#let the years be kind to them

[omegabenaeart]

Nothing to see here. The baby just got tall🧍

Uhhh I also made the old men....older

#meg's art #digital art #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 oc #honey bea smith #charles smith #arthur morgan #charthur #dad charles #dad arthur #LOOK AT HER #LOOK HOW TALL SHE GETS #Bea is such a fun character to draw #BUT ALSO #old men #i have a hard time drawing men and old people #so why not combine the two and almost make myself cry! #but I'm also happy with how they turned out #let the years be kind to them #just two dudes raising a child together #the parenting is what got them to this point

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

My rendition of @tempo-takoyaki's DTIYS!

Congrats on the milestones! And to everyone else, please go check out their 'Drawing TGCF (except I haven't read the books)' series!

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #svsss #tgcf #wei wuxian #shen qingqiu #xie lian #better drawn mdzs #(Vaguely??? I think SQQ came out handsome enough to put him in my special gallery) #Showing up to submit this less than 3 days before the DTIYS ends is filling me with a bit of anxiety but it is done! #Initially I was going to do a descending level of realism/detail but noses make me nervous still. One day I'll get there. #The irony is that I was planning on drawing something to celebrate tempo finishing season 1 of their series only to find this DTIYS! #*and* it was their birthday recently. I am compelled to lift them into the air and shout their praises. #What a genuinely kind person with an art style I want to bite into like a crunchy apple!!! The *range* is incredible! #Also their xie lian is probably one of my favourite interpretations. So done with everything but not misanthropic. #Remembers everything and lets other's spin in circles with their lies for the sheer chaos of it all. Teases relentlessly. Deeply sad. #Give it a read! They are planning on continuing on so now is a great time to catch up! #Thanks for hosting this fun art challenge Tempo! We all appreciate you deeply B*) #I hope you have a better year in 2024 - you truly deserve the best.

[robinfollies]

KEEP THE DANGER OUT // KEEP THE DANGER IN

#billie bust up #bbu billie #bbu fantoccio #robin’s art #2024 art #COMPANION PIECES BABY!!! started these last year (month) and finally finished em!!! :33 #i could write an ENTIRE essay abt billie and fanto and their parallels and stuff #which actually i love tumblr tags. lets do some of that here! #okAY IM NOT GONNA GO INTO EVERYTHING BUT HERES A BASIC RUNDOWN OF SOME OF MY THOUGHTS #let’s start by looking at goatshire + the lost city of magic !! #both places have some kind of border around them keeping SOMETHING in/out #goatshire’s wall keeping the trolls/other danger out; keeping the villagers inside safe #and the city’s barrier keeping the curse inside; while keeping everyone outside safe from it #but in turn it’s also keeping billie and fanto trapped in their respective places #one moreso than the other i guess but ahahaha. haha. heh. OKAY MOVING FORTH #unrelated but how sick would it be if the barrier broke and let the curse out. just sayiiin.. a lil theory thats been on my mind recently #anyways back to THE POINT #okay this parts gonna sound insane BUT JUST HEAR ME OUT HERE #goatshire citizens / the cursed city citizens. #billie and fanto both kinda stick out in their respecitve homes; fanto being the only uncursed guy and billie with their magic #so theres like. a real disconnect between them and others there. u get what i mean. #theyre both outliers and like something something allegory for neurodivergence and struggling to connect with others probably #SORRY GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF. idk how to explain it BUT DO U GET IT!!! DO U UNDERSTAND!!!! #also they were both abandoned by SOMEone stares at arthur #okay specifically whoever fanto’s cretaor was left him behind but u know me im such a fanto elmtwig jak #something something loneliness and being left behind and having ppl around you who kinds understand u but also not totally. kicks rock #someone get these siblings some THERAPY!!!!!!! #this was a very disjointed explanation bUT HOPEFULLY I GOT MOST OF MY THOUGHTS ACROSS GOOD. IM BAD AT EXPLAINING THINGS SORRY #someone order me a yappuccino!!!!! BYE!!!!

