#also to be clear this is not a criticism

[rivalcobalt]

I love dipping my toes back into DP and finding new ways the phandom has been unintentionally recreating Kaneki Ken

#this is about ghost hunger au specifically #also to be clear this is not a criticism #danny phantom #dp #tg #oshiete oshiete yo #this is also about no one knows au and ghost king au but i knew about those before #especially seeing like... black sclera green iris ghost eyes... and ghost king danny designs with one eye... hi #danny + akira expy compilation

[asharaks]

it is, i think, symptomatic of the way larian has built this brand: bg3 was always marketed as being mature (read: sexual), and that was one of the big draws for players - myself included! especially as media pulls more towards extremes, with mainstream video games starting to get increasingly graphically sexual, graphically violent, and the vogue for 'grey morality' becomes the norm, those boundaries get pushed, and it becomes more and more of a selling point.

larian obviously focused on this, along with the How Do You Do, Fellow Kids brand, the increased accessibility of game devs on twitter, and adopted it heavily into their marketing strategy, and are now pretty reliant on the horny gamer crowd for a lot of their audience, and more importantly, they're doing this on purpose.

which is how you end up in situations like this.

characters (white men) the players want to fuck get centred: they get updates, they get more content, they get favoured. halsin's gone from a side character in EA to a half-fledged romance option, to a full romance option: he shows up in the promotional material, is larian's poster boy for the sex scenes, he gets more content with every update.

now gortash gets more heavily implied situationship lines with the dark urge, because players are horny for him. nevermind that some people aren't playing that way, or that he was originally set up to be a lower-level antagonist; nevermind that if the durge's storyline needed expansion, it should've been with orin and sarevok and bhaal, or that it muddies the writing for the rest of gortash's arc + characterisation: people want to fuck him, so it gets put in the game. it's not even to do with karlach, whose quest so desperately needs expansion! it's specifically catering to the people who want their character to have a Relationship with the slaver, because they're either not interested in or not able to focus on strengthening the weak spots in the narrative: they're just doing things that will net the 'my favourite dating sim' people lmfao.

meanwhile, literal main character wyll gets his quest demoted to a subquest, doesn't get bugfixes, doesn't get a single unique romance greeting after 6 patches and months of requests. he's not a Horny character, so he doesn't get the focus: he's not a player favourite, so he gets nothing. it's just... so unbelievably, indisputably racist, and it's incredibly grim and disappointing to watch it happen in real-time.

#also #and I can't believe I'm saying this #it feels like character assassination against enver 'can't be in a room with you without 5 robocops for protection' gortash. like come on. #stop trying to make him sexy he'll never be sexy #he's a slaver. #i feel like larian have backed themselves into a corner where they have to pander to this side of the fanbase #because they've encouraged it so strongly that now it feels like a majority share of their audience are here for the sex #bg3 #larian critical #bg3 fandom critical #to be clear. Yes i am being a hater #baldur's gate 3

[ofswordsandpens]

it feels like the show is nailing certain aspects about the characters but only at the completely wrong time because Percy saying "she met a pinecone's fate"... don't get me wrong, the moment feels very true to the part of Percy that is a little shit <3 and it is funny, but it just stands in such stark contrast of his canon kindness and sympathy when he first learned of Thalia's fate that I'm just sitting here like ???

Like when Percy learns about Thalia in the book, he's very moved by her fate:

So comparing this reaction to the onscreen portrayal, its just like wild that the writers thought this was a "faithful change" lmao. Even if the line is criticizing the gods, it feels as if it comes at the expense of Percy's sincere empathy. imo the pinecone line feels much better suited to a future season where there's active animosity between Percy and Thalia, not when Percy is learning about a girl who died saving her friends.

