#acelania

[changeling-rin]

In regard to the pre-Calamity BotW Link's appearance: I figured that the red face was indicative of a ginormous beard, honestly. Like, full-on Tolkienesque from ear to ear and down to the waist kind of beard, but bright orange.

That is an absolutely hysterical observation!

...Unfortunately, I think I hate it. Agree to disagree, I just can't really picture the Hero with a Gandalf-beard

[corseque]

Out of curiosity, why do you use Relair's name but not Athera's when talking about them in asks and whatnot?

Because that poll was made before I realized Enchanter was a gender neutral character, and I’m not sure it fits. But I’m also having trouble coming up with alternatives and I keep going back to it.

[c-is-for-circinate]

I just read your thing about paladins and what they're for and holy CRAP does it sum up some stuff that I've been trying to explain for ages, so thank you for that! But now I'm wondering: your footnote mentioned Fjord and Vax'ildan, who both multiclassed into paladin as part of their personal character arc. Would you mind sharing your Thoughts about them? (And if you have any about the other paladins and how they fit in this - Arkhan or Kima or Kerrek or the rest - that would be awesome to see.)

You know I’m ALWAYS ready for a good CR character breakdown :D  And for shitting on classic Old School conceptions of what paladins should be, because a quick stroll through the tags has reminded me that, while many people play them very very well, the people who talk about How You’re Supposed To Play Paladins are often wrong as hell.  (This includes everybody who wrote 3rd edition d&d.)

I kind of want to start by talking about Kima and Kerrek, rather than Vax and Fjord, because Kima and Kerrek are in many ways two different angles on exactly what I think a paladin character should be.  Starting with the premise here that the paladin at its core is about turning ideals into actions, Kima and Kerrek are both awesome at exemplifying the class.

Kima is such a straightforward, action-oriented person.  Her belief in Bahamut and her belief in justice are inextricably entwined; she follows her god because she’s sure he’s right about what’s Good and Correct to see done in the world.  The ideals –> action pathway is easy and natural for her, because the necessity of taking action in pursuit of her ideals is very clearly one of her ideals.  She’s not in conflict with her vows, because she doesn’t need to be.  There’s evil in the world, and Bahamut wants her to smite it in the balls, and that’s both effective and fun.  (Of note, Kima doesn’t feel personally responsible for destroying every single minor evil ever to exist ever.  There’s plenty to go around.  Smite the monster in front of you, trust Bahamut to point you towards the thing that really needs killing, and don’t kill yourself over the petty grift of the guy in your favorite bar at the end of the day because yikes, dude, just yikes–that’s how Kima functions as a character, and it’s what makes her an actually functional character.)

Kerrek on the other hand is fascinating because he’s a paladin who thinks he’s lost his ideals, at least at the start.  At some unknown time in the past he tried to turn faith and belief (in something, and we never do find out what, and it doesn’t even matter) into change in the world.  He got some things done.  He utterly failed at some other things.  And now he’s sitting here in Westruun feeling like, maybe he can’t, maybe he shouldn’t, maybe everything is a thousand times more complicated and he’s a thousand times tinier in the universe than he ever envisioned when he was younger.  He’s sitting there thinking he’s lost his ideals and his drive and his faith–and meanwhile he’s still standing there taking action, doing what he can for the people of Westruun, planting his garden, being angry and disappointed and frustrated and still trying anyway.  In spite of himself, Kerrek still believes.  In spite of himself Kerrek still does the things he thinks need to be done, even if they’re not the things he wants to be doing, even if he doesn’t think he’ll do any good in the long run.  Such a good paladin thing to do.

Then we get to Fjord and Vax.  And so much of what makes Fjord and Vax interesting as paladins is, the ideals that compel them to action, compel them to take these paladin oaths, aren’t the ideals of their respective goddesses.

