#its the equivalent of pissing on someone who is already on fire

[mistressemmedi]

Penalizing Pierre while he's throwing that Alpine tractor around the track? Pretty sure that goes against the Geneva convention

#its the equivalent of pissing on someone who is already on fire #C'mon. let him commit some crimes #f1 #formula 1 #australian gp 2024

[wexarethewalkingxdead]

Which female horror archetype are you?

the heroine

the ingenue, the maiden, the madonna. you're feared because of your cleverness. like the survivor, you're often the target of terrible horrors, but unlike her, you find your strength in knowledge instead of physical endurance. your patron saint is reiko asakawa. you're most compatible with the she-beast, whose torment could be eased by your gentle touch.

What kind of supervillain is your muse?

lovestruck henchman to the big bad

just like smee and captain hook <3 but yeah, you're not a huge baddie yourself. you're in this for the love of the one closest to you, a noble and miserable cause--but your fierce loyalty knows no limits. you will not hesitate to hurt those who pose any threat to your favorite. your devotion will devour you. your villainy is at its core, a loving tragedy.

If you were a deity what would be your domain?

Warfare and the Forge

You are the divine patron of battle, conflict, and the weapons forged to fight them. You are quick to temper and obstinate in disposition, and you also govern heroic attributes such as strength, courage, and honor. Due to your domain’s ability to bring widespread death and suffering, much of the mortal realm often looks upon you with fear and disdain. However, you also give life to transformative and regenerative forces such as revolution and rebellion, and your innovative forge has birthed vital technologies of science, beauty and prosperity alongside its spears and armor. Mortals look to you for bravery and prowess in battle as well as skilled craftsmanship, and your mythological equivalents are Greece’s Ares and Hephaestus, Scandinavia’s Odin, Egypt’s Sobek, and Mesoamerica’s Huītzilōpōchtli.

What kind of touch do you possess?

powerful touch

you leave me breathless. you are someone that is destined to do great things. everything you do is with a purpose and dedication. you are a powerful presence that leaves their mark on the world. focused, confident, and striking is how others would describe you. others come to you for trustworthy advice and honest opinions. you have few that you consider close and whom you will open up to. you often push down your emotions and put up a strong persona because you are scared of vulnerability. you protect others hard and your heart harder. i love you, bad bitch.

Which Rage Language Are You?

step back

usually, you're able to bottle up your emotions and ignore the frustrations. but, after weeks of shoving everything down, your body needs a release, and i pity the poor person who managed to piss you off. it's screaming crying, shouting, kicking lockers, whatever you can do to get it out of your system. it's a whole jean grey moment, fire and fury blasting out of you.

What chess piece represents you?

White Rook

You are a White Rook. As a piece that can move inwards and outwards, you're a master of self-reflection. You know what needs to be done and when to do it. You're a protector, and would willingly take someone's place in danger in a heartbeat because you know you can handle the pressure. But even castle walls crumble. For all your chivalry and fortitude, everything must come to an end. Will you be there to see the final stages of the war? Or will you have already been discarded in the battle?

what brand of stupid are you?

Confidently stupid

You think you are the smartest person on earth as you put your spoon in the microwave to make it easier to scoop ice cream. You give awful advice that sounds smart when spoken but terrible when executed. You insist on doing things yourself and are so absolutely sure you are doing everything right. Your confidence gives you charm, as well as the bravery to do the dumb things that you do

Why Do You Hurt?

you're choking on how much you have to try

you have tried. you have carried the weight of the world on your shoulders and accepted more responsibilities than you have ever wanted, even intended to gain. it isn't crushing - you are strong enough to hold it - but you are choking. you don't know what to do with it. you don't know where it goes, how to move this weight everyone knows you can hold onto, and do you even want to get rid of it? Never. You would not give this to - force this on - anyone else. but you /can't/. but you are choking on it. your body will hold it up even when you lose all the air in your lungs, and your footing, and your courage. it does not mind choking you. it seems almost designed to do so. if you weren't wrung out you wouldn't be doing this thing properly.

#.dash games [muses] #.headcanon [andrea]

[paragonrobits]

so its tempting to make a joke about in a world of complex and interesting character arcs, there’s Ozai in the background clearly wishing he had a mustache so he could twirl it and go NEHEHEHE as he waits for the train to be invented so he can tie women to it and laugh as the train comes becaiuse NEYEHEHEHEHE HE’S SO EEEEVIL, WICKED NEFARIOUS CAD THAT HE IS

but the thing about it is that, this isn’t meant as criticism. This isn’t a prelude to lamented supposed missed opportunities with Ozai or claiming that ATLA is missing something because he lacks nuance. Ozai works perfectly well as he is, and suggesting that every antagonist needs to have dozens of layers of character to fulfill their narrative purpose is missing the point a little bit, I think.

so firstly, the sad  truth of things is that its technically incorrect to suggest Ozai is unrealistic. Because, when you get down to it, a quick look at history or, god forbid, reexamining the last few years of real world history indicates that Ozai is in fact a horribly realistic character. History books, and recent history, are FULL of self-involved bigots who believe their good fortune equates to the world demanding they get everything they want. People who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves, who would set the world on fire for approximately five minutes of victory time. Even dismissing the possibility of, say, someone who genuinely wants to nuke foriegn countries to feel powerful, just imagine that one bastard boyfriend of your sister’s, for example; someone who beats their loved ones for bringing them presents when THEY hadn’t already bought anything, so he gets pissed that you imply he’s a bad provider and throws an ashtray at your head.

this kind of person would seem to be an almost cartoonishly evil, unrealistic monster. And yet, the world is full of them. Reality is often far worse than what we dream up. Don’t forget that the real Amon Goeth, remembered in Schindler’s List, had to be TONED DOWN in the movie because people couldn’t believe the sheer extent of his crimes as being something actually real; the man was real, he really did unspeakably horrible things, but it was so extreme and outrageous people refused to believe it of a fictional equivalent.

The second point is that Ozai’s simplicity doesn’t hurt his character, or the narrative. It enhances it.

Ozai is a selfish man that only cares about power and the immediate people can offer him. He believes sincerely that the world exists to gratify him, that the Fire Nation deserves conquest and dominance because it has the power to do so. He doesn’t understand anything outside of his own ego, and he doesn’t care to learn. He’s a petty, violent man who embodies the worst excesses of the Fire Nation; battling him is a shorthand for fighting the corrupt ambition of what the Fire Nation itself has become.

So not only is he the complete opposite of our protagonist Aang (sweet and kind, open to the world, living humbly as a monk, striving to live in harmony with the world’s cycles), he’s also a reminder of the worst, perhaps, in humanity itself, and everything Aang is battling. He’s a thoughtless, self-centered bigot and warmonger who thinks nothing of consequences or the greater flow of the world, and thus his entire perspective is a thesis on what the series and its themes oppose.

He doesn’t need to be too complicated a guy. The fact that he IS the way he is, that’s probably part of the point. He doesn’t see beyond himself or his own ambitions, while Aang strives to achieve true harmony. Aang understands that divisions between nations are a false illusion of the world, while Ozai has his whole identity built around the idea that he’s inherently better. The illusion of royal blood finds a head in Ozai.

The world is full of uncomplicated, petty-minded brutes who can’t see further than throwing their weight around, and Ozai is a mix of both that, and being the embodiment of everything that Aang is not, and must strive to defeat. Sometimes that’s the flaws within our own thinking, and sometimes it’s a jerkbag you can smash with a rock.

#ATLA #ozai #analysis #meta

[gxmemyth]

plotting call for event #12 - the storm

reply or send an i.m message to set up plots for the event. all the infomation on the characters are under the cut below.

chadley; the island ; his a.i systems are very limited because of the interference of the storm but that will not stop him from trying to help. there is some information stored in his internal database on how to treat injuries and analyse aspects of the island so although he does not have the answers on how to get off the island, he will try his best... despite the stress of his internal malfunction.

luma; washington dc ; poor star child. her cosmic power from rosalina isn’t gonna be much against weeping angels and harpies. she can provide some light if needed but she will be assisting in setting up safe areas in the city; ensuring everyone is fed and safe. she might even try and fend off one with a human defence.

rathalos: the island ; regardless of what disaster is rolled, i am gonna try and write him to be injured but not major; something that would put him out of action for some time. he will suffer a few cuts and sprains which will limit his mobility - and also despise his human body even more. he’s a dragon so he is going to get fired up and get stubborn, trying to move but he ain’t a towering wyvern anymore.. he’s gonna have to get nursed like everyone else.

edward elric; washington dc; if he didn’t believe that there was more than just alchemy in effect, he will now. however, that will not stop him from fighting back. since he is still unsure of the laws of alchemy in the city, he will limit what he does due to equivalent exchange; sticking to his automail arm and possibly setting traps with walls or long range protection.

kaeya alberich: washington dc; as cavalry captain of the knights of favonius, he will be volunteering to assist with the parties who are fighting back; skilled in his sword to battle through the hordes. vision wise; he can use his cryo ability to freeze enemies if they are submerged in water or... (to make the meme a reality) make an ice bridge to safety.

min min: the island; this is her first full interaction with magic that isn’t the ARMS ability so she’s taking it a step at a time. since she is mobile and athletic, she can provide help to collect food or have a vantage point for the group.

balan: washington dc : balan...is a weird case. his powers seem to be dreams and theatre so he can’t do much in terms of full defence but if someone is panicking or alone, he will provide company and comfort to those who may be going through difficult times in the attacks.

clive rosfield: washington dc; the attacks will bring a vision to him of an fire being attacking and someone appearing as his brother but he will still not be sure what it all means or if its just a nightmare caused by the fear of the storm (still remaining unaware until further notice). the figure that looks like joshua will encourage him to fight, tapping into a strength clive didn’t know existed as he seems to be very skilled in real sword fighting.

jiwoon hak; the island; he will have his blades and a pissed off attitude, wanting to know what the heck is going on but it might actually be the entity luring him back; he tries to find clues on what’s going on but once the disasters begin, he will realise that the trails are different and this time, he is the survivor.

jumin han: washington dc; he finds himself in a safe house, wanting to know what is going on and is already sceptical of the magic at work but he will definitely shut up once he sees his first wendigo. someone can teach him how to fight... if his bad end showed him being good with ropes, maybe he can be of use.

minsoo: the island; he has no idea what is going on and is already worried; not in a sense of panic but it brings a strength to the young singer that has never been seen by sparkling or their manager. maybe it will lead him to have a heart to heart and learn about the magic of the city...

#hw: plot call #hwevent12 #hw: starter call #injury mention tw

[mostlikelyshutup]

thoughts while watching the first harry potter:

listen i started this list a little late im ngl but notable thoughts so far are me thinking of dumbledore as a gay idiot and still loving hagrid

do you think hes speaking in parseltongue in the zoo when hes speaking to the snake

forgot boats existed

these idiots do scream a lot dont they

i forgot how light hearted this universe really is in the first couple movies

yer a wizard harry, okay hagrid maybe slide him into it a little better

we get it tuney you have fucking trauma, doesnt mean you should abuse a child

hasnt everyone had their name down since they were born, hagrid? theres a list

i like that his umbrella is pink

are you paying for those damages hargid? stop taking the door off the hinges

though, if the dursleys are, keep breaking shit

speaking about dragons on the the fucking tube, its a miracle harry didnt get in trouble with the ministry sooner

what is hagrid's usual? does anyone know???

fucking Quirrell, cant wait for your epic love story with the dark lord

maybe we should tell the 12 year old how the fuck everyone knows his name, just maybe

they do a great job of getting the wonder down pat

how much money and licensing do you think it took for them to get all these owls on set

ahh yes, antisemitism the bank

how many vaults are in gringotts?? also if harry's vault is the potters vault, a literal like sacred 28 family, one of the original families, and its number 600 something, how many were there before the potters?? did the potters get a vault recently? or is this james and lily's vault?? how rich were james and lily if so??

look at ollivander, crazy tinker uncle, love him

this might be the socialist in me but why do people have to pay for wands if everyone needs one??

why is the dark lords twin wand just sitting around on the shelf, ollie me boy??

do you think thats Harry's true wand or do you think thats because of the horcux thing?? do you harry had to get another wand after he died?? did he? i dont remember the last movie

is ollie me boys actor wearing contacts or are his eyes just like that??

thats a very weird way of showing Halloween 81, very misleading

hagrid said ill predict voldys rise in the first movie so we can have some plot development

hagrid is late to everything isnt he? i can feel it in my bones

i swear ive seen these movies, and ive even read the first book, i just dont remember shit

youd think theyd have someone in the know stationed close to the entrance for the platform, for any muggleborns

ginnys actress really had no fucking lines in this movie did she, just had to stand there

oh wait she said good luck

amazing work ginny

ooh a warm filter

can muggles see the express? like just running from london to scotland

wicked!

you didnt have to show the woman the sad sandwich ron

i think the trolly replenishes magically, i think thats how thats how that works, i want to believe that

god i cant tell if i would love or hate hermione, shes pretentious but so was i at that age

god dont fucking point your wand right in someones face mione

how does mione know who harry is?? why does she care?

look at the tiny first years, might just go and pinch theyre cheeks

MINNIEEEE i love you minnie

looking stunning minnie, the green brings out the sternness in your brow

you go minnie, give your speech, thats my head of house

shut up draco, youre not bond

you pretentious fuckwit, your hair is brassy anyways

if this is a class of kids born in the middle of a war, how big are the usual class sizes wtf

THE FUCKING CLAP

fucking propaganda ron, you slytherin hater

what order are these names going in, did they just randomized the list

oooh we get quiet for the boy who lived, jesus let him keep living

the fact that for the rest of these people its just silent is so fucking funny to me, Harry's just fucking whispering to himself

get their attention minnie

me dads a muggle, mums a witch, bit of a shock for him when he found out

NICK, love to see you buddy

i have no emotional attachment to peeves but i feel i should mention him here

the stairs still piss me off, why the fuck would you make moving stair cases

who sets out gloves for the next day? am i the weird one who doesnt??