#I edited cause I feel like I wasn't being clear enough <3 #like I get he's being critical of the gods? but it still it doesn't quite hit the mark #also I am such a dick!percy truther #and this just doesn't feel right #pjo adaptation #pjo #pjo show crit #percy jackson #thalia grace

[arabella-strange]

also I'm pretty sure there was a moment (mid-cross talk during the ep) as somebody was mentioning Orym always being in the protective/defensive position and thus in the thick of it, when Dorian muttered almost too quietly, a little admiring, a little (hollowly) laughing, a lot sad, "Always right in the mix..."

and by "I'm pretty sure" I mean I can't stop thinking about it

#ROBBIE DAYMOND #YOU WILL ANSWER FOR YOUR CRIMES #Dorian doesn't want to lose Orym #but how do you tell a person who you admire for their bravery that they need to be less brave #(this was a conversation keyleth and vax had many times) #ugh my heart #c3e94 #cr spoilers #spoilers #critical role #orym #dorym #it's gonna happen guys I can feel it #but it's gonna be several more bad bumps before we get there #also to be clear #robbie is amazing and Dorian almost spoke so many times this ep #and I just am waiting for this bottled up blend of feelings to explode

[essektheylyss]

In terms of potential dunamancers for Essek to contact, I do think Uraya is a strong option, and I imagine there are others we aren't aware of since we were a little restricted in access to other dunamancers while in Rosohna (gee, Essek, wonder why that might've been...).

However, I do think it would be fun as a hypothetical to imagine his mother as one of them; she's the head of the den that is suggested to manage if not control the Dynasty's nexus of dunamantic research, the Marble Tomes Conservatory, so it's very possible she is an accomplished dunamancer of the arcane variety herself, especially in light of who she raised. I've previously tended to imagine her as a cleric of the Luxon, given her role as a religious figure, but considering that the Luxon doesn't differentiate much, it could go either way (even to the point of a multiclass, which honestly would be dope).

We have absolutely no basis of understanding her personal willingness to look past her son's transgressions, but given that he seems to think some would, and that the stakes are monumentally high, it's easy to think that his own mother might be among them. I mentioned last week that the information we have would suggest that she did actually live through the Calamity, and potentially was born in the later years of the Age of Arcanun. Even if she was in a position wherein she may have had sympathy for his situation but was not politically able to look past it, that may change if the stakes are, quite literally, apocalyptic.

But also, most importantly, it would be SO funny to me if Essek, epic-level wizard, international political fugitive, estranged from his family and culture at large, has to call in a favor from his mom.

#cr spoilers #essek thelyss #critical role #to be clear i do not expect this but it would be the funniest possible thing for him to do #imagine having to bank on the fact that your mom is sufficiently experienced in surviving the apocalypse that she won't have you executed #everyday essek thelyss wakes up #(i mean. if you call elves leaving their trance 'waking up') #also if you wondered whether 'in light of' as used in this post was written as a pun. the answer is yes 😌

[five-flavor-soup]

i genuinely, really like aang, but keeping his writing in book 3 and his writing in the comics in mind, i don’t think it’s all that implausible for him to get the sort-of-antagonist role in fics depicting katara-ships other than KA.

reiterating, i like aang: he’s adorable, he’s funny, and he’s nice. but i believe there’s something to be said about how his ‘niceness’ is written and seen as being The Reason he ‘deserves’ a love interest. his thinking is self-centred, and though that’s a believable flaw for a kid who’s, like, twelve, we’re shown that it’s a consistent character trait which is never treated as an issue… even though it is. (and if he’s mature enough to start dating the girl he’s going to marry and have children with, he should also be mature enough to be criticised for his less-than-savoury parts of his personality, no?)

it’s not OOC to write him as being possessive of katara even when they’re not dating, because he canonically is. it’s not OOC to write him as not respecting and/or noticing katara’s boundaries, because he canonically blows past them. the ideas that he might not mature much later on, that he might be wilfully and forcefully oblivious to any discomfort in the KA relationship, that he might continue shoving katara(‘s culture) aside—none of that is necessarily OOC, because aang does not go through significant character development in book 3 + the comics.

