#not too compelled to fix it.

[unexpectedbrickattack]

short king and his shorter kings

[bonefall]

Feel free to ignore you've probably got a lot going on right now, but considering you know a lot about DOTC and Clear sky, I had a question...

We know that he's a terrible, misogynistic, woman beating and war mongering lunatic who was excused of all his actions because his equally misogynistic brother said " But-But he's nice! Deep down! This isn't the real him! "

But! In a world where the Hunters could write such a character, what do you think Clear Sky would look like as an actual sympathetic villain?

Idk if that makes sense, but what I've thought of doing is taking purely cannon Clear Sky and attempting to change him enough that he's still an antagonist, but not too far where only Reddit defends him.

I don't think he works as a sympathetic villain, on any level, ever. I think you're making a huge mistake to even try, and I have never seen an AU where it was done well nor am I interested in entertaining the thought.

Characters. Are. Tools. They exist to tell a story. The story that people tell me, by obsessing over some alternate universe where he was "ACTUALLY sympathetic and had a REAL redemption arc," is that they're not fucking interested in his dozens of victims. Nor do they actually care about the abusive impact he had on the minds and feelings of his family. They're JUST interested in Clear Sky himself.

Just like the Erins. Everything that happens in DOTC revolves around him. Everything. All his wives die so he can be sad about it. His brother defends all of his actions and BEGS you to sympathize with his pain so he can be 'redeemable.' One Eye comes out of nowhere so that there can be an example of "real" evil to contrast Clear Sky so he's less bad in hindsight.

The first three books of DOTC are bad, but the last three are fucking insufferable because SUDDENLY all that Gray Wing apologia pays off, and they take their main villain and throw him out a window. You CAN'T have "redeemable" Clear Sky and the plot of DOTC without dragging in someone else to drive the conflict, to BE the bigger threat to "unite" against. Slash and One Eye have to be conjured up out of thin air so Clear Sky can WHINE about how people only suck his toes instead of deepthroat them after he killed all their friends.

And yet, in spite of this absolute failure of an attempt, we continue to see this bullshit "redemption" be a mistake because Clear Sky is a fantastic villain, with major antagonist roles in nearly EVERY bit of follow-up material for DOTC that came after.

He's the most consistent monster in all of Warriors.

He's a fragile, egotistical, self-absorbed megalomaniac who ALWAYS sees himself as the victim, REFUSING to self-reflect and blaming everything else for all of his terrible choices. He will USE your love of him against you like it's a chain through your nose, step out of line and he will yank you into place with guilt trips, manipulation, public shaming, and violence.

He's a child abuser. He's a tyrant. He abandons the sick and disabled as soon as they're of no use to him, with grand speeches about "illness" and "weakness." He's a murderer who stands above the shredded corpse of his victim and bellows, "I'M NOT GREEDY! I'M JUST STRONG!"

And you'd write a "good" redemption arc for this, why?

Why are people so chronically unable to accept that there are LOTS of people like him, and you can't save your abuser? Why don't you ask yourselves why you're not interested in exploring Thunder, or Petal, or Gray Wing, and how his toxic influence impacts them? Why does the sympathy fall on Clear Sky? What about the DOZENS of victims who are dead by Book 3, and how THEY could have been saved?

Why ruin a perfectly good villain?

What's behind this trend where a billion people say to me, "Yes Clear Sky is a walking cavalcade of fucked up abuse apologia, and an incredibly realistic depiction of an abuser, but how would you change this while keeping it all the same?"

I wouldn't. You can't. It wouldn't be the same story, or it wouldn't be the same character. Never seen it done well, and I have seen it a lot. So I don't entertain this deeply frustrating "Well What If Clear Sky But Nice" impulse.

[yashley]

laudna: that way we can message each other. fearne: oh right lol

[kithj]

fr how are there NO vampire rpgs that are actually good with cc and a fun story and that don't blow up my computer im losing my mind

[perenlop]

i feel like there's definitely this pressure online to be obsessed with tumblr or twitters favorite show of the week no matter what and i think as someone who doesnt really engage with a lot of things as theyre coming out, it's a bit easier to see that, and i think it's good to kinda go "am i watching this bc im actually interested in the premise or just bc its the darling show of the month"? and its not a bad thing if it doesnt vibe with you.

i say this as sort of a long winded way of saying that despite the premise feeling like it was tailor made for me in every way that i did not latch on to mp100 the way everyone else in my circle seemed to LOL

[northern-passage]

Hi, I was wondering if you’ll ever make the old Patreon art/writing public since iirc you don’t intend to reactivate it for a long time? I was a member while it was active but I accidentally updated my app so I can’t view them anymore, I understand if you can’t/won’t though.

i can do that if people are interested! particularly thinking about those harvest festival snippets i wrote, those are well over a year (maybe even 2 years? time is fake) old and were on patreon the entire time & it's almost fall here... i say thru clenched teeth while it's still 100 degrees outside....

