#the same order and everything :')

[arielluva]

goodnight, himemiya

[caspergs]

every time someone famous is outed as being a shitty person theres people going “this is why you shouldn’t idolize celebrities,” “why are you sad that a bad person is being exposed as a bad person,” like PLEASE just let people be upset that someone they liked sucks

[chinese--satellite]

"a man fell out of the sky and i took him home" - stunt man, richard siken // "don't waste it" - sebastian vettel to charles leclerc, helmet swap, 2020

[blorbologist]

Y'know, I think I figured out why the Hells still feel like a new low-level party to me, even though they're level 13 and almost 100 episodes in.

I don't quite think it's the lack of conversations, or the fact half the party's plot hooks are big ties to past campaigns - though that definitely plays a part.

... Bell's Hells still primarily rely on quest givers.

Most of their goals are given to them and do not feel organic to the party, and constantly remind us that the Hells are pretty much never the most powerful people in the room. Which is usually something you see with a low-level party.

NPCs offering jobs is not a bad thing; it's a very common plot hook. Matt has been extremely skilled with using NPC quest givers in those two campaigns. Not only do they provide an obvious plot thread, but they can put the party in the path of others (say, the Nein running into the Iron Shepherds while doing a job for the Gentleman and everything that came of that). And the Hells had a solid start with it too - Eshteross was an excellent quest giver!

The problem is that Bell's Hells have never really not had a quest giver.

Maybe it's a byproduct of the more plot-heavy structure of this campaign? But while prior parties have felt like they decided on their course of action and what they prioritized, Bell's Hells feels less like level 13 (13! Level 13!) experienced adventurers and more like an MMO group clicking on the exclamation point over an NPC's head. Where does the plot demand we go next? Who do we report back to?

They're level 13.

At level 13, Vox Machina had just defeated a necromantic city-state to clear their name and Percy's conscience. And, you know, the Conclave just destroyed Emon. No one was explicitly telling the group to gather Vestiges and save the world (though Matt guided them there), and they were usually among the most powerful people in the room. They chose which Vestiges to prioritize, which dragons to tackle when, even if the over-all plot was pretty clear.

At level 13, the Mighty Nein were celebrating Traveler Con (another PC goal, I'll note) after brokering peace between two nations, accidentally becoming pirates and heroes of the Dynasty. The Nein regularly chose what to do based on personal goals, not grand ones. Though definitely smaller fish than Vox Machina at this level, they were very independent and gaining solid political clout.

While we're at it: level 13 is one level lower than the Ring of Brass, who had a huge amount of sway over Avalir. They ended the world, and also saved it, while in the grand scheme of things being only a smidge more powerful than Bell's Hells are now.

Can you really see the Hells wielding that amount of influence, when they're constantly being told what to do next?

The god-eater might be unleashed, so Bell's Hells have no time to do anything but what is asked of them. No time for therapy unless stolen from Feywild time, no travel on foot and late-night watches. They haven't even had time to grieve FCG. Percy was grieved in the middle of the Conclave arc. Molly was grieved when half the party was still in irons.

Matt is in the very unfortunate spot of not being able to give the Hells the same agency as the other two parties. Not only because of the world-ending plot introduced so early on; they are surrounded by characters they know (and the cast knows) are stronger and wiser than them - the familiarity of the past PCs and NPCs is to their disadvantage.

Why would the party reasonably ignore Keyleth's task that will help save the world and go off on a romp? Why would the cast when they know well Keyleth has to be sensible and with the best intentions in mind? The stakes are just too high.

It means that the Hells still feel like they're running errands instead of pursuing their own destiny. Their accomplishments are diminished as just being parts of a to-do list, and any stakes feel padded by several level 20 PCs/NPCs standing 5 steps away ready to catch them.

This isn't Bell's Hell's fault, nor is it Matt's. It could be amended, I think, if the Hells are really left to their own devices for a long period of time without support and shortcuts (like during the party split)... which would be really tricky to pull off at this point in the campaign.

They're level 13. They're big fish, but they're stuck in a pond full of friendly sharks, so they don't feel big at all.

[zahri-melitor]

Tim suffers from a situation where he occasionally commits thought crime (thinks about how killing someone would be easier/how he would like someone to be dead/plans out how to kill someone) but does the right thing in person, and doesn't kill people and will act heroically to save even the lives of villains and people he hates. Which gets him cancelled as lacking in morals and being 'two seconds from killing at any time'. While someone like Jason, who commits actual crimes in person but validates the reasons for doing it in his head, gets lauded for why killing drug dealers is excellent and should be morally correct.

Maybe it's a bit law and justice and rules follower of me, but thinking the bad thoughts and still doing the right thing is a better approach than doing the bad thing while telling yourself it's for the right reasons actually.

Actions are more important than what you say in the privacy of your own mind. That's the bit other people can see and interpret.

[purplebutwarhammer]

The fact Rushal was a captain keeps me up at night sometimes.

Did all of his men die in battle at Istvan and that’s why he decided it wasn’t worth it anymore and defected? Was watching the people he was supposed to lead through danger die the final straw that made him consider if the Imperium was really worth fighting for? How long did he defend their bodies before he was realised no one was coming to recover them? Did he take their corvia to remember them by? Did he get to keep them?