in The Promise, there’s that weird moment wherein aang is briefly anti-miscegenation and doesn’t change his mind until katara reminds him supporting that would affect him (him!!! his relationship with katara alone!!) personally. in TLOK, there’s the suggestion that aang never actively pushed for bumi & kya to learn about air nomad culture and there’s the heavy implication that aang never told the air acolytes about bumi & kya’s existence. additionally, tenzin doesn’t even have a hint of water tribe heritage anywhere in his house to honour katara’s side: he’s all air nomad (though?? nuclear family dynamic), in spite of being mixed.

don’t get me wrong, i vastly prefer fic and hc’s in which aang is a katara supporter first and foremost, and that’s also how i prefer to move through a fandom space barring meta and analyses. but i also don’t think making him jealous and petty when she dates someone else is a misinterpretation of the text we’ve been given; canon!aang shows the signs to become that way, and it’s not wrong to read his future self that way nor is it incorrect fandom-ing to highlight these traits

#aang critical #anti aang #and #anti kataang #just to be safe #don’t wanna infringe upon anyone’s space ✌️ #do i adore aang? yes #do i think that KA could’ve been way way WAY better than the babysitting fantasy we got? also yes #in the very first ep he pops out of an egg and imprints onto the first person he sees idk how more clear this should be #for legal reasons that last tag is a joke

[lunamond]

The disproportionate hate show!Criston gets is so bizarre. No argument I’ve seen his haters make sofar has made any sense to me.

He is outside of Mysaria the only siginficant lowborn character we meet. He rises up from the son of a steward of a minor house to the position of King‘s Guard thanks to Rhaenyra, who then pressures him into having sex with her, sth that could get him executed. Afterwards she not just rejects his proposal, but laughs in his face.

And when as a result of this experience Criston is shown to be emotional distraught and bitter, people call him an incel? (I assume that they refer to his ideology and not his actual status as a celibate, because not being celibate is literally what started this mess)

It really rubs me the wrong way, when people remove all context from this situation. A lower class person getting a well-off position from a person with authority, who they then end up having sex with is ALWAYS a relationship with a power imbalance (Obviously there are irl relationships like this, who work out and manage to be relatively healthy, but that doesn‘t remove the imbalance of power and the increased likelyhood of abuse).

We see Criston‘s reluctance when Rhaenyra makes her move. It does not matter if Criston was attracted to her or not. The simple fact that he is in a vunerable position makes him denying her a risk. It also does not matter that Rhaenyra had no malicious intentions, the simple fact that she ignores Criston‘s refusal and continues pressuring make this whole scene super uncomfortable. Her ignorance and naivety does not erase the impact of her actions.

Criston growing to hate her afterwards is perfectly justified.

As a man who grew up in Westerosi society, he inevitably holds misogynist beliefs, which is reflected in the insults he uses after this. But compared to the acts of every single character on this show, singling out his character is pretty ludicrous, when we have plenty of male (and female) characters who have done worse:

Like commiting SA (Viserys, Aegon), grooming young girls (Viserys again! I really hate this man, Daemon, Otto, Corlys and Rhaenys because telling your daughter she has to sleep with a grown man when she is 14 is pretty much the same thing Otto does to Alicent) and the only major crime Criston is guilty of sofar: murder (Daemon killed his wife and the servant in Driftmark, also he did large scale police violence which people love to forget about, Rhaenys killed potentially hundreds of smallfolk at the coronation)

Obviously, anybody is allowed to dislike whatever character they want, but a lot of people flatten Criston into just a misogynistic bitter incel who is just mad that Rhaenyra has sex, ignoring every bit of context we get for his behaviour.

This becomes escpecially weird, when those same people have no problem stanning Daemon, who calls his 1st wife a „bitch“, „uglier than sheep“ and then murders her, because he sees her as inferior as a none-valyrian. But Criston calling Rhaenyra, a person he feels personally wronged by, a „spoiled cunt“ is apparently a too far.

