#Don't choose the evil option btw don't do this to me

[tategaminu]

I know S6 will be It but how???

Comment if you don't feel any of these!

#Yes these are too specific #let me be weird #I can't wait I miss their smooches #like they got their best kisses in animation story ok? I'm not biased It's true even Steven Spielberg agrees #Rayllum #rayla x callum #Tdp #The dragon Prince #Cayla #Tdp S6 #Tdp callum #Tdp rayla #Poll #Mine #Don't choose the evil option btw don't do this to me

[acavatica]

Does voting make you anxious?

This isn't like me, but I'm going to give my fellow millennials (and younger) the benefit of the doubt: Are you not voting because you don't know how? Have you never done it on your own? Don't know where to start? Read on, I guess.

(This info only applies to the US, btw, I think the rest of y'all have it together better than us. I mean, maybe some of you don't, but I can't help you.)

Register to vote. Vote.gov walks you through the process. Note: There are primaries where each party chooses its finalists. Those happen before the main election in November. To vote in a primary, you have to be registered to one of the 2 real political parties. "Independent" doesn't mean you can vote for whichever one you like, it means you don't get to vote in the primary. I don't "identify" with the Democratic Party, either, but the fact is, any viable progressive candidate is going to be running as a Democrat and being a registered Democrat allows you to vote for people who represent you better. Do not register as an Independent. This doesn't matter for 2022, because primaries are over, but keep it in mind for the future.

Find your voting location. This time the tool is at vote.org. Right now, at least for me, my voting location hasn't been assigned. But when it is, you can put your address in here and find out where to go to vote in person. This page also has a list by state that takes you to your state's voting website. You can probably also do a mail-in or absentee ballot, but those rules vary state by state and I'm just some rando on tumblr. If you have going-outside-anxiety, google "absentee voting [the state you live in]." We are not allowed to vote online in the US.

Extra Credit for the Nerds: Look up who you'll be voting for. Put in your address, it shows you your ballot. Generally speaking, in a national (non-primary) election you can just vote down the party line of your preference, you'll usually only have two options, Democrat or Republican. It's really the primary where you can make the most difference, but we're here now, we vote for the lesser of two evils. But again, for the future, the less hype an election is, the more you can pick people you won't lose sleep over, we're talking local elections, midterm elections, primaries. When people only turn up to vote for the president, we get stuck with what we're stuck with. When people don't even show up for that, we end up where we are. I'm not blaming you. I have anxiety too. IMPORTANT: A lot of states have referendums for abortion rights this year. (California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, and Vermont.) The questions can sometimes be worded really confusingly. The links above go to each state's individual referendum so you can read the question and make sure you understand before you get to the poll.

Make a plan. Find out if you need ID (bring it just in case). Arrange transportation. Get an accountability buddy. Put it in your calendar. My polling places are open 6AM to 6 PM and if you're in line at 6PM you're guaranteed to be able to vote. The list from Step 2 should get you to your state's voting FAQ. If you are scheduled to work on November 8, 2022 (or some voting day in the future), know that 30 states require employers to give their employees some amount of time off for voting. Many states offer paid leave for voting. My state offers 4 hours unpaid, but hey, that's half a day off work. 🤷‍♀️

Vote on November 8, 2022. Here's what to expect: you walk into a school or a church or a retirement home. There are signs pointing you to the right room, and there are tables where poll workers might do some of the following: find your name in a book, check your ID, make you sign next to your name. You will either be given a pen and paper ballot or you will be directed to a computer ballot station. The ballot will probably look much like we practiced in Step 3 (this is where you get your extra credit). If you're voting via computer you might get to time travel to ipod controls times. Either way, it only takes a few minutes, you submit your vote, get your sticker, and then you go home or maybe get yourself a little treat.

This feels pretty cheeseball, honestly. I'm as disillusioned as any other progressive, and I think politics are fake 80% of the time. But I do work in government (in a library), so I know how to do these things, and I know a lot of people don't or are stressed out or intimidated. You don't have to love who you're voting for. You don't have to be enthusiastic about it. You don't have to expect anything to change because of it. But if you're scared, you don't have to be.

My ask box is open and anon is on if you wanna ask specific questions. ✌

#politics #voting #american politics #midterm elections

[eldrichthingy]

Okay, so. Just some random thoughts on bg3 endings that were probably said before, but I need to express my opinion too.

1. The endings are probably one of the most disappointing I can even recall. They're not worth the long journey of 60+ hours, however, the journey is worth it itself. For the amount of different routes you can take in this game and attention to details, it's a shame there are only two endings with slight differences and one with none.

2. Evil ending should have variations. I don't get it why Larian had characters express their desire to become the Absolute and dominate the cult (talking about Astarion & Minthara) TOGETHER just for them to become mindless thralls at the end, if you choose this ending. You're not given any options, you just simply can't spare your lover/partner in crime. Absolutely fucking nothing. We should have the option to rule with the person we choose, we should have the option to take it for ourselves as well. And while maybe Durge-specific evil ending might have a reason for that, I don't see any in regular evil ending. Evil couples exist and rule together, so we should have a specific romanced evil ending.

3. Durge suicide ending should be a proper tragic scene with romanced companion. Companions should react to their death, especially the one you've been with the entire game. (And while I get why it wouldn't happen with Karlach and Unascended Astarion, I don't see why it can't happen with others.) It doesn't make sense to me why no one doesn't do anything, especially Ascended Astarion with Spawn! Durge - their bond as a sire and spawn is very strong and if he can control them, then he should at least try? Or otherwise, watch them die in his arms. It could've been done similarly to Karlach scene.

4. Durge regretting killing Isobel/Alfira no matter what reaction they had to these murders in the playthrough/their actions whatsoever. Tell me why my evil Durge that defied Bhaal to be evil by choice and is a cleric of Lolth (evil spider goddess, yes) regrets that and "will remember it for their remaining days" (which is eternity btw, they're a vampire spawn as well). The reactions to urge doesn't matter in the end, neither the option you choose after being brought back to life by Withers. Defiying Bhaal doesn't mean your alignment changes. Different characters have different motivations and that is just. Weird to not consider in the end, especially when the majory of playthrough was them acting evil.

5. Unascended Astarion should have different ending in terms of reaction from companions and MC's actions. You should be able to follow him, cast darkness or just do SOMETHING. And companions that were fucking emphasizing with him the whole game shouldn't be cruel and joke about him not seeing the sun again. It just makes me go murderhobo, I'm sorry. They cared about each other though the entirely of the game and it doesn't feel right for them to act so.. unnecessary cruel towards Astarion after everything they've been through together.

6. If I'm not wrong, there was something like characters meeting months after in the game files/cut content. Fucking bring it back! Make them, idk, attend a ball or celebration of defeating Elder Brain, something like that and meet again, talking about everything that happened, their plans and just. How are they doing?? At least something. The 2 or so? Minutes cinematic is not enough. It doesn't feel right when the game is so long and it makes you deeply care about your companions to just leave it like that at the end. Maybe, they could've even done a meeting the night after in the main hall, like you get with romanced companion.

#nonsims #olya's rambles #bg3 spoilers #idk how to tag #I'm just very close to the end on the current playthrough I have and act 3 is pissing me off as well as the realization that I soon have to #experience the endings all over again #I guess??

[nulfaga]

i want to do an absolutely miserable "everyone dies and suffers the whole way down" me playthrough too. so i spent some time yesterday looking at the me2 suicide mission and carefully plotting how to leave only the bare minimum amt of squad members alive (2, fewer than that and shepard herself will also cark it). weird amount of math involved. ideally those 2 survivors would be those who can meet an even more horrible fate in me3 (jack and tali for instance. there are many more squad members who can die in me3 but they tend to be heroic/meaningful deaths). liara is basically immortal and vega doesn't show up enough to be endangered but you can take them along to the final battle and (so i understand) if your war assets are absolutely shit tiny then they'll be vaporized by a reaper beam w/ no more ceremony.

i think the funniest option of all (you know in a cosmically evil kind of way) is to have an LI you scrupulously keep alive thru me2-3 (or 1-3) and then at the culminating moment they just get zapped and that's it.

here's my sample plan (choosing garrus as the cursed immortal cause i've been told i never gave him a fair shake. what fairer shake is there than this)

this is not "meet as few characters as possible" btw this is "kill everyone" so while not recruiting them at all would yield the same results what we're after is a pipeline of recruit -> kill (in the most tragic/unsatisfying way possible, wherever possible). death and despair in the milky way etc ME1:

-leave ashley/kaidan at virmire (in practice it doesn't matter who) -don't kill wrex (for now) -kill the rachni queen (though it doesn't make a big difference; grunt won't be alive to sacrifice himself w/ the aralakh company) -don't disrupt geth communications on virmire (kirrahe dies)

ME2:

-don't recruit kasumi or zaeed (they fuck up the numbers for the suicide run. i'm sure there's a way to bring them and successfully kill them while keeping the 4 squadmates we need alive but i haven't figured it out) -destroy maelon's data -let morinth kill samara (if possible. otherwise it doesn't make a difference past the suicide run) -successfully complete loyalty missions for jack, garrus, tali & mordin -keep DISloyal: miranda & grunt -doesn't matter (as in: do the loyalty mission if you like, but they'll die regardless): jacob, samara, thane, legion -get the silaris armor upgrade, but NOT the thanix cannon or cyclonic shields -do as many missions as possible between the reaper IFF and hitting the collector base (to ensure crew death) For the suicide mission:

-silaris armor means jack survives (for now) -no shields means legion dies (don't bring him to the cargo bay fight, or someone else will die instead and throw off the numbers) -no thanix cannons means thane dies

-assign jacob as the vent specialist (he dies) -assign samara/morinth as the fireteam leader (dead) -assign a loyal jack as the biotic specialist (no one dies!) -assign a disloyal grunt as the second fireteam leader (dead) -assign a disloyal miranda to escort the crew (dead) -this should leave tali, mordin, garrus & jack (all of whom should be loyal!) -leave garrus and jack to hold the line (no one dies) -bring tali and mordin to the final fight (no one dies)

-destroy the collector base -shepard survives with 4 crew members

ME3:

-pick every renegade option and DON'T visit the virmire survivor in the hospital after the mars mission -ignore the grissom academy mission (jack gets recaptured by cerberus) -later on, fight jack as a cerberus phantom (dead) -kill the rachni queen, or leave her alive and let her betray you idk -don't warn the krogan -sabotage the genophage cure; shoot m...god forgive me. shoot mordin when he tries to fix it himself (dead. rip) -since wrex is alive, he'll know about the sabotage; he will fight you and get killed (dead) -during the coup in priority citadel 2, don't try to persuade the virmire survivor, just shoot them (dead) -kill falere at the ardat-yakshi monastery -don't do the rannoch: geth fighter squadrons mission -during priority: rannoch, let the geth upload the reaper code and don't try to persuade/warn the quarians (tali dies) -gather NO war assets. you need under 1600 EMS. -bring 2 squadmates. at this point you can choose between garrus, liara, vega and edi. and javik if he's there. -i recommend bringing garrus and liara, the last surviving LIs, your ride-or-dies from the very beginning. (they will be vaporized by a reaper beam) -you should have only one choice for the crucible: destroy. because of your low EMS, shepard dies and this choice also destroys the mass relays as well as all life on earth.

