#cause they were doomed by the fucking narrative on this one

[theyaremycrocsyoudonut]

The scene in 3x11 right before Mickey gets married is just so *unintelligible screams*, *muffled sounds of violence*, *nails scratching a chalkboard*, *war sirens* you know what I mean?

Let me elaborate. Ian comes practically BEGGING him not to get married to Svetlana. He didn't give him an ultimatum as he does later on, he just begged him. And Mickey didn't want to get married to Svetlana, it was the last fucking thing he wanted to do. But, had he ran away, or refused to marry her, or came out, or something, Terry would right out try to murder him and we know this for a FACT. So Mickey did the only thing he could. He couldn't not marry Svetlana, he couldn't come out to his dad, he couldn't outright admit his feelings (because acknowledging them even to himself would cause him an INCREDIBLE amount of pain), he couldn't do jackshit. Except of what he did. He kissed Ian, like it was their last kiss, which, had they not found Ian after he ran away, would actually be their last kiss. He looked at Ian's lips and it was as if they magnetized each other. Physical love was all he could give.

#shameless #gallavich #mickey milkovich #ian gallagher #for me that whole season 3 thing was their saddest ark by far #cause they were doomed by the fucking narrative on this one #i hate them with a burning passion #(i wish I could erase my memory to fall in love with them all over again)

[lord-squiggletits]

The thing about Prowl is I don't really think canon was ever trying to frame him as a "necessary evil" or anything along the lines of "he's a shitty person but his work was necessary" like mmm.... That feels very much like something Prowl wants to believe about himself, not something that's actually factually true in reality.

I can't really make a good argument about it because I only remember like a handful of standout Prowl Moments in IDW1 but like... Prowl dropping a bomb on a neutral city and blaming it on the Decepticons is not "a necessary evil," that's a war crime. Prowl trying to destroy the space bridge to Caminus to keep Starscream from getting power over it, dooming the entire planet and its inhabitants to extinction by starvation, is not "a necessary evil," it's a fucking war crime. I feel like trying to frame such drastic measures as him "doing the dirty work of the Autobots" feels way too much like an excuse for actions that actually aren't justifiable. Especially since Prowl himself is far from being the 100% rational guy he thinks he is, considering how often he bases his decisions on things like his anti-Decepticon bias and his general refusal to follow any orders that contradict what he thinks is The Right Thing To Do (TM).

But also I think this is kind of the fault of the narrative of IDW1, since very few Autobots besides Prowl are given the chance to actually be morally gray even when the worldbuilding implicates them in some very morally gray things. Like, for example, JRO adding in the existence of MTOs which implies that the normally squeaky-clean leader Optimus was willing to approve the creation of new soldiers just to throw them into combat (and even the attempts to humanize the MTOs by giving them "an education" were eventually cut down to nothing but combat optimizations). And there's also the fact that Optimus knows about the Wreckers and has been known to call them on missions at least once (Stormbringer), meaning he's very much aware of the Wreckers and their tactics and is willing to call them in for fights when it's necessary.

I don't think you need to use Prowl as a crutch to make the Autobots morally gray. I think the Autobot leadership (or at least, Optimus, since few people besides him or Prowl seem to have major tactical command over the army as a whole) is plenty morally gray enough on its own, because the nature of war is inherently morally gray no matter how righteous your cause is. Reducing the lives of your own people into numbers on maps, harvesting resources, bringing MTOs to life just to die in a war they practically have no stake in, those things are enough.

And tbh it kind of bothers me when people try to saddle Prowl with the "dirty work of the Autobots", not just because it frames Prowl's blatantly evil actions as some sort of savior act taking the blame from the rest of the Autobots (which isn't even accurate, because the blame for war crimes falls on the entire army as an institution rather than one person), but because it downplays the moral grayness of the Autobots and pretends that no Autobot BESIDES Prowl ever participated in morally gray actions, which simply isn't true.

TLDR: Prowl isn't as much of a hero as he thinks he is because committing atrocities in the name of your cause doesn't change the fact that they're atrocities (and may not have even been justified). However, painting Prowl as the "token evil teammate" of sorts also places too much blame for the atrocities of war on him in particular, when in reality that's a burden shared by Optimus Prime and any other members of the Autobot military command structure.

#squiggposting #meta #prowl feels like one of those characters where people trust what he says at face value when like. he's very much not a reliable narrator #prowl SAYS that he does the dirty work no one else is willing to do but. is it really dirty work? #or is it just him authorizing dirty work and hiding it on his own and justifying it in the name of 'it's for the autobots'? #to draw on an old fandom of mine: 'what is the difference between you and the decepticons now?' #'isn't it obvious prime? i serve the autobots' #but also this is kind of the fault of JRO because like he's the main idw writer that explores what things were like during the war #while still being unwilling to part from the ideal of OP as the best prime and the all good and loving leader #barber gets into morally gray OP but it almost entirely concerns post war stuff so i wouldnt really count it

[ansheofthevalley]

It's so funny bc I thought I was DONE with GoT/ASOIAF (at least until TWoW came out), and Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik had to center the Dance around a Yuri fallout basically, and my content-starved queer heart couldn't resist that shit.

You give me a princess who struggles with gender roles, more specifically, the ones that are set to her as a woman and the ones set to her by being heir to the throne. A woman who's walking the line between her duties. She is a woman with no true freedom, even though she's a Princess and next in line for the throne, always having to live up to the expectations set by the men around her.

Then, you have her former "best friend," who's been groomed by both her father and the King used as a pawn in political games, and ended up isolated as a result. She's also an extremely religious woman who's been repressing her true desires before she even realized what those desires really were. She's a woman with no true agency, even though she's Queen.

And to top it all off, they had a great relationship. They were there for each other. They confided in each other. And then, their relationship fell apart because of the ambition of the men who were supposed to have their best interests at heart but only had theirs guiding their actions.

They grow apart and are pitted against each other. Each of them defends their family fiercely, which, of course, causes conflict because, again, the men who should be taking care of them are selfish bastards. Then, for the briefest of moments, they manage to get close again. Not like before, because too much has gone down between them. But, of fucking course, Viserys has to die, but not before speaking about an ambiguous prophecy about who's to sit on the Iron Throne (too many Aegons, man), and of fucking course that opens the gates to a civil war, which, of course, takes 0.1 seconds to go from bad to worse and then all Hell breaks loose, making it impossible for these two women, who had once been the closest two people could be, ever to reconcile.

So yeah, Condal and Sapochnik have me hooked on toxic, doomed-by-the-narrative Yuri.

I'm just here for the ride.

#sorry for rambling #i just had a to lot to say y'know #hotd #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #rhaenicent #i know a religious repressed lesbian when i see one #also... #i didn't go through eight seasons of got without learning about subtext #AND THE QUEER SUBTEXT IS THERE I TELL YOU #dance of the dragons #asoiaf #my thoughts

[absolutebl]

This week in BL - Gay Boy Turf Wars Galore!

