#like that being said none of this is anti or crit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dyed-red · 1 year

Note

How do you think Sam felt about having sex with Ruby’s vessel? Did he need to rationalize that to himself or just the fact that Ruby was a demon?

this is such a delicious ask, i'm sorry it's taken me a while to get to.

there's just so much going on when it comes to sam/ruby. i draw a lot from comments from others on this, specifically those who are more familiar with the production and things the producers have said over the years in interviews. two things i've read as insights from the creative team (i think mostly from sera gamble?) are that:

it was important to sam that ruby's vessel was empty, otherwise that sex wouldn't/couldn't have happened (i think sera gamble had to fight for this or push its importance to her male co-creatives?)

sleeping with ruby was a form of "self harm" for sam.

I'm not sure where/how to find the original sources for those quotes as they're secondhand things I've read on tumblr about things said at cons and through other sources, but I fold both into my read on how Sam felt about having sex with Ruby and with her vessel.

So - to answer your actual question -

he felt like shit about it. and continued to feel like shit about it. and continued to do it. because he was in an incredibly self-destructive space and continued to be, and that self-hatred manifested in this particular way, for a variety of reasons.

And to unpack that a bit more...

1. sam has been possessed (by meg). he knows how it feels, and it Does Not Feel Good. his body was used to hurt people he cares about, to kill.

2. sam is consistently concerned about possessed vessels, where practicable. in the precinct seige during Jus In Bello, the fact that the "kill the virgin" spell could blast the demons out of the many possessed people outside is important to him. where dean reads the situation as killing an innocent woman, sam reads it as saving a few dozen people (at the cost of one, rather than the potential cost of many others if they try to shoot their way out). neither perspectives are singularly right but their different perspectives are informed by their different experiences, imo.

3. sam is saved by ruby wearing her 1.5 vessel and he promptly berates her for wearing some poor woman's skin, even if she saved his life, tells her that he doesn't want her help, and to get out of the car. he literally leaves her by the side of the road.

4. ruby 2.0 shows up with a certificate to verify that her chosen vessel is empty except for her. sam does not argue nor slam the door in her face, but asks for details. it's a major shift from one scene to the next in terms of how he is responding to her.

i'll also note that sam didn't complain about her 1.0 vessel's occupant during the time they were getting to know one another, which i think is interesting. my personal read is that sam considered that acceptable collateral damage in order to save dean from hell (what ruby promised him in season 3), and that after she failed to deliver, this compromise he'd made with himself over that collateral damage was no longer in play, nor was his patience for her.

(side note: i wonder if sam's greater tolerance of crowley, eventually, is because he came to learn or understand at some point that crowley's vessel is similarly empty?)

anyway, bringing all those points together, my read is that sam had to do a lot of self-rationalizing when it came to sleeping with ruby's vessel. sam is nothing if not pragmatic (if unhinged and insane) in his approach to dilemmas, so i think he could and did rationalize to himself that the body being empty means he's not hurting anyone by having sex with ruby in that form, but i don't think he'd fully convince himself.

so the discomfort and guilt and self-loathing would be... intense. she's a demon. demons killed his mother, his father, his brother. everyone he's ever loved. she saved his life. he doesn't trust her, he can't trust her. he can't afford not to trust her. he's got nothing left to lose. the only thing he has left is the part of himself that's stayed on the straight and narrow, that respects dean's dying wish, that refuses to turn into whatever his family (his brother) tried (died) to save him from becoming.

(sam himself lies to dean and says "it was practically your dying wish" that he not do exactly he's been doing (and more). sam knows there's betrayal here, and it's a betrayal that matters to him personally, or else he wouldn't hide and lie about it. he's never had any issue picking fights if/when he thinks he has the moral high ground.)

so... yeah. sleeping with ruby is an act of self-harm. he's obviously attracted to her vessel, and to her personality as ruby in that vessel, but that's not the key point. the key point is he hates himself for failing to save dean, for his brother dying because of him and being in hell because of him, and he's literally suicidal at this point in the narrative.

the fact that her vessel is empty is incredibly important, and i think a line he couldn't cross otherwise, but that doesn't mean he's okay with the fact that he's actually having sex with the body of someone who hasn't consented. and there's no doubt in my mind that somewhere in the back of his mind is both the fact that he's been possessed and has had his body used for things he was Not Okay with, and the fact that he's been dead (an empty vessel) and it's not like he would have been okey dokey with a demon possessing his corpse and sleeping with someone.

he knows it's a violation, no matter which way he slices it. and he uses that fact to hate himself a little more, so that the very act of sleeping with ruby is, in a sense, a way to punish himself for:

a) being attracted to her as a demon,

b) being attracted to her (helpless, innocent) vessel,

c) wanting connection because he's so goddamn lonely, and

d) being a monster/freak in the first place.

these are either things he's not supposed to feel because they're sinful wrong (attraction to a demon or vessel), or he deserves them (loneliness, feeling like a freak). this is what he's convinced himself of, and therefore how ruby acts as a both balm and escape (how it feels, how she soothes him) and punishment (how he deserves the influx of self-loathing and guilt and shame that comes from all that he is doing with her, from how this verifies all the worst parts of himself he was afraid of).

that being said -- as it goes i think he suppresses those feelings more and more because of what he gets from being with her, the connection and the blood and the high and the power and the sense of control over his destiny. but it's never that far from the surface, and we know how all that goes.

#oh my god this got both long and like... really unhappy about sam/ruby and his mental state during that arc #read at your own risk #sam/ruby #like that being said none of this is anti or crit #i goddamn love sam/ruby #but it is... deeply toxic #and very unhealthy for him #which is kind of the whole point #meta #my meta #a bit overwrought but i'm out of time to reread edit so here we are

104 notes · View notes

petitprincess1 · 6 months

Text

Just in case, esp since Hazbin is coming soon:

If there are any newcomers here in the Hazbin or Helluva fandom, and you see controversy with Viv esp with names like "Erin Frost" or "Ze" or even "Scott Cawthon", please do your research first! Do not jump on the hate bandwagon bc A LOT of antis/crits love to conceal shit, tell half the story, or straight up lie. Do not listen to them. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't interact with them, and even block them.

I do keep receipts of most of the controversies on my blog. However, if you still feel dubious, you are free to look things up yourself. It's just easy to get lost in the crap that often gets thrown at Vivzie's.

I won't dare say none of the shit they say it's true, but it's really twisted or really old drama.

I'm not saying you can't be worried or have negative thoughts about Vivzie. I've said this before and I'll keep saying it, it's perfectly fine for you to have doubts. That being said: Be cautious of rumors.

#hazbin hotel #helluva boss #vivziepop

70 notes · View notes

crushing-on-nico-di-angelo · 3 years

Note

This is kind of a random question but...

Do you know why people hate Rick Riordan?

I just have no information, and I’ve seen a lot of stuff lately talking about how he’s problematic.

hi!! yes, I've seen things about this as well. I can list the reasons I've seen. I don't agree with all the points made, but its just what I've seen and I think it may answer your question. I also recommend going through the tag #rr crit, as it will give you a lot more and detailed information regarding him (beware: there are quite a few buzzwords. I recommend taking the facts and forming your own conclusions). I also think it's important to note that many people don't hate him, but they acknowledge that since he's a cishet white man there's things he didn't handle well and he needs to listen to critisicm.