Vax did not wake up one day and say, ‘I believe in the Raven Queen and I believe that what she says is just and right and I will follow her because I believe in her so much’.  (He almost, almost got to that point with Sarenrae, circa the Briarwoods arc, and somewhere there is an alternate universe where he did and it is so interesting, but I digress.)  And Fjord didn’t really sit down and learn his way through the teachings of the Wildmother and decide, ‘y’know, yes, this is what I love and trust and want to spread in the world’.  That’s not the ideal that drove either of them to action.

Fuck, Vax didn’t even like the Raven Queen when he became hers.  “Take me instead, you raven bitch.”  Why does Vax become a paladin of the Raven Queen?  Because he promised.  Because he traded himself for his sister.  He believes to the depths of his soul in keeping Vex alive, and he believes in keeping his word.  The ideal driving Vax to action isn’t worship or admiration.  It’s the ideal of following through on his own goddamn commitments.

For Fjord, it’s similar, although a lot less fraught.  He doesn’t dislike Melora, certainly–everything he knows of her seems fine, but mostly he turns to her because he’s desperate for help and she seems willing to give it.  Fjord’s not great at big lofty ideals, but he is good at people, in his own way.  Turning to the Wildmother is about grabbing at the kindness she’s shown him.  It’s about grabbing at the kindness Caduceus has shown him.  These are the things he trusts.

And yet, Vax isn’t just a paladin to the oath of Keep Vex Alive.  Fjord isn’t just a paladin of Not U’kotoa.  They both have ideals, and they’re both doing their utmost to follow them here anyway.

For Fjord, being a paladin seems very transactional, yes (free me from this sea serpent and I’ll be your guy, sure), but there’s an enormous ethic of devotion and loyalty involved, coupled with, just like Kima had, a belief in the requirement for action.  Fjord believes that it is correct to repay kindness with deeds.  He doesn’t entirely understand what Melora wants of him, but she was kind to him in a vast wasteland where he slept unbroken sleep beneath her tree, and she has saved him when he wasn’t entirely sure he could be saved, and of course you repay that in kind.  At this point in the narrative, that intense loyalty is the driving ideal behind Fjord’s path as a paladin, and it’s really cool to see.

Vax could have run, when the Raven Queen came for him, and instead he went to Vasselheim.  He could have done a lot of things a lot of times.  The fact that he offered himself up in a fit of terror isn’t what made him a paladin–the fact that he followed through after that moment was over did.

Another really interesting thing about these paths is that perhaps the most major action our boys are compelled to take, in response to that loyalty, is simply, learn what the fuck you signed up for.  Having pledged themselves to these goddesses they are now responsible for figuring out what that even means.  There is no easy handbook for “this is what your goddess requires of you, break it and you’re Out On Your Ass”.  The Raven Queen asks Vax for extremely little, in the grand scheme of things.  He spends a lot of time fighting enemies he would have fought anyway with a little extra backup, and muddling along looking to Vasselheim and old books to figure out what she might want out of him.  Fjord’s still taking Caduceus-lessons and trying to figure out what comes next.

In the end it’s hard to even tell whether Vax comes to truly embrace her ideals of fate and finality as his own, or he just submits to them as part of who he thinks he has to be now.  That open question is super interesting to me, and I think it’s a really cool twist on the whole classic “paladins take these vows and then HAVE TO STICK TO THEM no matter WHAT” dynamic, where the big vow Vax made is, in fact, to be a paladin.  (Even the Oath of Vengeance is fascinating for him–the Raven Queen didn’t ask that path of him, Vax chose it.  He decided that was the right way for him to serve.)

I’m so curious to see where Fjord goes from here on his paladin journey.  Which of Melora’s ideals is he going to work to enact out of loyalty to her, because that’s the job he promised to do?  Which ideals will he actually understand and agree with in his own heart?  What oath is he going to take, I’m so fucking curious: Oath of Heroism makes a certain amount of sense but is also kind of self-aggrandizing, Devotion would be awesome for Fjord but also includes that absolute injunction towards honesty, I’m eternally a sucker for the Oath of Ancients and it would make sense for Melora but I’m not sure it’s correct here…

Anyway.  Tl;dr that Vax and Fjord are not, entirely, paladins to the ideals and domains of their respective goddesses–not yet.  They’re both paladins to the ideal of loyalty, which they’ve given to their respective goddesses, and that’s such an interesting option for the class.  It invites so much discussion about the difference between devotion to a deity as an individual, and devotion to what that deity actually stands for.  And I fucking love it.

