#and this has played a large part in that

[wild-karrde]

Y'all... I cannot stress enough how you need to interact with things in order to maintain a fandom community.

I have seen absolutely abysmal interaction with everything I've posted lately, and it is IMMENSELY disheartening. Of course, I create it for me, but I choose to share it with everyone and want to get excited about it WITH YOU. And it seems that every other artist/writer/creator I know is experiencing the same thing.

If you're one of the people that regularly interact or just have hit a bit of a speedbump lately, then please know I'm not talking to you. I'm also not talking to other creators that have to choose between engaging or creating (and sometimes just don't have the bandwidth). I'm talking to the blogs that ask for more and then never comment or share. I'm talking to the people that sign up for tag lists and then are never heard from again. I'm talking to blogs that spam like but haven't reblogged anything since 2022. Y'all, this site thrives off of interaction. That is how it works. You have to help things circulate, and it is so frustrating to see the entire place in a collective slump. I have been blocking blogs left, right, and center that do not share things, and I will continue to do so. But it is such a freakin' bummer to see the state of things at the moment.

Hell, I started a sideblog for Fandom Friday (@fandom-friday), and have only received a handful of submissions after getting asked numerous times when it would be coming back. IT'S BACK. IT'S HERE. WHERE IS EVERYONE????? I figured after a few months' break, that people would have plenty of submissions stacked up, but that has not been the case AT ALL.

Fandom communities are such incredible places, but it's felt like a ghost town around here lately with the writers and artists just screaming into the void to PLEASE INTERACT WITH OUR STUFF. Please show up for one another because it is so very soul-crushing to watch everyone I know just feel completely disheartened. I cannot tell you how depressing it is to spend hours and hours carefully crafting something, being genuinely excited about it, and get almost no interaction or response other than a few likes and comments.

PLEASE INTERACT WITH THINGS YOU LIKE OR ELSE THERE WON'T BE ANY MORE THINGS TO INTERACT WITH.

#karrde rants about things #it has been super hard to get excited about writing lately #and this has played a large part in that #i really thought bringing back ff would get things moving again #but even that is hardly getting traction #SHARE THE THINGS YOU LOVE #COMMENT #SEND ASKS #PLEASE

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

3l!grian is frequently depicted as a tragic figure and sometimes i wonder if we even watched the same series

#like yes he is tragic. every character in the series is tragic but i think hes easily the least tragic of the winners #(except maybe cleo. i have my own thoughts about how cleos victory plays into her core themes and why its not as joyous or triumphant as #cleo the players and the fandom at large make it seem that i will have to make a real post about at some point) #grian dies Laughing. he smiles and calls it a dual victory before the final fight. his last words are “its been amazing.” #to me Grians arc is about how he came in with this sense of mirth. had it ripled away by the reality when his joke gets Scar killed. #and then rediscovers it as he learns that the horror of their circumstances doesn't need to keep him from delight #plus also ive never seen a man more delighted to explode three of his friends #ill also bring up that Martyns lore has Grian involved in the games explicitly to COMBAT the angst #that Grians inherent silliness and joy makes the players less hopeless as they meet their endings #and theres obviously parts of martyns lore i can take or leave but this is one area where Eyes and Ears lines up very well with what actions #the characters take and so im happy to bring it up #unlike other parts such as “limlife pearl and cleo retained more trauma between seasons than any player has before” #which i do directly refute as it doesn't seem to line up with the way the characters act and the story plays out #thats for another post though #my point here is 3l grian was having the time of his life and i think there are some fanon interpretationd that disregard that #which theyre free to do im definitely someone who has ignored canon plenty of times in the past (glances at worm) #but i think this is the sort of thing that makes the canon more interesting and compelling #anyway. um. rambled longer than i meant to there #grian #trafficblr #3rd life #3rd life smp #3lsmp

[bulkhummus]

every time I remember that carlos is a marine biologist I lose a chunk of my soul to that stupid old man. 🦞 like it just feels too good for him to be a marine biologist. like ive won the lotto

#marine biology has been an interest to me for like a decade now #and plays a large part in my hauler crew story #and well #I need to finish lobsters #I have it pulled up and open and everything #wtnv #welcome to night vale

