#this game has some interesting... things...

[15depressedducks]

...

What

The what ship?

[egophiliac]

Final manifestations for Book 7?

I'm trying REALLY hard not to build up any solid expectations, because I wanna go in ~fresh~! they're already so far away from anything I thought would happen (not in a bad way, I'm just accepting that I'm on Miss Yana's Wild Ride at this point and we're seeing this thing through 'til the end, by gum). so it's nothing too major, but:

they've been handing new crying expressions out like candy lately, I want to see some delicious Malleus tears.

honestly I want everyone to cry buckets. their tears sustain me. the more Silver angst specifically I get the happier I am.

SILVER!!!! 👏 VANROUGE!!!! 👏

just let him have this. the poor boy's been through so much. let him have his big "I'm proud of you, son" moment with Lilia.

I'm 100% expecting Grim's arc (and probably whatever's going on with Crowley) to be its own episode, but a nice hook to leave us hanging on would be good!

a nice hook though, please, I don't think I can take another "Grim is attacking us! now wait eight months to find out what happens :)" cliffhanger...

some Meleanor? as a treat? just a little bit, a tiny quick flashback or something, please Twst I just, I just want to see her again. let her have a little ghost cameo like Dawnathan Knight got. Lilia and his kids are all having their big group hug or whatever and she can gently fade in to be all like

(turning asks off until I'm done playing, SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE Y'ALL)

[helioclipse]

after nearly a month of aggressively rotating kris in my brain i think i actually find it really fascinating to imagine them being this character that, like, has a soft spot for "boy things" (the pranks, their "idealised self" having a knight outfit, whatever) because they associate it with nostalgia and growing up with their brother, but actively hates (fears?) "man things"- or at least, the worst (arguably) masculine stereotypes...

y'know. kris "their personal hell nightmare scenario is using their girl childhood friend as a tool to carry out "their" violent impulses and forcing her to "fall in love with" them" dreemurr... kris "beats the boss from a video game representation of their Trauma Site who insists it's inherently in their nature to love fighting, and takes some sick delight in seeing "proof" of it" dreemurr... kris ""LV3 enjoying the youthful days" after visiting a cryptic area modelled entirely around their past called "mancountry" where "non-men are a-ok too" (i'm aware the "man" is the forgotten man but still)" dreemurr... so on so forth

the best part is that you can't even really tell where the "kris is transfem (= nonbinary and notably uncomfortable with the male gender role)" and "kris is scared to grow up" variations on this idea begin and end. it's not a bug it's a feature, at least for now they're inexorably linked. that's what makes the idea so yummy (...imo)

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

I love that Sochibama AU gives Ryan the opportunity to play and enjoy hockey again! Always makes me sad that in canon he essentially gets chased out of the sport he loves (the funeral scene really gets to me in a Muppets Christmas Carol sort of way, you know?). Anyway, how does this impact the Fabian Of It All – do they still get the opportunity to reconnect? I'd imagine the boyfriend vs hockey choice becomes much harder now he's actually enjoying hockey again

You will never catch me actually doing a boyfriend v. hockey storyline in seriousness. The closest I get is with the child star crashout summer au and even in that one the ultimate conclusion is “you can and should have both.”

I want to be clear that when we’re talking about literary criticism, there’s a difference between “this is not the kind of story I want to read” and “the story did what it was trying to do poorly.”

I think the “what will you pick, love interest or ___” narrative is overdone. It’s beaten to death. Love is always somehow exclusive with someone’s career or passions or family and it’s almost always the woman or the minority that has to sacrifice their career or passions or whatever to make the relationship work.

I just don’t like those kinds of narratives. I think if you love someone you’ll want to uplift them. You’ll want to see them happy and fulfilled in other aspects of their life. You’ll want them to have a life outside of you and try to support them in doing it like just by living between your two cities and commuting a fucking hour Jesus fucking Christ

I want to be clear though, if I make any critique about a type of story being overdone, I’m saying “this is not the kind of story I personally enjoy.” That’s different than saying “they did what they were trying to do poorly.” Even if I don’t enjoy a certain type of story, other people will and I want that story to exist for them, I’ll go read a different story. But if I’m writing a story, then I’m writing the kind of story I want to read. And that’s not a “what will you pick, love or ____” narrative. I simply shan’t be writing it.

And in this case if I tried to write it, it would make my own writing worse. The sochi outing au is very much not a “what will you pick, love or ___” story. One of the biggest points that story is trying to make is that Shane and Ilya don’t have to pick each other over hockey. Shane rebuilds Montreal. Ilya stays in Boston. They make their relationship work long distance, and while it takes sacrifice, they do it because they don’t want the other to lose all they’ve fought to achieve with hockey. They both want to see the other happy and fulfilled and thriving with their teams. They both want to see the other lift the Stanley Cup as the captain that led their team to victory. It is unfair to make them pick one or the other to begin with, and the narrative takes pains to underscore that point.

And that point would be undermined if in the background I quickly add in a “but Ryan should have to pick thooooo”

Having him pick Fabian or hockey, it just, it doesn’t work with the kind of story this is. And it really doesn’t work with what Ryan’s arc is.

