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#ie me rambling
trulycertain · 5 months
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I've been thinking about why I enjoy Astarion and Tav (friendship or romance) so much. And I think I've finally put my finger on it: I love that, in a game so much about grey morality and there being no easy answers, this arc is so unabashedly, almost cheesily about the power of kindness.
Astarion's trauma doesn't turn him into a better person. There's no "the cleansing power of pain" here. He was a snotty petty fantasy-racist jerk before he was turned and enslaved, and he's a snotty petty fantasy-racist jerk afterwards.
The thing that makes him want to try listening to his compassion once in a while? It isn't trauma, but Tav and the crew's kindness. No matter how angry he gets with you for being a sappy do-gooder, his approvals tell a different story: despite the front he's putting up, he will fall fangs-over-heels for Tav if they're kind to him about Cazador, if they don't judge but instead offer him compassion. (In Act 3, if Dribbles asks what makes Tav special and they respond, "I treat everyone around me with kindness"? You get approval from Wyll and Astarion.) Karlach doesn't judge him for his days luring but asks with friendly intent if they would have met, if they could have had a drink together, speaking to him like a person rather than a tool; Gale offers him blood after a difficult fight and shares in his jokes about hedonism; Wyll, a noted monster hunter, lets him live and admits later on to being wrong about him. There are so many other instances.
It's incredibly telling that when you're trying to persuade him not to do something utterly inhumane in the name of the ritual, his instant, desperate argument for why he has to do it is, "Other people don't have a heart like you." Ascension is him agreeing with Cazador that the world is dog-eat-dog. No-one will ever be kind to you unless it's a lure, a scheme, softening you up to be used (the way he did for Cazador's targets and later tries to do for his siblings). Compassion just gets you killed. The only answer, the only honest thing, is domination and violence - "the cycle of power and terror".
If he stays spawn and you romance him, he tells you as much, tells you exactly what you did right: "You were patient. You cared." And "You believed in me. You believed that I was enough, just the way I am."
So yeah, that conversation where he says that "other people don't have a heart like you" and Tav counters, "The world can be a kind place," and he responds that "I'll... think on what you say"? I believe he genuinely was thinking on it. And it's why that chat lives in my head rent-free.
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solarpunkani · 11 months
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Hot 4am take but I feel like if we want to get people more interested in making their yards a more habitable space for wildlife like insects, we have to acknowledge that ‘Don’t want bugs in your house’ is still a 100% fair and valid point of view. ‘Loves nature’ and ‘doesn’t want roaches spiders and mosquitoes in the house’ aren’t opposites.
And with that in mind, when we propose to people that spraying pesticides around houses is Not A Good Idea, Actually, I feel like we need to give an alternative asides from ‘deal with it.’
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lunar-years · 3 months
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i'm still very sad they didn't do anything at all in season 3 with the Nate & Roy dynamic they'd been building off in the background for the first two seasons, because the layers there were really fascinating.
Starting with like, Roy being the only one to vocally and actively stand up for Nate in season one. At the time I think Nate was appreciative, but I think in hindsight, (rightly or wrongly) it quickly morphs into this mindset that Roy is sort of patronizing and has long viewed him as this weak thing in need of protecting. It feels (in Nate's mind), like Roy swept in to play the savior when it convinced him, but even that was based more around his hatred of Jamie than it was about liking Nate. And we see Nate later think himself proven correct in that thinking after he kisses Keeley and confesses and Roy...barely reacts. Roy, who is furious and angry about everything and everyone every day of his life, is suddenly like "Oh it's fine" when Nate has kissed his girlfriend. Nick Mohammed's commentary that Nate actively saw that as a micro-aggression was so fascinating and makes a lot of sense.
Then you have Roy, who did see season one Nate as someone to protect, but then was also driven to his best performance on the pitch during his final season by Nate's no-bullshit speech before the Everton game. That scene is so effective because it's such a jarring departure for the entire team from how they've previously viewed Nate, and it works for Roy especially because Roy respects people who don't give in to the intimidation he's constantly goading them with and instead tells it to him straight, no words minced (this is why Roy gets along so well with people like Rebecca, Keeley, and Ted, and why the breakthrough moment with Jamie is Jamie calling him out at the gala, etc.). I think there IS a part of Roy that doesn't respect Nate in season 1, which is why he later reacts how he does to Nate's kiss with Keeley, and it's a mindset he's vindicated by when Nate turns on Ted. But that also gets all mixed up with moments like the Everton, with the evidence of Nate being such a good strategist that Roy later finds himself deeply envious of after becoming a coach himself.