[humming-fly]

really appreciate how for the 30th anniversary concert they gave meta knight a fake-out saxophone in the promo art only to reveal during the concert that his suite is composed of 99% electric guitar solos

#and approximately 0% saxophone #i imagine a large reason why is he had to share that suite with the other three knights who do use a Lot of electric guitar #namely galacta knight who i'm pretty sure uses it exclusively #but it's still real funny #kirby #meta knight #y'know what's also funny is looking at that promo art and just laughing at the lineup given like #marx is on the guitar despite the fact he does not possess arms #waddle dee has a trumpet he can neither reach the buttons for nor play with his nonexistent mouth so it's just hovering in place on his face #really top tier stuff #strangely kirby in a t-shirt is the most confusing part of the whole ensemble though #my art #doodles #kirby 30th anniversary concert

[notyourwatermelon]

anyway not to be thirsty for men on main but jotaro kujo only gets finer the older he gets. pt 3 jotaro? ehhh he's a minor plus he's a nerd get real. pt 4 jotaro? NOW we're cooking with gas baby he has the exhaustion only a PHD student and father of one has, not to mention the gaggle of teenagers around him at all times draining what little energy he has left AND the rugged haunted beauty of a scarred man who has had Experiences. and then pt 6 jotaro??? HELLO SAILOR. what a crime it was that he was only in less than half of the show. WHAT A MAN. WHAT A UNIT OF A MAN. the things id do for a chance dr. kujo just one chance. I'd crawl to the ends of the earth. I'd lick the ground you stand on. GOOD LORD IN HEAVEN

#im asexual but GYATTDAMN #the Hold That Man Has On Me #jotaro kujo #jjba #will i tag the parts. will i air this out to more people #survey says yes #jjba pt 3 #jjba pt 4 #jjba pt 6 #anyway i like pt 4 the best and a large part of that is how big of a role jotaro plays in it #I wish pt 6 had more jotaro. logically I'm glad it didn't because this is jolynes part and Id want to avoid #making pt 6 too much about jotaro so im glad araki effectively fridged him for most of it #that being said. my thirstiness for jotaro kujo is neither logical nor sensical. #not even the snakeskin poots can stop me from wanting this man

[ectonurites]

ZACH TAYLOR & DARYL HARPER | HOLY GHOST BY MODERN BASEBALL

#my zach & mobo agenda strikes again #super dark times #zach taylor #daryl harper #charlie and josh are there briefly but. this is largely abt The Dream #sam edits #tw blood #tw stabbing #or well. pulling the blade out after a stabbing #also to ramble a sec bc i think using the ‘third wish has always been three more’ bit with the flashbacks may be confusing #using ‘a third wish to wish for three more’ feels like a plea for more chances to change things—smthn about #regretting the choices you made and wanting the opportunity to make better choices or #fix the previous ones. like… it feels like a line about hindsight/regret/wasted opportunity & chances #which to then apply that to Zach here—that is certainly the sort of stuff plauging his #subconscious in relation to how he handled the Daryl situation. even though awake!Zach is #obviously struggling to deal with The Guilt/the role he played in things (see: my post about #’blood on hands’ from the other night) his dream here literally SHOWS that this situation #with Daryl is crushing him (see: Daryl sitting on top of him) and a part of him KNOWS that #he is partially at fault (see: the copious blood all over him but the FOCUS on it on his hands) #+ the idea im getting at is: he not only wishes things could’ve gone differently but that HE could’ve DONE things differently

[nookisms]

Apparently today is Return to Dream Land Deluxe's anniversary! I DID say I would get it in that poll, so it seems like the perfect day to do it!

#YES I'M WORKING ON THE MASQUERADE #I am in a rut and maybe some new creative juices from seeing magolor will help me #he IS going to be prevalent in the fic #i never actually played the original but magolor fits with the theme of the masquerade so he has a large part in it #Return to dream land #rtdldx #she speks #she speks originale #kirby series

[birchbow]

oh my god I can’t imagine Meenah and Kurloz successfully talking through their feelings without Feeder Vantas holding their fronds every step of the way, and while I’m sure somebody somewhere has a pale exhibition kink (cough Gamzee cough) I don’t think Meenah is one of those somebodies. Although Meenloz have been pretty extreme exhibitionists in other ways, huh? Does Meenah get her kicks humiliating people both in both a conciliatory and concupiscent sense? But she wouldn’t want to be the one whose feelings are exposed . . .

