Idk

This blog is mainly mcyt at the moment, but also things that make me laugh, or feel some sort of way. (profile pic by mannikns)

[thecabbagegirl]

So I would quite like if the dentist I visited 4 times this month could actually solve the worsening toothache I've had for that entire time. Like I don't mean to be short, but it is kinda the entire job. Ok there's nothing obvious on the x-ray and none of the antibiotics are working - so do something. Please.

[thecabbagegirl]

Favourite Narnia Book

The Magician's Nephew

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Horse and his Boy

Prince Caspian

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Silver Chair

The Last Battle

Voting ended onJul 4

[thecabbagegirl]

Don't mind me Narnia posting on main. I was rereading the last battle, and it struck me how dark comparatively the book is. It's the apocalypse for Narnia. It's the end. We know it's a happy end and that the book ends wonderfully, but... It's the end of the world and it's written as such. Imagine being one of those poor talking horses for instance. Enslaved by your own people because (you believe) your god wanted it. Finally freed and standing up for the truth only to be shot down by your countrymen. Those poor talking animals who truly believed their beloved Aslan would want this. "It must be right if hes doing it". Every time I reread it I hate Shift more.

I truly understand why Lucy was crying.

It's such a contrast to the other books, and no matter how many times I reread it I'm sombre afterwards

[julietslabyrinth]

im very normal about narnia

[thecabbagegirl]

In honour of Nukeri's subathon (watch) here's some text posts

[buttercupbonfire]

Scott Goldsmith’s Native Environment is a Horrible Murder Box

this has consequences

Vampires smp was originally billed as an amongus alike with light roleplay elements, so Scott Smajor basically just took a pile of life series conventions and built a character around it.

The life series, for the uninitiated, is a competitive minecraft youtube series where everyone has a limited number of lives (times they can die), and the goal is to be the last one standing. The mechanics gradually allow more murder to happen over time, so everything starts with people making nice with each other and ends with an absolute bloodbath. The tone is kept light by the mutual acknowledgment that everyone is a youtuber playing minecraft, but there has been plenty of discussion about how much actually living in that kind of world would suck.  Most notably, Scott Goldsmith works from the baseline assumption that he will have to crawl over the bodies of other people to survive, and that that’s just normal. It’s not even anyone’s fault. Everyone lives in a horrible murder box and the only way to succeed is to make sure that it’s you on top.

(this doesn’t stick out too badly because noble power games are frequently just a slightly more free range murder box, so Goldsmith being murderbox georg does not particularly contradict his lore or backstory)

The other major consequence of murder boxes being Scott Goldsmith’s main thing is that Scott actually follows a fairly rigid set of rules and assumptions when dealing with other people. His own personal vampire code, if you will. 

The code of Scott Goldsmith is as follows: 

1: The in group deserves everything and the outgroup deserves nothing. Everything the in group does is good and justified, everything the outgroup does is not. 

This is the bedrock of the gaslight, gatekeep, goldsmith social interaction special, and the governing principal behind what Scott is willing to justify and when. Basically, if he or someone he likes did it, then he will defend it and deny even the concept that it might have been wrongdoing. People that are not members of his coven generally have their actions weighed by how dangerous or inconvenient they are to himself or His People. 

The most obvious example of this is the interactions with v!Avid in episode 6 and 7. In episode 6, he complains about Avid burning down Shelby’s house, but in episode 7 he defends it by claiming that “it was ugly”. The same instance of the same action performed by the same person goes from something worth complaining about to something worth depending based entirely on where they stand in Scott’s regard.

Note also that this rule has no interest in fairness or reality. If Shelby says “the sky is green and the moon is made of cheese”, and Martyn says “no it's not”, then Scott will back up Shelby because Shelby is coven and Martyn is not. If Shelby kills Martyn, Scott will immediately decide that Martyn had it coming. If Shelby kills Martyn, burns down the town, and declares her desire to destroy the world and rule over the ashes with an iron fist, Scott will fully support her in that endeavor.

