time away from your beloved getting over them; you spend it missing them, thinking of them, growing into a better version of yourself, that you might love them more richly when you see them again. Therefore, it’s implied that to Robert, love is not a linear journey which always follows the same normative script of “meet, date, break up, move on.” It is a fluid thing which defies such a simplistic and uniform characterization.

What does this mean for Jimbert? It means that, yes, what Robert needs to do right now is go his own way, both creatively and romantically, but he has not closed the door on Jimmy forever. His mind is open to the idea that distance might make their hearts grow fonder. It is better to have time away with the possibility that they might return to each other one day than to stick around and let everything fester and get worse than it already is.

And the tail lights dissolve in the coming of night

I don’t look back, I look forward.

And the questions and thousands take flight

I don’t want to talk to the reporters about Zeppelin anymore, enough of the questions about John and about you and about black magic and curses and reunions. The people who only want me to be what I was, the Golden God, when I’m not him anymore - I leave them behind. On the freeway, on the road, they fade away, and I’m free of that burden.

My love is a-miles in awaiting

The eyes that just stare and the glance at the clock

Oh. OOOOOOH.

Okay. Now we’re cooking. 

If you know me you know that I love any excuse to talk about Tea for One. Musically, it’s like a top 20 Zeppelin song for me (if that sounds like faint praise, you underestimate how much I love Led Zeppelin). Lyrically it’s maybe my number one favourite ever. I can, and have, talk for a LOOOONG time about the implications, and LO AND BEHOLD, here they are. 

Because staring at the clock, waiting for the hand to move is what Tea for One is all about, baby!!!!!!!! While Robert’s healing from his life-threatening injury, he’s writing Presence with Jimmy, and he’s fucking fed up, dude. This song is open to interpretation, and I know that not everyone interprets it the way I do (fishie). But listen. Listen. Ultimately what that song is about is being fed up with one’s circumstances. IN MY OPINION, it was about being fed up with the band. It was about stagnation. It’s time to ramble on! I gotta roll, can’t stand still! If we’re doing a Jimbert reading, and we are, then invoking Tea for One here means invoking Zeppelin. In a Jimbert reading, “eyes that just stare and glance at the clock” can be understood as a reference to the tension and frustration that characterized the last few years of Robert’s experience in Led Zeppelin. Which brings us to the next lines:

And the secret that burns, and the pain that grows dark

And it's you once again

SECRET, YOU SAY???

So what’s being said is that the secret of his relationship with Jimmy is a contributing factor to the pain of those years and to Robert’s moving on. 

Now, of course, Robert didn’t break up Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin broke up as a result of John Bonham’s death, when they decided, supposedly by consensus, that they could not continue without him.

Yet, we know from what we know of the band’s history that, by this time, Robert basically had control over Led Zeppelin’s future, in the sense that Jimmy would have done just about anything to keep it going. They met with a few drummers, in the time between Bonzo’s death and their official announcement that they would not continue in his absence. Every attempt at a reunion that would occur in the next several decades would be Jimmy’s doing, and every failure to launch would be owed to Robert’s refusal to rehash what they’d already done. Jimmy wanted to go on, Robert didn’t. While officially the decision to disband was made by consensus, it’s fair to say that, if Robert had wanted to continue, they might have made a different choice - this characterization of events is backed up in pretty much any biography or history of the band that you’ll find.

SO. The secret that burns. The pain that grows dark. They loved one another in hiding. Robert grew restless, Jimmy was addicted and unable to contribute artistically to the group, and now Bonzo was dead. The whole thing’s gone sour.

And it’s you once again. 

Okay…

What do we make of this?

If we connect it to the line that precedes it, it’s Robert basically blaming Jimmy for everything that happened. It’s the same energy as - say it with me gang - Tea for One. “To sing a song for you, I recall you used to say, ‘this one’s for we two,’ which in the end is you anyway.” This is your vision, your creation, your ego, your vanity, and so all this is the consequence of your actions. It’s not my dream, dad, it’s your dream! He’s OVER it!