It is just really frustating when the character with the canonically lowest social standing gets afforded the least amount of nuance by the fandom (the writers are obvs not excempt from this criticism either).

#There are also people who like to bring up Christon‘s age relativ to Rhaenyra and accuse him of being predatory towards her #This is dumb because for one this still doesn‘t erase the power imbalance #Nor has Christon ever been shown to make an inappropriate move towards her #Also them having a significant age gap in the show is debatable (book Criston is another matter) #We never get a clear age for Christon Fabien never being aged up doesn‘t help either #But based on context clues he is relatively young when we first meet him #He is a knight and fought in one war that doesn‘t mean anything when we have characters who are 16 and are full fledged knights in asoiaf #So he might be anywhere from 18/19 to early twenties when Rhaenyra is 14 in ep1 #Rhaenyra in the ep4 is 18 so at most Criston would be 25 #Compared to all of Rhaenyra‘s relationships this is fine actually realistically she and Harwin would have had a similar age gap #And that relationship is broadly regarded as her most healthy relationship #hotd #house of the dragon #criston cole #pro criston cole #rhaenyra critical #anti rhaenyra targaryen

[artist-rat]

i’ve never listened/watched critical role but my best friend does and sometimes talks to me about it. i asked them for some characters to draw (from any campaign) :p

#critical role #cr #caleb widogast #yasha nydoorin #mollymauk tealeaf #chetney pock o'pea #essek thelyss #also i've seen lots of fanart around ever since the dawn of time so i had pretty clear pictures of them in my mind but #i wanted to do these without looking at refs and just went with the vibes i have + what i remembered having seen people do #it was rly fun and at least my bestie liked them so i've met my goal lool<3 #(these are in the order my friend came up with the charas... first prompt was caleb bc.. im ''good at skrunkly wizards and cats''.......) #(i should've known what to expect) #also if anyone now follows me for critrole i hope the caption is clear enough so u won't expect a lot ahahbdbdb #i might do some more of these in the future if im feeling like it but as said im not rly that into it personally:D✌️

[spinjitsuburst]

watching secrets of the forbidden spinjitzu while i get some stuff done and i like to think wu's overly harsh vibe at the beginning of the season is him trying to reclaim SOME sense of authority after his ninja literally had to raiSE HIM FROM A CHILD GFDHKJGKJ

#LIKE ITS SO FUNNY HE'S SO OVERLY AGGRESSIVE #i like to think once everything calms down he and cole have a talk about how he's feeling #also it's so fun to see wildbrain experimenting with the animation style it's clear they don't have the ninjago vibes down yet so there's a #lot of them trying things to see what works and it's super fun #ALSO LIKE. HIS FACE WHEN THEY'RE IN THE ROOM WITH THE CHICKEN #HE'S SO AMUSED #idk it's so fucking fun. like when you look at it critically yea there's things to fix BUT IT'S FUN!!! IT'S FUN IF YOU TAKE A STEP BACK #AND LOOK AT IT FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A NEW STUDIO TESTING WHAT THEY CAN DO #AND ALSO WU BEING LIKE. I NEED TO EXERT MY AUTHORITY THE NINJA HAD TO CHANGE MY DIAPER I NEED TO FIX THIS INJUSTICE GHKDFSGHKJFH #idk i love. sotfs like i have. a lot of. critiques about how the plot works esp later #BUT IT'S LIKE. SO SILLY GOOFY #runs around in circles #anyways #ninjago #spinjitsu screams #wu #secrets of the forbidden spinjitzu #lego ninjago

[deramin2]

I don't know how to really express this except to come across as a "kids these days" scold, but so much of the criticism of queerness in Good Omens would simply not be a thing if kids these days watched more 20th century queer media. Or more complex indie queer media in general.