-fin-

#this is so off the charts sad and evil for no reason #it's so funny that me even gives you this level of choice for how shitty you can make things #i cannot however joke abt killing mordin. that's fucked up and i will have to close my eyes when i hit the renegade interrupt #massively effectual

[tiodolma]

In response to their latest reply of this post because they already blocked me.

I will push back on this. You always invoke the writers (doylist) and yet push for watsonian (in universe) headcanons. That's unfair. But I'll roll with you.

Merlin wants to be treated with respect.

-i agree

I'd I think what Merlin is fighting for is to get those advantages without those positions, as he also believes it’s what everyone deserves. Not just him. To say that Merlin wants these positions is to disregard what he is fighting for. These privliges for all.

- "Merlin wants democracy but he won't be happy if he got to that position first" is what I'm getting here. Let's be clear: Democracy- equal representation in court, power to the people, the ability to have collective power and to choose or elect a leader" This is a bold claim which I will get back to you later. On one side, yes he wants magic not be banned anymore, that is true. But like I said, given his experiences in court, it would be big damned lie to say that he would not have appreciated at least a position where the king would seriously listen to him without him getting punished. Only nobility, knights and council members had that.. There is no evidence that he would hate that, op it is you who keep pushing this narrative;

And you could say that he could get that to happen from being a council member witch is a fair point,

- i agree with this;

But again, merlin as a character is designed to say no to taht and to dislike the position and know we are back to square one.

- disagree. He was happy when he was given the seat in the first round table even though he politely and jokingly refused (he has manners jfc), and was disappointed when Arthur demoted him; OP HE WAS HAPPY TO BE REGARDED AS ARTHUR'S EQUAL IN THAT SHORT SPAN OF TIME THAT WAS S3 EP 12-13. How can you say that he disliked it???

Everyone must be tested fairly for merlin to be happy, as in nto descrimanated against.

- debateable. this is the same guy who'd kill for the monarchy no matter what the cause. This is the guy who uses magic in service for the oppressors and persecutors of his people. Merlin is as complicit and unfair as they come. If you think about it Democratic form of government isn't even on his agenda. But that is what the rebels like Kara wanted. What Merlin (and Gaius) were pushing for was a meritocracy= the ability to serve your rulers basedyour on merits, good deeds and past efforts or result of state exams. Meritocracy is Arthur's thing when it was convenient for him btw! Then you are right! Magic users must prove their loyalty, their goodness, their right to live! Guilty until proven innocent! They must be TESTED and ensured that they won't turn evil before Camelot accepts them! Merlin actually agrees with that! Remember how he keeps saying "I will only use magic for good?" What is good? WHO DECIDES WHAT IS GOOD? What if the version of "GOOD" isn't in tandem with the wants of the crown? Who'd be the judge? Who would be the executioner? ARTHUR? Yes. GAIUS? Yes. MERLIN? YES. Gaius and Kilgharrah trained Merlin for that! It's what Merlin has been doing the for the whole series! IT'S IN THE TEXT.

Merlin is as loyal to the throne as they come DUDE. Merlin (and all his backers) is pushing for Arthur to be the KIng of Everybody (this is "divine right of kings" sht. Higly monarchist AND Imperialist.)

That is in direct opposition to what what the many of the non-prophetic factions of the magic folk wanted: THEY DON'T WANT ARTHUR TO BE THEIR KING. THEY DO NOT CHOOSE ARTHUR AS THEIR KING so they turn to radical solutions, assasination! They aren't represented in court or in the seat of government, remember? Their existence alone is illegal. That's the only option left for them! But Merlin's job is to protect Arthur's goddamn throne! For Merlin, ARTHUR HAS TO BE THE ONE AND TRUE KING. He won't be "happy" if Arthur was not king! That is Merlin's definition of success! THAT'S IN THE TEXT TOO.

So!!! what Merlin is pushing for is not the true liberation of his people. He does not realize this yet. He never had the chance. MERLIN DOES NOT SUPPORT TRUE EQUALITY even though he has been led to believe that he was.. Merlin hopes for everyone to accept the Arthur Pendragon regardless. The magic-folk who don't agree with that are going to get killed, usually by him. In fact he has been ordered to Kill Them, since season one. MERLIN DOES NOT SHARE THE SAME WISHES AS ALL OF THE MAGIC FOLK. I beg you to stop claiming that he does. IT'S IN THE TEXT.;

Merlin does not want nobility. He wants to be happy.

- I TOLD YOU That does not mean that he does not want or would not appreciate a similar position of respect and influence. I TOLD YOU HE WAS HAPPY THAT ARTHUR REGARDED HIM AS AN EQUAL. A NOBLE (technically). IN THAT VERY SHORT MOMENT AFTER THE FIRST ROUND TOUBLE. Your claim is not an absolute truth because MERLIN WAS HAPPY IN THAT EPISODE. HE WAS PROUD OF IT. HE EVEN REMINDED ARTHUR OF IT. Until that absolute asshole of a shit boss pulled the rug under him. But sure yeah as headcanon, then go on;

There is a difference. The text also goes great lengths to show taht nobility does not equal happiness, especially with showing how unhappy Arthur is by playing on the classic neglected rich kid trope.

- Are we still talking about Merlin here or how you project Merlin's ideas of nobility to be? Fine it was shown that Merlin does not desire the harsh political life of nobility, criticizes it even. But he lives with a nobleman, a freeman, a respected member of the high court: Gaius. Merlin is living the perks of that charmed life, of being the ward of a high council seat and also being a favorite of the King. He enjoys some protections and comforts that nobility affords. He's in much better living conditions than all the druids combined. And he is relatively content in that privilege!THAT'S IN THE TEXT TOO. AND YET!!! Merlin had been always frustrated that he could not speak as freely as Agravaine, as Guinevere, as the Knights do, that he is never listened the first time he gives cautions to his own damn boss too, and you know what? THAT IS ALSO IN THE TEXT!;

Again, it doesn’t matter what you think about it morally, it is the moral message the writers are pushing.

- now you resort to doylist arguments to defend your headcanons? And then use "morality? Where the hell did that come from? I just wanted to dispute that your claim contradicts canon. Come on. But I'm listening to you.

So

That "I'm happy to be your servant Arthur. I was born to serve you." is your basis then. Fine. I concede. But that's all there is. Your claims that MERLIN IS NOT GOING TO BE HAPPY WITH A COUNCIL SEAT WHERE MERLIN COULD SERVE ARTHUR MORE EFFECTIVELY' is still headcanon at best.

Because at the end of the day, if Arthur asked if melrin wanted to be a knight or apart of the council, we would say no. It doesn’t matter what you think, and it doesn’t matter what i think. Merlin woudl say no. Merlin would always stick to what he has alwyas said. No matter how terrible he is treated, he would say no. There is no debate. It doesn’t matter how much happier you think he would be, and it’s not a “good” thing and it’s not a “bad” thing, it’s a Merlin thing.

We never had a scene where Arthur offer to knight him though? much less him VEHEMENTLY refusing Arthur as you claim. Arthur just said that he wasn't a knight and therefore had no obligation to defend him to the death. WHY ARE YOU CLAIMING ON SOMETHING THAT NEVER HAPPENED? You realize that this is headcanon territory right? So what if he told Will, Daegal and Lancelot that he just wanted to be a servant? The scenario we are tackling is his reaction and response if he was going to being GIVEN a position OF RESPECT within ARTHUR'S COURT by ARTHUR.

We had an ACTUAL SCENE where he got promoted by Arthur though! a chance to be the King's and the Knights' Equal! A FANTASY COUNCIL SEAT! Fine he refused at first, JOKINGLY AND WITH DISBELIEF! but he accepted it. I TOLD YOU. REPEATEDLY. MERLIN LIKED IT. HE GOT TOTAL JOY AND FREEDOM FROM IT. and HE WAS DISAPPOINTED when it was taken back. (IT'S IN THE TEXT. OHMYGOD.)

OP OP OP OP .... Your claims aren't adding up.

You cannot assume what the writers's motives are unless you give a straight reference that they said it. Even then. That begs the question. What if the writers' don't tell us their true motives? Are we wrong to headcanon that Merlin would be happier and more effective if he was given a better social position? I have discussed all the evidence in the work. You're not wrong to reach that conclusion yourself that Merlin would say No to that either, because that is Your Headcanon and you have basis to draw from in canon too!

Yet you start your statement with "I think a lot of people miss the point...." and then you proceed with "And as a character that is written to not like those jobs, he woudl be written to be unhappy in those jobs." by just assuming that is what the writers intended and then arguing that you are right, even when "THE TEXT" is contradicting you.

If you are right, then show us the producers explictly saying that! It's not wise to just make claims because that's what YOU FEEL the writers were making. Show me an interview then, or a comic-con answer if you are that confident of your claims. Word of God matters in this discourse after all, since you are so adamant to be doylist when the narrative fits you.

These fluctuations between your diegetic and extra-diegetic reasonings is exhausting. Just say that they are your headcanons and move on.

