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A fair warning to my viewers: If you try publicly defending me, you WILL be incessantly and viciously harassed by Nazi filth, useful idiots and people with severe internalized bigotry.

If you don't have the skin for that, if you're the kind of person who nukes their social media when they get harassed, then don't do it. Please prioritize your own safety over defending me.

Is it true you only wrote The Sith Resergence just to spite Rian Johnson and fans of The Last Jedi?

I think that was the film we changed the least.

We ironed out the idea walking home from TROS.

My favourite part of the response to the Imoen Romance video is all the people going "what the fuck? Why is this cute? This is not supposed to be cute!"

The are people buying BG2 just to play it and they are so utterly confused at why they want to.

One guy said it game him his "most confused d'aaw"

Welcome to the freaking Twilight Zone.

Did SWTOR have any good controversies?

In the Sith Warrior storyline, while you're undermining Darth Baras you learn that he was keeping an ancient Sith spirit chained up in his basement. So you go to free it, where she talks about being in love with Vitiate.

It's a very weird chapter where we just find a "powerful Sith who held the galaxy by the throat three hundred years ago" that nobody ever heard about even thought 300 years ago would have been around KOTOR 1 and 2, and given the Sith Warrior also interacts with Revan and the Exile you would think they'd have mentioned-

Oh...

OH NO...

It turned out not to be the case, and the only suggestion otherwise came from a writer who wasn't even involved in the story basically just guessing and clearly not having played those games at all. But MAN people were ROYALLY pissed because if that had been true it would have been the worst disservice possible to the best written Star Wars character of all time.

So in the Jedi Alie AU, why is Luke suddenly abusive?

He isn't so deliberately. He has a student who is roiling with the Dark Side, and is trying to do what he can to quell it. He doesn't realize, and in fact not even Alie knows, that she cannot help what she is and the Dark Side is an integral part of her.

It juts so hard against the instincts of a Jedi. As is the case when Alie first tries moving away from Kyber crystals.

In truth, their relationship comes off more like any other impatient or impetuous Padawan, the only difference is that Alie is actually right when she clocks that something is wrong while Luke is only doing the same thing that any Jedi Master would say to their pupil, not realizing his pupil has very different needs and capabilities.

The Jedi have never encountered this before.

Luke's actions are severe, but unintentional. Hell a freaking Sith Ghost says the same thing to him

Ultimately Alie comes down to the latter. By the time she escapes this version of Alie doesn't hate Luke, hence why she saved him, but at the same time doesn't want Luke anywhere near her.

The thing I've always noticed about your characters is they all do very heroic things, but they aren't nice. Niva will save people from a meteor, but she won't hide the fact that she hates her job. Anevay will save the world from cosmic horrors but she's racist. Aliana will lead the galaxy against oppressors but she's bitter and cynical.

I wonder if that's why some people are so mad

Yeah, pretty much. A lot of people care more about a character being nice than being good. And a lot of it directed at me is just about not showing proper respect to the formula.

When I write fanfiction, it's almost always deconstructive because I bring my critical analysis and beliefs about the franchise into it.

TSR throws away the Disney-fied version of the Dark Side because the more nuanced Dark Side from Legends was better.

Horde Champion openly chafes against the Alliance-centric and nice guy-centric writing WoW is currently suffering under.

Avatar Niva openly challenges the "Avatar Formula" that's been choking the franchise to death for years.

I've kinda always been this way. I don't turn my critical brain off and when I write fanfiction I write it the same way KOTOR 2 is written in relation to the rest of the franchise.

A lot of people get angry when I do that because they can the criticisms I'm making. In the case of Niva, that criticism is "Stop copying The Last Airbender's formula. Do something different. Anything different."

If I could physically grab Bryke and shake them like they're a first year Wii game, I'd be screaming in their face "STOP DOING JET AND OZAI EVERY FUCKING STORY! TELL A DIFFERENT STORY!"

Niva throws most of that shit away because it's a problem. She's characterized in such a way that the Jets and Ozais don't work because she'd fucking one-tap them. And her story is about examining what the Avatar is after so much of Korra was dedicated to the rabble yelling unwarranted criticisms at her and her taking them way too personally.

Aang had a big arc about how even if he doesn't like it, he IS the Avatar so better get with the program. Niva extends that to everyone. She IS the Avatar. Don't like her? Sucks to be you, you weren't consulted.

And the thing is, these guys can see the criticisms I'm making, and they're mad about it because they LIKE the fact that Avatar moves away from philosophy and closer to a shonen anime. They like that the new movie did away with philosophy entirely to just being about Aang and Tahga Armor Digivolving into Super Saiyans and screaming at each other in the voice of the Legion.

And me suggesting that the franchise would be better served by getting less cosmic, less explosive, less bombastic, and more meditative, like the episodes of the original show people actually liked the most, is profane because they won't want that boring shit. They want to watch the element monks shoot kamehamehas at each other.

relating to that ground news anon, wasn't there a study that found that when news outlets did only report factual information with no obvious bias it was still taken to have a liberal bias? even if I am misremembering, what point is there in wanting to read conservative opinions in the first place? not only are they likely to simply lie about reality but they just have bad opinions not worth listening to.

The whole point of Ground News is that it makes you feel smart for using it when it's as useful as a political compass.

The best thing Niva could do for the world is die as soon as possible and hope the next avatar won't be a failure

I'm imagining someone actually saying this to Niva's face and her response.

Well if I'm being honest her response would probably be-

But instead I decided to write this out.

I think one of the reasons that "polyamory could fix this" Is a thing, is that so many shows, movies and anime pull the love triangle trope for cheap drama and handle it so poorly that some fans just don't want to put up with it and headcanon polyamory out of spite. I've seen other fans say that one or more characters in a love triangle is ace for the same reason (which is hilarious). Some people are just sick of hack writers being hack writers.