Completely mishandled Piper's native American heritage. From the feather in her hair, to her dad being from a reservation that doesn't exist in Oklahoma, to having kaleidoscope eyes (some say that it suggests brown eyes aren't beautiful enough for aphrodite, more on this in the next bullet), to being a kleptomaniac, her character is, ignorantly or purposefully, chock full of stereotypes. having a cornucopia being her weapon. when Rick was told that this isn't good he became defensive and didn't listen to any critisicm

not giving female characters chances to be young, or not have a boyfriend or be unconventionally attractive. if they do get to not have a boyfriend, they're thrown into the Hunters of Artemis. their eyes are anything but brown (I do disagree with the eye thing but it's important to note), suggesting that having brown eyes should be considered less than. Sadie got a 1000 year old boyfriend when she was 14. 13 year old Hazel had a 16 year old boyfriend-- that could be a seventh grader and a junior or a freshman and sophomore depending on how you look at it (and I LOVE frazel, don't get me wrong. the age gap is just,,). in fact, the only female non-hunter without a significant other I can name is Meg, and she's 12.

Sadie Kane and the fanart he boosts of her. he frequently shows her looking completely white, despite saying she "stood out in class for being mixed." It honestly wouldn't surprise me if a white girl were cast to play her in the Netflix movies.

treatment of characters with invisible disabilities. this can range from the coment of "You anemic loser" targeted at Octavian (as someone with an iron deficiency, I don't see anything wrong with it, but cmon. kids can see that, rick. you can't control anemia) to Clovis' chronic fatigue being treated as a joke. invisible disabilities are hard and just as painful as physical ones. it doesn't help if you treat them like that.

too much misogyny to list all of it, but we can start with young girls being expected to be, and acting, more mature than they are; the strong female characters portraying the "I'm not like other girls" trope; the entire way Hera was treated.

The way Nico's outing was handled (this is one I especially disagree with, and this post said it best, thanks ghost). A violent outing by the God of love taking place before Nico was ready, according to some, was not what younger gay people needed to see. he should have had a loving environment and, at the very least, it should have been from his own point of view and not Jason's.

anti-acne and fat phobia: Apollo having a deep hatred towards his acne and Frank's glow up including severe weight loss (not being a cuddly teddybear anymore, getting taller) isn't the best thing for kids who have acne or are fat to see.

Samirah al-Abbas: "reversing the stereotype (Rick's words)" of an arranged marriage by having her be in love with a distant cousin is... not reversing the stereotype at all actually. it just falls into it. Having her take off her hijab around floor 19 because they feel like family is also not great, because, to my understanding as a non-hijabi and non-muslim, that is not how being hijabi works. similar to the piper situation, when Rick was told that this isn't good he became defensive and didn't listen to any critisicm

ANTISEMITISM, ANTISEMETISM, ANTISEMITISM. this is one of the ones I agree with the most. Having Hades' children be Nazis, having a plot point revolve around one of the most traumatic events in world history, ignoring the fact of generational trauma and ignoring the fact that It Didn't Matter That It Took Place In World War Three, it could have not had any correlation to the death of over six million Jewish people. it legitimizes evilsurrounding Hades and death, and -- well, this one makes me so mad, I can't explain all of it so here is a post explaining more in depth

Slavery issues: similar to the holocaust, Rick Riordan made one of the most terrible issues in American History into a fight between demigods. this lowers the legitimacy of the issue, makes it seem fictional, makes Camp Jupiter seem terrible and awful, except it doesn't. because camp Jupiter isn't terrible. but the confederacy was. if children, especially white children, learn about the confederacy through camp Jupiter, it makes it seem way less bad than it was.

again, I don't agree with all of this, it's just reasoning as to why. in my eyes, Rick Riordan is a man who has grown in his telling of his stories. he started with a canonical all white, all straight, all cis cast. he has now a series featuring a latino genderfluid queer person. This Post said it better than I ever could.

I know that it's impact over intent in so many situations. and this isn't to say I disagree with all, or even most of his critisim. I just think that he has good intent, and I hate him for absolutely none of it.

I am gay, I am Latino, and I am trans. that is all I can speak on, and I think his rep for that was great. I hope this answered your question, dear anon. again, I encourage you to do your own research and form your own opinions. I only touched on a few issues that Rick has had and there's a lot more to be talked about. I would say to keep in mind his intent and his growth. thank you for the ask, thank you for directing it to me that made me feel happy lol. ily I hope you have a good day

if anyone else has anything to add, by all means please do!!

#rr crit #ask #anon ask #you can click that tag dear anon!!#pjo #percy jackson and the olympians #piper mclean #nico di angelo #samirah al abbas #long post #rick riordan criticism

278 notes · View notes

antiyourwokehomophobia2 · 3 years

Text

Hey all you gender crit peeps who are afraid of losing your friends if you were to come out about your beliefs, I've got a nice story for you that I definitely would've needed before the events of it took place. A few days ago, one of my friends brought up the "super straight" thing and called it disgusting and another friend wrote a whole paragraph about how shitty the whole thing was and how not dating someone just cause they're trans is transphobic.

I, like you, am very afraid to lose friends and generally don't speak out in situations like this but I did this time around. I went back and forth in a heated discussion about my views on everything that's been going on and it ended in an anti climactic way but I went up to each of my friends the next day and asked them what they thought about the discussion.

For starters, absolutely none of them were mad at me or treated me any differently or thought I was a bad person. They all said that they agreed with some of what I said and some of the opposition to what I said. One of my friends laughed when I brought up the possibility of us not still being cool with each other.

Everyone seemed to be in agreement that even though we disagree, we're all still good people and we love each other and we're buddies.

So, there's my story. I directly challenged my friends on gender and was met with a few agreements and complete acceptance.

I know not everyone has been so lucky but hopefully this is a light in the dark for some of you who are still nervous to speak up ❤️

11 notes · View notes

husiluanxiang · 5 years

Text

Honestly, the novel Dracula is a tabletop rpg campaign and I cannot be convinced this view is incorrect.

(Spoilers follow)

- “I wrote a really detailed backstory for how my character knows about the evil vampire villain you have planed.” “Oh cool, you’re playing a vampire hunter or something?” “...I’m playing a solicitor. He also has a lot of mental problems.”

- “Okay, are you playing someone who knows something about vampires?” “No, my character is a school teacher who’d describe herself as a train fiend.”

- Mina is also the player who pays the most attention. “So Dracula and I have some kind of psychic link now, right?” “Yeah, and he uses that to-” “So i can use that to find him, right? Because we’re linked.” “...Huh. Yeah, I guess you can.”

- “Well, you rolled a crit on Knowledge (Trains), so I guess that’s going to be relevant here once I figure out how.”

- The three other players, upon seeing in the story doc there’s a lady who’s gonna be infected with vampirism to kick things off all separately decide to have backstories involving her. “Wait you’re /also/ trying to get Lucy to marry you?” After this they coordinate a little more and decide to make a balanced party.