On the other hand, if we connect this line to the broader context of the song, the lyric is more literal. “It’s you once again” means “I’ll be back one day.”

Did Robert have the foresight to know this for a fact? Obviously not, and at this time - 1983 - he’s deliberately distancing himself from Zeppelin and Jimmy. All I’m saying is that this interpretation of the line would suggest that he’s open to the idea that he and Jimmy will return to each other one day. “Maybe some day in time, as we move down the line, what we seek we shall find.” 

Leading me on (leading me on)

Leading me down the road

Driving me on (driving me on)

Driving me down the road

LOVE is what MAKES him the rambler, nomad, traveler, vagabond he is. Lust for life. The will to experience all that this world has to offer, to meet new people, to keep learning, to experience new ways of being and knowing: that’s love, baby! 

My love is exceedingly vivid

When I’m in love, I know it. When I’m in love, you’ll know it. It’s straightforward. I see what I want, and I go after it, simple as that. If I want you, I’ll make it known. 

Red-eyed and fevered with the hum of the miles

Okay, I know this isn’t ACTUALLY what he meant, but in my mind I like to think that this was a sneaky reference to the scene in “The Song Remains the Same” when Jimmy’s eyes are all red. Hehehe. That’s my love!

Distance and longing, my thoughts do provide

Should I rest for a while at the side?

Like I said, distance makes the heart grow fonder! Should I rest for a while at the side? Am I moving too fast? Maybe I’ll stop and explore a new love, for a minute. Or maybe I’ll just take a breather and get to know myself for a minute (incidentally, this album came out the year Robert and Maureen divorced. Not that being married had ever stopped Robert from exploring new love with other people. But that’s none of my business.)

Okay but wait a minute. Because now we get to the part where Robert addresses somebody else!! And since we ALREADY AGREED that we’re doing a Jimbert reading, we’re going to assume, in the space of this long ass post, that he is addressing James Patrick Page.

Your love is cradled in knowing

MMMMMMMMM. Yes. I don’t know about y’all, but I read this as an invocation of the sorcerer and apprentice aspect of their relationship. I read this as: “the love you gave me was bolstered by all that you had to teach me: the pride you felt in being able to teach me, and the care and protection I felt under your guidance.” It could also be: “you are someone who requires a measure of certainty in order to feel secure in your relationships; this is something I, a wandering free spirit, cannot offer you.” It could also be: “the more deeply we know each other, the more deeply we love one another.” It could also be a combination of these things and more! It’s a beautiful lyric that says so much with so little!

Eyes in the mirror still expecting they'll come

Hmmm. I’m not sure about this one. Maybe, “you look at yourself and tell yourself that Zeppelin can live on, that people will still come to see it, and you’re in denial that it’s not what it used to be?” That’s the best I can do with this one, but I’m not rock solid here so I welcome your alternative interpretations.

Sensing too well when the journey is done

There is no turning back, no

There is no turning back

On the run

It’s over and I think you KNOW that, Jimmy!!!!!! We can’t go back to how it used to be!! 

ANYWAY that’s my thoughts on Big Log. If you read this whole thing I love you and we’re friends now <3 AND if you're a nerd for this sort of thing, PLEASE read Fishie's Jimbert meta on Ao3 because this whole thing is basically just me copying her homework.

[izumiphoenix]

Reflecting in Their Eyes

(5/? part of “Astarion: In Search of True Self” — [masterpost here])

The episode where Astarion is looking in the mirror, quietly questioning his appearance, is one of my absolute favorites.

Since he is a vampire, we know he doesn’t cast a reflection. So at first glance, it seems a little bit pointless… unless! He was trying to make Tav notice, to draw them into a conversation without saying it directly (and it worked!) - isn't it just a sweet way to set up a difficult conversation without being too obvious about it, but at the same time not hiding it too hard? One might say it is another manipulation, but I rather like such a subtle approach. On the other hand, you can see in the camp that Astarion always has a mirror in his tent, so maybe I’m wrong in my assumption.

When Tav asks if he misses seeing his face, Astarion reluctantly, with a snarky comment, admits he does and confesses that he hasn’t seen his reflection since the night he was turned. He doesn’t even remember much about how he looked before.