Minnie, you are the love of my life

shut up snape you dramatic bloodpurist incel

i know theyre setting him up to be mistaken as the villain but jesus christ hes still an asshole

your robes Neville, you forgot your robes

its weird how they have to learn all these latin charms yet only have to say up to get their brooms to work

why wont you go after him, hes obviously not exactly in control, Hooch

does Hooch only teach first years? she is quite literally the equivalent of a history teacher who coaches football

what the fuck is Quirells classroom

they dont make the house teams because no first years can try out, Ron

MINNIE PLAYED QUIDDITCH?!?!? WHY DIDN'T I KNOW THIS

why didnt you speak up earlier Mione wtf

bc the fire wont give you away, harry, better hide

FLUFFY, WHOS A GOOD BOY

they have much worse things locked up in the school, Ron

Oliver wood is a bloody liar because i still dont fuckign understand quidditch, also theres like 500 rules, wtf

thats a shitty explanation of how the game works, Oliver

BLOW IT UP SEAMUS

SHES TWO FEET BEHIND YOU RON YOU IDIOT

carrot cake? on halloween?

dont shrug as if you didnt literally bully her ron

thought youd oughta know, bit of an understatement Quirell

no duh the trolls left the dungeon ron

lying: the best start to any friendship

we're at a net zero points for gryffindor for the year at the moment

the amount of interaction these kids have with professors is so weird to me, is this what small class size do to kids?? its weird

not comforting Oliver

Okay i understand Oliver simps now, I get it okay

are there no backups or subs for quidditch? feels like there should be, like of all the games

set him on fire mione, i know hes not the villain of the movie but god he sucks

fancy flying from harry fucking potter

okay but also i feel like there are some things we should not trust hagrid with, like hes not that great at keeping secrets

why is harry excited about christmas if he thinks hes not getting presents? i knw there are other aspects but like thats the only reasont o get up early

i always remember this scene at night for some reason??

not just an invisibility cloak, THE invisibility cloak ron

btw who gives it to harry? is it remus? is it dumbledore? is it like an inheritance thing? whats up with that?

there are jumpscares in harry potter

he very much can hide, filch

stop being a narc mrs norris

does harry even know what his parents look like at this point? how does he know who the fuck is in the mirror of erised?? he doesnt have that stupid scrapbook yet does he

oh they nod, sure lets clear up that plot hole

they shouldve put sirius and remus in the mirror in that scene, shown his whole family, wouldve been a nice setup

how does rupert grint already look so tired as a twelve year old

big speech to give to a twelve year old Dumbledore, when you wont even tell him what you see

Emma really does just slam that book on Daniels hand, thats mustve fucking sucked

the fact that ive watched two movies that had Nicholas Flamel in two very different roles this year is very strange to me

well thats probably on account of it being a fucking dragon egg hagrid, now isnt it?

was hagrid a hufflepuff? i think he was, maybe a ravenclaw

yes four, you blonde idiot

that shot is really nice, it sets them apart

what happened to filch to make him such a miserable man?

ooh mention of werewolves, awooo werewolves of london

yeah just dip your whole hand in hagrid, dont be scared of the strange liquid, take a nice little bath

i loev that dog, i want that dog, i want to hug that dog

god just the look of that forest is so bloody cool

wait so is that quirell walking fucking backwards?

maybe ask who the fuck youre talking to before asking other questions??? wtf harry

why are yout talking to the centaur like hes your old friend harry, youve literally never met him before

snape doesnt want the stone at all Harry

god hagrid you sweet stupid man

snape is completely valid for that, if a twelve year old ever looked at me like that i would punch them

Do you think people ever loose invisibility cloaks? like theyre invisible do you think they ever just never get found again

i hate the look of the dog spit, that is so gross

they really left everything in except for the fucking potions didnt they, damn

harry potter walked so queens gambit could run

hermione, posted up

rons stupid in the later movies because he got a concussion as a twelve year old

god harry really posted up to beat up snape in fucking khakis

"I knew you were a danger to me!" Hes twelve, Quirell

let me wait for this weird dude to unravel his head scarf instead of running away

the magic in this movie is real fucking conditional isnt it

just some casual necromancy for the stone? you sure about that voldy, you two faced bitch?

let me choke out this twelve year old real quick

oh yeah why is he able to just avengers endgame Quirell? is there an answer to that? like was that ever found out

do you think voldy passing by him while he hold the stone actually killed him but since he holds the stone hes functionally unkillable and then some magic gets put into him and thats why he can return to life later when he actually goes to the whole afterlife place?

ohhh we're vouching on the blood magic for the endgaming of Quirell

do you think dumbledore came across the vomit flavored bean before or after his sister died?

Mione's got a headband! Looking snazzy!

how did Hufflepuff only get 352 points? Gryffindor literally lost 150 points this year and they only beat them by 50, wtf, is it because they kept getting caught with weed

I wont even speak on the fucking outrage that is this point awarding, its already been spoken on. However, Neville shouldve gotten more points

What if someone just stood up and started challenging Dumbledores math, that would be so funny

some of these extras are really attractive

but james potter is somehow so fucking ugly why did they do that to my mans

hagrid deserves the last shot of this film, i love him, he deserves everything, that stupid sweet man

#harry potter #sorcerer's stone #harry potter and the sorcerer's stone #harry potter and the philosopher's stone #hermione granger #ron weasley #k mumbles #fred weasley #george weasley #ginny weasley #hagrid #rubeus hagrid #albus dumbledore #long post #james potter #sirius black #remus lupin

[thebibliomancer]

Tides of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 19

Tides of the Dark Crystal because I want to know if they’ll be able to save a tree! I’m arboreally invested!

Last times on book: Amri and co are on a quest to unite all the Gelfling clans against the Skeksis. They’ve managed with the Sifa and they’re trying with the Dousan at the Wellspring gathering place now. Periss, their guide to the Wellspring, did a hostage situation to get the team educated about the plight of dying giant trees in the area. Amri, Naia, and Tavra dove down down down to the bottom of the lake where the tree once was and found a spark of life. But it needs the Dousan to heal and it’s going to be hard to get them to the bottom of the lake. They’ve only got one Naia to go around.

Chapter 19

Team Naia and the Dousan heal the tree, more plot arrives in a silver bound scroll

Okay. So the solution to how to get all the Dousan underwater is to not do that. Its just not feasible. Amri suggests getting the Dousan to the cave since the water from the Wellspring is going to the cave too and Naia says it’ll have to be good enough.

Their lips met, and she filled his lungs with air, more warmly than before, then thrust him away. He held the feeling in his heart, letting it buoy him toward the surface so far above.

Is giving someone oxygen underwater a ship tease? Because it seems to be leaning that way.

Amri bobs to the surface and is pulled out of the water by good ol’ Periss. The Dousan are all still meditating as their camp is torn to pieces by the wind. Can’t say they’re not determined.

The Grottan guy tells Periss (and Erimon who is still hanging around) that the tree is still alive, just, and that it needs the Dousan’s song for Naia to heal it.

Periss turned on Erimon, eyes wide with hope.

“Our people meditate, send thoughts and dreams into the universe, trusting Thra to send providence. But they won’t take action -- won’t even lift a finger to save the gifts Thra has already provided! If they won’t, then I will.”

Periss runs off to put the nearest Dousan. To put them in a headlock and drag them to the cave, presumably.

“You say you saw it? The tree truly lives?”

“And can save us yet, if you’ll believe in it!”

Like the living spot of the tree in all the dead, a spark of light flickered in Erimon’s countenance. Like a wall breaking, like he was waking from a dream that he had been dreaming too long.

Maybe if the tree had sent dreams to the rest of the Dousan, this would have gotten resolved faster. I do wonder why it only sent dream nightmares to Periss.

Anyway, Erimon pulls a horn from his belt and just holds it up to the wind, which makes me laugh a little at the effort saving a desert storm can provide. The blaaaaat, presumably, of the horn rouses the Dousan and Erimon tells them to get themselves to the cave.

When Erimon, Periss, and Amri get to the cave, Erimon jams the horn into a crevice so it’ll keep blowing and guide the Dousan there.

Inside, Kylan has climbed into a little nook that I guess has great acoustics and is still playing his firca. Amri tells Erimon and Periss to get to singing without waiting for the rest of the Dousan.

A neat touch is that Dousan singing is a sort of humming that reminds Amri a lot of the Mystics but also Aughra’s chant and the song of Thra. Given who the Dousan based their culture on, it makes a lot of sense. And is probably the best possible singing for this situation.

Amri asks Onica how they’ll know this is all working and she says “If it works, the tree will rise and break the storm wall,” Onica said. “And if doesn’t, we may be the only ones that survive this trial.”

No pressure. Except all the pressure. Geez, the weather is pissed off.

Some more Dousan start finding their way into the cave, caked in sand, and confused how things have gotten so bad and whether buried in sand forever is the answer Thra is giving them.

Even entering the cave and seeing Periss and Erimon singing to Kylan’s playing the Dousan just kind of. Silently watch. They need a bit of a nudge.

“Thra has already given you an answer. To the darkening, to the Skeksis, to all the corruption that seeps into our world. Believe in the way Thra has shown us all along, even if it seems hopeless. In the tree. In the Gelfling. In each other!”

Amri held out his hands as the storm threw itself against the mountain, a monster knocking on the door. To his surprise, a Dousan stepped forward and took his hand.

“I will believe,” she said.

Another followed her. Amri didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I would also like to see this portrayed in puppets. It wouldn’t be as technically impressive as the dive into the forever deep spring but it would make me feel feelings.

The Dousan join hands and hum sing so loudly it drones out the storm.

Amri sees a dreamfast, presumably with all the present Dousan or with the tree?, of the tree in its prime and the Dousan coming and going from the oasis.

He thinks he hears Naia’s voice so looks outside the cave where the darkness has lifted.

Amri stepped outside of the cave and gasped.

Still growing, at an impossible and rapid speed, a tree was unfurling from within the lake. Its spiraled shoot jetted into the sky, thick boughs with huge succulent fronds blooming like a storm of another kind.

The storm wall broke as the tree pierced it, scattering the lightning and wind. The clouds parted in a ripple, dissipating. Behind the black of the storm, the sky was light with morning.

HEYYYY wow. They kept saying that the tree could stop the storm but I thought it was like. Magic. Not that the tree would grow so big that it would explode the storm.

These Great Trees are. Pretty great.

In the center of the still-chanting Dousan, the same rainbow light appears and dream-etches the story of the Sifa and now the Dousan joining the resistance.

Very helpful to have a ‘quest completed’ indicator. And very cool.

Amri also sees a vision in the fire of Maudra Ethri at Cera-Na receiving a scroll tied with silver twine.

Huh. Plot hook?

And similar to the dream Naia had of her mother receiving a scroll in the swamp.

Huuuuh. Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.

Speaking of Naia...

The tree’s bark was made of woody, layered diamonds like the scales of a lizard, pointing upward to capture what meager rain fell in the desert. Cradled in one of the shelves made of the bark, resting in a nest of lake weeds, was the Drenchen girl. Amri splashed through the water and climbed up the tree to where she lay.

“Oof,” she groaned when he reached her.

“You did it. Naia, you did it.”

She gave an exhausted chuckle. “It wasn’t me. When I was down there, I could hear you. Through the water and the river. I heard Kylan’s firca. I heard the Dousan singing the song of life.” She looked at the palms of her hands. “I became one with the tree, in that moment. I felt as if my heart had grown wings. And then this miracle...”

Together, they looked up through the morning suns as they came through the tree’s fronds, sparkling with the water that still dripped in pristine rain from so high above. Naia smiled and put her hand against the tree’s bark.

“Oszah-Staba,” she said. “The Wellspring Tree. Its tears have always filled the lake. But now they can be tears of joy instead of loneliness.”

WOO!

I hope they all feel very accomplished! That’s two whole clans convinced and a tree saved.

Uh, so why is there still 80 some pages left. Are there more tides?

Despite stopping the storm, it managed to destroy pretty much the entire Dousan camp first. The Crystal Skimmers at least dig themselves out of the sand.

Erimon tries to apologize to Periss but Periss just tells him that his sand skiff (the one that Periss stole?) will be a good apology.

Everyone is basically feeling good and accomplished right now, despite 80 some pages left.

Even Tavra spoke kindly into his ear.

“You did very well, Shadowling,” she said.

“And how are you, spiderling?” he replied.

“Tired.”

In the past, her short answers had always seemed aloof, as if she didn’t want to speak to him any more than she had to. But this time he heard something else. Not sadness, not reluctance; just exactly what she’d said. Tiredness.

With a start, he realized maybe this was just the way she was: not cold, but reserved.

Frens.

Also, I have to imagine that being the middlest child had a lot to do with it. Brea and Seladon are a lot more than Tavra is. Just a lot more. And they seem to constantly put her in the middle of it. Where she has to be very diplomatic.

Amri asks if there’s anything he can do for Tavra but she says nothing more than he already has.

Aw.

Maudra Seethi’s Crystal Skimmer arrives in rough shape, deck in ruins and Skimmer covered in wounds from the storm. But there’s no Maudra Seethi aboard.

Wait, that’s it! That’s what’s missing! Surely I get to meet Maudra Seethi in this book where half the plot has been the Dousan! I’ve met all the other Maudra!

Sandmaster Rek’yr is aboard. Hi show character, Rek’yr!

He tells the protagonists that Seethi’s Skimmer was caught by the storm wall on the way to the Wellspring and had to back off hoping for it to break. But while they waited a message came from Ha’rar and Maudra Seethi had to leave immediately.

Rek’yr coughed again and groaned, producing a scroll tied with a piece of silver twine. He passed it to Erimon as proof. Amri waited while he read it, though with a horrible dread, he felt he knew what words would come from the sandmaster’s mouth next.

“The maudra have been summoned to Ha’rar by Princess Seladon,” he said. “All-Maudra Mayrin is dead.”

Oh nerts.

Huh. Three books only takes us up to the equivalent of episode 5 or 6?

Dang, Naia’s team is good at squeezing in a lot of plot in a short amount of time.

