#with a clumsy execution

[pinkfey]

i didn’t have high hopes and i was still disappointed 😔

[notmoreflippingelves]

Actually going insane over the implications of Jason asking Dick to be the Robin to his Batman in Battle for the Cowl.

Like I initially took it at the purely surface-level of Jason wanting a partner in the general sense. Which made sense, it's a huge responsibility and a lonely one so an assistant/sidekick/partner seems a no-brainer if you can get one.

But then I really thought about it, because Jason is not asking Dick to be his partner in the general sense; he's not even asking Dick to be his Nightwing. He's asking Dick to be his Robin.

And they both know exactly what Jason means: "Be the light to my darkness. Be the smile to my scowl. Be the hope to my fear. "

He's saying "Be 'Robin'; be the embodiment of Love and Justice and Goodness. Be the exceptional person that you have always been. Be the slightly-less exceptional person that I was when I wore your colors. Be the person that I was in the process of becoming and might have been (or might still be), if only Joker hadn't clipped my wings."

He's saying "I am prepared to become vengeance, become the Night. And I will go further than Bruce ever dared to, because it is what is needed. I will be the necessary evil. But you don't have to be. If Batman is Gotham's curse, Robin has always been its blessing. I will be the brutal punishment to our world, and I am asking you to be its incandescent gift."

He's saying, "Be for me, what we were for Him. Be my anchor, my comfort, my hope. Remind me what it's all for, why it's all worth it. And remind yourself as well."

He's saying "Be 'Robin' again--for both of our sakes."

[ittybittybumblebee]

the plunge

[frociaggine]

What is wheel of time and should I start it tomorrow?

you SHOULD.

Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy series by the late Robert Jordan. It's epic in scope, in length, and in its insanely large cast of characters. It's fascinating. The worldbuilding is insane, but also familiar (partly because it relies on widespread fantasy tropes, partly because it made many of those tropes popular for many books published later). The characters are exasperating but deeply human; I love SO many of them and appreciate so many others. It's very Of Its Time in some regards, especially re: its handling of gender roles and sexuality, but it's also surprisingly progressive and queer in intent even when the execution falters, and I really appreciate a lot that it even tried to Go There, because it was Very formative for me as a young teen. It's also one of those books where you can see the author's kinks all over the place (both narrative and otherwise) and tbh? it's a bit cringe but lots of fun. Also it’s very well written; the plot is as Epic as epic fantasy gets but it’s really the character moments that make the reader invested in the story. I just love it a lot, ngl.

Fun fact: I am now today on tumblr dot com, blogging in english, because sometimes around age 15 even though I fucking hated english class in school I just couldn’t wait for the latest books to come out in my country so I had to become fluent enough to read a 700-pages novel by myself. THAT is the grip this series had on me.

Some things I am now into because of reading WoT starting at age eleven.

codependent magical bonds with loyalty kink thrown in (if you’re familiar with TLT, think necro/cav but usually f/m. Not always though :) )

femdom. both F/f and F/m varieties

Propesized Savior trying to kill their humanity to become a figure larger than history (before realizing that's bullshit)

what if monastic(ish) order of sole women but also we had sex about it

unfortunately. a lot of weird kinks. I will elaborate on request but it’s better if I don’t right off the bat.

no, I lied. It wasn’t unfortunate. I appreciate it when authors are brave enough to let the banner of their id fly high

ruined civilizations and newer, less advanced civilizations rising from the wreckage. the collective understanding that you live in a post-apocalypse world. old scientific principles becoming magic

confronting your alternate dimension self, as a treat

dream sex

devil-may-care rogues who actually care a lot

alien morality, or cultural differences so big that they fundamentally are the same thing

people who are SO Wrong about everything but are 100% committed to their own personal moral code

whatever the fuck Mat’s luck had going on

“I know what my destiny is but I say: fuck you”

I can’t stress enough how many of my kinks (narrative; sexy in fiction only; sexy in RL) came directly from this series. Like, I know I’ve already said that but putting together this list made me think and. Oh my god.

SWORD MAIDENS

More practical information: there are 14 books. Yes, I know. The first book is The Eye of the World - it's fun and probably not exceptional even though you can feel the hints of how grand and insane the greater worldbuilding will be, and some characters really shine (Nynaeve!). The second book is where it really gets original, the third book is where I went from "books I like" to "series OF ALL TIME". If you don’t like it by book 4 then give up. If you like book 4 as much as I did you will never ever want to give up.

There's also an Amazon Prime show, currently S1 has been released! I haven't watched it beyond the first ep, but plan to do it soon; it's a lot more f/f than the books and the back half had some pacing issues (partly due to COVID fucking with the production) but definitely very iddy from what I've heard, and I’m very excited to check it out in time for S2.

tldr PLEASE read wheel of time!

