CorvusAurantia

I like fantasy, history, languages and anime ^-^ I love the Harry Potter series, but I'm friendly towards any gender (and also towards any sexual or romantic orientation). Live and let live and be happy^^

[corvus-aurantia]

Spoilers C3E63

Oh god, I just realized that while Bor'Dor's betrayal and how it played out was really dramatic and intense and hurtful, especially for Prism and Laudna, the hurt from it must have been rather ... mild(?) for Ashton? He seemed rather unfazed by it. And while I think he's good at keeping it together when he's focussed on being there for others, I think in this case he probably might actually be rather unfazed? Because frankly, he has had worse betrayals happening to him. He's been abandoned as a child by his family and then the Nobody's, his gang, his very close friends, left him behind. Bor'Dor on the other hand he only knew him for about a week or so and he wasn't terribly close to him. So, yeah, Ashton has been betrayed in ways that were way more hurtful for him :((

For Laudna it's very different though. She's only been betrayed 1 1/2 times before - I'm counting FCG going haywire as half a betrayal, because they didn't intend to attack their friends and it got resolved afterwards but in the moment it definitely affected her deeply and she had a strong reaction to it... The other betrayal was from Yu and it was so similar to Bor'Dor's betrayal! Both from a person she had recently met, with whom she was getting along well, with whom she was bonding. And that must be so hard when you're getting along well with someone and you're forming the first buds of friendship and then suddenly it all blows up in your face and haha, the jokes on you, they never gave a shit about you (and oh boy, if that isn't a feeling Ashton is intimately familiar with). And to have that happen not once, but TWICE to you - no wonder she snapped (I mean I don't condone killing somebody for vengeance but it makes for great storytelling).

So yeah, I feel very deeply for Laudna and Ashton and kudos to everyone at the table for creating this amazing story! This episode was just incredible and left me with so many feels 😢

[centaurianthropology]

Ashton and Silence

One of the things that has fascinated me this campaign is how ready-built Ashton is to be a leader, but how Taliesin plays low charisma to constantly stop them from being one.  Ashton has great ideas, and tends to be one of the two most grounded members of the group.   He has excellent moral intelligence (far better than they’ll admit), and one-on-one Ashton excels at talking people down from their worst points.  

But they also are in constant pain, and they’ve spent their entire life being told that they’re worthless as anything other than a slab of muscle.  So they silence themselves.  And the more unfamiliar the environment or the more people around them, the more they clam up.

Last episode was one of the best examples I’ve seen yet.  Ashton was almost entirely silent this episode.  He admitted to hating camping, likely to do with the chronic pain, but also to do with the unfamiliar environment.  Ashton is a city barbarian through and through, and they thrive in cities.  They are far more confident in cities, even when they don’t know them as well as Jrusar or Bassuras.  But the wilderness?  On an unknown continent?  He’s already on the wrong foot.

And then they go to the village, and before they know it things are spiraling.  It turns out this place was a powderkeg waiting to blow, with two factions that are, at least from appearance, both highly suspect.  The Vasselheim faction are clearly outsiders come here to impose their culture on the locals, taking too much from their land, bleeding their farms dry for distant tribute, and recently sending more and more armed thugs and more religious oppression.  Add to that the Flameguide being clearly an asshole who won’t listen to reason (very classic lawful stupid paladin, and I agree with Emily, likely a Conquest Paladin, some of the worst to deal with), and the Dawnfather folks are clearly assholes who aren’t wanted there.

But though the townsfolk in general seem sympathetic and just want to live free and worship as they will, their charismatic leader also seems to be full-on with Ruby Vanguard ideology.  She wants to tear the gods down, mistaking gods who are behind a divine gate and can’t interact with humans without a great deal of faith, with the corrupt religious institutions that sprung up around them.  But at the same time she gives a distinct feeling of hating those institutions because she’s not them.  She flat-out said that she didn’t want to stop with the town.  She wanted her own elemental worship to take over the world.

It’s a great set-up, because the townsfolk just want to be free, so they’re throwing in their lot with someone who has grand and terrible ambitions.  It’s Ludinus writ small, and playing out on an intimate scale.