The Montreal dream team rebuild is meant to be a very healing and joyful experience for everyone on the team. It is primarily comprised of people who were all, in some way or another, harmed by hockey. They were the wrong kind of person to play. They had to fight and claw for scraps their whole career. People tried to force them out again and again and again. But now that they’re together they’re creating a space where everyone is protected and allowed to be themselves and it’s a healing experience for everyone in the room.

Ryan’s arc is a homecoming. It is allowing him to return to hockey as a passion. He’s brought on as an enforcer to protect Shane and then he hardly ever has to fight. He is taken so seriously as a defenseman that Shane makes a point to develop his skills in it because they are NOT strong enough on the power play to have a guy devoted to Fight Stuff are you FUCKING serious. He will crawl out of his own skin. Fight only when absolutely needed.

The city of Montreal goes absolutely bonkers batshit crazy for him. They love their new strong gay son. And he’s not in a toxic locker room. Shane and J.J. clock his quiet panic attacks on planes during a roadie because they May Or May Not Be Experiencing Those Themselves On Occassion and Shane’s like. Okay. We’re flying into New York. Next game is Philly. We will hire you a car to drive you there and we will get you that Xanax prescription for the next flight in utter fucking secret. Don’t worry the new team doctor is scared of Shane after the last one fucked around with medical discrimination against him and got slapped with a license suspension and a Career Ending Blacklist. Like Ryan’s problems are solvable and they are in fact solved.

Ryan also gets to miss the worst parts of his career. He stops getting traded after the 2014 season. He never goes to Tampa. He never goes to Buffalo. He never goes to Toronto. Montreal loves its strong and beautiful gay hockey players and they shan’t ever let them go. And so he misses years and years of fighting. He doesn’t become dependent on pain medication. He doesn’t have a panic attack on the ice. He is legitimately happy in his career.

And I don’t really think introducing Fabian at this point would add much to that narrative. Like. Ryan’s arc is about reclaiming his passion for hockey and sprinkling in a love interest doesn’t do much. I’d just be adding him in for the sake of adding him in and I don’t really like to do that with my characters. They need to be performing some kind of role in the narrative. It’s also years and years before they get reunited in canon so I think the best way to play it is to leave the path to Fabian open and imply they get a love story in the future. His arc is complete without a love interest and so I’m not super inclined to add one in.

Right now the most I’m planning is to have a joke where Hayden and Jackie’s new married person activity is to comb Instagram trying to find that one childhood crush Ryan mentioned having to see if they can make some magic happen. Sometimes you get a little weird in marriage. They used to direct this energy towards Shane and then he went and took himself off the market with such finality that it became a matter of international concern. Let’s try a different spelling of “Fabian” and see if we find anything.

[bunnieswithknives]

Sam will never stop growing because the visitor will never stop thinking about them ♥

[sunlight-shunlight]

i feel like the entire premise of veilguard is such a... flop in comparison to the setup of trespasser, haha

like ok. you end trespasser with either:

high approval solas is grimly going "ough. i must destroy your world, but i would treasure the chance to be wrong again :/" and seems to at least somewhat hope the inquisitor can find another way to do [whatever magic bullshit he's doing] that's less destructive. so you get the sense that the solution to this will involve finding something solas doesn't know. he gives you a decent amount of information on his plans, and genuinely seems to regret what he sees as the necessity of them.

OR

solas is pretty cold and unflinching, and fucks off with only a vague hint of his plans that he's going to destroy the world. and now you know that he has very little sympathy for mortal people, and he's got his huge pervasive spy network, and massive magical power. so he's a threat! a huge, scary threat, bc he has all these fingers in every organization, and clearly has very few moral compunctions beyond a kind of bare minimum "eh, i don't want this world to suffer unnecessarily before i have to destroy and rebuild it :/" type of mindset.

but then they don't... deliver on either of these?

like the opening showdown at solas' ritual is such a "we tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas!" type of situation lmao. after 10 Whole Years, nobody in the inquisition learned anything new about solas' plans or motives? the entire double blight thing and the purpose of his ritual is a complete surprise to them bc they never... managed to find ANY information on this? if "archdemons are sealing the black city and it opens after the blights" was a common fan theory and implied in previous games even before being confirmed, and the entire premise of the inquisition post-trespasser was "we're going to turn over every stone and figure out what this guy is planning" then how did they not find anything actually useful to bring to bear against him, besides varric's somewhat unconvincing ted talk?

and i don't think this is a "well, solas is just SO secretive and SO great at hiding info, that no one ever guessed what was going on😌" type of thing, bc... the entire point of inquisition was showing that "divinity" is a construct, and everyone is fallible? so it's actually counterproductive to that theme to show him as having this infallible knowledge that no one else in the world has? no one else in thedas ever thought "hm, there are 7 gates to the black city, in the well known chant of light that i read every day, and there are 7 archdemons! why do these numbers match?" even as a conspiracy theory? no one in the inquisition went "hm, weird that solas got so upset about the archdemons when he was with us! what was he thinking about?" to investigate as a lead? the grey wardens have never looked into "hey, what does happen after we run out of blights?" as a question? obviously blackwall would not know if they had, but they're not stupid, they should have been curious? the elves and the dwarves know absolutely nothing useful about their own divine/historical figures that are locked in the black city/generating blight?