#dark crystal #the dark crystal #Tides of the Dark Crystal #liveblog #Amri #Naia #Kylan #Tavra #Onica #Periss #Sandmaster Erimon #Rek'yr

[falling-chandeliers]

atla and tlok should’ve had more desi rep.

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR ATLA AND TLOK BELOW.

hey! atla and tlok are two of my favorite shows, and they’ve accomplished so much. i love the diversity, the messages, and all the representation that they’ve given us. the water tribe is based off of inuit culture, and it’s kind of heavily implied that the fire nation was inspired by east asian culture. and this is amazing!! i love it so much. i’m not quite certain which culture inspired the earth nation/kingdom, but it does seem to be the most diverse.

it is, however, clear that the air nomads’ culture has many aspects from buddhism and some from hinduism. therefore, i believe that we should’ve had more desi rep in the show. both religions have strong roots in india (before you come at me that hinduism spreads across the world and is one of the oldest religions, please remember that it started in india. also note that the founder of buddhism, if that is the term, was prince siddhartha, an indian prince). 

the term avatar itself is literally derived from the sanskrit “avatra”, which used to be one of the major languages in - you guessed it - india. in hinduism, avatars are humans with a god’s spirit in them, to put things simply. lord krishna was the avatar of vishnu, just like how aang and korra are the avatars of raava. the show also uses the buddhist concept of elements: earth, fire, water, and vacuum, which can be interpreted as air or space. 

also in avatar is the concept of rebirth, which is a common hindu belief. it is referenced many times when tenzin asks korra to “reconnect with her past lives”, and there are many other instances as well. 

in atla, aang tries to unlock his chakras with guru pathik. in both hinduism and buddhism, chakras  are the center of your life force, and have a lot of vital energy.

“but roy, i could already see all that! the atla universe is based off of many cultures and its characters are so diverse. besides, guru pathik was clearly desi, if not explicitly indian.”

and you’re right. atla, and subsequently, tlok, universe has a lot of diversity and i love it. however, it still has flaws.

it’s safe to say that aang is the main character in atla. the show is literally called avatar: the last airbender, and aang is the avatar and the last airbender. so, to some extent, this makes airbending/air nomad culture important too, right?

right. and as i very clearly explained above, the airbending/air nomad culture is heavily influenced by hinduism and buddhism. which brings me to my final point:

why don’t we have more hindu and buddhist characters?

you can argue that the original air nomads appear to be buddhist. i agree with you, as many buddhist monks are light-skinned. however, where the hell is our desi rep?

hinduism was literally founded in india. most of its followers live in india, are indian, or are connected to india in some way. i’m calling these people desi, which i believe refers to brown skinned people from the indian subcontinent and around it, including pakistan, nepal, bangladesh, and bhutan, to name a few. 

one thing most of us have in common is our brown skin. so where’s our rep? the ONLY character in the entire show who is almost 100% desi is guru pathik. the only one, out of so many characters. kinda fucking terrible, if you consider the fact that the main characters entire culture derives from the culture of desis. 

in tlok, the only person who looked desi was swami, who was literally equivalent to an extra. thanks, atla and tlok creators. really appreciate the great desi rep.

and yeah, i’m pissed about this. desi culture was used in a show which had probably two (2) desi characters.

but do you know what really gets me? the fact that combustion man and p’li have the eye of SHIVA on their forehead. the eye of SHIVA, ONE OF THE MAIN THREE GODS IN THE HINDU TRIUMVIRATE. this is strictly hindu, and you can’t weasel your way out of it. and yeah, you can argue that combustion man appears to be desi, and i’ll probably agree with you. his race is not as easily discernible as guru pathik. but p’li? p’li is clearly not desi. she could very well have desi genes, but it doesn’t show. she is 100% not brown, and she has the motherfucking eye of shiva on her forehead. shiva, a god from a predominantly desi religion. call me crazy, but i believe that someone who has the eye of a hindu god on their skin should at least look hindu.

there isn’t nearly enough desi rep in normal tv shows, let alone animated shows. and if they do, they’re more often that not heavily stereotyped. one example that really irks me is slav from voltron. he had a heavy indian accent, and was one of the smartest people in the entire show. why? 

if you haven’t figured it out by now. i’m indian. i was born and raised in america, but my parents are immigrants from india. my father is a hindu and my mother is a sikh, and i grew up learning a lot about both of their cultures. and yeah, people still make fun of me in school for my grades, my skin color, and what i eat. the last time someone told me a joke, it was about curry. people call my brother curry-boy, and he’s in his senior year. we grew up seeing racism first hand.

the first time i saw a desi character on animated american tv, i cried. she wasn’t even confirmed indian, but it was clear that she was desi and had my skin tone. the character was mermista, from spop, and she was the first desi character i had ever saw that was completely normal. i mean, clearly, she wasn’t normal because she was like, a princess and could turn into a mermaid, but she wasn’t affected by the many indian stereotypes going around. 

the second time i saw a desi character in tv was quite recently. lila pitts, from the umbrella academy. she too was not affected by the many indian stereotypes. she was simply a badass character with dark skin.

so yeah, it hurts that tv doesn’t normally have desi representation. but it hurts even more that atla and tlok’s desi characters can be counted on one hand. both shows are heavily influenced by desi culture, and don’t have the characters to show for it.

#and that's on cultural appropriation #long post #rant #atla #avatar #avatar: the last airbender #atla aang #hinduism #buddhism #tlok #the legend of korra #avatar the last airbender #avatar: the legend of korra #korra #tlok korra #aang #avatar aang #avatar korra #a:tla #avatar: tla #desi #desi rep #hindu rep #representation #representation in fandoms #desi rep in tv #desi rep in fandoms #hindu rep in fandoms #hindu rep in tv #hindu representation

[thepeanutbutterwizard]

Ninjago/Avatar (NinjAvatar?) au P3

What I have worked out of Koko’s backstory, and maybe an angsty awkward family reunion

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5)

So how did a nonbender from the Earth Kingdom wind up in the Southern Water Tribe you ask? Hold your ostrich horses, I’m getting there! Koko was born on Kyoshi Island (I’m not gonna try and come up with a Ninjago equivalent of Kyoshi bc she is a Queen and I love her. Probably would have realized I liked girls a lot sooner if my parents had let me watch A:TLA when it was airing tbh.) Her dad was a scholar from the Academy in Ba Sing Se (can’t remember if it had a fancy name or not) who was writing a paper on Avatar Kyoshi, and her mom was the leader of the Kyoshi’s Warriors at the time. They fell in love, got married, had Koko, and were happy for a few years!

And then they got sick and died (debated whether I wanted to give Koko two moms for a long time, but I don’t have the energy to come up with two oc’s, and I wasn’t about to bury any gays)

Koko trained with the Kyoshi Warriors for a few years (idk how old they are when they start, but lets just say young enough for Koko to become a very skilled warrior at a very young age) but she was always drawn to her fathers old text...scrolls?(pretty sure that they only have scrolls and not books in the A”TLA world. If I say books at all in this, I mean scrolls btw) fascinated by the history of the world. She wanted to be able to go to the same Academy her father did, but there was one problem: money.

So Koko set out into the world, looking for work so she could raise money and putting her training to the test. She mostly took security and guarding type work, and took every opportunity to read new scrolls and learn more about history. And then she took a job helping to take relief supplies to the Southern Water Tribe after a Fire Nation raid (that probably never happened in the show, but I Do What I Want).

Seeing what they were going through, seeing how defeated and broken the people in the Southern Water Tribe were, really shook Koko. Kyoshi’s Island had never been involved in the war, and she had always taken jobs that avoid going near any active war zones, so this was the first time she had actually seen just how bad it was. That was when she met Maya, who had just lost her mother in the latest raid. Her father had passed when she was a baby.

Koko decided that these people needed help more than she needed to go to the Academy, so she decided to put her plans on hold and asked the chief how she could help them, free of charge. She stayed in the village for a little while, helping them rebuild. Maya let Koko stay with her, and the two became close friends. When Koko learned that Maya was a waterbender, she made it a personal mission to help Maya become a great waterbender. There were no experienced waterbenders left in the tribe, and practicing was risky (they never knew if a raid was going to happen or if the Fire Nation was watching them).

Koko taught Maya how to fight like a Kyoshi Warrior, and she had read a few things about waterbending out of curiosity, so Maya has her own weird self-taught waterbending style. That may or may not become a plot point later.

Everything with Ray and Garm happens, and Koko lets go of her dreams of the Academy and settles down with her family. She frequently left the South Pole for short trips, mostly for to get different supplies to make things easier on the tribe, occasionally she finds toys or games she can bring back for the kids in the tribe to enjoy, and she’s always on the lookout for new scrolls (yes, she has found some waterbending scrolls. Like, two or three. Yes, she stole all of them. She was just returning them to where they belong after all)

I am debating on whether or not to have Lloyd find his animal companion bc one of the cool things that Koko brought back was a dragon egg. She didn’t know it was a real dragon egg when she found it. It hatched when Lloyd touched it, and the baby dragon immediately bonded with Lloyd (yes, it’s Ultra). I might might come up with a different way Lloyd and Ultra meet, but I like having it be fairly early on in Lloyd’s life bc its cute and having a flying companion animal early on makes it so much easier to keep things consistent with the plot beats I wanna hit from both shows. Maya waterbends a series of hidden tunnels in the snow for Ultra to hide in whenever the Fire Nation shows up. (the whole tribe knows about Ultra and love him, as long as he keeps his fire breathing under control) 

When she and Garm figured out that Lloyd is the Avatar, (after they stopped panicking of course) they decided not to try and keep it from Lloyd until he was older (preferably not until he was like, 15 or 16). They told Ray and Maya and the chief so that way they had some people to lean on and help cover for Lloyd and keep his secret, and keep him from bending anything but water (didn’t stop him from messing with airbending in secret. He was never told about the Avatar, so he doesn’t make the connection. He just thinks its cool as heck, and then he and Kai and Nya each had their own element to use!). After a lot of discussion and worrying, Koko set out to try and learn everything she could about the Avatar.

And now back to the confrontation at the South Pole! Lloyd and Nya get back from setting off the flare (Nya wanted to see if she could find something in the ship to re-purpose and use in the village, and Lloyd was bored so he tagged along) and run right into an angry Maya and Garm. The kids are saved from a scolding however by a rapidly approaching Fire Nation ship. There isn’t enough time to get into one of the tunnels with Ultra, so Garm drags Lloyd and Nya (who’s covered in oil from the old ship) over to the wall away from where the ship is coming in and Maya waterbends them a little hidden room to hide in. (There is a peephole thing for them to see whats happening.)

The Fire Nation ship makes its dramatic entrance, destroying the wall and all that. Kai tries to charge Morro with a spear, but Maya catches him and holds him back before taking the lead in talking to Morro. Don’t ask me why Sorrla, the chief, doesn’t do it. Wu is there, but he’s just hanging out in the background a bit. Garm doesn’t notice his brother, partly bc he’s too far away, partly bc he’s focused on Maya, Kai, and Morro. Morro ends up saying that he’s in search of the Avatar, but decided to check out the Southern Water Tribe when he saw the flare.

Maya is internally panicking bc ‘this can’t be a coincidence, he must know something somehow’ but plays it cool. Kai wonders outloud what the Avatar is, which made Morro a bit suspicious bc how could someone not have heard the stories of the Avatar, and decides to threaten to burn the village down to see if Maya was bluffing about not knowing anything. Maya starts internally panicking more, bc burning down the village will not only, y’know, burn down the village, but it could very well reveal not only the Avatar, but his father, the ‘dead’ Fire Nation Prince as well. So Maya makes a tough choice.

When the firebenders in the crew get ready to burn the village down, (and Wu tries to covertly get Morro to, y’know, not burn the village down) Maya uses her waterbending to douse the guards flames, before turning herself over in trade for leaving the rest of her tribe alone. Garm has to hold Nya back, and another water tribe boy named Lar grabs Kai to hold him back as Maya is brought onto the ship in chains. As soon as the ship is far enough away, and they’re no longer being held back, Kai and Nya are pissed. They both yell at Garm for letting their mother get taken by the Fire Nation bc no-one comes back from the Fire Nation, until Garm tells them ‘we’re going to rescue her, and then we’re going to have an important conversation. Lloyd get your dragon.’

So a rescue scene happens. Maya gets free on the ship thanks to her training from Koko (and Garm and Ray taught the both of them about Fire Nation combat training), and then Kai, Nya, Lloyd, and Garm show up on Ultra. Lloyd and Nya both use their limited knowledge of waterbending to fight. Garm keeps his face covered and his hood up to hide his identity, and doesn’t use his firebending at all when they’re fighting on the ship. Kai doesn’t use his firebending either, but he does end up punching Morro if the face. Garm gets distracted and almost takes a nasty hit when he finally recognizes Wu, who’s mostly hanging back from the fight, and only stepping in to deflect something coming his way, or to subtly help Morro.

They get on Ultra and start to fly away, but Lloyd airbends to shatter a glacier to help cover them and deflect some projectiles coming at them, revealing that yes, he is the Avatar, and uncovering Garms face on accident. So now Wu knows that his brother is alive and is with the Avatar, who is a thirteen-year-old child.

As they fly off on Ultra, Garm and Maya tell the kids everything. They already knew that Ray was from the Fire Nation (when Kai started firebending they told the kids just enough to satisfy their curiosity and confusion), but now they tell them about how Ray and Garm wound up in the South Pole, why Koko’s been gone so long, and why they waited so long to tell them any of this. The kids are stunned, mb a little mad at first but they understand why these secrets had to be kept for so long, and Lloyd is scared. He just got blind-sided by a huge destiny and burden, and it’s terrifying.

After the talk, they set a course towards the North Pole. Even though Maya can teach Lloyd her own style of waterbending, she thinks it might be a good idea to have the Avatar learn some traditional waterbending, and the Northern Water Tribe is much more fortified and would be the safest place for him to learn, regardless of who teaches him. And so the journey begins...

