#maybe it will turn out fine in the end

[coffee-with-mint-syrup]

Look, I didn't want to be "that" person

who criticizes something just because "it was different in the books".

But I love PJO just way too much to not feel frustrated at the tendencies of modern adaptations that I think new series is suffering from. And I feel much more frustrated because in others aspects the new show is great.

First of all, what's with this downplayed brutality of PJO world? The moment Sally started her speech about Perseus I smelled trouble. In her story, in her reasoning she named him after Perseus because of this beautiful story where happy ending is just something that happens. While in the books thats a huge deal that Percy is named after THE ONLY HALF-BLOOD HERO that had that happy ending. That fact is supposed to highlight the mortality rates and that for most of these demigods happy ending is pretty much NOT IN PROSPECT. Like, despite that rambling post I'm usually fine with some differences that are made in adaptations, most of them I usually can understand. But why do you need change the message of "I named you that way because I hope you will live happily ever after despite being in constant danger" to "I named you that way because it's a beautiful story about a mother and a son"? Especially when they absolutely could do both?

Secondly, the Gabe issue. You see, Percy Jackson books were great because they were able to discuss with children some pretty heavy themes without downplaying them - like domestic abuse. And that scene with poker players and Gabe getting from Percy money was brilliant because it showed that Gabe was so awful that he took everything he could even from a 12 y.o. There were also heavy implications that he beat Percy. But now Gabe is just your usual jerk who is lazy and doesn't have a good relationship with his stepson and argues with his wife all the time. Look, I know, that is awful too, I know that. But the point of Gabe that he was absolutely the worst. That he's the worst of the worst that's why he smells on this metaphysical level and is able to hide Percy. That he kinda deserved what happened to him in the end. And now I sure that we won't get that end because apparently that stuff is too brutal for kids. If they're afraid that much younger audience would get shocked by it they could at least do that in hints, you know. Old shows were great with things that you didn't understand as a child and then later while rewatching them you finally could get the message.

And what's with this Grover thing? Okay, I understand they probably didn't have the time for establishing why Percy would feel betrayed by his teacher but wanted to save this "low point" for Percy's character. But why? Why? How Percy as a character and we as viewers are supposed to feel that amazing friendship if it started for us with betrayal? That just sucked.

Also, personal flaw - they really could insert "This is a pen" line when Brunner gave Percy the pen. They really could and that would be so awesome. But they didn't.

And the sad part is that now I understand that there was no way they could include this important stuff in the series. Because Disney is too afraid to show domestic abuse. They afraid to show Sally Jackson that put up with heavy abuse just to keep her son safe. They afraid to show that literal children die in PJO world. That that half-blood stuff is no game - as Percy said in the very first minute of the series. For fuck's sake they didn't even mention him having ADHD! They implied that by saying that he was being weird! That was so so so so important that those things that kids with ADHD are struggling make them so special and strong in their own way. And now that message is gone too.

And all of that is because Disney doesn't have any balls left. It's like they sanitize everything they make into that 0+ versions of stories while sometimes the point of the story is in discussing something from a real, sad and unsanitized world.

The stuff I listed is just from the first episode and I don't know if the show will go that way, if this tendency of sanitizing the story will continue or not. I'm just really afraid that all of that means that they decided to leave out all the brutality that made Percy Jackson so iconic. It is like watching this new version of Harry Potter where he doesn't live under the stairs - that maybe doesn't change much story-wise but it's just not the same Harry Potter that way.

I want to like the show, I really do. Walker is so amazing is this role. Other actors are really great. I see the effort, I see how people tried to make this adaptation as close to books as they could. The show looks truly amazing. The fight with minotaur was absolutely stunning. Ending sequence is a masterpiece. I have so many good things I can say about it. But those little things they changed - they weren't little at all. A huge chunk of what made those books so special at least for me is gone (especially in comparison with Harry Potter books). And I can't help feeling sad.