In my story, I chose an option where Tav takes a moment to quietly study him. When he asked, “What?” she simply said, “I can be your mirror. What do you want to see?” And Astarion answered with something I didn’t expect him to say out loud, yet somehow knew was coming:

“I want to know what the world sees when looks at me. What you see.”

(There’s a more intense version too, where Tav simply says “I see you.” And in that moment, he’s stretched taut like a string - waiting, terrified, hopeful.)

He is quiet at first, but breaks into a smile, realizing what they are doing, when Tav starts describing him - those strong, piercing eyes, they say. And when they get to that “dangerous smile,” he interrupts with a grin:

“Just say I’m beautiful and we can call it a day.”

It may seem like he is back to his usual flirty sass, but I believe he was just incredibly relieved and even flustered to hear that they don’t see him, a vampire spawn, as a monster, but still find him attractive and beautiful. So the shield is up again, back to the safer tone, when the moment is over and he has confirmed what he wanted to know - not to push Tav away, but falling back into familiar habits because opening up like that is so much.

Watch his body language: he turns away, putting some distance between them, as if to regulate the emotions stirred by the moment. He seems overwhelmed, uncertain what face he should make right now, but he is still listening, still thinking. People often look into the distance like that when they’re remembering something - like he does, still processing Tav's words.

But the important thing is: those words weren’t just about his physical appearance, but also his personality or, rather, his presence, because “strong piercing eyes” and “dangerous smile” speak more about the inner qualities rather than outer beauty.

And when Tav does say - “You are beautiful” - Astarion is clearly lifted and cheered, especially compared to the beginning of their conversation. I just love this episode, it is so sweet and touching!

For someone who carefully cultivates control over his appearance, who hides his uncertainty beneath vanity, it is a big deal to open up like that and admit he is actually unsure about his looks. And to someone he is starting to trust. And it’s not just about his looks. When he asks how Tav sees him, it’s also a quiet test: he realizes he is developing feelings for them (well, at least for me, this episode was right before his confession), and he finds a way to find out if his feelings might be returned. It’s a subtle way of asking, “Is it possible for you to see me behind this appearance?”

This is the first moment he let his guard down to show something fragile underneath. To see how they react when he is not playing the role. He showed us small glimpses before, but this is the first time Astarion lowered his defenses that low. And when Tav doesn't recoil, mock or dismiss him but stays warm and sincere, it reassures him that he is safe and seen with them. And he dares to tell them the truth - about his feelings and his "simple plan".

This moment is one of the most breathtaking parts of their journey together that yet again connects to our next realization - I want to talk about it in the next post.

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[marymagdalene23]

me pretending to be normal after waking up from a gut wrenching dream that i can't explain to anyone

[totem-but-shark]

foolish definitely has an "rp mode", a certain lilt to his voice and delivery that has my attention locked on every word for hidden meaning and hints as he crafts his character in real time. it's most definitely subtler than others and so more easily goes under the radar to non doozers but it's undeniably there and if you're used to it and paying enough attention you come to recognise when he is or isn't in this "rp mode" and sometimes even the moment he shifts between them.

It's something about how every word is spoken with intention and deeper meaning, you can tell foolish is thinking more. Very specific wording choices and the ways he dodges around certain topics or implies others. At times it even feels like he's handpicking every word, carrying this unique weight not found anywhere else in his streams. He talks slower, his tones different, i swear the atmosphere of the whole stream shifts. Theres also an underlying smugness to it all because he's a bastard and knows he's killing it and that we the audience are eating that shit UP

foolishs rp is often discredited because he's sillier, and less "serious". He has his own unique rp style hes found for himself over his years of mc and other rp but because it's less obvious in your face crazy angst it seems like it's harder for non foolish viewers to identify. Honestly it's been really cool to watch his style develop as he finds what works best for him personally and it's only gotten better and better, I hope to see more of his rp wherever he decides to take it next.

[waterme-stories]

B-15 and that face.

(Loki s2e2, “Breaking Brad”; “Deadpool & Wolverine”)