A love triangle isn't hack writing, it's just an overused trope you don't like.

Process your emotions like an adult.

Since you've talked about why Ground News is bad, how do we make sure we're getting unbiased news?

You don't.

When it comes to Left vs Right, Liberal vs Conservative, etc, you can't be both unbiased and true because the second of both of those dualities is always wrong about everything.

There is nothing in the universe that conservatives are correct about.

Reality has a liberal bias.

Jedi Alie AU? You didn't say there was a Jedi Alie AU. Are there tropes for it? (I like your trope lists)

Sure thing

A lot of people complain about the one guy who makes a Chaotic Evil character in an otherwise good party, but would it be possible to ever make that work?

The important thing to always remember is that Every alignment can take the exact same action, but for wildly different reasons.

It's not a matter of "Would my character do this?" but "Why is my character doing this?"

To that end, Chaotic Evil characters are the easiest to fit into a good party. The whole point of being Chaotic Evil is that you know you're an evil bastard and you revel in it. You will do whatever the hell you please. As such, even just being among a group of Heroes is going to make them and other people nervous as to what the fuck it is you're planning, and that can be reason enough itself: Fucking with people is fun.

You gotta throw in a few Heroic actions sometimes, gotta keep people guessing. Can't get too predictable or else you get boring.

Hell if you're an evil wizard, and the main villain is an evil wizard, that's reason enough to join the heroes: "This realm isn't big enough for two evil wizards! Now it's fucking personal!"

Where evil characters in good parties go wrong is that they're almost always murderhobos so they just grief the party. Actually putting thought into it means you get to just offer so many different perspectives a good party would otherwise have.

Imagine you stumble across one of the main villain's atrocities, and while everyone else is reacting with horror and resolutions to stop that madman, you're just walking around critiquing the technique and being insulted at the lack of showmanship.

Party Leader: "Oh my god... he had every villager hung by the wrists and eaten alive with roaches..." Evil Wizard: "This is just tacky! People are already afraid of roaches, so you didn't do anything to make their death more terrifying! You exploited an already existing fear! It's like tormenting someone by murdering their child. There's no creativity in it! Their psyche is doing all the work for you! This man has no respect for the craft! As an artist I am insulted!"

Even better you can make the entire party genre-savvy.

Party Leader: "There were no guards or wards, it was like he just let us escape." Evil Wizard: "That's because he wants to either corrupt you or fuck you." Party Leader: "You're... you're serious?" Evil Wizard: "How do you think I met my wife? Where else is an evil wizard going to meet a Priest of Lathander?" Party Leader: "Marismia the Dark Harbinger is a Priest of Lathander?!" Evil Wizard: "Well, she was... then I locked her in a dungeon where every clue to get out was poetry and that did it." Party Leader: "You're a poet?" Evil Wizard: "Not in the slightest. I spent four years making that deathtrap work."

The whole thing about being Chaotic Evil is you're evil for the love of the game.

Once you stop thinking about "What would this alignment do" and start thinking "Why would this alignment do this?" you understand the alignment system much better.

You've said before you don't like kyber crystal bleeding in Canon. If that's true, how does Alie, who's supposed to exist in something approaching canon, have a red lightsaber without bleeding it?

Amorosa's lightsaber doesn't use a Kyber crystal. It uses a Qixoni crystal. When she was instructing Rey on how to build her lightsaber, she gave her two Stygium crystals to use instead of Kyber.

Baanite Sith liked bleeding Kyber crystals because they felt it make the lightsaber more powerful, effectively mirroring the reason the Jedi used them in the first place. While this made them more powerful (energy from the cell is multiplied, completely breaking the laws of thermodynamics) it also made them temperamental.

The Beniko Sith opted to use crystals that weren't Force Sensitive because it made the lightsaber less problematic.

In the "Jedi Alie" AU, Aliana wielded a teal-colored lightsaber in the Jedi Order. However, because she was naturally attuned to the Dark Side of the Force, her lightsaber was constantly failing, shorting out, or oftentimes not functioning correctly. When she left the Jedi (or more accurately: escaped) one of the first things she did was remove the Kyber crystal and chuck it off a cliff. She replaced it with a Damind crystal later on.

In all your time writing stories, what's the most useless thing people try to do as feedback?

Refusal to acknowledge that human beings are varied.

In recent years as I've been writing snuggly siblings, I've had more than one person claim "I would be SUPER uncomfortable doing this!" And the only real response I can give to them is "Good thing I'm not writing about you, then."

Lavi in particular gets a lot of grief over the fact that Niva is her entire world. Every aspect of her life is secondary to Niva, and she's been like that since she was very young. People take issue with this because her life doesn't contain all the things that make a balanced, healthy individual.

Because she isn't.

Korra-era Niva is far worse with this, as Lavi hasn't just been parentified, she's been Niva's primary caregiver since she was 11.

The thing is, while Niva and Lavi in all permutations have their issues and their story is about improving that, they don't improve to the degree that a lot of readers might want them to. They don't let go of each other, they don't really invite others into their world, Niva doesn't embrace being the Avatar but rather begrudgingly accepts it, their growth happens entirely on their terms.

And this is because while I like to write stories about characters growing, it's more important that the reader grow to understand them. Most people don't live completely perfect, healthy lives or have completely healthy relationships. Most people don't grow the way you want them to and there isn't a cosmic hammer coming down to punish them for it.

depsidase

cd-call-official-blog

Monsters the lot of them.

CD! How do you respond to the allegations that you're a cool gal who makes cool stuff?

When will people STOP fucking LYING about me?!

Dark Urge

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