[grinchwrapsupreme]

there's this thing in theatre called "cue-to-cue" where you go through the play with minimal to no actual acting or lines, just the actors moving to the spots they will be in when certain lighting and sound effect happen, in order to line things up tech-wise, so watching it has the feel of watching the play with none of the content or meaning and the whole thing is supposed to be done very quickly. Certain parts of Netflix's The Witcher felt like watching a cue-to-cue in that it felt like the characters were just arriving at a place they were supposed to be in, muttering out parts of the scene, and then quickly moving to the next spot they're supposed to be in, like the writers of the show were cue-to-cuing the books, knowing where the characters were "supposed to be" without actually displaying why to a useful degree

the one that particularly stood out to me was the confrontation between Ciri and Cahir where, first of all, Ciri finding Geralt and Yennifer after leaving Jaskier was already very abrupt and lacking reaction, but then running into Cahir and him begging Ciri to kill him? That bit bothered me. Specifically because it all felt very quick and surface level, like the writers knew where the characters were supposed to be and what they were meant to be doing without really giving it space to be examined, so we get that tension between Ciri and Cahir as she holds the sword to his throat and then, just as abruptly, the people on horseback are approaching and Cahir just gets up and goes to fight them off without really any acknowledgment of his desire to be killed literal seconds ago beyond i guess the implication that he's willing to die here, and then he's face to face with these 5 horseback riders, brandishing his sword, and it's so obvious there's nothing he can really do to fight them off, there's literally 5 of them and they already look like they're just gonna brush right past, like Cahir is hitting invisible cues without the substance behind it

and I do think this feeling was worse in the third season than in the first two, but it did bother me enough that i sort of immediately lost interest in Cahir, because the quickness of that scene removed the intensity of it for me, and there were many scenes like it (Jaskier and Radovid's scenes for example) that gave the feeling that what should have been a whole play was reduced to a quick 15 minute run through where the cast are just moving from one spot to the next and it's okay because we'll do the whole thing at the dress rehearsal later

[forcedhesitation]

the end of wyll's quest is....interesting. it was VERY cool. I thought having the archetypal fairy tale prince go "slay the dragon" was a fitting ending, I just feel like it was....a little underwhelming in some ways.

more under cut

first and foremost- I wish that it was not possible for your tav/durge to converse with ansur. I wish that it automatically selected wyll, because I simply do not think that this entire scene has as much impact if it is not wyll at the forefront of everything. which is why I also have to complain about the emperor here.

the reveal that he is balduran is.... well. I knew about this already, through accidental spoilers. Initially, I thought it was a stupid reveal. but reframing the reveal in the context of a fairy tale...well it makes perfect sense. it just FEELS a bit underwhelming and strange, because your player character is not wyll. this entire area feels like it was written with an avatar wyll in mind. and I wish that there were changes made to the companion wyll version of the game that made up for this. wyll is a character who is hugely tied to the main plot by virtue of being the duke's son. he spends the game searching for his father, while trying to deal with both mizora and the absolute. mizora is the one he sold his soul to to save the city before, the reason he was cast out. the absolute wants to destroy and steal his city. and ansur, a legendary dragon, might be his way of saving the city and getting his father's approval back. ansur had wanted to kill balduran because balduran had been infected with a mindflayer parasite, but had embraced his illithid nature rather than rejected it. I feel like there's some parallel that can be made to wyll there. in that he was othered, like balduran was, because he accepted mizora's help. ansur condemned balduran because ansur is a bronze dragon and therefore lawful good. wyll's father exiles wyll because wyll was "at best a fool, at worst a traitor," in his father's eyes and his father tolerated neither. wyll & balduran are both victims of the inflexible nature those of lawful good alignments have. they are both seen as monsters for what happened to their bodies. I wish that was emphasised a little more. like autoselecting wyll for the ansur dialogue & giving him dialogue with the emperor would have made this ending feel a little more complete, in my opinion. and it would have better demonstrated the point of having the emperor even be balduran. because that's such a fairy tale thing, the stuff of real legend! for the hero's mysterious guide to actually be some great old hero thought to be long dead. and I do think it works. it just doesn't feel as impactful if wyll is not your avatar.

