#well this made me cry lol

[bettygemma]

You're the Voice

Get behind it fam!

[thresholdbb]

what's the threshold theory

There was a post about how Tom is the only crew member who isn't really affected by the Borg, and there's a theory that he has so much luck because he saw the past and the future when he crossed the transwarp threshold. He saw the past and the future, all of time and space. There's some subconscious part of him that remembers that experience. In fact, Tom refused to play a part in Chakotay indulging Annorax's temporal incursions, probably because a part of him knew nothing good could come of it.

If we extend that same theory to Janeway, some of her wild luck with time travel and other crack plans starts to make sense. She doesn't verbally hate time travel until after the events of Threshold, since it happens in Time and Again without complaint. Janeway has an uncanny knack for time travel, as evidenced every time she deals with it. She hates time travel, but it might be because part of her knows exactly how to manipulate the timeline. She manages to avoid the "inevitable" temporal explosion in Future's End, saving both Voyager and Braxton. She resets the entire timeline in Year of Hell, and no one else followed her reasoning. She pulled it off flawlessly. In Relativity, she senses the incidents are all related, despite it being just one reading that connects them. By the time she's involved, she has a temporal incursion factor of .0036 and a time travel protocol named after her, even if that may just be Braxton's personal grudge. Then there's Endgame, where she intentionally changes the timeline. Up until this point, she has been dragged into time travel, but for the first time, she jumps in on purpose. How does Admiral Janeway know how to get them home sooner in a way that completely avoids the Temporal Integrity Commission? It's because she has seen all of time, and part of her knows exactly what needs to happen so she can get Voyager home and do it in a way that becomes baked into the prime timeline. Maybe she doesn't consciously remember what happened during her transformation, but the experience lives in her mind somewhere, guiding her decisions.

[hiphopcherrrypop]

happy premier week!! who else tuning in ✌😲

[galaghiel]

A lil something from my time travel au

[deathberi]

☀️🎡☁️‎

[sysig]

Hello! I feel like rereading Vargas these days so, I'd like to request some Edgar, Scriabin interaction (maybe one of them being vulnerable), if that's okay?

Day 14 - Stop making your lack of imagination my problem ò///q

[itsyouch]

no because I regret EVEN saying that I hate tex as a joke. This scene hurt man....

[wulfhalls]

.

[just-mebs]

I finally finished playing Outer Wilds and I'm like,, this game has completely crushed me

[bylertruther]

a collection of my thoughts + notes as i read lucas on the line —

first of all, i am, of course, feeling yet another wave of anger at all the "hot takes" that floated around cheapening lucas's season four journey or vilifying him for wanting to try new things, make a better life for himself, and be in the company of other black people that weren't related to him for once. as if his experience as a black boy doesn't make his life all that much harder, so much more complicated and isolating, even as he tries to better it. just... sigh. the more i read the more upset i felt about how fandom, no matter which one it is, treats black characters, especially ones with darker skin.

max breaks my fucking heart into a million pieces in this, over and over again.

i already know that people mischaracterize mike to a horrendous degree, but it is just... funny, for lack of a better word and in a terribly unfunny way, just how egregious it is. mike's written as such a stern stubborn hardass. he's a good older brother, and even uses that Older Brother Voice on others when necessary. he thinks motorcycles are cool, as well as the people that ride them. he's mopey and broody and irritable. he wants to fight to defend the ones he loves, but he won't do it if the offenders are bigger than him, which they often are. he fidgets with an old dnd die. he likes board and card games. he's honestly kind of a Cool^tm nerd guy—just has that standoffish vibe to him. he's the most difficult person to convince, apparently. he's also incredibly cut-to-the-chase, no-bullshit, mega blunt. of course we know that mike can be kind and sweet beyond his years, too, but i feel like that outer, more prominent layer of his—which, honestly, has persisted since the very beginning—is often cast aside by people for something more palatable. sad.

mike is the heart, i know this, everyone knows this, but... it is kind of funny that dustin and mike gave up on calling themselves a party, and what remained of them in hawkins wasn't much, didn't support lucas at all (which did hurt him a lot, because he couldn't give up hope that they eventually would), and that they only came together again like old times when will and el came down, but that togetherness went away once they left again. "look how the party fell apart just by will and el moving away." mike is the heart of the party, yes, but he relies on will, whether it be the support he offers or the inspiration he serves him, in order to be that heart. just interesting to see that repeated here, too.

the party doesn't understand or even see the racism lucas faces, which is to be expected, but still sad.

lucas is prone to nervousness and anxiety, and he clenches his hands into fists to keep them from visibly shaking. he also doesn't like the aggression that's prevalent in hyper-masculine spaces and takes note of it.

lucas's father was adopted by a white family, but they're not allowed to talk about them—ever. he's a vietnam veteran and doesn't talk about his time there either. he prefers keeping a low profile, because he feels that keeps his family, and people like them, safer. he also used to be a barber and he's the one that gives lucas his hi-top fade.

will didn't only wear jonathan's clothes. he also wore joyce's.