[kagoutiss]

play dead

[herearedragons]

tag the oc that's most likely to get stuck in a time loop and what kind of time loop it would be

[i-lavabean]

WIP

[moongothic]

You know I am gonna go on a limb and say that Dragon isn't a bad father who "abandoned his child"

Like we didn't need confirmation that Dragon is an ex-marine to come to this conclusion, but it does add to the fact that Dragon would've known that if he ever fathered a child, that child would be in grave danger simply for being Dragon's child. Dragon would've known he couldn't have stayed with his child

The Government went out of its way to hunt for the Pirate King's literal unborn child, hurting countless people, innocent pregnant women, their husbands and babies in the process. Because Roger's blood was "evil" and so was the child for carrying that same "evil blood"

And mere years after the hunt for Roger's child, the Government would put a gigantic bounty on an 8 year old child because she could read forbidden texts. And we know the Ohara Incident became the final straw that transformed the Freedom Fighters into the Revolutionary Army.

Dragon was the head of that Army. Even without being an ex-marine, he would have known that the government would treat his child (and partner) the exact same as Ace and Robin. But knowing he was an ex-marine, it might have even given him extra insight into just how fucking bad the Government was

The Army would have been no place to raise a child in general

And being raised in the Army would've robbed the child from ever having any freedom, the ability to choose from themselves who or what they wanted to become and make their own path

If Dragon ever wanted Luffy to be free, he could not have kept the child with him. The child had to be left somewhere safe, away from him. And if Dragon knew Ace had been entrusted to Garp, then he would've been 100% certain Garp would be willing to take care of his son (as Garp was clearly bending the laws for Roger's kid, like surely he'd then do the same for his own grandkid)

Dragon was in a shit situation and in the end, I do genuinely believe he did the best thing he could to give his child a future by not endangering him with his own existence

[animentality]

people were upsetting me in the comments on one of my fanfic chapters, so I just deleted it.

i was going to write 5 chapters, but since I deleted one, and don't feel like posting the other one now, I think it's fine to just leave it as a trilogy.

man.

i'm not sure.

am I losing my touch, or is that particular fandom really touchy?

i swear I never got this much complaining when I wrote durgetash porn...

maybe it's because that's a more adult fandom.

i don't know.

feels bad, though. kinda feels bad.

[orcelito]

Super sexy me is so sexy I accidentally set off the fire alarm while baking pie shells for my pumpkin pie. And now I don't know if I should've even baked them in the first place. But well. Too late now 👍

[kakusu-shipping]

I love Iroh he's a top tier character but every time I've ever committed to making an S/I for him it ends up a bust and I never figured out why, he'd just sit on the backburn with a half baked Self Insert until I'd scrap the whole thing. He's been on and off the F/O list more than any other character.

Was it the dynamic? My plots? Was it not interesting enough, did I feel like a background character? Or was it TOO interesting and take away from Iroh pre-existing narrative? Am I weaved in enough? Are we believable if I was canon? Why isn't this working?

Upon rewatch I once again began my song and dance of find a plot I like and build into it, and I am once again hitting a wall. I decided to really sit down with this one, run through all my plots and drafts, run ever S/I at once and see why none of them are sticking.

That's how I finally I realized, it's Zuko. My wall is Zuko

Iroh loves Zuko more than he would ever love me, that's why none of my plots were working, because at some point it has to be about just Him and Zuko.

It's kinda interesting getting your heart broken by a fictional character...

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

This week on "CJ needs to gush about DAO": Morrigan's dark ritual.

I adore Origins because depending on how serious you take roleplay, every decision you make is a thread that leads back to your origin, and in this case of the ritual, who you choose to romance can have a major impact on how you handle this choice.

For context, my canon run is with a female Tabris who romances Alistair and keeps him as a Grey Warden, and is close friends with Morrigan. It's more in character for my Tabris to reject Morrigan's ritual and not even bring it up to Alistair, which would result in her leaving him behind while she makes the ultimate sacrifice in killing the archdemon... however, agreeing to convince Alistair to do the ritual with Morrigan is the only choice in the entire game where I break roleplay because I'm selfish and weak and I want Tabris to live.

I have a lot of strong feelings about the ritual, like it hurts me. It makes me want to chew on furniture. I can talk about it until I can talk no more. I so badly want to be strong enough to remain in character and reject the ritual.

Let me explain: Tabris survives an origin that deals with sexual assault. She gets kidnapped on her wedding day, she watches the other kidnapped women and her husband get murdered, and then is too late to save Shianni from being assaulted... and Tabris carries that trauma with her throughout the entire game.

