#lurking rants

[robynator]

obsessed with how daud canonically chooses to forgive billie when she gives him the choice between killing her and showing her mercy after she betrays him

obsessed with how just a few months later, daud does the same, placing his life in the hands of a man whose life he completely ruined, asking to be spared and, against all odds, walking away from that encounter alive

obsessed with the alternatives you're given to those options as well

how, if you choose to kill billie in low chaos she helps you guide the blade. how she looks up at you and smiles as you stab her. how you hold her hand as she dies and don't let go even after she's gone

how, in high chaos, you just don't get that choice. her death is brutal, just like all the other deaths at your hand. like she said, what's one more body? but she's not just one more body. she's your second in command, your confidant, the closest thing you have to a daughter. you don't kill her with the same detachment you do for everyone else. you don't simply pull her onto your blade, you grab her by the throat as you stab her. it's brutal and it's personal, and that makes it so much worse

how, if you end brigmore witches with high chaos, corvo will kill you because you are not true to your word. you say that you feel remorse over jessamine's murder and yet your actions speak otherwise. you are not sincere in your words and while corvo may not know that, the game does. and it's telling you that that's the only way it could end. that if daud goes down that path he will not ever better his ways, nor will he be given the chance to. the only way daud can live is if he is actually committed to change

but despite all those options, in canon, daud gives billie the chance to leave and make a new life for herself. and corvo does the same for daud. and that is a parallel i think a lot about

[finalgirlwillbyers]

The lack of maturity in this fandom has truly shined over the last several months. I've expected this from the younger folks. However, some of the nastiest behavior is from the adults.

Tell me why, when you have a job, personal life, and hobbies, that you spend your time online spreading malicious rumors about an actor you don't like? Instead of focusing on your life, you post about someone else's life.

Some of you don't care about details. Quite frankly, some of you don't even care about facts. You care about appearing right, even though it may be wrong (see specious). At the end of the day, it's about internet clout.

While how you interact with fictional characters isn't one-to-one with your real life ethics and morals, how you treat real people and their lives are. There are real people behind each account, and there are real people behind each character.

Ya'll are too comfortable peddling misinformation and encouraging harassment under the guise of a "good cause". So much so that it ultimately highlights how it was never about the cause, and all about tearing down a specific person. Your self-righteousness is apparent, just like your lack of integrity.

Combating rumors of two friends grabbing food by spreading rumors that imply the one friend you don't like is a predator is on the absurd-to-diabolical spectrum of parasocial behavior.

Why do you care about two people acting like friends? Why did you choose to dispel the rumor this way? And, why do you think your behavior is okay when you don't like the same behavior in others?

Some food for thought, because self-awareness is an untapped skill in this fandom.

[starrgirlella]

How it feels to check everyday if Darin and his team updated the game (they didn’t)

Hi yes I am alive, been lurking around the community still just kinda lost motivation for new drawings due to the lack of content :,)

Small rant but Im actually really bothered by the fact that the last update was at THE BEGINNING OF SPRING, and we haven’t gotten anything since…

Like I understand that the game is still in development but cmon an update that you’re still working on it wouldn’t hurt, it makes me think that something happend hence why there haven’t been any updates

but yeah thats about it, im tweaking over the fact that there hasn’t been any updates at all, Darin pls feed us… 😭

[such-a-downer]

With how things are going with Henry-Martha flashback arc, i don't think we can expect something different (like loiyor/forger fam crumb) for chapter 100. Maybe the flashback will end right on ch 100 or 101. I'd still be happy if Endo actually surprises us with some forger household cut-in.

Of course for me, the Henry-Martha flashback arc is not a bad thing. The only bitter ones will be those who only read sxf for Loiyor overloads 🤪. Don't get me wrong, i hard ship loiyor but cmon... Spy x Family is NOT a romance manga.

I like how the story is progressing because Endo is dropping lots of easter eggs and letting us theorize and whatnot. The story map is expanding. We're being taken to important points of the storyline so we can gradually learn more about the Westalis-Ostania war.