People seem to want a show that's like the straight stories they grew up with but gay. Or the gay fanfiction they grew up with. But that's not really the tradition it's coming from. First off the novel was released in 1990. Queer film classics of the time are Dead Poet's Society (1989) and Torch Song Trilogy (1988). The TV miniseries Tales of the City (1993) wasn't made until 3 years later and it was so far out there it never had a huge audience. Philadelphia (1993) is also 3 years out and was basically the first big studio queer film. The first fluffy queer Hallmark-style romcom wasn't until Big Eden in 2000, a full 10 years after publication.

Queer stories from the time it was written were about complex and often fraught relationships between people who the world was trying to force apart. There is an incredibly strong tradition in queer films of relationships with no guarantees they will work out both in the face of their personal baggage and the weight of the world. Take a film like Torch Song Trilogy that's about the two great loves of Arnold Beckoff's life over 9 years and how homophobia shapes them. Both externally (especially Allen) and internally like Ed struggling with his bisexuality and being terrified of being publicly out. Written and starred in by Harvey Fierstein, who identified as a gay man at the time and only came out as nonbinary last year.

The Boys In The Band (1968 play, filmed 1970 and 2020) was a monumental moment in Broadway history where finally there was a play about gay men in their own words where no one died and very strongly showed that homosexuality doesn't make people miserable but homophobia sure does. But that homophobia also throws their personal lives into constant turmoil and none of them are in happy relationships, although Hank and Larry are devoted to each other in their own fucked up way.

"Relationships are complicated and hard to make work and sometimes a struggle against the odds" is an aesthetic of classic queer film making. Partly it was influenced by the Hays Code (although independent films were not bound to it), partly influenced by the rampant queerphobia in society at the time that was inescapable. But it's also an aesthetic choice to resist the banal and unrealistic relationship depictions of straight media. There are actual stakes to the relationship. Queer people were actively resisting a world that said "Romance is seeing someone across the room and instantly falling in love with each other and little conflicts happen along the way but ultimately they're destined to be together and everything is happily ever after." Recall that "stalking as romance" was a completely inescapable trope in 1980s straight romance films, and every goddamn movie was being turned into a romance film.

So queer people in film and television when they can make what they please have a long tradition of saying instead "People don't always realize the feelings they've developed for a queer partner right away. They may have reasons for denying those feelings that are both a reflection of the cruelty in society and of their own insecurities. People struggle with where they belong and their relationships reflect that. Loving someone doesn't mean they don't also drive you crazy and you might fight with them constantly. But that doesn't negate the love or that feeling that even if things aren't okay, they're better with that person around. But maybe that person can't stay around. The world may be against you. And also maybe you don't just want that one person in your life. Soulmates is a very flawed model. Sometimes the strongest love is a struggle with yourself and the world and your person. You have to overcome yourself first. Happily ever after is a lie. You may be happy for a while, and hopefully for a long while, but everything ends. And you have to be ready to love again. Also your platonic bonds are just as important and life-altering as your romantic ones. Sometimes those platonic bonds include fucking if you want them to. Real life isn't a bunch of platitudes and world-altering moments, it's daily work to better yourself and the world around you. Especially when things just fucking suck. But also remember to have fun and fuck the haters. People who don't support you can eat rocks and you should yell at them more to shut the fuck up."

That is a fundamentally different outlook on what a "good relationship depiction" looks like. Personally, I thought I hated romance movies and then I started watching queer romance movies and discovered I love them and watch them all the time. Because it turns out what I hated was relationships being shown that had nothing at all to do with reality and privileged incredibly toxic ideals. Finally there was complexity, there were stakes, and there were people who had to truly want to be together enough to fight the world for it and not because they happened to be there. There were people actually talking out their problems and looking for resolutions. (And sometimes that resolutions was "I can't fucking deal with this bullshit anymore and I'm out.") For the first time it felt real.

I'm an aroace trans gay man. Nothing about relationships or being in relationships has come easy to me, and the whole paradigm of straight patriarchal romance depictions makes absolutely no sense to me. It's completely alien. Queer romance stories actually feel human.

