#rants and thoughts

[steel-and-fire]

// I really wanna talk about Fen. So I will.

So, I always had trouble deciding Fen's involvement with magic. Spellcasting was almost always out of the question (almost, the idea of having a cantrip or two played in my head and was even a thing during his first appearance), but most importantly, I couldn't decide how much magic should be involved in his blacksmithing.

Could he make magic items? Could he apply runes to them? Should he only be a simple, metal focused blacksmith? Should he apply his earthen dragon powers to his creations but just that?

And if so, does he still know about magic? Can he understand and identify the properties of a magic blade if he finds one?

It's been a lot of thought and a lot of ideas and even now I'm not fully certain what path to follow on this.

What is certain is that Ferenir has a natural connection to rock, stone and metal. I may call his powers 'earthen' often, because the themes tend to overlap, but not always, and it's not accurate. Ferenir is much more of a rock dragon than an earth one, if a distinction needs to be made.

And I think that what he enjoys is taking that stone or metal and forming them into creations, bringing them to life. I don't think he particularly likes or has fun making a sword that can spark lightning with a runic enchantment. That has nothing to do with the metal itself, and it doesn't really connect with him.

'Magic' is a rather strange word to begin with, as it is used to describe anything that is beyond the limits of our real world. In Song of Fire and Ice, Valyrian steel is treated as 'magical', although it has no 'magical' properties other than being extraordinary good and strong, and 'dragon glass' is, well, just obsidian.

The more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that Ferenir just likes stones, metals and interesting materials. Whether they are simple and mundane, like iron or steel, or fancy and rare, like mithral, adamantine or more, he is more than happy to work with them. And any 'magical properties' of the finished product are to arrive only by the materials themselves or the process itself.

An example is adamantine equipment in bg3, which has extraordinary properties just by material alone, without any magical enhancement on it.

All in all, I am now leaning that Ferenir's understanding and involvement with magic does not go beyond his encounters and experiences. He doesn't use runes and he doesn't enhance his creations with some special dragon magic of his own either.

He just really loves good, traditional blacksmithing. And he is good at it.

[nogenrealldrama]

Do you ever see a piece of media get released that triggers a physical need to pack it up and send it by time travel post to teenage you? Because while the Thing is excellent now, it would have been Groundbreaking to you if it came out 10 years ago. It would have rewritten your DNA. But 10 years ago, the damn Thing didn’t even exist.

[naneun-no]

💭 Thoughts and Questions 💭

Content: My thoughts on the backlash to the JITB physical release. This is rather long.

It feels necessary to preface this with I LOVE Jung Hoseok. I’m a fan. His solo release may damn well be my favorite of Ch. 2 so far. None of my thoughts are a criticism of him, moreso criticisms of the backlash to the physical release…

So, I’m trying to keep up with the drama surrounding the JITB physical release but maybe I’m just too out of the loop to understand?

I don’t buy physical copies (of almost anything). It’s just not a part of my fandom experience for any fandom I belong to. Hasn’t been for years, since most of the world and my household went digital. So maybe that’s why I didn’t get the uproar originally when everyone wanted a physical album, but I mostly ignored it. Now I see a lot of people chastising those who wanted a physical album (and apparently caused enough of a ruckus to get one) and I’m not getting things again.

Perhaps it’s because I work for a B2C (business to consumer) corporation and I’ve been in marketing for a decade, but to me this seems like a normal occurrence? That is: 1) customers want/like something/ a feature they’ve come to expect. 2) business doesn’t quite realize or foresee how much their customers like said feature. 3) business releases a version of their product without said feature, to switch things up or for budgetary reasons or whatever. 4) customers go “hey what the hell, where’s that feature we like?!” and business is forced to 5) step back, reevaluate, and decide whether to stick with their original rollout or make a change to meet the demands and re-release the product with the feature that was missing.

Does that make sense? Idk… I guess I’m probably over-simplifying it, since one of the differences between the products released by a musician/idol and those released by a business is that there’s a lot of personal creativity and agency in the idol’s release. So criticism of it can come off like disrespect/distrust/hate for the artist themself. However, I would like to note that a great deal of creativity and passion goes into many, many products, and just because a large business produces them doesn’t mean that a lot of individual artists and creators and businesspeople weren’t behind the scenes, busting their asses only to be disappointed when they see the consumer reactions, which are oftentimes not as open to innovation and change as the artists were hoping. They experience that pain too, they’re just not precious, beloved idols so nobody really takes it upon themselves to defend them, and they pretty much only have their partners and work friends to mope to about it over drinks at happy hour.