- “I’m playing a Mental-based character so I’m guess he’ll be a drug-addicted doctor; that’s thematic to his gothic horror campaign, and medical skills are probably going to come in handy.”

-“I’m playing a Social-based character. Given that this is Victorian England, I’m going to make him an aristocrat to justify having high points in resources and contacts. I feel like that fits the setting.”

- “I’m playing a Physical-based character so. Cowboy.”

- /shoving a Wikipedia article in the DM’s face “COWBOYS ARE ABSOLUTELY PERIOD APPROPRIATE, YOU CAN’T STOP ME”

- “Okay, but if the three of you are all trying to woo the same girl, do you know each other?” “Yeah, we’re all good friends” “...None of you sound like you hang out together” “We’ve had, like...past adventures, and stuff.”

- “Okay, so there’s an NPC who knows something about vampires, since none of you decided that would be a useful skill in this game.”

- There’s a part in the campaign where they split the party constantly to do research montages with their various skills. There’s also a point where they keep investigating locations tied to Dracula, but since they obviously can’t fight the Big Bad yet they mainly get little victories, like ruining his coffins.

- Generally, everything about Quincey Morris. He tries to shoot a bat, indoors (I mean, out a window, but he was Very Much inside), with a gun. This is a bad idea. It’s insane. It’s also plan a player would just yell out and then doubled down on and commit to. He is unfazed by the concept of ‘vampire’ being introduced to him because “things are weird in America or whatever”. A lot of the slang he plays up for Lucy is stuff any player would come up with if forced to improv a 19th century Texan. I endeavor to have this much fun in a game.

- “I’m going to attack Dracula, fuck it” “He’s surrounded by like. A dozen armed dudes.” “I didn’t ask about that, I said I’m going to stab Dracula.” “Okay, so do you have an anti-vampire weapon like a stake or-” “I have a Bowie knife and I attack Dracula, yee-HAW.”

- “That’s almost going to kill Dracula.” “My character is there, he’ll help” “Do you have a stake or-” “I have a different knife”

- And that’s how this group of ragtag weirdos murdered a vampire lord. And then there’s a closing part of the book years later with character epilogues.

#dracula #this is dumb but im right #hey alex do you take constructive criticism? no i Do Not #quincey morris #is the ideal wod character

643 notes · View notes

queenangst · 4 years

Text

Hi! I’m indian and I’ve been reading a lot of the criticisms of Rick. I’m a bit ashamed and honestly astonished to not have noticed just how racist his characters (caricatures) are, but even when I was in middle school and reading them, little things always made me feel separated from the story in a way. Firstly, for all the ethnicities he portrays to any extent, I don’t think he ever had an Indian character. Also, when my white friends were able to pick godly parents like Poseidon or Athena because they had blonde hair or green eyes and dark hair and all those Eurocentric features, I was left to wonder which gods appearance would be similar to mine (the answer was none when I based it on his portrayal). For all his inclusivity, it ends up being very surface level, if that makes sense. The children of the big three were all white, so the most powerful and prominent characters were white, and it to me that the BIPOC characters had far more struggles with their parents/families. But I might be remembering wrong.

I wanted to submit this because I don’t have much of a following at all and I’m really curious to hear other south Asian people’s experiences with the books as well as other BIPOCs accounts

I hope you have a nice day and can take some time to rest and recuperate from explaining racism

I’m kind of tired so all this probably sounds pretty sloppy

Original submitter: @livelongandreign

I am not South Asian, but I am East Asian; so I can’t speak for any South Asian/Southeast Asian characters. I’ve explained some of my thoughts about Rick’s representation of (East) Asian characters, though that ask was not meant to detail the full scope of my opinion nor was it meant to be a full examination of Rick’s portrayal of characters of color and why they are harmful or unrepresentative. Here is an addition to that post made by Jay (wisdom-walks-alone). This is my rr crit tag.

Obviously, Rick is not exactly an example of good representation. Quite the opposite. There are very few Asian characters in his books as a whole, and the few that are present are stereotyped. His representations of characters of color are shallow and surface-level. His ‘research’ is unreliable. And he doesn’t listen.

If you’re looking to talk to other fans of color about their opinions and relationships with PJO/RR and representation, you can look for bloggers who tag crit under tags such as: anti rick, anti rr, rr crit, pjo crit. If you’re looking to support other fans of color, I encourage you to seek out, read from, and listen to what indigenous and Muslim fans are saying especially.

Some people are more open to discussion than others, so please keep that in mind!

I am open to talking about my personal experiences and my opinions (i.e. if you wanted to talk more about what I think about, say, Frank Zhang) more if you have more specific questions (please submit an ask), but like I said in this post, I am not wholly a PJO blog or a blog dedicated to PJO crit.

#submission #rr crit #anti rr #pjo crit

33 notes · View notes

incarnateirony · 4 years

Text

Representation, Authorial Diversity, and more.

“I’ll take some beef jerky and a pack of menthols.”

Been a while since most of you thought about that line, hasn’t it? And for some of you it somehow sends some primitive lizard brain gaydar into overdrive and you can’t really pinpoint why, can you? It makes no sense, that line alone, and how it stands -- but between all of the talk of both Bobo Berens and LGBT media history, including The Celluloid Closet/Vito Russo or the Vito Russo Test, this moment actually puts a pin in a shift within our show, its handling of content formerly completely overlooked by creatives, and the importance of diversifying our writing crews that we all press for.

It was the moment our show leaned, and frankly-- should have been the moment the straights panicked. In fact, some of them did, just before it aired, and then everyone has played at oblivious since.

Before seasons air, we get news on new authors being added to teams, or other workers. Pre-S9 was no different, with fandom finding a tweet from Bobo Berens, our first open-closet LGBT author. I mean, Out And Proud. A true king.

The association if this is the mention of the Bechdel Test, a step aside of Vito Russo.

Now let us begin.

Well first of all I’m just gonna let everyone get a giggle at how Bobo handled the straight male knee coil:

But anyway the response to his initial tweet was a merry go round of concern trolling in the area of “OH DEAR I FEEL SO SORRY FOR YOU PLEASE ALLOW US THE NORMAL ASSBAGS OF THE FANDOM TO TELL YOU AN AUTHOR HOW STRAIGHT THE CHARACTERS ON THE SHOW YOU’RE WRITING FOR ARE” and I dunno, it’s comedy.

Whether or not Bobo was addressing SPN as a new project in particular -- and it, from a dark age of SPN I’ve covered the upheaval during -- this is important. Really, really important.

Let’s say that timeline does overlap Bobo’s, and he did implicitly believe it; he might have had to write them as Straight Guys; but his own deep-seated place in the LGBT community developed resonant text, he made change. Change enough that when his first script was put into motion, the showrunner took one look at it and, for the first time in recorded history, we had note of some sort of intent --

Misha went on to say “so that’s what we played there.”

Regardless of anyone’s misunderstanding about how the fandom riled themselves up prematurely and shot themselves in the foot by lighting a CW exec on fire in the middle of network level board/CEO rotation commotion, or whether or not it’s visible enough for anyone--

this, this moment, this content, created by this LGBT individual led to this first known forward motion of intentful creative subtext. People can hilariously try to argue semantics about it that summarily boil down to “I mean it could be metaphorical jilted lovers it could be this it could be jilted lover bros, it’s just a turn of phrase!” in a loop as they’ve done with this data for six years until it dies every time, but this was it. This was the moment.