#adventures of merlin #bbc arthur #bbc merlin #anti merthur #anti arthur #anti merlin #merlin emrys #merlin critical #arthur crit #merthur hot takes #merlin crit #merthur hot take #fandom wank #essays #aom is democracy bait #you are not immune to propaganda #this is not my morality speaking op i am tearing merlin apart and laying out his crimes ffs. #you keep claimg THE TEXT while also ignoring the text so help me god

[six-improbable-things]

For anyone who loves BG3, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is on a pretty big sale right now. (Current price, $12 usd.) That game is phenomenal, and there were things I liked about it even better than BG3. (not everything, but quite a few.)

some highlights:

25 classes, each with a bunch of subclasses

goes all the way to level 20, plus 10 additional "mythic levels" you get via story events

Very long and engaging story, took me longer than BG3 to finish (over 106 hours for my first playthrough, and I'm far from a slow player. Probably takes even longer if you do all the crusade stuff, which I had disabled on my first playthrough. I also probably missed some sidequests.)

5 or 7 difficulty levels, plus the ability to customize every single setting

a really fun story, and my all-time favorite video game antagonist.

evil is a viable option. You can absolutely do an evil run in this game, and there are dedicated mythic paths that require you to be evil. Plus evil-aligned companion options. (You can recruit evil companions on a good run and vice versa, btw. They might draw certain lines of what they will or won't allow, but I was able to keep everyone happy the whole time, minus one.)

oh, yeah, the mythic paths. I don't wanna spoil, but they're a lot of fun.

you don't have to choose between a feat and an ASI, plus the feats do a LOT more compared to D&D/BG3. (Especially those mythic feats... goddamn does the one that makes all healing ranged save your ass.)

the companions are interesting, and so are their quests. (Arushalae, Lann, and Woljif in particular are my favorites, along with Ember.)

I will say, my one caveat is that I know a lot of people who are sims players are really into character customization and aesthetics, and that's not really the focus of this game. But if you actually care about enjoyable gameplay, and interesting characters and storylines, then this game is phenomenal.

#morrigan.text #video games #video game recs #steam #steam sale

[bishiglomper]

I had another super freaking intense dream. Where I woke up vibrating

It was a time loop dream. This handful of. Magical girls?? Were tasked with basically a gauntlet run. One setting was a mall. One was an apartment. One, I don't know what sort of building it was, but it involved like.. not a classroom. But something similar. It was set up in long hallways or spiral staircases. Like a keep moving forward game thing.

Alastor was in one.

He was a human teenager. Very murdery.

These girls had to make it through by choosing all the right options like those romance games or whatever. But they methodically went through each end-- hence the time loop.

Like they were "Hey that guys cute!!"

-- "Okay, everyone, do NOT talk to Alastor!!"

He was involved in like. 3 timelines. One choice offerred him. Uh. Redemption from his setting. 👀

But for that to happen the girls needed to erase his memories. Or put a veil type thing over it. They almost did it once but they were about to be killed by something else and one girl undid it at the last second, which caused him to turn on us....

So that was fun.

Also a rule to this was they needed to collect some kind of ingredient. It was literally some kind of purple and green sludge. They needed to access it and have it on someone's person by the time shit goes wrong so they can reset the loop. And not be permanently dead. It was locked away behind unbeatable bosses or bars if they didn't get there by a specific time.

They failed once. Alastor boss battled and 2 girls got vaporized by a green power beam.

Another accidentally sacrificed herself. They ran into someone who was about to spill a rare potion, that would not be obtainable again and they needed it to finish the mission. Which was also time sensitive.

BTW this potion was milk. In a baby bottle.

There was a battle of wills- this evil granny was telekinetically trying to dump it. Another girl stepped in and was almost on equal ground. So in last ditch effort, drank the potion. Which saved it in a sense.

But she sacrificed herself to be a new vessel for it. They passed the level, but she was not restored.

There was another one that looked like a dnd table looking thing. 3D trail. Snow covered mountain, a cottage, a passage of woods. They went through it a few times. Each time had a new condition they needed to meet to end it. One was to light ALL the torches. It was hard because there was a previously hidden path they needed to find. Which came with its own secret conditions to unlock.

Like bringing these 2 cats. One had a power to squirter water. The other fire. And they learned in the second time that they could let them drink to refill it.

One time they finish it with something like a 100%. Almost. The NEXT condition, was to do it 3 more times.

That's when I noped out and woke myself up, because fuck that lmao

btw

Where the fuck is this creativity when I'm awake??

ALSO

I was super spooked because I woke up in the same exact condition as last time, and I think I was also trying to do tasks. I'm a little freaked out that something is fucking with me or something 🤣

And I went to bed hurting so much. It didn't feel like i had chills, but things were definitely unregulated. I was super overheated but not sweaty. I woke up feeling better but drenched head to toe in sweat. Which usually happens when i break a chill.

#dream

[seelestia]

hii Liaa :''D

idk why I'm writing an ask but after getting knocked over the head with piles and piles of performance tasks, I think I just wanted to seek u out to bring some kind of joy in my now research-blinded cave :'''D

sorry to suddenly dump all of that on u btw I know ur pretty busy urself :'))

but yeah, just wanted to come on here to see an answer from my dearest author :''D

so here's just a bunch of things I want your opinion on (its giving 20 questions realness lmao)

If you were in a situation where you had to pick between having to constantly reincarnate, or be immortal, which one would you pick?

if you were to name a shade of color a different name, what shade of color would you pick, and what/why you'd give it that name?

If you were to ever receive an item (any item) that you wish for BUT it's single use only- what would your item be and why?

What's your opinion on biblically accurate angels (have u ever seen one?) and if you have seen it in the internet, are you creeped out or are you just as fascinated as I am lmao (this is the crack question lol)

But yeahhh- I'm sorry if I'm bothering you with a less than normally-happy aura of me :''D - Every so sincerely yours, 👹✨ Jae (also- my boi hating on paimon)

aww, jae, no worries! you don't have to be at your best all the time, we all have our downtimes, ;( those performance tasks must be super draining for you, i hope you'll get thru them soon 😭 and frankly, i actually really like these kinds of questions and if it also helps you feel better — then even better, i'm all for it! >:)

If you were in a situation where you had to pick between having to constantly reincarnate, or be immortal, which one would you pick?

i think i'd choose immortality. it is the loneliest option out of the two but there is just smth abt experiencing the evolution of time before my very eyes... having to move around to avoid suspicion for my questionable age might be a bit of a hassle tho. wait, why am i thinking waaaay ahead rn LOLLL but yeah! ;D

if you were to name a shade of color a different name, what shade of color would you pick, and what/why you'd give it that name?

not my smartest answer, but i'd rename light blue (#ADD8E6) to cotton blue! not sure why but i just feel like that name is fitting. like the color is somewhat fading into a light/white shade but still retains the blue. and when i think of white, i think of cotton, hehe <3

If you were to ever receive an item (any item) that you wish for BUT it's single use only- what would your item be and why?

hmmm, hmmm. i haven't wished for anything material for a long time (like even during my birthday last month, all i asked for was a family dinner and i got it), so idk what i should pick 😭 but let's see, i think i'll just pick smth that goes along with the 'single use' concept which is... a 'infinite' amusement park ticket that allows me to go on every single ride without having to pay for each. (this is such a basic answer HELP)

What's your opinion on biblically accurate angels (have u ever seen one?) and if you have seen it in the internet, are you creeped out or are you just as fascinated as I am lmao (this is the crack question lol)

yep, i've seen them before! literally heard holy music playing in the back of my mind when i saw them hdjejkse. to me, they're equally creepy and fascinating, tbh! they also remind me of bill from gravity falls for some reason (it's the shape) like y'all must be related but then, i remember that the evil doritos chip is a devil 😭 (/j)

LOLLL I PLAYED THRU THAT SCENE AND I SNORTED SO HARD. this one too. he'd bite me for this, but why he is such a funky little guy. (/lh)

psst, also, idk if you know but there's this creator on tiktok that i just recently followed and they do great genshin lore videos with pleasing formats! literally thought of you when i followed them, hehe.

#i am sending you bundles of energy in boxes thru delivery #i hope you can take little breaks in between 😭 good luck! i has't faith in thee >:) #HUGSSSS 🫂 #ask box! 📬 #visitor: dearest jae! 👹✨

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

Arcane character parallels / Heimerdinger vs Singed / Ugliness of saving lives

So I'm really thinking if Singed and Heimerdinger are intentionally a parallel to each other, with one siding with Zaun and the other with Piltover on what is acceptable price for Progress. Both meeting aspiring young people in Zaun - Viktor & Ekko.

But more how are these two character's constructed as mentors or guides. Because while Ekko and Heimerdinger aren't shown as different in power relation, Ekko doesn't reach out in same way to anyone topside. We have one example - Viktor that can serve as comparison.

So when Viktor & Jayce are working on Hexcore and can't figure out how to make it do healing magic, there are very similarly phrased conversations between Heimerdinger and Singed. And both give prophecy of what will be the fallout for engaging in trying to find the cure through hexcore.

First Heimerdinger:

Heimerdinger is very sorry that Viktor is dying, but the stakes are either one life or whole nations destroyed. That is his warning.

How will be these nations destroyed by the hexcore - we don't know? Will it be through healing magic? Will it be through evil hexcore magic? Will it be through magic?

And the ending is - Viktor & Jayce either destroy the hexcore by themselves or Heimerdinger will do it for them. This research is against the ethos. Those are their choices. Same difference.

btw. if you agree with Heimedinger, you should even more agree with Ambessa in Mel's fllashback when she cuts of the head of 'the symbol of old regime'. She at least tells you her reasoning of stakes of both options and chooses to take the action in her own hands.

Anyway, then we have Singed, but for now he's only referred to by Silco & Jinx as 'the doctor', and whose name most probably will be Corin Reveck (if Orianna is his daughter).

But we have very similar exchange - just in different order, but I'll rearrange them:

Singed finds hexcore's results fascinating. He also offers a possible reason why it doesn't work - I can assume it's probably by chance correct since Hexcore and Viktor are bonded by blood. So it may not work on random organisms like plants. Plus he offers even material solution - shimmer. Is it perfect solution? eh no - but undercity was never a place for perfect solutions.

But there's a warning too:

And imo. it's about how Piltover society with it's strict Ethos of science will react to taking this path by Viktor. But as it stands it's a very grounded explanation of pros and cons of choice Viktor has in front of him. For me these sound more tangible than nations destroyed.

I really want to know what was the situation Singed and Heimerdinger parted ways about, because I don't know what progress means for Singed. It for sure involves saving lives and helping Silco in his nation of Zaun project against Piltover.