Also, ALL the guest couples: TutorYim & MacNat showed up in Korea. Korea also reused the Love Class pair. And Wayne Song & Huang Chun Chih (H3:MODC) popped up AGAIN. (To be fair, when does Wayne not show up in a Taiwanese BL?)

Entirely subjective yadda yadda. Organized by favs in each category. No numbered lists anymore, tumblr be buggn'.

Aug 2023 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Laws of Attraction (Sat iQIYI) 7 of 8 - Plot reveals galore + all the penultimate tension we could want. (How many different kinds of smiles does Film have in his arsenal?) OMG I LOVE the unhinged idiot bloody tattooed ex bf - intro music and all. He is my precious psycho-bunny-snookums. Also Tinn, baby-boy, communicating about your honest feelings in a BL? What madness is this? I sense doom incoming. Smart Chan, always tell him he’s better in bed than your ex. The sides getting caught! Noooooo. I mean we knew it would happen but still noooooooo! 

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Sat YT) ep 2 of 12 - I like the surreal slip-stream dream-sequence openings. Is it a cerebral examination of temporal paradox or just designed to creep us out? The pace has picked up a bit and I'm delighted that external threat, stressors, and conflict are driving this plot. Refreshing. I love historicals - every touch and action can have such lingering significance, it’s very elegant. Thai BLs can often feel clumsy but not this one. I’m really enjoying it. 

Dangerous Romance (Fri YT) ep 2 of 12 - Sailom is great. I love a smartass who’s actually really smart, reminds me of Bai Luo Yin in Addicted. (The real Addicted.) Never a bad thing. Kang is nasty bit of business, I look forward to his redemption arc. I love his grandma. (BL is giving good grandma right now.) Nicely executed narrative twist into sympathy too: rich kid sees how rough life really is. The complexity of character depth needed for this script makes me so happy it's Perth & Chimon, they both have such expressive nuanced faces.

I do keep wanting to rewatch LBC tho. 

Only Friends (Sat YT) ep 3 of 10 - It remains a blast. Boston is king of red flags, cutting down Ray because he is the easiest punching bag? Going after his friend's bf just to prove he can? No thank you. I know Ray is lovely when he’s soft but danger zone, Sand. Be careful upon entering a minefield, every little step forward may cause an explosion. I don’t think being master of snark is gonna help you avoid getting blown up.

Sand is the one I feel the worst for - bi guy strays into cesspit of gay toxicity. He ain’t gonna make it out alive.  

Hidden Agenda (Sun GMMTV YouTube) ep 7 of 10 - The boyfriends date ep! Zo’s past explains a lot about his behavior. Flirty Zo is v dangerous to all our hearts. Nice kiss. Poor Joke. Meanwhile, the side couple gave good kiss too! However, why is Title playing the bad guy again? Did GMMTV bring him in just to be resident jerk face in all their BL? Makes me sad.

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki) ep 8 of 12 - This should be a 8 or 10 ep show, 12 is too many. I think I just don’t like the lead couple's character dynamic and personalities. (No shade on JaFirst.) Side couple went startlingly high heat allasudden. And while their sex scene was good, I wish Daddy and the Hot Doc were being given a lot more script, screen time, and character dev. Sigh. I guess I just wish they were the mains and the others were the sides.

Can't have everything, I suppose.  

Wedding Plan (Wed YT & iQIYI) ep 6 of 7 - Nuea is a saint and next week everything comes to a head (that didn’t already get head this episode). Trash watch here!

Love in Translation (Sat iQIYI) ep 2 of 10 - The side couple is everything. They are so cute and my favorite trope. Plus hugs with neck kisses! I love big brother using his adorable boyfriend to try and help his annoying little brother’s business. It’s just perfect. Unfortunately, that annoying little brother, is too fucking annoying. I remain largely unable to watch the main story arc. 

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) 1 of 24 eps - Sampler pack BL, 12 pairs, each pair gets 2 eps, so this show will run all the way into 2024.

First installment is Casanova Begins. Dead boy wakes up in his enemy’s body, 2 years after his own death. Has to make things right with the boyfriend who thinks he was abandoned. Everyone has secrets. No one can be trusted. And the dead kid can never tell anyone who he really is. It’s … different? Unique take on the My Ghost Boyfriend trope.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Jun & Jun (Korea Thur Viki) ep 6 of 8 - Random moment of TutorYim. Hi cuties. Simon is my favorite, I love him and his flirty irreverent ways.

Who does he actually like?

Or is he just flirting with everyone?

Can he have a crush on anyone but himself?

He’s a house cat among the pigeons. Clearly wouldn't know what to do with the bird if he managed to catch it. Or would he?

The 4 boys dodging around each other and re-shuffling is so funny. I can’t tell you how delighted this show makes me. I do feel sorry for Lee Jun, he’s just the toy everyone wants to play with. I understand his frustration, do any of them really want him or is it all because the others are interested? Kiss! Yay! Good kiss! Even more yay! 

Stay By My Side (Taiwan Fri Gaga) ep 9 of 10 - Poor baby doesn’t think he’s good enough and is holding JC back. They are THE CUTEST BOYFRIENDS. It hurts. The sappy. 

Kisseki: Dear to Me (Taiwan Tues Viki & iQIYI) eps 1-2 of 13(?) - From screenwriter Lin Pei Yu (We Best Love, H3: Trapped) formerly known as Miracle, features a student doctor forced to take care of a gangster. I love the premise and like the writer. This one could be sad. Never forget Taiwan will go there.

Shall we get tucked in?

Gay boy turf wars! Main couple is cute. Sunshine gangster (turns out to be a sweetie who cooks) meets broken brilliant tsundere student who wants to be a doctor. Side couple is the leader of the gang and his rabid Pet. Also, all praise the guest couple de jour (baddies). Nice to see you 2... again. All actors are clearly having a blast with this script.

Triggers for knife play, child abuse, lingering trauma. 

Love Class Season 2 (Korea Fri Viki) eps 5-6 of 10 - Aw guest couple from Love Class original, that is very sweet. The tutor and returning student, aka couple 3, are the best. So funny. But the whole thing remains engaging in a messy way.

Why R U? (Korea Wed iQIYI) eps 1-2 of 8 - Oh, it’s very odd. Certainly a lot more comprehensible if you've already watched the Thai version. As with that version, I still dislike the SaifahZon couple and love the FighterTutor couple. And once again I hate the weird IRL shipping sister. HATE HER. I’m not mad at the "Man who Fell into the World of BL" overtones but I wish they went at it more intentionally. (They’re not using NPC the way I would, are they? Cause that’s hella cruel.) MaxNat are fun. I love that Fighter went to his girlfriend's birthday party, didn’t even say hi to her, picked up her drunk bestie, and took him home.