#ninjago #ninjago avatar au #this is fun!! #i forgot how fun it was to write up au's

[ralfstrashcan]

Fire Messages

A (long long long, let's not talk about it) while ago the dear @toughpaperround​ asked me about my thoughts on fire messages... and here they finally are.

Like most things in Shadowhunters fire messages come in two styles (other examples are portals, swords and runes) because at some point they experienced a random visual makeover. Both designs raise different questions and I'll get to those in a moment. First though it's interesting to note that the appearance of a fire message doesn't seem to depend on whether it's created by a shadowhunter or a warlock. On that note, are other downworlders able to create fire messages as well? Since shadowhunters operate them with their steles and warlocks with magic? I guess seelies should be able to as well since they also have magic (though they seem to prefere their nature-birds-leaves-whispering-on-the-wind way of communication). But what about vampires and werewolves? I don't recall either of thoses species ever sending a fire message on-screen, though it might have been mentioned at some point that one of them did, and I forgot. In any case I find it intriguing/ridiculous that fire messages look the same regardless of who creates them. Angelic energy and demonic magic don't really operate in similar ways so why would their fire messages look alike? Distinctive appearances like with the portals would make more sense.

Moving on to the first style! As far as I remember this style can only be spied once in the series, namely at the end of 1x06 when Izzy breaks things off with Meliorn

Which, now that I'm thinking about it, isn't that the shadow world equivalent of breaking up via text? Rude, Izzy. Anyway! The rune she draws at the bottom of the paper

is, as the trained eye immediately sees

Next, the paper goes up in flames

and Izzy lets go of it so she doesn't burn her fingers. Not a trace of the paper is left afterwards.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that the fire message burns into existence in midair wherever Meliorn is at this moment in time. Which... is probably the seelie realm? So can fire messages just travel between realms no big deal? Imagine the possibilities! Asmodeus could be bothering Magnus all day! Lilith could be terrorizing all Clave members via fire message harassment! This is hilarious XD

I have questions though! 1) How does the fire message know a) who the recipient is and b) where the recipient is? Canon never addresses or indicates either of those things so there's literally nothing to go off of. Re a): To me it seems most reasonable that the sender focuses on the person they want the message to receive while sending the message off via rune or magic. It's unlikely that writing the name on the paper alone determines the recipient because i) there exist people who share names and ii) you couldn't mention anyone in your fire message without accidentally cc-ing them, which, impractical and awkward. So intent seems the most plausible thing. Which in turn begs the question if you can mass-message people if you think of more than one person while sending? Probably not. In canon Magnus messages each warlock individually about that ritual he wants to try in 3x09. Might have been for courtesy's sake, so he can address every warlock individually with name but seems unlikely since he was under time pressure. Aside from that this would imply miraculous paper replication and physics says no. Re b): No way. This makes no sense whatsoever except when fire message magic is the ultimate omniscient might that can track anyone anytime anywhere. And if that power really existed in the world then how come no one has used it to currupt everything? Surely if you can access this pool of knowledge to send innocent little breakup messages you could find a way to use it for grand evil as well? I find it hard to believe that no one's tried and succeeded so far. Just look at how much effort shadowhunters put into tracking people all the time! They'd be stupid to waste their resources like that if there was a way to instantly-know the whereabouts of someone. Anyway, this is utter bs and just like the hp owls all over again and I simply refuse.

2) Who can you send fire messages to? My knee-jerk answer would be to anyone you know, both personally and more generally in the sense that you are aware of their existence. You focus on them while sending the message, bam, they get it. But. Spam. Spam is a thing. Do you have any idea how much hate mail and general pranks higher-ups would get if they could be (anonymously!) addressed by anyone? Magnus probably had a whole phase where he did nothing but trashtalk shadowhunters who pissed him off XD I read in this post (which is the one toughpaperround sent my way and which I'm kinda answering with this) the possibility that you can only fire message people you've either met in real life before or who you've established some kind of fire-messaging-you-is-okay-connection – kinda like exchanging phone numbers. Everyone has a phone but you can only call someone whose number you have. You can even hand-wave your way through issue b) and claim that the fire message tracks the recipient through that connection and that's how it can find them no matter where they are. I've thought about it for a while and while I think this is the most logical explanation I don't think it makes sense in-universe for how fire messages are used, or for what the purpose of a fire messages really is. Phones are inarguably more practical because you don't need an extra pen and paper to send off a message. So, why would someone use a fire message instead of a phone? Well, either the person you want to reach doesn't have a phone (*cough* Meliorn *cough*) or the message is so important and time-sensitive that you need the other person to know right now and while you can ignore a text or a call, you can lose your phone or it can die, it's kinda difficult to miss a burning piece of paper flying in your face. Fire messages are like extreme emergency phone calls. And for those it would be high-key impractical if you could only send them to someone you have already met previously. (Of course this is just speculation and doesn't even make sense historically since fire messages were around long before phones and likely were the only means of communication then and not just reserved for emergencies (or maybe they were since paper and ink was precious back then?!). And of course determining the nature of a thing by going 'It would be most practical if it was like this' is highly unscientific. Anyway.) Honestly, my personal take on this is still that you can send a fire message to anyone and the show simply ignoring everything that this implies (aka Alec getting at least 10 lewd fire messages per day from secret admirers) because it wasn't relevant to the plot.

Leaving behind questions that apply to fire messages generally this last one is design-specific. 3) To what exactly is the teleportation, that clearly happens here, limited? The paper, the ink. Uh-huh. What if you glue something to the paper? For example, idk, a GPS tracker? Would that allow you to learn the location of the person you messaged? Probably not, or they would have been very stupid not to do that with Valentine. Even if you could only message someone you have met in person and/or established a special fire message connection with there are still enough Circle members around in S1 who surely had his fire message phone number. (Or did he destroy the connection? Can you fire-message-block someone you no longer want any attachments to?) What happens if you fire message someone who's dead? Does the fire message hover over their grave for the rest of eternity? We'll never know. I'll allow that there is special fire message paper and special fire message ink that can teleport. Anything else tacked on would be left behind. Paper and ink could even be extra-charmed so they can pass through dimensions or whatever. Still sounds fake – because i) how would you spell paper so it can pass any ward (Magnus at some point messages Jem who's probably chilling in the Silent City or something) and ii) if there's a way to charm paper and ink so it can be teleported, why limit yourself to those? Why not put that same magic on your GPS tracker and you're ready to go? – but I tried okay. Whatever, special fire message paper and ink grow on special trees in Idris and their special teleportation magic can't be replicated. There, mystery solved.

The second style fire messages acquire is both more and less logically pleasing. It's more logically pleasing because it eliminates the whole teleportation issue since apparently the fire message just flies from sender to recipient but sadly this creates its own set of issues, first of all how tf does the fire message fly from sender to recipient? Does it have eyes? How does it navigate the streets by itself? What about the secrecy the shadow world allegedly tries to uphold? It also doesn't solve the GPS tracker problem (if anything it makes it worse) because who's stopping you from sending a nice little message to Valentine and then just, following the flying message to his secret hideout?

The journey itself isn't unproblematic either. How quick are those things flying? In 3x06 exactly 54 seconds pass between Magnus sending off his message to Jem and receiving an answer. So in less than a minute the message flew to Jem, he read it, he composed an answer, and it made the way back. No wonder these messages are burning at the edges if they're so quick. (Yes, that was sarcastic.) They also don't seem to slow down when approaching their intended target. Magnus even pushes Clary out of the way because of it.

This is so confusing. So the fire message can navigate through Magnus's apartment no problem but it would have chopped Clary's head off because she was in the way? Was Magnus just being dramatic? I mean I'd totally buy that on any given day, but the situation was a bit too serious for that especially because it isn't treated as a joke to lighten the mood but just like Magnus casually pulling Clary out of danger because that's what he always does. It makes no sense whatsoever. This also begs another question, since fire messages seem to seek out their target quite vehemently. If you're locked in an air-tight room, could you send a fire message to someone, and the fire message on its pursuit to fulfill its duty could help you create a crack in the walls? Could you actually break out via fire message? What if you grab the paper real tight? Could you fly out of a canyon on a fire message? Now, on to the last part of the fire message's journey: the landing. How. How do you catch something that moves so quickly instead of just swatting it away? In the post I mentioned before someone wrote that catching stuff like that works on auto pilot if you have the practice and I'll just take your word for it... but what if you don't have the practice? Personally I'm shit at catching shit. I'd get smacked in the face by 95% of the fire messages sent my way. And considering the speed and the sharp edges of the fire messages that can't be healthy. My poor face. Why do I say the fire message would slap my face and not docilely settle into my palm? Because that's what I honestly believe. I think if you fail to catch a fire message it just flops in your face and sticks there (that should also wake you up if you're asleep, lol) because I mean, look at those trajectories.

Mind that the fire message stays on its initial course even after Magnus / Alec / Izzy moves their hand to a position to catch it. That’s because it wasn't aiming for the hand. It was aiming for the face.

It only gets weirder from here on out.

Remember 3x07? Imogen gets stabbed by Possessed!Jace and uses her last moments to notify Alec of Jace's whereabouts (instead of, y'know, activating her healing rune which takes two seconds, sending the message after and keep on living. SIGH). Fair enough, but the thing is this

Where's the paper? Where's the ink?

What is happening? What is she doing there?!

And then-- and then--

Yeah Alec, I'm as shocked as you are. Where tf did that paper (and presumably ink for writing) come from?! Can shadowhunters suddenly create matter from nothing?? Physics is crying in the corner!! I have so many questions!!

#ps cleophas does the exact same thing in s2 ep too lazy to look up i think 7 or 8 #shadowhunters #magnus bane #alec lightwood #isabelle lightwood #clary fray #imogen herondale #magic #musings

[neotrinitythinker]

prompt for dr whomst've'yain't've: ryan, yasmin, graham and 13 + late night dinners and bonding

Surprisingly, the cure for escaping the clutches of galactic evil on their own planet; a thousand glares from the embrace of their own time, Ryan finds, is rubbish, unhealthy amounts of fast food.

When he was younger; and back when his mum was still around, and his dad was more reliable, and his nan was... well... -

Whatever Nando's had was always good. Even when Nan had taken him in after everything, she always stopped somewhere for him when she was running errands.

Comfort food seemed to transcend countless timelines. And he wasn't sure what they were eating, but it had come from what looked to be the space version of a bad idea for food.

Compared to other trips with the woman, the day had been tame for them. Having traveled back to somewhere in the 19th century, by Graham's request, having a soft spot it seemed for Victorian England. Or; at least the clothing. Ryan took every chance to half heartedly restrain his chuckles at the ridiculous hat the older man had worn when they found the wardrobe of the TARDIS; taking the piss whenever he could - though, his outfit wasn't any better.

The Doctor hadn't been sure of the exact time they had gone to - Yaz had a few choice words to say to the box that apparently had a mind of its own, and for whatever reason the big blue time machine had, was angry at its - her? - Occupants. But the alien was sure that it was in, as she had called it, a "very cross, and unhelpful mood." With little more explanation.

Though, if he had to wager a guess for the reason behind it - he did drink something, and spill some of it (very small amounts!) onto the console. Ryan mused sheepishly.

But he had cleaned it up!

Wherever and whoever the thing was bought from, he thinks, should give her a refund for the moody machine. Even if The Doctor sometimes stared at it with some kind of timeless devotion.

It could think now. It thinks. It was annoyed. According to The Doctor, it always thought. How bonkers.

What he did know, was, that when each of them had left the (sentient, apparently. how wicked.) TARDIS, the four of them dressed to the nines in dark, period fitting clothing, it hadn't materialized somewhere discreet, not that it ever did, he reckoned.

It hadn't landed in some back alleyway; nor in grassy fields - nor empty plains.

It landed in bloody Kensington Palace.

As they stumbled out of the TARDIS, they also so happened to bump into a freckled, full mooned face girl with clothing that made Ryan think she was some kind of servant.

He's never been in a palace before.

Whoever the startled girl had been, they don't really find out, as she scatters away with urgency in her features. But Graham is already in shambles over their circumstance to begin with.

("Oh - I don't even think the TARDIS is worth as much as that painting - Doctor, will you look at that!")

Despite the worry that they might be considered trespassing - which Ryan hasn't properly expressed yet, mainly due to how in awe he is that he was in Kensington Palace in the 19th century to begin with, The Doctor had taken them on a stroll, avoiding any guards - there weren't that many to begin with; hardly any, and it had not been lost on her.

It had been odd - he certainly noticed her piqued interest over it - heard her think out loud over it, and asked a few wandering people about it in her cheery casualness. But it hadn't been cause for concern.

And then, had come trouble. Because of course, there was always that.

When they had turned the fourth consecutive hallway - the forth one that had zero people in it, (though Ryan had personally thought, that maybe - and this was perfectly reasonable to think when you were in the home of fancy privileged white people - that they were all off, somewhere, in a meeting or crowning or something to that degree) they had managed to finally be greeted by another soul.

More specifically; the soul in question had been Queen Bloody Victoria.

He thinks its her. He's definitely googled her before for enough school projects. Even if she looked older than what normally came up. Maybe a decade older than Graham.

Even more specifically; her full on sprinting form, careful to pick up her flowing silk dress, as she ran from something with green tentacles.

Naturally; even though this is definitely something to book it over - The Doctor springs headfirst into the fire.

The thing - he's never seen it before, he's seen plenty of aliens, plenty of monsters, and he's never seen this, was a creature in between a circular shape; and a square - if that was possible. It was an awkward, kind of horrifying, mix of shapes. It was green - snot kind of green, almost translucent - there was definitely an outline of a crumpled body in it.

Its eyes - entirely and completely plural - there were three dozen from its head (he thinks its a head?) down to its waist (again, probably one) dark, like unforgiving coal that had been broken into harsh bits to where all that it really was, was simply just... color. And like a terror beyond comprehension, it had tentacles screaming out and spread out on its body - it didn't have legs; it seemed to get by on them alone.

Its mouth - he was certain it was a mouth, was unhinged - near a trio of eyes on its now probable face. It looked... like a fog. A ghost of something. There was sharpness - pointy, very pointy - but it was almost hidden.