I also wish this area was overall bigger & more developed. I know they redid wyll's character from EA. I know they had less time. I just. I wish that this area was as detailed as the sharran temple in act 2. it feels like SUCH a big deal, it feels like it should be bigger. especially since at lvl 12, you're just. unkillable.

but the dialogue afterwards, where he says he's in the mood for celebration and wants to make a celebratory dinner? SO CUTE!!! that man's joy is contagious!!! I could practically feel him holding back how much he just wanted to jump around with joy. and the sweet little "let's hope gale won't be too upset that I'm cooking for once and not him." I love you. you are too fucking sweet wyll. this fucking city does not deserve you. this playerbase does not deserve you. you are a true gem and I wish people saw you are just as beautiful and interesting as astarion and gale.

a cool possible scene they could add, to given wyll's questline more material IS that dinner he talks about. or preparation for it! something where he asks tav/durge to taste the food beforehand? or where your avatar can ask him about where he learned to cook, prompting him to talk about his time as the blade of frontiers? out in the sword coast on his own? this scene could easily be platonic or romantic, but be given extra options for a romantic relationship. but something like this could truly be added at an earlier point in the game too, it doesn't have to be tied to this particular moment.

but overall really cool area of the game. very cool bossfight. and a rather clever ending to wyll's quest, contrary to what his haters say. I love the commitment to the fairy tale theme. it just needs a bit more. maybe it feels more satisfying if you've romanced him. although I've heard his act 3 romance scene is currently bugged? his unromanced questline is slightly bugged (doesn't rob you of any material, though, it just replayed some dialogue for me). either way, I hope that gets fixed asap. I so badly need to experience this romanced version in my other campaign.

[breadedsinner]

Ashley and Blackwall two of my most beloved characters have a little speech regarding a dog, and people are just like “this makes me uncomfortable I would have saved the dog” as if that was remotely the point.

[chipper-smol]

I genuinely love how because ADHD in adults has gradually become a relevant topic to research people keep finding new traits specific to ADHD that make me go “Wait That’s Not Just. A Thing I Do? That’s An ADHD Thing? It’s Not. Just A Quirk?? It’s A Dumb Brain Thing????” and question my entire life

[bidokja]

i dont really care if something has bad writing like. im aware of that going in and if it does what it sets out to do then--as far as the general writing quality goes--its whatever to me, mostly, cause any other critique or gripe i have of it can rest on top of "but at least its hitting its own target (or doing its best to)" overall i tend to have an attitude of "everyone starts somewhere" and "even bad writing can be entertaining" and "art is art, creation is creation, etc" so like. even if i won't call bad writing good, im like. idc it can just Exist yknow.

what Really irritates me is when bad writing acts like its good with zero self awareness. when they have lost the plot of their own plot (if they ever had it to begin with). when bad writing acts like its reinventing the wheel or the best thing since sliced bread when it is in fact just a really shitty wheel and a stale loaf. and all my other critiques and gripes can thus boil down to "what are you even doing!! where are you going!!!" bonus irritation points whenever a fan(base) refuses to acknowledge all this as well.

[highladyluck]

Working on a new craft

[lesbiantiana]

the way reviewers talk about Wish y'all act like the movie ate your dog and killed your grandmother. I watched it and its not even that bad

[thevalleyisjolly]

I’m definitely not saying that the old Star Wars Legends books were all good, and I’ll be the first to criticize them for all the interesting creative decisions and sometimes questionable writing quality, but there will always be a little part of me that’s salty about how they got almost completely discarded in favour of the Mouse’s new canon hegemony.  Was Legends really that good?  Eh, not really.  So often, it was a case of ‘Cool concept, completely dropped the ball on the execution.’  Are there a lot of good things about the new canon that we wouldn’t be able to have with Legends?  Absolutely.  Is it still a shitty thing to overwrite decades worth of creative effort and collaboration for the sake of corporate marketing?  Generally, yeah.

[midsummerlizzie]

i'm about to finish part two from c&p, raskolnikov's indirect confessions being taken as signs of insanity is so funny in a tragic way

[wizardnuke]

I could make bank off of a cooking channel not because I am a particularly good cook I can do all the basics and follow recipes but it's like a vaudeville routine in there. I sometimes forget basic rules of thumb like "don't dump newly strained noodles right back into the very hot pan or they will glue themselves to the bottom of it" and I do things like used a small fork to individually precariously pull pieces of garlic bread from the oven nearly dropping them into the hot abyss below (I had them on aluminum foil) and. last time I tried to flip a fried egg it landed entirely on the counter. adhd and slight clumsiness and constant frantic narration. I couldn't find the olive oil and started yodeling. anyone want some chicken alfredo

[merlintheenchanted]

it has come to my attention that most works of art are bad. it has also come to my attention that most works of art are loved. and therefore that most works of art are good

[vulpinesaint]

bed covered in books feeling fucking fanTASTIC