This show is WILD. It’s very Korea tries to do a Thai BL. And, I gotta say, I kind of like the absurdity of the whole scheme. Do I think it will ultimately "work" as a stand alone piece? No. But as a very odd kind of parody? Sure.

Minato's Laundromat Season 2 AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga) ep 7 of 12 - Truth always comes out in hot springs. It's a rule of life. Coming clean is coming clean, I suppose. Still, moving very slowly for me and I need sake to get through this season. It's certainly suffering from sophomore slump.

Stay Still (Hong Kong Tues YouTube) ep 4 of 5 - Sad episode is sad. 

In case you missed it

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 3 of 8 - didn't air this week

Dinosaur Love (Sun iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 eps - Didn’t drop this week? MDL thinks it should have. Everyone is confused. But also… who cares? 

Low Frequency (Thai iQIYI) Finished it's run - NO SINGING as flirty boyfriends they very cute actually, but this final ep was V E R Y slow.

All in all this was not a great show. Classic pulp with an interesting twist on “ghost boyfriend investigates his own not-murder” but ultimately not very good in any arena. 6/10 Only if you have nothing better to do. 

Sing My Crush (Korea iQIYI) Finished it's rerun

This a cute coming of age drama around music and 2 kinds of self acceptance and actualization journeys. This was basically Korea’s version of About Youth, and was perhaps a bit too soft and ungrounded by comparison, like a marshmallow sculpture. Sweet but somewhat lacking in discernible flavor. Inoffensively unmemorable. 8/10 RECOMMENDED especially if you enjoy KBL's style

8/24 Man Suang (Thailand movie, domestic cinema release) - historical drama about Thai burlesque with KP’s MileApo. Do I know where to get it? Nope. Do I care? Nope.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Coming September

I have 4 on my radar:

9/2 Naughty Babe (Thailand Sat ????) - MaxNat back on our screens. We think iQIYI but aren't confident.

9/15 You Are Mine (Taiwan ????) - it's taking over from Stay By My Side so likely Gaga. Secretary has to deal with grumpy boss.

9/26 I Cannot Reach You AKA I Can't Reach You AKA Kimi ni wa Todokanai (Japan ????) - Adapted from the manga, childhood best friends: The cool, smart one who’s good at everything, and his average, dorky friend who struggles. Always by the other’s side, but not together in the way they truly want to be. No matter how hard they try, their hearts cannot reach each other.

9/27 Absolute Zero (Thai iQIYI) - from 2021, Studio Wabi Sabi and New Siwaj finally bring us this “time loop to prevent tragedy” romance. We don’t always get HEAs from them, so I'm on my guard.

9/?? Venus in the Sky (Thai iQIYI) 10 eps - ????

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

No you aren't, Lom. You don't even know what that means. (Wedding Plan)

Minato comes out to the best person.

Trope spotlight! (Low Frequency)

I Fell You Linger in the Air

So true. (Only Friends)

I love them so much, as @heretherebedork would put it, Tiny Idiots!

(Last week) 

Gotta say I am hating this new UI so much I'm not bothering to tag with shows. We shall see what that does for ROI.

#this week in BL #bl news #BL reviews #korean bl #japanese bl #taiwanese bl #thai bl #Rakutan Viki #gagaoolala #GMMTV

[dangermousie]

Watching Jin in The Last Immortal made me think of Xiao Yao and Cang Xuan in Lost You Forever. More specifically how they are all adult survivors of childhood abandonment for a cause and how it affects them permanently.

Xianxia is such a high fantasy setting and usually deals with such larger than life situations (either world-saving or romantic.) Characters always die for the world or get doomed for love or whatever. And it’s great fun to watch. A xianxia done right is a rare pleasure.

But I love that two very different dramas this year actually take a different tack of sorts - they go, it’s great you saved the world/died for love/averted calamity etc etc but what happens to those left behind especially when said person is a child?

If you think about it, Xiao Yao, Cang Xuan and Jin are all characters who were abandoned by all those who were supposed to love them as children and it wasn’t because their parents/caretakers were bad people. It’s because none of the adults in their lives ever put the children first - they put saving the country (XY’s mom), saving the world (Jin’s dad), or true love (CX’s mom and Jin’s mom) over the children and the dramas go - well that’s great but it fucks the kids up.

If you are devoted to a cause, whether it’s an idea or a person, it makes you a failure to those not encompassed by that cause.

It doesn’t even have to be a cause that doesn’t take the kid into consideration. Xiao Yao’s father abandoned her out of a desire to protect her. But the fact remains is, she was abandoned and as she puts it in one of the dialogues - all the adults in her life, all the ones who loved her, had reasons for abandoning her but it was still abandonment.

I mean, if you look at Xiao Yao, as a result of her abandonment, she really cannot be in a healthy relationship - she can allow Cang Xuan in because he’s family and she cared for him before her world imploded but even with him I think she doesn’t expect him to be around forever. And as to a romantic relationship - she doesn’t even want a codependent one, because codependency implies a degree of reciprocity. What she wants is someone to depend on her while she is not as involved. As she puts it, she wants a man who would put her first and only, over any cause, or any family or anything. If you think about it, she falls for a man who has been disassembled by torture to a completely basic level and rebuilds his desires and his entire identity around her and he ultimately still fails her test by the end of LYF1.

And there is Cang Xuan. Whose father was killed in battle which is traumatic but then whose mother kills herself over his father’s grave, leaving her small child an orphan in a den of wolves with only “when you are an adult, you will understand.” No surprise - no he does not, and grows as fucked up as XY or more. If XY is willing to open to love even if in a dysfunctional format (and eventually she heals enough that she actually does get a happy ending in terms of love though she loses a lot on the way; the ending is a mixed one in terms of sweetness), CX is not at all - he believes he’s unworthy of love and incapable of receiving it properly. The fact that the sole woman he loves is XY, his cousin, also the one person around him who he knew before his life went to hell, and even with her he doesn’t really try to pursue her for a long long time even as she falls in love with someone else or gets engaged to yet another man - is proof of his damage. By trying to live her grand doomed romance and screw anyone else even her own son, his mother ensured her son will never have a proper love of his own.

And how with The Last Immortal we see the same effects with Jin. TLI is a kinder narrative and the ending of the drama is supposed to be happy for him (unlike the novel apparently) and Jin himself is not as closed off as the cousins in LYF, but he is so very clearly damaged by abandonment - his refusal to seek responsibility or come into his power, his deliberate goal of making his life as meaningless as possible are all the results of his dad liking the world more than his family and his mom liking his dad more than anyone and anything else.

All three of these characters are adults and capable ones at that but the damage lingers and lingers. And I find it so fascinating in a high fantasy setting.

These are narratives of those left behind on a grand heroic quest and that is something you rarely see done.

#cdrama #the last immortal #lost you forever

[beevean]

in your opinion, top 5 worst idw moments, and why

Just 5? How am I supposed to choose? D:

5) Sonic equating Eggman trying to conquer the world out of deliberate malice with Shadow trying to destroy the world because he was brainwashed into being a tool for destruction by his own creator, literally using Shadow's deepest trauma as a cruel gotcha - the same behaior Black Doom engaged in.

4) Tangle blurting out the name of Whisper's dead comrades because she thought they were cool, accidentally revealing her trauma to Lanolin who at the time didn't know her. Tangle's apology takes one shitty panel and it's played for laughs with her exaggerated expression. Whisper's takes a whole page and it boils down to her apologizing for having that pesky PTSD that makes her so irritable. This is what passes as ship development.

3) Lanolin being an utter cunt to Silver, speaking to him like she's his mom and disrespecting his credentials, and Whisper, by slamming her into the ground with a sneer on her face, because she has just decided that a random rookie is more credible than two veterans.

2) Sonic letting Metal go because he apparently believed that the robot programmed to be loyal to Eggman (as literally said by Metal) would have the ability to choose, let alone choose to betray Eggman. This causes the Metal Virus apocalypse, but Sonic never has to question his own choice, since the narrative chooses to build up a stupid moral dilemma about Mr. Tinker.

1) Everything about Sonic in #50. From him being a prick to Tails with his valid concerns about Metal, to that stupid horrible panel where he jerks off over how awesome his philosophy is while the light of God shines upon him, to the most terrifying line you could put into his mouth: "That's the problem with giving people choices, you can't stop them from making the wrong ones." Jesus Christ what the fuck is that, that is certainly not my Sonic.

#fans don't look #the runner up was sonic telling kit of surge's death with all the finesse of an elephant stomping on your balls #says a lot that it couldn't make the cut

[fuck-you-upmusicbracket]

Hero (Ghost Quartet)

And you/You were there too/You drove that train/Right through my heart/But I guess it's time/To put that to bed/I think its time/To let the dead be dead

"Rose messed up so bad and she KNOWS she did but there’s also no way it ever could have gone any different, cause she had to do everything she did to get to a point where she could realize that hey, maybe killing pearl over and over throughout multiple lifetimes was bad, actually. this is a circular story, and it doesn’t happen in chronological order, and everything that happened was always going to happen, there is no version of this story where rose doesn’t mess up. pearl gets murdered in almost every one of her lives. this is the ultimate doomed by the narrative and dead since the beginning story, and this song is about rose coming to terms with that. but despite being doomed by the narrative, she’s still just a person. she’s not a hero, she’s not special. she’s the same as anyone else. and she’s coming to terms with that too."

The Moss (Cosmo Sheldrake)

Legend has it that the moss grows on/The north side of the trees/Well, legend has it when the rain comes down/All the worms come up to breathe

"The beat/music is like funky fun rain upon a log beside a pond with a toad or something. Plus the lyrics present facts/common knowledge as legends right along with bizarre stories. Which is a fun way to question what is and isn’t a legend to society"

Poll Runner: It's just so funky! The lyrics make no sense and so much sense all at the same time! Its awesome!

#fuck you up bracket #tournament #polls #ghost quartet #cosmo sheldrake

[beartes22]

Constantly thinking about how WWX thinks about JC how he thinks JFM thought about YZY but mostly as how he denied and yet carelessly commented JFM thinks (disregards) about JC

It is so, so, so fucked up and one of the reasons why chengxian is so doomed by the narrative bc no matter what JC does or says, WWX already "knows" what is about. Bc JC is his shidi and WWX knows best. And still, pre masacre, pre core exchange, it could have work. It could have, because they love each other so much but JC lost his core. WWX thinks he chose his parents. He thinks Jc choose the dead bodies of his parents, a filial duty, over survival, over him. And he never forgave Jc for it.

Bc now is WWX turn to assume the consequences of his shidi actions, now it is his turn to bear the pain for him. And he does not do it with reluctance, he does not, he does it bc he loves Jc so so much, but still. Still. The hurt it caused it. The hell it send to him. The hopelessness.

And then to see his shidi thrive were he can’t no longer. To see him shine when he is but a shadow. To see him reach for the impossible time and time again as if it was not WWX who never gave up before, who rallied his shidi over his (small, imagined, greedy) woes. To see all that and know envy, envy he had denied his whole life and envy he will repress into resentment, into sth useful bc WWX is not like yzy or Jc he is not, he does not hurt the ones he lives with his jealousy and sense of inferiority. Bc how can he not envy, when one says his dad doesn’t love him but he still has a dad? When one says he is not enough for his sect when he has such a inheritance, such a clear path at life. And WWX never cared never ever ever, how could he? He loved his shidi best, in spite of all the bad things.

And somehow, Jc himself is a thing he has to be loved in spite of. And it’s heartbreaking.

#but WWX never will say any of that aloud or even think it clearly #this man has been running form negative emotion like he’s sprinting his whole life #also that would make him the bad guy and WWX has enough guilt to carry and not talk about already try #also I love Jc and it shows sorry #this is not to say he is a perfect shidi or anything the man is a mess #but all his doubts about WWX character have it reason. it’s proof #and maybe the proof was forged but it was there #he does not deal with a single emotion gracefully but he does deal with them. he lets them simmer for eternity #which is. not ignoring them. #bad but at least real. idk how to say it. #anyway it fucks me up how much agency WWX denies Jc and how much complexity he refuses to see #like. WWX would do the impossible to make Jc the person who hates him irrationally so that he is not the bad guy in the relationship #(which is more complex than good or bad guys but I digress) #I love when they reconcile but I also hate it. bc it is never acknowledged how much WWX daily shits on Jc as a person) #you can love a person you don’t like. it happens. #but the Jc in WWX head is not the real Jc and the sad thing is that WWX loves the real Jc not the inherited prejudice from jfm #but he can’t perceive him he refuses to he can’t bc then he has to deal with what he did to him. #he lied. he lied. he lied to Jc’s (and himself) so much he can’t no longer distinguish the truth of them and is so fucking sad #mxtx #chengxian #grandmaster of demonic cultivation

[thescarehoe]

I read Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn a bit ago as a lead up to The Spectre, and I just have so many thoughts about this as an introduction how it all went down in the long run. Not gonna touch on my thoughts regarding knowing of Parallax and how in there's a certain level of me feeling him being doomed by the narrative (the military).

But the aspect of him not wanting the ring at all in this, and him being held to the whims of their constant beck and call to establish ‘order’ to the cosmos, as some highlighted form of I suppose manipulative use of validation. Being insisted that this means you are worthy and destined for great things, after everything in his life has gone so wrong, as a use to turn him into a pawn.  All the military and drafting metaphors and entire multiple plots of authority abusing it's power were so prominent, and really makes the modern adaptions even more depressing.

Vaguely, it kinda reminded of those anti-magical girl stories, which ironically makes the transformation in the First Flight movie more amusing to me. But just-

You're down on your luck, hanging onto your job by a thread.

An alien abducts you from your planet and tells you that it's magical device with powers beyond your comprehension has chosen you because it can sense you are worthy.  Insists it's a validation and that it means you're not a fuck up.  This should be a relief but despite your protests about not wanting it to begin with you are told you have no choice.  

Your boss is not happy that you disappeared with expensive machinery when you manage to make your way back, putting what you still have left of this job on an even thinner line.

Your best friend lands in the hospital because of you. And then dies because of your identity.

You are then introduced to this planet full of magical people who were chosen, like you,  to protect the universe.  They are all very nice and excited and proud to be helping people and very welcoming to you, but the creatures in charge are very demanding, and insist on strict obedience above all else.

So when the alien that killed your best friend comes knocking you beat the shit out of it and your magical item tells you that this is wrong because you're being emotional about it and not just doing this for the magical organization. You don't want to be a part of this organization.  The creature tells you its mission and why it's doing this.  you acknowledge you don't know anything about this organization so you're fighting him for your cause, not the corps.   The 'all-knowing' guardians don't even remember this creature at all.  

You miss your best friend's funeral.  

They have the best lantern they have train you because you ask too many questions.  He controls the section he patrols with an iron fist and demands perfect order above all else.  He will not allow you to visit your other friend who got stabbed for your sake.  In his absence the people he reigns over finally get a chance to rebel and free themselves.  Your mentor tells you that since he couldn't regain control over them he will be punished for his failure.  

After witnessing how their "best lantern" works you are forced to abandon your new friend you made when he's in the hospital to testify against your mentor in court. Something you don't want to be involved in at all. They simply banish him to the other side of the universe, out of their sight, and discard him as punishment.  He is screaming that he's only ever done what he's told and that they made him into this.  They apologize for his disruption.

Every other lantern is confused and appalled by his behavior. Explain that they've never held a court for a lantern before. That no one's ever done this. They go out of their way to make sure you're okay after being trapped with and working with him. 

You can't help but think how similar his actions were to the guardians’ rules and behaviors.

#hal jordan #green lantern #Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn #dc comics #dc #marrow musings

[antimony-medusa]

Technoblade Duo Bloodbath - Final Results

[ID: A 16-team seeded bracket, showing the final result is a win for Technoblade & Philza.]

Thank you to @@regicidal-optimism for the graphic design!

The final result of the poll is a win for Technoblade & Philza! Congrats to everyone who participated, and thank you all for your enthusiastic and generous participation in this event! This was a final win of 86% to 14%, or 1,983 votes to 320, meaning that Techno & Phil never fell below holding 85% of the vote in any showdown they were in. A sweep the whole way.

And now, some highlights from the notes.

[ID: tags reading "#no one can compare to the Antarctic Empire"]

[ID: tags reading: #And the emduo sweep is imminent .. as it should be <3]

[ID: tags reading: #oh this is not a fair matchup at ALL. I’m sorry ranboo]

[ID: tags reading: #NO DISCUSSION NECESSARY 🥹]

[ID: tags reading: #im voting techno and ranboo because i will always love them #but i will not be surprised or upset if emduo win]

[ID: tags reading: #ranboo you did good to make it to second #thats number one of all the actual possible challenges #since emduo wins]

[ID: tags reading: #there's only one choice here #for you phil the world #polls]

[ID: reblog reading: WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME]

[ID: tags reading: #E M E R A L D D U O S W E E P #there were never any other contenders]

[ID: tags reading: #polls#option 2#EMDUO SWEEEEEEP#tbh i would have thought they would have left emduo out of this race cause its so obvi that theyd win ya know?#idk emduo always first in my heart]

[ID: tags reading: #yeah this is fair. good finale! good ending to the tournament bracket!]

[ID: Tags reading: #ranboo I'm so sorry Ranboo#great sensei pupil relationship you got there. haunted my thoughts a lot#but alas Phil and Techno best friendis forevs]

[ID: tags reading: #gg ranboo sorry you got doomed by the narrative]

[ID: tags reading: #voting peerpressure because i can't not but i love and respect the emduo sweep#there is nothing to campaign. It's Emeraldduo. It's objective]

[ID: tags reading: #TechnobladeDuoBloodbath #Technoblade #Philza #Poll #GO GO EMDUO #CHOSE PHIL #WHO ELSE BUT PHIL #“TECHNO AND ME GO WAY BACK” - C!PHIL 2021 #THINK ABOUT MCM MCC ANTARCTIC EMPIRE THE SYNDICATE SBI #GO GO AEDUO #emerald duo #antarctic empire #“FOR YOU PHIL THE WORLD”-TECHNO 2021]

[ID: tags reading: #i canmot even propaganda this one #as much as peerpressure holds my heart theres no beating the fucking antartic empire man]

[ID: tags reading: #i mean phil obv sweeps this ez but I am really happy we got an all syndicate finale]

[ID: tags reading: #Yeah Phil must sweep. It's because both Ranboo and Techno are voter frauding for Phil rn]

[ID: tags reading: #FOR YOU THE WORLD PHILLL]

[ID: tags reading: #ANTARCTIC EMPIRE RULES THE WORLD BABEY]

#TechnobladeDuoBloodbath #Technoblade #DSMP #Bladeblr #dsmpblr #Philza

[warsamongthestars]

ON CHIPS AND CROSSES

Crosshair's episodes are always a treat.

But, they're under cut by one of the largest issues with the Bad Batch Show, and that's the Chip.

( Warning, we're about to hit hard on some heavy shit. Reader discretion is advised. )

The Inhibitor Chip already has a very important slot in Star Wars lore. Its the very reason for Order 66 and the massacre of the Jedi, one of the largest backstory elements of the OG Trilogy, and the end result of the Prequels.

It was discovered by the character "Fives", who, introduced in Season 1, was one of the biggest Audience Surrogate Characters for the Clones' side of the War--even outpacing Captain Rex in this case. Both him and Echo.

( So it makes Thematic sense to have Echo as a main character in a Clonecentric Show, because he is an Audience Surrogate Character, and the only surviving one out of the Clone Wars Show--which makes his character neglect all that much more worse in TBB )

As something like the Inhibitor Chip does not exist in real life, there are several elements of imaginative fiction and real life that come into play with its concept.

Brain Tumor (Real Life)

Altered State of Consciousness caused by External Factors (Real Life)

Non-consentual substance-induction which causes Consciousness / Behavior alteration (Also known as "Being Drugged") (Real Life)

Mind Control (Fiction)

Possession by Exterior Force (Fiction)

Possession by Interior Force (Fiction)

Any kind of fucking Possession that involves overriding consciousness (Fiction)

Most of these elements, especially the Real Life ones, already put a character under that situation that clearly states "cannot be responsible for judgement calls" / "is not of sound mind".

The prior show, The Clone Wars, took steps to show and explain the chip and what it does.

It's entire purpose, narrative-wise, was to avoid the situation of "The Clone Troopers were complacent in Genocide". As well as the induced plothole that such a circumstance would cause. Because the Clone Troopers were being developed as individuals, who merely in poor circumstances and making the best of it (as real people tend to do), as opposed to indoctrinated disposable soldiers who were little better than Stormtroopers.

( Even my younger self pointed out to Revenge of the Sith and went "Hang on, I thought they were friends! It must be a Darkside Trick that caused these friends to do that! All the Anime Says So!" )

So.

You have this Brain Tumor that drastically alters the behavior of someone, and in this case, its a specifically-programmed tumor that ensures certain behaviors.

The Bad Batch Show even walks us through the scene. It does so clumsily, because it seems to never want to have any kind of serious discussions ever, but it still takes the steps to do so.

And one of those steps is Enhancing the "programming" of one Crosshair's chip.

It "grew".

I don't know about anyone else, but this scene is kind of an odd Grinch moment, where his "tumor" grew "Three fucking sizes that day". Life Day is gods damn Doomed.

Then, we get to spend the season without Crosshair.

Then the moment we meet Crosshair again, reunited (and it feels so fucked up), he says that the Chip was removed, and refuses to elaborate how, why, and implies that all he did was his own choices.

... even though, as I pointed out above, that is not the case. The very show itself even makes it a point that its not only not the case--but that Crosshair got the Super Tumor instead.

But since then, the show has made it a point to forgive every Clone but Crosshair, and then ignores the fact that it gave Crosshair the super tumor, something that is in recording, something that I have clearly caught a part of in picture--and instead, places all of Crosshair's actions on himself, and even Rides an Arc of "Redemption" for his "judgement".

( Even though, the act of removing a Super Tumor in this case, would still have the Super attached. If you Super Something in a story, that means you have to take the extra steps to handle the Super part in order to keep relevance and impact. )

It has even ignored the one person that is, thematically and narratively, related to a story like this--Echo, who has had the Most Extreme Variant of this theme (from fictional cyborgification to the real life "non-consensual body alteration").

Whatever the hell the Bad Batch Show is doing and has done, it has done it damnedest to utterly destroy any impact, to the cost of the characters, the story, the significance, their legacy, and more.

#star wars #star wars the clone wars #star wars the bad batch #the clone wars #the bad batch #the inhibitor chip #analysis

[blood-starved-beast]

hi hello just came here to say that i *really* enjoyed your musings on lady maria, you just analyse her in such a realistic scrupulous way it's very delectable♡

Thanks! I'll admit my interpretations are a bit atypical to what the fandom usually sees of her ( I mean, I have discussions on other platforms about this). But I just, as someone who has worked in Research involving animals that ultimately have to be put down for science, how the narrative presents Maria is very damning.

We first learn of Maria from the patients at the Research Hall, not having known of her beforehand other than vaguely alluded to via the Doll and the Hunter's Bone. The patients who are medically/scientifically tortured, dissected/vivisected, are living in abject squalor, are being turned into giant heads and are literally losing their minds, and their bodies dumped to rot as fertilizer in the gardens (for the flowers Maria loves I might add) once they no longer serve their purpose. And yet, they love her. These people tortured and denied any form of humanity cling to her like she were a Saint, like the Virgin Mary even, despite her not actually doing anything to improve or prevent the situation.

That is a very powerful first impression - that Maria cared enough about these subjects to give them kindness enough that they automatically cling to her yet lacks the absolute empathy to actually, you know, not experiment on them. That mentality is necessary when working with research animals, but these are people. And that initial impression is not something I can easily overlook regardless of what her actual aim was with the laboratory. This impression is heighten if you take the popular fan interpretation that Maria had some affection for Saint Adeline. Like, oh boy.

What that leaves me to interpret then, is that Maria at best someone of compromised morals, at worst someone who is somewhat two-faced. To assail her failing morals, her kindness is meant to be more self-gratifying, to "prove" to herself that she is a better person than she actually is. It is, in part, a performance cause at the very least it is not reality. There is delusion there but unlike some male Bloodborne simps on reddit it's cause she's deluding herself at the very least, or at most she is doing enough to give the impression she is helping somewhat. You know, like those rich fucks who hand out water bottles during a crisis and then go "that's enough philanthropy for one day :)" while being in a position of power to do actual meaningful change and doing nothing. Or that even if she is an awful person, there are people who are worst than her out there. And maybe that's enough.

I do think she gets to a point that she realizes it though. How fucked up she is/what she's done. That in part of is ultimately what kills her, that and the ultimate futility of her actions, how she slowly chipped and chipped away whatever person she was when she started to ultimately become the monster of her own creation. No better than the Vileblood family she rejected at first (if not worse than them in some respects). But instead of doing anything more meaningful about that Heel Realization she kills herself, dooming herself to being constantly minded that amongst all the Living Failures, she herself reigns Supreme.

#Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower #Bloodborne #my meta #and that's not going into some of her lines #I consider them secondary canon but it's interesting how she at first condescends to you to give you trinkets in her room #then baits you if you keep talking to her to kill her #and if you return becomes Pissed and calls you insufferable #that says a lot I think #also says a lot that Fromsoftware deleted that and replaced it with someone arrogant enough to assume your intentions #and tries to kill you to prevent your knowledge under the guise of “protecting you” from the getgo #when knowledge of atrocities is how you prevent them from reoccurring in the first place #Insane woman she is catered directly to ME

[toxi-works-at-culvers]

also what are some of your headcanons for him? i'd love to know:)!

ohh i have so many thoughts about him, thank you for asking! :3c

some general stuff first i guess? i think he genuinely loved his kids! and i think that he also liked kids in general, since he opened up fredbear's and all. i don't think he was the best dad, but i think he genuinely tried. and i don't really like when he's portrayed as abusive because i don't feel like it makes sense for his character.

basic stuff: 6 ft 2 in tall, built like a fuckin twig, scariest gray/green eyes you will ever see. charming bastard smile. missing a tooth because he's definitely gotten into a fight before. wears purple in almost every outfit and dresses more formally than needed. bisexual. somewhere in his mid-30's in 1983

hobbies include robotics, designing animatronics, acting, journaling, and juggling (canon btw)

british. that's not even a headcanon but i feel like it's being forgotten lately (matthew curtis' voicelines for him + he's not gonna have an accent in the movie… sad!)

very afraid of death

has a very high opinion of himself

probably had a cat at one point. i feel like he would

i think his hair would start graying kind of early because of stress. the man's a workaholic and has definitely done more than a few all-nighters :P

i also think he got married kind of early (in his 20's or so) from societal pressure and also oopsies!! accidental pregnancy! so yeah. michael was an accident but william still loved him - but once elizabeth and evan were born william kind of ends up ignoring michael in favor of them. and that causes michael's teen angst to get especially angsty which is why the bite of 83 happens

he 100% used to have a thing with henry. there's no way they weren't at least a little fruity. (from the silver eyes, "a search of his house had found (…) stacks of journals full of raving paranoia, passages about henry that ranged from wild jealousy to near worship." tell me that's not homosexual.) but anyways they both have families now, yet william still lowkey kind of wants henry. but will never have him because they are both doomed by the narrative :) (edit to also say. they are like a divorced old couple tbh.)

his opinion about henry swaps around a lot. sees henry as being superior and better than him even if, technically, william has made wayyy more advanced animatronics. or sometimes thinks that he's the best and henry would be nothing without him.

and now his personality!! i kind of try to base most of it on how he's portrayed in the books, with my own touch added on. basically he's silly! he's a great actor and he's very theatrical. he's also very charismatic, good at interacting with people as well as getting what he wants. but underneath all that he's kind of an asshole, he's really selfish and only really cares about himself. he's egotistcal and he doesn't admit his faults because he thinks he can't be wrong. so yeah. (this actually got really long so i condensed it down. more elaboration under the cut)

gets springlocked and dies in 1993. returned to the fnaf 1 location because he wanted to destroy the old animatronics, thinking that it might free the souls and let him avoid their wrath or something idk. kind of backfired on him.

post springtrapping he's had a lot of time to reflect, but rather than feeling guilty he feels like he needs to get revenge. he wants to kill everyone who's ever wronged him and that's what keeps him going, even in death. (also the only one he might ACTUALLY somewhat regret is killing charlie, because of how it broke his relationship with henry. but otherwise he doesn't feel guilty at all.)

and most importantly, the fnaf 6 ending (with henry's speech) is canon and he's dead after that :) no glitchtrap, no mimic, no FUCKING FEAR GAS!1!1!11

(the original, longer version of his personality here lol) i think that william is actually a very silly goofy guy! he's dramatic, he's an entertainer and an actor as shown by how he acts when he's wearing the springbonnie suit. although he's definitely playing it up for an effect there, he's still kind of uhh. theatrical i think. but he's also very charismatic and could probably smooth talk his way out of prettty much anything, which is part of the reason he doesn't get arrested after the MCI (also the lack of evidence). at the same time he has kind of a weird vibe to him, you can just tell there's something wrong with this dude, like maybe he's trying a little too hard to look normal.

and thennnn there's what's beneath the surface. william is kind of insensitive, self-centered/selfish, and egotistical. he also absolutely refuses to admit his own faults or shortcomings. something bad happened? not his fault! he was wrong about something? no he wasn't! another thing, william is very paranoid and usually feels like anyone or anything could be a threat to him (mostly because of that one passage from the silver eyes, "had spent so much of his life fighting like a cornered rat." and ANOTHER thing from the silver eyes, "he had taken on the mantle of bitter sadism as an integral part of himself. he would strike out against others and revel in their pain, feeling righteously that the world owed him his cruel pleasures.")

at first he kills charlie because he wants to bring evan back, and feels he deserves some kind of revenge on henry because it was HIS animatronic that did the bite after all, right? but along the way he realizes he enjoys killing. and that it feels so good to have power when he hasn't for most of his life. so he keeps going, and eventually all that comes crashing down on him. and it's tragic! because he used to have what many would call a perfect life. but he completely ruined that with his own selfish desires.

#aheem sorry this post got really big #still working on the drawing but i thought i'd answer this first :) #also this is entirely self indulgent so i'm putting it in the tags #but i LOVEEEE the idea of transmasc william. maybe i'm just projecting but i love it #lynn.txt #asks #fnaf #headcanons #william afton #my silly billy bastard man <3 #toxi fnaf lore

[vieramars]

Late night magnus archives thought: if every ritual was doomed to fail, then what would have happened to the ones gertrude stopped if she hadn't intervened? Would something else have caused them to fail, or was gertrude's interference a sort of predestined event? I have my suspicions that the web was nudging her in the right direction throughout her ritual hunting, especially considering they planted emma harvey right in her archives. The whole thing about the rituals being doomed to fail kind of confuses me bc we don't actually see one fail naturally. Each one was stopped either by interference or key components not lining up properly. But in mag 160 Jonah is all about the rituals being pointless and the watcher's crown being the only way to bring the powers through. Of course I could go off on a huge tangent about how the watcher's crown actually brings about the extinction if you squint and ultimately dooms the fears and forces them to migrate to another reality which like why would the web want to keep doing that if they could orchestrate events so the watcher's crown never happens, is a few months of factory-farming fear worth the risk of ceasing to exist entirely, and the answer of course is that the whole thing is an allegory for capitalist greed focusing on short-term profits and ignoring long-term damage caused by exploiting natural resources until they dry up when the sustainable option was working just fine all this time

This post got wayyy off topic but yeah my initial point was gertrude robinson is a walking tragedy bc either she was lied to by the narrative and all her sacrifices were meaningless or she was set on a path that isolated her at every turn and made her and everyone she could've potentially cared for into tools to bring about the eventual end of the world. And idk which option emotionally fucks me up more.

#it's late and I'm still feeling that asthma attack 24 hours later I'm sorry if this makes no sense #the magnus archives #tma #gertrude robinson

[chronotsr]

Pre-G1 Modules, part 2 - Palace of the Vampire Queen and DK1-3

Asterisk 1: The first standalone module, Palace of the Vampire Queen

(Another proud DND tradition, evil woman with her tits hanging out, representing here. This adventure is by Pete & Judy Kerestan, the operators of Wee Warriors.)

I'm trying really hard to not get TOO bogged down in exterior details to the adventures themselves, but a small preamble about Wee Warriors. Wee Warriors was a little company that was born to publish DND supplements. They were one of many, there were many zines and magazines and fan supplements going around, for example Judge's Guild forms at roughly the same time. They worked with TSR after a while to publish these things, so they were unofficial-but-official in a weird way. Early DND culture functions less like a business and more like a hobby community. Most of the early DND people knew each other in some capacity, it's only when DND got really far away from Lake Geneva that distinct cultures started forming island effect-style.

Good enough, let's keep going.

Our preamble gives us the basic of the adventure, dwarf island harangued by vampire queen, the undead keep abducting people to eat their blood. Conspicuously absent is any kind of information about a suggested level or party size.

It's cute, right? The styling is so welcome and loving in a way that TSR products will not have for a long, long time.

It's very rote, lots of very basic traps and stocked rooms. Not much to see he--

T-telepathic kittens that improve your morale? This is one of those moments where you just instantly know. The hobby isn't as different as you might thing. This is the exact sort of adorable shit you'd see on one of those big streamer shows. We all love our cats. They are our strength.

There genuinely isn't much to say about the rest of the module, other than that there is a shocking amount of child murder. There is an evil castle with a vampiress in it and you gotta go whack people til you can claim the reward money. About the most interesting twist you'll find in here is that there's a fakeout queen, and that the genuine queen will immediately take the (unnamed) dwarf princess hostage to secure her escape. I do appreciate that, if you're going to make every room just be a combat encounter with loot in it, the decision to make the key a table with room/creatures/max damage/description is sound. I'm kind of surprised this table-style key never caught on, given the 'doom monster closets' design that typifies a lot of early DND.

I wish that there was a great revelation waiting here for you, that the first non-TSR adventure was a forgotten classic? But it's really not. It's some monster-stocked rooms with the rare trap, and a vague preamble. Temple of the Frog showed a lot more creativity. I am kind of strangely fond of these lovingly inked maps though, it makes me long for hand-inked maps again. The Dungeon Master's Kit product line continues for two more entries (The Dwarven Glory and The Misty Isles) to form a soft trilogy.

Bonus Round: Skimming the rest of the Wee Warriors Dungeon Master's Kits

So the thing about the DK product line is that it's not very interesting. But since I had to get a copy, I'm making it your problem by talking about them more.

Everything about this room fascinates me. There is so much going on here that isn't explained. And then you keep going to room F7:

Again, nothing is fucking explained. The monsters are in conflict because why not? There's actually a great idea in here, (although again, why is child murder so prevalent?)

There are wisps of interesting narrative here, but all that's actually presented is like…the end-state? "Evil high priest who is abusing a tragedy to push his agenda" is a solid plot point. The idea that returning the treasure can cause conflict is great. But also, holy shit 500k gp diamond. That's enough exp to max your character in one fell swoop???

Moving onto Misty Isles, this is more of a…. setting than a module per-se. There's some implied plots I suppose. Here's some of the weirdest things:

The leader of the dwarves on one island is implied to be gay, which is a strange decision given how we don't have any other practical information about him, and has melted all his gold into one pile

A profit-prophet who gives oracles for bribes

Many, many dwarf seems to have access to actual modern day machine guns?

A band of monks are looking for a girl stolen by zombies. Why….did they steal her? Why is there hope of rescuing her? They're zombies, they're going to eat her!

I cannot do this justice myself:

That's….that's a lot. You want to randomly roll for nearly 600 magical objects? Sometimes designers Simply Say Words. The "My PC is the most bestest guy ever and could never be defeated" stories you hear people whinging about take a very different context when you realize there's just, GMs running around handing people literally 600 random magical items. Eventually you're going to roll and get the best items in the game. Note also, literally zero way of detecting any of the traps.

This random paragraph implies the existence of gamemaster-less play, a thing I guess could hypothetically exist with the degree of randomization, but. What?

Absolute queen shit. You go succubus lady! And the fairytale logic is cute cus, if the party got mad when they found out about this, they could always give her weight from some magic bullshit, like turning her into lead. Oops!

And it just goes on and on. There's a Cthulhu reference, there's a party of fighters who casually want to rape women (why were 70s gamers like this), the obligatory slavery character, et c. It's not the first setting released for DND, there are multiple people in front of this, I believe Empire of the Petal Throne won overall [fuck MAR Barker, nazi scum], and City State of the Invincible Overlord certainly predates it by a year. In 2024, it's a pretty tedious read. It reads like a list of ideas, because it is. There's some maps, but the maps are very sparse.

#ttrpg #tsr #dnd #dungeons and dragons #0e #chronotsr

[thesternest]

tag meme: my top 9 characters

i was tagged by @regallibellbright so with no particular order lets get into it

I have decided to not put any characters of my own here because then this list would be filled with my characters and nothing else

also only one per series since i want this to be an overall representation of my favorite characters

1.Phosphophyllite/Phos (land of the lustrous)

Phos is by far one of my favorite characters due to how they change throughout the series

also watching them suffer is what got me my permanent angst craving

phos is one of those characters that unfortunately due to being by far the most popular character in the series the fandom tends to dislike every other character in the series (particularly in this case since a lot of the other characters have mistreated phos in some way) which i think is a disservice to those characters

but phos is still my favorite

2.Blake Thorburn (Pact: Devils and Details) (no art for him because im too lazy to ask for permission to put him here and i dont want to put a piece of art on my post without permission)

ill be honest it was hard to pick if Taylor or Blake were going to be put here, since i didnt want to put two wildbow protagonists here, and while Worm was much more enjoyable for me to read i think Pact was a much more memorable story for me,

Since like blake struggled through the horrors, i struggled against decaying attention span

In general i gravitate toward fantasy stories more than superhero stories

3. Eve and aoi (birdie wing golf girls story)

hey remember a second ago when i was debating over which wildbow protagonist to put here because i didnt want to put both

Yeah fuck that these two are a pair because i love them both and refuse to seperate them

These two are genuinely one of my favorite protagonist duo's ever

like they are so funny with their insane antics and golf

4. Yuki Takamiya (thirteen sentinels aegis rim)

this one proved to be really hard to decide between Yuki, Okino or 426 since they are all favorites

i decided that it was best to fit one of the protagonists into this since it would be hard to talk about the other two without spoiling anything and needing a ton of context

from the second Yuki showed up i knew she would likely be a favorite

what i didnt expect was for her to be arguably one of the smartest characters in the game

I would say out of the protagonists she is the second smartest with Gouto being the smartest

Like i did not expect her route to be a detective story

5. Power (chainsaw man)

first person on this list who isnt a protagonist, and i did consider putting Asa instead of her and while i am undoubtedly more invested in Asa im also much more entertained by power

also i need to put one character who isnt a main character here lest i be seen as a basic bitch

6. Sayeon Lee (hand jumper)

we only have one season of her but this girl is so mentally unwell its like catnip to me

im eagerly awaiting the start of season 2

also to my surprise me reccomending vibes this webtoon caused a bunch of wormblr people to read this too so when season 2 starts i could probably talk to those people about it

7.Daan/ the doctor (fear and hunger termina)

this was a tough descision between Daan and Marina because while i love them both equally Daan has the better narrative in my head with his doomed by the narrative swag

8.Iwha (hero killer

she's cool when she murders people

9. Kikuri Hiroi (bocchi the rock)

girl who is doomed by the narrative

but the narrative is a slice of life so overall its not that bad

@n0brainjustvibes@tranz-regent@worstgirl-online i nominate you to follow in my example and list characters

Also feel free to analyse me like a lab rat for these picks in the notes

#also why is there such a clear gender divide in my faves #i did not expect that #phosphophyllite #land of the lustrous #blake thorburn #pact #pact web serial #pactblr #otherverse #birdie wing #birdie wing golf girls' story #aoi amawashi #evangeline burton #yuki takamiya #13 sentinels #13 sentinels: aegis rim #power #chainsaw man #sayeon lee #hand jumper #Daan #fear and hunger termina #Iwha #hero killer webtoon #bocchi the rock #hiroi kikuri