I mean Singed for sure isn't perfect in his methods, but these are situations people run to him for help as a doctor. At deaths door and as a doctor he'll have to get his own hands dirty to try to fix it. Like look at this mob-dad being all panicked his baby girl will die.

And then he explains to Silco what may be the price or worst case scenario of saving her life.

Also love that Silco can't even answer if he's prepared to lose Jinx. He's not. What a true villain.

There's only one choice he doesn't leave up to Silco, and that is to witness the pain Jinx will be going through or her death. It may all be related to the fate of his own daughter as he alludes. And maybe also to do some extra experiments on her. But honestly, who knows since at that point Jinx so out of it, she's oozing shimmer - and I'm pretty sure all her other visions of Vi and Caitlyn are very coloured too. Like them being there. But let's take wild guesses fo yes/no/maybe?

Hmm, maybe, maybe this is his time of revenge after she burned half of his body and face off in explosion. Long time coming that one.

In the end he saves her life. Not perfectly and in nice way, actually the process was traumatic and ugly, but life is a life. What's the other option? Letting her die?

And that leads me to this two contrasting scenes - between Singed & Viktor and Heimerdinger & Ekko.

They even both have an issue with the leg, well for Viktor it's just normal, but Ekko has it temporarily. But the fascination with inventiveness of someone else. The spinning of the rotor. Thou for Singed it must be more like seeing a lonely but gifted child, since it's not like Singed couldn't make such things himself with how much he relies on different equipment.

And then there's the final point where the respective two people reach a connection - they are having the same kind of day in both instances. Viktor is less trusting in stranger's intentions as a child than Ekko as an adult, but oh well:

Singed is always such a scary wildcard in comparison to Heimerdinger. So I guess it's good Ekko skipped that step entirely and met Heimerdinger first. He even offers medical advice, kind of wrong student of his but... Ekko is not dying. Or researching hexcore. Anyway, we've seen he tried to offer assistance just couldn't, so he's going back to Piltover's side. The undercity can stay as it is I guess. Nothing to be done. Complete opposite of Singed which dragged Jinx from death's door. But at what cost...

I really wonder if Ekko and Heimerdinger are having exact same day? One was nearly killed and one strolled around a district of a city. Kind of weird to have to sneak into there but whatever works for him.

Anyway, I wonder if and how this parallel will unfold, as another poster mentioned Heimerdinger's students track record is... eh? 0 of 3. What we've seen. Joking, it probably is way more since he's been the Dean of the Academy for 200 years.

Cautiously I'll sign my name under Singed being the better mentor material. Prove me wrong Arcane Season 2, I dare you.

Other posts by me - Arcane meta analysis posts - mostly politics, tech and character parallels. Oh, and since I love to torment myself with my phobia of insects, I actually probably found what is Heimerdinger's symbol animal. For Singed as in Corin Reveck - it's a moth since Reveck is a genus of moths. While it was hard to fit Heimerdinger's last name into a genus, I found some insect genus contenders like Australomimetus Heimer and Plesiophantes Heimer. One is a spider family that feeds on other spiders and other is a family of spiders commonly known as money spinders. Dinger is just a slang term for something 'excellent'. Take it as one will, if there's is a reasoning to giving everyone insect associated symbolism in this story. For all symbols and surnames so far: Firelights, Crow, Butterfly and the “Bastion of Enlightenment” that is a beacon to all the Moths

#heimerdinger #arcane singed #arcane viktor #arcane ekko #arcane silco #arcane jinx #arcane analysis #arcane meta #long post

[weaselsandco]

Um...choose your Angie vol.1 I guess idk

Because I love to make options but not choices 🙄 Anyways, I hope I nailed it on this step. But I also have a feeling that the final one gonna be something completely different. Or maybe not, maybe I'll just make 50 more options and hide in my closet (again lmao) from my inability to choose only one and you'll never see me again. Completely possible... Any favorites? Help😭

I know I'm a big Glee shipper, but canonical Georgelina is an absolutely amazing couple too! I honestly refuse to choose just one ship, they're all so gorgeous in their own ways. As long as I see characters happy and relationships healthy I support any ship.

But I have to say, I see Angelina as an independent woman, who's really into her career. She's passionate about quidditch and I just don't think that romantic relationships were anywhere around her priorities until maybe her late twenties. She doesn't need a partner to be content and happy. And I definitely do not see Angie as a bad/evil character. This woman values friendship, loyalty, kindness, hard work. She has a voice and is not afraid to use it, but by no means is she a terrible person. Yes, even if she possibly had a thing with one twin in her teenage years before marrying another one in adulthood who's a completely different person btw. I don't think it's correct to compare these two relationships.

I personally would love to read more stories where Angie is a supportive friend, a loving partner, and just a gorgeous successful woman. I'd be totally up for more Georgelina post-war fics, this love story has so much potential. It's so beautiful and stunning, come on! Relationship goals.

Rant is over, have fun y'all ♥

#angelina johnson #quidditch captain #and an absolute queen #griffindor #hogwarts #harry potter #hp fanart #hp art #harry potter fanart #female character #character design #commissions open #griffindorks #weaselsandco

[yellowbluemoonshine]

One of my triggers is when someone says that villain cannot be or deserve to be redeemed. Like they acknowledge the tragic circumstances, but they say like the villain show no remorse for killing innocent people or just want to destroy everything. I really don't like people saying they want the villain have some naruto's redemption. But I feel like they missed point of why many of us want it. The villains never had a choice unlike endeavor or afo.

Agreed.

I think some people dont understand the meaning of redemption. Redemption means facing with what you did, taking responsibility and this is the best thing that person can do. To me, there is no such thing that great villain or best villain, something like improving yourself to be better villain cause being a villain is literally comes from choosing to not improving yourself to be better person. People dont choose to be evil or bad, they learn all bad things from their environment. They just simply dont choose to be better person and thats the flaw of "villains" have. Choosing to do wrong things usually comes from lack of goodness, lack of empathy.

Like, Overhaul was abandonded and traumatized by it. He was used  as a tool by Yakuza. They used a child. And Overhaul became a yakuza and he truly wanted to pay his boss for taking him in. But what makes overhaul “bad” guy is not choosing to be yakuza cause he was groomed to be, his flaw was choosing to not changing. He could’ave emphatize with his underlings and could connect with them. He could emphatize with Eri cause Eri is just like her, she was abandoned and taken by Yakuza. Overhaul went to school and had people around him, instead of obsessing with past, he could open himself to new people. he could gain new different perspectives, he could at least try. Overhaul didnt suddenly decide to destroy little girl, he learnt those horrible things from Yakuza but when he could choose to be better person, he didnt.

There is a reason that Shigaraki is meant to be parallel with him. Unlike Overhaul, Shigaraki didnt go to school and he didnt have people around him, he was isolated but when he met with other people, he chose to care, listen their needs.

This shows that Shigaraki choosing to change but there are villains who doesnt want to change. I dont know that what kind of person Overhaul would be, if he had better life or if he could ever change for better but for now, he doesnt seem to want to change and story didnt give any hint about it.

There is a reason that some characters get redemption but some do not. The characters/villains who dont get redemption or who dont want to change is not cool or “loyalty to their evil cure” or something like that. They are people who choose easy ways cause redemption means taking responsibility and trying to be better person, improving yourself as person is not easy at all.

Murder is bad, wrong, yes but we all are humans equally and people dont just suddenly decide to doing worst thing. And sometimes, people dont have too much choices, sometimes they can be in hard situtions, sometimes they do things to survive, many reason can be, we cant know that. So yes, murder is bad but that doesnt mean that murderer is bad person.

The thing that many people ignore is anyone could do those horrible things. Lets say, you are in hunger game. If you dont kill, other person will kill you. Many people would choose to kill. Or lets say, if you dont kill, they will your family or you are hungry and if you cant kill that person, you wont get food. blah blah. Point is what importance is not the degree of crime.

Most important thing is How aware is the perpetrator of what he is doing? Under what conditions did he make this choice? when and where did he make this choice?

Abuse, rape, murder. These things are all bad things (i wont talk about rape cause i dont have enough information about it cause it mihgt relate a lot of things.).

For example, Endeavour abused his family, Shigaraki killed people. Many people wouldnt care abuse or bullying cause “its not like they died”, most people tell them to get over it and they ignore all the effects of abuse. (This is actually what bnha focus on. Abuse.) Well, of course killing is pretty bad though.

Now, we can ask the questions.

-What Endeavour did?

Violence towards his family

When Endeavour made this decision?

He was grown man, basically when he was an adult, an age that you are responsible for your actions cause you can see the difference between right and wrong and you are capable of holding yourself

Under what conditions did he make this choice? 

He did work so hard to be No 1 hero but he failed, um, he has money, access to a lot of things, good education so of course, when you worked hard and you dont get results, you will be so upset, it would be hard. But we can say that Endeavour wasnt even really in hard sitution at all.

What kind of choices he made?

He chose his ambitions over well being of his family. So basically he made very selfish decision with his own will for the sake of selfish desires and it resulted with other people’s getting hurt and Endeavour didnt even care about that.

How this selfish decision affect other people?

His wife became unstable and stayed in hospital for 15 years, she is still in there

Shouto lost his all childhood, he was traumatized and still having flashbacks from his trauma

Fuyumi had to act like a parent since her young age, Natsuo has anger issues cause of all this stuff

Touya/Dabi literally dealing with mental issues, identify disorder cause of abuse effects

So basically, Endeavour is fully responsible for what he did.

Btw for the people who dont know, this is a crime in real life, he should be arrested but look at what he got. He decided to change, like 6 months ago or something. Except of his hero job, he apologised and left the house for them and thats it. Rei and Fuyumi already is ready forgive him cause Rei wants his children to be happy cause Endeavour took that hapinness from them, Fuyumi just wants happy normal family cause Endeavour took that normal family life from her, Shouto is forcing himself to forgive cause to be able to be hero, he needs to work with his father and his all family wants this. From people’s eyes, Natsuo seems “someone who couldnt get over past” just because he didnt forgive his father or just because he didnt act like nothing happenned, he gets social pressure from it. This probably didnt happen, if Endeavour wasnt prohero.

Now, lets look at Shigaraki.

What Shigaraki did?

Murder, kidnap, threatinning, violent behaviours without hesitations

When Shigaraki made this decision?