Ps.: i speculate that we'll still be on flashback arc by ch 100, but the fact that Spy x Family landing the 100th chapter is still a big milestone. Endo will definitely be whipping something to celebrate it.

[pinkyjulien]

I hope everyone knows that Jago is canonly a trans man 🙏 and that everyone respect that fact without being weird about it

Reminder that your OC doesn't have to be Bi to be with him! Implying that you have to be bisexual to be attracted to trans people can be seen as/is transphobic

I want to make IT REALLY DAMN CLEAR that there's NOTHING wrong with shipping him with a bisexual person BUT if the only reason they're bisexual is because Jago is trans, that's not good! This might be due to internalize transphobia and you need to unlearn this false "rule", if someone tries to force that fact into you or your ship, be wary of their intention

And Yes that's something that need to be said in this fandom, I'm sadly aware someone though it was cool to imply Mitch must be bi in my ship since Valentin is trans. I have a guess as to who it was, you're just being transphobic yet again, but it's nothing surprising

Be aware of the lurking terfs and happy shipping 🤠✌

EDIT to add that screenshot of the data MrHands gives you

"Born as Jagoda" Jagoda being a commonly feminine slavic name !

[sasukeless]

back to complaining about translations but i just again came across an old post that basically was analyzing sasuke calling naruto his one and only and saying it was him being sarcastic/not truthful because he was throwing naruto’s previous words at him in this panel

and im just… this panel is wrong. the speech bubble and naruto’s thoughts are flipped. naruto did not call sasuke his one and only here, he was remembering sasuke calling Him his closest friend.

anyway it’s a tricky panel because it’s in many pages when you read the manga. like i’m not free of sin because i remember i have posted too when i couldn’t find one with the correct placement. (also i feel like naruto saying there’s no way he’d able to leave sasuke alone holds more meaning than i can’t let that happen but whatever Whatever details) but anyway this is also an scene you can watch the anime clip and see what is naruto saying. but my point is that One simple misplacement in the translation can literally lead to people misinterpreting something completely different and in this case denying sasuke’s feelings and characterization. and it’s just well. sad

[nobodysdaydreams]

Giving a complicated tragic childhood backstory to your favorite character is all fun and games, until you realize you need to account for how old all the other adult characters would have been at the time and realize that scenes that would work perfectly if one character was twenty three and the other was fourteen stop working when you need other characters who are played by adult actors clearly younger than they are to be in college at the same time so your story beats line up thematically.

[mellowwillowy]

On hiatus for an indefinite moment.

[soldier-requests]

tumblr has alerted me i'm at 1000 likes from other peoples liking this blogs? do i get fashion famous title now or what /silly

[youredreamingofroo]

now that rdr2 is off my laptop and I have storage, the urge to reinstall sims 4 is consuming me..

[presiding]

What is your favourite thing about Billie Lurk?

(Answers are obvious possibly but i love when people talk about her👍)

thanks for the ask!! YEAH ME TOO I love when people talk about Billie! I can't say I have a favourite thing specifically, but I can explain why she's my fav. apologies for not taking this qn literally, but -

short answer: she’s really cool

& you can stop reading there, or, for the maybe 2 mutuals who might have time to read this my thoughts on her as a character, her meta, and her character as raw potential...

long answer:

i considered making this entire thing a gush so you could read a gush about Billie. but, part of what draws me to her is that she’s not always well written, and in fandom she’s underrated for a literal protagonist.

since you ask...

billie is a cool character

when I played Dh2 (hadn't played Dh1), I was excited to see a black woman with disabilities who was captaining a massive ship by herself. wow.

then I discovered Billie’s backstory with Deirdre, the way she responded to that, then having to survive while living on the run, and her bisexuality. as well as her history with daud & delilah. fascinating!

she’s an outsider who has so much to lose, and knows what it's like to lose everything - having lost everything not once but three times - but nevertheless speaks truth to power. she's so brave! she went and helped Emily & Corvo and she must have known they might kill her! plus, she’s smart, she’s funny, she gets shit done, she’s gorgeous.