2: A lone vampire is a dead vampire. Your power is directly proportional to the number of people that answer to you

On one level, this is just mechanically true for vampires smp. Every person turned is another set of hands that can corrupt the beacons, and, just as importantly, one more person taken away from the effort to consecrate them. Even if that person never switches sides, the fact that they can’t consecrate any more or use the various human powers makes it a worthwhile effort, which is why there was a general OOC limit to turning only one human per episode. (and they had to take a break from turning people if they accidentally turned too many)

a more character driven level, Scott is very much a social threat, and acts the part. Turning people lets him acquire minions, who are easier to manage than outsiders, and generally aren’t going to cause him problems.

Vampirism is generally more then enough to force someone into his faction, because once someone is turned the humans will do the bulk of the work in driving the new vampire away from them and into Scott’s waiting arms. It’s a phenomena Scott is very confident about and takes shameless advantage of.

This is also why in episodes where Scott doesn’t turn anyone (due to the OOC limits), it’s styled as him stopping because the new vampires aren’t joining up- growing his power base is the main benefit of turning new vampires, and when that peters out he becomes more hesitant to do so.

3. Your actions should always advance your agenda

In other words, Scott mixes business and pleasure in the sense that his hobbies always contain some practical value. 

This is, honestly, the one Scott haters get wrong the most. While there’s nothing wrong with having a villain in your story, Scott isn’t the sort of person to torture someone in his basement for the sake of it when he could be torturing someone in his basement for information, or to break them down into something more psychologically dependent on him. 

Even if recreation is his main goal, he should ideally have a secondary goal as a matter of both practicality and preference- it’s just more fun for him if he’s being paid to be evil. (or buy some ice cream. Or pet a dog. Or help someone out)

4. Betrayal is a crime of the highest order. Loyalty is a virtue of the highest order. 

What, exactly, Scott considers betrayal varies over the course of the series, but this is generally the governing principal behind the various times he menaced Pyro, why he didn’t see v!Avid’s murder coming, and why he was both so pleased with v!Avid and so angered by his death. 

Scott Goldsmith values loyalty, and to a degree both expects it as his due and considers it an obligation to give loyalty in turn. This isn’t surprising- most Scott Smajor characters run along lines of loyalty and devotion. Scott Goldsmith is not an exception just because he is also a Dracula. 

5. Support your allies however you can

Scott is, in fact, an incredibly dedicated ally. He does things like give Pyro food while having low hunger himself as early as episode 2, and the tendency to act like that only goes up over time.

This makes a certain amount of sense- helping other members of your faction also helps you because you’re all working together for a single goal. In Scott’s case this is especially true, since as the leader he’s deciding a disproportionate amount of the group’s goals. A well fed minion is a productive minion. A productive minion is a lot more likely to succeed at your goals. 

This one is the part that can be the hardest to reconcile with Scott’s everything else. However, it’s important to remember that Scott is not immune to the desire for companionship, and also that he actually needs to keep people on side in order to not die. In some ways, this is very much an extension of rule 2.

6. (new) be a good friend

Over the course of the series, Scott gradually gets attached to the other vampires, and comes to see them as companions with needs he should consider outside of their mutual victory. He realizes that he likes the people around him, and he wants them to be happy. That he cares about them as people, and not just as tools.

The process of this takes the entire series, but by the end of it his friends are a big enough priority that he points out opportunities to escape to his own detriment.

In conclusion:

1. Scott’s core character concept is “guy that is trying to get a good grade in Minecraft Hunger Games, something that is normal to want and possible to achieve”

2. Scott Goldsmith does not so much have a moral compass as he has a set of rules designed to keep him alive. The bad parts of this are obvious, but there are good parts, too: when it mattered most, Scott was able to change and grow to suit the people around him. Owen and Ren, by contrast, violently self destructed and that hurt the people around them because they were too rigid in their personal convictions.

