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starship-squalleater · 9 months

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There’s something that’s been bothering me about this ‘should we save the gods’ discourse and I think it’s the strange conflation of christianity and the pantheon of exandria. As in, the complaints that people (the pcs) are airing against the gods as reasons to not help them (”what did the gods ever do for me”, “the gods should have intervened in order to help me but they didn’t”) are not reasons that I think can be applied to the gods of exandria?

Exandria’s pantheon is not all knowing or all powerful or all good, and they don’t claim to be. If someone is in trouble and they don’t have a relationship with a god already, there’s no reason for any one of them to step in and help. There are a lot more people on the surface of Exandria than there are gods. Unless someone is extra special- like Ashton, for instance- then there’s no reason why a god is going to be paying them attentinon. They’re not all knowing.

They’re not all powerful, either. Think of how many times someone cast divine intervention and it didn’t go through, think of how Artagan (though he isn’t *really* a god) was trying to help Jester in the astral sea but he just couldn’t. They don’t have unlimited power, so they’re going to give it to the people who are devoted to them. Also, any power that they can grant is after it gets through the divine gate. Laudna said something like two episodes ago that’s been bugging me- that seeing Imogen walking around was more than she’d ever seen from a god. But there’s a reason for that, and it’s that the gods literally cannot walk on exandria because there’s a magic barrier keeping them from doing that. So these arguments seem misdirected.

IMO, it’s the gut reaction against cultural christianity and the christian idea of god that I think is bleeding into this. all of their arguments work much better when you’re talking a being who is all powerful, who claims to be all good, who has the ability to eradicate all evil and for some reason, hasn’t. Otherwise, its just a frustrating loop of people bringing up bad arguments that don’t matter.

(also “are the gods good” doesn’t matter, all that matters is that ludinus ISNT good.)

#critical role #cr #critical role discourse #Ig #idk I think it’s very interesting which characters keep bringing this up #the inter party drama is amazing #but I think we as a fandom don’t even need to worry ab this #like it doesn’t matter all that matters is that ludinus is fucking evil #and these arguments are hard to fight against bc they don’t apply in the first place

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dangerous-advantage · 11 months

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if you’re in the rise fandom and see this:

go read “all the ashes in my wake” by @crows-murder right now.

(yes, that is an order, and yes, pun intended.)

this post serves as a fic rec, but mainly to let me gush about how much i love this fic without filling up the author’s inbox with a small dissertation (/joking).

for the fic rec part:

leo. cursed. ella enchanted type cursed.

if you have any interest at all in absolutely phenomenal angst, clever writing with a style that’s easy to follow and smooth as butter, on-point characterization and dynamics, and basically anything you could ever ask for of a rise fic,

go. read. this. fic. right. now.

(that said, i am now going to ramble about my specific thoughts concerning the fic and it’s plot, so. possible spoilers beyond this point?)

there have been a growing number of fics in this “sub-genre” of the rise fandom involving a character (generally leo) getting cursed, and then facing off against angsty odds that make you go, “oh. oh, shit.” (/positive)

these curses also tend to involve the phases of the moon in some way, which i think is a very fun and interesting trend

i’ve enjoyed all of the fics that i’ve read which fit into this, but this particular fic may be my favorite yet

it follows a simple formula, neatly tying the a plot (the curse stuff) and the b plot (leo’s conflict with leadership and the strain it’s putting on his relationships) into a neat little bow.

while the idea of leo getting “ella enchanted” is fun on its own, it’s doubly important to the plot and the characterization, as it forces him to have to fix one problem to address the other.

in the first chapter, the author constructs the roots to this, by contrasting leo’s wily, independent nature against the inevitable conflict that will stifle his attempts to act on it.

watching him brush his brothers off, make his own choices and go off on his own, builds this wonderful sense of tension. it hooks you — what’s going to happen when that string is cut?

it plays perfectly into the underlying conflict. leo needs to find a way to overcome his fears of leading the team, or else the rift between him and his team will only continue to widen.

so what does the narrative do? it forces him into a position where he is no longer gets to choose.

this incapacitation is a powerful tool, not only because of the external force of the curse, but also that it plays off of the weaknesses of his character.

this isn’t something that he can just handwave, or take care of on his own. it’s a situation where he needs to ask for help.

but this is leo we’re talking about. of course he isn’t going to go to his brothers about this, or even tell them! but by hiding it and trying to fix it himself, he ends up caught in a deadlock of his own making.

and since it doesn’t look like he’s going to get over himself very soon, it seems more likely that he’ll end up cornered in a very sticky situation indeed (something which i am very much looking forward to seeing, if that is the plan).

it’s genius! to fix his problems with the curse, he has to address his issues with his family first.

