#the logical conclusion i got?

[aroace-hoe]

On my "Zuko is autistic" agenda:

That one time he decides to leave Uncle Iroh behind and go travel on his own (the first time, on book 2) after Iroh tells him he should figure out his own path in life, and not depend on finding the avatar to feel good about himself, and my boy heard that and went:

"Ah yes, I should go off on my own, because finding my own path obviously means I should path on my own"

The literal thinking got the best of him and you cannot tell me otherwise.

Because like, the second time he does that (after the lighting incident and all) that's for drama, he's being emo and edgy for sure. But this one? He legit went: "I thought about what you said, uncle, and this was the very logical conclusion I came to."

[katsettee]

Whoops

[utilitycaster]

You know what's interesting to me? For all people keep claiming at every juncture that perhaps Bells Hells will come around on the gods and see the harm they do (which, as discussed extensively, is, half the time, simply not intervening) not only have they never done so, but also they never quite cross the line into saying the party should join the Ruby Vanguard or aid them - and indeed, they defend against it - so what does this achieve? It feels like they're asking for a story in which the party stands idly by, which isn't much of a story nor, if I may connect this briefly to the real world, a political stance anyone should be proud of.

That's honestly the frustration with the gods and the "what if the Vanguard has a point" conversations in-game. What do we do then? Do we allow the organization that will murder anyone for pretty much any reason that loosely ties into their goals run rampant? The group that (perhaps unwittingly, but then again, Otohan's blades had that poison) disrupted magic world-wide, and caused people who had the misfortune to live at nexus points to be teleported (most, as commoners, without means of return). While also fomenting worldwide unrest?

Those were the arguments before the trip to Ruidus; with the reveal of the Vanguard's goals to invade Exandria, the situation becomes even more dire. Do you let the Imperium take over the planet?

And do the arguments against the gods even hold up? If Ludinus is so angry at them for the Calamity, what does it say that he destroyed Western Wildemount's first post-Calamity society for entirely selfish means? (What does it say about the validity of vengeance as a motivator?) What does it say that Laudna told Imogen she could always just live in a cottage quietly without issue before the solstice even happened? (Would this still be true if the Imperium controls the world?) What does it say that when faced with a furious, grieving party and the daughter she keeps telling herself was her reason for all of this, Liliana can't provide an answer to the question of what the gods have done other than that their followers will retaliate...for, you know, the Vanguard's endless list of murders. (That is how the Vanguard and Imperium tend to think, huh? "How dare your face get in the way of my boot; how dare you hit me back when I strike you.") She can't even provide a positive answer - why is Predathos better - other than "I feel it", even though Imogen and Fearne know firsthand that Predathos can provide artificial feelings of elation. Given all the harm Ludinus has done in pursuit, why isn't the conclusion "the gods should have crashed Aeor in such a way that the tech was unrecoverable?"

Even as early as the first real discussion on what the party should do, the fandom always stopped short of saying "no, Imogen's right, they should join up with the people who killed half the party," it was always "no, she didn't really mean it, she just was trying to connect with her mother." Well, she's connected with her mother, and at this point the party doesn't even care about the gods particularly (their only divinely-connected party member having died to prevent the Vanguard from killing all of them). So they will stop the Vanguard; as Ashton says, the means are unforgiveable. As Laudna says, it's not safe to bet on Predathos's apathy. As Imogen says, she's done running; the voice that she used to think of as a lifeline belongs to someone she doesn't trust. So I guess my question is: if they're stopping the people who are trying to kill the gods (and defense of the gods isn't remotely their personal motivation)...do you think the next phase of the campaign is Bells Hells personally killing the gods? Reconstructing the Aeor tech and hoping none of their allies notice? How does this end? Does your ideology ever get enacted? Or is this entirely moot and pointless and the story ends with Bells Hells saying "well, I'm really glad we stopped the people who [insert list of Vanguard atrocities from above]; none of us follow the gods or plan to, but honestly, the status quo we return to is preferable to whatever nightmare Ludinus had concocted in his violent quest for power and revenge"?

[stayatsam]

BG3 SPOILERS!!!

i saw a couple of ppl talking about how random it is for the nautiloid to have randomly infected the party of: a githyanki warrior, the duke's son, a magic prodigy/former chosen of mystra, a sharran cultist with a magic weapon, a vampire, etc.

but it WASNT random. the emperor infected your party deliberately we learn by the end of the game that when the brain loosened its leash on him he specifically went out of his way to find a group of people suitable to be allies. he'd be more inclined to infect a group like that as his adventurers than random commoners

am i making sense. ive been mulling about the emperor ever since i finished my first playthrough

[solace-seekers]

screaming into the void <3

[diocletianscabbagefarm]

Not to be chewing at this bone forever but apart from, you know, the literal core facts of the case that Kalina (twice) gave the Bad Kids the crucial clue to uncover the conspiracy (and! killed! herself! to not be a threat!!), there's another point in her favor that she wasn't bad/working against Cassandra which keeps swirling around in my head;

during an old aCoC adventuring party Brennan mentioned one of the qualities he enjoyed about playing her as a villain was that she was always unrattled, just kinda scarily unflappable. And during that mall fight in jy she was just 100% rattled, Brennan described her as horrified (2x), stressed, panicked, and generally just RP'ed her in a way of a kind of frantic, desperate defence, up to the point she got shatterstarred and she got more scary-calm. The one point of contention of her role in the season was that she might've coordinated or orchestrated the attack in the Astral, as the IH assumed at the end of the season, but if that were so she would definitely not have emoted like that.