Lets look at how it all started.

When Shigaraki chose to kill people?

when he was 5 years old? when he was 7-8 years old when Afo manipulate him to kill people? or when he became an adult and continuing this murder?

Point here is; children cant be responsible for crimes for a reason cause they dont have ability to understand what is right what is wrong.

so when he killed his family; it was accident except his father.

But with his father, it was self defense. Many people want to believe that it was intentional but its not, his father hit him and he reacted to violence, thats it. There is also other fact that children can not able to hold theirselves, especially like when you just watched all your family s death in front of your eyes.

So, logically he can not be responsible for his family’s death.

When he was 7-8 years old, Shigaraki is making a decision here and from this moment, he continues the murder but what kind of decision he is making? Under what conditions did he make this choice?

He was traumatized and he is dealing with abuse effects, his anger, negative feelings that he has no idea to how to deal with, he didnt get any education, he doesnt have people who will give him a different choice or people who wil give him some kind of affection, he is literally with Afo all alone, isolated, dont know what to do, doesnt know what is right and Afo says him “you have two choices”

1- suffer lonely forever like this while others are having fun but just you know, you will be disappointed for me-the person who saved you, if you stay like this

2- destroy anything you dont like and make me proud

This didnt happen right when he was 7-8,

Shigaraki is with Afo since he was 5, he listened those words for years and he hold himself back. Then the decision Shigaraki make was first one, he hold himself, until the moment holding himself is not an option. This is why he became a murder. Let me remind you, he was 7-8 so he still wasnt responsible for killing at that age.

so you can say, now Shigaraki became an adult so he can choose but we all know that people dont grow, if they dont have a chance to grow.

People kill to survive, this is not to justify murder, this is understanding of that sometimes some people can not really make choice in some situtions.

If a person is not given growth conditions, children cannot grow.

Shigaraki may have grown biologically, but mentally, he was not given the opportunity to grow. What makes us humans human is our interaction with other people.

If we do not interact with anyone, we lose our identity or in the case of Shigaraki, our personality does not occur. If Shigaraki has not grown, how can he be considered an adult?

We know that many terrible events such as trauma and violence can cause long-term damage to people's brains regarding mental health. So, how can Shigaraki's trauma be responsible for what she does, given his mental health?

We know that it is impossible not to lose mental balance in conditions of Shigaraki, it is impossible to grow, it is impossible to protect his mind against manipulation at the age of a child. So how exactly could Shigaraki cope in these conditions?

This is the problem. He cant not be able to handle it. Impossible.

You might say you could choose not to kill, but while the only adult who was with him showed him that it was true, and how he could otherwise deal with these feelings he had accumulated in him, what else could Shigaraki do?

Shigaraki kills without hesitation because killing is all he knows, the only thing he has been taught.

That's why Shigaraki's interaction with his team is important because it was the first time in his life that he met different opinions and people.

So he started to heal throughout the series. He chose to improve, to be a better person. So this character can get redemption.

And he feels guilty about what he does, but he does not show it by crying, he shows treating his own life as nothing and harming himself. Shigaraki may have begun to develop herself, but it does not mean that his trauma will cure magicly and he will suddenly getting away from Afo manipulation, he cant because he still hasn't given her another choice. No one was able to show him another way to survive both without suffering and having to kill. That's why it's important for a hero to reach out him.

Yes, Shigaraki killed a lot of people and they didnt deserve it, of course but whether he killed one person or killed million people, he had no choice. Everyone wants this character to pay the price because they want to blame someone for those much death, whereas like Afo and Ujiko who made Shigaraki suffer, those who choose not to reach Shigaraki when they can reach like Gran Torino etc, are more responsible than Shigaraki for what they did because they choose. But Shigaraki is just putting into practice what he has been taught, thats all he knows.So people really want to blame someone, they should blame people who could do something about it but choosing not to, they could blame the people who hurt this kid for their selfish reasons, they shouldnt blame the kid who is just reacting his pain cause he doesnt have a choice, he is not making a decision and people REACT.

Shigaraki can not understand his actions of how he effect other people / effect of his actions cause he is hardly be able to see them as an indiviluas, thats what happens, when you live your life as isolated. Shigaraki cant care other people s life while his own life was treated as worthless, they literally ignored his pain, even when he was a child. Shigaraki cant emphatize with people in society who have good lifes cause he never felt a safety his all life, there is no way he can understand their comfort. So basically, in those conditions, its not that Shigaraki doesnt want to emphatize with them, he CANT.

(This is why he asked Deku cause he is trying to understand at least to be able to improve himself for better which is the most important thing).

This is why people like Afo, Ujiko, Hero commity, Endeavour, they are worse than people like Shigaraki, Dabi, Hawks, Toga etc cause those people who created these “monsters” with their full will for the sake of their selfish desires. They are more responsible for monster’s actions than monsters casue they are the one who groomed them, rebuild their mindset.

That was also the subject of the Frankeinstein story. The monster may have killed a lot of people, but who created the monster? How does the monster become guilty when there are people who can teach him the truth, but don't choose to teach it, while the monster doesn't know what it's doing is right and wrong? However, he was not taught better. So how can he choice better, if  he hasnt taught better? HE CANT.

As many as people want, may think Shigaraki is making a choice right now and that he's a bad guy, but in those circumstances, it was impossible for Shigaraki to choose a better option.

What do you expect to happen when you close someone in a room for years, stop him from talking to people and subject him to constant violence?

Do you think that person will not react to this violence?

Do you expect that person to behave like human while that person lives away from all kinds of human conditions?

Under these conditions, it is nonsense to expect better than Shigaraki.

In other words,

murder is apparently worse than violence, but an adult like Endeavor, who chooses exactly what he is doing without caring about the harm to other people, is fully responsible for what he does. Shigaraki, on the other hand, cannot really be held responsible for what she did, as it is impossible to act otherwise under these conditions.

So i understand that people are upset with death of people which is normal, those people who were killed by Shigaraki didnt deserve it at all but people need to understand that Shigaraki didnt have better choice, path than this. People say “this doesnt justify” cause they are scared of that the person will get away from what he did but point here is he doesnt get away from anything, he is victim whose all choices and humanity taking away from him so treating this victim as villain who just should defeated is NOT justice. If people want to blame someone, they should blame the people who are TRULY responsible for this, not the victim whose humanity stolen from him. Thats the point here.

By the way, not everyone has to be like Shigaraki. Shigaraki is already a character designed to be the ultimate victim. The reason it parallels with Deku is not because they are both heirs, but because they are both essentially the same kind child. But not everyone could be this kind, they could react worse and they might not have adapted to change that much. Shigaraki is just a tragic example of even you are the kindest person in the world, in terrible conditions, you would be just like Shigaraki or probably worse. He is a tragedy character, symbolize the victimhood that shows untentionally with most unpleasant ways. (Toga, Dabi, Shigaraki etc they all symbolize effects of violence though, they are not choosing a decision but actually just reacting the violence they endured, thats all, maybe i can make analysis about it later.)

Redemption is not about deserving or not. It's about wanting to be a better person but facing your creations or not. And if a villain receives redemption, it already shows that he has this potential from the very beginning, potential to be a good person, actually he was not as bad as that was thought, that is. Well at least, well-written redemptions work like this. In other words, villains such as Joker or Ujiko that will not receive redemption have nothing to admire. Choosing to be a villain until the end of your life is not something to be proud of, it is something to be ashamed of, because this is proof that you don't want to improve yourself.

I was just gonna say “i agreed” and make it short but i guess, i am kinda bored and this post became my rant, lol. Thank you anon btw.

#endeavour #shigaraki tomura #child abuse #abuse #bnha abuse #shimura tenko #mha redemption #anon

[phoebehalliwell]

I was wondering if you had a piece of writing advice for me? I've been working on kind of. A general outline of how I'd like to write a spin-off series about the next gen and I'm brainstorming an arc, but I feel like it's obvious that it would end with the character surviving and I don't really know how to fix it beyond ACTUALLY killing them off, but then I have to find a way to revive them which is. A whole mess, tbh, and not what I want, so I was wondering if you have any advice?

Okay so i did get a lil lost here in the question imma answer to the best of my ability but if i totally missed the eight ball here u can also message me thru the messaging feature But Okay so what i got here is it's a it's like you've got a protagonist and the issue is it's like Too Obvious that they're not gonna die, which kinda blows. like if u put them in positions of peril the audience yeah whatever 🙄 they'll be fine they're not gonna die and that sorta uh. ruins the suspense. & we don't want that. so ur proposing an alternative where u do kill em off like ha! gotcha! but then u wanna supernatural it and bring them back bc they are well like ur lead and u need them back. so i'm gonna ramble. listen there's this whole thing about "subverting expectations" that got everyone's head stuck up their own asses for the past couple years where you're supposed to have this like Gotcha! but like. u don't need to subvert expectations. a good story shouldn't be predictable, but there should be like. a lil trail of breadcrumbs that'll all add up in the end bc that's what feels rewarding. so to kill or not to kill. first off, just wanna say, don't like. like uhh everyone read divergent spoilers for divergent 3 tris dies as we all know but it's like. it's such a bad death. i still make fun of it to this day. tris needs to complete this super important task, but it will expose her to the death serum. now, tris logics that she's immune to every other serum, she's probably gonna be immune to the death serum. the counterargument is that it's a death serum it could literally just be like normal garden variety poison. so that's our set up; tris might die. what's our payoff? she goes, get death serumed, almost dies, then fights it off! and then an evil doctor rolls in and shoots her point blank killing her. it sucks. so what im basically saying is Don't Do That. there's no satisfaction, no pay off, in escaping the death we were prepared for only to die stupid not 90 seconds later. it sucks. so don't so that if you're gonna kill off your lead character. but you don't have to kill off your lead character! sometimes there r other ways to build suspense even if your audience knows the lead will not die. you can have them have to choose between two shitty options; what part of their moral code will your character be forced to forsake in order to save the day? if that's too much of like, a downer or a moral quandary you can also oceans eight it in which there's never really any major conflict or ethical dilemma as much as there's just a really sick ass heist. if your character's adventure is so well adventurous with a bunch of fun twist and clever saves your audience doesn't even really need to worry whether they'll live or die bc their attention is focused on how are they gonna get out of this one and what could possibly be next. for that specific type of story, reverse engineering is gonna be ur right hand man i would definitely recommend thinking about the most batshit way to solve something and then keep adding on issues that eliminate every other logics option (e.g. the character has to climb up the bookcase to reach the chandelier to swing across it to the window to break out. why can't they use the door? it's locked. why can't they pick the lock? it's magic. why do they have to climb the bookcase? can't use anything for a ladder et cetera et cetera). but back to murder. more specifically, revival. advantages of this being charmed: people die and come to life all the die the sisters even have a catalogue of how many times they've died on the wiki. the revival usually involves some time travel, so u could do that. but it's also charmed and in charmed we have magic, so we could use that to bring the protagonist back from the dead, we just need to establish that first so it doesn't feel like a retcon. since ur already mapping this story out (mad props btw) u know how it's gonna end u know how they're gonna die. so, my recommendation would be to place your deus ex machina early on in the story and something super small and inconsequential. it's best to put it in a collection of evidence we think is just you adding flavor or worldbuilding or whatever. the later you add it, the more the audience is looking for clues and foreshadowing, the easier it is to pick up on, but if you keep your breadcrumbs super tiny, they can slip by almost unnoticed until you need them at the end. so this is a lot of text i hope ive answered your question in my ramblings but once again feel free to message me or send in another ask if i indeed Did Not Answer The Question