During the time they are both coaching together, there's a dynamic there where they both (I think) believe the other person doesn't take them seriously, and it's rooted in a little bit of truth (on both sides!!) that's then wildly exacerbated by their own insecurities. Like, Nate is intimated by the fact that Roy is this rich famous hotshot publicly beloved, so that it feels way out of Nate's league to even be interacting with him. At the same time, he also thinks Roy is a bit of an asshole who doesn't see him as a threat because he doesn't take him seriously, and is (fairly) offended by it. Meanwhile, Roy is intimated by Nate because Nate is so clearly so intelligent, which I think is something Roy is insecure about in general, given his own education being superseded early on by football. He sees Nate as being a more adequate coach than himself because of this. But he also thinks Nate is spineless and whatever respect he had for him (fairly) dissolves completely after Nate goes to the press about Ted.
So it's like, this messy mixture where they both have something the other desperately wants but they can't see at all why the other would possibly be envious of them due to their own insecurities. They are, imo, the two most insecure people on the show in completely different ways. They hate themselves far more than they hate each other, yet they displace the weight of that feeling onto each other; Roy by treating Nate with indifference and Nate by dismissing Roy in his head as an asshole hotshot whose had a great life handed to him and doesn't even appreciate it, whereas Nate has to fight tooth and nail to find success. And it all boils down to them not understanding one another while also having a lot in common under the surface.
Anyway, I think it would be super interesting to see how their friendship or even just their relationship as coworkers develops after season 3, as they both make active attempts at overcoming their insecurities and doing better by themselves and each other.
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1dkreally · 2 months
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reposting this because he turned reblogs off after 100 notes what a fucking loser
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+ extra tags that i would have "prev tag"ed otherwise, i wanted to include em still
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solomiracle · 8 months
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of course my favorite thing about solomon x mc is what the relationship means to both of them and their characters but my SECOND favorite thing is how like every other character would object to the relationship
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tangledinink · 7 months
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MY CHILDHOOD LOVE, WARRIOR CATS MY ONE AND ONLY
I MADE MY FIRST OC'S, SELF INSERTS, AND PERSONAS FOR THAT SERIES
WE WARRIOR'S FANS STAND TOGETHER IN OUR SEA OF BLOOD AND PILE OF BONE
oh BIG MOOD. i was obSESSED with warrior cats for AGES. like. lowkey baby's first true hyperfixation. i deVOURED those books. they were typically too expensive for my family to buy (esp coz there were SOO many of them) so every time a new one would come out i'd beg my mom to bring me to the bookstore and then i'd straight up just sit in the aisle and read the entire thing then and there.
warrior cats is definitely, like, a huge part of what truly got me into drawing/writing/storytelling. i used to dedicate hours to illustrating scenes from those books. i had four HUGE handmade posters up on my wall as a tween with each and every cat from each and every clan that i'd update as the allegiances changed in the books. i used to design 'warriorsonas' for each and every one of my classmates because i was a super normal child. warriors is how i got into roleplaying, which was definitely a huge influence on my writing-- i read in an interview when i was, like, 11 that the erins sometimes got inspiration for warrior names from roleplay sites, and i was like!!!!! omg i have to start roleplaying on roleplay sites so that one of my warrior names get into the books!!!!
(they never did lol)
but i still obSESSIVELY roleplayed online for YEARS, i'd draw all my characters and draw my friends' characters, too, and scenes from the rps. we'd all write PARAGRAPHS upon paragraphs with, like, proper grammar and everything (because at that age and in those circles, roleplaying *with actions in asteriks* and stuff was CRINGE and everyone KNEW that the LONGER you wrote the BETTER your writing was, obvs, and that was the only factor--) i spent, like, every waking moment on this massive chatroom-based site called kugyay that had, like, hundreds and thousands of users in its heyday. granted, like, most people had more than one account (so you could have a custom profile for each character, obvi) but i remember everyone freaked out when we hit more than 10,000 accounts.
i could talk about my experience with warrior cats and all my various ocs for... like.... ages. also like. this is random and won't mean anything to most people, esp coz i only posted, like, a few pages about it, but i also want y'all to know that this graphic novel that i desperately want to bring to life and do justice someday and that i've dedicated SOOO much time thinking about is... like....... 1000% inspired by/based on warrior cats lowkey. like. i am infected. forever and ever.