"Uh - Doc..." Graham had walked backwards - standing his ground but very clearly ready to hear the word "run" from anyone. There was apprehension on his face - like Ryan's and Yaz's, but masked by nervousness and wonder at whatever the hell they were looking at. His hat had inexplicably fallen off his head and sunk pathetically to the lavish spiral carpet.

"Doctor - what's the plan?!" Yasmin had bellowed through the inhuman noise - the thing was making noises now - darting her gaze to the sponge color haired traveler next to her - whose gaze was equally taken aback by the scene - but with an awe.

By now Victoria - should he call her something else? She was - is? in this moment - rich and a product of the 19th century, his morals say no - Victoria has gotten closer to them - enough to bolt past them with a survival instinct he didn't think he'd see from someone who seems to be quite old. The Doctor had instinctively made herself seem bigger; using the hand that didn't have her sonic in it, to shield the five against... the alien, (?) and stare down the creature.

"OI! Oh no you don't Flubber! Get back!" Yelled The Doctor, eyeing the thing. She had briefly glanced back at the four; who hadn't made any new reaction at her statement. She frowned.

"Oh come on fam!" She tried. "Flubber? I'm an alien, I can't be the only one who understands it."

From behind Yaz, Graham had hesitantly raised his hand. "I understood it." He admitted, still watching the steadily approaching creature.

The Doctor's face lit up. "Wasn't it a laugh then? Flubber?" It fell again. "Get it, cause it's green and..." She trailed off at their expressions. "You didn't laugh."

"God Almighty!" The Queen had made herself known again, hysterical in tone, but still firmly with them. "Cease your babbling, you failed jester! Destroy the monster! Get rid of it now!"

The Doctor turned back. "Right! No worries, just my wounded hearts - anyways -"

The Doctor once more lifted her sonic, the other alien having only gotten worrying closer - by now, its jaw had lowered, to where it obscured several of its facial eyes. It let out a screech - distorted, almost electrical, like a bad game in a console; and a pulsing noise filled the air as she pointed it in its direction.

For a second, it seemed like the result was nothing. The pulsing continued and continued. The thing crept closer.

And then it stopped - right in its tracks.

There was a noise; a scream, almost. But it was too distorted to really tell.

And then - whatever it was - had combusted. Totally - and utterly; a symphony of destruction, all at once showering the palace with waves of unknown emerald green goo - splattering against the pristine walls, the portraits and furniture. All of its eyes had not suffered the same fate; they simply vanished. A lone tentacle had landed at Ryan's feet, and he had jumped backwards in shocked disgust.

Despite this it didn't connect with them - all of them; that this had ended right then. Yaz still stared at nothingness - eyebrows furrowed and breaths heard and heavy. Graham was still backing away, and The Doctor still clutched firmly to her screwdriver - as if, waiting. And Ryan kept looking at the intact tentacle.

And, Then.

"Good Lord!" Victoria had stirred beside them. "What in the world was that... that... that thing?!"

This thawed the rest of them. The Doctor swirled on her feet - her bewildered - yet eager expression was present as she kneeled beside Ryan's left foot. Wordlessly, she grabbed the tentacle, keeping it distant as she used her sonic and waved it around every inch of it. She brought it back to her face, and had observed whatever the sonic had said. Afterwards, she retraced her steps, bending down to stuff a finger into one of the piles of goo.

And then she... she licked it.

"Ugh! Doctor!" He groaned, eyes squinting. "That's going to get you the alien equivalent of food poisoning."

"Alien?!" Victoria squealed.

"Huh. Can't tell what this is - or was." The Doctor rose again, the goo still on her finger, dripping. "It's not anything i've seen before. Doesn't taste familiar." Mused The Doctor.

"Lick a lot of aliens then, have you Doc?" Remarked Graham, tired.

"Would someone please tell me what is happening - who are you people - where are my guards, and what is that thing!" Yelled Victoria, again.

The Doctor glanced at her, suddenly beaming as she walked over. "Hi! It beats me!" She said cheerfully. "But you're safe now - I think that thing got to your men, and was looking at you for a nice appetizer. Also, hello! You can't recognize me, but we've met! I think? Depends on what year it is. I don't want to assume, you have just been chased down fearing for your saftey. Are you a werewolf yet?" She finished, not stopping for breath as she smiled pleasantly, stretching her hand out for a shake.

Victoria looked like she swallowed a toad.

"A... wolf..." She began. Her eyes looked to the screwdriver. "Did you say your name... was The Doctor?" Victoria finished slowly.

"Nope! But my friends did." Said The Doctor, who looked suddenly sheepish. "I know I look a bit different since we last met; I got an upgrade! But..."

It all felt surreal after that, Although he couldn't understand why, and even though they had just saved her life, Victoria had threatened, with some bad blood directed mysteriously towards the blonde, to get whatever remaining guards she could find and had, and send the four of them to the Tower of London permanently.

It was after this, that, with Graham staring at her with his mouth open, that The Doctor felt it was best to leave. Quickly. Surprisingly; it was only then that they ran.

#roree writes #doctor who #doctor who fanfiction

[jaimetheexplorer]

That Emmy shit-storm on the horizon

While I’m overjoyed with the Emmy nominations for acting, directing (for Nutter and Sapo, not the other one), Ramin and Nina (because they all deserved it), we now have to brace ourselves for the gaslighting over the writing, and all the fandom drama that comes with it (like we haven’t suffered enough this year as it is). And I’m already exhausted, so here’s my take on it.

Whether you like it or not, actors have to be professional. I think it’s ridiculous of fans to expect actors to go to official events or give official interviews for nominations and say “yeah, the writing was shit and we never should have been nominated for this season”. I am not famous nor work in the entertainment industry but, sadly, that’s what “professionalism” is considered to be, even in my line of work: if anything happens in the university/department that might attract media attention, we get emails saying not to talk to the press unless we are “briefed” on how to handle it and cleared to go. And as much as I might be fed up with several aspects of my job or working for my boss, if I knew I was giving a public interview about it, I’d be incredibly uncomfortable saying that out loud, while having no problem ranting about it in private every. single. day. It sucks, that you have to be (to varying degrees) dishonest in order to be considered professional, but that’s where we are at. And, look, maybe some of them even genuinely believe the writing to be great. While it’s disappointing to hear that coming from the mouth of someone you admire, - and I personally lose respect for anyone who tries to genuinely defend this season as well written (because it defies any logic or intellect) - they are free to express that opinion, just as we are free to criticise them, lose interest in them, mute them, unfollow them and so on.

However, whether you like it or not, people can be critical of anyone involved in production and people who are hell bent on defending these statements should understand that dismissing criticism the way they’re doing (i.e. “people are just upset it’s over/they didn’t get what they wanted”) doesn’t win cast and crew any favours, if anything, it’s just going to alienate everyone even more than the plot already has. This behaviour is the equivalent of a student given a fail by all the examiners but being awarded a degree nonetheless, and dismissing the fails as “wrong” because obviously you cannot get a degree if you fail, so those who gave the student a fail didn’t know what they were talking about. While many who criticised the show have provided lengthy and thorough analyses and explanations as to why they feel that way, nobody who’s defended it has provided anywhere near the level of detail to justify their opinion. At most, it amounts to “take my word for it, D&D really cared about the story” or “it wouldn’t be this popular if the writing were bad”. To use the student analogy again, it’s like the examiners providing pages of pages of feedback to justify their grades, while the student goes “nah! in my opinion I worked hard and I deserve the degree, so I’ll take it anyway!”. This is as close to gaslighting as it comes, and nobody likes to be gaslighted.

It’s also hypocritical. When audiences praise a show and make it big, you never hear anyone involved in production saying that it’s blown out of proportion, or silly, or they’re just being emotional and irrational. However, the moment the audience turns against the show, suddenly they are being irrational and are just upset because the did not get what they wanted/expected (and, no, that is not necessarily a dirty word - if a work of fiction is built upon setting certain expectations, especially in terms of quality of the writing), and can’t really recognise good writing. So if we can’t recognise good writing, what does that say of the hype when the show was considered “good” by the majority? You can’t have your cake and eat it too. 

While taking it out on the actors for the writing, or escalating things to death threats and personal insults isn’t civil, it’s also silly to ask fans, who are, for the most part, average people, with average jobs, who sometimes find their only escape and pleasure in fiction (and who had to pay HBO subscriptions for years to watch this show), to feel sorry for two millionaires, who were in the extremely privileged position of working on the biggest show on tv (and who, unlike the average worker, won’t get fired or won’t see their money taken away from them, no matter how poorly they perform), for being criticised when they blatantly rushed and half-assed their job because they were bored. They “worked hard”? Well, so what? Plenty of people “work hard” in the world and aren’t shielded from criticism just because they do, if the final product isn’t up to standards. People aren’t “being mean” to D&D (or the actors defending them) because they want to be mean. They are being mean because they feel toyed with, conned, and their intelligence insulted when they’re being told that all the stuff they paid attention to and that the show built its entire reputation on actually didn’t mean shit in the end. It’s like asking someone who hired a construction company to build them a house and waited 8 years for it to be finished not to be pissed off when the roof ends up being built out of straw and has holes in it. 

Furthermore, Game of Thrones did not become big because of D&D’s genius: they didn’t invent it. They took GRRM’s work and adapted it to the screen, which makes the job much much much easier than creating something from scratch. On top of that, most of the praise the show has received was over the first 3-4 seasons of the show, when the show was still, by and large, more or less sticking to the books. The ratings kept growing not because the writing was so amazing in later seasons, but because, in the era of binge-watching, more and more people catch on later onto those first seasons and want to see how it ends. It’s TV 101: ratings in later seasons are a result of the quality of the previous seasons, because people cannot know in advance what they’re going to be watching. It’s the reason early seasons of any shows have lower ratings, despite often being better quality, while rating decline after the quality has already begun to decline. 

They also lucked out not only in having wonderful source material ready for them to use, but in having an HBO budget and flexibility to do whatever they wanted, an amazing casting director who picked an incredibly talented cast, and in being surrounded by talented writers, directors, composers and so on. They suffer from the exact same kind of misplaced egomania Chris Carter suffered from on The X-Files, where he thinks he’s some kind of genius for making what, at the time, was the biggest show on TV. In that case, at least Chris Carter can be praised for having created the characters and that world, but the situation is very similar. He’s a mediocre writer who lucked out by having all the pieces fall into place around him (actors, writers, directors), and his total failure at doing anything else afterwards (other than running TXF further into the ground with his revivals) is where D&D will likely be in a few years.

The reason all this “damage control” is making things even worse than they already were is because it gives the impression that that the bottom line in this is that the audience’s reaction to a work of fiction only counts as far as it’s positive and makes the production big and rich, and when it’s negative it has to be dissected for “wrongs” and dismissed as irrational or exaggerated, while showrunners are owed praise no matter what they do, by being boosted (and made rich) by feverish hype, but shielded by equally feverish criticism.

#got negativity #emmy nominations

[bigskydreaming]

Two Qs, 1. How do I stop people from assuming I'm ableist n hate me for it if a character I Hate for TONS of petty+ serious reasons just happens to be a disabled character? Like if they were a brain in a jar with a mouthpiece I'd still not be in their vicinity without setting my head on fire it has nothing to do with their body or gender or skills etc. And 2. How do you post a fic w/o fear of some lurker stealing ideas n publishing it as a novel n becoming popular I mean... like CC exists......

Here’s the thing….there’s never ever going to be a person who manages to make it through life without being misconstrued on SOME subject. We have no control over what other people think about us, only on what we put out there for them to perceive and form opinions on. And sometimes those opinions are entirely contrary to what we feel we’re putting out there, and that sucks and can be aggravating as hell, and you might need to vent about that or groan to yourself or a friend or maybe it’ll make you bitter and petty on a subject, but at the end of the day - it doesn’t matter. You can’t ENSURE someone has the opinion about you and what you’re putting out there that you want them to have, and you just gotta find a way to be okay with that.

And there’s really no way around it, you just kinda gotta….figure out a way to make that happen. And its easier said than done, for sure, and its far from a sure thing, I bitch and moan constantly about people getting me wrong on various subjects because hoo boy do I seem to get a lot of people steamed about opinions I don’t actually have lolololol. So like I said, I get it, its frustrating as hell, when you’re absolutely sure the opinion they’re expressing of you is not based on something you’ve actually said or believe.

BUT.

But but but but but.

Before you go raring off to the races getting frustrated and fed up with a person because they seem just determined not to hear what you’re truly trying to say on a subject…..double check, triple check, make crystal fucking clear that you’ve reviewed what you’ve ACTUALLY said - not just what you think you said, not what you meant to say in your head, but rereading back to yourself what you ACTUALLY have said on the subject - and make 100% sure that they’re not picking up on something that YOU YOURSELF DIDN’T PICK UP ON WHEN EXPRESSING AN OPINION.

Because that happens. All the time. To all of us.

And just because we didn’t MEAN to put any ableism or racism or homophobia or sexism in there, that doesn’t mean that some didn’t slip in any way without our realizing not. We all grow up steeped in environments that are chock full of all those things and more, they inform and influence so many more of our opinions and choices and decisions than even we realize. And just because we don’t THINK of ourselves as being any of the above, doesn’t mean that we haven’t at any point expressed certain viewpoints or said certain things or performed certain actions…..that in and of themselves are ableist or racist or homophobic or sexist or transphobic or any of the above or more. 

And just because we didn’t notice it was there didn’t mean it wasn’t there, and THAT could be what they’re picking up on…..and while that one instance of harmful thinking/speech/action isn’t necessarily representative of who you are as a whole…..to someone who only knows you via certain limited interactions, that one instance is a far greater slice of the pie, so there’s no real reason for them NOT to assume that’s representative of you overall, rather than an exception that only slipped through the cracks because you didn’t realize it was there.

So if you genuinely, truly don’t believe you’re ableist in your thinking or opinions and thus don’t want anyone to assume that of you, the only way to really do that is NOT to assume that nothing you say or do is ableist because you know yourself and know that you’re not an ableist person.