#charmed #advice from margaret #💌

[deafchild2000]

Descendants: I'm Team Audrey on this One! Part 1

I've seen all the Disney's Descendants (R.I.P Cameron Boyce btw) and with D3 coming out, I decided to see what everyone had to say about it, especially about Audrey becoming evil...

Long Story Short: I'm am surprised about the Audrey fanbase this princess has, and how many people are coming into her defense. And I agree with them.

(Before I start, let's just say that as a person who watched Kenny Ortega's movies on Disney growing up (and a die-hard HSM fan), he has an unintentional trend of making the "Evil Queen Bees" the one worth rooting for! And if you don't know what I mean, recall meeting Sharpay Evans for the first time, thinking she would never have your attention, and as an adult realize that Sharpau may have come off bitchy, but was never completely wrong, ambitious and thought she deserved to succeed on Broadway, proven as she got her own movie!)

Basically, you start off the first movie with underdogs who were born unjustly on a prison island getting a chance to reform and get a new life in Auradon. Simple right? But alas, these underdogs are kids to some bad villains who want freedom and are tasked to get that for them. Then, the leader (Mal) cast a love spell on the future King (Ben) in order to get access to the very thing that can free the villains. Of course, she chooses to be good and stick with Ben and Auradon.

Simple, sweet, and very generic.

Audrey is the daughter of Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty, her family being on the receiving end of Maleficent's Sleeping Cure, and sees Mal as trouble from the moment they met. She dated Ben until he unceremonially dumped her and declared his love for Mal, warns everyone that the VKs were up to no good (which ended up being proven true), and gets seen as the scorn ex-girlfriend who makes up with the girl who basically ruined her future for herself.

(And between D1 and D2, I truly believe Karma for that steal took form of Mal not handling royal life and running away. The irony! Mal forced her way into Ben's life, now she had to learn to live in it! HAHA!)

Back to my point, saying Audrey becoming evil isn't a stretch because, why wouldn't she? Love aside, the daughter of her family's enemy basically getting her Happy Ending would make anyone angry. But then it occurred to me:

Audrey is a Princess, and likely Princess Aurora and Prince Philip's only child, so she's a sole heir to her own kingdom.

And if you don't get it, basically, Audrey didn't need to marry Ben (or any prince) to be a queen as she could become the (if not the first- Queen Regnant of Auroria. (In case you didn't know: Queen regnants are female monarchs who riles in her own right.)

And unless her family is behind in times, or the Sleeping Curse is at fault, Audrey might not be aware of this or it's not an option she'd ever had provided for her.

And why not? So, I dug some more and realized that I needed to think of Descendants in Audrey's POV (her home, family life, etc) and with a lot of thinking, it became obvious.

Audrey was conditioned to think that way.

Dumbing my headcanon for y'all: First judging from her family history, Queen Leah lost Aurora's entire childhood and more thanks to the curse, and then she had to learn to bond with Aurora because they're strangers. Then Aurora pops out Audrey and between her and Aurora, they spoil her and teach her the ways of royalty, one which regards the young girl to marry a king to be queen. And if that's always how it's been, Queen Leah couldn't really be faulted for thinking that way.

Next, Maleficent. That itself is obvious in D1. Audrey has her right to be on the offensive with Mal. How can she not when she's grown up hearing the awful things that evil fairy has done to her family and NOT suspect Mal takes after her? And despite how Mal chose the Good side, she did end up proving Audrey right in not trusting her. Hence why not only she agrees to there being no magic in Auradon, but why the rule is there for a reason.

And last, which become apparent in D3, Audrey, for all her flaws, is not fit to be a princess because it's all she's expected to be and nothing else.

This:

At Auradon Prep, she's expected to be a proper lady, a head cheerleading captain, Ben's girlfriend and future Queen, and this overall sweet and loving girl that makes her family proud...

NOT!THE!CASE!

I said earlier that Audrey going Bad wouldn't be a surprise, but it's more to that: She's conditions practically from birth to be the perfect princess and excell at everything, follow the rules and become a Queen. And the VKs arrival ruined that conditioning her family put on her. Why do that in the first place? Easy, she's the only child and legacy, born free from magic and Queen Leah probably wanted to use her childhood to make up for what she lost with Aurora. And perhaps her vanity comes from her mother's enchanted beauty (insecurity) and why she's so self- absorbed in D1. Her family made her that way!

So by D3, watching everything she's (supposed to) ever wanted be given to Mal, she realizes that she deserves more and better than she got. She deserves to be happy, and NOT by her family's expectations, but her own desires too.

It's a twisted Coming-of-Age story where the mean girl learns to fight for her life, even if it goes against everything she's been raised to believe.

#descendants #descendants 3 #audrey daughter of sleeping beauty #audrey descendants #audrey deserves better #descedantsedits

[caranfindel]

Recap/review 15.03: “The Rupture”

THEN: Ghost/spirits/whatever, blah blah blah. The only thing of note here is that they choose to remind us that Sam is fated to kill Rowena. But I'm sure that doesn't mean anything. There are tons of reasons to include this. Tons.

NOW: We're still in Whatever-this-place-is-called, Kansas. Ghosts/spirits/whatever are still flinging themselves against the barrier. Sam's still in charge of the hunter troops. Expanded Team Free Will is back in the graveyard and they've got a plan that Rowena insists will work. It's a powerful spell that will "patch those holes up" in time for tea. (Rowena is back in a dramatic gown today, but I don't like the casual jacket she's wearing with it.) All she needs is a ghost-free space, which happens to be the mausoleum the gang found in 15.01. No one's thrilled about that. We also see the opening to Hell itself, which is a giant hole in the ground. It doesn't seem to give anyone PTSD, though.

[[MORE]]

The gang salts the perimeter of the mausoleum while Rowena mixes up her spell, and right away something evil starts banging on the doors. She recites something not-English, her eyes glow purple, and we see the battered barrier glowing purple as well. But then she looks disturbed and the purple glow fades and she gets more and more upset and then collapses. "We're all going to die!" she says.

Title card!

Rowena asks for a drink and then has to clarify that she means "a real drink," and we have a cute wordless conversation where Sam requests Dean's flask, Dean says what, MY flask, Sam says yes, asshole, and Dean says sigh, okay. It's precious.

It is, unfortunately, impossible to screencap, but I'm sure someone will GIF it. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy concerned Winchesters.

Rowena says the spell can't work because the spirits are too wild, too desperate, too angry, and too numerous. No magic on earth can stop "those walls" from falling. Within hours. (Did we really explain the walls? I guess it's the walls between earth and Hell? And why plural?) Dean decides they're going to keep fighting as long as they can. He tells Rowena to make more of those soul collectors, but she says it's pointless. Probably because Sam's wearing the orange jacket, so she doesn't see any reason to prolong the agony. She says she may have been able to shore up the wall if she'd gotten there sooner, but now the wall is too damaged for her to save.

Belphagar leaves, ignoring Dean's "where the Hell are you going!" and Cas goes after him. Dean continues yelling that they're not going to give up, that's not who they are, and Sam silences him with a single hand motion because he knows how I feel about him being Chiefly. Sam crouches next to Rowena and puts a concerned hand on her shoulder and asks if she needs anything because he knows I also love him being soft and concerned.

Who DOESN'T know?

Hey, if you don't want to read some serious Sam fangirling, you're in the wrong place. You should realize this by now.

Belphagar and Cas are out in the cemetery, where no one is bothering them even though something was knocking pretty vigorously on the mausoleum door. Belphagar wanted to look at the giant hole into Hell. "Where it all began."

Meanwhile, Dean's loading up. He's not just going to wait for the world to end, he's going out fighting.

He's angry and backlit, and I love both of those things.

Sam sits next to him and they have a lovely dark conversation where Sam says he's out of ideas but acts like he thinks there still must be something they can do, and Dean says Chuck's "sloppy-ass ghostpocalypse" isn't going to be the last word and acts like he thinks there's nothing they can do but die fighting. And Rowena just sits sad and quiet and alone, paging through the Book of the Damned. I do like that she kept it and uses it in front of the Winchesters. But she says she hasn't found anything useful.

Back outside, Belphagor says the opening in the ground isn't a door or a gate, it's a tear. And he has a plan. "Lilith's Crook" is a horn that Lilith used to control her demons - it can corral all demons and bring them back home. (BTW, nobody reacts to the name Lilith either. It's like seasons three through five never happened.) It's in Lilith's chamber, which is unsealed now that every door in Hell is open. If Belphagor uses it in Hell, all the demons and spirits will be sucked into Hell, and then Rowena can close the door once they're not pushing against it.

Rowena confirms that she has "a spell of my own devising" that she could use to close the door. Well, she said earlier that there were any number of spells she could have tried earlier, so surely this is one of those spells. It's a healing spell - if the opening is a wound, not a door, this will allow it to heal and close up. Sounds reasonable.

It will require perfect timing, and she'll need some strangely easy-to-obtain ingredients (which seems to be a theme this season, doesn't it). And an assistant. "Dibs on Samuel. You're as close to a seasoned witch as we've got in this lot." (!!!)