so many beautiful and heart-wrenching passages about the monsters of hawkins, which is a repeating motif in these tie-in books. it's classism, racism, homophobia, ableism, and so much more, and it's always there, lying in wait. those vulnerable are expected to remain small and hidden to survive, lest they become targets.

lucas has a dnd character that sounds a lot like robin hood. hashtag commie king 🤝

robin was the wise-beyond-her-years, nonjudgmental mediator between lucas, dustin, and mike. it took them hours to reconcile and she would interfere when it got too heated. lucas also felt that she would've fit right into the party were she their age.

nancy was their official chauffeur. hehe.

max flinches whenever anyone mentions neil or calls her maxine like he does. she also tried to run away on halloween, but talked herself out of it.

mike wasn't interested in dressing up for halloween because will and el were gone. max wanted to go as green lantern and lucas wanted to go as mad max, thinking he could borrow the costume from her.

eddie is apparently a freak, jackass, always high, and looks like he hasn't showered in a week. nice.

lucas knows the "i contain multitudes" walt whitman quote and it was a black boy that shared it with him. that boy, jay, also showed him james baldwin. the sinclairs are also fans of prince. 🌈 :)

i already knew this before reading, but it was nice to have even more proof that lucas is indeed the bestest boy in all of existence. this is #real and true.

[randomnameless]

Fates unironically did the "muhritocracy" schtick better than 3H lol; the vast majority of the playable Nohrian characters are commoners who got into high-ranking positions in the Nohrian army due to being exceptional soldiers and getting rewarded as such, whereas the only commoners on Adrestia's side that aren't turncoats (or fodder soldiers that are stated to exist only in throwaway dialogue from faceless NPCs) are Ladislava (non-character with no screentime, personality or even feats to support that she did anything to help the Adrestian army in any significant way), Fleche (slightly more of a character, still does nothing to help Adrestia), Randolph (does nothing to help and isn't even particularly well-recognized or rewarded for his skills, if him being jealous of his superiors is any indication), and Dorothea (only got to a high-ranking position due to prostituting herself in order to get into Garreg Mach, befriending the crown princess of the Empire, and being made into a general of the Adrestian army due to nepotism from that same crown princess).

What makes it even worse is that Nohr rewarding merit for anyone and everyone, regardless of social class or status, is an irrelevant bit of background worldbuilding, whereas Edelgard wanting to reward commoners' merits is one of her most consistently-repeated ideals, but the only non-nobleborn CF playable character only got so far in life due to (literal) peepee-sucking and nepotism, and even the NPCs are either featless non-characters (Fleche and Ladislava) or complain about not being recognized enough despite his skill/is recognized enough and Edelgard just decided a power-hungry, immoral dumbass was meritant enough to be made into a general in her army (Randolph); shouldn't the order have been reversed? Like, the game where one of the main characters' principle ideals is to recognize and reward anyone who's skilled should be the one to have most of her allies be commoners, whereas the one where the concept of merit is completely irrelevant to the story, themes and characters could have just had the characters be mostly nobles instead of consistently making them commoners just for subtle worldbuilding? It's weird.

Want to see an upstanding posterchild of Nohrian muhritocracy?

Chaos will always topple the ones who don't earn their status. It's folks like you and me who rise to the top. And the way we do that is by cutting down all our enemies.

I won't stop at captain. I will keep on climbing!

I'll be a king someday. I'll make it happen—you wait and see.

More seriously -

It's all about the what is actually rewarded.

I've already joked a bit about it, but basically Randolph and Nopes!Caspar want to demonstrate their muhrit by... invading countries, killing refugees or randoms who returned in their home after being ousted by the Imperial army.

Much muhrit, very uwu.

Take Whodislava, as you mentioned, bar being a named NPC who as less screentime than Kronya and is supposed to be a sad casualty for war, while being the posterchild of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy, we don't a thing about her. What has she done to be granted the rank of general? What are her achievements?

At times I'm pretty sure TS was partly written to laugh and mock FE16, but Avlora is basically in the same situation, save that Avlora has more plot relevance and exists bar being a sign the devs hold that's written "please feel bad about this character you've never interacted with and only has 5 lines of dialogue and is only here to garner sympathy when she dies I mean even Fates!Candace had more presence than her".

Avlora was an orphan, trained under Groma - a famous general - who continued to train even when Groma retired, became Adre- Aesfrost's top general and defeated Maxwell in a duel. We have her story - she came from nothing - her feats - she defeated the strongest warrior in Glenbrook - and the entire meritocracy angle sticks : Avlora was a nobody made general because she kicked asses.

The meritocratic Adrestia NPCs?

Randolph... tries to get muhrit, but fails as we protect people and only laments about his status in his House (as he is fucking killing people to gain more status, like dude, priorities?) - so in way, both Randy and Flèche are imo, counterexemples of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy : Randolph kills peons and invades an orphanage to demonstrate his "muhrit" because, otherwise, without any muhrit, iirc it's implied he and his sister will be demoted to randoms in House Bergliez (even if Flèche is supposed to be younger than Cyril iirc? Like how the frick do you want a kid of 12 to demonstrate her muhrit, else she'll be kicked out of her house?).