(I've never put the words "pale exhibitionism" together in my head but I do think I've written it for Gamkar several times without necessarily meaning to lmao. That's very funny in light of another fic I'm working on right now)

RE: Meenloz, I think the humiliation part for Meenah is bound up in a sexual response, so for a purely pale relationship it wouldn't be on the table--theoretically it could be for her blurred/vacillating thing with Kurloz, but also Kurloz is much more willing to have sex over a table in front of an entire banquet than he is to be completely vulnerable emotionally for 0.2 seconds. So like, I think she knows him well enough to know that if she pushed on that it would not go well.

Also yes, HER unwillingness to express any actual emotions in any helpful way is a big part of the problem, and she definitely can't take what she dishes out. What the fuck for should she be humiliated or embarrassed or vulnerable about shit. She's the empress. Fuck off with that. 😤

#ask time! #part of the problem with Meenah and Kurloz's lack of communication is that they do actually know each other very very well #on several levels of their lives and personalities they are very much in sync and have worked together for hundreds of years #and do in fact Just Get a lot of things which gives both of them the false sense that they never need to express anything ever #and that if one of them gets something wrong they're intentionally not playing ball with The Arrangement that has largely been working #instead of just like. he doesn't know you feel that way because you've taken pains to never EVER hint to him about it EVER #case in point: Kurloz has in fact been more emotionally vulnerable with Meenah than anybody else in his life ever. But also. #never told her about Halore and never told her about the Sufferer until circumstances brought it up. and then when he DID- #-he pretty severely downplayed it and made it about the Sufferer making a move at him and not about his feelings about that. #And meenah never asked or followed up on it. #I have a lot of thoughts. I'm going to stop and try to include them in prose instead but. I have a lot of thoughts.

[lecinea]

Look no matter how much I like to make fun of Jiang Cheng for being blacklisted by all the matchmakers, the idea that him being unmarried without any intentionality on his part is ridiculous.

Like, even without his relative youth and attractiveness, his wealth and power alone are enough for so many women (or their families) to put up with his shit personality. Especially when you look at the setting it would not have been that weird for a noble husband and wife to only have very minimal interactions. I think plenty would be willing tolerate it.

The thing is that Jiang Cheng doesn't want to have the same kind of relationship as his parents had, so he's picky, he doesn'twant to settle. I'm pretty sure my boy wants to be in love. And honestly, an heir really isn't that pressing of a matter considering the lifespan of cultivators and how men can remain fertile for the entirety of it. At the end of the novel he's in his mid thirties, there's still plenty of time for him to marry and have an heir.

#also i have seen theories about the Jin allowing JC to play an unusually large part in JL's life for a maternal uncle #in exchange for JL being his only heir so Yunmeng becomes part of the Jin's territory after JC's death #which has no real basis in canon but i still think it's an interesting theory #jiang cheng #mdzs #the untamed #hear me whine

[isanyonetoknow]

anyways I need so desperately to meet other people whose family is all still in Iran. No shade to the few Iranian friends I’ve had/have but like. Well one of them was like “I would like to go but I just can’t with the government like that” and one reason they can be that comfortable saying that is because a lot of their extended family is here in the us. If I said that then I would never get to see anyone from my extended family. like do you understand how there’s no choice in that situation for me.

#vt.talk #a lot of people in my family have died (part of the effect of having a very large family) and yet I’ve never been to one funeral #it’s because plane tickets are expensive and my family has for the most of my life been in a state where we have to save for these things #there’s a lot of experiences I realize now that I ‘missed out on’ because the money my parents could’ve put towards other things went to #family or visiting family. I’m not upset. I’m glad I’ve gotten to meet with my extended family. I think it’s been better #but it makes you. it makes. #also at least my family’s entire thing is that the last is painful and if you stay on it you will drown #I’ve gotten scolded. kinda. for showing a lot of emotion over things like this. also the whole no one will believe you if you’re emotional #which when I think of how mossadeghs emotions were used against him. ough. #but yeah it comes into play now when people around me are like :o this thing in history/the present day is so horrible I’m so mad!!! #and I’m sitting here almost emotionless. I hate myself for it sometimes. #whatever rant over