There is a nuance in this sort of writing -- how easy would it be for Dean to come up and say, “I’ll take some beef jerky.” Dean’s the meat man, Dean loves meat! We’ve seen it in other, new, straight authors the first time they try to tick off the Dean checklist, but like many lessons, that extra line leading into that smile holds volumes of LGBT history unspoken.

I think several of us Old Gays(TM) have banged on about the necessity of reading the Celluloid Closet, because for as much as people think they’re chasing queer subtext around here, it’s like they have completely missed that there actually is like, a printed, accepted code of conduct on this shit, basically. That’s not exactly what it was released for, but if you’re LGBT and engaged in lit and over 40 like you’ve read and understand and know this.

I’m not going to sit here and over-needle that line; most of you felt it the second your eyes drifted over it; but the sum of it is -- why that, what charming secret comes with that smile, a dean we’ve never seen smoke either, how is this part of how Dean throws himself back before his ex buddy leaves more unseen, *why* is that the hook? These are ironically things that no lit crit study *beyond* excessive citation of Celluloid Closet will really capture. This is a form of queer coding -- not the villainous disaster type that queer coding actually *is*, but the subversive form as it’s begun to be casually addressed in the population with positive, resonant content by authors choked out by IP holders while trying to service an audience. Or sometimes, even starting to accidentally.

So you know, you can unironically double down on the simplicity of Dean implicitly probably being a smoker (a possible read of subtext!), and I think this is kinda where the bizarre split happened tbh, because dude bros double down subconsciously into each reading of this kind of coding-- Dean just smokes, or this or that, though it grows thinner by year. Not about why that line is tossed, and how, and does just set off some sort of TV pheremone we all swamp like a bee hive. None of these moments truly mean anything independently. But it is the perspective and voice the text begins to take. The difference between that and “Hey pal [chews on jerky before buying] marlboros and got any pie?” in one moment that knocked everybody around on their ass in the fray of it. And then it all just went gayer from there, as if framed by one sharp moment that set the rest of the tone.

Hopefully you’ve all read my giant post about the history of this all to remember what I mean by accidentally, but even Bobo posted on it before,

That’s all an aside to the general point but worth placing into the edge of the conversation here.

The simple fact is, an activist gay man joined the show, and possibly with ‘keep it straight’ notes wrote some stuff so resonant, due to his point of view in life and the world, that even the showrunner decided to further guide it in that direction. It blossomed a direction.

The direction was small and slow and meek at first, (well, in final product -- don’t get me started at how S10 looks if all the cut scenes were included) with subtext running as dull echoes in Colette (oh look he wrote that too), and maybe more obvious with classic heart songs -- but even this was more structured than “Misha inherited abandoned storyline they scrubbed the romance out of as best they could”, or “Sera Gamble is a dumbass” that just happened to feature great chemistry and some resonant elements, like Bobo mentioned, we all connected with. But to actually constructively choose to incorporate these, no matter how quietly, was... *new.*

And some called it queerbait and I’ve already given history lessons from other angles on why no, but also now why here, definitely, no.

By season 12 we gained Yockey, another LGBT man, another activist in his own way like Bobo, but his less in writing political stuff and more in writing LGBT specialist plays. And everybody loved him, and saw it, and Yockey gets a boat load of praise -- deserves a lot of it -- but sometiems I feel like Bobo gets trampled over without recognition of how he shifted the playing field, the calculated effort he started putting into mastering those accidental resonances into something new, and ultimately to guiding the new author crew, Yockey included, or Jeremy on this newest episode who thanked him.

The same man that picked up Wayward and connected Dreamhunter... back to his own work and moments. The insanity of yelling “HOW DARE YOU LESSEN DREAMHUNTER BY COMPARING IT TO DESTIEL!” when, dead ass, you’re looking at this author who has carefully incorporated work and, with an already resonant story, made another relationship familiar to us by making it similar. Because that’s how writing stories works! But either way, Bobo has been in here doggedly growing the breadth of the legitimacy of queer narrative in supernatural -- to the point that it HAS narrowly, quietly breached into text even if not “loud” or “visible” enough for some people -- and the point where the subtext is so wall to wall and flooding every piece of cinematography in shooting and not just set or lights but complete mise en scene -- a point where everybody OUTSIDE of fandom is just addressing this shit as what it clearly is --

...That’s something that came with bringing the scope of an LGBT male author into the show. Whether you like the volume he’s been allowed to take his work to or not is your own thing, but before yelling queerbait at any creatives, perhaps it’s time to play “sit down children, and learn to appreciate the activists who came before you and how they’re fighting for you right now”. You wanna yell at something, get organized, pelt the CW in a non-aggressive, non-light-on-fire way, do activism like the books Emily put together that are resultingly still on the current showrunner’s desk now 6 years later, but most of all, don’t take a shit all over content you would otherwise enjoy, at the expense of a man in the demographic you’re trying to represent, who has battled, LITERALLY, for both the women and the gays in this show. Wayward was his baby. This slow swing in S9 that turned into a loud din in S12?

It wasn’t magic. It was a gay author. A gay author that has now climbed to be an Exec alongside dabb and the others and SURPRISE now suddenly everything’s so gay the whole goddamn world is seeing it. Literally SEEING IT, not just guys looking at each other with stories, but intentful, meritful choice in extremely bold cinematography choices that don’t require chasing a post-it on the wall, but instead are shot with care and devotion. Be that 12.19 Mixtape (OH DAT HIS) or 13.5′s Never Too Late (OH DAT YOCKEY. check what antis said to Dabb in his mentions after, even they saw it). Be that 14.18′s het drama PR promo (OH OOP DAT WAS HIS), be that 15.1-3′s entire tension and the openly addressed and so-called by media sources break up (OH DAT HIS), be that 15.7′s low key textuality (to which the new author thanked the elder for guidance, huh), or 8′s heavily shot domestic separation moment loudly filmed in the choicefully hollowed out and dimmed kitchen bereft of family -- this change? This had a moment. And you can find it.

I’ll have some beef jerky and a pack of menthols.

So this has been eating at me ever since this whole topic came into play.

Anyway full circle them trying to ride Bobo to Keep It Straight probably wasn’t their smartest idea ever. We gays are contrarian by nature so tell me to do it again, motherfucker. And now here we are in Destiel Divorce Season 15 as heavily managed by Bobo.

Everyone got so fuckin dramatic when Yockey said he was leaving like, tolling the burial bells of Destiel and-- like??? hello? BOBO? JUST? GOT? PROMOTED? Like Yockey didn’t make that entire platform all by himself, and hell, he didn’t leave without laying out unironic empty space of it. Yo guys, Berens done been here a WHILE to the point he’s now *callbacking his own season 9-10 material wtih him and dabb*. Like. Lmao. Guys. Guys listen. Listen. Think.

Whatever your weird goalpost is I’m not promising anybody’s anything is about to get hit. Whatever clown nose expectations you all have enjoy those and honk those loud and proud but remember most of those are yours. But respect the fact that Berens has essentially cornerstoned an entire queer canon within Supernatural discussion, of which others are included in as they joined.