And that's the tradition Good Omens is coming from, even as it's being retold in 2019-2023 and hopefully beyond. Gaiman's work has always been based in that queer media paradigm. (I've been remiss and daunted and haven't read Pratchett but from what I do know his work also seems to sit more in that world view.) It's a beautiful cinematic tradition and it's baffling to me that people would resist it instead of embracing it for being honest.

And that's when I turn into a crotchety old man complaining about the youth not connecting with the history of their beautiful culture and instead begging for assimilation into a shithole allocishet media landscape that doesn't actually want them except for their money and has nothing at all interesting or valuable to say. But it's very funny (annoying) to me when people claim Good Omens is someone against queer culture when it's so thoroughly bathed in the best of queer media's storytelling traditions and what people are asking for is straight media with the serial numbers filed off. Like, stop being boring please and know literally anything about the culture the adults in the room lived through and were influenced by. The world didn't begin in 2015.

EDIT: I also want to add that in straight media arcs are linear. Traditionally in queer media arcs are cyclical. Queer media very often depicts people going around in circles relearning the same lesson over and over as they inch towards it sinking in. But every time they go through the cycle they gain just a little bit more enlightenment and slowly move towards a better place. From the comments this is an immensely important distinction. People don't actually have cathartic moments where suddenly all their past bad programming is shed and they saunter forward a new person with none of their old baggage. In reality people fall into the same patterns over and over even though they have had every opportunity to learn better. "People magically get better" is a trope of straight media that's an outright and frankly dangerous lie. Again, Good Omens follows the queer tradition not the straight one and it's depicted 6,000 years of that cycle. The world didn't end, and the wheel keeps turning, as it always has and always will. That's so fundamental to queer storytelling traditions I forgot to even mention it.

#good omens #good omens season 2 #good omens spoilers #go s2 spoilers #good omens discourse #queer media #queer history #discourse #I have been a crotchety old man against the youths since middle school to be clear #if you don't know where you've been you have no hope of knowing where you should go next #I didn't sit all the way through deeply homophobic Brokeback Mountain or Tár just to hear people complain that honest rep is bad rep #This is also why I'm a critchety old man about most Critical Role Shadowgast haters #Liam and Matt have not only watched but copiously reference older queer media and Shadowgast is so clearly that tradition

[gilmores-glorious-blog]

genuinely so unwell thinking about how there’s such an emphasis placed on vax being the one who needs his sister, who asks her to not go far from him, who is nothing without her. vex is the one who’s always been more independent, vax says it himself: she doesn’t need him. but in the end, vax is the one who leaves. and vex doesn’t realize just how much she needed her brother until it’s too late.

#anyways. 🙃 #i’ve always thought about this but the way they did episode 3 just made it so painfully clear #also let it be known that i’m in no way saying that vex is a bad sister or that she doesn’t need/love her brother #she’s just slightly less codependent. which let’s be honest is probably healthy. #critical role #tlovm spoilers #the legend of vox machina #tlovm #the legend of vox machina spoilers #vex and vax #vax’ildan #vex’ahlia #eli.posts

[shorthaltsjester]

god i cannot express how impressed in general i am with the storytelling that cr is doing with candela obscura but what really strikes me is how evident it is that the storytelling they do is defined by the hearts of those who are putting it together rather than adhering to a specific idea or image of a given story that they want to uphold. there is such a stark difference between the tones of chapter one and chapter two (to the fault of neither, i’ve enjoyed them both immensely because they both happen to hit parts of the supernatural-horror genre that I am so deeply fond of and so happy to see in a real play medium).

there’s the obvious difference in gming styles, matt has fantasy running through his veins and that’s evident in the way that chapter one ends up having a tone akin to something like the scarier episodes of buffy the vampire slayer. spenser outright references mike flanagan in his pre-interview thing and good grief is that so so evident in his narration and the way he emphasizes the themes emerging in the story in the environment of the world they journey through and choices like the letter from sean’s mother that subvert the audiences ability to rely on a character’s perception.