And that brings up another interesting point; people seem to be defending Hobi on the basis that any ARMY who demanded a physical album are questioning his creativity/validity as an artist and making him feel bad and in general being shitty, entitled, ungrateful fans. In other words, they’re defending him as a creative person, not as a business person. Cause it could be argued that not releasing a physical album was, in hindsight, just not a great business decision. And he realized that later on, and, like his letter said, had to decide whether he wanted to stay the course or make a “better late than never” change.

[sidenote: I read the translation in its entirety, and I’m not seeing the agonizing heartbreak that others seem to be seeing? I’m seeing the honest explanation of a creative who made a bold move and is realizing — with some disappointment — that his audience wasn’t as appreciative as he hoped they’d be, and he’s making a course correction…? But maybe I’m too steeped in the corporate world to see this as the soul-wrenching sob story it apparently is??]

The reason I think it’s interesting that people are defending him primarily as a creative person and not a business person is that a few weeks back my timeline was FULL of ARMY’s mocking and side-eyeing you know who — Doja Cat.

She made waves (again…) for essentially saying she didn’t “love” her fans cause she doesn’t know them. And my TL was flooded with people smugly saying “it’s just a bad business decision to alienate your fans like that” while simultaneously sharing clips of BTS and their very demonstrative love for ARMY while gloating “can’t relate 😇”. Which begs the question — are BTS’s expressions of love for ARMY personal, or are they just good business?

I’m not saying that to be cynical, I’m saying it because Doja Cat (and I’m not an apologist for her by any means, but it’s a timely reference) was apparently a foolish businesswoman for making statements that made her fans mad. And Hobi is apparently a poor, wounded creative soul for making a decision that made his fans mad…?

Now, making inflammatory statements like “I don’t know those ppl” when referring to your loyal fans and not releasing a physical version of an album are two WILDLY different things and I understand that. I am not trying to conflate the two, more just noticing when and how we, as a fandom, choose to refer to famous musicians as “businesspeople” and when we don’t. When Doja spurns her fans, it’s a dumb business move. When BTS says they love their fans, it’s because they’re super duper sweethearts who love us forever. When Hobi makes a call for his album that a lot of fans disagree with, voicing that disagreement is suddenly hate and harassment for the artist you’re supposed to love, rather than consumer backlash.

I say this not having seen the harassment myself, but I also didn’t look for it. I saw people expressing disappointment, frustration, even that classic paranoia that all ARMY seem to have these days (“he’s being mistreated!”). So if there were genuine threats, hate, and vile behavior that crossed the line (and sadly, in this fandom, there probably was) then I think calling that out and saying “WTF is wrong with you people?!?!” is more than justified.

But when I see people scold, lecture, and attack others for clamoring for a physical album and being overjoyed when their cries were answered, I just think…. You must not work in the consumer goods industry. Cause this shit isn’t that unusual. 🤷‍♀️

Tell me how I’m wrong? I’m totally open to respectfully chatting. Just kinda had to get it out of my head.

[jade-dhound]

photos are such an unfair representation of how beautiful a person is

[xnoworneverr]

There’s a reason why we feel lonely even though we aren’t alone. It’s because loneliness is not about how many friends we have or how many people are in the room with us. It’s a disconnection from others. Being social doesn’t cure loneliness, loneliness comes when there is not a single person close enough to see past the illusion to who we really are and what we really feel inside.

[oh-snapperss]

they'll fund a genocide and let their poor regions be destroyed. don't fucking forgive them for that.

my hometown is completely gone from what pictures i can find of it, i have not heard from my family (including aunts, uncles, parents, one sibling, and a grandparent), and the infrastructure in the mountain communities is wiped out. i cannot stress how catastrophic this is, or how difficult it will be for these communities to build back. i am angry, and scared, and heartbroken by everything that's happened.

and our government is spending it's money to fund a genocide.

free palestine, and don't be complicit. realize that this is not something happening that doesn't affect you--although it shouldn't take this to care about the deaths of thousands of people anyway.

[chaoticaesthetician]

abnormally large trees please lend me some of your centuries worth of wisdom

[fluentisonus]

☞ THUS

[steel-and-fire]

//I've been thinking of some ways to fix up some more parts of Ferenir's background that I did not like too much, and I think I actually ended up coming closer to his original story.