And yes, queer canon. Not the way fandom throws it around for weird kissing spots, but articles of discussion of queer narratives, of which we can literally draw a wealth of episodes from LGBT authors or their understudies and literally point and go “all of that right there, officer.” Whether it’s visible or textual or undodgeable or marketed enough or glittery enough or whatever for everyone’s very unstable definition of “canon” -- Berens has literally cornerstoned an entire architecture of queer canon within this legacy show.

#supernatural #spn #destiel #bobo berens #representation issues

212 notes · View notes

rahleeyah · 4 years

Text

So the character I play in dnd is chaotic neutral. This means she's basically a wildcard, not evil but too inclined to serving her own interests to be lawful. Her main goals in life are a) don't die b) get money c) get laid. She's a cleric in service to the goddess of the sea, who in this canon is evil, so she's basically Asha Greyjoy, except she's so so stupid (I have had several crit fails that have led to me getting a concussion and almost drowning while trying to be sneaky, one that led to me accidentally breaking our strongest character's nose, several mishaps with some ball bearings....anyway). One of the great things about Key, apart from the fact that she's a disaster lesbian/pirate, is that she is always the one suggesting we don't do the thing. How about we don't try to attack a fortress filled with tabaxi when there's God only knows how many of them and only four of us and they have the high ground? Why don't we stay home and get drunk? Of course we have to do the thing or else there would be no game, but it's a nice way to reinforce the urgency of our mission, when the team has to find arguments to convince Key that they have to go do the thing. It reminds us all why we're doing what we're doing. Key has some kickass high damage spells and is also the party's (reluctant) healer, so they don't want to leave her behind.

But being the wildcard is a constant source of delight for me. One of the most fun things about dnd, apart from hanging out with my friends, is that we're telling a story. At the beginning of our last session, Key had received a note and a visit from her mysterious girlfriend. The underground anti government organization Key joined (mostly bc they offered her an absurd amount of money as a signing bonus) wanted her to remove the mayor of the town where our party had set up shop.

No one else knew she'd received the note, and we had a mission to start the next day. So when the session started, the other three players were waking up, getting ready to pack up and go on an adventure. The DM clearly expeted us to go on the next set up for a battle. But when it came my turn I said, "is there a way for Key to sneak out of the house?"

Everything stops. The DM says, reluctantly, "there's the secret tunnel-" cue the chorus of people suddenly singing SECRET TUNNEL.

I didn't do great on my stealth check but I got out of the house and went to the mayor. Unbeknownst to my friends I am swimming in gold, and the DM at our last session had been a little tipsy and riffing while he voiced the mayor and said some funny line about the guy using drugs. So Key wakes up the mayor, tells him he's about to booted out of office for his drug use, and offers him an outrageous amount of money to leave town before his reputation is ruined. The DM, playing the mayor now, is flabbergasted. But I rolled a nat 20 on my persuasion check and the mother fucker bought it. He left town that day.

Which! Through a fluke none of us expected, meant that one member of our party was now the de facto mayor of our town. And while we had a job to do, the town was under threat of attack by a dragon and was actually in the middle of evacuating to that fortress we'd recently rid of the tabaxi. Our new lawful good mayor could hardly leave her people to evacuate on their own!

And so just like that the whole angle of the game changed. Key is working for a terrorist organization, and when she was forced to reveal the truth of her involvement in the plot to remove the mayor her friends learned that she does have her own moral code. She didn't kill the guy, even though that was plainly what her people expected. She made sure he'd be safe, that he'd have a chance of a good life. And she did it because her girlfriend told her he was an unjust ruler, and the one thing Key hates more than losing her money is a tyrant. Even tho Key recognizes that Tro becoming the mayor isn't great for the party, it gives her a chance to point out that bc Tro is pure of heart and uninterested in power she'll make for a good ruler, in the short term. Key has, according to her own code, done a good thing. That was a huge moment for her character and her relationship with her team.

And honestly it was so much fun to play. I got to surprise my friends, who hadn't known I had any of this planned and didn't expect the story to go this way, and Key got to grow a little bit, and now Tro is the fucking mayor!! The whole story changed because Key snuck out of the house, to save the mayor before her organization killed him.

And I can't wait for next week.

#dnd things #i love my disaster lesbian pirate cleric #Yes i do often shout what is dead may never die #which is kind of perfect for a not lawful cleric

12 notes · View notes

lilyjoycemfa · 3 years

Text

Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi The Uprising On poetry and Finance

Money and language have something in common. They are nothing and they move everything.

Capitalist language vs. Poetry.

Capitalist language restricts.

Poetry carries on and on past that. It invites us to come back to our bodies, to our sensibilities and aesthetic self.

“the dephysicalization of money is part of the general process of abstraction which is the all-encompassing tendency of capitalism”.

“Things are not considered from the point of view of their concrete usefulness, but from that of their exchangeability and exchange value”.

“Effectiveness, not truth value, is the rule of language in the sphere of communication.”

Capitalist/ efficient language is put above poetical language because it is fast and singular in meaning, but misses the multiplicity of ideas that are in poetry (and later on in the reading, described in irony).

“a revolution of value itself, which carries value beyond it’s commodity form into it’s radical form.”

“Symbolism opened a new space for poetic praxis, starting from the emancipation of the word from its referential task”.

this is poetry ^

“...although money and language have something in common, their destinies do not coincide... as language exceeds economic exchange. Poetry is the language of nonexchangability, the return of infinite hermenuetics (interpretation), and the return of the sensuous body of language”.

“the insurrection against financial capitialism is aimed to recompose the social and affective body”

We can feel again, by reading poetry. Capitalism makes us small, compact. Unable to move away from it.

Makes me think of what Puawai Cairns said in Not today... Can you decolonise an art gallery? about decolonisation being something that holds Maori down, confines them. So they can’t move away from it ever, and be more than a singular self.

^ “full deployment of the general intellect falls beyond the sphere of capitalism”.

“sensibility is the ability to understand what cannot be verbalised”

This is what I think Shannon brings out so eloquently in his work for other people. Creating a space for that sensibility to flow. Like how I hope Dani and my work did in our collaborative, poetical text based work ‘soft afternoon’.

“...time has been fragmented and depersonalised”.

Because of capitalism, we don’t feel we have the time or space to take time with poetry, or non capitialist language. All our time is taken by surviving under capitalism.

“the conscious organism appears to increasingly inhibit what we call sensibility. By sensibility, I mean the faculty that enables human beings to interpret signs that are not verbal nor can be made so, the ability to understand what cannot be expressed in forms that have finite syntax”.

^We all have the ability to understand, or take something away from poetry. There are so many ways to interpret poetical writing, and none of which are wrong. It depends on our different angles of sensibilities that exist in us. Therefore it is accessible to all (?).

"..sensibility tends to slow down the process of interpretation, making them ambiguous and downgrading the competitive efficiency of the semiotic agent. Sensibility is in time, and we need time to understand the hypercomplex communication of the body”

^To wait for people to make up their minds is inefficient. It is anti capitalist.

The importance of aesthetics.