but the energy the groups of players bring to the storytelling is obviously also so important, too. like, even just looking at the groups prior to watching each I probably could’ve guessed which might’ve had a more lighthearted tone. the combination of ashley, anjali, and robbie already would be one i’d guess a more warm/goofy vibe for (not to say they can’t be serious and dramatic, but the tone of the seriousness is still warm and the world that prompts them towards drama likewise feels warm) and laura, despite her propensity for goofs, does tend to be a chameleon with group make ups. likewise i think we all had a certain (affectionate) fear™ when it was revealed that marisha, brennan, luis, and travis would be reuniting in another short form story and that has certainly held up and been incredibly bolstered by zehra’s absolute commitment and immersion into the story (constantly fucking blown away that this is her first real play she’s incredible).

this is all just to say as someone deeply interested in digital storytelling, i am so so enamoured by cr’s commitment to following their own desires as humans telling stories to one another while adhering to the requirements they have as a company. and also if you haven’t you should watch candela obscura, especially now that spooky season is here.

#candela obscura #the vassal and the veil #the circle of needle and thread #spenser starke #matt mercer #critical role #candela obscura chapter 1 #candela obscura chapter 2 #i want to make it so so immensely clear that when i say chapter 1 was warm i don’t mean like. light because there was some Shit in it #but the world felt much much kinder in chapter 1 and that has a lot to do with matt and his storytelling #but also given the session one where robbie was like :((( idk if i wanna be enemies for this #it speaks to the heart of them All as storytellers that chapter 1 is a Warmer world with people trying their best #whereas spenser has crafted a cold world that the backstories and attitudes of the players and their characters echoes #but it’s still one where the people are trying their best #god i’m just so so impressed with candela obscura

[caeslxys]

Zephrah actively postpones ruidusborn births. It is believed that the actual number of ruidusborn in exandrian history is much larger than has been officially recorded because the stigma of it was so intense that people lied about it. Alyxian, one of the few recorded ruidusborn heroes of the calamity who received direct blessings from three different prime deities (our very own Changebringer, the Archheart, and the Moonweaver) , has been all but forgotten (read: likely erased) by history.

The Archive of knowledge that revealed the truth of Predathos and Ruidus was never some forgotten thing—it was intentionally hidden by the elites in Vasselheim. And we have no idea how long they have been operating with that knowledge. We have no idea what they have been doing with that knowledge, what silent wars have been waging for years or decades or centuries. But we saw what they were willing to do, in Hearthdell. We saw the violence and suppression they were willing to commit. We saw the pettiness of the exandrian pantheon in the Dawnfather’s response to Deanna’s: “Are you worth saving?”. In the Changebringer’s manipulative change of course in her pleas to FCG. In the Wildmother’s rejection of Opal. In the knowledge we have that Imogen spent so much of her miserable time in Gelvaan begging the gods to aid her to no avail—just for Kord to reach out only to demand that she not let them down.

Liliana’s point that Vasselheim and the other faithful elite of the world will hunt ruidusborn down to negate even the potential of this happening again isn’t new, it isn’t something this solstice and the machinations surrounding it caused, and it isn’t some unsubstantiated, fearful claim—it has been happening.

The vanguard—and Liliana—are unequivocally wrong in their means. But can you really fault them in their desire? Can you really fault the conclusions they have drawn from the experiences they have lived? If you spend your entire life being rejected by the people and the pantheon of your world for means you could not possibly control, would you not seek out someone and somewhere that would accept you? And if you found it, if some being that has been connected with you your whole life welcomed you home and wrapped you in an embrace that felt like your mother’s and says that it is starving; well, aren’t you, too?

There is likely a holy war brewing. At the end of it all, is it truly the sole fault of the people and not the organizations and society that expelled them?

