#probably some unpopular opinions

[museaway]

kudos don't determine worth

[birthofvcnus]

Arthur Morgan & Mary Gillis; a web weaving

Florence + the Machine; The Bomb // Ethel Cain (feat. Lil Aaron); Michelle Pfeiffer // Slipknot; Snuff // Sky Ferreira; Everything Is Embarrassing

[trappedinafantasy37]

🔥

"I wanna make Minthara nice!" "I wanna make Minthara good!" "I wanna make Minthara less evil!". Shut up. Seriously. Shut the hell up. Making the bad guy good is sooooo cliche and overdone at this point. Plus, Minthara is as great as she is because she is evil and is selectively nice to the ones she likes.

Baldur's Gate 3 is all about subverting expectations. So let's subvert expectations shall we. We shouldn't be talking about making the evil guys better. We should be talking about making the good guys worse. I want to make Wyll and Karlach evil. I'm gonna ramble a little bit...

The potential for a corruption plot is literally built into Wyll's storyline with him having a literal devil on his shoulders the whole time. I mean, we can kinda get a glimpse of how that corruption would work in Act 1 when it comes to Wyll facing Karlach. Not to mention, Wyll being the son of the Grand Duke and having his father and city turn their backs on him after sacrificing his soul to save everyone would also present a perfect opportunity for Wyll to just say "fuck 'em". But can you just imagine the story potential of Grand Duke Wyll Ravengard who is still pacted with Mizora? The absolute utter nightmare that would bring cause then the Hells would have control of Baldur's Gate?

The only real way to even play a corrupt Wyll is to do his origin. But it would be so much more fascinating to BE one of the influences in his corruption. This would also make his decision to break the pact so much more impactful and it would be HIS choice. Now I have always firmly held the belief that when it comes to his pact, it is always up to the player because Wyll will always make the same choice and he will always choose his father. So, it has to be the players choice if you want some different outcome. Wyll choosing his father may end up having him sell his soul to Zariel for eternity, but it doesn't corrupt him or change it. But, what if it did? What if we had the ability to have a negative impact on Wyll and this choice would be him making a choice of his soul in whether or not he wants to be a good man or to listen to the corrupting voices around him. Because, to his core, Wyll is a good man. But that good nature can be overpowered by the influences around him. If anything, this scene could play out similarly to how it does for Shadowheart and the Nightsong.

And Karlach, oh Karlach. I love my fiery ball of sunshine. But I find it so odd that someone who spent every single day for 10 years fighting a war isn't the least bit hardened by it. No anxiety, no PTSD, no paranoia, no trust issues. It's actually amazing that Karlach comes out as nice as she is from the Blood War, but is a missed opportunity. As refreshing as it is, I do find it strange that she comes out so trusting of people and having so much faith in others. If Karlach was a little bit more mistrusting and a little bit more paranoid, it would be an easy little thing to leverage into making her worse.

A lot of Karlachs story kinda reminds me of the main plot of Cyberpunk 2077 where you have a character who has a literal ticking time bomb within them. But I specifically wanna draw the parallels between Karlachs engine and the cybernetic enhancements. In Cyberpunk, there is this condition called "cyberpsychosis" in which someone just fucking snaps and goes bonkers and starts killing everything around them for no reason. There is no known reason as to why it happens and the only common element amongst all cyberpsychoes is that they have at least 1 cybernetic enhancement. There also is no way to prevent it from happening, no way to predict that it will happen, and no cure for cyberpsychosis. With Karlachs heart and a lot of her cardio vascular system having been replaced by an infernal engine, I feel like this would also serve great potential for internal corruption and have a fantasy version of "cyberpsychosis". Infernal magic is constantly coursing through her and she is literally on fire all the time. This should definitely have an impact on her. And the only way to prevent her from going full "cyberpsycho" is to do the upgrades with Dammon. Your decision at the grove and/or Last Light would have an impact on Karlachs future sanity.