If the way to save her life is to ask the two most important people she cares about; one being her lover and the other being her best friend; who she knows hate each other, to have dubiously consensual sex in order to make a baby to absorb the old god soul... she's saying no. The last thing Tabris would ever do is put someone into a sexual situation where consent is at all dubious after what she saw happen to Shianni and nearly happened to herself. She'd rather die than force that upon Alistair and Morrigan.

That's what I mean when I say origin affects everything; I know some will side eye that with "Really? Your warden would rather die than let Alistair sleep with another woman? It's one time, and Alistair agrees to it, so no one needs to die?"

Let me be clear in saying this isn't a "Morrigan slept with my man" issue. Sure, that part's awkward and it sucks, but that's not even breaking water tension, let alone diving into the deep waters to the core of the issue.

For my Tabris, this is about betrayal, consent, and accepting fate.

The person offering Tabris this deal is someone she thought of as a trusted friend who has actually been lying to her the entire time. It doesn't matter what Morrigan's intentions are now or if she genuinely wants to save the wardens. She knew from the beginning why Flemeth sent her with them, she admits as much. She knew a warden would need to make the ultimate sacrifice and then leveraged that to get what she wants. Morrigan waited until the night before, when Alistair and the warden learn one of them has to die to defeat the archdemon, and took advantage of the high running emotions and possibly the fear of dying to make the warden agree to her ritual.

At least, that's how my Tabris interprets this confrontation. She feels betrayed by someone she came to love like a sister and went out of her way to help Morrigan with her mother upon learning what's in Flemeth's grimoire. And then that someone tells her no one needs to die, she just needs to convince Alistair to sleep with her... which is a huge fucking problem.

The Alistair and Tabris romance is slow; it took a long time for either of them to be comfortable with being emotionally vulnerable and trusting each other with basic intimacy, let alone sex. Tabris is mortified at the idea of putting Alistair in this situation. Not only would it feel like a betrayal on her part to ask that of him, but she knows the last thing Alistair ever wants to do is father a bastard who then goes on to grow up without him. How could she possibly ask him to do that?

Then you consider that ritual or no, there isn't a guarantee that they'll survive anyway. Say they do the ritual and Tabris dies anyway; she made Alistair sleep with Morrigan in order to save her and then she died anyway. Or if Alistair dies then Tabris gets to live with the fact that the last person Alistair was with was a woman he hates because she asked that of him… and either way, Morrigan gets to walk away with what she wanted.

Tabris led the group, and she's accepted that if Riordan dies [which he does] then she'll be the one to make the sacrifice, even if it means breaking both hers and Alistair's heart.... except she doesn't because I'm a coward who doesn't want to lose her because my worldstate isn't good without her in it but I also refuse to lose Alistair so I just pretend it plays out differently in my head it's fine-

But... that's how I play Tabris and view the situation. My friend @pi-creates and I have discussed the dark ritual at length. While I play a Tabris who romances Alistair, Pi plays a Mahariel who romances Morrigan, so we have vastly different interpretations of the ritual itself and Morrigan's intentions.

Which yeah, it makes total sense that someone who romanced Morrigan with a different origin, and has the option to do the ritual with her rather than asking someone else to do it, wouldn't see this the way I do.

To quote Pi: "Playing as a male warden in the Morrigan romance makes the whole situation feel different, and maybe it’s because she’s presenting it differently due to the emotional connection, but it feels more like she’s opening up about her initial instructions (that she had been given by Flemeth) and offering a solution to avoid the possibility of death. And for my Mahariel, the constant threat of sudden death has haunted him from the start – he caught the blight and was ripped away from his clan (something he did not want to do in the slightest), got forced into a Grey Warden ritual that could kill him, was forced into a battle that could kill him, going on this whole quest that he never wanted but has now become responsible for regardless of his thoughts on the matter… the dark ritual may be one of the few moments where he is presented with an option to decide if he wants to walk into certain death, or take actions of his own volition to stop it.

"The idea of the ritual still feels like a dodgy thing to do since the ultimate outcome is unknown at that point, he’s taking Morrigan at her word that it will save the warden and that this child would be unharmed, just with an old god soul that she isn’t exactly clear on why she wants that and is determined to runaway immediately after the battle to secure it properly. It could be interpreted that it’s purely a preservation thing, but I’m biased to wanting Morrigan's intentions to not be power based.