First of all, I've said it before, but, Ferenir's dragon blood is muddled. Much like Tieflings, Aasimar, Genasi or etc, they get some traits from their mixed blood, maybe an inclination towards something, but it will rarely ever be so extra ordinary that it will affect their growth forward.

A Tiefling bard and an elf bard have the same ceiling, it's just due to their strongly charismatic nature, that Tieflings make bards easier than elves do.

Similarly, Ferenir has an inclination because of his dragon blood, he is tough and strong and durable, but it's not like he has a big difference from a tough dwarven warrior for example. It's just that among humans, due to his dragon blood, he is from the tough ones. (literally, since his origin feat in dnd is Tough, hehe).

Now, on to the story itself, wanting to preserve this aspect of him as best as possible, I ended up going back to his original story.

Ferenir's mother worked as a maid for the royal family of a country that is famous for their draconic blood. It is muddled through the eons, and it is more so a sign of royalty than substantially power.....outside of how strong each individual person is, at the very least.

But....his mother got pregnant, and bastards aren't easily tolerated, as they can prove eventual threats to the throne. As a result, she was sent away with some money, settling into the small village where Ferenir and his sister were born as twins. There she opened a tavern, and raised her children.

That was until Ferenirs draconic blood awakened, revealing his royal blood. As a result of that and his growing fame as a hero of the area....assassins were sent after him.

Ferenir knows the reason, and he does not take kindly to be forced to fight for his life and self exile for his survival for the 'sin' of his birth...

[snakeautistic]

Please, for the love of god, leave me CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS!!! If you think it’s implied, I promise you that to me it is not. If you give me poorly worded or vague directions I’m gonna spend half an hour stressing over the potential different ways to interpret them and either become paralyzed with indecision or inevitably interpret them the least correct way possible

[vizthedatum]

An apparently unpopular opinion: disabled people can have and do their hobbies. They deserve to have fun. They deserve to live their lives.

Their inability to do some things (like work, for example) does not mean they should be judged for… idk hanging out with their friends or to going outside. After all, having interests outside of work is often essential to our mental and physical health OUTSIDE of our disability.

And also *you might want to sit down for this* disabled people know what’s disabling for them (unless they people-please or push through due to necessity or survival of some sort). Disabilities don’t have to be visible or persistent to be disabling.

So yeah - my declaration: if an activity you want to do feels good and you’re able to do it, then do it. REGARDLESS OF YOUR DISABILITY WITH OTHER THINGS.

[zorangezest]

thanks for listening

[bonivers]

if people know a showrunner by name then u just know they were committing war crimes throughout their shows

[parrish-the-thot]

A continuation of this post I made

I imagine Steve genuinely doesn’t think about Eddie, like at all. Besides the occasional “what is he yelling about in that table” or “ Munson actually showed up to class” or once in sophomore year he thinks “how much does Munson charge for an ounce of weed? Would he take a $50 for an ounce” which causes Eddie to wait around all day at the picnic table wishing for some shmuck to offer $50 for just an ounce, but no one shows up (Steve had to go pick up Dustin after school and didn’t want him to find weed the weed when he inevitably starts going through Steve’s car)

The lack of soulmate thoughts really irks Eddie, because he knows his soulmate is in Hawkins, but he never thinks about Eddie, like at all??? Positively or negatively?? Eddie jumps on more tables, he blares loud music from his van, he is in a band, he is the drug dealer for all the teens in Hawkins and all his soulmate thinks is “why the fuck did Munson double park his van, I’m going to be late looking for a parking spot now” it absolutely drives him crazy.

He eventually figures out his soulmate must be a jock of some kind because one day he hears “what is Munson doing under the bleachers?” when some sports team is let out of playing with balls practice. He is briefly heartbroken his soulmate isn’t a nerd like him, but then spends the night thinking about how a certain fluffy haired jock could play with his balls anytime.

Steve isn’t not thinking about Eddie on purpose, but they just don’t run in the same circles, so he doesn’t really think about him too much, just in a genuine, “I don’t know them, don’t interact with them, so I don’t really think about them” sort of way. Especially after befriending the kids, Steve’s focus goes to keeping them safe and being a babysitter instead of finding his soulmate.