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another-corpo-rat · 9 days
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thinking Vic would make a hot af naga
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nimrism · 29 days
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Hi 👋 This fandom is truly the once and future fandom. Morgana did nothing wrong can coexist with Merthur love for me(although she basically destroyed them) What about you? (^.^)
HELLAURRRRR
you're so so right for the once and future fandom line like we'll truly be here forever 😭
and YES morgana has never done anything wrong in her LIFE she's literally an angel as far as i'm concerned she was THE BEST GUY AROUNDDDDD :)) all her actions are justifiable trust me trust me
merthur are something that can be so personal like they truly are THAT mlm ship for me. the merlin writers KNEW what they were doing (ruining my life) AND AS FOR MORGANA AND MERTHUR I'M CONVINCED SHE'S THEIR BIGGEST SHIPPER ACTUALLY (you're just gonna have to trust me on this one again cause the show doesn't help me prove my point with all the impaling/plotting against each other/eventual murder BUT she's always rooted for them to be together and if merlin hadn't yk... poisoned her and foiled her plans fifteen thousand times she might've been his wingman)
but these are mostly just my delusions :) do share any headcanons you have cause i love hearing different perspectives on their characters and in the end i just end up combining multiple headcanons to create a parallel reality in my head so :)))
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I promise you if you give people the benefit of the doubt, if you assume ignorance or misunderstanding instead of malice, if you make the effort to give and recieve clarity, if you listen to people's thoughts and explanations, you will see the world as so much less cruel than you had before. So much more loving. It's not easy, but it's so so important to do, for yourself and others
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trulycertain · 10 months
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I'm replaying Awakening, and back when DA2 came out, everyone went, "Why is Anders all sad and emo and serious now?" But eh, he's always been very... himself about things.
I mean, I'm only like ten minutes in from his Awakening intro, and already he:
can barely disguise his virulent dislike and contempt for templars
is a spirit healer and the one everyone side-eyes when someone needs patching up
is the one who tells all the civilians to get to safety, no sarcasm included
is the one who seems the most obviously sad at someone dying, and the best he can manage is, "He's beyond healing magic… a shot of whiskey for the pain?"
is the only one who in the whole party, even including Oghren, who defiantly doesn't bow to the king/queen of Ferelden, clearly expecting to be taken right back to the Tower (and probably sees no use in bowing to a monarch who's done bugger-all for his kind except keep them locked up)
That's my angry lad, that is!
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cillyscribbles · 2 years
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i love you broken speech i love you heavy accents i love you regional dialects i love you pidgins i love you sociolinguistics i love you beginner speakers i love you interjections i love you language
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lockandkeyhyena · 1 year
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do NOT read hurt no comfort fics at three am!!!! nothing supernatural will happen but you will be VERY sad and not be able to sleep
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stardew-bajablast · 1 month
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i hate the way people talk about skincare discourse on this site bc like the reasons people use skincare products are pretty varied and not always just vanity or buying nonsense products that do nothing bc tik tok said so.
but based on the average tumblr user’s take on it, that’s exactly what you would think. every skincare product in the world is a lie and everyone who buys them (ie: most people) are idiots who are throwing their money away on nothing, but if only those poor idiot babies knew the secret: that any and all skin issues can be solved by simply drinking water and wearing sunscreen.
believe it or not, most people are actually not dumb idiot babies who will keep buying expensive stuff over and over that doesn’t do anything for them! and women (primary market of skincare products) are not brainless, self absorbed bimbos who only care about vanity! there are actually a lot of reasons why someone might use a serum on their skin such as being in pain or itching caused by overly dry (or oily!) skin.
like yes we can talk about how the non-beauty related reasons for buying skincare aren’t really pushed by its marketing (except for acne, which even then is framed as a beauty concern and not something that can cause a lot of pain and discomfort), and we can talk about how that leads them to manufacture new bullshit insecurities to get people to buy their products, and we can talk about how social media is pushing this marketing to an ever-younger and younger audience who probably have no real need for any of these products. yes, we can and SHOULD talk about all that.