[senseiwu]

Getting emotional about Morro in Happy Family AU

#ninjago #happy family au #ninjago morro #sensei wu #kai smith #maya smith #ray smith #nya smith #lar smith #zane julien #my art #goldsmithshipping #wu kai and morro are at the table. zane is bringing in dinner #maya is at the table but hasnt sat down yet #ray is carrying nya and lar cause they were playing and didnt come when they were called for dinner #morro is.... no longer alone #he has a relatively large family. who love him. #this was not part of his plan #but. maybe thats okay. maybe everything doesnt need to be cursed.

[quaranmine]

Maybe the people read all ur other fics while waiting for the next fire watch update? /gen

oh, that's for sure a better way of looking at it (even if i have no way to confirm.) i think people just don't leave kudos as readily on unfinished works, since you can't retract a kudos and people like to wait to the end to see if the liked it (personally i never cared about withholding kudos to the end but i understand the mindset)

TO BE CLEAR. i am not trying to be whiney or in need of comfort about this it's more just an observation lol

#to be fair though. IBW has only 4/17 chapters & it has over 200 kudos compared to firewatch au being much more complete with only 147 kudos #but IBW is also the sequel to my most popular fic and has more broad audience appeal (watcher stuff + boatem + moon big) #so shrug that's where the 'niche' part of firewatch au comes in; it also doesnt play with canon settings/plot points like my others #firewatch au doesn't show up at all on my ao3 stats for kudos/hits/bookmarks etc #but do you know where it DOES win? COMMENTS! i feel like it attracts way more in depth detailed comments than anything else i've written #so i am sososososo happy about that #because tbh comments matter far more than having a large audience imo. like i would rather receive great feedback than see number go up ??? #so thank you to my firewatch au regulars <333333 #quara asks

[avatarofwar]

i saw you talk about wolf a few times from sekiro and was wondering if you'd want to share more of your thoughts on him or sekiro as a whole, the game really interests me compared to other dark souls games so i wanted to ask

sorry for the late reply but oh boy do I have thoughts abt wolf. trying not to spoil the game, so I'm gonna refrain from talking about the story. might go into just restating known things about the game, but I'd much rather play it safe and not spoil the story

before going to that. the game is very much different from dark souls (setting wise, while taking place in a fictional country it is in a historical setting. I cannot comment on the setting properly bc I don't know much about the time period, however), most notably in the combat (primarily shifting from a dodge-centric playstyle to a parry-centric playstyle (significantly easier than dark souls/elden ring parrying, however), with dodges having significantly shorter i-frames and being very unreliable for dodging attacks). it's very different but something I really enjoy, even if I'm not as good as I am at typical soulsborne combat. it's really fun when you get the hang of it, and while I might not be The Best at it (which is mostly bc of how different it is from soulsborne games, so ofc I'm not as good at is as I am at the other fromsoft games I've played), it's something I can still enjoy

a huge thing about sekiro is the difference in how the story is told. in soulsborne games the story is something you have to figure out; progressing through the main path doesn't give you enough to piece everything together if you don't read any lore. with sekiro, however, the story is significantly more obvious, on account of the playable character having unique ties to the world and its characters, rather than going the soulsborne route of being one of many people (wording hard, but the chosen undead for example is no one special, just one of many undead trying to link the flame). it's a very different method of storytelling, but is still something really good. for as much as I adore having to actively hunt down lore and story in soulsborne games, it's also great experiencing story through natural game progression

wolf is also canonically disabled (loses his left arm at the start of the game) and has a really fucking cool prosthetic that is a whole part of the combat system (even though I personally keep forgetting to use it). so good for him. he deserves a prosthetic that can have deadly weaponry attached to it. like a mini-flamethrower. he deserves a mini-flamethrower, as a treat.

