Too Nasty About Characters

there's only two men I trust, one of them is me, and the other is not you

[houseofpurplestars]

[houseofpurplestars]

"Seeing people pushing back brings me out of the paralyzing horror. It challenges me to have a fraction of their courage."

[wiceshez]

🥴

[lathbora-virann]

I say this with love, but as both a viewer and a former union rep it really feels like the super short and packed shooting schedule for dimension 20 over the years has become detrimental to the cast and their ability to tell a coherent, satisfying story.

like yeah the clear exhaustion and delirium they end up with can make for hilarious performances (to the point I've needed to use my inhaler from laughing so much) but on both a human and a storytelling level, I don't want these people so exhausted and overwhelmed they can't even fully explain why they made the character decisions they did (or understand why other players might be reacting with confusion or frustration).

I don't want Brennan to have to end the show with a direct to camera psa spelling out what was supposed to be the entire message of the story because basically none of those plot points or themes were resolved in a too short season and rushed, unhinged finale. I don't want Brennan to say "I feel good that we had one solid beat of pathos and stakes", and also that he realised he fucked up and put them in an "off" vibe at the end of the penultimate episode that they couldn't get away from because the episodes were shot back-to-back.

I don't want them to be given only a handful of days in quick succession playing these characters with no opportunity to breath, rest, reflect or re-calibrate on who those characters are, why they're making the choices they are, how they fit into the story/world, what their personal arc could involve, or how their storylines will end.

I want the players to be having fun with their friends, that's obviously a big part of the draw of d20, but the other side of that is that they're not just friends hanging out — they're filming a show. they're specifically there to create a satisfying story together for an audience to watch.

I know I have no experience of the realities of tv production and shooting schedules, but the "it's 3am in a warehouse" jokes have gone from being funny to making me kind of sad. like does it really have to be this way? from a worker's rights perspective? can we not give both the cast and crew even just a few more days breathing room? I'd happily wait longer to get new seasons if it meant the people making them weren't burning out and becoming delirious and doing a rush job even they seem kind of uninterested in/dissatisfied with by the end in order to make them.

[bloodyshadow1]

I feel like people should be able to critique things without getting dog piled by other people in the fandom. Personally, I think the finale was bad, it was hilarious, but it was bad as the last episode of a live play ttrp game.

I am not a d20 hater by any means, I mostly enjoy their games until they become a mess like the finale of CCoD became. I hate that when people complain about it being off the walls goofy that immediately they're shot down with 'what do you expect, it's a comedy show.' People expect a game where the choices matter, where the characters they came to love matter, where the rules of the game matter because why bother playing a game if you're going to just do calvin ball rules.

Yeah, d20 is a series of games played by improve people and comedians, but people are allowed to complain when things go from a game with funny moments because it's played by funny people, and a mess where nothing matters except the next joke. There's a reason why the cast refers to adventuring parties as 'Bit City' sometimes where they completely ignore what happened in the episode and just go on and on about a joke one of them made and no one can let it die. There's a reason I don't really bother with Adventuring Parties anymore because of this reason.

No one is saying the finale has to be a serious as a funeral, but yeah, there should be focus on gameplay instead of breaking down like a bunch of chucklefucks. So much of the episode revolved around things the players didn't bother to investigate and should have been left to die or be ignored. There didn't need to be 8 brand new or barely explored characters introduced in the last episode to take time away from the story.

Look, if you liked the finale great, I hope you had fun. But stop acting like people who spent the last 14 weeks watching and enjoying the show aren't allowed to be disappointed that nothing happened. That they had to break the rules of VtM to deus ex machina an ending because no one could let a bit die. If the actual message of the story mattered by the end, the story could speak for itself and Brennan wouldn't need to say it to the camera since nothing in the episode supported his point.

[threetrenchcoatsinatrenchcoat]

City Council of Darkness spinoff sidequest about the cryptid league starring Demi Adejuyigbe as Mothman

[comparativetarot]

The Chariot. Art by Lucian Summerisle, from The Threshold Tarot.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Imagine The Fellowship all sitting around the campfire halfway up Caradhras retelling the events of the Hobbit to Boromir and Aragorn Rashomon-style with Gimli going "my dad tells it this way" and Legolas going "well, my dad tells it this way" and the Hobbits all going "but Bilbo tells it this way!" and, even though Gandalf was fucking there for half of it, he refuses to weigh in on anything because watching them argue is more fun and also he doesn't remember because it was over 75 years ago.

[felinecorpse]

Even better: Gandalf remembers it perfectly fine but he keeps making shit up and agreeing to multiple different versions just to throw everyone off

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Too good to hide in the tags!

[bixbythemartian]

[id: screencap of tags from tumblr user queenincheck, tag is "#gaslight gatekeep Gandalf" /id]

[houseofpurplestars]

I will say as much as i hated Ally's clown necrophilia it's ... weirdly endearing (?) how funny lou wilson thought it was.

[jay-rayart]

In honor of Pride month I want to share this comic I made about growing up queer. We live in a world that tries to cut us down, I am so glad I stayed around long enough to write stories about finding the light. If your looking for more Black, Queer, and Magical storytelling consider backing FLY on kickstarter

FLY : A Magical Black Boy Series - Pilot

A coming of age story about Black kids who finally have power to fight back against systems designed against them.

[ge-nde-rr-env-y]

zac going "hey let me know if this is too weird and out there and ill do something else" about a pretty reasonable stretch of the male gymnastics ability truly 5 minutes after ally pulled that fuckin bullshit with the clown bit is. god thats so me. zac buddy. youre fine.

[houseofpurplestars]

Siobhan saying Madelaine and Kelly got together "so many times" like yes thank you theyve been banging all season that's Madelaine's girlfriend

[foxdoodles]

monty lamontgommery!!

[domesticatedanimals]

[ID: digital art of Monty reaching up to let a Zoodian bird perch on his hand. He looks up at it with wonder and joy. The background behind him is a picture frame, with the background within it a verdant green wilderness, and cuts off at Monty's waist. The background outside of that portrait frame is white. end ID.]

[phobic-human]

🇵🇸🇮🇷| Palestinians in Gaza wrote on the occupation wall:

Seyyed Ali,

‘O beloved of Palestine,

Gaza will never forget you.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades: "Beware of natural death... and do not die except amidst the sprays of bullets." — Ghassan Kanafani

The 54th anniversary of the martyrdom of the comrade, writer, and member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Via Resistance News Network

[houseofpurplestars]

I'm running away from dr clown. I dont want to know him. Hes not my doctor. My coulrophobic self would not have survived a clown season. I dodged a bullet, gang.

[houseofpurplestars]

>Uncensored<

[houseofpurplestars]

Well, now that we will never officially learn anything more about these characters 😭😭 I'm excited to hear everyone's headcanons!