[elfcollector]

I feel ill. All the fools and villains who ever fell for my ploys, they're — they're here!

#gamingnetwork #vgedit #videogameedit #gamingedit #dailygaming #gameplaydaily #bg3edit #bg3 #bgedit #bg3 astarion #astarion #astarion ancunin #:( #i think this scene is so interesting and speaks to why i get so annoyed by the 'any portrayal of astarion #as having an degree of a conscience or goodness in him is stupid and woobifying. hes chaotic evil and thats IT' thing #the grief and guilt. the way he tries to talk himself into it. the way he removes HIS OWN autonomy to do it. pretends theres no other choic #esp in the context of other moments where he preens when hes called good. he LIKES being smth other than what cazador made him #but hes so SCARED. he spends this dialogue talking himself into killing them and he HAS to talk himself into it BECAUSE this kind of evil #isnt easy to him despite it all. theres still scraps of a conscience there yknow? and he hides it from himself by pretending hes less free #astarion is fun BECAUSE hes weird and contradictory and a bad person with the capacity 4 good. BECAUSE he doesnt know what he actually want #also i love the idea of him in this moment rly thinking abt the player....like whether theyre friends or romances #a player whos been really kind and loving to him...kept him safe....trusted him.... #thinking about how they let their guard down for him and how in his old life THIS would have been the life #hed been damning them to....years and centuries in a tiny cage somehow even worse than his

[divorcedfiddleford]

and you may say to yourself: "my god! what have i done?" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful wife!" and you may tell yourself: "this is not my beautiful house!" and you may ask yourself: "well, how did i get here?"

time isn't holding up, time isn't after us, time is a pony ride! (images described in alt text)

#gravity falls #fiddleford mcgucket #LETTING THE [FIDDLEFORD FRI]DAYS GO BY #“sir it's tuesday” i know. my computer has been busted for two weeks so i couldn't post them when i wanted to. just let me have this #again still new to alt text. i like being a little bit silly but let me know if it gets in the way of accessibility #artwork of the damned #uhhhh yeah this is actually something ive kind of wanted to draw for years now #favorite guy + favorite band = prime high-effort meme material #also. for the record. yes i have a mcgucket playlist. yes it has three talking heads songs on it. no none of them are “once in a lifetime” #also also i know that the lyrics in the description are in the wrong order. it's on purpose. i put them backwards for dramatic effect #also also also i'm pretty sure the “time is a pony ride” line is not actually sung on the album version of the track #but if you listen to/watch the live version from “stop making sense” you will hear it! #as well as hear a much more satisfying ending to the song imo. rather than it just fading out it has some really nice vocals #basically the moral of this story is you should watch “stop making sense” #if you made it to the end of the tags: congrats! you win a prize! the prize is permission to reblog this post

[lucy-ghoul]

can't believe a show based on a videogame (usually games adaptations are notoriously bad, which isn't the case here tho) gave me the beauty and the beast/twisted mirrors/enemies to traveling companions/ruthless antihero+optmistic but still badass heroine who takes none of his shit/age gap but make it sexy dynamic of my dreams. as much as i love maximus and i think he deserves the best writing ever because 1. he's a clever deconstruction of the aspiring Knight bro who's actually a bit of a loser and, as much as lucy, sees the world in black&white at first and then doesn't get what he thought he wanted but what he needs (or at least i hope he'll eventually get it), and 2. he's a cutie and i want an epic love story for him too, it's very funny how they tried to give us a puppy kind of romance and the tumblr girlies still fixated on the "toxic ~she bites his finger off and he cuts hers off and sews it on his hand in what we'll pretend it's a symbolic marriage rings exchange or whatever~ asshole who used to be a nice guy/good girl™ with a lot of spunk and hidden anger but unshakeable morals" kind of relationship.