She also needs someone to hang out at the edge of the hole and toss the figurative "bomb." And it will be dangerous, so Dean naturally decides that's his job. Belphagor drafts Cas to go with him, since he'll need help getting past all the pissed-off demons and ghosts who will be down there. "Yeah, Cas will go," Dean says coldly. "You've been to Hell before." Well, I mean, everyone in this room has been to Hell before (assuming we count Rowena's visit to Limbo as Hell), so. Cas glares at Dean, clearly thinking yes, I harrowed Hell to raise you, and I regret it every day.

Cold and yet HOT.

Hospital. Ketch wakes up just in time to get killed by the demon Ardat, who astutely notes that he's protecting his friends and won't give them up. There's your redemption arc, Arthur Ketch. I hope you enjoyed it. Moving on. (Also, doesn't Ardat look like a cross between Joanna Gaines and Meghan Markle?)

Cemetery. Belphagor asks Cas how he's going to get out of Hell before Rowena seals it up, and makes sure Cas realizes that his buddies don't care that he might not make it out. Cas pushes Belphagor into the hole and jumps in after him.

Mausoleum. A hunter shows up with supplies and Sam gives her directions on what to do "if this goes sideways," even though those directions should probably be "kiss your ass goodbye." Dean gets a text from "Ketch" and responds by laying out their plan and providing their location. Uh oh.

Hell. It's actually mostly empty. Belphagor claims he made Cas come because he just wanted company, and he wants to become best buds with Cas, having wormed his way into the Winchester's hearts. "Sam and Dean are just using you," Cas says. "Don't mistake that for caring about you, because I can assure you, they don't." OH, CAS, YOU WOULD KNOW, WOULDN'T YOU. Cas reminds Belphagor that he's an abomination, and then opens the door to Lilith's chamber, which is being looted by another demon. Belphagor's friendly with the guy, but Cas kills him. Awkward.

The crook is in a box marked up with Enochian symbols, which apparently couldn't be read by any residents of Hell other than Lilith. (Well, we can assume the residents of the cage could read it, but.) Good thing Cas is here! So convenient. The markings are actually a song of praise to Lucifer. Cas reads it, but nothing happens, and Belphagor says "They're verses, Cas. I think they need to be sung." We don't have to listen to Cas sing the whole thing, but we do get Belphagor mocking his angelic voice.

The demon then tells Cas to make his escape, which kind of surprises me - I was sure this set-up wasn't meant to end with Cas surviving. Cas tentatively holds the horn out to Belphagor, but then is flung across the room by none other than Ardat. She expositions for us that Lilith's Crook would have allowed Belphagor to rule Hell. She begins to smack Belphagor down, but Cas attacks, and holds her off long enough for Belphagor to stab her with his angel blade.

Cas asks him if it's true he wants to rule Hell, and he's all, no, I want to rule EVERYTHING. He'll suck the power of all of the souls into him, and he'll become a God. "I don't think so," says Cas, and runs toward him. But Belphagor blows the horn, and the ghosts/spirits/whatevers start flowing back into Hell, and into Belphagor.

Cemetery. Dean approaches the hole and wonders where Ketch is.

Mausoleum. Sam is anxious, and wants to be outside, fighting. Rowena makes him read the book as she prepares the spell. (What is he reading? He's not reading aloud. What's the point? Is he memorizing it?) When they hear Belphagor blow the horn, Rowena announces "it's time." She and Sam hold hands (d'aw) and recite the spell. I guess he was memorizing it after all. The spell bowl begins to glow purple, as does the "bomb" I didn't even realize Dean was holding. Dean tosses it into the hole without even wondering if Cas will make it out. So I guess he's still mad at Cas, if you were wondering.

Hell. Cas finally makes his way to Belphagor and tackles him, stopping the horn. As Cas punches the demon, his sunglasses fall off, and he looks up at Cas with his burned-out eyes and pleads for him to stop. "It's me, Jack." Gotta say, Alex does a good job here of playing someone trying to sound like Jack and not quite succeeding. I was afraid Cas would fall for it, but he doesn't. In fact, this inspires him to do the glowy hand thing and burn Belphagor - and Jack's corpse - to a crisp. Too bad you didn't wait until he sucked up all the souls, Cas.

Topside. Sam calls Dean and learns that something doesn't feel right, and the crack is closing up. Meanwhile, Rowena picks up a knife and plunges it into her own shoulder. As Sam watches in horror, she reaches in and pulls out "my last resurrection sachet - won't need that where I'm going." She tells him the Lilith's Crook plan may have been his only shot, but she still has an option. Because magic can contain anything. Even Hell, as long as she's willing to pay the price.

Horrified/confused Sam. Mmmmm.

She tells him "death is an infinite vessel" but he doesn't get it yet. All she needs for this spell are two ingredients. Sam's all, you have them here? Why didn't you tell us? "Because, dear, the first ingredient is my own still-coursing blood, and the last is my final breath." She'll absorb all the spirits and then throw herself Hell (!!!) and then, when her body eventually rots and the spirits are released, they'll be back in Hell. (So I guess she has to toss the wound-healing spell in there too, somehow, but that's just details.) Sam tries to stop her with the Single Upraised Finger of Reason, but not only does she ignore that finger, she tells Sam he has to be the one to kill her. Y'all, I always love the Single Upraised Finger of Reason.

I would obey this finger.

Topside. Cas made it out of the Hell. Wow, I was worried there for a minute.

Mausoleum. Rowena insists Sam has to be the one to kill her, because the spell requires her "real, permanent demise," and Sam's the only one who can do that. It's in the books. "You know what?" says Sam "Screw the books." YES SAM.

Topside. Cas tells Dean he killed Belphagor and the crook was destroyed.

Mausoleum. Sam tries to take the knife from Rowena, but she holds it against her body. "I don't care about anything enough to take my own life. Not you, your brother, not even the world. But I believe in prophecy, I believe in magic, and everything we need to end this is right in our hands." I don't know, Rowena. Those books you're so insistent on believing? They've been known to change. Sam rests the knife against her but he's still fighting it, even though she's shouting "kill me, Samuel!"

Then she clamps a hand on his shoulder and says "I know we've gotten quite fond of each other, haven't we? But will you let the world die? Let your brother die? Just so I can live?" Oh, well, that was the right thing to say, wasn't it? (Also, can we just appreciate Rowena admitting she's quite fond of Sam?)

Topside: Dean yells at Cas. "This was our only shot! What the hell were you thinking?" I like that Dean doesn't even consider that Cas may have had a very good reason for killing a demon.

Mausoleum. Sam says a shaky little "no" and I think he's saying no, I'm not going to kill you but I am so wrong, because he goes in for what looks like a hug but he's actually plunging the knife into her abdomen. He holds her close as he stabs her and then pulls back to look in horror at what he's done. Rowena PUTS HER HAND ON HIS FACE AND SAYS "THAT'S MY BOY" AND SHE'S NOT DEAD YET BUT I AM. Then she pushes the blade in further, because apparently Sam didn't do it hard enough, which brings up an interesting question - what if Sam's stab wasn't fatal? Does any of this still count?

SAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!!!!!!

Topside. As Rowena walks to the Hell hole, all of the spirits are seen flowing into her wound. I want Sam to hug her again, without a knife (OMG IMAGINE IF SAM HAD TO ACTUALLY PUSH HER INTO THE HOLE) but instead they hang back. She turns and says "goodbye boys," just like her son did, stands at the edge, and then dramatically falls into the hole just before it closes. Sad MacLeod music! (which I rather like)

Goodbye, boys.

Aftermath! Sam's sitting sadly on his bed. Dean comes in wearing a single layer, and it's a henley, and Sam's entire shirt is unbuttoned, so thank you baby Jesus for this bit of comfort we surely need after all that hurt. He asks how Sam is holding up, and Sam doesn't answer that question. He just wipes his eyes and makes a how do you think noise and asks if there's any word from Stevie, who I guess is one of the other hunters. Yeah, and the word is that the town is good, but Ketch is dead. "Bad. Probably demon."

We did it though, man. It's over. God threw one last apocalypse at us, and we beat it.

...

Yep.

What you did. Rowena. You didn't have a choice.

...

I know.

Oh, Sam! His soft sad little "yep," his reaction to Ketch, the way his little face scrunches up when Dean says Rowena's name... And Dean's trying to hard to be supportive.

Oh boys.

Aftermath part 2. Dean's drinking whiskey when Cas comes in and asks how Sam is. Dean's very short with him, and asks why he didn't just follow the plan. Because sure, Belphagor was going to suck up all the power of every soul in Hell and become the worst Big Bad ever, but Dean thinks they just would have figured that out afterward. And Dean has a point, but I don't know if it's the one he thinks he has. Cas didn't know Rowena had a self-sacrificial Plan B in mind. The only information he had was that if Belphegor didn't trap all the spirits in Hell, they'd end up destroying the world. And he killed Belphegor anyway. So yeah, Dean's mad because Rowena is dead, but the issue IMHO isn't that Cas's actions forced Rowena to take extreme measures, it's that they would have destroyed the world had she not been able to do that.

The plan changed, Dean. Something went wrong. You know this. Something always goes wrong.

Yeah, why does that something always seem to be you?

You used to trust me, give me the benefit of the doubt. Now you can barely look at me. My powers are failing and I've tried to talk to you over and over and you just don't want to hear it. You don't care. I'm dead to you. You still blame me for Mary. I don't think there's anything left to say.

Where you going?

Jack's dead. Chuck's gone. You and Sam have each other. I think it's time for me to move on.

Sad Winchester music!

Oh. Wow. That was really cold, Dean. Now you're not trying to be supportive at all.

But we get your angry face, which I adore.

So! There's a lot packed into this episode, isn't there? So many deaths. I was surprised that both Belphegor and Ardat bit it, since I presumed one or both of them would be Big Bads this year. Are we down to just Chuck, then? There's also whatever Billie is cooking up with dead Jack; I guess that could be badness. Ketch is gone, which I'm honestly fine with. The only bad thing about Cas walking out is that it means we're going to have a separate Cas plot again, which I'm not thrilled about. And Rowena. I mean, I love her and will miss her, but I should be gutted, and I'm not. Is it because I know we're saying goodbye to all of them soon anyway? Is it because I've decided this is going to happen? Maybe.