And the team wasn’t really given any choice.  Once they were exploring the options, they were already sort of stuck with the elementalists.  And they mostly just want to prevent casualties, but the people in charge of those potential casualties have no care for the people who could die.  They see only glory and their own faith.

Orym spoke up, because that’s what Orym does.  But Orym’s confidence has been shaken, and there was little to no way he was going to manage to sway two fanatics.  Denise sort-of spoke up, as did Laudna, both trying but both also failing.  Bor’Dor and Prism were both basically on the side of ‘let’s fuck up the gods, whoo!’ from the off, Bor’Dor because he doesn’t really know what’s going on, and Prism out of academic bitterness.  In another life, she would have been hard-core Rube Vanguard fairly easily.

And then there’s Ashton, silent in the back, deeply uncomfortable, surrounded by an elementalist group that feels a lot like a cult with a charismatic leader.  How much must he be associating this with the Hishari?  Does it have any connection?  Some remnant faction?  Are they fighting on the side of his nightmares?

But they say nothing.  They stay silent.  They are barely noticed, despite being a big rock person in an elemental-worshipping town.  People should be all over them in fascination, but they aren’t, because Ashton has practically vanished.  They needed to speak up.  They needed to stand with Orym to try to de-escalate things, but instead they are sneaking in the background.  Why?  Lack of confidence.  Self-loathing.  Fear.  This is where Asthon’s low charisma springs from: they will never trust themselves to do the right thing, to say the right words, to really step up and be counted.  So they hide, and things crumble.

[corvus-aurantia]

This is a really interesting insight into Ashton's character! Also reminded me of Laudna's resurrection, when Ashton wanted to speak up, but in the end stayed silent to let FCG do it, because they didn't trust themself to say the right words :(( They hid and FCG did a really poor job at it.

[corvus-aurantia]

Ashton's rock hard certainty that their group is going to reunite with their friends no matter what kind of reminds me of his mindset when Laudna had just died and they were trying to get her back. With the difference that this time round I think a lot of it stems from wanting to provide comfort and hope to a desperate, close to breaking Laudna (because frankly I feel like Ashton is coping with the lost-their-friends-situation almost a bit too well? I feel like this caring, protective marshmallow hiding inside a though ass looking shell is trying to be strong and certain so as to protect Laudna, who's scared out of her mind with worry).

When Laudna had died however, I think he didn't voice this mindset to comfort somebody else. Because, with the exception of Imogen, the other members of Bell's Hells didn't seem as shaken by Laudna's death as Imogen and him or as Laudna now by Imogen's potential death. And I don't think that comforting Imogen is where this mindset came from either. To me it doesn't seem like the two of them were terribly close at the moment of Laudna's death, but more like they grew closer because of her death, due to their shared stubborn unwillingness to let Laudna remain dead. No, I think Ashton was trying to keep themself from breaking and instead find a practical way of how to deal with this situation and change it for the better.

And it's kind of sweet that they're now offering this mechanism of theirs of how to cope with losing a loved one to the loved one they themself lost, but got back. Clearly stubbornness and unwavering belief in eventually getting your lost loved one back works, Laudna is "living" proof of it.

I hope this makes sense, it's kind of late and I really should be going to bed.... 😅🙈

[corvus-aurantia]

Spoilers C3E48

I feel like talking to her father and confronting the past has done some good for Imogen. She seemed relieved and a bit lighter afterwards and I think she's glad she took the advice to visit her hometown, even though it was shoved into her face kinda forcefully and relentlessly and she was not very keen to go (at all...) 😅 I wish her that she learned something helpful from this experience.

I also wonder if Ashton will learn from her positive experience, too? Because I think they are both very similar in the fact that they don't like facing their respective issues, talking about their feelings and doing the necessary steps to heal. Though at least they both seem to acknowledge their feelings and their shit. Well, anyway, I hope they both find a good way to deal with their stuff and that they'll be happy (and survive the coming Apocalypse threatening solstice o.o)

[corvus-aurantia]

Various spoilers on what's happening in C3E48

Laudna complimented Ashton on how he looks!!! Saying that he looks very lustrous covered in the oil they all smeared themselves with when leaving the fey realm! I mean I'm probably grabbing at straws here, but ... it's so nice to do what most shippers do and construe things xD And to get crumbs from Laudna!! I'm used to crumbs from Ashton but from her that's rare. I will treasure this one!

