to me, the funniest thing about “that’s rough buddy” isn’t the fact that sokka says something patently insane with zero context seemingly out of nowhere, or the fact that zuko clearly doesn’t know how to respond. it’s the completely incorrect use of the word “buddy.” zuko would obviously like to be friends with sokka, but sokka is not, in fact, his friend. this is the most time they’ve ever spent together, and it’s because zuko invited himself to tag along on sokka’s suicide mission. at this point in the episode, sokka still hates this guy, perhaps less than he did a week ago, but he still hates him enough that he didn’t bother forcing zuko to stay home, which means he still didn’t really care whether or not zuko lives or dies. which, considering that he had tried to kill zuko multiple times in the past, is not all that surprising. this entire episode is essentially just zuko forcing his friendship onto sokka while sokka is legitimately too depressed to care. so when zuko calls sokka “buddy,” there’s a spirit of dogged optimism characterizing that epithet, because in no possible realm would sokka consider zuko his buddy at this point in the episode. and that’s something we miss when noting the iconicness of this exchange, simply because, by the end of this episode, they are buddies, so in our minds looking back on these lines, the implication of friendship doesn’t feel out of place at all. and really, it isn’t out of place, but only because zuko’s tenacity and determination (in this instance, his determination to befriend sokka) has always hugely outweighed his ability to read the room.
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holds your face so fucking gently please leave reviews for indie games. please. every single review legit counts, especially if the game is small enough, and you don't even gotta say much if that's the problem!!
like, anything from a long ramble to a simple 'it was good' matters, because steam (and probably also the Other Ones) uses an algorithm. so the more reviews, the more exposure, the more money the dev team gets. like, please. please. leave a review. throw your small indie dev team a bone
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Since we see him every now and then, what is Ryan like in Casa Tidmouth?
ryan works at the harwick branchline with daisy. in the secret of the lost treasure and misty island rescue arcs, ryan is the bystander to thomas' adventures that lead up to his fight with sailor john and skiff, eventually adding to the number of supporting characters that got dragged into both the mystery surrounding the gold dust and the mess thomas has left on sodor. after sailor john got arrested and thomas went missing, ryan helped thomas' friends look for his whereabouts while also being the key witness to sailor john's mad ramblings about "lady of the legend" and his motives for almost blowing up the island. ryan never asked for any of this but because he likes thomas and knows info that other people don't, he just HAS to step in
outside of the plot-heavy stuff, ryan's one of the kinder sudrian railway workers compared to his weirdo coworkers. he considers daisy and thomas to be his closest friends despite the former having the tendency to push her workloads onto him in the past and the latter being a bit standoffish despite ryan's attempts at hospitality.
ryan's extended family, on the other hand...
ryan is connected to the gresleys through his mother. his mother is the daughter of joseph gresley I (the gresleys’ grandfather), so he’s the cousin of gordon, scott, spencer, and mallard. he doesn’t talk to his cousins often ever since he’s a teenager because they’re nutjobs who mostly care about themselves and ryan has self-respect and values his sanity
unlike most his cousins who has the power of hater-ism coursing through their veins, ryan is a perfectly normal man who cares about his friends. he talks about his issues directly instead of letting it simmer. he sometimes have drinks with daisy and thomas after work. he used to have trouble articulating his more “negative” feelings and driving his opinion, but he’s doing better lately. he wants to maintain peace by being kind to others, which makes him prone to being dragged into any weird business his cousins have whenever they have the chance.