“aesthetics is the science dedicated to the study of the contact between the derma (the skin, the sensitive surface of our body and mind) and different chemical, physical, electromagnetic, electronic, and informational flows”.

How and why we perceive things the way they are. Again I am thinking about Shannon’s work, and how he triggers our sensibilities, pulls us into his work. In one of the ways, aesthetically.

“Guattari views the universe as a continuum of diverse and interrelated entities in bodily contact with each other"

rittournelles, semiotic markers of rhythm. Rhythm is the common substance of signs (word, music, vision) and the brain.

DEFINITION OF rittournelle/ ritornello

a short instrumental refrain or interlude in a vocal work.

Shannon mentioned in our crit about cadence. The first time I had heard this word. Now it is everything. I see it here. I see it in all thoughtful, poetic art now, including ours.

the paralysis of empathy

we want to re engage empathetic thinking

“Poetry is languages excess: poetry is what in language cannot be reduced to information, and is not exchangeable, but gives way to a new common ground of understanding, of shared meaning: the creation is a new world... poetry is a singular vibration of the voice”.

singularity (in my definition)- just being, feeling.

sensibility

noun

1.the quality of being able to appreciate and respond to complex emotional or aesthetic influences; sensitivity.

“We call poetry the semiotic concatenation that exceeds the sphere of exchange and the codified correspondence of the signifier and the signified; it is the semiotic concatenation that that creates new pathways of signification and opens the way to a reactivation of the relation between sensibility and time”.

“semiotic concatenation” - what a beautifully wankey pair of words. But I understand what it’s saying and I see it’s value. Seemingly unrelated words, that come together and transform writing into something poetical. But without time to take it in to allow the sensibility to come through there is no point. Berardi argues that poetry, by existing, forces these variables into play (?).

...in the ability to treat words according to an unrepeatable singular procedure...an artificial treatment of verbal matter generating effects of meaning never seen and codified before...

Poetical procedure is a form of estrangement... that carries the world far and away from it’s common use.

Funky fresh metaphors abstract the world as we know it. Break what we understand on the surface driven capital language, so we can feel more, experience more. Nice. Something Dani and I tried to do and to some point exceeded in our collaboration ‘Soft Afternoon’. Eliciting a feeling rather than logic.

Art is therapy, treating capitalist mindsets. Taking us back to our selves.

0 notes

gascon-en-exil · 7 years

Text

The Top Ten Women of Fire Emblem (As Written by a Gay Man)

#1 - Micaiah

When we were separated during the war, you changed, Sothe. And I changed too. I want to protect Daein more than anything. Our people must be saved, and if I can help in that effort, I will.

Let it not be said that this was an obvious pick simply because Micaiah happens to be a lord, and one from my favorite game in the series moreover. Although I thought it appropriate to end this ranking with a lord I’m well aware that all the women who’ve fulfilled that role in FE (excluding Avatars for obvious reasons) have had to work against writers determined to screw them over in one way or another. There’s not much point therefore in me rehashing the many criticisms, valid or not, that have been leveled against Micaiah over the years. I’m instead going to be breaking down just why I think she works for me as well as she does, and how thoroughly she earns the distinction of being the least narratively compromised female lord in the franchise...for whatever that’s worth.

Revenge of the Jugdral Waifs

Parts of Tellius’s worldbuilding borrow extensively from Jugdral, some in more subtle ways than others. Micaiah is one of its more obvious allusions, as both her look and class design owe much to a group of female light magic users from those games who also exist outside the framework of the traditional clerical classes (some - or all? - of them even share their starting class name with the Japanese name of Micaiah’s third tier class). Deirdre, Julia, Linoan, and Sara are all women of high standing, and three of them are linked by blood to the dark Loptyrian cult not unlike Micaiah’s association with the “dark” goddess Yune. In spite of circumstances that ought to grant them significant plot relevance however all four of these characters are diminished by the narratives of the two games, either kept on the political sidelines in preference to a man or turned into barely-characterized damsels in distress. To paraphrase Markoftheasphodel, Deirdre and Julia in particular encapsulate the whole of Jugdral’s particular brand of misogyny - some of the most important and powerful characters in the setting reduced to tormented plot devices devoid of personality.

It’s probably a stretch to suggest that Micaiah was intentionally written as a means of redeeming these characters after the fact merely because she owes so much of her design to them. Still, that reading is certainly there. Micaiah assumes Julia’s role during Part 4, becoming the human vessel for Yune as Julia is inhabited by the spirit of Naga during the last chapter of FE4. While there’s no arguing that Micaiah drew the short straw when it came to gameplay power-ups from her resident deity, in return she is allowed substantially more screentime and agency even when she’s sharing her body with someone else. Certain characterization threads relative to Micaiah and not Yune, like vengeance against Numida and Lekain and the back story of Micaiah’s relationship with Sothe, are followed through to their conclusions only during Part 4. Also, while it’s Yune calling the shots as the army ascends the Tower of Guidance Micaiah is still an active participant, taking responsibility for awakening Yune before Dheghinsea and saving Lehran among other things.

It’s a common criticism that Ike takes over the plot of Radiant Dawn from Micaiah, but the truth is that he’s sharing the endgame spotlight with Micaiah and Yune together. Ike is still the saga hero of Tellius - the Seliph equivalent - but Micaiah displays none of Julia’s blankness and passivity at any point. She’s unquestionably closer to being the deuterotagonist of Tellius than any Leif equivalent (Elincia, perhaps?). What’s more, while Linoan must cede her political relevance to Leif and Julia’s epilogue has her being little more than a support to her emperor brother, Micaiah gets to rule the kingdom she’s spent the game trying to save - while not invalidating the rule of her recently-discovered younger sister over her own country, incidentally - whereas Ike leaves the continent to have adventures and gay sex. In Jugdral the best most women can hope to be is support for their ruling husbands; in Tellius all three beorc nations have women ruling them by the end. Indeed, even compared with the other non-Avatar female lords that’s a huge step forward.

Conquest Needs to Take Notes: FE10′s Villain Campaign

This should really be a more controversial statement than it actually is: the Dawn Brigade chapters of FE10, especially those in Part 3, make for a better villain campaign than the entirety of FE14′s Conquest route.

It’s sad how that it isn’t really an exaggeration at all, and even more sad that FE10 doesn’t rely on narrative shortcuts to convey the idea that you’re temporarily playing as the bad guys like Conquest does. Daein isn’t draped entirely in black, and its antagonistic history as a nation saddled with a legacy of racism and Ashnard’s goals of conquest isn’t swept under the rug or left to be inferred only from Path of Radiance. The Daein of Radiant Dawn still displays its anti-laguz prejudice from the previous game, and there’s no indication that that prejudice doesn’t extend to members of the playable cast or that it’s something that will be quickly and cleanly done away with after the credits roll. Micaiah herself plays to the wishes of her racist followers when she has to in Part 3, and though she’s not rabidly bigoted like Jill is in FE9 before her character development she does have a personal interest in not making waves.