putting the wolf thoughts beneath a read more because this is getting long and I might spoil some stuff (mostly relationship with another character, I'll try to refrain from story spoilers. also spoilers in general, but there might be some), and he has definitely become a blorbo (additionally, content warning for abuse)

first of all. wolf makes me want to throw myself off a cliff and I mean this in the most positive way ever. he is great and I love him but man he needs so much fucking therapy and he doesn't even realise it (therapy probably doesn't exist in that time period, but besides the point). he is very much traumatised and has been heavily shaped by it and doesn't even know it.

prior to the events of the game (I forgot how long ago it was) he was orphaned by war and got taken in by owl, a shinobi and also a piece of fucking garbage. owl raises wolf to be a shinobi under the iron code, with the number one rule being loyalty to his father (owl), with his master (kuro, the divine heir) a close second (and also to give his life for his master if necessary. which is also a whole other thing to get into).

owl is very explicitly abusive. he raises wolf as a tool rather than a person, and that upbringing severely affects wolf as a character - he is an incredibly capable shinobi, but lacks any skills other than that; he does not know how to be a proper person, he is a loyal wolf, but he does not know how to be anything other than that. hell, without spoiling too much about the context, there is a cutscene in which owl actively attempts to guilt trip wolf, going as far as using fake tears (saying anything specific is very spoilery. this isn't even the only horrid thing he's done, but I'm trying to refrain from too many spoilers).

wolf canonically does not value himself without anyone to serve (we see this at the beginning of the game, as events prior to the start of the game not yet known about leads him to believe he has no one to serve, and thus no purpose, so he isolates himself from the world in a well for 3 years). while he does have compassion for others (most notable example being concern over victims of dragonrot), he starts off the game driven primarily by duty. he is loyal to a fault, willing to do anything for kuro, but also valuing his service to kuro more than himself (cannot remember the exact wording, but when kuro expresses concern for how many times wolf has died for him, wolf states that it does not matter as it was in service to him).

there's also the fact that wolf canonically eats uncooked rice and genuinely doesn't know - as a fully grown adult - you are supposed to cook it, which is... genuinely something awful if you truly think about it and what more it implies about his upbringing especially considering it's one of the most basic things you could learn how to make (just... says a lot about owl if you seriously think about it).

he is a loyal wolf, but he doesn't know how to be more than that. he doesn't know how to just... exist for himself, to be his own person separate of his duty and he doesn't even recognise just how fucked up it is, because how could he, when he was shaped into this as a child, when his own father wanted him to be nothing more than a tool to use.

I could say a lot more about his relationships with other characters (that are actually good people) and how it just. makes me lose my mind, but this post is almost 1k words. so, simply put, kuro genuinely caring about him makes me so fucking emotional, especially bc of owl; his father might be horrible and an abuser, he might not know how to be more than he was raised, but at the very least he can serve someone who actively cares about him and his wellbeing.

#THERE IS SO MUCH TO DISSECT ABT HIS CHARACTER AND HOW HEAVILY IT WAS AFFECTED BY HIS UPBRINGING #I've seen a handful of people call him boring bc he doesn't say much and isn't that expressive emotionally and none of them are valid #I'm gonna explode those people with my mind powers. he isn't boring you just don't understand how to analyse characters #I need need need to get this man to some fucking therapy he so desperately needs it and doesn't even know it #if there ever was a fromsoft character most in need of therapy poll he would sweep and if he didn't I'd explode people with my mind powers #also I realise now a lot of my thoughts abt the game are just. restating known parts abt the game. I apologise for not being more specific #if you wanted to know my thoughts abt the story specifically. oops. I AM sorry but I do want to play it safe #I also do really appreciate how it was like. the (or at least one of?) first game in this time period made by a japanese company #which is part of why there are some things I do not know how to comment on bc I am very much a white canadian #also has a small poison swamp location. might be a plus for some people. I personally don't mind most poison swamps too much though #and ngl I kinda miss the iconic large poison swamp you have to traverse. it could be really fun being able to grapple #did I mention his prosthetic has a fucking grapple built in? well it does and it's really fun for movement.

[mantisgodsdomain]

Also have realized that we may have worded things oddly to exaggerate the amount of the Wasp Kingdom that is actually in active conflict but in our defence the power structures we currently have there have it so that whenever there aren't things to fight something like 40-80% of the Wasp Kingdom military gets re-allocated to Basically Whatever The Wasp Kingdom Needs At That Moment since they're, like, the Designated Supply Of Able-Bodied Wasps That The Queen Uses To Do Shit.