Rather, the thing to do is each and every time someone accuses you of that, like….take the time to review what you ACTUALLY said or did that they’re responding to, and double check that its not actually ableist. Reaffirm if only to yourself that you stand by what you said or did and that you said or did it for the right reasons and not what they’re presuming. It really doesn’t cost you that much time or energy to do that check-up on yourself….and the end result is that it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be able to change that person’s mind about you - if you said what you meant to say originally, and after reviewing it still stand by it, chances are, they’re probably interpreting you the way they are for their own reasons, and there’s not much any of us can do about that. 

But at least you can be sure then that no matter what someone else thinks, YOU are comfortable with your reasons for feeling a certain way about certain characters or whomever…….and that ultimately is all that really matters. All that we have control over, and what we have to fall back on even when people are pissing us the hell off because they seem bound and determined to interpret us wrong - and truuuuuuust me, I mean it when I say I get that, lol.

But you gotta do the work. There’s no shorthand, not if you’re genuinely sincere about NOT wanting to be the thing that they think you’re being. None of us can unilaterally just….decide not to be ableist or something like similar, and TRUST that deciding not to be that thing ACTUALLY means that no ableist or similar thinking is ever going to sneak into our opinions or actions regardless. 

So ultimately, my best advice is just to remember to listen just as much as you pay attention to what you say and put out there….because no matter how certain you are of your own nature overall, that doesn’t mean that individual actions and speech can’t get away from you…..and it doesn’t hurt you to be open to being told you did or said something ableist even if unintentionally. Rather, if you genuinely don’t want to be ableist, its to your BENEFIT, to be told when you unintentionally put something ableist into something you said or did or wrote…..so that you can be aware, and thus make sure not to do the same thing again….since if you were already aware of its ableism, you would never have put it in or said it in the first place.

So I mean, I guess its just about…..trust in yourself when you truly believe you’re right, after re-checking your math or the equivalent….but just as important, don’t be afraid to be wrong, if your real priority isn’t being ‘right’ about not being what they think you are, but instead just being or BECOMING ‘better’ than they think you are.

2) As to your second question, just do it, Nike slogan or not. LOL. Sorry, but there is no real means of protecting your ideas because ideas can’t be copyrighted - that’s how someone like CC gets away with what she did. Similar advice to what I just said above…..just trust in your own ingenuity. Don’t focus so much on the importance of having singular ideas or stories that nobody else has anything like, because there’s nothing truly new under the sun….other than execution. Only the way YOU execute an idea and unfold it over the course of an entire story is ever going to be truly unique, because any single idea can be taken in any of a million different directions. And the more you allow your own creativity to be about more than just a single idea or premise you had, the more its going to become distinct as YOUR creativity, YOUR execution of your various ideas, no matter how many other people do stories of similar premises.

‘Real’ writers get ripped off all the time, and it sucks, but its never stopped any that I’ve ever met, because the thing about real writers is they don’t NEED to rip off anyone else’s ideas….because they’ve got more than just one. And anyone who can come up with an idea for a story in the first place, rather than just stealing someone else’s, can come up with a second one, and a third. I truly believe that. There’s no imagination that only has a one-story limit…..just people who lack so much imagination or faith in their own imagination they default to stealing others’ in the first place.

Trust in your own uniqueness as a person and have faith that will imbue your execution of any story idea with enough unique elements or flavor that it’ll still be distinctly yours even if someone else rips off the basic premise. Once you give yourself permission to just….not be afraid of someone ripping you off, because you know that EVEN IF that should happen, you’d be okay because you’d still have other ideas, more stories to write……I PROMISE you, the fear of someone lurking around and waiting to rip you off will vanish completely. It doesn’t mean that such a person won’t still be out there. It doesn’t mean that someone won’t still try and steal one of your ideas somewhere down the line. But it does mean that even if they do, it won’t matter….because unlike them, you’re more than just one single idea.

And if someone actually rips off your execution of an idea, ie plagiarizes your actual story? That’s a different matter, but there are recourses for that. I mean, the mere fact of being able to point to your story existing in some form before they ever brought out their ripped off version of yours means that at the very least, you can torpedo their credibility. The only way to truly LEGALLY be protected in case of actual plagiarism is to copyright something, and you can’t copyright a fanfic for instance, since you don’t own the intellectual property, and you can’t copyright your premise since as I said above, nobody can copyright an idea, so honestly, I really do say and believe you’re better off just….not worrying about it. If it happens, there are ways to address it then, but building it up as an inevitable or even a likely hypothetical usually just acts as a form of self-sabotage convincing us there’s one more reason not to put ourselves and our work out there.

And that is SO much more devastating to your career as a writer or even just a fanwriter, than someone potentially ripping off one story of yours…….because it means you never put ANY stories out there, just for the sake of protecting even just that hypothetical singular one.

[yurakaz]

Hong Kong. During an Typhoon.

News cast:"Due to heavy weather it is suggested for citizens to not their quarters till the heavy wheater has ended, pleas await further instructions from fire forces and other social security services. And now to the sports news....

Lei blandly watched the newsbroadcast in disbelief,laying in the sofa ,his hand was was stemming his head. He wore a blue shirt with some the word "Easy printed on it. Along with that he also sported a pair of grey training pants and he just wore normal house black shoes. His hair was still messy hair after only waking out after being passed out after the drinking he had yesterday. Well one ironical thing was that the weather reflected his mood perfectly. It was Valentine's day and he was single again so him not working wasnt that bad in his mind, but he was more scared of being bored on this day.

He heard a buzzing sound from his pants seeing it was his phone with a sms from work

Message:"All detectives are off duty till the wheater allows for a normal work routine again. Tell your partner or other associates if they don't know."

Lei started to clean the mess from yesterday ,he started to collect the empty rum bottles on the table and hiding them underneath the sink and putting a curtain in front of the bottle collection. He grabbed a wet towel and started to scrub of the table ,until he heard a frantic knocking sound.

Bryan: "Wulong?Are you in here? Hello?! Its cold goddamit!...Anyone?..."

Lei realized that it was Bryan, because Bryan always pics him up for duty. But he probably didnt knew that work would be canceled. Lei ran to the door to answer Fury.

Lei:"Who's there?" Lei replied to the

Bryan:"Someone who is pissed?" Bryan blankly stared against the door.

Lei opend the door but still only to aso he could get a glimpse at Bryan who was completely drained in water.

Lei:"Good Gosh get in quicky !"

Lei opend the door fully and letting Bryan in and even being ready to just shove him in by himself.

Lei:"So someone didnt read the messages...poke you all wet and provably tired....oh and also did you enjoy your first storm here?

Bryan:"No , Yes and nope . I know that's the equivalent of kicking the door open with a horse but can I use your shower?"

Bryan looked at Lei with serious glare.

Lei:"Ofcourse! You can even give me your clothes so I can clean them too.

Lei had a bright smile on his face while Bryan was just standing there flustered.

Bryan:"Hell do what ever you want...wheres thr bath even?"

Lei:"Well it's the door next to my kitchen!"

Bryan:"Well thanks....I guess...

After Bryan took a shower and Lei was hanging his clothes . A package dropped from Bryan's vest. It was packaged in red paper and had a gold ribbon on it. He just put it on a table and thinks it that Bryan probably found someone while he was on duty. Then he started to think about his own failed love life and let out a yawn. He got some old clothes for Bryan consisting of grey training pants and a black shirt. He put the clothes right in front of the bathroom door and knocked on the door.

Lei:"Its some of my old spare clothes just put them on if you get out."

Bryan:"Thank you!" He replied while the sound of the shower overshadowed all of his words.

Lei"What?" He replied without any understanding.

Bryan:" I said thank you! You old geeser!"

Bryan replied annoyed

Lei:"Aww you're welcome!"

Bryan finished showering put the clothes on and left the bath with soggy wet hair. He sat on the sofa in Leis livingroom. He checked out the front of the the room. On the left there where frames pictures of Lei graduating from police school, some pictures of him and his exes and framed articles of successful cases. He also seems to be a huge fan of Sony because other then his TV he also owned a dvd player, VHS player and a work laptop all with the Sony logo plastered on it.

Lei: Already made yourself at home?

He walked in the living room with a tablet with two cups of tea and some sweets .

Lei:" So you didn't got the message from work? Or didnt you just didnt saw it?"

Lei said that while taking a sip out of the cup.

Bryan: " well that and another reason..."

Bryan looked at Lei silently.

Lei:"And that would be?"

Lei raised his eyebrows and took another sip after swallowing chocolate.

Bryan:"I didntvwanted to be alone on this day and..." Bryan stood up and got the present which Lei found in his vest.

Bryan:"Its not much...just take it oldy..."

Lei opend the package. The package was filled with chocolate.

Lei:" That's very sweet of you...but I have to tell you ...I kinda hoped you come...."

Bryan:" You also didnt wanted to be alone on this day?" He looked at Lei while he sat own the ground and took his tea.

Lei:" Yes I despise this day when I'm alone..."

Bryan:" Well you arent anymore..." Bryan stood up and kissed Lei on the lips.

Bryan:"How about I stay for abit longer then today..."

Lei blushed abit and smiled.

Lei:"A relationship between colleagues will get us fired!...."

His smile turned into a frown.

Bryan:"Are that scared of us doing it you home? And dont act like you haven't checked me out since day 1...in a screwed up way I have fallen from you...if you are interested to know that....

Lei had no words to the proposal from his partner.

Lei:" Well if we keep our mouth shut..."

Lei just kissed Bryan back on the lips.

Lei: "We just keep our mouths shut..."

#tekken blood vengence #tekken 7 #tekken7 #tekken #lei wulong x bryan fury #bryan x lei #lei x bryan #bryan fury #bryan #lei wulong #lei #valentine #valentines day

[shadowphoenixrider]

Why N’Zoth should have been behind BFA’s War

Okay so I’ve been thinking this for a day or so now, and I’m gonna just dump my thoughts here.

In this essay, I’m gonna make the argument that I think N’Zoth should have been behind the war in BFA. It’s gonna be long as shit, FYI. Here we go.

It’s no secret that opinions on BFA’s story have been...mixed. Some think it’s a garbage fire, others think it’s okay but not stellar. Some bits of BFA’s story, such as Jaina’s arc I find very well done, whilst others are very...below average, must try harder.

I think the main problem is the overarching storyline running through the entire expansion. It feels very disjointed, like many self-contained narratives sort of strapped onto one another into what looks like a storyline, if you squint.

Contrast this with Legion’s story. What was the primary conceit of the expansion? The Legion’s back and we have to stop them. Great! A nice solid story maypole we can pivot events around. Everything the patches introduced tied back to this core story ideal:

Return to Karazhan: some freaky shit is going down in Medivh’s digs and we think the Legion is behind it. Stop them!

Tomb of Sargeras: Time to get to Tomb and stop the Legion from pouring in!

Argus: You know what, we need to stop the Legion Once And For All (maybe)! Time for a cataclysmic showdown on the Legion’s homeworld!

Even the Insurrection storyline held closely to the Legion storyline, since the demons had control of the city and a Titan MacGuffin we needed, so we had to help the Nightfallen boot them out.

Now, BFA has at first glance, a good premise. All-out war between the Alliance and Horde, whilst Azeroth bleeds underneath us. That seems pretty good, right? Yes, it is, but there is a problem; the status quo.

The trouble with wars, especially really big ones (like world wars), is that by their nature, they upset the status quo. The WoW status quo is both the Alliance and Horde is, in the lore’s eyes, on equal footing. Problem with this all out war is that someone’s gotta lose - but no faction can lose because that upsets the status quo.

Thus, the story has already lost its running shoes because it can’t change anything drastically at the end. There’s still got to be a Horde and an Alliance - now, Mists of Pandaria managed to end an Alliance/Horde war in a fairly convincing stalemate because of Garrosh. Since he was deposed and he was the instigator of a large portion of Bad Stuff, people could sort of understand Varian letting the Horde survive under the threat that they’d get their asses thoroughly beaten if they did anything bad again.

This did not work a second time. Why did it not work a second time?

That’ll be because Sylvanas burned down Teldrassil, which pretty much accounts to genocide. Now, Garrosh pretty much dropped Azeroth’s equivalent of a nuclear bomb on Theramore, and that was made a very big deal of, but Sylvanas decided to take a leaf from the Bombing of Dresden and add some fire to her war crime. And thus, a very large petard is hoisted around BFA’s neck.

The image of a burning Teldrassil is almost certainly a very shocking, very dramatic one, and I’m pretty sure that’s why Blizzard chose to do it. It’s certainly a very big, risky move in the terms of story that could have elevated it. The quest to try and save the citizens of Teldrassil as it burns is truly harrowing and excellent in how it underscores the hopelessness of the task.

The thing with the burning of Teldrassil is it has colossal consequences, and the story did not handle it with the gravitas it deserved. After that moment, you cannot bring the Alliance and Horde to a happy peace - the Horde has done an undeniably awful, inexcusable thing, and yet the Alliance will apparently look the other way and sign a peace treaty with them now Saurfang is dead and Sylvanas has run off to make Shadowlands happen.

So already we’re in trouble from War of the Thorns, which was not helped at all by Blizzard devs playing a ‘who burned the tree’ game only to reveal that it was always Sylvanas, she did it because she meant to do it. This did nothing but upset and annoy people (me included), which started everything off with a sour taste in our mouths.

Next stop is the attack on Undercity, which is good if not for the inexplicable stupidity of the Alliance not perhaps thinking that Sylvanas would use the Blight against them, after they just witnessed her burn Tedrassil down. And knowing she dumped Blight on Gilneas.

Despite these slip-ups, we’re keeping up this feeling of all-out war. The Horde gets word that Talanji and Zul are stuck in jail, let’s rescue them and get the Zandalari on our side to beat the shit out of the Alliance! The Alliance, not to be out done, decide to go get the Kul Tirans.