But that's so many deaths for one episode. Is this the endgame? Just killing every supporting character we can think of?

And let me just point out that if any of this plot feels familiar - Rowena recognizes Sam as a witch and has him do a spell, secretly comes up with a world-saving spell that requires her death, and forces Sam to fulfill his prophecy by stabbing her, no matter how hard he protests - if any of this feels the slightest bit familiar, could it be because I ALREADY WROTE IT? Maybe.

(Waves to Robert Berens, who surely reads my LJ.)

Anyway. Please help me stay unspoiled, thanks!

#spn #spn spoilers #tv recaps #recap #15.03

[dollarpuppet]

Moving part #3: web server

I decided to create an online video game. I didnt pick a game engine yet but I have a good idea of how the client side will work (Bootstrap + React).

The client-side stuff runs in the browser, of course, but it doesn't get there magically. The static assets (CSS, JavaScript, images, etc) have to be hosted on a web server somewhere. And to make the user experience as great as possible, that web server should probably be hiding behind a Content Delivery Network although it's not mandatory for the time being.

My video game will likely be a single-page web application, which means that the content of the page will be generated dynamically in the browser via JavaScript (like Gmail or YouTube) rather than be mostly generated on a server somewhere (like IMDB or Amazon.com).

This means that I can safely postpone decisions regarding the API (the interaction between the web page and the backend, like a central database or something similar); all I need to decide at this point is where to host the static assets, which doesn't shackle me to any given provider for the API part.

Choosing a domain name

Having a cool domain name is always great, but it's not as important as it used to be. A lot of people nowadays go directly to a search engine page rather than type a domain name for the first time; after that the URL is in the browser cache and possibly bookmarked, so it matters even less.

It doesn't mean that the domain name is not important. For instance, I can never remember the domain name for the webcomic Cyanide & Happiness, and I have to do a web search every time rather than start typing the address in the address bar; a small annoyance, of course, but an annoyance nonetheless, and with no apparent reason.

For my video game, I already picked a name: the dollar puppet (for reasons that will become more clear later). Registering a domain name is easy and there are many providers, but this is one element for which I always pick AWS. Prices are low, privacy is included, there's a lot of TLD available, and I can choose to either host the DNS records on AWS Route 53 or point the DNS somewhere else.

Since I don't know yet if I'll use AWS a lot for this video game, I'll keep the zone that gets created by default on Route 53 when registering a domain name. I can delete it later, in the meantime it will cost me $0.50 / month, and while I find it expensive for what I get out of it, I can live with it.

Why do I find $0.50 / month expensive? Because I have, at the moment, about 45 registered domains (for no good reasons); that's about $500 in domain registration fees per year (unavoidable) and the Route 53 hosting would cost me another $250 / year while I can get that hosting for free with my $2/month Zoho email subscription.

(BTW - I love Zoho for email, it's a breeze to get a really really good setup for multiple domains)

As a Linode customer I can also get free DNS hosting there and the UI is really easy to use.

Back to the fundamental question

To cloud or not to cloud? There's no really bad decision possible here, because even if I pick a terrible provider for the web server, the stuff will be cached on a CDN so it will not impact end users that much.

The scenarios that make sense:

run nginx on a Linode VM, and use Cloudflare if I want a CDN

store the assets in AWS S3 (which can be configured to run as a web server) and use AWS CloudFront for the CDN

use Linode object storage (similar to S3) and again use Cloudflare for the CDN

Instead of AWS I could use Azure (they're as reliable and secure as AWS), and instead of Linode I could use DigitalOcean, but I'm used to AWS and Linode and I don't care enough to consider other providers at the moment.

The plot thickens: SSL certificates

In this day and age it makes no sense to use plain HTTP (or plain WebSocket, for that matter) so it's clear I'll have to deal with SSL certificates (more accurately: TLS certificates, but who cares).

There are two easy ways to get SSL certificates for free: letsencrypt, AWS certificates. On AWS, the certificates are only available for specific services (ex: CloudFront); when used for VMs, they cannot be assigned to a single instance, only to a load-balancer (which cannot be turned off to save money).

Pricing

Whether I'm using AWS or Linode, I'm looking at most at $5/month price tag for this part, so it doesn't matter much to me.

Deployment on Linode

Provisioning a web server on Linode is not a lot of work:

Provision a VM

Add my SSH keys

Configure the firewall

Install nginx

Install certbot (to allocate and renew SSL certificates)

Upload my code

In terms of Linux distro, I'm a huge fan of Fedora on the desktop, but for a server it's not ideal given that the release schedule is fast-paced and I don't have time to deal with updates. If I was to do this right, I would probably pick Arch Linux since it's a rolling release and is the easiest distro for server hardening, but it's too much work so this time I'd probably go with CentOS 8, which comes with the added benefit of working smoothly with podman for rootless containers.

Ubuntu would work fine too, but if I'm going to expose a server to the evil people of the interwebs, I don't see SELinux as optional so it's an extra step; I also don't see why I have to manually enable firewalld, or why I have to suffer through the traumatic experience of using nano when running visudo, or why I have to use adduser because the default options for useradd suck, so this time I'll pass on Ubuntu.

Deployment on AWS

Running a static website on AWS is very easy:

Create S3 buckets in 2 or 3 regions (the name is not really important) and configure them to allow static hosting (it's just a checkbox and a policy on the bucket). In theory it works with a single region but might as well get the belt & suspenders setup since the cost is more or less the same; also the multi-region setup allows for cool A/B testing and other fun deployment scenarios later.

Provision a SSL certificate matching the domain name

Create a CloudFront distribution and configure it to use the S3 buckets as origin servers

That's it. High availability and all that, in just a few clicks, although for some reason it does take a while for the CloudFront distribution to be online (sometimes 30 minutes).

Another cool thing with this setup is that I can put my static assets in CodeCommit (the dirt cheap AWS git service) and use CodeBuild to update the S3 buckets whenever the code changes. There are some shenanigans involved because of the multi-region setup but nothing difficult.

Some people prefer Github to CodeCommit because of additional features, and this can work too, but I'm not a git maniac and I don't want to deal with oauth to connect github to AWS so I'll pass on Github. And to be honest, if I was unable to use CodeCommit for some reason, I'd probably deploy a Gitea server somewhere rather than use Github which I find too opinionated.

Operations on Linode

Running my own web server is not a lot of work. Once nginx is configured, the only thing I would have to do would be a bit of monitoring and dealing with the occasional reboot when the Linode engineers have to update the hypervisor (they send notifications ahead of time and also once it's done). As long as I configure nginx (or the podman container) for autostart I don't have to do anything other than make sure it's still working after the reboot.

If I go with the object storage solution, it's even easier since there's no VM to deal with.

Operations on AWS

When using S3 and CloudFront, there's nothing else to do on AWS, except keeping an eye on certificate renewals and the occasional change in how the platform works (which doesn't happen a lot and comes with heads up long before it happens).

And the winner is...

All things considered, for the website hosting I'm going to use AWS S3 and CloudFront. If at some point Linode offers a CDN service I will probably revisit this, but for now I don't want to deal with origin servers hosted somewhere and the CDN hosted somewhere else.

[siobhanromee]

A Court of Thorns and Roses Book Review

So this book is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story, which I didn't know going into it. I knew there would be an element of romance, but I didn't think it would be the driving force of the plot. I thought it would be more like a Holly Black novel about the Fae, with LOTS of courtly intrigue and drama and romantic subplots. So maybe my opinion of this book is more biased because it wasn't the story I hoped it would be.

That aside, if you haven't read the book I'm gonna summarise it somewhere.

So the first thing I really didn't care for was the relationship our heroine, Feyre has with her family. Feyre is the youngest and hunts as the main breadwinner for her family. Her father and her sisters don't do anything to earn money for the family and she resents them for this. I feel that this just doesn't make sense, if they are all in this terrible situation together, why don't they do their part to help the family? The helpless family member trope, where the hero's family is useless and has to be saved or whatever by the hero, is something that I haaaaaate. I hate reading stories where the protagonist is the only one trying to help. The relationship between Katniss and her mom in the Hunger Games is another example of this.

One positive thing I do have to say about this novel is that the author isn't as afraid of sex for the first book of her series as a lot of YA authors are. Sarah J Maas already has a successful book series out, so I assume she is less worried about being censored for that sort of thing.

The other thing I didn't like was the romantic options for our protagonist.

Tamlin pretty much kidnaps her and their relationship dynamic has the same problems as Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Except unlike Belle and the Beast, Feyre and Tamlin aren't as sweet a couple. Tamlin is relatively indifferent to Feyre and at the beginning of their time together, she plans to put a knife in his back. He seems to find this almost amusing. (Also there's this weird scene about this festival thing or something that just felt wrong).

That brings us to Rhysand, the other possible love interest. He isn't any better than Tamlin. He is manipulative and cruel at times, but he has some sympathetic aspects of his character. The reasoning that would justify him and Feyre being a healthy couple are just about as (il)logical as the reasons Reylo shippers use to justify Rey and Kylo-Ren being together (Ugh I hate even thinking about that ship).

I don't mind love triangles, but when the protagonist has to choose between 2 assholes, I just hate them. Like they have to pick the "lesser evil" to date lol. I could go on a whole 'nother rant about love triangles…

Anyway, there were a few issues with pacing, foreshadowing, and info-dumping that aren't great (and mostly are related to the antagonist, Amarantha). But those are things I can live with.

There is one character that I really enjoyed, though. Lucien, friend of Tamlin, was my favourite character. He had such a well thought (but still tragic) backstory that was revealed during the exposition of the book (not at the pre-climax info-dump like Tamlin or during the falling action like Rhysand). He also is snarky, but not in a way that it completely stole the scene. I just generally liked him and I hope he survives the sequels.

I have one more teeny-tiny nitpick-y thing that bothered me. (Btw, If you made it this far, congratulations) The map at the front of the book looks soooo much like the UK, but there is just a basic medieval feel to the non-fae parts of the setting, not anything specifically Welsh, English, Irish or Scottish about it. I wish the mapmaker had at least tried to create an original map. :( (but that is super irrelevant and really just a mild annoyance).

In conclusion, if love triangles, curses, and pseudo-medieval settings are your thing, you will like A Court of Thorns and Roses.

(Cover Image from Amazon)

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