#mind you idt the writers will ever have the guts to go for this pair or anything and i'm perfectly okay with the maximus/lucy romance #but still. they tried to give us the wholesome love story between two cuties with a killer side #and the fandom went ~mmmh we kinda want for that girl and the noseless radioactive ghoul to fuck nasty actually #shhdhdhf i'm sorry but this was so predictable to me. conosco i miei polli #also. i don't fully understand those who see it as a father/daughter thing? just because it worked on tlos #doesn't mean we need the same kind of dynamic here #1. despite him being an actual father (or at least. he was 200+ years ago) i've never seen a less paternal character than the ghoul lmao #2. lucy is an adult woman. young but in her mid twenties i guess? cooper had (and maybe still has) a daughter but the kid was like. 6 or 7? #lucy doesn't need a daddy she's a grown up. stop infantilizing women all the freaking time #let them be fully equals!! let them be bickering road trip companions/a killer squad/tentative allies who eventually form a real bond #i SWEAR if the writers go full parent/child bs with them in s2 because they're more popular #(at least on ao3. i don't expect the same level of insanity from the general audience) #than the canon ship i'll riot. idt they will but still #..... maybe they should go for a hot max/lucy/coop polycule instead. that would be interesting lmao #vaultghoul #fallout #val rambles in the tags #val speaks #txt

[andr0nap]

cowboy au worldbuilding with the thoma

as you can see im taking some creative liberties with the giant emu by making them more diverse bc canon isnt enough for me and i have the brainworms

extra notes below the cut

standard thoma:

the original thoma and most common type available

perfect for travel, can pull wagons or carry light cargo

fast with good stamina, fastest over short distances

friendly, intelligent, energetic and quick to learn

the most diverse in terms of colors, patterns and extra traits

well rounded in all departments (theyre like the AQ horses of trigun)

draft thoma:

uncommon outside of major cities (kept by specialized breeders)

used for construction work and long haul heavy cargo transport

gentle, patient and eager to work

not built for speed but can walk for days at a steady pace without rest

dense feather coat protects them from the heat and sand

expensive to maintain and keep due to their size

theyre a relatively new type that came from selective breeding

"wild" thoma:

actually feral (aka. previously domesticated), not wild

originating from lost/runaways that have not been in contact with humans for generations

rare and elusive with a small population, sometimes spotted living near shipwrecks

people will pay top $$ for their capture

begin to exhibit adaptive mutations that help them survive the wastelands

smaller and less fluffy than their standard counterparts

dont come in many colors, mostly bays, chestnuts and blacks

hardy with incredible endurance

very stubborn, temperamental and intelligent, cant be forced to do something they dont want (like donkeys)

rarely ridden, mostly kept for crossbreeding

cattle-type thoma:

related to the standard thoma but NOT the same species

common pack animal in caravans, sometimes ridden as a cheaper alternative to the standard thoma

mainly bred for meat, hide and eggs

kept in huge open range herds that travel along worm swarms for feeding

sometimes kept as a form for anti-worm pest control

keratin crests are lightweight and used for protection and display

ranchers will paint patterns on their crests as a form of identification

not the sharpest tools in the shed, tend to bite and trample people

#trigun #trigun stampede #cowboy au #worldbuilding #andr0art #i like speculative biology idk what to tell you #its the brainworms #sorry for the horrible handwriting btw #also ik that significant adaptive mutations take longer to appear than a 100 years #but lets say they adapt fast due to genetic modification #the implications of what seeds did after the fall to adapt to the wastelands fascinates me #since thoma arent native to no mans land iirc #did they just have them on board? #what ab other animals? #what kind of non-native wildlife is there #i know there are birds and like... a cat #<- still hasnt read trimax #everything i know has been obtained via tristamp and osmosis #also yes im bringing in the og thoma #diversity win! #i needed a substitute for cows so vash and wolfwood have something to herd for cash #living the cowboy dream baby!