She would be a ticking time bomb in more ways than one and it would be inevitable. Either she dies cause her enhancement gives out, or she loses her damn mind and you're forced to put her down. This is what would make her ending so much more tragic. It's already hard enough watching her burn on the pier. It would absolutely shatter my damn heart to have to put her down cause the engine corrupted her mind. The Avernus ending is damn near identical to the Sun ending in Cyberpunk 2077 as you have found a temporary way to halt the affliction, but no known way to cure it. Just the hope that there might be a cure.

How many times do we have to watch evil characters become better? Does that not get boring? Stop focusing on making evil companions better. Focus on making good companions worse. It's a hell of a lot more interesting but also adds a lot more nuance to their characters and makes them feel more alive. Especially when in all these cases, none of them are born evil or want to be evil, but are made evil by their circumstances. Being evil is easy, but being good is hard. Good is also what is expected of us. And I find it much more compelling to watch a good character fight the temptation of evilness, than to watch an evil character find annoyance in being good.

[godsfavoritescientist]

well hold on, if we define a character flaw as any limitation a character deals with, regardless of whether it's something Morally Wrong With Them or not, then Ford's paranoia counts as a character flaw since it does in fact negatively impact him and the people around him. Let me use better wording here: I will die on the hill that Ford's paranoia is not a moral failing.

[fiery-emblems]

People going off about the Engage height chart again. I gotta admit part of the reason I like Soren a little taller is that it makes sense, but part of the reason is that so many people who are adamant about Soren being a "short king" seem to be doing it because of yaoi tropes and I kind of hate that.

Why do like 90% of ship arts just straight up portray Soren as a girl. Why is he suddenly a meek UwU soft boy?

[darkscaleswriter]

after the 5th anniversary poster released, i finally finished the macaque-focused courtesy call amv that has been sitting in my files for months now, and given the s5 trailer drop today, this seems like as good a time as any to post it lol. might make some edits later but here's version 1, looking forward to watching more monkie kid!!

Song: Courtesy Call by Thousand Foot Krutch

Program: Kdenlive

[nonokoko13]

Call me Mahoro because I also think her brother is hot af Btw the plot twist in this series is that Arajin is going take his crush last name but not because of her. Sorry for the spoilers peace and love in the planet Earth

And could somebody make this Marito teddy bear real? It's a basic and essential need atp

[goosewhumps]

idk maybe it’s just me but i’m a bit annoyed that so many prompts on whumpblr need to have a whumper in them. don’t get me wrong, i get the appeal and i do like whump with whumpers in it sometimes but there’s so much you can do without one and it feels like most people just ignore it

[doodle-list]

A character can be problematic sure, hell that makes them complex and interesting. But if everyone around them (including the writers and the fans, not just people in universe) treats them as unproblematic or sweeps their flaws under the rug, we got a problem

Like the character themselves can think they’re unproblematic sure, but dude making it so they’ve done nothing wrong and never addressing it, thats not a strong badass character, thats just a badly written one

[thewritingpossum]

Hold on, Kathr*n Warn*r recently published a book exclusively about Edward II's sexuality and relationships?

[reivenesque]

I honestly feel that anime watchers nowadays are so spoiled for animation quality. I see people constantly complaining about the animation of One Punch Man season 2 and I just saw criticism about the animation quality of the first episode of Goblin Slayer season 2.

And I'm over here like... I literally did not notice the 'dip in quality' of OPM season 2 until I saw the complaints and regardless in some aspects I enjoy season 2 even more than season 1, the animation issue literally did not hinder my enjoyment at all. As for Goblin Slayer, I haven't seen the episode yet but the pictures I've seen the animation looks... great?

But then again I have sat through the literal ugly episodes of Fushigi Yugi, Gundam SEED and Naruto so all of the animation nowadays is gorgeous to me.

It's the same as people complaining about the CGI of One Piece Live Action while also complaining about the prosthetics and the fact that Arlong isn't a 10 foot tall humanoid fishman that he is in the anime. I mean like, there's literally zero compromise with some people and that seems like such an exhausting way to live.