#critical role #liliana temult #cr spoilers #bells hells #critical role meta #i understand that tumblr isn’t the place for god or vanguard nuance but I wanted to extend my thoughts here For Posterity #it just baffles me that some people still think Ludinus doesn’t very clearly have motivations of his own #and that the vanguard and liliana and very likely even the weave mind are all pawns in a greater scheme #which just kind of renders all the attempts to claim that empathizing with the vanguard means agreeing with Ludinus completely moot #and also just. doesn’t allow room for far more interesting questions about exandrian society and faith #and to be more clear. CLEARLY there are bad people in the vangaurd i am not saying they are good please be normal #in general i think people get really caught up in certain characters’ perspectives and not the wider ones we as the audience have #which. to me. is a loss. these are interesting and extremely relevant and poignant questions to ask

[spectral-musette]

I read the Vox Machina Origins comics a few weeks ago, and I have been messing around doodling Percy’s animated design in his introduction scenes, when Keyleth and the gnomes bust him out of his jail cell and take him along on their adventure. (Not to in any way knock the comic art, which is lovely, but the animated series is just what hooked me)

So, you know, just Percy sitting in a cell on the verge of 15 panic attacks re: his prior captivity-related trauma but somehow managing to come across as calm and charming.

And joining the group while still Threadbare and a bit Unkempt is such delightful irony in light of what a meticulous person we know him to be in better circumstances.

Also it allows for a version of the scene from The Mummy (1999) after he gets a chance to properly groom and buy some new clothes:

#critical role #tlovm #the legend of vox machina #tlovm fanart #Percy de Rolo #Keyleth #Vex’ahlia #perc’ahlia #percahlia #my art #pencil sketches #to be clear #I don't mean to imply that Vex is not actually attracted to Threadbare Percy #as per the scene in the Mummy that my little comic is based on she is definitely protesting too much #long post #also #Kiki and the Gnomes is a great band name

[genericpuff]

We've Finally Come Full Circle <3

The union of mouth to tail in the great Ouroboros is complete.

(FP SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

No no, this isn't cause for anger. I'm not upset or anything about this.

I'm flattered.

Because if this isn't a coincidence and she's reading Rekindled and she mimicked my little cartoon chibi heads in her newest FP episode... Rachel is supposed to be the #1 creator on the platform with a series that's marketed as a "worldwide sensation"; and she has to resort to ripping off foefiction - created for the purpose of improving upon her foundation that she built in 2018 - in lieu of utilizing her own ideas?

That's pretty damn cool. Disappointing because the #1 creator on the platform shouldn't be doing this, but still, pretty cool, you got me. Well played Rachel. I'm not gonna "clapback" at this, I'm not gonna "get revenge" through any sort of quip towards LO in Rekindled because I've already accomplished that. I've already proven my point. Every time I update Rekindled, I prove my point and "clapback" through my own efforts to create something new out of what you started but couldn't finish. And if this was intentional, then we've truly come full circle in a way that I can only smile at, because it's delightful.

Thank you for featuring a little piece of what I've contributed to this community in your work. I'm still not entirely convinced that this was intentional or satisfied if it was, I'm still waiting to see a box of generic off-brand cereal dumped down the toilet or hurled across the room, but this will suffice. The show goes on and so will we ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

#just to be clear this is a shitpost #this is not something i'm getting all huffy or serious about #if anything i'm being way more of the asshole here LOL #but rachel never draws random chibi heads like this and they IMMEDIATELY looked familiar to me #so it would be so fucking hilarious if she ripped them from rekindled #and also still flattering fr #like i'm not playing it up for a bit i'm literally not mad so pls don't feel mad on my behalf #this is hilarious #and i'm having a great time lmao #we're literally even steven now #lo critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus #lore rekindled #lore rekindled comic

[revvethasmythh]

don't forget to leave treats out for the nein on this Mighty Nein Eve! I'm leaving high quality paper and ink out for Caleb <3

#critical role #the mighty nein #the mighty nein reunited #I am also leaving out buttons for veth. to be clear I am ALSO doing that