[deeva-arud]

Deeva Årud - Club Wear Voice Lines

When Summoned: Lights dimmed, tension building up… Are you ready to feel our rhythm? Summon Line: Playing music with friends is fun, I’m glad to be here even though I’m starting to feel a bit nervous.

Groooovy!!: We’d be delighted to see you at our next show. Spotting a familiar face among the crowd is always nice. Home: “Let’s rock and roll”, as some would say. Home Idle 1: I joined the Pop Music Club on my second year. Perhaps it’s quite a drastic change from my previous club but… it’d be a lie to say I’m not enjoying my time here. Home Idle 2: Most of the time I’m the one suggesting we should practice, but somehow Lilia, Cater and Kalim always distract me with all these unknown snacks and gadgets. Sometimes I have the feeling they do it on purpose… Home Idle 3: I need to warm my hands, it’s hard playing an instrument when they’re cold. Home Idle – Login: *humming Piece of My World* Ah- sorry, I didn’t see you there. Can I help you with something? Home Idle – Groovy: I’ve been playing violin and other instruments since I was a kid. My family has always had a connection with music and I’ll gladly continue this legacy. Conveying your thoughts and feelings through sounds is quite satisfactory. Home Tap 1: My first concert with them? Since it was the first time I’d be playing in front of many people, I knew I’d have a hard time trying to look at the audience. Cater noticed and told me to look at him so I could feel less overwhelmed… Let’s say I didn’t expect him to be so literal. His clones substituted the audience because no one came to see us. Home Tap 2: Hm, my violin? Indeed, it’s not the same one I use at Mostro Lounge. An electric violin is more suitable for the club’s activities. I’m surprised you noticed it. That means someone’s been paying too much attention to the musician playing ambience music… That was a joke. Home Tap 3: Kalim and I joined the club in the same year so I got to see how much he’s improved his drumming technique. It’s impressive. Certainly, Lilia’s been an excellent teacher to him. Home Tap 4: I like the idea of having customized masks for our performances. Maybe I should mention it once we have enough funds. Home Tap 5: I recently accepted to do some vocals just for our club sessions. You can come see us, but please refrain from telling everyone else. At the moment, I only feel comfortable singing for a few people. Home Tap – Groovy: When it comes to a band like this many wouldn’t think of a violinist, but that actually gives songs an interesting feeling, don’t you think? Duo: [DEEVA]: Ready for a shocking performance, Cater? [CATER]: Ready as ever, Dee-chan!

#To any violinist in the room: I tried :'] #I can probably get away with some details since she's not actually playing here #more like positioning her violin/posing #but yeah. An attempt was made #I actually had to redo the whole card because I didn't like how the old one looked #and if it reminds you of something it's probably because I kind of borrowed Lilia's face shape #it was my last resort after drawing 20 heads and not being fully convinced by any of them HDSGSH #the rest is obviously brought to you by my own suffering #Oh and some extra info about Home Tap 1: #Deeva actually kept looking at Cater on stage out of habit even after they gained some listeners #sometimes the poor guy thinks she's glancing at him because he made a mistake or something lmao #Talking about Cater. One of the reason she joined this club was because she promised it to him #when they were first years she didn't know there was a music club like that #and Mr CayCay here informed her a little bit too late of the existence of the PMC #Also unrelated to what I was saying #but please imagine she says “let's rock and roll” with the most monotonous voice ever #zero spirit in those words #until she picks up her violin and the rock and roll starts rock-and-rolling #it's funnier that way #The need I feel to talk a lot under my art posts needs to be studied #twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland oc #twst oc #Deeva twst #my art

[witchspeka]

It's always "Shou and Ritsu need to blow stuff up with their minds for mental health reasons" or Ritsu and Teru or even Shou and Teru!