[n0heart]

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[smallblueandloud]

so i've been thinking about the universal translator as depicted in star trek. a UT has to do two things: help the wearer understand and be understood. it's easy to imagine how it helps the wearer understand -- it's embedded in people's minds somehow, so it messes with their language comprehension centers to give them the meaning of what they've just heard/seen. but how does it help the wearer be understood when they're talking to people who don't have the UT installed to help them understand? i can see two possible explanations:

option 1: the UT edits sound as it comes out of the wearer's mouth (or their motions if they're signing/writing)

option 2: the UT telepathically (?) goes into the AUDIENCE'S brain so that THEY understand. it doesn't change anything about how the wearer communicates.

cons of option 1: there are probably some languages whose sounds are impossible to make via human mouths (i think cardassian is supposed to be one of these languages).

cons of option 2: probably considered extremely invasive by some; wouldn't work for species that are psi-null; requires that the UT can figure out how to translate a new language AND a strange species' language centers all at the same time.

personally i lean towards option 1, but i'm curious what you guys think!

also because this is star trek there's a GOOD CHANCE this has been explained canonically and if so please let me know!

[ettadunham]

man, why must i be restricted to 3 party members, this is torture

[autisticlee]

the whole "you shouldn't identify as X, don't form an identity when you can't/don't know yet, you're too young, what if/you might change your mind!" etc etc. it's so silly when you think about it. what's wrong with changing your mind anyway? why did we all decide that gender/sexuality identity has to be static and can never change? why did we decide that it's a bad thing to change? because the old generation tells us change is bad? because they (mostly conservatives) want to conserve "the good old days/the way things are supposed to be" in their minds???

WHO CARES if someone says they're gay then realizes 5 years later they're bi. WHO CARES if someone says they're a girl and realizes after trying it out they're not. let people explore who they are until they figure it out even if they go through every lable available to them! maybe none fit and they make up their own! who cares! who cares if they change it every year for the rest of their lives! humans change. that's the only constant about us! why is it a bad thing, even taboo, to accept change and exploration within sexuality and gender specifically?

there's always so much shame that comes with someone realizing they were wrong, changing as a person, or discovering something new about themselves. i've seen people afraid to explore themselves more or afraid to talk about a change in identity, for fear of the queer community pushing back on them the same way they're afraid to come out to the cishets in their life who are trans/homophobic. that's just not fair that their own community can become hostile towards them, too. being in a closet within a bigger closet essentially. everyone is always told to figure it all out first before claiming an identity, because then you're locked in it for life, apparently. you can't change your mind after that. why though? what's the point of that really? why can't we embrace fluidity a bit more? why can't we accept that humans do change all the time? why is making and trying to prove that these identities are static/unchanging/innate the only way to validate them? why can't they just, I don't know, BE VALID. without reason. why must we jump through hoops to be valid when we should just automatically be valid because we are human. stop letting the cishets gatekeep everything, leading to us gatekeeping each other!

I am sometimes very hesitant to talk about my own identity. I identified as a gay/biromantic trans guy for like idk 8-10 years? transitioned and everything. then like a year or two ago, I realized/decided that doesn't fit right anymore. now i'm a nonbinary, but also kinda fluid, aroace person. sometimes I don't like to talk about that because of the stigma behind changing your gender/sexuality identities. but you know what. i'll talk about it anyway and people have to learn to accept it.

what were the consequences and bad parts about changing my mind/identity like that? none. absolutely none. (outside of people being weird about it for no reason) but the benefits are feeling more comfortable with myself, and that's no one else's business.

[bearenjoyers]

tbh i’ve been helping some people fight elden beast and now that i actually understand its fight i actually don’t mind it as much it’s very chill and i don’t really think it runs away as much as i used to think??? it attacks and it sits there a bit to let you get one or two fully charged heavy attacks off and then it moves into a different move. no different than anybody else and once you kind of understand what it’s doing and the timings of everything it’s completely fine. at least it isn’t placidusax teleporting everywhere and you’re just waiting for it to stop and it’s not stopping