Or did some of them survive and never really got an answer to what happened to their Captain Rushal, one day were they quietly split up into separate units without so much of an explanation and even now whenever they get the chance to talk it feels like they’re being watched? How long did it take for one of them to go digging and realise it was for the best they were never told? Do they want revenge on their traitorous captain? Or do they believe that he was taken and hold onto hope he could be rescued one day?

[kirkwallguy]

also. as much as i think it was the right call for veilguard's cc to make its top surgery scars look very modern and neat given youtubers were already calling them "mutilation scars" as they were lol, i still have so many questions about it. like it's the first real example of surgery we see in the entire series beyond basic amputations. i'm interested in a society that figures out trans surgeries alongside basic medicine - like what if nipple grafts for aesthetic purposes were actually how they figured out better skin graft techniques to help burn victims. have they figured out bottom surgeries? hysterectomies? figuring out hormones was probably a pretty big medical breakthrough and would require understanding the endocrine system, unless the hrt is magical, which would mean there's a divide with some parts of the transition being practical medicine and some being magical healing; does this change the way some people transition? would it make hrt less popular in the south? and this all comes back to trans rep feeling very halfhearted / poorly thought out when people just throw in fully passing / seemingly medically transitioned characters with 0 thought into how they accessed their physical transition lol.

[holy-reference-in-a-username]

We need domestic tomtord kiss in front of the others.....

"You know, Matt, I think I liked it better when they were just trying to kill each other. "

[jakeperalta]

every time I get an email notification I'm like SUNRISE ON THE REAPING DISPATCHED??? and every time I am disappointed 😔

[lastoneout]

Got a burger from a mid-cost fancy gastropub last night because it was the only thing open and I truly have to ask what the fuck is the point of food that's description is so tasty delicious sounding and then you get it and it's baffling and bland and confusing?

[sergle]

there is something funny about the worry of being parasocial in regards to witnessing my bullshit rn. like. as if i'm not the one telling all my business on the internet. i feel like the terms "parasocial attachment" and "traumadump" rose in popularity at a very inconvenient time for my breakdown

[kerink]

I hope it’s okay to just drop some thoughts I was having about Dipper and Stan for your au here! I was just thinking about them isolated in that little apartment and how I’m sure they weren’t provided with any like entertainment. I think it would be a really rough adjustment for dipper who would want to immediately be working on an escape plan. But I think Stan would probably be the best equipped of the family to handle the situation. He’s been to jail and eaten his way out of the trunk of a car. Like, he’d know how to plan escapes under a warden’s nose and keep himself somewhat entertained in the process. I think they’d argue at first but eventually dipper would realize that Stan is also trying to help them escape, he’s just going about it more subtly.

To pass the time maybe they play games that don’t need too many pieces for. Maybe dipper comes up with like an augmented D&D&MD that’s mostly verbal or maybe Stan gets his hands on some cards. They’d probably feel guilty if they start having too much fun though.

I know they are being watched but Bill is distracted by other things so maybe they can get away with a little more than the others, especially if they play up giving up. But it’s a real panopticon situation. They could come up with some kind of code that they can communicate through the games they play. Like playing a certain card means something or they use the plots of D&D&MD to talk about what’s going on in real life.

Thanks for letting me ramble and for making this au it’s so fun!

i seriously love this!

i was also thinking about what they could do for fun too, and was thinking about stan trying to teach dipper to box lol not just because it's something they can do and it fits in with stan and dipper's existing relationship arc, but also because it calls back to dipper's previous character development: him thinking he's useless without the journals, but once gideon kidnaps mabel he's like i don't need magic i can just beat your ass. so dipper already knows the value in having a good left hook, knowing he can be smart and strong, cunning and violent.

i love stan seeming like he's flippant, like he's given up, like he doesn't care about what's going on when it's really just a facade he's putting on to keep everyone calm and relaxed. he's trying to be the stable rock the kids and ford can cling to. stan believing there isn't much he can practically contribute in this situation, so settling for the emotional home base, the place where busy minds can rest.

but i hadn't even considered what you said about stan having been to jail before and how that would impact him. it's sooo incredible it has me feeling a bit crazy. because you're RIGHT. he knows what it's like to sit in a box and stare at a wall. he knows what it's like to play verbal chess with a mob boss. he knows what it's like to be two-faced with an unjust warden. as much as ford is teaching mabel to steel her heart and have a poker face and dance along with bills game, stan can teach dipper the exact same thing

[robertphilip]

There's an awkward "first date" silence between them, the kind that suggests there isn't going to be a "second". Giselle tries her best to keep the conversation going.

[oceanwithouthermoon]

arghhagahahhsbs post-cattank torisai makes me SO INSANEEEE

this page alone makes me omfgggsnnskskxisjwn

[cobaltfluff]

happy crossover christmas to me !!! left: crossover / right: AU :3c

[fruitydiaz]

not in a buck is a baby who needs someone to save him kind of way but in a many of the big emergencies in the last few seasons have been about buck saving everyone kind of way i think it’d be neat if the end of season emergency hinged on buck being trapped and the team working to save him and that reaffirming his place with the 118 bc that’s family. even without bobby