but just framing people who buy skincare products or have a skincare routine as vain, insecure idiots whose experiences aren’t real and just love throwing their money away on useless shit is not helpful to anyone and also just blatantly untrue
your skin is an organ. there are a lot of reasons to be concerned about it besides aging and beauty. like can y’all try to have even an ounce of nuance when talking about this shit
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betasuppe · 7 months
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Hi, I often see your posts where you express the urge to delete your works off the internet. I really like your style, it is very clean and recognizable (although it's not the point of this ask). I'd like to share a situation that happened to me several days ago. I have some fandom works on the web, which are around ten years old, some older and some newer (they are, admittedly, very low quality, I abstain from reading them because of cringe). There is a counter on the site, it shows daily views. I used to check it maniacally back than, so much it is still in my top viewed sites. So when I was feeling bad - when I AM feeling bad, I usually check this counter. And you know what? Even after 10 years. Even in a fandom that is wayyyyy less active than before. I get 1-2 views a day. Sometimes someone comes and binges half of my works, even, leaving thumbs ups in their wake. That is to say. There are always cake lovers in the internet (there are also cake haters, but we don't have a negative like button do we?) So even the works you consider cringe may find their audience, in several years EASILY (but probably even less). Yes, some of the things are history, but it is always a pleasure to receive a like or a comment, even on older works. Maybe if you think your art gets less recognition than it deserves, you may switch social media platforms and have them up on a more specialized site or archive (although I currently don't know any better platform for that than tumblr). To sum it all up, give your art a little time and it will certainly find its lover. You may derive some pleasurable emotions from that as well. You are cool, keep it up 👍
Hey thanks so much♡ I truly appreciate your kindness & suggestion here as well.
I don't think I can find a decent way to rationalize my thought process [beyond: depressed with having impossibly high standards at all times ha ha] but it's like.
When I get realization how god awful or disappointing a drawing is, it's as tho I haven't registered anything beyond that it needs to be destroyed. It's like a sickness & shame & disgust I can't explain, but can only be relieved by destroying whatever I've just created.
I wish I could make sense of it. I wish I could think further in the long term besides "god, this drawing sucks, I need to obliterate it so it's like it never existed in the first place" but.
When you are unwillingly consumed by your own insurmountable flaws, it's impossible to argue with & destruction is the only path at hand.
& sure, someone somewhere down the line might see one of my drawings later & love it, but the desperate need to be invisible & just vanish in shame of myself is. A lot.
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ascel-vibes · 8 months
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aUGh- being dealt 10000 damage from a gen|der|bent poll i voted on....... *despair emote holding head in hands*
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Yuka Shiraishi. btw.
#she has 20 lines at most but i love her#i'd really like for an 5 to have more yuka content... especially since ken is training vbs#ken is working them rough which for people surrounding vivid street (or at least vbs) would seem tough but understandable#but yuka is an outsider. yuka is a caring mother who still supports her daughter and her friends despite not growing up in vivid street#yuka would possibly consider this too much for the moment and try to get them to relax#and. i really want the current vbs arc to end with them relaxing a little#i don't think they'll go straight from “we're surpassing rad weekend and carrying nagi's wish”#to “we're tying ourselves down to this one event when we could go even further”#but they could definitely recognise “we're still kids we have time”#and yuka could be the one to bring that up. radder were all adults when rad weekend happened. vbs are in their second year of high school#and they're talented. so incredibly talented. kohane showed that at crawl green. akito finally realises his growth in his 4th event#toya has just came to terms with his classical music background and draws from it to write songs for the group#and an has had years of experience singing. except she also holds herself back in her want to be line nagi#which i'm almost certain will be addressed in her 5th event. and with yuka being the one who comforted an during lutf (in her card)#well. i think it would be nice for her to come back#especially as she is - again - an outsider to vivid street. she could represent how vbs can go beyond vivid street#another possibility is kohane's father. he sort of just disappeared after sdsc (at least i recall akito and an mentioning meeting him?)#and considering the impact he has on kohane (photography and his doubts regarding her sudden change in early game)#it could be nice seeing him again since with kohane/akito/toya seemingly reaching the end of a current arc in the last year#(ie the kohane and taiga plot/akito no longer feeling like he's behind the others/toya and classical music)#the next step in the group's story could be happening#half of this has nothing to do with yuka fjrjdiejd. i just like the concept of her being the group's link to going outside of vivid street#or going beyond is suppose. beyond the way...#bagel's rambles#i'm on break. watch me draw yuka design
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