but... the meta

mild critique of fandom & arkane incoming.

skip this bit if you want - you've been warned twice now - jump to tired Hayao Miyazaki and read from there if you'd like my thoughts on writing her.

i thought Death of the Outsider was going to be amazing and then... well. *sad trombone* i've written about that before so i won't keep banging on. i figured others must be disappointed too, so I joined a few fandom spaces in hopes of finding camaraderie.

most people with complaints about DotO didn’t like how the Outsider and Daud were handled. which is valid & I agree. but it seemed like most paid no attention to Billie; when people talk about her it’s with respect to Daud, as opposed to in her own right. you could argue for fandom misogyny because people don’t talk about adult Emily Kaldwin that much either, but in Billie's case, it’s misogynoir (compare & contrast with the popularity of thomas, particularly the popularity of thomas portrayed as a white man for no particular reason that i've been able to discern - i keep asking around, is it in the books???).

i think this is a LOT better now than it used to be, which is fantastic. or perhaps i have found the correct echo-chamber? ha.

ultimately, The Fandom is a fraction of the entire picture, and not even the important bit since The Fandom is not who these games are made for. you can't make money relying on only your hardcore fans even if all of them spent a fortune on merch, this is true for any AAA game.

while it's true that Billie is underrated from a fandom perspective - but Billie as an underwritten protagonist is squarely Arkane’s fault.

it was reasonable when she was a side character - the lack of info in Dh2 makes perfect sense (if anything there was more lore in Dh2 which is kind of wild)-

- but as a protagonist in Death of the Outsider?

.... there’s lousy writing, and there’s whatever is going on with Billie Lurk, a black woman who mostly exists as a foil or saviour for light-skinned characters. In her own game there’s barely any of her own lore except where it's relevant to saving two dudes.

lore hints at, but barely touches on what race means in the Dh universe (xenophobia is stronger in Dh1; separate essay i guess), but Arkane has patted themselves on the back for portraying non-white characters, which feels like the same thing as the aesthetic of diversity we're seeing in advertising currently because it’s in marketing trend guides. it's self-congratulatory and it's a missed opportunity for deeper storytelling.

you can see an example of diversity at its most shallow in the way that Billie’s written: there’s little engagement with her as an entire person with history & wants & preferences, and the world she walks through in that game feels like it has nothing to do with her. you could make a case for alienation as a theme, but then, how do you handle the titular premise of 'Dishonored' without ever letting Billie make changes in an environment without a chaos system? it's disappointing from that angle too.

in my opinion, whatever it's worth, it was an accident Arkane created such an awesome character - they needed someone to betray daud. congrats billie.

all this said, it makes her an underdog as far as characters to enjoy & create art & stories for. it's nice to find so many like-minded, switched on people! <3

billie's character potential

she’s got a wealth of unexplored lore, being deeply intertwined with both Karnaca & Dunwall’s fates & criminal underbellies, as well as her connections to the witches & whalers, and three Empresses.

she’s lived a few distinct lifetimes and in the games we get to meet her at two peaks (KoD & DotO) & a low (Dh2 as Meagan).

her voice is very distinct, her dry & often dark humour is entertaining & fun to write. her perspective is really interesting - she’s had the widest variety of void-powers of anyone canonically, and she’s also lived through the highest highs and lowest lows.

she's got everything going for her :) i couldn't really pick a fav thing!

[ihatepeoplesomuchuwu]

@abyssleaves GIRL I FUCKING LOVE YOU HOLY SHIT. You dropped this queen 👑

This person right here, you have said it so perfectly and have inspired me to say something. I will also probably get hate but you know what? That's fine at this point 😎

This carnivorekitty situation? I'M SO OVER IT!!! I don't even 100% agree with tom but, most of you guys are getting upset at OPINIONS AND DARK HUMOR LIKE HOLY SHIT. I want you all to think about this. What part of it is beliefs? The belief of not understanding neopronouns? No no no he didn't say "hate." he said he didn't agree with them and wasn't going to hate people for using them. But nah, instead of maybe sitting down with a cup of tea, you all jumped the gun and said, "THE NERVE?! HE DOESN'T AGREE WITH ME?!". Pssst hey lean in close...... I don't understand them either 😐 If you approached me, though, and told me your pronouns, I would never hate you for using them. It is YOUR life and I will respect/use your pronouns(I use any pronouns btw UwU) and I can't tell you what to do, and as long as you're not hurting anyone, who cares right? But don't demand me to understand or get why because I don't want to, and I'm just too stupid to care.