[vroomian]

Bitter water in regards to the teenager thing you couldn’t hand wave YRZ in order to Not Fuck A Child in A Fuck or Die situation comes up with the Just Die technique in which he (briefly) kills you then resuscitates you! Still traumatizing but no genitalia involved!

I mean that would probably work for some very fast acting types but I pictured being papa planted more like being poisoned. You don’t stop being poisoned just because you’re dead. The poisons still in the corpse, it’s just not affecting it anymore because it’s a corpse.

Plus Yrz, morally speaking, shifts with the general societys morals. Living in a world where there’s so much fuck or die means that sex and the taboos around it simply aren’t the same as regular earth. Yrz dual culvating with a teenager to save their life would absolutely not be seen as weird! But outside of life saving it’d be seen as improper. It’s like the difference between kissing someone without consent and giving them life saving mouth to mouth.

Yrz would feel a little skeeved out but he’s a professional before anything else. If there was no choice Yrz would simply do it.

Fortunately, A lot of the papaplants don’t hit younger people as hard, so they can simply be carefully knocked out while they process it out of their systems!

[queen-scribbles]

Considering one of Trinne’s biggest flaws is that she cares too much and thus doesn’t think things through before reacting, I’m currently laughing over this comment

and trying to figure out how to reply. 🤣

I wanna be nice but also would love to know how they got that.

[aliciaseverne]

Pointing and laughing at all the merlin conspiracy theorists rn, but also crying and donning my clown costume bcs I would kill for a sixth season or just anything, that show cannot end with that stupid ass shit

[goldkirk]

.

[haunted-doodles]

"Well, Bad Luck."

[fr fr? Click for better quality.]

Was wondering what would happen if each of the Riptide pirates didn't end up getting what they wanted in life, or rather, finding eachother.

After Jay refusing to join his crew, Chip continued island hopping about. His ship wouldn't have exploded and thus Chip would have never visited Loffinlot, nor do I think alone he'd of been able to get up and go gambling. Eventually though upon travelling to Noctis, he fell victim to Grimm at the ball. Without anyone there who'd be able to save him, Chip was thoroughly charmed and became a vampire. Eventually he breaks out of the trance and books it out of a window, yet the damage has been done. The only real connection he'd been able to make was with Rebecca and thus he mourns her a fair lot more than he did in canon in this. He's still searching the seas for Arlin, to recreate the black rose in his own image. Grimm's corruption lays heavy in his mind though as he starts to plan with Lizzie on how they can win the war.

Jay continued on with her Navy training alongside Kira, the two becoming a recogniseable force. After the death sister, The weight and preassure from her family to help in the cause of ending the age of pirates is far stronger than before and her drive alongside it began to falter. Yet still she remains persistent in her studies, in her commanding of her crew. She begins to fall in love with Kira as they grow older together and they get engaged. Of course, the most preassure to end the war comes from her father, who is overbearingly watching over her shoulder almost every second. Life in the Navy for Jay is awful. Sometimes she wonders what it would've been like if she accepted that scruffy boy's hand all those years ago. Other times she wants to just get everything over with.

Gillion, instead of being shunned for his act of killing the Navy Officer, was actually praised highly as the perfect soldier he was. Because of this, he was driven further and further into his path as the chosen one and his mind is broken deeper and deeper into the depths of what the elders desired. He grows spiteful and hates anyone who does not bare undersea blood, even to the point of snapping and lashing out at others. He begins to learn about the oversea for when he must travel land to fufill his prophecy. Begins to prepare. Eventually, he is sent overseas as their perfect soldier, who always write home to the undersea on his findings. Who travels island to island, slaughtering the awful creatures that have caused his people so much pain.

He will be the one who swallows the land whole. It is his destiny.

[crimeronan]

wow that latest silt verses episode. i've listened to it twice so far and i feel like there's Some essay meta connection i want to make about terminal illness and tragedy and losing people to the mundane even when you have the power of gods at your fingertips and when you've tried so hard and done everything Right..... but i don't know how to fathom it into words. maybe with another listen or two i could post coherently about it but for now just. waow. hey. what the fuck.

[mooseonabreak]

Who hit my dream partner with the transgenderfication beam⁉️

[coffeebanana]

i do understand why people leave nice asks on anon. but at the same time i'm like,

"wait. no. who are you? i want to know!!! i want to hug your icon the through the internet and put your username in that happy part of my brain. i want to lock eyes with you across the crowded hall of fandom and share a meaningful nod. and when you turn to leave, i want to chase you through the halls and grab your hand and--"

oh. this is exactly what people are worried about, isn't it?

i went a little too far...

oh well.

"--i smile. we are friends now"

[bangcakes]

.

[quietwingsinthesky]

I stand by the fact that the archangels have a single braincell between the four of them, and Gabriel is the one who has custody of it.