But what about Mob? When does he get to blow stuff up with his mind for funsies? For shits and giggles? He didn't go through all of those meltdowns and character development for nothing, let him go ham on a junkyard car or something smh

I believe in Mob's narrative given right to fuck shit up sometimes

#im hungry i should do homework i should also finish all of my other drafted posts BUT I AM LAZY #ive been starting to write fic tho at least thats productive. fic thats kind of relevant to this actually hm #listen i just want more Mob content where he does smth reckless or stupid with his powers he deserves it #or just in general tbh i need more content of mob being kinda mean or having arguments with ppl like to a healthy degree ok #but i still want him to. yanno. lash out and stuff. experience emotion. have him get angry over petty stuff #the first mp100 fic ive ever started writing/drafting had mob and ritsu having a proper fight post canon #i just need it for my OWN mental health. let them have dumb sibling fights and have mob express his annoyances #itd be funny and cathartic. for me at least. ill finish that shit one day its been assembled and disassembled but ill figure it out #eventually #let mob feel and express all of the ugly emotions he didnt allow himself to acknowledge for years pls #its my favourite thing #anyway. #mp100 #mob psycho 100 #shigeo kageyama #cine te a intrebat

[canisalbus]

When Machete became a cardinal, did his parents ever recognize him?

Machete's home village was on the other side of Italy (and separated by the sea no less) and it was small, relatively rural and remote. It's very unlikely many news about Holy See's happenings made their way there. I don't think his parents had any reason to expect to ever hear about him again, he seemed to be somewhat of a lost cause when they dropped him off.

#to my best understanding class divide was so immense you'd be very unlikely to ever encounter a single bishop in person let alone a cardinal #and people didn't move around like they do now chances are you'd die in the same town you were born in without ever leaving it #Machete tends to stick out visually and he's an important figure so maybe he's known by word of mouth even outside of the Vatican walls #if his parents met him they might maybe recognize him but he probably wouldn't recognize them #he doesn't remember much of anything from his early childhood #he doesn't go by his original birth name he was renamed at the monastery and has essentially reinvented himself since he became a cardinal #so ties to his sicilian past are largely cut I think #social classes were very fixed and rigid I believe one of the only ways to move to a higher status was to become part of the clergy #and again you needed to be at least passably literate to do that that was the largest roadblock #Machete may be kind of pathetic but his social climbing skills are nothing short of remarkable #part of it is just dumb luck but he is exceedingly hardworking and very very good at what he's doing #it took him less than 30 years to move from a provincial foundling to pope's right hand man #answered #anonymous #Machete

[dailyserirei]

Ooh what if Serirei just talking with their past selves, it could be chaotic with past Reigen being extremely energetic, but just imagine kid Seri too being so anxious and his future self helping him out. Now past Seri has a friend weee

OUGH!!!!! ageswap au is great actually that i went a little too far made a comic something like this

Serizawa to his 14 years old self (quite long):

Reigen to his 14 years old self:

#anon #ask #crystalv01d #serirei #tried my best make wawa young hair like a little mullet bcus both of them born at the year early 80's btw #yes i calculate that its insane they're so fucking old in the year 2023 #reigen arataka #serizawa katsuya #age swap au #mp100 ageswap #kind of #mp100 #mob psycho 100 #wawa pov: toichiro understand abt his psychic power and drag him to join his organisation and using his power a battery #good part abt what toichiro did to serizawa is let him go out to be socialize. its getting there but he didnt do shit so #toichiro didnt change wawa that much #when wawa met mob he finally realised how he got manipulated by his president #so basically after he met mob and became friends he tried to becoming brave enough to do something #and thats the first part hes trying to change: as in saving reigen's life #and the thing that serizawa is the only one who decided to join s&s so he can be employee in any work he can do #and also decided to go back to educate more as in going to night school #and THAT BOTH PART IS ACCEPTED BY REIGEN!!!! what the #so basically when he improving himself better reigen let him. like reigen said from ova hes not being used badly like before. #all reigen want when serizawa working there is to just make him exorcism and take care. thats it #sorry for the lame ass long tags about this like meet mob opened his eyes. and reigen did the silly diys changed his life. idk #isHOULD STOP