Marble is also banned from the non-combat parts of that setup, btw. Their particular tendency towards volatile-yet-effective is not something that ANYONE wants designing things that will be used in day-to-day civilian things just Around The Wasp Kingdom because generally you don't want your heavy-use architecture to Fucking Explode if you don't read and religiously adhere to the 120-page manual.

#we speak #marble #ocs #the wasp kingdom's hive tends to get significantly damaged or destroyed a few times a decade thanks to. The Deadland Border Thing #and when that happens instead of shrinking their military they just start making their footsoldiers learn construction instead #pretty much everyone has to be at least competent in combat because if they Aren't then people Fucking Die #for related reasons they tend to have surprisingly decent attitudes about shit like disability #because injury in the field is something that around 60-70% of wasps will experience in their lifetimes #and that's a VERY LARGE part of the population that they Really can't just leave out of work or anything #because they need all the damn hands that they can get most of the time #which results in things like WMS having a truly ridiculous number of variant signs for amputees or people with limited range of motion #its uhh. plus side: wasp kingdom is insanely ahead in disability accommodations and such compared to Everyone Else #minus side: it's because any member of the wasp kingdom is fully expected to become disabled in some way during their lifetime #plus side: they will accept anything and everything into the kingdom up to and including parasites and criminals #minus side: it's because they live in one of the single most deadly inhabited areas in bugaria and you will be drafted into the military #also there are Quite A Few Things that make socialization cross-kingdom Difficult #and if youre a mimic fly coming in especially you Really have no indication as to what is friendly and what is Not #and you Know when youre being mocked but youre also not gonna be capable of viewing Friendly Interaction as Nonhostile #because everyone here grew up getting at least mild battle training more or less from splitting the cocoon and expects you to play rough #and you are a fly that is not going to interpret someone biting and shaking you in a non-aggressive manner #even if it's a deliberate play-shake that doesnt actually Hurt or break shell #worldbuilding #they only actually need the kaiju squad like once or twice a year but uhh. yknow. The Beasts

[ruckis--rookie]

perhaps I will do some writing tonight instead of sleeping.... Tucker is helping me by being a literal lap cat as we speak

#ruckis borks #ruckis rants #<- in the tags #I've been wanting to do some writing on the account of I need a way to take my mind off of how the campaign has been going #it's been a massive snowballing effect paired with player favoritism. ugh. #a large part of it is difference in preferred playstyle and pace #I'm not gonna get too into detail but I will say. with how its been going it makes the oddysey look like a cake walk. #its being blamed on The Fates as a plot point but largely has to do with how dependent the dm is on dice rolls for results(the dice hate us #idk about you but playing out a soap opra you didnt consent to being a part of when it started out as goofs and gaffs Every Single Session #it kinda sucks #on top of the fact her dice REALLY hate us and the only part I had left to enjoy (fighting) has been sapped of fun. we keep losing. #but anyways one of my characters got the fuck out of dodge and went home after telling the party leader off #and the other has gone full on psociopath murder hobo mode #and now I'm sitting here like... I could write a better story >:( I'm GONNA write a better story >:((( #so yeagh this might just be the thing that pushes me to continue writing OotS (I'm also reduxing the first few chapters of the heroes tale)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

already was musing on how like, here's an intro that's Establishing Things, and it's like, does it matter that we were given a quants interaction of winston being like "hey you were nice to me there, actually. it reminds me of how" only for rian to pull the nice maneuvers of not wanting to listen to him share anything, being willing to just issue an order to someone about what he gets to do (talk for ten seconds) and doing so, then some underwhelming flair used to insult him surely, i guess that he's so stupid(tm) or whatever. like, wondering does that mean anything really that that was just about rian being an asshole, as has been sprinkled in before, just little moments that deadend with winston just feeling Disheartened b/c rian was shitty for no reason. does it mean anything that she did anything for the quant duo before that in refusing a chance to not sit next to him. theoretically just a [we're still tmc] kind of choice to stick together, and sure didn't move her to even treat him like a person she dislikes, just a nonperson she also dislikes