I’m not only talking about her ambivalence toward laguz as a Branded, either. One of Micaiah’s most defining traits is her patriotism. It’s a curious element of her character, based in her feelings toward her adopted homeland and willfully unconcerned with Daein’s racism even as it forces her to hide her Brand. It’s rather amusing that probably the most common criticism leveled against Micaiah is that she’s a Mary Sue blindingly adored in-universe, not just because the same could be said for Ike but because that’s exactly what she’s built up to be. If anything the mounting conflict between Ike’s loyal followers - technically the Gallian army and later Crimea and Sanaki’s forces, but they all join together under him - and the cult-ish adherents of “the Maiden of Dawn” deconstructs this accusation. Everyone in Daein may adore her and may have rallied around the Dawn Brigade in a bid to remove the Begnion occupation, but by Part 3 that fervor is shown to be clearly unhealthy and something that Lekain is able to manipulate to his advantage.

It’s not just the alliance with Begnion that places the Dawn Brigade chapters in villain campaign territory, as Micaiah is forced to resort to increasingly underhanded tactics to satisfy the demands of the senate, from ambushes in the dark to outright war crimes. All the while she’s being ironically proclaimed by her soldiers a symbol of light and divine will, a stark contrast to Nohr’s shadowy branding. It’s a matter of opinion whether Lekain’s blood pact is more or less contrived than the various plot devices that keep Conquest Corrin in line during the invasion of Hoshido, but Micaiah is actually allowed to be genuinely antagonistic toward the armies she’s opposing, in large part because of her pronounced nationalism and the atmosphere of blind worship she’s allowed to grow around her. One of the most important elements of a well-written villain story is that the characters involved shouldn’t think of themselves as the villains unless they’re fully evil and are committed as such (which usually isn’t that interesting anyway). Conquest focuses too much on Corrin’s angst over the ruin of Hoshido and leaves the motivations of the Nohrians vague, whereas Daein in Part 3 carries both its legacy of bigotry and militarism from FE9 and the memory of its glorious uprising against foreign oppression from Part 1. It’s not hard at all to imagine the members of the Dawn Brigade and even the Daein military thinking themselves heroes of their own story, bolstered by a leader determined to do whatever is necessary to save her people.

The Token(-ish) Het of Tellius

I would be remiss though if I didn’t talk about queer content at some point, because Tellius pretty much runs off the stuff. In that regard Micaiah is admittedly lacking; she has her auto-A support with Sothe and almost nothing else, and while exposition on their early relationship reveals that their bond is a quasi-incestuous one riddled with age issues it’s not in the same league as Nailah/Rafiel totally inverting gender roles, Haar/Jill almost literally robbing the cradle, or Elincia’s complex feelings for her two closest retainers. One can appreciate though that Micaiah/Sothe displays a certain symmetry with Ike/Soren, from parallels in their first meetings to the experiences of one member of each pairing being Branded to their roles at the heads of their respective armies (from a gameplay perspective note that Soren and Sothe stand beside their partners when faced as enemies in 3-13 and 3-E respectively). I might go so far as to say that these symmetries provide additional legitimacy to Ike/Soren as a paired ending, especially since they get their own exposition-laden base conversation in endgame.

Ooh, Shiny!

And ok, my bias in favor of light magic users is on display here too. I was hyped for Micaiah as soon as she appeared in promotional materials as a caster lord, the first and so far only purely magical unit to hold that title. Even notwithstanding the fact that Radiant Dawn is arguably the worst game in the series in which to be a magic user Micaiah has some serious issues as a unit, but at least when she sucks in-game she does so in manner completely distinguishable from the likes of Leif and Roy. She can be a staffbot (she can use Physic as soon as she promotes), she can nuke stuff with Thani and/or Wrath crits thanks to her nonexistent defenses, she can riskily play around her late promotions with Resolve (Easy only, please), and even at the end of the game when she’s probably still frail and will never be fast enough to double everything she’s still the best candidate for Rexaura just because the saints are even worse. I appreciate too that light magic got some much-needed statistical buffs compared to Path of Radiance, and we most likely have Micaiah to thank for that. Even if the game hates her she can make for a fun if challenging unit to use to her greatest potential.

...Now I want to play FE10 again.

#Fire Emblem #Micaiah #Radiant Dawn #FE10

50 notes · View notes

mechagalaxy · 5 years

Text

Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: My Clan war `46

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184)

My Clan war `46

First opponents: Black Star Lycan Rangers

We of the Star League are not the most flashy of clans, and while we have gotten some prizes over the years the only time we rose to the top was back in the war of `10.

As most Commanders naturally seek those clans who can give them top prizes, we are in something of a bind when it comes to personell.

Back when Paulzilla ran the show, we managed pretty decently due to his knack of doing the right things. But when he left us for the Spirit of Bunny back in `33 he made the probably worst command decision in his career.

He made me his heir.

The rest of the clan assumed he knew what he was doing, and let me fumble on for to many years. This led to disasterous results, and drove away several of our members in disgust, most missed among them our 20 ton specialist Caitlyn Mainer who returned back to the Bunnies.

In the following years it went from bad to worse to horrible.

My lack of leadership skills made recruiting close to impossible, and several of our Commanders were lost in actions against the would be galactic overlords.

Not being capable of recruiting fresh Commanders, we fought on with leaderless formations, hoping that some of those MIAs would find their way back to us.

Finally Tony Hoogheem surfaced.

I immediately called for a vote of no confidence against me as leader, and suggested Tony to pick up the shattered remains and try to build us back to what we once were.

So far he have done an excellent job, but we are still looking for a couple additional Commanders. If any of you feel like struggling against close adversaries, give him a call and try us out for a time. --- As the war aproached, Tony lost some of his cool when he still was unable to find our last MIA, Eric Loar. He was not happy about my lackluster performance in the last 30 ton event either, but as Rob had taken Gold in the same event, he had some of proven ability to run that tonnage.

As for me.. My heavyest Mechs were still jigsaw puzzles, so he decided to let me try out in the mandatory 70 ton formation. I was not confident in that role, but someone had to do it, and the others had after all working BFMs Jorge had done well in the tonnage limited 1200 total in the previos wars, and were chosen as our last specialist

Then Tony went around doing what a good leader does. Encouraging, helping and advicing. This took quite a few hours off his sleep cycles so he started getting a bit frayed around the edges. And when the listing of the divisions and first round opponents was anounced he went a bit animated.

"Rangers round one, we are doomed" Turning to me he added "They will probably blow up everything and everyone in sight, I wish there was some way to assure us having parts and ammo for the two other battledays" Then he went on his way to make us as prepared as possible.

Well, in fact there was a way to assure the Rangers never touched our supplies or ammo. All I had to do was send it away to someplace other, and have it returned in time for the two other battles. It would leave us having only the onboard ammo, and a very limited amount of spares, but if we kept it around the Rangers would probably destroy it anyway….

The battleplan Tony presented to us was so well formulated that even I was supposed to understand it. On the southern flank Jorge`s 1200 would hold the 1200 pass, and in the marshy southeast corner Rob`s 30s would lurk, ready to pounce on any opponents that managed to mire themselves down. I was to hold the broken terrain of the northern flank using my 70`s

My problem was that I did not really have a formation worthy of the name of 70 tonners.

But if you cant win by straight up fighting, use guile.