[taffywabbit]

i just woke up so i haven't actually watched the pokemon direct thingy yet, but i heard they mentioned they aren't pushing out another console release at all for 2024 and if that's true then frankly THAT news is way more hype than any actual game announcement could ever be. go girl let us wait!! this is genuinely what i've been begging for for years now

like, oh a new Legends game? that's neat i guess. oh wait it's being given literally ANY time to cook and they aren't crunching Game Freak to hell and back in order to pump out a bunch of half-baked annual releases for the first time in ages?? NOW we're fuckin talking. LOVE to see the torturous cycle broken

#buny text #pokemon #granted they may have just delayed their plans simply because nintendo still isn't releasing a new console til pretty late in the year #and they cannot feasibly keep trying to squeeze things down into a format the switch can (barely) handle without losing goodwill #but i'd like to hope that this also proves they don't need to be pumping out 3 console titles and multiple DLCs in such short spans of time #i'd love to see what might happen if the pokemon devs were ever given the kind of long thorough dev cycles that the zelda team gets #like let gamefreak cook for as long as they need and release when they actually feel it's ready. please. #as frustrated as i am with how SV turned out the majority of my frustration was that you can still FEEL the devs' passion in there #but it's massively overshadowed by jank and lack of polish and design decisions that would only ever be made under intense time pressure #the last chunk of that game's story is cool as hell but getting there was such a depressing experience that it's very hard to recommend #these are clearly artists who still have good ideas and interesting experiences to create! give them the time they need to do it properly!

[lucalicatteart]

A new sculpture! Finally... I feel like I never sculpt anymore since I'm always sick or have some 500 other things going on or projects to finish, but I'm trying to schedule time to do it more often this year hopefully..! Just a generic fantasy creature as usual, but did try making the eyes a little more sparkly this time.. hrmm..

#sculpture #fantasy art #fantasy creature #art #elf #lol what are the tags I should use... I still never know.. EVIL social media.. hate the idea of tagging anything ever anyway. but alas.. #I also would ideally like to start selling them again and open up custom commmissions and stuff again once I can hopefully get paypal #stuff sorted out. and find like.. a good way to do things.. etc.. I did still want to sell them through auction instead of agonizing #over setting prices being afraid they're either too high or too low. So being able to just be like. Here. this is $50. or more. or less. #negotiate. the worth is whatever you feel like it is so i personally dont have to make that decision. etc. lol... But etsy doesn't let you #do auctions or like pay what you want type stuff so.. then I was thinking ebay? but idk.. ANYWAY.. I want to set things #up so I can sell stuff again hopefully. I still haven't fully recovered from the costs of when I had to take my cat to the vet and put #them down last year and etc. So it'd be good to sell a few things. perhaps.. maychance... perhamble... so on and so forthe... ANYWAY #I was going for whiter more milky sort of hair that blends in closely with the skintone but after the paint dried it seems more yellowy kin #of. which is fine. But just not exacltly like my mind vision lol.. #Also it's like... wow... someone with face spots and elf ears and a half open mouth with a gap tooth and wavy hair and kind of downturned #eyes... revolutionary... never been seen before... every sculpture I have ever made surely doesnt look licherally exactly like this... LOL #but maybe it's just a style. so what. People have their motifs lol.. Im just getting back into sculpting. I shall sameface in peace. huzzah #Just like the only thing I ever carve out of avocado pits anymore is eyes. Because that's just whats fun to do. I'm going to accumulate lik #25 similar avocado eyes and have nothing to do with them. I was thinking of stringing some together into a necklace of eyes or something li #like that but.. hrmm... ANYWAY.. Love to do the same things repetitively. :3c

[aquacomet]

Cake has been on the brain lately with birthday coming up soon. Don't tell the little guys, they might start plotting something. 🍰

A little redraw of last year's post for fun (+ sona Moon costume!)