ANYWAY TO THE TRANSPHOBIC TOPIC!! Okay, this confused me for so long on why people called him transphobic because even I understood that people of the lgbtq+ have different opinions on things and deal with stuff differently. Him saying that kids/teens having medication and surgeries are life changing and then most definitely are. Most medications are safe, but did you know that their was a birth control that was FDA approved and it worked for a long time! Until women started having babies missing limbs and parts of them. Medical stuff can happen at anytime, it being safe of not it can still happen. And the surgeries? I agree that people shouldn't have surgeries until they are 18. Why? Because you have jackasses that aren't trans/have medical needs who take advantage of that for their own benefits and you have people who find out that they are not trans/non-binary/so on later in life and detransition.

Also, can no one like dark humor anymore??? A trans person likes a dark humored trans meme it's end shattering, but people still adore famous people making 9/11 jokes? Yeah, okay, love you guys ❤️ and don't get me started on the nazi shit because WOW WE GOING FOR IT WITH THAT ONE!!! Did anyone read the post Tom made at all? Hm? He said, and I quote, "I don't see anything on how he's a nazi however, that seems like a stretch. However, if anyone can provide actual proof of these claims, you can let me know." He ASKED for proof and said he doesn't agree with all of his posts, yet all of you jumped on him instantly calling him a "nazi sympathizer"? I literally saw one, FUCKING ONE PERSON show him the proof of it instead of jumping him like zombies 🧟‍♂️ 🧟‍♀️

My last take is the pride parade stuff which is just silly to get mad about?? As a person who has basically raised my siblings as my own children and wanting kids of my own some day, I can understand about the not wanting children to see half naked people and honestly who would? What I get is that it is a pride parade and they are mostly known for people doing that, they usually make a flyer or post saying if it's going to happen orr not so please look first. What pisses me off is when people defend that and call them something-phobic for not agreeing 😑 "Agree to disagree" is perfectly put for this, People can have opinions on this without being hateful. You guys come OOON

That is all I have to say for this, I would touch on the racism aspect but I must say out of that whole thing I could understand why people were mad/hurt and I am a pale ass white-irish person who has never experienced racism(only the "HA HA YOU'RE AN ALCOHOLIC" jokes due to me being irish 🤣)so I have no right to say anything in that.

Anyway, I'm gonna just rant here, so feel free to hate on me in my inbox because I could honestly just chill with anyone even if they scream at me UwU

[heroing]

been in a bad mood the past day or so so idk if i will really be around.

[ballcrusher74]

if i took a shot every time someone used my art / my oc as their pfp or whole layout without any sort of credit, i'd be dead rn

[makorra-scarf]

Im not aure if you're still active, it's fine if you're not, but I'm still upset makorra didn't happen. They had so many cinematic cues it's upsetting. Sincerely, someone who recently rewatched LOK.

Hi hi! I'm not super active on this blog anymore, but every once in a blue moon I'll reblog stuff lol.

I'm also still sad about makorra ;_; the setup was there and everything, it's honestly confusing and frustrating just from a cinematic standpoint.

I've been cooking an LOK rewrite in my brain for a long time, and maybe one day I'll post it, haha. There's so many things in the series that I wasn't satisfied with, so I think it could be a fun project (not that I'm a professional or anything haha).

Thanks for the message! (Your avatar is very cute btw!)

[pedrostylez]

I’ve been stressing for a few months now but I passed the first part of my licensed interior designer test yesterday 🎉🎉🎉

Now I can actually take time to read SMUT instead of INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE