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makapatag · 4 months

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Tactical Combat, Violence Dice and Missing Your Attacks in Gubat Banwa

In this post I talk about game feel and decision points when it comes to the "To-Hit Roll" and the "Damage Roll" in relation to Gubat Banwa's design, the Violence Die.

Let's lay down some groundwork: this post assumes that the reader is familiar and has played with the D&D style of wargame combat common nowadays in TTRPGs, brought about no doubt by the market dominance of a game like D&D. It situates its arguments within that context, because much of new-school design makes these things mostly non-problems. (See: the paradigmatic shift required to play a Powered by the Apocalypse game, that completely changes how combat mechanics are interpreted).

With that done, let's specify even more: D&D 5e and 4e are the forerunners of this kind of game--the tactical grid game that prefers a battlemat. 5e's absolute dominance means that there's a 90% chance that you have played the kind of combat I'll be referring to in this post. The one where you roll a d20, add the relevant modifiers, and try to roll equal to or higher than a Target Number to actually hit. Then when you do hit, you roll dice to deal damage. This has been the way of things since OD&D, and has been a staple of many TTRPG combat systems. It's easy to grasp, and has behemoth cultural momentum. Each 1 on a d20 is a 5% chance, so you can essentially do a d100 with smaller increments and thus easier math (smaller numbers are easier to math than larger numbers, generally).

This is how LANCER works, this is how ICON works, this is how SHADOW OF THE DEMON LORD works, this is how TRESPASSER works, this is how WYRDWOOD WAND works, this is how VALIANT QUEST works, etc. etc. It's a tried and true formula, every D&D player has a d20, it's emblematic of the hobby.

There's been a lot more critical discussion lately on D&D's conventions, especially due to the OGL. Many past D&D only people are branching out of the bubble and into the rest of the TTRPG hobby. It's not a new phenomenon--it's happened before. Back in the 2010s, when Apocalypse World came out while D&D was in its 4th Edition, grappling with Pathfinder. Grappling with its stringent GSL License (funny how circular this all is).

Anyway, all of that is just to put in the groundwork. My problem with D&D Violence (particularly, of the 3e, 4e, and 5e version) is that it's a violence that arises from "default fantasy". Default Fantasy is what comes to mind when you say fantasy: dragons, kings, medieval castles, knights, goblins, trolls. It's that fantasy cultivated by people who's played D&D and thus informs D&D. There is much to be said about the majority of this being an American Samsaric Cycle, and it being tied to the greater commodification agenda of Capitalism, but we won't go into that right now. Anyway, D&D Violence is boring. It thinks of fights in HITS and MISSES and DAMAGE PER SECOND.

A Difference Of Paradigm and Philosophies

I believe this is because it stems from D&D still having one foot in the "grungy dungeon crawler" genre it wants to be and the "combat encounter balance MMO" it also wants to be. What ends up happening is that players play it like an immersive sim, finding ways to "cheese" encounters with spells, instead of interacting with the game as the fiction intended. This is exemplified in something like Baldur's Gate 3 for example: a lot of the strats that people love about it includes cheesing, shooting things before they have the chance to react, instead of doing an in-fiction brawl or fight to the death. It's a pragmatist way of approaching the game, and the mechanics of the game kind of reinforce it. People enjoy that approach, so that's good. I don't. Wuxia and Asian Martial Dramas aren't like that, for the most part.

It must be said that this is my paradigm: that the rules and mechanics of the game is what makes the fiction (that shared collective imagination that binds us, penetrates us) arise. A fiction that arises from a set of mechanics is dependent on those mechanics. There is no fiction that arises independently. This is why I commonly say that the mechanics are the narrative. Even if you try to play a game that completely ignores the rules--as is the case in many OSR games where rules elide--your fiction is still arising from shared cultural tropes, shared ideas, shared interests and consumed media.

So for Gubat Banwa, the philosophy was this: when you spend a resource, something happens. This changes the entire battle state--thus changing the mechanics, thus changing the fiction. In a tactical game, very often, the mechanics are the fiction, barring the moments that you or your Umalagad (or both of you!) have honed creativity enough to take advantage of the fiction without mechanical crutches (ie., trying to justify that cold soup on the table can douse the flames on your Kadungganan if he runs across the table).

The other philosophy was this: we're designing fights that feel like kinetic high flying exchanges between fabled heroes and dirty fighters. In these genres, in these fictions, there was no "he attacked thrice, and one of these attacks missed". Every attack was a move forward.

So Gubat Banwa removed itself from the To-Hit/Damage roll dichotomy. It sought to put itself outside of that paradigm, use game conventions and cultural rituals that exist outside of the current West-dominated space. For combat, I looked to Japanese RPGs for mechanical inspiration: in FINAL FANTASY TACTICS and TACTICS OGRE, missing was rare, and when you did miss it was because you didn't take advantage of your battlefield positioning or was using a kind of weapon that didn't work well against the target's armor. It existed as a fail state to encourage positioning and movement. In wuxia and silat films, fighters are constantly running across the environment and battlefield, trying to find good positioning so that they're not overwhelmed or so that they could have a hand up against the target.

The Violence Die: the Visceral Attacking Roll

Gubat Banwa has THE VIOLENCE DIE: this is the initial die or dice that you roll as part of a specific offensive technique.

In the above example, the Inflict Violence that belongs to the HEAVENSPEAR Discipline, the d8 is the Violence Die. When you roll this die, it can be modified by effects that affect the Violence Die specifically. This becomes an accuracy effect: the more accurate your attack, the more damage you deal against your target's Posture. Mas asintado, mas mapinsala.

You compare your Violence Die roll to your target's EVADE [EVD]. If you rolled equal to or lower than the target's EVD, they avoid that attack completely. There: we keep the tacticality of having to make sure your attack doesn't miss, but also EVD values are very low: often they're just 1, or 2. 4 is very often the highest it can go, and that's with significant investment.

If you rolled higher than that? Then you ignore EVD completely. If you rolled a 3 and the target's EVD was 2, then you deal 3 DMG + relevant modifiers to the DMG. When I wrote this, I had no conception of "removing the To-Hit Roll" or "Just rolling Damage Dice". To me this was the ATTACK, and all attacks wore down your target's capacity to defend themselves until they're completely open to a significant wound. In most fights, a single wound is more than enough to spell certain doom and put you out of the fight, which is the most important distinction here.

In the Thundering Spear example, that targets PARRY [PAR], representing it being blocked by physical means of acuity and quickness. Any damage brought about by the attack is directly reduced by the target's PAR. A means for the target to stay in the fight, actively defending.

But if the attack isn't outright EVADED, then they still suffer its effects. So the target of a Thundering Spear might have reduced the damage of an attack to just 1 (1 is minimum damage), they would still be thrown up to 3 tiles away. It matches that sort of, anime combat thing: they strike Goku, but Goku is still flung back. The game keeps going, the fight keeps going.

On Mechanical Weight

When you miss, the mechanical complexity immediately stops--if you miss, you don't do anything else. Move on. To the next Beat, the next Riff, the next Resound, think about where you could go to better your chances next time.

Otherwise, the attack's other parts are a lot more mechanically involved. If you don't miss: roll add your Attacking Prowess, add extra dice from buffs, roll an extra amount of dice representing battlefield positioning or perhaps other attacks you make, apply the effects of your attack, the statuses connected to your attack. It keeps going, and missing is rare, especially once you've learned the systematic intricacies of Gubat Banwa's THUNDERING TACTICS BATTLE SYSTEM.

So there was a lot of setup in the beginning of this post just to sort of contextualize what I was trying to say here. Gubat Banwa inherently arises from those traditions--as a 4e fan, I would be remiss to ignore that. However, the conclusion I wanted to come up to here is the fact that Gubat Banwa tries to step outside of the many conventions of that design due to that design inherently servicing the deliverance of a specific kind of combat fiction, one that isn't 100% conducive to the constantly exchanging attacks that Gubat Banwa tries to make arise in the imagination.

#gubat banwa #ttrpg #filipino #fantasy #gamedev #writing #rpg #dnd #southeast asia #d&d #d&d 5e #d&d 4e #i will say #that part of the decision away from a d20 (because gb alpha used one)#is sheer hater energy on my part #like i just didn't want to #because its used by all these other games by white people and especially because its used by dnd #there is like #4 instances where you use d20s in this game

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loveofbots · 7 months

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Sfw and nsfw head cannons for tarn please? Reader or cannon don't really care.

Shoutout @starscreamscorpse for calling beloved Tarn ‘mista taint’

I (lovingly) hate tarn so please take this with a grain of salt

SFW:

- Tarn is a loner in all senses of the word. He doesn’t ask for help, not even Nickel. He trusted people before and that led to his empurata, and then his abandonment from the academy, now he simply directs his team without confiding in anyone except Decepticon high command.

- To tarn, being a Decepticon is a belief. I know we joke about him dick riding megatron (he does) but the Decepticon cause gave him purpose. It gave him someone to believe in, a support system even.

- Advocate for universal healthcare, most likely due to Nickel’s influence.

- Tarn actually likes to sing. Even as Damos! I imagine he sings by himself most days, and actually writes his own music. In his perfect world, maybe he’d be a prodigy and launch Cybertron into an age of art. But of course, his story is one of tragedy.

- Tarn is harsh on the DJD. He may be friendly but he has a short temper, and will easily snap at people he considers his ‘friends.’ He’s also highly critical, as we know he started putting Decepticons on the list for increasingly petty reasons near the end of it.

- He’s probably not as grossed out by us squishies as he tells himself. Although he agrees that transformers are better- he would begrudgingly ‘keep the fleshling alive’ if he was instructed to. Because his singing does not affect humans the same way it affects his own race, he would probably grow very fond of singing to them.

- Tarn’s the type to be creepy at first, but he’s just a lonely, hurt Mech on the inside. He takes advantage of other folks like Pharma to fuel his addiction, a gentle hand would help him by light years. Yet he pushes away (and kills) anyone who tries to help. Citing that they are trying to ‘cleanse him.’ Dumbass.

[NO MINOR ZONE]

- His only lover is his hand. I’m serious he gets NO bitches. Every time someone came on to him he would fumble like a dink. Helix is still trying to give him better pickup lines than ‘I won’t kill you… tonight.’

- For me Tarn is on the ace spectrum. He doesn’t want to participate in interfacing, but he likes to watch. You could probably find him in the corner at some swinger parties.

- Normally he doesn’t have time/is too tired to even try to get off. He runs the DJD he’s a busy Mech. Not to say he doesn’t have his own little fantasies.

- Top all the way. He WILL NOT bottom (unless you ask) Tarn likes to feel in charge, superior, loved. He likes to be serviced and he likes the idea of ‘capturing’ someone and making them obey his every word.

- is actually a super awkward bot. His old self- Damos- comes out when he is flirted with. He’s a bashful Mech that can’t take any praise.

- Likes the idea of his partner getting off to his voice, it makes him feel powerful that his voice alone could make someone so down bad (I am looking at you tarn fans)

- cw: drugs!!! He is the WORST person to give a doobie to, this mf takes one hit if a roach and is coughing all night. On another note, he probably does take medicine to help him sleep thanks to mama nickel.

#transformers #mtmte #lost light #maccadam #tf #idw #headcanons #implied x reader #Tarn #djd #ghost writes #x reader #I didn’t put this in but he definitely has a praise kink #nickel #helix #mista taint #cw: drugs

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monsterblogging · 1 month

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So, something finally clicked into place re: Harry Potter and why people get so attached to it, despite it being... shall we say, not that good.

Now I want y'all to keep in mind, I am saying this as a former Harry Potter fan who still occasionally feels nostalgia for the franchise. As in, what I'm about to say here is informed by personal experience and self-analysis as much as anything.

It finally clicked that Harry Potter hooks you by the emotional vulnerabilities.

As someone who's studied various cults, and knows how they play to your emotions to suck you in, I can definitely say that Harry Potter many of the same moves.

Now, I'm not saying that Harry Potter fandom is a cult. I'm not saying that JK Rowling did this with any kind of deliberate intention. I'm talking about this to get anyone who has any kind of positive feelings toward this franchise critically thinking about what the foundation of their relationship with it really is.

To put it quite simply, cults often promise an escape from the ordinary world, and an entry into a world filled with wonder, belonging, and a sense of identity. There's groups out there who will tell you what kind of magic space alien your soul is, and what your very special purpose for incarnating on this Earth in a human body is.

The actual beliefs and moral precepts cults hold to are never really deep, but are always geared to play to your emotions. There's nearly always a clear-cut enemy responsible for everything we're supposed to hate. Cults often praise love and unity as the best things in the world, and believe that their power can overcome all evil.

It's easy to miss how the wizarding world is actually a soul-crushing dystopia when you're being distracted by the latest magical novelty.

It's easy to overlook how cruel and petty people in wizarding society actually are when your emotions are being played with stuff about love being the greatest magic of all.

It's easy to miss how the Hogwarts house system functions to foster rivalry between students and creates an environment (Slytherin House) where students are allowed to simmer in and internalize the Wizarding World's most rancid political ideologies when the house you or a quiz picked for you is your shiny new identity.

"I like Harry Potter because it's about the power of friendship triumphing over evil!" Yeah, that's... exactly my point.

And like, I'm not saying that the fact that this stuff appeals to people is a bad thing in itself. All of this stuff touches on very fundamental psychological needs. The point I'm making here is that these things are so fundamental that when we're deprived of them (whether or not we even consciously realize we're deprived), when something seems to offer them to us, it creates this massive emotional attachment that does not fade easily.

I still have an emotional attachment to Harry Potter, even though when I stop and ask myself what it's got that I actually find all that spectacularly compelling or interesting, I struggle to actually come up with an answer. Now, when I think about, say, Harry getting his wand and buying magic books and taking magic classes I feel a sense of excitement, but that's not really the same thing; because these emotions are coming from my experience as a very isolated, repressed, and understimulated child coming upon a novelty and power fantasy. When I try to think up anything in Harry Potter that I'd actually like to rotate in my mind, there's just... nothin'.

Now some of you out there might be thinking, "yeah but what about building on her ideas? What about AUs?" and like, the thing is? It doesn't appeal to me. I've got enough skill and knowledge at this point that I can sketch out a better OC than she could ever create in a couple of minutes, and a better fantasy setting in a few days or so.

To wrap this up, I guess I'll just say that really important to be able to distinguish between fiction that's actually saying something worthwhile, and fiction that's just hitting you in your emotional vulnerabilities. Of course friendship and love are important. And of course there's nothing wrong with power fantasies and escape fantasies. And not every story has to be all that deep. But you should ask yourself: could it the case that superficial messages about love, friendship, and family are distracting you from a pretty rancid worldview beneath it all?

Also, before I go - I'm just gonna say that anybody who responds to this post with praise for the fandom or the fanfiction or tells people to go buy fan merch or pirate the series or whatever is going to get blocked. Go clown somewhere else.

#harry potter #harry potter analysis #anti harry potter

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mdhwrites · 1 month

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thoughts on camila?

So I've talked about how she is just as a character before. I think as a character, she's as sweet as a saint and I like her in isolation. However, and this is what I want to focus on more because of an element I'll get to, she's a bad character in the context of The Owl House for the same reason King and Eda are: What is she doing in this story? How does she add to it?

Camila makes Luz look a fucking terrible as a human being. Almost EVERYTHING we see in the human frankly makes Luz like a terrible human being because that's the genre that The Owl House is a part of: Modern Isekai. Like most Modern Isekai, it's a story about a nerdy person who has no real prospects in real life and would rather live in their fantasies getting to go do that. Luz has a power that no one else has, gets to be with the prettiest, most popular, richest girl in the new world. She gets to stand up to a corrupt system but it never actually bothers her so she can just have fun shenanigans for the vast majority of the run time. She even fights an Evil Emperor which is almost as generic as a Demonic Lord as far as fantasy villains go. Honestly, TOH being isekai is probably a large part of why it was green lit (and frankly, same goes for Amphibia) since while it's not critically acclaimed, isekai is still one of the most popular genres of anime out there and the popular ones have made money hand over fist.

For most stories in this genre, they A: stay in the fantasy realm, TOH isn't fucking special people but also B: have a terrible home life in part to justify that desire and decision. There's also elements of wish fulfillment to its target demographic which is actually kind of important here. That your life sucks so you deserve to escape from it, just like this person. That terrible homelife in turn turns into a payoff for the audience because it can be used to highlight just how much better this world is and how much better off for everyone the MC is in this new world.

Camila doesn't really work for that though, does she? Something the show itself acknowledges with Yesterday's Lie. "You had it good." Hell, in that episode we have Camila wanting Vee to keep Luz's stuff because she knows those things are important to her daughter. Even in the first episode, Camila just wants Luz to make friends. She could fail to learn ANY life skills and stay just as weird at the camp (which she presumably needed to go to to not be EXPELLED for what she did) and Camila would happy if she was in a new Discord group with some friends. That is how low the fucking bar is for Camila's expectations of Luz and somehow THAT was too much. That was, as Camila will apologize for, multiple times, pushing her daughter away or repressing her.

That doesn't function for a Modern Isekai story... It functions for an old school isekai like Amphibia is. Old school isekai after all featured a lot more character growth, a lot more of the other world being an abstraction of problems the person was facing in the real world and had to learn how to deal with. As such, they usually ended with the main character going home a better person and putting their fantasies behind them. Not admonishing them but recognizing that staying there isn't what's best for them.

Camila's character for one of those is AMAZING. Like it could genuinely have led to one of the best deconstructions of the modern isekai protagonist. It's like the ass hat protag from Far Cry 3 (not saying this is handled well btw in that) who still wants to be bigger and more cool and seen as strong by those around him while he already has a smoking hot fiance, lives his life doing dangerous stunts, is really attractive himself and could just coast for the rest of his life. It doesn't fulfill his image and fantasy of what a 'man' is so fuck all of that, I need to go kill people and take over this native tribe! Which hurk, again, it's not done well, but it was trying to deconstruct this sort of fantasy. This sort of escapism that says the image in your mind is ALWAYS more important than those actually around you.

It could have highlighted how things are never as bad as they seem and wanting to escape always hurts someone and always is selfish... But for that, the show would have had to be willing to say one needs to learn to respect reality over fantasy. This could either be done by Luz learning that treating everything like one of japanese animu is a bad thing or they could do it through doubling down and showcasing after Yesterday's Lie that Luz is a genuinely terrible, selfish person who only views the promise she made to her mom as requiring her to give up the world she likes, not the damage she did to her mom.

Which I phrase because they literally did that. They changed the ending promise scene of Yesterday's Lie from being about their complex relationship to just being a summary of the stakes. "Come home, never come back." It's a narrative cheat to welcome anyone back from the mid season hiatus and that is frankly the BEST way to read it for Luz's character because otherwise she changed a conflict mostly about the pain she inflicted on her mom purely to the consequences and that's not really a thing a good person does.

But then the series ends with her having both worlds, getting to literally be Azura finally, quoting the damn book and just ENTIRELY admitting that it's not an OC, it's her replacing Azura, and it's all just fucking awful. In part because, like with the Liar Reveal stuff I talked about with TOH, it's a subversion without a new payoff. They try VERY HARD to give a new payoff but it's not earned. People adore the "I just want to be understood" moment but it ONLY functions in that moment from a meta perspective of it being a neurodivergent girl seeking understanding because who, especially of the people Luz cares about, hasn't shown her understanding in the past SEASON? SHE HAS A GIRLFRIEND WHO IS WAY BETTER AT IT THEN HER!

And so Camila is just this contradictory sore spot that goes right back around to "Man, our target audience would really love it if their parents would tell them explicitly that they don't need to grow as people or even try to understand others or how they may hurt them, literally but instead that their comfort is all that matters." It goes right back to being all about modern isekai's worst element: Wish fulfillment. Bland, obvious, pandering wish fulfillment.

And I COULD end the blog right there... But I said I had a reason to wanted to answer it like this. Admittedly, it expanded from what I expected so sorry for the long blog but here's the real tragedy: The moment of Luz recontextualizing Yesterday's Lie's promise should have been AMAZING to me. After all... It's the part of Luz I loved writing the most.

Yep, more of that celebrating ten years of writing stuff to talk about one of the elements of my TOH writing that I genuinely am very proud of: Luz being a scared, anxious teenager who doesn't read the world correctly. One who is held back because she thinks if she isn't scared, she'll be hurt or, more importantly, hurt others.

I know a lot of people will tell me that TOH didn't do that and like... gestures at everything above and SO many other elements like how Luz has two token moments implying she's been traumatized from bullying that doesn't read with how she was for the entirety of the first season, or up to those points in the second for that matter, AT ALL. She doesn't actually have that sort of fear or anxiety. She's too selfish and self serving for it. Her needs always come above others and that's not the compelling part of this to me, nor is the self protection element.

No, it comes from the fact that you have to actually care what others think for it to torture you, like most teenagers do. That disappointing someone would be essentially the same as stabbing them. In The Power of Love, I got a lot of people to go from "This is cute" to "Okay, you have my attention" with chapter 3: Ru-Luz (which reading back... Some of my transition lines are not working there. Why did I think they did? Brain moving too fast I suspect like usual or trying too hard). Despite the pun, it's not a fun chapter. It ends with her listed rules that are actually nice, like telling her to be herself, but a final rule that, so as to keep the voices in her head, the things others have told her, quiet she must follow. "Treat Amity like anyone else, even if that means breaking other rules." And one of those voices is said to be Camila's.

I don't leave it there though. Through complications, it's very explicitly revealed that, well... Luz is a teen. Everything is world ending for her. That she's taken small comments or momentary frustrations, or just straight up misread things, so as to have them attack her and form her view of how others perceive her (along with having been genuinely bullied). That her mom does adore her and would accept any part of her but she can't believe that, not with how she is now. And that leads to really highlighting an element of Lumischa that I've always loved: Boscha as Amity and Luz's rock. Someone who is honest enough that neither worry about if she's holding back on her opinion. And you know what happens?

Luz and Boscha get multiple chapters of Boscha providing the wake up call she needs. Of her chipping away at those fears that others may be secretly hating her because here is bad bitch Boscha telling her to shut up because she's better than she thinks she is. It's blunt enough to actually make an impact, harsh enough that it still addresses the fuck up, and is something no else would do. Not even Amity because Amity is her own ball of anxieties who's worried about the wrong move upsetting people. I would have ADORED this element actually being a thing for Luz and you know, maybe leading to a Power of Friendship moment with all of them backing her up and giving her the confidence she needs for something. Instead we get her ignoring what she's claiming to be worried about (making mistakes) and then getting a power up when her mom tells her that she should have quite literally never criticized anything about her daughter which is not what a good parent does. Even my Boscha will still call out that Luz did make a mistake if she did, just then also point that she's being over dramatic about it because no one hates her because of it.

I also want to give a shout out to this essentially being an element of my Luz for Ruff Secret as well (original version too) as an essentially tragic element to the majority of the story. Camila clearly accepts parts of her daughter in that story that their wider community doesn't but Camila is also critically still a part of that community which is Christian. She's very devout even, going every week to church. There is nothing except coming out to Camila that will ever make Luz not just assume that being gay will not get her disowned because of the fears in her head and because of those same fears, she'll never come out of the closet. She has clearly never even been willing to approach the topic with her mom about it. It does payoff in the end though with Camila freaking out WAY harder about Amity being a werewolf and the danger that puts her daughter in than of Luz being gay because why would you judge something as incredible as love?

It's not new, I've seen some other things take similar approaches, but it uses the age of the character and society to actually amplify the emotions and make the angst more justified. Make what normally just be "I can't confess, what if she says no?" more dramatic while also managing to tie the two romantic leads together in their conflicts since Amity is dealing with something she sees as a curse, as a primal sin that could only ever hurt others, just like Luz is. And just like Luz, it's actually in repressing and rejecting that side of her that Amity does end up hurting someone but that someone is herself.

All while still managing to be one of the funniest stories I've ever written. I ADORE Ruff Secrets. Crises Girlfriends may be my most personal story but I still think Ruff Secrets is my best story. Period. Which is frankly a miracle since it was a snap start based on a joke a someone made.

So yeah, I like Camila conceptually. I think there was a lot you could do with her. Any direction though would have required TOH to be at least as grounded as Amphibia, let alone ANYWHERE near as grounded as the fandom thinks it is. As is, she's a subversion that doesn't add anything and actively hurts what is a very normal fantasy story.

As such, she's a bad character because what you add to a narrative does matter to that metric unless you are actively ignoring that part of a character's purpose for existing. That's just less useful to a writer though because it means you add a tool to your toolbox without understanding how to use that tool which is always dangerous as any professional mechanic or engineer may tell you.

======+++++======

I will admit that I fidget at praising myself so much like this. I know I've used my own works as examples in the past but it always makes me feel awkward. It especially never helps that it likely comes across as, justifiably, saying I could have done X better. There's a big difference though between "In this context I DID X better" and "If I had made X, I WOULD have done it better." Situation, context, and just the creative process can always muddie things and doesn't even mean the same writer will always tackle the same subjects as well every time. It's just a part of the process.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house #luz noceda #camila noceda

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esther-dot · 6 months

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IMO, I don’t think A stans who attack Sansa for her classism truly cares about it. I mean, they want A to be queen/lady (and there’s nothing wrong with wanting that) but such an ending would only be reinforcing the structure they’re critising.

And it’s great and important that A plays with lowborn children and tried to defend Mycah but that doesn’t make her a marxist revolutionary lol, it doesn’t erase her own classism. All nobles are classist, a few of them bother to treat peasants relatively well (the Starks, Edmure, etc) but that unfair system still exists. You can’t have nobility without inequality.

And I'll paste this one in too:

Unpopular opinion but if Arya’s stans genuinely believed in her as someone who isn’t classist, they would imagine her leading a social revolution that topples and destroy feudalism. Not someone who serves the conception of hereditary monarchy, serfdom (despite treating them with humanity), hierarchical social categories, etc. Arya as QITN would be a reformist, not a revolutionnary.

(These are so old, I can’t remember which post prompted them, apologies!)

So, I never thought more than being a good leader within the system was a possibility? During GoT they played up this idea that Dany was gonna change the system, "break the wheel," but that was mainly to hide the fact that going to war for a crown was a selfish thing to do, that she wasn't a hero for choosing that path. Considering how Martin has written about the tragedy of the Starks losing Winterfell, the little boys being chased from their home, I never imagined that his ending would involve a king or queen turning around and doing that to another noble child? IMO, there was never going to be any seizing and divvying up wealth.

In ASOIAF, it seems like the focus is much more on having a leader who will be capable of maintaining peace and delivering justice and taking care of some practical concerns. It never even occurred to me to expect an end to feudalism? So, yeah, I would agree that the most anyone could be was a reformist, but I didn't even think that was the idea (in the way fans would mean it) that Martin was tracking. It didn't seem to me that he was gonna do away with nobles, only that he was saying a good noble won't allow his smallfolk to be mistreated and wouldn't ruin their lives for the sake of a crown. I thought that's where the Robb criticism comes in. Robb should have chosen peace, not more fighting.

I also thought the good noble was being presented with Ned. Protect the vulnerable, be horrified by the death of the innocent, adhere to these personal values even when they are in defiance of what your world demands, even when it means betrayal of a "brother" or treason against your king. Obviously, Ned fell short of the ideal, but that's why his children will rise to power, because they have the same core values that Martin wants us to look at as good.

Personally, I think Arya being rebellious and kicking against the rules that annoy her is fun? My little sister was a tomboy, and I have sympathy for Sansa, but I'm amused by Arya. However, I do not attribute as much, uh, let's say, virtue to her behavior as others do. Nor do I attach the same amount of condemnation to Sansa (who recognizes class distinctions) that others do. To me, Martin used the Trident incident to illustrate how the class differences worked because it's a grievance of his that writers ignore them:

And that’s another of my pet peeves about fantasies. The bad authors adopt the class structures of the Middle Ages; where you had the royalty and then you had the nobility and you had the merchant class and then you have the peasants and so forth. But they don’t’ seem to realize what it actually meant. They have scenes where the spunky peasant girl tells off the pretty prince. The pretty prince would have raped the spunky peasant girl. He would have put her in the stocks and then had garbage thrown at her. You know. I mean, the class structures in places like this had teeth. They had consequences. And people were brought up from their childhood to know their place and to know that duties of their class and the privileges of their class. It was always a source of friction when someone got outside of that thing. And I tried to reflect that. (link)

With that in mind, I thought Martin wanted to impress upon the reader the severity of what the hierarchy meant, the prince can do whatever the hell he wants, the noble kid is in danger of being punished (Arya might have lost a hand, Sansa loses Lady), Mycah is killed. We were meant to understand, this world isn't ours. Arya in an important way, didn't understand how the world worked, not really, which is a tool the author was using, her grief and horror, to guide us through learning about station in ASOIAF. We needed to see and feel the disparity.

Obviously, Martin doesn't think that's a good system, but the author slapping us in the face with, “this is horrible but this is the way it is” doesn’t mean we’re to expect a total transformation of Westeros as a whole in the last few chapters of the final book. Martin wants to have some verisimilitude to (his perception of) medieval times, so imo, the idea was never turning Westeros on its head, but for people who cared to end up in control and be better. Not like a modern anarchist, but be good within the confines of that world.

Anyway, because of how many Arya fans hate Sansa/Sansa fans, I never did much with that side of the fandom, but I never had the impression they truly thought anyone would be revolutionizing things. It seemed to me that they believed her ending up QitN was revolutionary not in the sense that she would upend the system, but to them, having a girl who rejected societal norms come out on top felt like an important rejection of a traditional princess “winning.” I assume that's why so much of their focus is on Sansa and how she ruined Arya's life even though she and Arya have been separated for books. It isn't so much what the particular character will do as a leader, which theme is upheld by them ending up in a position of leadership, the "revolutionary" bit is determined by defiance of (what they believe are) genre norms, not societal overhaul on the page.

Now, if we accept that a total societal revolution is off the table in ASOIAF, and knowing that Martin opposes violence pretty vehemently, isn't in favor of imposing your will through violent means, how can someone who rejects society encourage gradual improvement? Wouldn't the "realism" Martin wants be found in a person, who say, can function really, really well within the structure of society but cares enough to try to make things better for others? Someone who can change it all from within because their societal position confers a certain amount of power, but also, they have a notable ability to win admiration, even when it is begrudgingly given? Someone whose compassion, even for enemies, is highlighted? Isn’t that someone who would be able to gradually bring about the kind of realistic change Martin would permit in his world?

#dot chat

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woodaba · 9 months

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I Still Like Tyranny

i replayed tyranny after getting a bit tired of seeing that Other Big RPG recently, and to my delight, i thought it was still good, for the most part. it represents the kind of breadth and scale i value most in these kinds of games: less an enormous field of markers and possibility, more a dark forest of snares and traps, always one foot away from stepping into a nest of vipers.

for those unfamiliar, tyranny is a game about playing a middle-ranked officer in a conquering army in a bronze-age fantasy society, managing a civil war between two factions within the army. you work for the villains, carry the authority of villains and most of your conversation options will have you speaking just like a villain.

tyranny is smart. despite this being the selling point of the game, it's acutely aware that most players will take this as a challenge - as statistics and statements from multiple developers, including obsidian themselves suggest, almost everyone who plays these kinds of games plays a Good character - and try to defy the stated premise try to claw out some form of heroism in this awful world. knowing this, tyranny carefully and methodically pushes back against attempts to be an honorable and noble person within the role of the fatebinder. it dangles the carrot of self-preservation and gratification to lure you away from the path of righteousness, to ask you to make one compromise - just one, just now - in the hopes that will lead to a better future that has already been closed off from you. it never lets hope die completely - not till the very end - even though you can have completely ruined any chance of defiance with the sixth click of the mouse button after character creation.

each playthrough, i have tried to rebel against kyros, to join the indigenous population and beat back the obviously evil invaders, and until now, i have failed, tripping and falling down a slippery slope that begins with attempted nobility, drops further into compromises and justifications stacked one after another, and ends on a world little different than how it began, save the markings of my boot-print upon it. this time, however, i succeeded: i negotiated an alliance with the rebels of the tiers and forged a true resistance against Kyros the Overlord, and ultimately, i think i found the experience a little wanting.

it's not that it's disappointing, but rather that it's the opposite: i think it lets me rebel too much. tyranny is fun when you play it as a cackling supervillain, but what it excels at is making you a spineless coward, abusing legal loopholes to make meager gains without damaging your power and authority, to be a lickspittle for as many factions as you can to curry favor among them, to do one thing and say the other, to act as a CRPG protagonist so often does, in ways utterly tinged and made sharp by the nature of the premise. at its core, tyranny is a game about how the state and the law will twist and morph whatever actions you take to be in its benefit, to incorporate criticisms and spit them back out, to take rebellion and absorb it into its mass, to take hope and erode it's convictions until the flames only burn for what the state wants them to burn for.

there's little of that to be found in the rebel path, sadly. bereft of the central power of the premise, you're mostly playing a normal CRPG about uniting the tribes against a greater threat, only with your character being a bit more of an asshole about it. this would be fine if the game maintained its fantastic ending - often mischaracterized as empty and unfinished, the slow zoom out of the map to show that all that you have done has been anticipated and accounted for within the system, that whatever gains you have made, whatever you have done, all of it will amount to naught in the end, to be swept away in the tide of history by a force that is Bigger than even the almighty CRPG Protagonist can survive. but it doesn't, not quite - you can hurt Kyros in this ending, not entirely, not completely - and still in a way that makes clear that this is within the scope of Their design, but I think that is too far, too supplicant to the player's need for power and gratification.

when i first finished it, i wondered if the rebel path was simply fully subtractive from the experience, but with further thought, i don't think that's the case. as much as i think it is strictly weaker than the scarlet chorus and disfavored paths, i do think there is value in it's existence - not to play, but to know it exists, to strive for it, and ultimately fail. i don't play tyranny to win - as much as i think the gameplay is better than many give it credit for, i don't think it's strong in the ways that the more traditionally driven games in this genre are strong. i don't play to escape the forest of traps: i play to try, and fail, to be caught in my own compromises and contradictions, to fall into that nest of vipers, and lose myself in them.

#video games #rpg #review #tyranny

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fleshing-out-fodlan · 1 year

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A criticism I’ve seen of Edelgard that doesn’t really make sense to me is that she’s a selfish person. I went back over some key points of the game and yeah...still don’t see it.

The first evidence I saw someone give for this is that Edelgard starting a war is motivated by her trauma and fixing a system that hurt her which, while it’s an overly simplistic view of her motivations imo, it’s not wrong. But I don’t think that makes her selfish. The reforms she wants to institute are things that will help people other than her and besides, plenty of people who want to fix broken systems are people who were hurt by those systems. The pain they went through gives them a greater insight into how the system works and what exactly the downfalls are and those insights are very important in instituting actual, effective change. Furthermore, not all of Edelgard’s goals are based on what will help her. The obvious example I think is her wanting to get rid of the nobility and allow commoners to gain more influence. Edelgard was born into the most powerful position in the empire, her allowing commoners to have no power doesn’t directly help her (although I do think it will help make society a better place and therefore indirectly help Edelgard because she lives in society, but if we call that selfish implementing literally any change would be selfish). I’ve also seen the line from the Edelgard Byleth B support about her wanting to do nothing all day and eat sweets. Which sure, is a selfish desire, but everyone has fantasies about abandoning their duties every now and then. What’s important is not whether or not you think about it, but whether or not you do it, and Edelgard never abandons her role as leader of the empire to laze around.

Edelgard also continues to fight on the frontlines and risk her life even when she doesn’t have to. After the destruction of Arianrhod, Hubert tells Edelgard that it would be best for her to stay off the battle field as she is going to be their main target but Edelgard states that she “cannot withdraw” and goes into battle anyways, risking her life along with her soldiers.

Furthermore, Edelgard’s supports with Dorothea indicate a lack of vanity (which is different from selfishness but I feel like they do go hand in hand in a way). When Dorothea talks about an opera starring Edelgard being produced, Edelgard states that she hopes it is far off, showing how the war she is waging is not about looking good or anything of that sort. Furthermore, in many of her supports Edelgard is trying to help her friends to improve herself. And while her criticisms can make her come across as cold hearted to the other Eagles at first, that’s not a result of her actually being cold hearted (as she is genuinely going into those conversations out of a desire to see her fellow classmates become the best versions of themselves as opposed to anything malicious) but more so a result of her lack of social skills due to her being isolated growing up imo.

#fe3h #fe3h edelgard #edelgard positive

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horizon-verizon · 3 months

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The way Rhaegar gets hate because he “cheated” from the same people who “ship” Nettles and Daemon, another adulterous relationship. Rhaegar is a monster for cheating on his gentle, soft, devoted (and ARRANGED) wife, but suddenly y’all support Daemon cheating on his wife, a woman who lost 4 children and is mentally destroyed.

Also, according to them, Daemon groomed Rhaenyra... So you agree, Rhaenyra is his victim ? But they still want him to mock and humiliate her.

Although there are valid & rightful criticisms of Rhaegar going for someone else while married even if Elia somehow cosigned it or "forgave" him (because women vs men have different consequences for cheating AND/OR their spouses cheating)...

yes this discrepancy is too much.

So you like a Targ man cheating on one woman (who happens to also be Targ) but not a Targ man cheating on a nonTarg woman...can we really say you like women, then? Because though Elia was never a princess or royal, she's still the scion of a "Great House" and a noble, so we can't use the old Alicent-Rhaenyra trick of "different privileges" (even thought that didn't work in that context either to exonerate Alicent of wrongdoing). We couldn't say that Alicent was Rhaenyra's victim nor that Rhaenyra herself did not go through patriarchal oppression, nor argue that "who suffered more" makes a victim the more moral actor than the other. Yes, book!Rhaenyra brought about her own end by going after Nettles while using misogynoir. that doesn't remove the misogyny & the fact that she was placed in the position she was in because women, in general, are not given the grace or authority to rule in the same way as more incompetent or evil men. So why?

Because they hate Targs--but really as a way of hating Dany. So they hate women first, then anything that affirms or enables them to have more power than men, or power perceived as "more". Esp women who take it upon themselves to accrue power without relying "enough" on previous patriarchal criteria for female rule (most of what Dany gets & needs from her father is the blood claim and what not to do as a ruler and she was already younger than the dead Viserys). And Rhaegar is the sibling that she yearns for the most, to compare herslef to, to wonder what life would have been like but also his ties to the prophecy she comes in contact with, etc.

She thinks for herself constantly and is attempting to destroy one of the longest-lasting oppressive systems in the ASoIaF world, which intimidates their conservative or liberal sensibilities

she has the mightiest symbols and materials for power in this universe: dragons (perceived or acknowledged in-world) which many feel should be have been given to a male character like Jon...hence why the numerous Dany-as-Jon's-consort, Dany-is-racist-for-not-accepting-Quentyn (even though he goes for a pale girl himself, back home), Dany even losing her dragons to Euron and his dragon horn is seen as a positive plot point or her marrying him and him using her dragons...as if her dragons trust or care abt anyone other then their mother, who literally breastfed them (but then again, many fans probably hate their mothers just for existing)

there are heavy clues that she is the Azor Ahai--a principal actor to literally saves the world from ice monsters when in a more conventional fantasy world this person would be male

Elia--no woman--deserved what she got from Tywin Lannister & the Mountain (bc her rape and death are their fault. Her own brother says that often and his belief leads to his death for heaven's sake!). But Rhaenyra did not deserve to get cheated on by Daemon as she had done nothing to him PLUS there would have been heavy political consequences for her that Daemon did not get when he cheated on Rhae Royce several times. They also chose each other despite almost everyone's condemnations of it--it was not an arranged marriage.

Even if we argued she did, Daemon cheating on Rhaenyra--as a hypothetical--would have happened BEFORE Rhaenyra did anything to Nettles.

Finally, yes if we say Daemon groomed Rhaenyra, then why do we hate the victim?

#asoiaf asks to me #the evil targaryens #rhaegar targaryen #rhaenyra and feminism #asoiaf fandom #fandom critical #rhaenyra and daemon #fire and blood

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abcleverun · 1 year

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A Leg to Stand On

I want to start by saying the art and essay were non-malicious; even this isn't meant to be aggressive, and I took no offense to A Rebuttal of a Rebuttal. I’ll get more into why I wrote Criticizing the Attorney at the end of this, but I drew the art because Kat looked fun to draw, and I’ve had that meme with her and Ben in my head for almost a year. Since you released your latest youtube video, it reminded me of the idea, and I had to finally get it out. As I said in the tags of that post, you (Cat) are free to do whatever you want with the image.

Now—my essay wasn't about me arguing what should and should not have happened, it was about critiquing the defense. "The right thing to do" and "what I would like to see happen" are two separate things. I don't feel bad for Harangue, and I thought that moment where Ben, turned human, continued hitting Vilgax was a great scene, for all the reasons Cat pointed out in her section.

I will concede:

In Ultimate Alien, Ben is a deputized agent of the Plumbers. By OV, it seems he's no longer fully affiliated with the Plumbers. Ben being a special agent absolutely makes sense.

I wrote my essay entirely by American standards. I don't know how Plumber law works; we only have scraps and hints laid out throughout the franchise. From what I could see of it, it's pretty heavily based on US law, but I can't claim for sure that it's all 1 to 1.

It's true, I made assumptions too, but the "he might've had a breakdown" part felt a bit... odd? To me, like that was a little too specific. But at the same time, even writing about that in the original response, I did feel like I was being a bit of a hypocrite.

By the standards I laid out, Rook absolutely has committed police brutality in the past. I've talked about that with friends privately before; I strongly dislike and disagree with Rook's tactics and beliefs. I actually have a shelved essay on how I dislike the plumbers as a whole, and I might pick it back up again.

I disagree/will stand by my original points:

“Do you really think the galactic courts would side with Vilgax over Ben on a debate about excessive use of force?”

No, but I think if Vilgax had some decent lawyers, they would absolutely make that argument. (That actually sounds like a normal UA episode plot...)

They were indeed too lenient, but they were following procedure, unlike Ben. Procedure sucks, but it's there for a reason. It's not the best reason, but it's better than having no procedure. That's kind of part of the limitation of science fiction; it's always written from the perspective of someone living in current time, with current technology, and their current laws. It's hard to think of anything better if you're a liberal if you only know all you've ever known, hence why space cop procedure still sucks, despite being set up by super advanced and hyper intelligent aliens. The writers seemed to be less interested in “what would the most ideal legal system look like?” and were more focused on portraying “Cops… in SPACE!”

Moving on: even if Haragnue went unpunished, Ben still wouldn't have been in the right to punish him; Harangue should've gone through the system. Harangue being rich and powerful makes that harder, but not impossible. Harangue was supposed to be a sort of Alex Jones type parody, and Alex Jones had his day in court and lost. I honestly think it'd've been interesting to see him get processed, if written by someone capable of pulling off a plot like that. It all depends on what kind of fantasy you want to go for; UA might've taken that up, but it was only natural that OV took the path it took.

I don't think Harangue was really hurt by being turned into an alien, but if Harangue decided to sue, he would absolutely have a leg to stand on. That was my main point: both Vilgax and Haragnue have cases.

Ben has MUCH STRONGER cases against them, but that's another story—one I hope to dive into in the future.

Now, "Why did you respond to something I wrote four years ago?”

It was the first essay in your blog directory.

“Why respond to any of the essays at all?”

I always felt like your arguments could’ve been more objective. I wanted to try my hand at scratching this itch that was kind of bugging me about these takedowns, almost like stress-testing it. I could've added more "here's a better defense for Ben," but hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

I was intending to do more, but the flame kind of fizzled out after writing the one. It actually helped the juices flowing for general essays on Ben 10; a few I’m working on now are Diagnosing Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, Ben is Unintentionally a Queer Icon, and (Possibly) Why Ben Tried to Murder Kevin—the last one being my attempt to answer that without using the “Ben’s just evil” argument.

Lastly, I understand why Lunany called me AB, but I enjoy going by Suzie.

@xcatxgirlx (Not tagging Lunany because she said she's not interested in interacting with the fandom), I'm very open to discussion on this and other topics regarding Ben 10. Looking forward to your video.

#xcatxgirlx #Ben 10 #Ben 10 Omniverse #ben 10 ultimate alien #Ben 10 essay #Ben 10 alien force #abclevertalks

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talenlee · 5 months

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How To Be: Sothe Pathofradiance (In 4e D&D)

In How To Be we’re going to look at a variety of characters from Not D&D and conceptualise how you might go about making a version of that character in the form of D&D that matters on this blog, D&D 4th Edition. Our guidelines are as follows:

This is going to be a brief rundown of ways to make a character that ‘feels’ like the source character

This isn’t meant to be comprehensive or authoritative but as a creative exercise

While not every character can work immediately out of the box, the aim is to make sure they have a character ‘feel’ as soon as possible

The character has to have the ‘feeling’ of the character by at least midway through Heroic

When building characters in 4th Edition it’s worth remembering that there are a lot of different ways to do the same basic thing. This isn’t going to be comprehensive, or even particularly fleshed out, and instead give you some places to start when you want to make something.

Another thing to remember is that 4e characters tend to be more about collected interactions of groups of things – it’s not that you get a build with specific rules about what you have to take, and when, and why, like you’re lockpicking your way through a design in the hopes of getting an overlap eventually. Character building is about packages, not programs, and we’ll talk about some packages and reference them going forwards.

Who are we looking at this month? Well, since this series was started off by Hilda from Three Houses, it seems positively rude on my part to not reach once more to the Fire Emblem well, with its wonderfully varied names and … embarrassingly limited mechanical scope.

Let’s look at a character from a Gamecube game about fighting a dragon, or a god, or the black knight, or something.

Examining Sothe

Setting aside the way he shows up in any other ‘this relates to Fire Emblem’ media like Fire Emblem Heroes, Sothe is present in two games: Fire Emblem: Pool of Radiance and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. After doing extensive research into the Fire Emblem franchise, and built an extensive understanding of the game’s existing lore and general play fantasy, I have gathered information about the importance of this plot-vital character. As best I can tell, there’s no actual reason to care that much about keeping Sothe around. He’s the second thief you get in a game where you don’t need any thieves. In Path of Radiance, Sothe is there to set up his appearance in the second game, where I understand he’s much cooler. Poor guy got it rough.

Know what is cool though about Fire Emblem? It has a bunch of systemic information about the character. At a glance, I can tell that Sothe has a starting strength of 5, but a skill of 7 and a speed of 11. These are not the same stats as you’d see in D&D but you can interrogate what they’re meant to represent.

Sothe’s strength adds to his physical damage, but his skill and speed improve his critical hit rate. Critical hit rates aren’t something you can do a lot with in 4e D&D, but that’s still a sign that this character might not be the most powerful, aggressive fighter, not someone who can deadlift things, but thanks to his ability to hit things at the right time and the right place, he can do a lot of damage. Sothe doesn’t have any meaningful magical ability, and it doesn’t improve that well.

Also, in terms of what he does badly, he doesn’t have good defense or resistance, and those things don’t improve much either. In Radiant Dawn, he gets to be more or less the same thing, but moreso, with a special skill for dealing more damage to shapeshifting monsters. All of this mechanically indicates pretty much what you’d expect at the idea of a ‘sly thief’.

Alright, then, Sothe is a thief, mobile, able to engage in fights but not an individual who can pick up a horse and throw it. Light armour seems obvious, since that would be good for mobility, and he uses knives. All this stuff is covered pretty conveniently in most of our optional builds, so there’s no concern there.

Sothe’s beast-stalking seems… kind of hard to do anything with. That can be covered in D&D with silvered weapons, which are low priority in my opinion.

Glossary Note: Conventionally, the term used in D&D for this mechanical package is race. This is the typical term, and in most conversations about this game system, the term you’re going to wind up using is race. For backwards compatibility and searchability, I am including this passage here. The term I use for this player option is heritage.

Light armour, some strength (if you can spare it), good dexterity (so picking a class and heritage that amplify those options), and skills that let you sneak around and steal things.

I mean I’m not going to lie to you, I started thinking ‘this guy is just a thief, right?’ and I’m not wrong. An added challenge for Sothe, though, is the question of how do you add variety to a build for a character who at his heart is a game piece designed to slot into the spot of ‘a thief’?

Idea 1: The Rogue

Well duh.

Idea 2: The Ranger

If you like the idea of being a sneaky damage dealer like Sothe, but for some reason, you dont’ want to be ‘a thief’ – I mean why, how, what is it about Sothe that pulls your attention here, I do not get it – another good option is the Ranger. Rangers can be built with a lot of dexterity, and with attacks that use Dexterity to attack people. The best Ranger attack, Twin Strike, is a good example too, where you can (say) throw a pair of daggers at someone’s face with your knives. The skillset mostly lines up too and you can use themes to pick up more skills that fit your vision of this thiefy character. Amn is a good one – it gives you Streetwise and Thievery, which

I mean

Sothe is a Thief. You probably want Thievery, right?

Idea 3: The Warlord

Alright, now I know I’m pushing towards the edges, but bear with me here.

Sothe does not ‘heal’ people in Forced Femblem. Healing in that game is a very specific mechanic that works a particular way. But there is a build of the Warlord that cares about making opportunities and not making its own attacks.

The idea is a ‘Lazy Warlord.’ Fire Emblem is a game where units sometimes spend turn after turn not attacking and just waiting for things to engage you. You can, in fact, just idle on a map but be there, necessarily, because of some plot reason or another. I’ve watched enough Firey Wirey Emblemy Wemblemy to know that the core of the game is very much often about parking plot-relevant characters where they can’t be accidentally critted to death by randoms and turning the map into a kill box.

For that, I would suggest, a lazy warlord. Sothe is there, but Sothe isn’t there to fight. Sothe is there to enable your fighting, and to take advantage of opportunities.

In just heroic, you can do this with the following powers as you level up:

Commander’s Strike (At Will)

Direct the Strike (At Will)

Overwhelming Force Trap (Encounter)

Powerful Warning (Encounter)

Friendly Fire (Encounter)

Destructive Surprise

Scent of Victory

With this power layout, you literally don’t need to be able to attack on your own at all. You can even take Fey Beast Tamer as your theme, and have a pet that can do your opportunity attacks or granted attacks. This is a build that doesn’t need any magical weapons at all, and that’s pretty wild!

Junk Drawer

Within the limits of a martial, non-magical character type that is lightly armoured, Sothe pretty much taps it out and reaches his goal immediately. Once you’re willing to expand a little bit, the Avenger becomes immediately obvious as an option for a weapon-wielding character that isn’t high strength, and cares about light armour and mobility. If you’re willing to allow some arcane magic into your Sothe’s life, you could also turn to the Skald, wielding a knife and letting people heal themselves while you attack around them.

I’ve talked about it before, but some characters line up obviously in what they do and how they do it. The trick then is to look for the next thing.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Fire Emblem #How to Be #Dungeons &amp; Dragons #Games

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radishwizard · 1 year

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some vaguely incoherent yelling about goblin emperor + politics + genre beyond the read more (just to be clear by some i mean a whole wall of text)

(fyi goblin emperor is one of my favorite books i just also like engaging with things i like in critical ways)

i started my day by verifying at approx 4 am that maggie stiefvater named herself after margaret thatcher (true btw) so i've been thinking about neoliberalism and --

i've always really disliked celehar's letter at the end of goblin emperor because for a guy that in theory is an impartial investigator it reads to me as incredibly dismissive and judgmental of the Curneisei philosophy: like yeah i mean i don't disagree there's stuff there that's questionable but also there's some stuff that isn't re: wanting more power for the working class -- celehar even acknowledges this by saying that he can understand and sympathize with the desire to improve their lives. (they are, presumably, underpaid, overworked, and experiencing dangerous labor conditions.) (i disliked this letter + celehar by association so much that i put off reading witness for the dead for ages lol but i was very brave and read it this week and i enjoyed it. tea culture!)

(in contrast i actually like maia's interaction with shulivar -- i think that it makes sense that maia would have a somewhat naive understanding of the impact of the existence of his government and would be shocked and discomfited by the truth of shulivar's words -- so it feels to me less like a good/bad moral judgement is being passed (as in celehar's letter) and more like a broadening of maia's worldview. i also like that shulivar presents his actions as just a beginning, not an end-all to change)

similarly the plot against elhokar in words of radiance (stormlight archive) has also always really bothered me -- i know there's a lot of other stuff going on there with like moash's personal vengeance and the Diagram and whatever but -- if you have like, a societal problem (class/racial inequality) just putting a different king in power who will still 100% uphold that system is ??? not ??? going to solve anything ???? you'll just have another shitty inbred ruler a couple years or decades down the line.

i guess my point here is that it's kind of wild to me that in both of these worlds this kind of "gentle neoliberalism" is upheld by even the most extremist radicals (change for the better as a result of only a change in leadership; social change as a result of individuals in power being "good"; rebellion seeking change only through that leadership turnover and not anything structural or systemic -- and even that kind of rebellion being denounced as unethical because of its impact on individuals). it's a viewpoint that exists in actual real life politics ("vote and all our problems will be solved!") but i think it's also kind of a genre problem? like i'm very much anti-monarchy irl but when it's zuko fire lord post-canon fanfic suddenly i'm like yeah okay king! i guess part of it is being invested in the individuals in power as people with their own narratives more than the (fictional) society and its injustices (a very different perspective than with irl politics), but i do think there's also a genre expectation of a fantasy setting having some kind of hereditary leadership. i am much more willing to accept a monarchy in a book with magic in it than i am in real life. (maybe that's just a me problem.)

i feel like most of the fantasy i read is either like this (monarchy is ok when we like the characters involved in it) or has the government as No Nuance Big Bad. i'd love to read more fiction that does both: monarchy is a bad idea but also we like the people who are doing it so it's complicated. and fiction that has rebellion for actual societal change beyond just killing one king to get another (please !) -- i mean don't get me wrong i still want to read things that are hopeful and are optimistic about social change, just maybe that's like, the power fantasy of a bunch of teens tearing down a government entirely rather than just those teens putting a different person (a "good guy") on the exact same throne. (in fairness to zuko btw the atla extended lore does tackle some of this and i have read some pretty solid fanfic that does even more)

within the world of goblin emperor, i feel like there are moments that get close to the "it doesn't matter whether you're 'good' because the system itself is broken" -- things like varenechibel also wanting to build the bridge across the istandaärtha or maia being able to delay vedero's marriage but not change that he still controls the fate of the drazhadeise women -- but it could go further. i would really love to see maia having to confront the implications of being an emperor beyond what we've seen thus far: things like learning the history of the conquered peoples within the empire and having to come to terms with whatever genocide and cultural erasure shaped the ethuveraz. (i haven't read grief of stones yet so i can't speak for that but i don't think we've seen that aspect of empire in canon. also i'm lying i don't actually want to see that bc i really don't want a direct sequel to TGE but like maybe indirectly through the amalo books or maybe just in fanfic) also i think a like, shulivar pov in the style of "fantasy novel where the good guys take down bad government" would be incredible.

any way these are my takeaways:

i will read more books

(maybe not raven boys though)

happy new year! :-)

p.s. also i dont really know what i'm talking about i'm just a guy on the internet who is trying to connect dots i'm not a political scientist or anything please don't yell at me (do dm me to talk about goblin emp tho my only friend who's read it is still asleep. goddamn time zones) p.p.s. i'm using neoliberal here to refer to a kind of attitude of "a particular kind of status quo is good actually (even though at least nominally we want social change)" which is how i typically see it being used in Internet Discourse. i think there's prob more poli sci definitions out there that are more specific/accurate

p.p.p.s. if you're interested in this + like reading things that are actually coherent try this (altho i hate the title. i know here it's probably for clicks so whatever but infantilizing non-infant characters is a big pet peeve of mine. the phrase "cinnamon roll" my beloathed)

#somewhat critical of goblin emp and also brando sando (WoR) and a bit about atla so don't click through if you don't want to see that #+ includes spoilers for all of the above

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strangcbchavior · 11 months

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( MELISA PAMUK / 32 / CIS WOMAN / SHE/HER ) — did you see THE IA DETECTIVE ASSIGNED TO HOPE MERCER’S CASE, AILYA ŞAHIN, wandering around the mercer hollow today? i heard around town that the INTERNAL AFFAIRS DETECTIVE is RESILIENT and METICULOUS, but also INSENSITIVE and HEADSTRONG. people say that they remind them of TO-DO LISTS, THE SMELL OF OLD BOOKS, and A BLAKE LIVELY POWER SUIT, but how well can you ever really know someone in mercer hollow? ( admin jay / 26 / mst / she/her )

✧*･ﾟ𝒃𝒊𝒐𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉𝒚

character inspo: chloe decker (lucifer), temperance brennan (bones), amy brookheimer (veep), katara (atla), lisa simpson (the simpsons), belle (beauty and the beast), monica (friends)

ailya was born in turkey and into the lap of luxury. her mother was the classic combination of an heiress and a socialite, and her father was the founder of a successful petrochemical company. her mother obtained dual citizenship when ailya was a toddler so that she could pursue ailya's dance career in new york and los angeles. for the first thirteen years of her life, ailya lived and breathed dance. she was homeschooled in order to spend extra time in her company’s studio, and she was a national title holder for most of her life. her mother was convinced that she could have a lifelong career in dance and a future in modeling.

ailya, however, disagreed. she was a serious child; the kind of kid who always used the steps to get into the pool (( after checking the water temperature first, of course )). she tried to get control of her life in high school. she devoted countless hours to her academic interests in order to get into an ivy league school for pre-law. her mother was devastated. she was only allowed to go if she chose a school close to their pent house in new york.

she earned her undergrad from columbia so that her mother could ensure that she still spent time in the dance studio before and after classes. quinn wriggled out from under her thumb when she graduated early and was accepted into yale for law school. her parents footed the insanely expensive tuition and rent bills in exchange for a promise that when she got this 'working girl' fantasy out of her head, she'd return to have children and marry someone of her parents' choosing. aiyla quit dance, so she had to appease one of their dreams for her future.

she grew disillusioned with the law very quickly once realized it wasn't actually about right and wrong or justice, especially when most of her colleagues belonged behind bars with their clients. she made a career change into internal affairs in state that was supposed to be less corrupt than new york in her best attempt to make sense of the u.s. justice system.

✧*･ﾟ𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕

aiyla is of the opinion that if you want something, you have to work for it. there aren’t any excuses in life, so either put up or shut up. she takes Extreme offense to anyone who throws away opportunities by messing around.

she’s v cordial at work, so she can come off as cold. she thinks that personal lives should be kept out of the workplace. of course, aiyla has no personal life to talk about so that’s an easy motto for her live by lmao.

she’s fiercely loyal to the few friends she has.

aiyla isn't mean intentionally, but she doesn’t know how to sugarcoat things or understand why some people would be sensitive to criticism. she grew up with a hyper-critical mom, so she thinks that’s the best way to improve, and that she’s being helpful when she’s being harsh lmao–but her goal isn’t ever to hurt someone’s feelings. she’s very honest and genuine, but not tactful.

she definitely lacks an ability to understand people who think differently than she does, and she is, of course, always right.

she’s totally ruled by logic and reason. her loyalties lie with concrete evidence adn reason above all else.

she can often come off as arrogant. she doesn’t brag or flex, but she’s definitely not humble lmao. she is definitely aware that she’s smart and beautiful lmao, and she’s far more likely to say, “i know,” than, “thank you,” to a compliment.

she hasn’t danced since she was 19, and it’s entirely to prove a point to her mom even though she did love dancing before her mom became her momager. *you’re doing amazing, sweetie*

she’s v embarrassed that she wanted to be a ballerina when she was eight bc how immature and unrealistic. it’s not like she was four.

she has a dog who she loves more than any human. she’s a german shepherd named lizzie (after elizabeth bennet of course).

she loves art and poetry history. she’s also really into the history of fashion and fashion in general. most of her money (that doesn’t go into a 401k and her investment portfolio) goes towards art pieces and handbags.

she views relationships as a basic tier in maslow’s hierarchy of needs, similar to food or shelter. to her, sex is just a means to an orgasm, and orgasms are occasionally necessary to release tension. so ,,, she’s never had a romantic partner lmao, and she’s not interested in any unnecessary distractions from her work.

𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕟𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤 !!

best friends: ( m, f, nb ), childhood friends: ( m, f, nb ), fwb: (m, f, nb), casual hookup ( m, f, nb), work rivals: ( m, f, nb ), enemies: ( m, f, nb )

all the connections tbh. hmu or like this and i’ll hit you up !!

#mhintro

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mediaevalmusereads · 2 years

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Witchy, Vol.1. By Ariel Slamet Ries. Roar, 2019.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Genre: graphic novel, fantasy

Part of a Series? No

Summary: In the witch kingdom Hyalin, the strength of your magic is determined by the length of your hair. Those that are strong enough are conscripted by the Witch Guard, who enforce the law in peacetime and protect the land during war. However, those with hair judged too long are pronounced enemies of the kingdom, and annihilated. This is called a witch burning. Witchy is a comic about the young witch Nyneve, who is haunted by the death of her father and the threat the Witch Guard poses to her own life. When conscription rolls around, Nyneve has a choice to make; join the institution complicit in her father's death, or stand up for her ideals?

Content Warnings: violence

Overview: I picked this book up on a whim at an independent bookstore. I was looking for something fun, and the premise intrigued me - a magic system that is tied to hair? The promise of LGBT+ characters? Sign me up! While I did like this graphic novel, I didn’t love it - some of the worldbuilding left me with some questions, I didn’t quite feel connected to some of the side characters, and the art style (while fun) isn’t usually the kind I go for. Still, other readers may adore this book; there’s plenty to love, and most of my criticism is based on personal taste more than anything.

Writing: I’m going to include art in this section because in graphic novels, art is a storytelling element as much as (or even more than) dialogue. The art style for this graphic novel is very simple but with very dynamic motion. Ries is very good at portraying emotions on her characters’ faces, and at creating exaggerated poses to convey movement. It almost reminded me a bit of animation, which I enjoyed. The art in this book is also very colorful with a lot of purples, greens, pinks, and yellows making the pages feel bright and lively. Some of the layouts, too, are quite interesting, and it’s easy to figure out which panel flows into the next.

Personally, however, I wasn’t blown away by the art, so while I liked the colors and the motion, there wasn’t a lot visually that stuck with me after I finished the story.

Plot: The plot of this book follows Nyneve, a young witch whose father was killed by the Witch Guard for having too long of hair (and thus, too much magic power which could threaten the ruling government). Nyneve doesn’t quite fit in with her peers at the school and is nervous about the upcoming Conscription trial - a test which will determine which witches essentially get drafted into the Witch Guard and which ones will go their own way. She desperately wants to avoid getting conscripted though some of her closest friends see it as an honor.

Part of what I liked about this plot was the setting. Whenever I read political plots about magic users, it always seems like the magic users are the oppressed ones (which always felt weird because they have so much extra power). In this world, powerful magic users are the ones upholding a corrupt government, so it felt more realistic to have people born with an advantage (or privilege, if you will) to perpetuate an oppressive system.

However, I do think Ries bit off a little more than they could chew. While the political messaging is very good, I ultimately don’t think Ries adequately explored the intricacies of how power works. Of course, this is only volume one, so subsequent volumes could go into more detail, but as it stands, I felt like Ries introduced way too many themes: queer people in the military, queer discrimination in medical fields, closeting, book banning, education systems formed by the government, using religion as a tool to manipulate others, etc.

I also think Ries didn’t fully give enough context to understand some things about the worldbuilding or gave context way too late. For one, it wasn’t clear how hair and magic were connected; while I don’t need a breakdown of how the magic is embedded in the hair or something, I did have questions such as “what makes hair length vary and why is the ability to grow longer hair a struggle for some? Couldn’t they just wait and get more powerful over time?” and “Is there a law against cutting hair? Why? And how do they know if you do it?” Also, it seemed like the spiritual/religious aspect to magic didn’t come up until halfway through the book; I didn’t even get the sense that characters were profoundly religious/spiritual until much later, and I wish it had been part of the worldbuilding earlier to make it feel like a huge part of daily life.

Characters: Nyneve, our protagonist, is your typical character with an extraordinary secret which makes it hard for her to fit in with their peers. While I liked that Nyneve could be vulnerable and part of her arc involved learning to be more confident with her choices, I was also a bit frustrated because it didn’t feel like she wanted anything. To put it another way, I didn’t feel like Nyneve had any strong convictions or goals; despite professing to want to resist the government, she also questions a real resistance when she encounters it, and it was a little frustrating to see her walk something of a middle road. Of course, Nyneve still has a lot of growing to do - this is only volume one, after all. So maybe her arc will be more satisfying in the long run.

Supporting characters were somewhat interesting, depending on how complex they were. Nyneve’s closest friend is a male witch named Batu, and while I liked how kind he was to Nyneve, he also didn’t have any strong convictions that made him an interesting character. Much more compelling were characters like Prill - a transgender woman who is dying to join the Witch Guard to escape her oppressive family. Prill had some understandable motivations and is the character I’m perhaps most interested in following - I want to know if her attitude towards the Witch Guard changes or if she struggles with wanting to belong to an oppressive system.

But as much as my attitudes towards individual characters varies, I really loved the way some of them interacted with Nyneve. Nyneve’s mother, for example, was wonderfully supportive and fiercely protective of her daughter, and seeing that mother-daughter bond was one of the most touching parts of this book. I also enjoyed the rapport between Nyneve and Banana, the talking raven. While Nyneve could be rather unkind to Banana, I ultimately enjoyed how loyal the latter was, and the banter was fairly entertaining.

TL:DR: Despite some stumbles, Witchy is a delightful graphic novel with charming art and a fascinating fantastical world. While I wish the protagonist had more definitive convictions and the plot was a little more focused, I ultimately enjoyed the story and am curious to see how the characters will develop in volume 2.

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liashinigami · 2 months

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Once again I am regretting that I have yet to delete twitter off my phone.

Bc the absolute shitfest kpop twitter has gotten into again over the last few days is ridiculous.

It's also like the fifth time we are going through the "why can't these idols sing, everything used to be better before, there used to be standards" bs.

In just the time I have had to witness it, we had this with more than one infinite member, a few exo members, twice's momo, various small idol groups everone forgot about and now with lesserafim and I am truly done with this discourse.

It just shows time and time again that people 1. don't know their kpop history and 2. misunderstand the kpop industry and idol profession fundamentally.

And every time a veteran fan points out that vocals have always been not even secondary, but tertiary in idol music, they get reactions like "not this person saying that they don't like kpop for the music" blah blah "we just want them to focus on singing" etc

Like yeh nice vocals are cool. We like nice vocals. But if you actually think you like kpop for the vocals you are lying to yourself and everyone else. Kpop has always ALWAYS marketed itself around the entertainment factor on stage aka visuals and dancing. It got that from the japanese idol industry and western pop artists like michael jackson. Putting on a show has always been the focus since the inception of the system. Heck most gen 1 artists NEVER performed their songs live. Lipsyncing was the norm for a good while and gen 1 idols have talked about that quite a lot in recent times. Even the vocally more talented 2nd gen was not as good as everyone makes them out to be now (and lipsynced a good portion of their stages). It's just that we only remember the best ones. 3rd gen too. All of them had a bigger focus on visuals and dancing to the point of Mamamoo becoming a phenomenon specifically BECAUSE they have such a heavy vocal focus. And none of this is bad mind you. It's just how the industry operates considering what it is trying to sell. Personalities. Fantasy. IDOLS.

Kpop is not an industry focused on singing, it's an industry based on celebrity. Some people gain that celebrity status through being good singers, some through being good dancers, some are absolutely hilarious, and some are just THAT pretty. But you don't have to be amazing at all of the above to be an idol.

Does that mean you don't need a certain minimum of singing ability? No. That is not what I mean. Of course you need to be able to sing to a certain extend. It's just that the most important place for a kpop artist to be able to sing well is the recording booth.

And specifically concerning the current Sakura/Lesserafim situation:

Yes they all sound very nervous at the beginning of that video but they do not sing as badly as everyone over on twitter makes it out to be. Considering that most of the hate I am seeing is coming from SM stans I am also guessing that a lot of this has to do with the general unease bc of LSM's stocks officially belonging to HYBE now and the general HYBE hate train that has been getting bigger and bigger recently. Which like...yeh...I get...scary shift in power dynamic and all.

But like....can we please stop bullying people over this? Because idols are people. Sakura is a person. How would you feel when you are very well aware of your shortcomings, try to get better because you were told you suck at everything since you stepped into this country and still hundreds of thousands of people online criticize you at every step, call for you to just give up your career bc how dare you not be perfect, how dare you have hobbies, how dare you not improve at the rate of a genius. This shit can destroy a person.

#this is not structured at all #it's mostly just me rambling bc I am frustrated by this whole situation #I am truly and utterly exhausted by kpop stans justifying their online bullying through bs like 'we just want her to get singing lessons'#like yeh sure that's why you are on twitter making fun of her while praising your faves in the same breath #it's always 'my faves could never' like wow do you hear yourself #the superiority complex kpop fans get when their faves are considered above average at singing is insane #same goes for fans of groups considered good at dancing or rapping or anything really #it always always turns into 'my faves are better than yours therefore it's ok if I make fun of your faves'#bc how dare you enjoy something I consider bad #I'm not even gonna tag this anything useful #just had to word vomit that out of me #bc I am disgusted by kpop twitter #as always

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mdhwrites · 1 year

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Hi 🦝 I followed recently, I really enjoy most of your takes about toh so far, you're able to put into words issues that I also been having with the show for quite a while now (since s2).

My feelings towards toh are mainly (a bit negative) neutral now for many reasons that you mentioned and I would love to find more content creators criticizing it's writing and characters, but I was wondering how do you feel about the show now with all it's flaws? It feels like a wasted potential to me so I have mixed feelings. Can't say I like it or hate it because I have equal reasons for both and I'll probably still think about it after it's finished.

Also, hypothetically, do you think a reboot (done right) would solve most of these issues?

So... I am inclined to say that the first season, in isolation, is still probably a 9/10. A just incredibly solid kid’s show with representation, fun characters, neat magic and while some hiccups, it tells its story well and the story of S1 actually is emotionally powerful. The show as a whole so far though is a 7/10, though especially if you don't think about it. It's a 5/10 if you do probably. It has good animation, fine characters that start as good and then... Jesus christ the character 'arcs' of TOH are a fucking mess and the transformations of the show are just a whole topic unto themselves. It doesn't necessarily teach bad morals, besides not being willing to criticize Luz's blatant bad behavior, but also struggles to teach good morals at times, often going for something honestly more complex than many kids are going to pick up on, especially with what is more clearly being said and done straightforwardly. It also has a plot that is functional but is NOTHING special as far as the fantasy genre goes and is awkwardly told and not just because of the shortening. The lack of follow through on so many elements or having characters actually react to things done to them or around them is awkward and makes you incredibly aware of the hand of the author at all times when it comes to the writing. Worse yet is that what it tries to do cleverly falls apart when questioned in the slightest and has a hard time being followed by the audience because the worldbuilding and rules of the show are honestly established so poorly. So much is changing at all times that you just don't know what to care about or what is true. BUT the biggest issue with TOH is honestly no one element. No one thing makes the whole thing fall apart... Because the show is fractured from concept. And this fracturing is also why a reboot couldn't ever fix the issues with TOH because there is NO version of TOH that is distinctly it that didn't require 5+ seasons to try and handle its identity crises. Because it has one. Because it's not one show. It is split straight down the middle between a comedy adventure about found family and coming to terms with reality and a slice of life, school based, drama romance. Literally the only thing genre wise keeping the two together is fantasy and fantasy is a setting, not glue to slap things together with without EXTREME finesse. And there's no finesse here. But think about it. How little do King and Eda actually impact any of the Hexide Squad? How often are Willow and Gus actually going on adventures with Luz? How often does Amity contribute to the plot... at all? Hell, you can even look at this with Hunter. When with Luz, he's in adventure mode, with Willow he's in romance mode. And the two are genuinely written differently for that sake. And it causes a lot of problems with consistency, especially when you have a team of writers who will blatantly disregard or change things in order to... Actually. I can showcase this with one aspect of the world EASILY. For Eda, being a wild witch is a death sentence. She has been on the run ever since she was a young woman simply because she decided she didn't want to be a part of the system. She has molded her life around being able to keep that freedom and be who she wants to be but she also recognizes (at least in Season 1 before Mama Eda erased Eda's history. Like I said, the arcs are bad in this show) that she can't be as big as she could be or wants to be because of all of this. She will always live in the shadow of society, only 90% of what she wants to be, because the coven system is law and disobeying it is met with death. Amity treats it like deciding not to go to college. In Reaching Out, she treats not joining a coven like something she can just choose to do and the worst repercussion is that it will mildly disappoint her parents. And everyone else treats it this way too where they just nod along and go "You know what, you're right. That's your choice to make," like it simply means that she is deciding to try to be a creative rather an accountant instead of doing something that will have her be a marked woman for the rest of her life. Now there's a lot more analysis I could do into Amity's character about this but I want to focus on asking you all to really think about the role of the coven system at times in the series. Luz being allowed to study all tracks. Bump allowing multi-tracking when he's dooming those students to mediocrity in their fields or exile from society. It's... a mess. And incompatible. And there is no way to reconcile it because it is such a core element of the show but used vitally in two different ways. And therapy fixes identity crises (I hope it does for me some day), not a reboot. OH! And thank you so much for the follow and I’m happy you’ve been enjoying the blogs! I’ve been told I’m actually really good in general in giving words to people’s feelings. Comes from a hyper analytical brain mixed with the ability to write well. I’m happy it’s helping you figure it out yourself.

#TOH #Rambles

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