#aquadoodles #aqua sona #fnaf #fnaf moon #fnaf sun #fnaf eclipse #I didn't tell them anything I swear #Wonder what kind of cakes Eclipse would class as his favourites? #2 more days until cake yippee #It lands on a Friday this year #looking forward to seeing what the Genshin birthday cake will look like this time #hmm... it should be based on the plant region so I'm expecting green and white (next year may be blue though so let's gooo) #birthday shenanigans

[mangosaurus]

Ben Fitzgerald Pincus + Abandonment S1E05 • "Happy Birthday, Eddie! / S3E07 • "A Shock to the System"

#so i made this back in *checks date* july of last year. #so it's kind of old and crunchy looking #but i was clearing out my drafts and. yeah i needed to let this one out into the wild #anyway. tfw the guy you're about to sock in the face hits you in the underlying insecurities (he vows to never leave you behind) #yasmina fadoula #ben pincus #darius bowman #also this isn't explicitly shippy in any way but it's not Not shippy so you know i'm tagging it as them #benrius #tag however you please though :) #jurassic world camp cretaceous #jwcc #camp cretaceous #ben fitzgerald pincus #mango edit #edit

[thefirstknife]

Hi Bel,

I keep seeing comments about people complaining about the quality of destiny’s writing and story in the last few weeks. I haven’t really engaged with destiny since season of defiance, what’s currently gotten everyone so riled up? I thought that people were enjoying Season of the Deep/Witch in terms of narrative, why is Season of the Wish causing people to deride the destiny writing staff again?

I don't know!

Deep and Witch have been absolute bangers in every aspect to me. I've been enjoying all interactions and lore tabs we've received. A lot of them are stuff that we've never had before, a lot of reunions and closures, a lot of development and interactions between characters who you wouldn't really think would have much in common.

Sloane's return and healing from what she's been through has been fantastic, Drifter opening up with her to help her because he also got help from others was fantastic, Sloane reuniting with Aisha and Shayura brought me to tears (Shayura's descent into madness was triggered by immense trauma of Sloane staying on Titan and Titan disappearing), everything with Sloane and Zavala...

Witch was just incredible in every single way; the focus on Eris, the amount of Eris and Ikora content!!!!! Everything about Xivu and Savathun and their interactions together!! Eris finally fulfilling her goal she promised Savathun YEARS ago, getting that closure.

Wish so far has been equally great to me. All the new stuff about Ahamkara is amazing, finally giving us proof for long-standing speculation about Ahamkara and how they aren't universally evil creatures and expanding on them as a species. I love all interactions we've had so far; finally we have Petra back, Mara's singleminded focus on figuring out how to defeat the Witness and her continuous work to improve as a person, ALL SJUR MENTIONS!!!!! I won't talk about the "leak" because we have no context for it so I will wait for the full story to be revealed before I can pass judgment; something that I think should be a lesson to learn from this entire year. Maybe wait for the story to finish before judging the story.

Literally everything this past year that involves Osiris, but especially this season now that he's back in his element with the Vex. And of course every little detail we get of him and Saint. Osiris honestly shaped this year for me with everything that he's done to uncover the biggest mysteries. I think a big reason is that a lot of people just don't like Osiris, which I consider a massive skill issue.

Other than that, I don't know what are the issues people have besides just not being interested in any of these storylines and attributing it to a nebulous "bad writing" claim. I also genuinely believe that way too many people get wrapped up too much in fandom, imagine storylines they want to see and then get disappointed when the actual story doesn't go there. Almost like people forget that this isn't their story and these aren't their characters. A lot of it is also fandom completely warping characters into not what they actually are and then feeling like the canon story is the one that's wrong.

Whatever is the reason, I guess everyone is entitled to their perspective of the story and everyone is free to explore the story in different ways through fanfics and AUs and whatever. I do that too!