Steve’s experience with his soulmates thoughts is completely different. Starting in middle school he heard his soulmate think he was cute which he thought was nice. As he got older his soulmate would still think he was cute, but also handsome or pretty which, he doesn’t know any girls who call their boyfriends pretty but ya know, he can roll with that. He thinks he will have to roll with a lot of stuff, since hai soulmate seems to into a…a lot of interesting things, to say the least. Steve has dated a lot of girls but none of them seemed to want to rub their face in his chest hair like his soulmate did, who also wonder is Steve was that hairy everywhere which- he was but he didn’t think a girl would want to know about that.

He would be in the middle of a basket ball game and he hit with a 15 minute monologue about how wonderful his ass looked in “thise little green shirts that ride up his ass in the best way” and how his soulmate “wanted to be those shorts” causing Steve to miss three different shots. Also with all this wildly kinky stuff and even general sex things Steve has never heard of or thought about he figures he should become more knowledgeable to better be prepared for his soulmate.

One day when Steve is cleaning up a drink he spilled in the cafeteria and heard “god Harrington looks good on his knees, bet he would look even better with my cock in his mouth” figures chances are his soulmate isn’t a girl at all.

With not much else to loose and a new door opened up to him, Steve starts spending time thinking equally horny thinvs about different guys he sees in class, just to see if they will react to what he is thinking. This is how he figures out Eddie is his soulmate.

Steve notices eddies table is getting a little rowdy, as is always does before Eddie gets up on someone’s table and he rants about jocks and preppy girls while stepping on people’s lunches, Steve thinks “what if comes over here, spits in my stretched out hole, and fucks me right next to Heathers Halloways tuna sandwich”

Eddie, whose soulmate didn’t even think about Eddie that one time his car got spray painted a fit was all the school talked about for a week, was NOT expecting that at 12:30 on a Tuesday and promptly trips on a chair and slams face first into the lunch table, breaking his nose.

Eddies friends rush him to the nurse and Steve is torn between this being a sign Eddie is soulmate or Eddie just clumsy, Steve has seen him walk into a door twice, so he don’t 100% sure. Steve decided to test this anytime he has a clear viewpoint of Eddie and starts thinking the most horny, kinky things possibly about Eddie to see if Eddie reacts proves he is Steve’s soulmate (also revenge because Steve had to go through years of Eddie horny pondering interrupting Steve during important tasks games or tests so Steve figures he should pay that forward during eddies dungeons and dorks games)

[steel-and-fire]

//Okay, so i said earlier that through campaign sessions, especially now that it's been some time, i'm rediscovering Ferenir, and getting more clear ideas about him.

After all, that's one of the reasons i like ttrpgs, spontaenous thinking and reacting in unexpected situations builds a character better than written roleplay, where you think of every action before you do it.

Of course, written roleplay has its own merits, you tackle more slice of life situations, spend more time extending scenes etc etc

But allow me to rant about a couple things.

First of all, i've mentioned before that Ferenir's open cheerfulness was a coping mechanism of the harships he went through, and battling depressive feelings. But real Ferenir is a lot more reserved, matter of fact and pragmatic person.

He is polite and kind to those he deems deserving, but will turn sour very quick and very easily if he is annoyed. He has a temper, and it ignites with a spark. He is fair, loyal and dependable, but he also likes to take risks, is deathly curious, and enjoys challenges and testing himself.

He is the person that will go touch that weird pedestal, go drop blood on the altar, or hold the rope for everyone to climb down before having to jump 60 feet down himself with no aid.

He does crazy shit, because he knows he can take it, and he likes pushing the limits of that.

Although he enjoys social interactions with the right people, he is also generally low on social energy, so he prefers to spend the time more quietly and productive.

When there is a job to do, he doesn't beat around the bush, gets straight to the point and tackles it in the most direct way possible.

He will pick a fight with anyone that pisses him off at the drop of a hat, and doesn't back down easily either. Most of the times his teamates have to calm him down and speak some sense to him to avoid conflict.

He can be cold as hell, crushing the bones of a person one by one in an interogation, without as much as batting an eye, but he is also fair and merciful, and will honor his deal and word. If he can, he will always prefer to spare a life.

Lastly, he is very, very competitive, and that translates to fights, where he LOATHS leaving one half finished, or having to run from it. He will do it if it's the right or smart thing to do, but he will not like it one bit, he will sulk all day.