OnceUponAFrost

Scenery, sass and gays.

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So I finally managed to get through Chapter 13 of TSOA and it’s even more disgusting than I first thought. To summarise, Patroclus cheats on his boyfriend with his boyfriend’s pregnant wife who Achilles is actively disinterested in and heavily implied that Thetis set Achilles up as corrective rape. Why does he cheat on his boyfriend he has hunted down several times? Because he’s on a different part of the island, the room he’s in is dark, and Deidameia is sad. The month he spent on sea in the hull of a ship didn’t make him blow the sailors, but a sad girl in a dark room made him horny. Every time prior to this that Patroclus describes girls or women having sex, he always says how uninterested they are and how he’s REALLY not turned on by them. This is the same woman who made Patroclus storm out of a castle, past Thetis - who actively despises Patroclus - and brought more anger and rage to him than he had ever felt when he found out Achilles had slept with Deidameia. Achilles slept with her because he was being correctively raped and he thought he was getting something out of it; Patroclus did it because he could. But then, Miller doesn’t have the conviction to do anything with it. She says he didn’t hate it (find that hard to believe) and that it was simultaneously so traumatic he had to pretend it didn’t happen. Both of these things can’t be true. This is one of the worst chapters of fiction I’ve ever read, it’s hard to tell if Miller or an editor put this in, and it only works as character assassination.

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I’ve been loving reading The Song of Achilles, but I’m sorry, Patroclus and Daidemia sleeping together is just pretty disgusting. Miller treats her like some trial or ordeal that Achilles and Patroclus both pass by being disgusted in sleeping with her. Achilles I understand - it’s in The Iliad and other ancient sources. But Patroclus is written fairly plainly as gay/comphet and Miller just magics it up out of no where. It doesn’t advance him as a character, it doesn’t add to his character, and it honestly feels like it’s included for female readers who want to see if they can convert a gay man. As they say “the writer’s barely disguised fetish.”

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I’ve been thinking about Achilles lately. Achilles’ story is one of the world’s oldest enduring stories. It has lasted through the rise and fall of countless empires, including his own country’s, the burning of untold libraries, the change of medium from spoken tradition to written scrolls and books, and still his name endures. Not just his name, but his story. We as a species - regardless of race, sex, or any other factor - have decided countless times that his story of love, loss, rage, and death, is so profound to the human experience, that we have immortalised a man that we’re not sure ever existed. The theme of defying fate to growing to accept it on your own terms has resonated with countless people across the entire world, to lands that he could not have ever dreamed of. As a race, humans have decided that his love of Patroclus is so foundational to his story that we have kept it alive long after their ashes turned to dust. Because his is a love story. It’s the story of a man who so profoundly loved another man that he was willing to die for his justice. I hope souls exist; for their sake I hope their eternal souls were afforded the time and comfort that life denied them.

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Sorry not sorry, but Halsin is the kind of guy when you say “take it out, my bladder -“ he says “aim for my tongue.”

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It amazes me how many people misunderstand Minthara. They think she’s some crazy, bloodthirsty maniac who hates men and wants to watch the world burn. People see her in Act 1 and think she’s doesn’t get character development beyond this, and they’re absolutely wrong. Minthara is one of the most sincere and tender characters and she is written beautifully.

Firstly, after you save her from Thorm in Act 2, you get to see some character growth from her - namely she regains her own mind and self after being protected from The Absolute. In her camp scene we see her and the companions being weary of each other - very understandable. But this is when we get to see the character growth and her real personality. She tries to reach out for your mind, and immediately recoils when she realises what she’s doing, and she apologises immediately for touching your mind without your permission. She then ASKS for your permission to touch your mind, and allows you to touch hers as a matter of reciprocation. When you talk about your goals and aspirations, she provides you advice on how to achieve them.

You can ask her about the other companions, and she gives you an honest reading of them. Minthara is probably the most emotionally intelligent of all the companions. She understands everyone and who they are at their core. She has her own interpretation on how they should behave or what they should do, but she is generally supportive of them. We see that she doesn’t wish to hoard power to herself - she approves of Astarion becoming a Vampire Lord, of Shadowheart sacrificing her parents to be free of Shar, of Wyll sacrificing his dad for political power, and of Origin Gale for using the Shadow Weave to empower himself. She wants to be powerful, and she wants her allies to be powerful as well.

Now, at her core, she is also a slaver and a believer in using power to control others. She doesn’t want to slaughter everyone - she wants them subjugated to her wants and desires. However, we also see her say that through hard work that slaves should earn their freedom - remarkably kind for a Drow, let alone a Baenre. She’s quite like Lae’zel in this regard; while to many she seems harsh and unforgiving, given her species and culture, she’s positively forgiving.

Minthara also gets a reputation as a misandrist, which is not entirely accurate to her character. Firstly, Minthara is a noble Drow; she is always going to look at sexual dynamics and politics through that lens. To her, women will always be more desirable in every aspect of life over men - men are only there for her to create children with (something we know has happened as she has a daughter). However, that isn’t to say that she hates men. When she talks about Orin killing her honour guard, she calls them her “best men house Baenre could gather” and was horrified when Orin slaughtered them. Their deaths shook her and greatly saddened her. When Astarion and Gale make plays for greater power she supports them in these pursuits, something also open to a male Tav/Durge. She also holds Ketheric Thorm in high regard as a leader and commander. None of these are the actions of someone who hates men.