(Also Ashton this episode! Laudna goes unconscious? He's there with a healing potion. Laudna gets tossed through the gate? They catch her. Laudna spider climbs a tree? He's waiting under the tree to catch her even though he just wants to lie down and rest. The townfolk in Imogen's hometown are having mixed reactions to Imogen and Laudna, some shooting them sidelong glances? Ashton sticks with Laudna and makes eye contact with every person they come across. When Laudna decides to hold her head up high when leaving the town instead of trying to hide under her hood like when they arrived? He tells her: "We got you. If they twitch, they will be on the ground so fast." Honestly, I think they are really sweet and very invested in her wellbeing <3)

[undead-knick-knack]

Finally settling Ashton/Laudna's ship name because this has gone on long enough and is getting ridiculous

Tombstone ⚰️🪦

Gravestone 🪦⚰️

Laudmoore 🖤💜

Ashna 💜🖤

Why did no one tell me this is a ship!? 😱🤯

Voting ended onFeb 14, 2023

*Disclaimer, I may or may not heed the poll results depending on if I like them or not 😌

[corvus-aurantia]

To me, Ashton's conversation with Pâté was really sweet. It might be an odd way to do it, but I think death threats and stressing how important it is to keep a certain person safe is Ashton's way of saying "This person is very important to me. I care deeply for them." And it strikes me that he did it explicitly out of Laudna's and everybody else's earshot. I presume they didn't want to worry Laudna with their suspicion that a part of Delilah might be in Pâté. But I also think they aren't ready to tell Laudna to her face that she is very important to them, not even in this very roundabout way of theirs. This is more than saying "I like you. I dig your style". This goes deeper, they really care deeply for her and they are not very good with expressing feelings and stuff like that at all and they are pretty insecure about it. (Like when they asked Annaline to teach them some hammer stuff. Though I'm really happy for him that he DID fight through his inhibitions and asked <3 Go Ashton!)

Sidenote: It's kinda nice that Laudna not only understands Ashton's death threat language (telling Pâté "It's how they say they care"). She has also used it herself in the past, when she threatened to kill Ashton, if anything happened to Imogen. And later that episode Ashton made death threads to generally anyone trying to harm FCG. It's cute how Laudna and Ashton really have something in common there :)

[corvus-aurantia]

You know, I used to think this song was just on Sam Riegel's FCG playlist, because it's funny and about robots, but ......... o.o

[corvus-aurantia]

Spoilers C3E30:

Critical Role: when a bunch of people sitting at a table talking about how their player characters are looking at the moon through some kind of telescope gets you that much of an adrenaline rush that you lose all appetite and can't touch the food in front of you

[corvus-aurantia]

It's been about a year since I finished with Campaign 1 and only a couple of months since I finished listening to the Kith & Kin audiobook, but I still miss Vax so hard. I just came across one of the songs from his first character playlist unexpectedly and now all the feels for this wonderful character are back. He was so incredibly selfless and loyal and had such a calm reliable presence. And he was always ready for mischief. His prank feud with Grog was so wonderful :')

Sidenote: is it odd that I automatically speak of C1-characters like about dead people, just because the campaign is long over by now and their stories are kind of dead now (as in over, chapter closed, the story of their lives came to an end, the new stories are about other people, what remains are fond memories)? Or am I being a bit overly melodramatic here?

[corvus-aurantia]

Soooo, I'm currently really obsessed about the Ashton/Laudna-ship! But I personally know 0 people who share said obsession and on Tumblr I can't really find much in terms of Ashdna/Tombstone/whatever you want to call them - content :( So I decided to create my own content today and vent some steam.