Some might consider what I did to be cheating, but as someone once said: "If you aint cheating, you aint trying hard enough"

To get to our rear area, the Rangers would have to travel through a valley that wound up into some fairly impressive peaks. Said peaks was the result of some, geologically speaking, fairly recent volcanic activity.

Getting hold of some worn signs warning of volcanic activity, and some weathered maps showing alternative routes, I placed them on the aproaches to the valley. In addition, quite a lot of brimstone was buried to give off the distinctive reek, and then came the crowning achievement.

Hollowing out one of the peaks and placing my Mechs in position to fire unobserved into it, we started heating the area. A liberal sprinkling of charcoal (constantly renewed) sent dark ashy clouds into the air, and just as the war officially started the stone started melting and slowly flowed toward the valley as a trickle of lava. I dont know if this fooled the Rangers, but at least none of them appeared inmy area of operations.

As for how the Battle went for the rest of the clan...

The Rangers struck first.

A taskforce consisting of Leeboy Wegenast, Don and Luana Alligood with Mark Shc Wiseman descended upon us. Totally unneccesary from my point of view, they got reinforced by Karl Kash, Richard Kangas and Russ Painter. They came in fast and hard and blew up every Star Leaguer they could find. Our top pilot, Able Hunter, managed to get out of the trap and ambushed Craig Vannes for our first win. 19-1 to them.

Probably infuriated by this meddling in what their plans had supposed to be a one-sided slaughter, Kangas continued his sweep. Rob Treepe tried unsuccsessfully to intercept Wegenast as he went back for more ammo, so Wiseman, Donald Anthony Alligood and Vannes decided to blow us up some more. 32-1.

Mark Cassese made a couple valiant, but doomed attacks to give our medics some moments to evacuate critically wounded personell. In response Sheila Retherford was called in to blow us up some more. Mark put himself in harms way once more, and Russ Painter responded by blowing up a couple more of us. 44-1

Jorge Roman and Tony Hoogheem had managed to get into what seemd like an advantageous position, but their attacks was crushed. Luana, Wiseman and Painter went around looking for ammodumps and blew up a couple more of our formations. 53-1.

While Painter still was active, Able tried yet again to stem the tide. roward was dispatched to keep pummeling us, and Mark failed another attack 58-4.

At this point Tony was caught in the open by Wiseman. He waved off his clanmates, so they took a break from the general mayhem they had been dishing out to watch how he crushed our leader. His Frontine consisteng of a Pike, a Warden, an Apototron, a Notos and a Reaper squared off against Tony`s 3 Aspisès,supported by an Ignis and a Torrent.

The first major hit was when wisemans Apto managed a superhit on Tony`s Torrent. In addition to the regular hit there was Splash, Fork and Wide Fork involved and Tony`s line took a severe pounding. But the Torrent fired back and one of the missiles found an vulnerable spot, goodbye Apto. Wiesmans Notos stepped up and sent a blast that all but melted the Torrent, the residential fires forced into shutdown a few moments later. One of Tony`s Aspises landed a multiple driven blow on the Pike, the heavy damage was not quite enough to fell it, but the Fork that acompanied the hit sent the Warden into an immediate shutdown. Another couple of hits later the Pike was history as well, and the shutdown Warden got blown up by a grazing hit as well. The Exchange continued, and hit after hit was landed, but not until Tony`s Ignis managed to get a flametoungue into the vitals of the Reaper was another Mech downed. The Ignis then got in another Critical hit and the Notos was history as well.

Wisemans second line, pure Boreas, advanced. Landing telling blows they blew Tony`s remaining shot up Mechs apart before they managed to get off a single shot in return.

Tony`s second line, consisting of two Anubisès flanking the main comabatants, an Apatatron, a Fext and a Notos stepped forth. The top Anubis launched a Jurrasic Thunder that spread mayhem over the whole line of Boreases by Wide Forking them. More shots were exchanged without doing more than reducing armor, and then Tony`s Notos melted one of the Boreasès. The bottom Anubis hit with another Jurressic Thunder, and in addition to blowing up one Boreas, the Wide fork shut down the others. Polishing the shutdown Mechs off was the work of moments. . Wisemans third line entered the fray. A Fext and a Humbaba supprted by a trio of 90 tonners, Antithesis, Regis and Ignis. After a furious exhange of heavy, but not telling blows, Wisemans Humbaba launched an overpowered Omen Barrell. In addition to blowing up the Apto, the Fork sent the Notos into an emegency shutdown as well. Said Humbaba launched another couple telling blows as well, by critting first the Fext and then the Notos. The last Anubis fought grimly on, but the weight of fire was against it. It landed a couple more blows, then the Ignis gave it a Coup de Grace.

Tonys third line, an Apatotron flanked by two Boreas and two Regises stepped up. Wisemans Mechs got the drop on them and scored several hits, none of them telling. Then the bottom Boreas finally got its Amarok ready. The forking shot blew the Antithesis apart and shut down the Regis. The other Boreas, not to be outdone, sent a Winters Grasp downrange, blowing up the Humbaba and shutting down the Ignis. After Tony`s top Regis had finished off Wisemans Regis by means of an Rage Pulsar it was just some mopping up to do before they was challenged by a new line.

Wisemans 4th Line consisted of a Notos and a Humbaba backed by another trio of 90 tonners, Ignis, Antithesis and Regis again. Wisemans Mechs landed a few blows, but Tony responded by critting the Regis With an Amarok. To add insult to injury he managed to turn it into a Wide Fork as well, shutting down two more Mechs. The Anti was blown up by a Regis and the Notos was felled by an Amarok from a Boreas that also sent another Mech into shutdown. Wisemans Notos, now without active linemates, managed to get off a solid blow before it disappered as part of the general cleanup.

Wisemans 5th line consisted of a trio of Dreadnoughts backed up by a Torrent and a Frigis. One of the Dreadnoughts was quickliy felled by a Rage Pulsar from a Regis, then Wisemans Torrent landed a solid blow on one of the Boreasès. It was not enough to put it out of action, but the cloud of shrapnell tok out the last armor of Tony`s Apto so it was now reduced to a non-firing target. A Boreas blew the offending Torrent to pieces, and then it was a flurry of hard but nontelling blows. But the pounding was to much for Wisemans Mechs, and they slowly disintegrated as their armor disappeared.

The 6th line of Wiseman entered the fray. Two Anubis`es backed up by an Ignis, a Rudy and an Onyx. After some introductionary exchange of fire, the Onyx finished off Tony`s Apto, then Tony`s Regisès put paid to first one Anubis and then the Ignis. A Boreas polished off the Rudy, and both the Onyx and the Last Anubis was blown up before they managed to inflict any serious damage

The last line of Wiseman consisted of two Typhoons and a Fext, screened by an Archlight and a Frigis. They managed to get off a total of one shot before Tony`s veterans blew them apart.

After Wiseman loss to Tony, something that brought Weganast and both the Retherfords into the fray to keep us busy while he was extracted, we were once more reduced to the role of targets in the Rangers game of "Whack-a-Star Leaguer". As a last reminder for us to stay down, Kash and Vannes blew us up some more.

In the end we were crushed 74-5.

The sad part? They could probably gotten twice as many wins without working up a serious sweat

0 notes