the majority of the snippets that were up were definitely like closing in on at least a year old so i do think it's been long enough and it would be fair to post them now... maybe i'll pick a random week and post them all one day at a time lmfao since iirc there's at least one for each companion (thinking specifically about the nsfw ones)

the art i don't plan to repost here though, mainly because i don't like it anymore 💀 but also because i dislike the way tumblr is handling their content moderation and i'm not interested in getting this blog flagged after 3 years because some human moderator decided my tasteful nude drawings of trans people (that 100% follow tumblr guidelines btw) are actually too offensive for their delicate constitution... but that's a whole other complaint for another post lmfao. i haven't had any issues at least with posting written nsfw so i'm less hesitant about posting that stuff instead.

but yeah i think maybe next month i can do the harvest festival snippets for october? i'll probably edit them a little bit since they're so old but i think that could be fun :-)

[jahiera]

sorry I'm gonna cringepost again.

there's something I need to expel from my brain in terms of how astarion grapples and feels resentment/disgust/derision toward the concepts of heroics and ""good"" people and the way that emrys craves deeply to be good but will ultimately always fall short of the mark (in her own mind, at least) because she's too angry + too violent + too impulsive + too outraged (toward injustice, cruelty, in the world), the paladin ideal will never be met. and how when they're put together in the same room they line up to smack each other RIGHT in the thing theyre sensitive about. astarion lays out clearly the failures of the very foundations of her belief systems, makes her grapple with the things that are too extreme, whats long since become burdens to her, and she forces him to endure the fact that there are at least a few people in the world that are willing to fight with him and for others. and they're both? scrappy people, really. and go hard in the opposite directions but on the same wavelength of... interaction; both snarky, stubborn, toe to toe on everything, admirable of resilience. sort of forced together by circumstance, but completely filling in the gaps the other's got going on. it's just where he's got the lying and the charades and the bullshit and she is so Brusque and bludgeoning through at all times that the charade is moot. completely antithetical to everything he's been doing for the last 200 yrs, which is as irritating as it can maybe be refreshing. and he makes her laugh. WHICH IS NICE.

[mediumsizedpidegon]

thinking about Shang Qinghua as a calamity again...

[jils-things]

since i have laras permission to post shit he made heres another favorite old art done by her ☝️☝️

this literally summarizes everything there is to know about these guys

[forevercloudnine]

on again and off again and on again and

batcat break up and/or hook up playlist (Spotify || Youtube)

Too Close Sir Chloe // Lost Kitten Metric // Blah Blah Blah The Oozes // Wet Dazey and the Scouts // get him back! Olivia Rodrigo // Rehab People Planet // Margarita Spin Doctors // Paris Kate Nash // Denial Thing Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra (Spotify Alt: Gives You Hell All-American Rejects) // I Really F**cked It Up GIRLI // Good in Bed Dua Lipa

[reiverreturns]

this might not be a hot new theory but i'm pretty sure the venn diagram of people who choose to romance astarion in baldur's gate 3 and people who choose to romance sebastian in stardew valley is a circle

[mustangs-flames]

Alt!Cesar : They said they liked me

Alt!Thatch : "Liked you"? Please , that's demented

Alt!Cesar : But I-

Alt!Thatch : This is why you never should have left / My side. / Sweet one , this whole "friendship" that you've invented just proves , you're too naive to be without me . Why would they like you? Come on now , really? Look at yourself , you think he will forgive you! Don't be a fool , come back to me . I know you better than you do yours-

Alt!Cesar : No!

Alt!Thatch : .... "No"?

yeahhh, there's definitely that Mother Gothel level of manipulation going on between alt!Cesar and the deer alternate in Part 6

[completely-legit]

@closertotheheartofthesunrise this was languishing in my fix later folder but you're welcome to it in its cursed state

(guide to download since I don't have a proper host)

also sorry for the multiple pings its 2 am and tumblr is refusing to let this post upload correctly

[ann-beth]

I need to ask, this is a question that pops up in my head every few months but not properly in words; (also I came into this fandom pretty late, the au's were already established - I should remember, my first UT fanfic i read was "Hand in Hand" and that was UTMV jumping lol)

If the Genocide (megalovania) fight wasn't a thing, if our punny boyo couldn't go super saiyan on us, who wouldve been the character we'd be this obsessed with? (Let's be real atleast half the au's I've seen are a direct nod to this fight)

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

anyway back to thinking about fionna and cake for the night because simon compels me

[smallhatlogan]

I don’t think the good Dark Urge who rejects Bhaal should be able to just get “cured” of their bhaalspawn status. I think it would be more interesting if they had to learn to live with their urges and never really lose the connection to their past self’s atrocities. Like having the potential to be that monster yet still choosing to be good