[akechicrimes]

With regard to the Big Bang Challenge giving you guts thing, maybe it's a fear of being seen as a failure? There's always some people who watch you do it in the game, after all, and they do the laugh/happiness emote if you fail. Since Akira's badly enough affected by people degrading him in earshot that going to the library gives you guts points in the early game, it's not unreasonable to think that he doesn't want to put himself in a position where even more strangers have reason to insult him.

damb i made the big bang burger post as a joke but now im emo over akira being as reserved and quiet as he is because people have rejected him so frequently in real life

well played sir...........................

[kanthia]

acelania replied to your post: 

Have you met Crowler's French nemesis yet? They have some excellent interactions.

if you’re referring to Headmaster Bonaparte then yes, and i love him

i am at the episode where zane motherfucking “i’m rude now” truesdale emerges from a cage match as a changed man

[azuhreidii-arts]

Hi! Your Fool's Rune thing is amazing and I love it, but the batch of NPC characters did raise a question: in this AU, who takes Lancer's place (if anyone does)? And kinda following on from that, do the non-Ralsei Darkners even get switched with Persona characters or are they just the same as ever?

Heyo and thanks so much~! I’m flattered some peeps like my Fool’s Rune AU! ;u;

To answer your first question, I considered it’d be Teddie, actually! :DInitially I thought of Morgana (since Ren’s basically parallel to Susie in the AU and thus it’d make a bit more sense if he partnered with Morgana like Susie did with Lancer), but…considering in Fool’s Rune Ren is a lot more open to his rebellious nature and I personally think he wouldn’t take well with someone who’s rather condescending and would boss him around x’D (Plus…I’ve seen various takes on a Persona/Deltarune crossover AU and most of the time it’s usually Morgana being the Lancer parallel so I beg to differ there’s that, lol)

As for your second question, I’m…not sure I follow? ^^;

If by “non-Ralsei Darkners” you mean the encounters such as Rudinn and Hathy, then they do in fact get replaced by Persona characters as well, specifically the “Personas” you use. For instance, C. Round is Jack Frost and K. Round is King Frost x’DStory-important or story-involved Darkners on the other hand such as Jevil and Seam get replaced by peeps from the Persona cast themselves. An example to this is Tohru Adachi being Jevil.

Hope that answers it~ ^^;;

[ceescedasticity]

So now that Wakaba has her tire iron, is her melee class going to be "blunt objects" like Ryuji or will she change it out when the team eventually drag her to Iwai's? Additionally, would the real bombs do real-bomb-like things in the Metaverse (like fire or poison or something) or would they just deal gun damage like the fakes?

I think she’s probably going to stick with blunt objects -- because it takes a long time to use a bladed weapon with skill, you know, it just makes the most sense not to get too complicated.

As for the mockotovs, they may in fact also be inflicting burn or poison and the crew just hasn’t noticed yet because the museum enemies are weak enough to go down immediately.

[maychorian]

I always think of the Cycle of the Five Lions series when I see your name - it's my favourite out of everything that you've written. I dunno if you've abandoned it or not, but I still like it the best!

Ah, awesome! I still love that series, and I still would like to write more of it someday. It really went back to my roots and felt like the many YA fantasy series I read as a teenager.

Missing scene: Well, more like thoughts about the future of the series, since I don’t know when I’ll write. The five lions were eventually going to gain the ability to change sizes, and to become visible to more than their paladin companions. They’ll be able to switch forms between the little fairy lions and big, life-sized lions who can carry their paladins like horses. And protect them like wolves. There was definitely an image in my head of an injured Lance on the ground with Blue standing over him in lion form, snarling at a threat coming toward them.