Ashton and Laudna just make so much sense to me! Ashton's punkness (is that even a word? probably not) and Laudna's very strong goth vibes just fit together so well! And Ashton keeps on saying how much they digg Laudna's style like over and over again. Also they gave her multiple presents (the Tuxedo for Pâté and - together with Imogen - Sashimi). And while they do buy stuff for the group as a whole, I don't think they gave any presents to any other individual of the group other than Laudna? But I might be wrong here, because I'm a bit overly focused on the Ashton/Laudna-relationship >.>

Though if there are any romantic feelings between the two, I do think that they currently(!) still are one-sided on Ashton's part. During the ball episode, they joined her when she was sitting by herself, but she promptly ignored them and ventured off towards other people. Since then she very definitely has warmed up to them and the two of them did have several meaningful conversations. But I believe she still isn't thinking of them romantically, because I guess she just doesn't see HERSELF as someone who could be loved romantically. I mean people have been treating her as gross for soooo long :(

And as to Imodna: I do get why people ship them, I definitely do. I just prefer Tombstone ^^° I guess Imogen loves Laudna (romantically or platonically), because she can see past her strong outward weirdness and see what a loveable person she is inside. She doesn't mind her weirdness. Ashton on the other hand doesn't just like Laudna's character, they also are absolutely into her outward weirdness. They keep telling her how cool her weirdness is and actively encourage it. And how amazing is that to have a partner who also loves you for your strange oddities! And I'm definitely not saying, that Imogen isn't supportive of Laudna in that direction, I'm just saying there's a difference between not minding about something and hardcore loving it.

So yeah, for now I'm looking forward to more moments of Ashton telling Laudna how amazing she is - and hopefully Laudna realising that she is indeed 100% date worthy :)

[howtohogwarts]

About the episode:

Bonus:

*Ravenclaw runs off to the closest library*

R: Give me all your books about Occlumency!! NOW!! D:< 

Yeah Ravenclaw hasn’t meet anyone before who was good in legilimency, so she never learned occlumency, but now… :D Actually at first I wanted to make Hufflepuff a Legilimens (just for the lulz), but then i re-read the wiki articles about the founders and realised it was Slytherin who was a Legilimens xD However the real question is: Is Slytherin’s hair weird shit or kinda cool?? 

Oh yeah, if you want to be tagged in the episodes - so you wouldn’t miss any, send me a message or note or smthg and i’ll tag u in the upcoming ones :3

All kinds of feedback is highly appreciated and reblogs helps the comic spread <3

@fangirl570 @abstract-turtle

I made a Ko-fi thing, if you want to support my food expenses, don’t hold back xD <3 Ko-fi

[the-art-asoiaf]

Lyanna Stark & Rhaegar Targaryen

[corvus-aurantia]

It just has to be like this! <3

[corneliusj475]

“You can divide infinity an infinite number of times, and the resulting pieces will still be infinitely large,” Uresh said in his odd Lenatti accent. “But if you divide a non-infinite number an infinite number of times the resulting pieces are non-infinitely small. Since they are non-infinitely small, but there are an infinite number of them, if you add them back together, their sum is infinite. This implies any number is, in fact, infinite.” “Wow,” Elodin said after a long pause. He leveled a serious finger at the Lenatti man. “Uresh. Your next assignment is to have sex. If you do not know how to do this, see me after class.”

- A Wise Man’s Fear (via corneliusj475)

Elodin rules! :D

[folly-of-caesura]

‘Things are too full in the spring months. In the summer, they’re too strong and won’t let go. Autumn…’ “He looked around at the changing leaves on the trees. ” 'Autumn’s the time. In autumn everything is tired and ready to die.’

Kote - The Name of the Wind (via folly-of-caesura)

[lexiwhatwegot]

You meet a girl: shy, unassuming. If you tell her she’s beautiful, she’ll think you’re sweet, but she won’t believe you. She knows that beauty lies in your beholding. And sometimes that’s enough. But there’s a better way. You show her she’s beautiful. Make mirrors of your eyes, prayers of your hands against her body. It is hard, very hard, but when she truly believes you… Suddenly the story she tells herself in her own head changes. She transforms. She isn’t seen as beautiful. She is beautiful, seen.

-Bast,

“The Name of the Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss

(via sonofatimelord)

So beautiful! And so true! <3 This is why I love “The Name of the Wind”, it’s full of such awesome quotes ^_^

[glorfinn]

Embrace your weirdness. Make it your own unique factor. Being weird or strange is like being limited edition. Each of us is one of a kind and each of us is weird. So next time someone calls you weird, thank them. They basically just called you a unicorn.

Patrick Rothfuss (via glorfinn)