By the time we’re in Act 3, Minthara has an understanding of who you are as a player. She will continue to travel with and support you even if you wish to destroy The Absolute. She wants Tav/Durge to have their revenge. She wants an alliance with Gortash as it is politically favourable and he’s already fond of Durge. She is also unafraid to express how much Orin frightens her, and how scared she is; an act she would only engage in with someone she truly trusted. She also understands that once Orin is dead that is not the end of her revenge, and it leaves her feeling slightly empty. By the end of the story, Minthara is fighting Lolth and seeking to free the Drow from Lolth’s mania.

In short, she’s an incredibly complex character who I love dearly.

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I’m all caught up on Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein and I have thoughts.

1) Vox is a better show but Mighty Nein has better characters. The direction and pacing of Vox is far better than Mighty Nein. However, it’s great to see characters like Caleb who have done truly atrocious things that make the audience question liking the character. Same with Essek - truly another awful character who digs his grave with a shovel of good intentions. But these characters give the story depth and meaning often lacking from Vox - whose characters mostly feel bad for being horny, not that it stops them.

2) Delilah and Silas made for much more interesting and fun villains than any villain in Mighty Nein have so far. Villain design in Mighty Nein also feels quite bland compared to Vox, especially Delilah who is a composed and well groomed necromancer.

3) The writers have no idea how to write clerics, but Jester gets better writing than Pike. Clerics are devout members of their faith who use that faith and devotion to power their magic, just like warlocks with their patrons. No devotion or faith, no magic. The lesson Pike takes away from meeting Everlight for the first time on screen is “I am powerful by myself and I am perfect.” This point is then reinforced when she fights Thordak and discards a symbol of her faith and uses the Vestige armour. In most campaigns or DnD games, that is enough for a god to forsake a character and they will lose their powers. Clerics can be a great source of tension in a party, but both seem to worship gods that are chill with whatever. Pike actually feels more like a Celestial Warlock than a devout Cleric. In contrast, Jester actually proselytises for Traveller and regularly prays and worships him in ways he wants to be worshipped. She has a crisis of faith, but she never renounces him. And when she says that she is strong by herself, he is what saves her from falling to her death because she judged the jump wrong. Great metaphor.

4) When the writers want to show that a character is sleazy/emotionally damaged/enjoys sex they make them bisexual. Which feels pretty gross to always write sleaze bags as bisexuals when there are plenty of straight and gay characters they could write as sleaze bags. It really just feels like “bisexuals are greedy” trope. That being said, I would have loved to have seen more male gay couples in the shows.

5) Both shows do a great job of exploring the different classes and how they work together. No notes, other than the big cleric one.

6) Mighty Nein and Vox both need bigger and better utilised budgets for their animation. It’s mostly decent animation, sometimes even great animations. But often times it’s like looking at a Saturday morning cartoon from the early 2000s. Voice acting is pretty great, but Molly’s VA cannot keep the Irish accent up from start to finish of his sentences. It’s quite distracting and it would probably just be better to drop it than keep doing a voice you could never really do.

All in all, I think she shows are enjoyable and worth watching, I just hope the new seasons get better budgets for better animation and the writing moves on from some Reddit talking points.

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Playing a Great Old One Warlock in DnD be like

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WHY DOES SHADOWHEART HAVE AN OPINION ON HOW ASTARION AND I HAVE SEX??

never mind that seems very Shadowheart actually.

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PLZA did not deliver a single thing I wanted, other than Meganium redemption. They did the Kalos region so dirty. They did the Gym Leaders, Elite Four, and Diantha so dirty. I genuinely wonder what the point of setting it in Kalos was - it could have been set in literally any other region. GF and TPCi keep showing that the really have no idea how to rework their previously released games to make a better story. Kalos deserved so much better.

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Hikaru was straight. ‘Hikaru’ is gay.

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Bayonetta about to be confused as hell when her next summon is a K-Pop boy band.

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Expedition 33 is an absolutely amazing piece of art. The only problem with it is the writing in Act III. The end of Act II has Alicia implore Verso to find a new path forward, but the choices you are presented with at the end of the game are just ‘choose what Aline or Renoir wanted’. It’s sadcore Square Enix (FF10, FF16, Kingdom Hearts, etc.) simply for the sake of being sadcore.

It would have made more sense to free Verso from the painting and for Maelle to make it her own, with all the characters still there. After all, Belle Époque is a period of art defined by its optimism, excitement, and positivity.

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Chikorita Gang, rise up!

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Legend of Zelda is a beautiful story of “I will always find you. In every world. In every timeline. I will protect you. And I will always choose you.”

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so this is actually a completely legit team comp and level cap you can have in Alola before you even face your 1st Grand Trial. Alola might just be cracked.

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I finally did it. I beat base Elden Ring and the DLC as a pure Astrologer. I absolutely love this game and the stories it tells, even the sad ones. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have Ranni supremacy to go spread.

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DION ISN’T A PART OF ANY OF THE DLC??!!