But I would definitely ask people to be normal with how they engage in criticism, especially in the current state of affairs. Writers are developers; they experience a ton of harassment and negativity from the community and also from inside the company. And they are online: they can see what we're saying. It's been documented that community commentary has been used to harass writers:

Imprint this into your brain and never forget what these people had to go through. Let's not forget also the way people treated Seth Dickinson on social media when he was active with Destiny fans. "Fans" were actively arguing with him about his own work (telling him that HE is wrong) and were utterly disgusting towards him when he tried explaining what he wrote. His works are now hailed as the best writing in Destiny and people want him back. If I were him, I wouldn't want to come back ngl, not with how he was treated and not with how fans are still treating writers (and hey, Seth wrote LF Collector's Edition! So he was back, technically, this year!). Let's not forget that a lot of writers are members of various marginalised groups. And I'd definitely not want to go back with zero support from leadership.

Which is also an important aspect for all developers, including writers: sometimes they have orders they may not like, but can't argue against. They do the best they can with what they're given, the time they have and directions they receive. And with that in mind, I am enjoying everything we've gotten this year, obviously with some specific complaints about things I didn't particularly enjoy (like the universally mid reception of Defiance; I've spoken about my gripes with it before, a big one being the shafting of Suraya who should've at least been mentioned in a lore tab).

I can tell that there is passion in their work, even if maybe they would prefer to do more with it, but can't. Maybe even if they want to take different routes, but can't. But from what we got, I can feel that they care about this world and these characters. I can tell that someone lovingly wrote about Sloane and her friendships with two grieving women. I can tell that they deeply cared about Sloane's friendship with Zavala and that they loved showing us Saint and Drifter caring about a fellow trauma survivor.

I can tell that the writers are immensely careful and loving towards Eris; everything she went through was crafted with love and passion from both writers and her VA. Eris' story is such a fundamental aspect of Destiny and I can tell that this was important to the writing team and that they gave her everything they could to do justice to her character and her arc and her healing and her release from the cycle she was trapped in for so long.

I can tell that there are writers who care a lot about Osiris and Saint and their relationship. I can tell that someone cared a lot about expanding on Ahamkara and giving them more personalities. I can tell that someone cared DEEPLY about Sjur and Mara and that her repeated mentions are the passionate work of writers who want us to remember her.

I could go on. And I know that not everyone sees it this way, which is fine; we all have different ways of perceiving stories. I enjoy discussing things we in the fandom disagree on and I enjoy hearing different perspectives! Unfortunately, this has recently become rarer and rarer. And for the love of god, please try and treat writers with some respect, especially now, especially those who are still working and doing their best with the shitty situation they're in. None of the cries of "poor devs" ring true to me unless the same is given to writers, instead of treating them like punching bags.

#destiny 2 #long post #for the record: yeah i also have some gripes with some writing decisions. it's normal #but i feel like those are things that i can learn to accept or let go or even have my mind changed with a different perspective #or by just accepting that the writing team was limited in some way and that this was the best they could do #it happens to every story at some point #and yeah capitalism is the death of art. destiny's story would be better from start to finish if it weren't a shooter mmo #but that ship has sailed a long time ago. like. in 2014. #it's honestly a miracle that we got even a fraction of the stuff we got considering the target audience of fps mmos #and it's fine if this just isn't good enough to some. happens #but i think we can move on without being shitty about devs yeah? #in all likelihood writers may even agree that some of the stuff they had to write isn't the best or isn't what they wanted #calling them bad writers over circumstances we don't understand is just shitty #just like it's shitty to do it to any other dev over bugs in the game or badly implemented features or whatever #none of these people are sitting at their desks maliciously laughing while deliberately creating 'bad' things #and this is especially bothering me for writers because of how atrocious people are to artists of all kinds #almost like writers had to strike this year to be respected and treated as people that matter