whenever holiday season is around the corner, ryan knows exactly what to expect. scott, his most famous cousin, the only one who still GAF about tightening what’s left of the gresleys together, will ask him to come over for dinner with his cousins (his charisma stat is maxed out). ryan can’t refuse because scott will pull excuses like “it’s just once a year” or “there's a dog” and ryan doesn’t have anything else to do. the family party will start off normal, then when mallard brings out the wine (provocateur!!!) things go south. gordon and spencer would badmouth each other about each other's secrets/fails, they get into a fight, scott tries to calm them down, ryan frowns at the disinterested mallard, sighs, goes outside to the nearest telephone booth to call daisy and ask her to pick him up. at this point it’s comical
ryan’s really the opposite of his cousins, from clothing to backstory. when designing him, I took the key components of his cousins’ designs and invert them. his cousins dress lavishly – big coats and suits, but ryan just rolls up his sleeves and dons a vest. his cousins’ haistyles are combed back, gelled, etc, while ryan’s hair goes everywhere (parted bangs show hairline). most of his cousins have horrific trauma related to death and loss from their childhood, while ryan’s just a city boy who grew up with nothing eventful in his life (except attending his cousins’ funerals). he doesn’t even inherit the gresley surname and is oblivious to most of the gossips surrounding or is inside the gresley family.
ryan is his own person who gets thrown around like a volleyball a lot, but he still has a good heart. one can consider ryan to be what any of his cousins would’ve ended up like if they had normal upbringings. who am I kidding? lol
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the toons' reactions to both misty and chips fights are soso important to me. they don't dance at the end of misty's and they are visibly sad when they leave chip's office, and even try to stay with him until he kicks them out.
despite being in a war against these cogs and seeing them as pure evil, they get a glimpse into some of these individuals and the suffering they endure due to the company. enough of a glimpse to feel sympathy for their biggest enemy
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and honestly, the fact of the matter is. that when a male character is killed for another male character's sake, it's almost guaranteed that the death will forever be a weight upon the narrative in the way a female character's death never will be. a male character will be mourned forever, the loss of a brother in arms considered a gaping wound that will never truly heal. meanwhile, the loss of a mother is a small footnote tragedy in the beginning of the story, but she is never truly remembered by her son. the loss of a daughter guarantees that a surrogate one will eventually arrive to replace her empty space. the loss of a wife will usher in a new woman to heal the man. but the loss of a brother or father is a constant cross the man will bear for the rest of his life.
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thinking. about the most important thing my therapist ever told me.
me: so yeah im really worried because [xyz thing] is going on in my friends life and i want to help but i dont know how, i feel so bad because theyre struggling and im just. Some Guy
therapist: well. have you thought that maybe it might be a relief to them to have you be just some guy?
me: ...elaborate
therapist: well if all this stuff is going on in their life, they probably feel really overwhelmed and like everything is falling apart. it might be really reassuring to have you be just some guy and stable.
me: [adjusting my entire worldview to accommodate this new software update]
they told this to me two years ago, and to this day. every single time someone i know is going through something big and bad? i remember that sometimes. its nice to just have Some Guy nearby, who says silly things and is generally stable and safe to talk to. changed my whole life
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I hate to ask but who is hua Chang
Hua Cheng is the deuterantagonist of the Chinese web novel Heaven Official's Blessing! It's a historical fantasy novel about gods and ghosts and cultivators (xianxia) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. It's also a gay romance (danmei). The main themes are destiny, love, and what it means to be a good person. It has a comic version (manhua) and one-soon-to-be-two seasons of animation (donghua).
He's an 800+ year old ghost who has a sentient sword made from his own dismembered eye, runs a city, turns his enemies into blood rain, creates silver wraith butterflies and has been devotedly worshiping/pining after his god, Xie Lian, his entire life. This book is the longest hyperfixation I have ever had. So I think it's pretty good (understatement of the century).
I can and have written essay length rants about him but here is a paragraph i wrote a while back about my favorite things about him, to sum up:
His gender probably. The way he looked fate in the eyes and said “fuck you, old man” and built a highly successful life of his own. How he is so fucked up but still hyper-competent. How all his strength comes from love. How his devotion changed as he grew up but never wavered. The way he is kind but not nice. His infodump swag.
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Dragon can be huge and thousands of years old and also just be so babie. just the littlest guy.
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