And that’s when the story fractures. The stories on Zandalar and Kul Tiras are kinda understandably divorced from the main war, but they’re so divorced as to be almost completely outside of it. The only signs of it outside the War Campaign are the Alliance sailors scrapping in Talanji’s Rebuke that you find in a non-essential side-quest, and the shoehorning of the Horde into the Stormsong questline, which then proceeds to break the latter questlines when the bloody quilboar seem to appear out of nowhere and become the main baddy (what?!).

It took the advent of 8.1 for Faction Assaults to start occurring and making us feel like all-out war, but it seemed a little too late. There was the attack on Dazar’alor that pushed the war narrative, but it was starting to get tangled up with the ‘Sylvanas is Bad Warchief, we must remove her. Or not...?’ storyline with Saurfang, which fell back onto ‘the Horde isn’t bad, it’s the Warchief who is!’ which 1, we’d already had in MoP, and it wasn’t a fun feeling that time either, and 2, it’s not really a good excuse after a genocide.

So Horde politics start, which are sort of interesting to Horde players, but not Alliance players, who only have Tyrande being understandably pissed at losing her home and people and going to wreak havoc to be content with. Well, if by ‘wreak havoc’ you mean ‘kill a val’kyr and somehow get beaten by Nathanos and then get shelved for orc drama later’. Salt was rubbed into this wound when a dev said that Tyrande had ‘got revenge for Teldrassil’ with this, which went down badly.

Now, there has been Old God stuff rumbling throughout the expansion up to this point, granted, but you can count on one hand the amount of times it was given a shit about. Only when Crucible of Storms comes out does N’Zoth do a proper ‘hey guys I’m a bad guy!’ thing, and he actually starts to slither into centre stage.

8.2 begins, when Azshara comes to kick our ass and free N’Zoth, and that’s when the tried and true ‘factions unite vs. the Big Bad’ trope comes out (as everyone and their mother predicted it would), and both factions decide that maybe they should focus against Azshara and her Old God master. But before N’Zoth beating, we need to boot out Sylvanas because she’s mean and burned a lot of innocent people.

8.2.5 arrives, everyone goes and makes angry faces at Sylvanas, Saurfang dies dramatically, Anduin and Jaina look pretty, and Sylvanas flies away angrily. Congrats guys, we did it! Now for some peace. Ignoring the fact Teldrassil is still ash, and Rastakhan is still dead (and the Zandalari are pissed about that), so it should be less ‘peace’ and more ‘polite ceasefire’.

And now it’s 8.3 and suddenly N’Zoth’s everywhere! And we’re going to kill him at the end of this patch and...that’s it. Next stop, Shadowlands. That big bad we’ve been hinting for a long, long time got a single patch to wave his tentacles and then he was very dead. Even worse, his big arrival was completely overshadowed by Shadowlands’ announcement. Ooof.

With all these things, BFA’s story feels like it set off without knowing where it was going to end up, except that maybe N’Zoth was involved and Sylvanas would ditch the Horde. So it bumbled around, making weird choices, and then wrapped up plotlines far too quickly. The war felt after Dazar’alor that it was about to escalate, what with Rastakhan’s death and Talanji’s ascent to Queen. Instead, it suddenly paused before deciding it was going to end so quickly I think it gave us whiplash, just so we could fight N’Zoth as an united front. So of.

As a result, we have plotholes still yawning open, very unsatisfying endings, as well a perpetual conflict between Alliance and Horde on every public forum imaginable - Alliance aggrieved that Blizzard has ignored them yet again in the story department, except when they wanted a shocking stunt, whilst the Horde is upset that they’ve been hit the ‘villain’ stick again, except this time it was a fucking bludgeon, and we’re getting very tired of this now please stop. This isn’t helped by all the foreshadowing of the faction lines either dissolving or loosening up during the coup against Sylvanas, and then Blizzard just going ‘yeah nah can’t do that, gotta preserve the status quo’.

So, how can we improve this by adding N’Zoth? Well, remember the core premise of Legion and stopping them? Repeat that with N’Zoth. It is simple, but we can give it its sweet twist - we’ve got to stop N’Zoth, because he’s not only trying to corrupt Azeroth. He’s also playing the Alliance and Horde against each other so they can’t stop him.

Immediately that makes N’Zoth the Big Bad, and also underscores the point of We Do Not Want Him To Get Out of His Cage, which makes the fact he does get out a big OH F*CK moment. Not that it isn’t already in current BFA, but can you imagine the gutclenching despair you’d feel as you’d done everything in your power to stop this from happening, and yet it’s happening anyway? Now you’d know what Khadgar felt like when the Tomb of Sargeras opened - and you’d know that you’ve got to do everything you can to put this right.

Let’s go back to the beginning, only this time we dial the Void stuff up. We begin the War of Thorns with the factions already tensed up re: Azerite, with preliminary scraps over it and what looked like the Alliance attempting a coup over some of the Forsaken (HEY BLIZZARD STOP PUTTING LORE LIKE THAT IN BOOKS AND NOT REFERRING TO IT INGAME KTHANKS). A tenuous peace, to be certain, which could only be made worse by Old God agitators, stirring up unrest in the factions.

As much as I would prefer the Horde not being the instigator in all the bad stuff, N’Zoth is the only variable I changed in this equation, so with unrest and some intel that makes it look like the night elves are making a move either to cut off Azerite production, or funnel it through Teldrassil, the Horde strikes at Ashenvale and Darkshore, instigating the War of Thorns.

Things look to be going normally, but you as the Champion notice Old God stuff lurking about and ‘hey this looks like what was happening before the Cataclysm- Oh. Oh no!’. You try to bring evidence that this is a set-up to the people in charge, but it’s escalating out of control. Night elves are dug in so deeply that the Horde has to set fires in the forests to get them to move, which causes retaliation, which gets Saurfang involved who critically injures Malfurion, but before the final blow Tyrande punts him into next week and maybe at this point someone goes: ‘wait hold up what do you mean there’s not Azerite over here’.

We stumble over to Sylvanas to try and tell her ‘no wait we’re being played’, but she takes this as misinformation and or a bluff, and fires a couple of catapaults to show she ain’t fucking kidding at Teldrassil. A couple. Enough to cause a ‘I mean business fire’, but since Teldrassil is in the fucking sea and I would assume almost always damp around its lower regions (you’re allowed a snigger at that), it’s not going to set the entire thing ablaze.

Except it does, because of N’Zoth’s minions in the Horde (and Alliance, probably), who fan the sparks with wind and feed them with power. Alternatively, we could have naga rise from the depths to set some Azerite-infused fires too, just to foreshadow Azshara coming onto the scene later.

With Teldrassil engulfed, everyone is shocked, including Sylvanas, who really didn’t intend this to happen at all (and is pissed because there goes her bargaining chip). The Alliance of course declare all-out war on the Horde because how dare they, whilst the Horde is briefly paralyzed with shock.

Saurfang and the others yell ‘how could you?!’ at Sylvanas, who yells back ‘that wasn’t part of the plan!’ and also something along the lines of ‘why the fuck didn’t you tell me the intel was shifty before this happened?!’ before going: ‘well it’s happened now, so we best gear up and stomp the Alliance into the dirt or we’re all going to die’.

Meanwhile people are going: ‘yeah but what about the influences of darker things going on? maybe we should do something about this’ with the answers being: ‘shut the fuck up, they set fire to Teldrassil’/’shut the fuck up, do you really think the Alliance is going to stop after what just happened’?

So it’s a race against time to try and get the factions to turn against N’Zoth instead of ripping each other apart before horrible shit starts happening and we’re all royally in the shit.

Everything happens pretty much as is from there, except we get some explanation for the lack of gas masks being ‘oh no our totally legit sources told us the Blight hasn’t been stockpiled in large quantities, we’ll send infiltration teams to neutralise it’. Only to find out that this is not the case of course and N’Zoth cackles some more. Sylvanas and Saurfang have an argument leading to Sylvanas booting him out and Saurfang getting captured by the Alliance despite the orc wanting death.

Everything goes as is from there, with Zul kinda trying to get Talanji killed because N’Zoth, in a mirror of Ashvane/Jaina. Just this time, we’re pushing the Void angle hard. They’ve both got their hands (or tentacles, rather) deep into Kul Tiras (Azshara) and Zandalar (G’huun), so it only makes sense to amplify their nonsense.

Over time people higher up the chain pick up the fact that N’Zoth’s doing this on purpose, but bad shit keeps happening so the Alliance and Horde can’t put aside their differences because both sides are doing genuinely bad things to each other! Yes, including the Alliance! Sylvanas is doubling down because she wants to survive this, and the only way she knows how is to utterly destroy her opposition. When she sees parts of the Horde begin to lose faith, she gets pissed because this is not the fucking time and this is the only way to stop the Alliance damnit.

Similar stuff happens in the Alliance, with Tyrande understandably going on a rampage against the Horde with Genn in tow, whilst Anduin and the others try to pump the brakes as they see N’Zoth’s tentacles looming everywhere.

Everything reaches a hecking climax when Azshara shows up and one thing leads to another, and N’Zoth comes bursting out, prompting an ‘OH SHIT’ moment. I’m thinking during Nazjatar, the small Alliance/Horde forces there ally, and when they’re just about to do something useful, the bigger kids show up going: ‘what the fuck are you traitors doing?!’ and during the argument, Azshara steals the Heart of Azeroth and unlocks N’Zoth’s prison, which leads everyone to realize ‘bollocks, we were played’.

Anduin can bring most of his Alliance forces to a standstill, and begs Tyrande and Genn to help him vs. N’Zoth. Tyrande tells him where he can stick it, but Genn is persuaded, though he says he’s going after the Horde as soon as N’Zoth is downed.

The Horde does the same to Sylvanas, but she knows as soon as N’Zoth is down, the Alliance will have her head, and especially when she realizes Tyrande’s still out there, she stands her ground. When a good portion of her powerbase decide on the temporary ceasefire to go after N’Zoth, however, Sylvanas tells them to piss off, and ditches the Horde. Talanji does a Genn, knowing how bad the Old Gods are, but she’s still getting blood payment from Kul Tiras after this is done.

Thus, everyone finally turns their attention to the big bad, fully entrenched, and ready for this grand climax. after he’s been causing all this pain and suffering. The Alliance and Horde are splintered, each nursing legit grievances against the other, but standing together for a moment, as always.

Yes, it’s Cata and MoP dressed up in a different coat, but sometimes a simpler plot is easier. That and Cata was more the factions poking each other in the eyes a couple of times rather than all out war.

With N’Zoth as the instigator of the conflict in BFA, we get a big bad we must fight, and we understand more than he’s a legit threat - and that he knows how to weaken us, so he throws us in a battle against one another so he can win. Yet everything isn’t forgiven at the end - the status quo is sort of there, but the factions are more fractured than before. Crimes still need to be answered for, but doing so may cause more conflict and death.

Sylvanas is out there and pissed, and feels the only way she can survive is to subjugate everyone that could ever harm her and perhaps transcend death itself. This entirely speculation on my part, but a part of me thinks Sylvanas’ main driving force is ‘I’ve been through enough, not even death is a respite, I’m going to become so powerful no-one will control me - I will control fate myself if I must’, which is actually fairly tragic and does grant me sympathy for her (watch this not be her main motivator in canon tho).

Does this solve all of BFA’s problems? No, of course not. But I do think it would have improved the story, at least by managing to keep the story flowing in a more linear direction. You’ll notice that Saurfang has all but disappeared from the N’Zoth narrative, that’ll be because I wasn’t too sure what to do with him. I do like him as a character, but he was pushing the ‘only the Horde has story’ narrative, and I’m not too keen on that. He’d still be a main character pushing for fighting N’Zoth and dying in the end, but less of all the focus.

To those of you who got down here - congratulations and thank you! I went on a very, very long time. Hopefully I have written if not a persuasive argument, then at least an understandable one. This isn’t meant as a ‘Blizzard’s writing is terrible!’, because sometimes it isn’t, but as a ‘I think it would have been better if done this way’.

Thank you for reading, and I hope 2020 smiles upon us.

#world of warcraft #wow discourse #is it discourse? kinda I guess #spr rambles #long post #i just think they did n'zoth dirty is all #he deserved better #honestly a lot of characters in bfa deserved better #but what are we gonna do

[crystalelemental]

Alright folks, there’s a lot of leaks, and a lot to get through.  Bear with me, this is not going to be coherent.

Let’s start with my favorites, and the Pokemon I’ve considered using.  Hatterene!  Healer and Anticipation are garbage-ass abilities, in every way, shape, and form.  Thank god for Magic Bounce as a hidden ability, eh?  Not clear how we’ll even get Hidden Abilities, or if they’re available at all in this game, but that’s at least something for the poor creature.  Stats are...honestly really good.  57/90/95/136/103/29 (BST: 510).  I’m sure by now, everyone knows what I’m going to say.  Why is HP so low?  That’s almost certainly going to be a damning feature.  Gardevoir has better special bulk all-around than Hatterene.  All Hatterene has is better physical bulk, and for some reason a base 90 in Attack.  The hell is it going to do with that?  Should’ve shaved off 20-30 points from Attack and put it literally anywhere else.  The only thing it truly has over Gardevoir is higher special attack, and obscenely low speed for Trick Room abuse.  Which...Gardevoir runs a fantastic Scarf set with Trick, so it really depends what kind of speed control game you want to play.  They’ll both have unique roles to play, though, which is all I can ask for.  That said, I’m anticipating UU.  No Moonblast.  It really doesn’t learn anything useful for Singles.  It has Psychic naturally, thank god, and also packs Healing Wish, can learn Nuzzle through egg moves, and gets both Giga Drain and Mystical Fire through TMs, which...I kinda love that Mystical Fire is a TM, not gonna lie.  TRs give about nothing.  Psyshock, which it somehow doesn’t learn naturally because this game sucks at movepools, and Dark Pulse, which isn’t going to be too useful as it is.  All in all, it’s not bad, but lack of Moonblast or seriously good coverage options barring maybe Mystical Fire will be a hindrance.  Gigantamax may force it into OU.  God, I hope they consider Gigantamax forms separate from base forms...