"But also, taking part in the ritual isn’t as outlandish for my warden since he and Morrigan have already been involved in an intimate relationship. It’s the future of the ritual that is scarier – the idea of this old-god baby, and the idea of Morrigan insisting that she’s leaving afterwards when Mahariel and her have a loving relationship. He’s hurting, but he doesn’t want to die, he doesn’t want Alistair to die, he doesn’t want Morrigan to leave, he definitely doesn’t want pregnant Morrigan to leave on her own… it’s complicated, but for completely different reasons."

And I find that fascinating. I want to know how other players approach this part of DAO, what origins they play, and who they romanced. Seriously, this is an invitation to anyone reading to share their thoughts.

What about a warden who doesn't even have Alistair in their party because they made Loghain a warden? Is there anyone out there who has Loghain do the ritual with Morrigan and why? What about male wardens who don't romance her? Do you choose to do it with her anyway, or do you ask Alistair or Loghain to do it? Do you tell Morrigan to fuck off with the ritual? Why? Who makes the ultimate sacrifice in that case? And what about Morrigan herself? How do you interpret her intentions/motivations? I want to know.

I'm telling you, this is a discussion that gets me excited, as most discussions about DAO do.

[faaun]

ok let's catch up quickly

[thesunoficarus1]

attempting to write my first fanfic and I'm already throwing myself into the deep end by making it both involve law and medical issues I know nothing about. google is about to be very tired of me.

[ahollowgrave]

Thinking more thoughts about WOL!Odette...

Specifically how she's a young, naïve nun who is crafted into a god killer by a woman who loves her and who she loves in turn. How Odette had been told her whole life in the convent that she was destined to be a saint. Of course she would be 'The' Warrior of Light, of course she's Hydaelyn's chosen, of course she and Minfilia fall in love. How this means she never questions the Scion's motives or care for her. She and Minfilia work so well because they understand their roles perfectly. Not always happily but they are both women of deep faith. Faith in Menphina, faith in Hydaelyn, faith in their comrades, faith in each other. They work so well because neither can place the other and their own happiness in front of their duty, their faith. That total understanding must be so freeing for them, to be able to love as fully as they can and knowing it's enough for their partner. Odette spends most of Heavensward with a knot of grief for a heart. She tries so hard not to borrow grief from the future but it is hard not to when they just don't know about Minfilia for so long. But there is so much going on in Heavensward and without Minfilia to consistently come back to I think she's very adrift. More than ever, this expansion is when she is most like a silent protagonist. I can't even touch that scene at the end of Heavenswards. You know the one. I did already talk about Minfilia in Shadowbringers...

[wayfayrr]

I hope life eases up soon man, take care of yourself

Thanks mate <3

stuff's starting to gradually get better now, actually let myself feel feelings after bottling them till it popped

just kinda turns out that throwing yourself into something so you're numb to the other things can really burn you out :') So I'm trying to find motivation to write and answer asks again, I'm hoping it'll be soon but idk atp

[ihamtmus]

.

[thatonecrookedsmile]

"I tried to warn you. I really did. But its too late now. He's coming."

Here comes the Yellow Rabbit.

-----

Five nights really is looking like a horror movie now, huh?

After a painful week of avoiding spoilers (I ended up being spoiled anyway lol) I finally managed to watch the FNAF movie last Thursday. I really liked it! I had a very positive experience at the end of the day. Cool film.

I've been doing this drawing for a while now. I started this one some time before the film came out. The idea had come to me a while ago, but this drawing only really started to shape like,one week and a half before the 27th. The initial idea was partially created while I was putting together the film with the scenes in the trailers and TV spots in my head. You know, trying to predict how the movie is going to play out. And I thought that this, this and this scene were all taking place on the same night. Which i guess it turned out to be the case. (Also, notice how none of these images are in the film itself lol)

After watching the film, I only had to slightly modify a few details here and there, and boom, drawing completed.

I know I've said this about other drawings of mine, but I'm proud of this one. Happy to not only finish this, but that it turned out good.

It's been a good while since I drew something FNAF related. Nice to finally be able to do what I was saying I was going to do since 2021 lol.

But,yeah! the FNAF Movie. Neat movie. I want to watch it again (at home obviously, it's not like I can go to the cinema again anytime soon haha)

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

If I get another email I am gonna scream and cry and throw up (I’m not)