and solas is SUCH a dick to grey wardens and dwarves and dalish and tons of other people! and the entire point of his character is to show that his wisdom is limited by his prejudices and ego and isolation! and it is likely for the wardens and dwarves and dalish to have actually useful information that he never had access to, but the inquisition could get to, if it looked. bc these factions are far more layered and important than what solas sees them as. but now the conclusion is... well.... no one but solas knew jack shit about these topics. so, was he technically correct in dismissing everyone else from the start(?) low approval and xenophobia win(?) never listen to anybody if you think they're lesser than you, bc they don't actually know anything useful(?) 😭

and the entire premise of the high approval inquisitor/solas relationship is them proving a lot of his biases wrong! they're not intentionally setting out on a mission of "i am going to force this 10 000 year old sunk cost fallacy immortal to reckon with the fact that i'm a person with equal rights to him", but they do so regardless! varric nearly wins the whole "what if you were a lone survivor on a desert island" argument, without even understanding what they were arguing about! so, if they're actually setting out with the goal to change his mind, and with knowledge of who he actually is besides "weird hermit with bad opinions on every race including his own," then... they should continue that thread and have the inquisition make a genuinely compelling attempt to show him information he doesn't have?

and also, i don't think this necessarily has to work! if they need to keep him as a villain, it would be interesting if solas, even if given some new info - still tragically refused, became as prideful in his own ideology as the evanuris, and continued on his same antagonistic course, and then had to be stopped by force. and it would be EXTREMELY heartwrenching if he killed varric after that genuine attempt! but the fact that it's never even tried is such a ???. why even dangle the option in previous games, then?

but ok! let's say they wanted to get rid of the high approval "prove me wrong" vibe entirely, and just make solas a straight out villain.

he has no agents! no schemes! no terrifying dream sequences! his only crime onscreen is... accidentally killing varric in a somewhat dumb way that makes both of them look bad? tfw varric, an extremely charming, eloquent guy from the most mugging-prone city in thedas, decides to do a "your plans are bad, bc even the ones that were successful and objectively decent, sucked. stop doing anything" ted talk, to his friend that he otherwise has good success in arguing with. and then wanders into melee range. and then solas, 10 000 year old magical being who doesn't even want to exist in a physical form, while holding a priceless mystical artifact, decides to stab him with the artifact. instead of casting Any Spell. i would totally buy it if solas blasted varric into a wall and broke his neck, or turned him into a statue, but knife fighting each other like level 2 rogues is.... cringe for both of them 😔

and then the only scheme solas has is luring rook into a prison that... they escape within weeks? he doesn't even give them fucked up nightmares or anything? for some reason, despite making them hallucinate varric while he's trying to foment regret in them, he has varric be... fairly nice to them? why? make fake varric guilt trip them constantly instead to intensify their regrets, if that's his angle? guilt trip them about releasing the blights, and then he could even parallel their regret about that, with his regret for destroying arlathan? if he's supposed to be cold-bloodedly manipulating rook to escape, then commit to it! he's SO useless in general!

i was expecting some horrible, galaxy brain schemes of making the tevinter and qunari armies fight each other to cover for his agents. assassinations, blackmail, court intrigue, idk. stuff that really makes you think about how brutal he must have been during his rebellion, and how easy it is for him to slip from "arguing with iron bull that people shouldn't relish in killing bc it's wrong to devalue anyone's life" to "welp. time to get my hands bloody again to do the job :/" dread wolf mode. but instead he's just in a shitty fade terrarium for most of the game? what was the point of hyping him up as this ruthless mastermind with tons of hidden followers, then?

and at the end, rook can... punch him out? the guy who was turning people to stone by looking at them, before? this is just boring fjdhdjdjsf. my boy should at least get a boss battle 😭

[celestialite10]

Anybody ever think about how in the Roxas portion of KH2, the main things Roxas does on his summer vacation is basically the work he did as an Organization XIII member in a different coat of paint?

The summer jobs are just normal-people-flavoring for going on missions for resources. The searching for the Twilight Town Mysteries is just a recon job. The struggle matches is like collecting hearts from heartless, but instead of hearts you're trying to collect orbs.

All Roxas "What's my job on vacation?" Kingdomhearts know how to do before he goes into Sora is eat ice cream and do job.

[omenisntdead]

Was overtaken by madness and did a few more Killer Frequency drawings. UHhh yeah in my version I think Eugene was already a fan of The Scream but now he's like a HUGE fan because Forrest literally kept him from dying. The above drawing is the first time Eugene saw Forrest after Whistling Night

Peggy: Looks like you've got a fan! Forrest: He's been following me around for days. Sorta reminds me of my old fans back in Chicago, but less weird. (He acts annoyed but he likes the attention <3 Eugene becomes Forrest's son REAL)