and relatedly it's going to be just as hilarious as rian, what, implying winston hasn't heard / of the french language, that the theory that rian and dollar bill become some kind of duo based on being Hilarious(tm) but also just terrible to any & everyone and bullying people has only more plausible, And that this episode of billions' introduction / establishment of dollar bill is decidedly centered around "yeah nobody likes this guy or can stand to deal with him. not even the people paid to be there, not even the self-declared Too Nice guy who kept choosing hanging out with dollar bill & his bullying over working & hanging out with his friend taylor" so it sure doesn't seem like that's leaving much room for [oh that was an oversight] if dollar bills going to fuck off into mpc hq on the regular and rian's immediately going to be like of course i can roll with this fuckin asshole

and truly a distillation of "rian's supposedly gets the 'good' treatment of More Material & being taken more seriously by other characters, but this only meant that instead of any sense of character &/or her own actual subplots ever, she's whatever a different more prominent character needs for their plot at any given time; winston's peripheral funny little guy unimportance & insulting treatment is still so much better re: being a character" if winston gets the worst treatment of being shoved out of mpc by episode three and rian is graced with hanging around most or all season only to be judged & condemned to now have that loss of [quant duo] replaced with being insufferable bullying horrible person dollar bill's New Friend and like, right away, with ease. and like i was saying like i would not argue with that, if rian had the consistent principle of treating anyone with basic respect she wouldn't be treating winston as a nonperson, and of course she has a broader capacity for being an asshole to anyone at any point that's just drier and less [outbursts of physical aggression] than dollar bill's style.

no idea what rian's overall arcs could be when yknow, why is she here, why has she stayed here, her most relevance right now gets to be "has the dialogue capacity to talk about getting prince with a sex scandal. also has zero thoughts on how power factors into one rather than that you just need to be polite about it?" which only feels truly character specific when held up against "rian was supposedly bullied but also Above even hating the people who did it. but she is also a bully and not even especially emotionally detached about it, even though how she treats winston is more important than how she feels about it" like basically "also a bully" is her most coherent deal. and it's just Interesting that simply being mean to winston is again basically pointed out, and her future bestie or [put in the same shots duo status] dollar bill is Impending but the episode was like "yeah of course everyone hates this guy, for being awful" and the joke nonjoke the whole time that unfortunately rian might get along just fine with bill as workplace (and probably also life in general, it's not a honed strategy they limit to the office) bullies

so that That's what rian gets for getting to stick around, while winston Might get to be shoved out of the fund hq with any character flair from him and, i do unfortunately have to wonder harder now, maybe any relevance afforded to the way people have treated him, indeed maybe rian especially, his personal bully and abusive friend. and because other people also see rian as better than him & maybe also winston as [not a person], if winston does anything that's indeed deliberately petty, mean, Angry, etc, towards rian, That will be seen as unacceptable vs the yknow checks notes years of cruel interpersonal treatment from rian to winston, but nothing hangs in the balance on that front, people won't suddenly be like "nice. winston's a person to me now, which, why am i even in a position to Decide that" if he's shoved out & goes quietly & politely and creates no problems in return. and, very much like dollar bill, i don't think rian will change, but for winston's own sake it would be Heartening if he voices his experience such that we know he knows it was bullshit, even though of course rian, and probably anyone else, isn't going to choose to listen past 5 seconds, least of all when he's clearly indicating a general state of irritation. rooting for flair and idiosyncrasy for him and indeed that the best sources for that could be with taylor, please, the person he's always been here for, rian, the person for years now bullying him more than she does anyone else or more than anyone else does to winston, and even fun if there's anything with tuk his apparent genuine friend tuk, and by "fun" i mean "such a delight i daren't really think much abt it From Canon"