my attempts to sound smarter than i actually am aside (/lighthearted), i am so glad this fic is addressing the conflict between raph and leo. not only that, but in a way that feels true to their characters.

unlike other iterations of the tmnt, the roles here are reversed. it’s not the stolid abs responsible leader pitted against the broody loner who wants to be leader, but isn’t the right fit.

it’s rise!raph, who cares about his little brother and wants to support him, and rise!leo who, on some level, doubts his own ability in this new role on the team — to be anything more than “the face man.”

it’s not often where you come across a fic where the a plot and the b plot are equally engaging, but this is one of those rare cases where everything just works. it’s like i’m witnessing the first steps of some great machine, meticulously crafted, a hundred disparate parts working in tandem.

in the third chapter, the angst just works. the pay-off there feels so real, because you get it. you relate to this character. when raph is there, waiting up for him, you know shit’s about to go down. you can feel it.

if the necklace (and therefore the curse) acted as both a narrative device and catalyst, leo’s swords represent the other side of that: the last bit of freedom he has left in this godawful situation.

they’re the last bit of freedom, his only hope of escape. raph taking them (or, rather, leo being compelled to surrender them) has just glorious undertones in the narrative as a whole.

if you were to consider the katanas a representation of leo’s autonomy, it makes sense why him being forced to give them up hits that much harder.

not only is it a tense situation, where leo is fighting back but ultimately unable to overcome the curse, it cements this underlying feeling of helplessness the author has been seeding since the chapter previous.

now that we’re here, with both the a plot and b plot coming into direct confrontation with what leo wants, we recognize that leo cannot continue how he is.

sure, he’ll keep on fighting it (abs i am very much looking forward to seeing how that goes), but this is the point where we know, there is no escaping.

leo is now truly stuck. without his katanas, fubdibg the necklace to break the curse on his own is basically impossible.

and he recognizes this.

leo’s characterization throughout this fic has been some of the best in the business. he’s smart, witty, independent, calculating — probably one of, if not the best true-to-character representations of rise!leo thats i’ve seen so far.

(absolutely phenomenal job there, i cannot stress this point enough.)

in fact, all of the characters in this fic are so well-written? i’m already seeing roots for character development within casey sr. (which i am so here for, oh my gods you don’t even know), and you can’t help but be invested in all of these relationships

we’re constantly being reminded of the emotional conflict, how much of a strain it’s putting on the relationships, not just between raph and leo, but between all of them.

leo sees this, understands something has to change, but feels paralyzed by what that could mean. for him, and his family.

not to beat the metaphorical dead horse, but that scene after leo surrenders his katanas abs flees back to his room? damn. i felt that on a visceral level.

being so tired, so miserable, so helpless, when a part of you knows you’re being irrational, but having your own pride and fear get in the way of that?

not to project all over these characters or whatever, but fuck. it feels like this was written to call out me, specifically (/j /lh)

and urgh! the detail work in this is incredible!

maybe i’m just a slut for somewhat contrived narratives, and definitely contrived foreshadowing, but the way it’s done in this fic comes off as so clean and organized.

it’s like... weaving threads in a tapestry. you can see where the connect, though you’re not quite sure where they’re going, until you can step back abs look at the picture as a whole.

it genuinely feels masterful in some places, like, mother of god, leave some talent for the rest of us!! (/lighthearted)

i could probably keep talking about this forever, but i do have other responsibilities i should be taking care of, and i kind of want to reread the three chapters that are out (as of writing this) again.

who knows, maybe i’ll revisit this in the future, when i have a better basis and understanding of the underlying themes here.

for now, dear author (if you are, for some reason, reading this),i hope you don’t mind my pretentious and meandering thoughts and/or assumptions. you’ll probably see me again, gushing in your comment sections. yours is just the kind of fic that deserves to be gushed about.

#i wrote this all in about an hour with minimal edits #so that’s why it’s all over the place #hopefully it is still comprehensible lmao #i’m not kidding when i say i saw this fic abs it’s summary and literally *gasped* like??? holy shit!!#i put off reading it for when i had a little bit of time but i see now that was a mistake this fic deserves to be read #also i know i don’t usually do this kind of stuff (and should probably be focusing on my own writing whoops)#but i think it would be a crime to not rec this fic bc. i mean. what else can i say?#well a lot but i am physically stopping myself from going on about it and my personal theories about where this could go #if the author does see this: hi you are so cool wtf #why have i not read your stuff before.#ah well there’s always time to make up for it now #rottmnt #rottmnt analysis #idk if i can even technically classify it as that bc it’s like... fic analysis?#what level of turtle brainrot am i on again? /joking #rottmnt fan fiction #rottmnt fics #rottmnt fic recs #rottmmt fic rec #i probably got a ton of this wrong seeing as this is only the third chapter but like. i love this shit. let me live /lh /j

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