Whodislava... dies heroically, at least that's what we're supposed to get from her very "please cry" cutscene when she dies in front of Supreme Leader in Tru Piss - as Rhea and her family + knights tried to retake their ancestral home and she prevented them from doing so - or it's the same nonsense as "we killed Ferdie professor :(", we are supposed to feel bad about people who were fighting alongside a demonic beast when, in FE16, we fucking know what they are.

Since the FE5 banner released earlier this week, FE5 paints "honorable" Reinhardt as a pitiful man, because no matter how honorable or kickass or kind Reinhardt was, when it came to defect to protect children from being kidnapped or stop the general nonsense the Empire was pulling in Thracia... Reinhardt refused to do so, pretexting remaining by Ishtar's side, and when that became impossible, he choose death over rescuing toddlers. His situation is supposed to be compared to his sister's Olwen, who, when she discovers the truth of what is happening in Thracia, ditches the Empire to help Leif rescue the children - and, imo, Amalda (who's not in FEH yet!) who is also, basically, a commander who plays a larger Camus role as in, she tries to appeal to her Lord to stop the child hunts, her Lord tells her to eat shit, and when asked why she still fights and why she doesn't defect, Amalda says if she does so, her knights will be killed + Amalda appears as a NPC allied unit in a map to hunt bandits to save a village.

So, compared to those ladies who defect or try to protect whoever they can protect - their soldiers AND civilians who are being trampled by their own army - Reinhardt who doesn't do a thing and picks "death" is, as Olwen's ending puts it "pitiful".

Back to your ask anon, even if I disgress from the meritocracy angle - Flèche, Whodislava and Randy are such non-entities compared to characters with 6 lines from FE5 that even if they try to pull the "I have to do this for my family" or the "I came from nothing and still help my emperor because I am thankful to her for having raised me from being a commoner to a general", our Adrestians NPC feel very, very flat.

Are we supposed to cry for Hans's failed dreams of becoming a king when we kill him? No, but Randy and Whodislava's deaths are overplayed with so much pathos that the game is basically telling you "and here you should feel bad because they died" but... what is more important, the fact they tried to unlock a lot of achievments to demonstrate their "muhrit", or what the hell they were ready to do to unlock said achievments?

As for Doro needing to befriend people to enter Garreg Mach, remember that Doro, being touted as another example of the muhritocracy Supreme Leader's Adrestia aims to be, had to engage in sex work from a young age, to reach the diva status - which has very disturbing implications, that are glossed over because that's FE16 for you. Are we supposed to believe Doro "worked hard" to be able to catch the eye of some deranged fucks when she was a pre-teen to become a diva - or, as Manu puts it in a support that cannot be achieved in Tru Piss, muhrit alone doesn't work to become a diva, and it's actually a pretty font to hide the "dark" deeds young singers in Mittelfrank have to do to reach the "diva" status?

Minor tidbit though, Doro is famous enough for being Supreme Leader's dearest friend but she isn't promoted to "general" in Tru Piss, she's only BESF who's not, at least in her bio, a general Post TS.

Imo the question you raise is actually relevant to how empty Supreme Leader's muhritocracy's ideal is - in both game Ferdie has to remind her that to build "muhrit" or for commoners to be able to gather "muhrit" as nobles do, they have to start at the same lever, and receive education as nobles do.

IIRC, in Supreme Bullshit, despite their feats, Hubert tells Barney they're only a commoner - not even a worthy commoner like Doro - but a fucking random - when muhrit wise, Barney should at least be named general!

In both games, Linhardt is a general... but we don't see anything from him, bar his tropey "i want to study crests and nap and i dgaf about anything else" traits - if that's all there is to him, how and why the crap was he made general??

Why, it's almost as if "muhrit" is a smokescreen to hide the fact that the one who chooses/picks who gets to be important from who isn't does it on their own terms just like irl

What is merit, really? Who gets to decide what is merit from what isn't? Or who is the "best" at doing things, from another?

It's another instance of, imo, Fodlan's artificial feel, the game raises a question/issue, and starts some smoke about it, but without tackling said issues seriously we're left with "I agree and think starvation shouldn't exist anymore" milquetoast and cliché opinions that give the illusion this game is "very deep" when it's just, a puff of smoke.

[orcelito]

I just can't get over how pretty some of these page compositions are

[corpsoir]

i don't know what i'm supposed to do, haunted by the ghost of you

[widevibratobitch]

something about being told im 'the leading person at this whole academy when it comes to interpretation and stage intelligence' by the husband of the woman im trying (not really. but i mean. who knows) to seduce... ok boy you got me. lets make it a polycule.

[sysig]

Anime good :) (Patreon)

[mad-hunts]

thinking about barton doing baby talk to his kids, even though he was eighteen when marcy gave birth to both matilda + louis and thus was a COMPLETELY different person, is honestly both super surreal to me and also surprisingly... sort of makes sense. because barton can NOT bring himself to be mean around babies; i mean at all, and this man loved his kids so much, which 😭 well — let me just say that his behavior has greatly changed since then, to say the least. though barton still believes he loves them in his 'own way'