anyways the tl;dr i suppose is that winston getting apparently thrown away in the first third of the season is insulting treatment but rian getting to stay and be dollar bill's wretched bestie is truly the worse fate and basically that distillation of like. oh winston's bringing it on himself he's so annoying nobody likes him, while in actuality all the ways he's never fit in or done things "right" and how he would never have been hired if taylor hadn't done it are all compliments and endorsements. while rian's been viewed as a capable valuable person by all from the start and treated as Better Than even others who are still also seen people, but her "success" and the shit she gets to continue to do in how she treats people b/c nothing about being at work stops that and some things facilitate & reward it, see: also dollar bill being around the whole time & now also back, definitely include treating a friendly coworker any which way, which she usually chooses to be: badly. and of course shoutout to the thread of taylor being like "if you stay btw you'll probably get all fucked up" but like also rian just Brought the [i'm a bully but it's fine when i do it. it's bad when it happens to Me] stance from the start, but like, obviously always the opportunity to get worse and just be left off with that implication of Never Trying To Learn, just like your new good friend dollar bill

real tl;dr As Fates Go winston being shitted on & fired / driven to quit >>>>>>>> rian sticking around, befriending dollar bill. and like not in the way i'm arguing that the fate is worse like In Conceptual Quality. it's just a hell of a potential condemnation / indirect illustration of like, here's this person it's horrible to be around, here's a reminder rian is cruel to this coworker on a dime anytime, here's rian deciding the horrible person is Alright anyways. maybe they'll be busy with a bullying power struggle the whole time. and maybe winston will get to appear outside the fund actually. just really something to be going like "oh my god lmao rian and dollar bill might actually be specifically getting along well as fellow [be horrible to coworkers] bullies and assholes who feel Above It, it being many other people, this being a kind of requirement there" and to be wondering if billions will make this fact that rian's job is being an asshole more relevant at all, if even to be like yeah leaving off with a lost cause here, including that i really doubt winston can Get Through To her even with his ability & willingness to air his grievances, and like, as though oh actually winston brought it upon himself b/c rian just didn't knowww, that's on him and his visible pain & verbal expressions of that pain & requests that she stop which Weren't Enough, and as though maintaining that onesided dynamic for bullying and demeaning and shutting down and abusing was like an unconscious accidental coincidence every time and not its own Active Process, regardless of what the other person does or doesn't do, and with the agenda of maintaining that [i'm the person who chooses how things go; they're the object that reacts accordingly like it's laws of physics level of demands of reality] one-sided relationship, so they'd only just be looking to react to what that other person does or doesn't do in ways that serve those purposes anyway. sometimes rian's "nicer" but she's still the one deciding how everything goes, winston can only roll with it like a ball at the top of a ramp like, of course, unquestionable. cue space winston, zero gravity

haha another tl;dr. winston being disposed of is a warmer Fate to assign a character than rian's potential "of course she's friends with dollar bill now" like lmfao Ouch. but yeah of course.

#one wrench in things is no idea if [winston :/ing at rian hugging taylor out in the open] will play into anything #didn't seem to affect him now and if it was absolute Need To Know we might've been reminded. but it's billions; no guarantees #and similarly; whatever bullshit gets him shoved out &/or leaving on his own is bound to be unguessable #already dealing with tmc problems; being on on the floor; not much taylor time; though their being Away is new / unknown #winston billions #rian could've at least been nonbinary. but they can't be like no NO rian is not [still Questioning] [and in part thus still closeted too] #winston quant billions sees his new nonbinary person he wants to impress & will be penciling in [swoon about it] immediately #at least with taylor he's just largely had to deal with that distance / lack of access already in general #re: rian it's like yeah here's your new devoted bully to sit next to you who Doesn't actually want you to Never talk to her #b/c he has to have hopes to be dashed & speak up to be made to shut up & be more Available in general than if he Avoided her in general #iconic to take your autistic bestie's interest & hang out to engage w/them abt it until you lash out at them over it for chatting abt it #[rian calls winston a slur] is truly there in spirit even if it doesn't manifest #or that the difference in her & dollar bill is in just variations in affect & specific strategies. not in spirit #like she might do the office: you don't call [rworded] ppl [rwords]. it's bad taste. you call your friends [''s] when they're acting [''ed] #but that's also in a world where it's an episode abt everyone hatecriming winston for being himself Out as autistic #and idk if rian would refer to winston as a friend. she would if it kept him strung along with that hope on his end anyways but #5x05 through 5x07 riawin really had so much potential but it's being realized in taylip #and itself became ''yeah rian could get along fine with dollar bill'' b/c she won't regard winston as a person #true of many other people but they want to ignore him most of the time vs use him as a chew toy so