Alcremie!  65/60/75/110/121/64 (BST: 495).  It’s about as stock standard a Fairy as any.  Oh, except it doesn’t learn Moonblast.  Yeah.  Apparently GameFreak’s solution to Fairy types being too strong, was to just not give the new Fairies any access to Moonblast, but still let it exist on everything else that already learned it.  So that’s...you know, that’s a choice.  A shitty, shitty choice for idiots.  But a choice.  Sweet Veil kinda sucks, only preventing sleep, while Aroma Veil continues to be better and shuts down things like Taunt.  It also learns Mystical Fire and Giga Drain, hysterically, as well as Psychic/Psyshock through TMs.  But still, no Moonblast.  Kind of damning.  Unless Moonblast received a nerf, this is honestly a slap in the face for these two.

Frosmoth!  70/65/60/125/90/65 (BST: 475).  Why?  Why is it so slow?  Yes, I know it gets Quiver Dance, but come on!  Shield Dust isn’t a great ability, but it’s not terrible.  Ice Scales, though?  Halves all damage taken from special attacks.  It’s like reverse Fur Coat.  Which...honestly, it’s going to be nuts.  That’s not just a halving of its obscene weakness to Fire, but a halving of all special moves.  Physical attacks will drop it like a real life moth being hit with a rock, but still.  It gets access to Defog, Quiver Dance, Bug Buzz, and Aurora Veil, but somehow only gets Blizzard and not Ice Beam.  It can learn Giga Drain and Air Slash through TM, and Ice Beam and Dazzling Gleam through TR.  All in all...frankly the best of the Pokemon I’d consider.  Yeah, weak physical bulk hurts, as does its slowness, but it comes with a solid base kit.  It does really need that hidden ability to work at all, though.  Without it, it’s...going to suck.  Royally.

Thievul!  70/58/58/87/92/90 (BST: 455).  To the shock of absolutely no one, it fucking sucks!  Go figure.  Run Away is useless, Unburden is only helpful if you actually have an attacking stat to work with, but Stakeout?  That’s...actually not too bad.  Pure Dark isn’t that good defensively though, so it’s not exactly scaring much out, but doubling the base power of moves against things that switch in is really nice.  That said, it didn’t save Gumshoos, and it won’t save Thievul.  All of its learned moveset is physical.  Because of course it is.  It learns Nasty Plot, but have fun using it with all nothing you learn.  TRs are the only options to teach it anything, and all it gets is Dark Pulse, Psychic, and Shadow Ball.  Considering Dark and Ghost hit the exact same types super-effectively, this is essentially a wash.  Not even Mystical Fire?  It’s a fox for fuck’s sake!  I guess it also has Grass Knot.  Oh, and Round!  Those will save the meta.  Fuck off.

Honestly, I’m done here.  There are others I’m interested in, but you get the picture: movesets this generation are absolute ass.  Which is extra shitty, considering many hyper-critical TMs are now relegated to TRs, which are Gen 1-4 TMs, where they’re single use and gone forever.  No confirmation on whether you can get more than one in a playthrough.  At best, it requires BP.  Which, if there’s no Mantine Surf equivalent, sucks ass.  At worst, they’re single-acquisition.  Which means if you have a team of Pokemon, and you want more than one to learn Earthquake?  Fuck you, play the other game in its entirety, teach nothing Earthquake, and trade over the TR.  God, this sucks.  But to really hammer home the point?  Coalossal.  It’s the final form of Rolycoly, a Rock/Fire type.  It’s a big behemoth thing, so you know, kind of a big deal since those are a fairly popular type, like Aggron and the like.  As a Rock type, it gets two Rock moves of potential value: Rock Slide, and Stone Edge.  Guess which one it learns naturally.  Trick question: neither.  It learns Rock Blast.  At level 54.  As the only Rock move it learns other than Smack Down.  And no, Skill Link is not a move it can learn.  It’s completely useless.  This is Gen 3 Aggron all over again.  Such a cool looking Pokemon that should kick all kinds of ass, and it learns exactly nothing of value.

The whole system of learning moves is entirely fucked if BP isn’t easily farmable.  All the most important moves are TRs now, and are therefore one-turn use.  TMs are mostly nonsense, with a few outrageous picks like Giga Drain and Air Slash allowed in for infinite reuse.  With movepools not making sense either, even Pokemon who should learn the moves naturally may not have access.  Moonblast seems like it takes a serious hit overall, especially with poor Hatterene and Alcremie.  I just...I hate it.

But hey, the meta must be fixed, right?  They said they’d be fixing it, so they must have succeeded just like the last two generations!  Yeah, it’s...it’s a shitshow.  Aside from the disaster that is movepool accessibility, which doesn’t simplify or impact the meta, just makes the acquisition of needed moves that much harder to access for no fucking reason, we also have disasters in the ability field as well!  Ice Scales is busted as hell, Ice Face seems to replenish each turn when Hail is active and takes physical hits as if there were a substitute, among others.  Then there’s Perish Body, which sounds like a great way to finally put a halt to physical sweepers using Dragon Dance and Swords Dance sets, is only on Cursola, who has...wow, 60 base HP and 50 base defense!  So knocked over by a light breeze.  Spectacular, so much for that working out.

Oh, but then there’s the other horrors.  Terrains are still in the game, folks.  That’s right, Surge abilities are here!  The Grass starter?  Yeah, Grassy Surge is its hidden ability.  The other terrains are just as available.  Psychic Surge is on both forms of Indeedee, which, while we’re here, which is which?  My guess is the female form is the one that loses power and speed for more bulk, making it objectively worse than its male counterpart, again, for like the billionth time they’ve made a male/female split on the same Pokemon.

But the worst, by far...is Libero.  The Scorbunny line’s hidden ability.  “Changes Pokemon’s type to the type of move it’s about to use.  Depending on when this goes into effect, this is a buffed Protean.  If it changes start of the turn, this is a straight upgrade.  Because now, even if you catch it off-guard with a Scarf or something, it’s just going to change type and you have no idea what to.  We’ve got Fire, Flying, Fighting, Psychic, Poison, Steel, and Normal as the best options with physical moves learned.  I’m sure someone can piece together the best possible combination of four moves to just never take super-effective damage ever.

This is what pisses me off.  The meta isn’t balanced.  At all.  It hasn’t even started and I can tell you that much.  You left all the broken tools in the game, under different forms.  Yes, the Tapu are gone, but the Terrains still exist and are just as devastating as always.  You got rid of Greninja, fantastic, but now Cinderace exists with the same broken ability, but possibly buffed, and with higher offensive stats.  You still gave a ton of new Pokemon the “Average across the board” treatment, or weaknesses in critical areas like Frosmoth’s low speed or Cursola’s low physical defense or Hatterene’s low HP, and they’re not going to perform well because of it.  Meanwhile others get to be obscene, like Cinderace or Dragapult with its 142 base speed.  And then there’s Thievul over here whose highest base stat is 92, so good fucking luck making that work.  You told me the dex removal was for balancing purposes, and this is what you deliver to me?  This literal shit?  I’m so irritated by this.  They’ll have to pull something really substantial off to make these Technical Records not feel like a severe step backwards in accessibility.

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon sword and shield spoilers #pokesalt

[barbariccia]

i’ve always thought omega had a really cool design. it’s a gritty place, in keeping with its name - omega ( Ω or ω ), as the last letter of the greek alphabet, tends to symbolize the end of something (typically in a line or list of things that have come previously), especially in christian camps, contrasting alpha ( Α or α ) which refers to the beginning. the alpha and the omega are a title of christ and apt enough, meaning that christ is the beginning and the end of all things.

suitable, then, that omega is in terminus space - the end of civilization - and frequently left abandoned, in the corse of an asteroid.

as you land, you’re approached by a salarian, and then a batarian, who tells the salarian to make himself scarce after a brief meeting. the batarian turns to us.

Moklan: Blasted scavengers. Welcome to Omega... Shepard.

turns out we’re not exactly on the down-low, and they’ve had their eyes on us since the second we stepped into omega space, with the so-called leader aria wanting to know why a dead spectre is in her area. we’re told in no uncertain terms to go make ourselves known to her, and, well, we don’t exactly know where we’re meant to be going to find our scientist yet, so we might as well.

aria t’loak resides in the afterlife club, because just because you’re at the end of all things doesn’t mean there’s nowhere else to go. it’s big and gaudy and in high demand; a vid of three asari strippers dancing plays directly above the entrance, and a line of people is waiting impatiently to get by the elcor bouncer, who’s got no time for these people who aren’t on the list. and boy, it’s gaudy on the inside, too, with the hallway leading to the club proper playing images of flickering fire. oh, and the lighting in here is atrocious, truly suitable for a nightclub.

there’s a little pack of batarians who think you’re looking at them wrong, and you get to tell them to pound dirt before you enter afterlife... which is a wholeass spectacle.

it’s dark and dingy and there’s asari dancing above the bar, where you can order as many drinks as you like from, courtesy of a well-dressed turian barkeep. after a little dutch courage, you can go up to the next level, to the private lounge where aria keeps her eye on the rest of the club, and as you ascend the stairs, she speaks.

it’s a whole mexican standoff of sorts, guns pointed in every direction, and me just wanting a nice chat with a new friend. :( her batarian bodyguard scans us with his omnitool - and even if you object, you’ve no choice but to suffer through this.

Shepard: I was told you’re the person to talk to if I have questions.

Aria: Depends on the questions.

Shepard: You run Omega?

aria might just be my favourite asari in the franchise; she still suffers from “skin on display even while dressed” disease, but she feels fully autonomous and doesn’t put up with bullshit. sure, the idea of a Tough Woman is a whole trope in and of itself, but in a series where belonging to this particular race throws you firmly into one of three feminine ideals while considering them a magical space-elf race that everyone’s attracted to by rote, it’s real nice to see an example that doesn’t do the same thing as everyone else. hell, even benezia is blown out of the water by aria, who doesn’t come across as evil so much as self-serving, and tough to keep her iron rule going.

Shepard: One scan and we’re straight to business? People are usually more concerned about who I am.

Aria: Your death was downplayed, but hardly what I call a secret. I had to make sure it was really you. You could have been anyone. Anything.

Shepard: Tell me how you got set up here.

Aria: That’s as privileged as information gets. I have many friends and enemies I keep at varying distances. I don’t count you among either. We’ll see how useful you prove. Short answer: mind your own damn business.

Shepard: You must know what’s on Omega.

Aria: Everything that’s worth knowing. I don’t usually give it out freely. Information is power. Mundane things, you can find yourself. Take a walk in a back alley, or buy one of the mercs a drink. Better yet, talk to the entertainers. They give great tours.

there are two dossiers to fulfill on omega, and you can ask aria about both of them.

Archangel is a mercenary commander whose operations are noted for their technical expertise and strategic brilliance. He is responsible for high-profile attacks on gang leaders on Omega and can likely be found there.

Dr. Mordin Solus is a salarian biological weapons expert whose technology may hold the key to countering Collector attacks. He is currently operating a medical clinic in the slums of Omega.

Shepard: I’m trying to track down Archangel.

Aria: You and half of Omega. You want him dead, too?

Shepard: Why’s everyone after him?

Aria: He thinks he’s fighting on the side of good. There is no good side to Omega. Everythign he does pisses someone off. It’s catching up to him.

Shepard: Just the kind of guy I’m looking for.

Aria: Really? Well, aren’t you interesting. You’re going to make some enemies teaming up with Archangel. That’s assuming you can get to him. He’s in a bit of trouble right now. The local merc groups have joined forces to take him down. They have him cornered, but it sounds like they’re having trouble finishing him off, and started hiring anybody with a gun to help them.

Shepard: What can you tell me about him?

Aria: Not as much as I’d like. He showed up here several months ago and started causing all sorts of problems. If you make your own laws -- which everyone her does -- he makes life difficult. He’s reckless and idealistic. But he seems to know enough to stay clear of me.

she tells us that every major merc group is after archangel right now, which is incredible in itself, because they’re never seen together unless they’re warring. archangel has done the impossible.

Shepard: Know where I can find Mordin Solus?

Aria: The salarian doctor? Last I heard he was trying to help plague victimes in the quarantine zone. I always liked Mordin. He’s as likely to heal you as he is to shoot you.

Shepard: What can you tell me about him?

Aria: Used to be part of the Salarian Special Tasks Group. He’s brilliant and dangerous. Just don’t get him talking. He never shuts up. If you really need to find him, take a shuttle to the quarantine zone. No guarantee they’ll let you in, of course.

that’s all aria has to say; we take a trip downstairs to sign up with the blue suns to hunt down and flush out archangel. but not before some sexism!!

you DO NOT GET THIS LINE or any equivalent if you’re playing as a male shepard. all the recruiter says is “you three look like you could do some damage. looking for a good fight?” and BOY FUCKING HOWDY why would you include this. why would you include this line at all. why would anyone think this was a good idea. why would you not include an equivalent for mshep if you were going to do this. i hate this line and i lose my fucking temper every time i think about it because wow, guess fucking what, we never see any batarian females! we never see any salarian females! we never see any god damn turian female characters! we don’t know SHIT about the women of this universe and oh, it’s so gratifying to know that even in the future, even across the galaxy, even non-humans don’t value women as equal to men. where’s your culture differences? where’s your fucking worldbuilding? you cannot mean to tell me the entire galaxy works on the same sexist paradigm of “man good women weak hurrhurr” because that’s so fucking lazy and weak and i despise it.

you get a choice (renegade, obvs), to pull a pistol on the guy, and then the lines carry on as usual. you buy into the blue suns, making a note to kill every one of the bastards when you’re done picking up archangel, and leave the club to find a transport just outside, where we’ll be carried away to the fight against archangel. as you leave, there’s a human kid that walks in and wants to join the fight as well - you can ask him just how old he is, and do a paragon interrupt to stop him from joining a fight that’s already taken out countless teams trying to get to this merc, but i was angry enough that i let it slide. teach the kid a lesson about trying to be fucking macho and the consequences.

grumbles loudly.

#mol plays me2