4. The support he offers to other people in the coven is real and sincerely meant. The expectation that those coven members will aid and abet his own misdeeds is also very real. Scott himself doesn’t recognize the difference until the end of the series, where he asks Abolish to stop him from doing bad things. 

5. The finale of vampires smp from Scott’s pov very much pivots around v!Avid’s death. It turns out that the rules that Scott shaped himself around weren’t as ironclad as he thought, because the people around him would literally rather die than put up with them. The mechanics that demand violence and bloodshed can be subverted in a way that causes unnecessary death and suffering.

And, to be clear, Owen and Pyro are dead to him as soon as they do this. In part because he’s planning on killing them himself, yes, but also because their actions are tactical suicide.

When he next talks to Pyro in what is basically his eulogy, Scott thanks him for the reminder that he should expect death and misery, because as far as he’s concerned death and misery are the normal course of events. Scott was winning so much he forgot that murder boxes suck, actually.

This is increasingly a problem because, by the laws of murderboxes, Shelby and Drift are almost certainly going to die- they both struggle with pvp, don’t have the aggression to cover for it, and with Pyro and Owen lost they don’t have enough front liners to cover their weaknesses. If things continue the way they’re “supposed” to, more people that Scott cares about are going to die.

So, Scott starts looking for another way out. After all, if the rules can be broken in ways that are bad, maybe they can be broken in ways that are good. Maybe they don’t have to kill everyone. Maybe murderboxes are bullshit, and all of this was entirely unnecessary.

So he starts looking, and, surprisingly enough, there is a path out. It’s not easy or bloodless, but it is a strict improvement over the status quo. It’s an option that keeps his friends alive.

Of course, just leaving this murderbox isn’t enough. Scott still has to deconstruct the murderbox in his own head, because otherwise his actions will simply create another murderbox around him.

That’s a bad outcome, so he enlists Abolish to kill him if he starts causing problems.Scott’s not great with morals, but he’s excellent with rules and practical consequences. So long as backsliding into the worst of his old behavior is guaranteed to go badly for him, he can be fairly sure that he won’t do that.

Actually figuring out how to be a functional person outside of the torment nexus is basically an entire novella’s worth of character development that the series doesn’t have time for, so instead it settles on “they figured it out eventually”.

[nukerii]

HELLO TUMBLR I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT YOU!!! I'm doing a Subathon! I'm also doing a fun new bit where pixels are added for every sub to a big artwork! Reblogs appreciated to help out a quirky little minecraft angel :3

[verdantglow]

This is now my absolute favourite VintageApplesauce "you're doing great, sweetie" ever. Absolute perfection.

[thecabbagegirl]

Did Scott Goldsmith deserve to die?

Maybe

But that would be a boring post, so let's elaborate. I am not talking current standards. I am talking about in universe. This story is set nebulously in the 1800s - nebulously somewhere in Europe? Most countries at that time still had the death penalty.

I am also not taking into account actions before the start of the story. He definitely killed many people before his sleep. But 600 years ago is a while. I'm only talking about actions taken in the plot.

He turns 3 people. If turning is the same as murder - which his victims certainly think it is- then yes. 3 murders on 3 separate occasions would probably earn the death penalty. However - if turning isn't murder, as Scott himself, Owen, Louis, possibly Shelby believe - then it gets more murky.

Manipulating people is not a crime. It's a dick move, but not a crime. His actual crimes against the humans were assault and battery. He 'killed' Martyn, Legundo, Pearl (I think) but in universe they wake up, so again, assault not murder.

By the standard of the time. Probably enough to earn the death penalty - but he could potentially bribe his way out.

By the standard of the time he went to sleep in - he was the Lord, and the people were serfs. Murder was frowned upon, but murdering the common people... You could buy a pardon for that. By the standards of 1200's Europe? 3 dead and a few assaults. He's not even that bad a lord. Frankly he could have gotten away with far more than he did, legally speaking.

By the standards of today, yeah, death, but in universe - I'm with Abolish. Don't do it again, and you can live.

[thecabbagegirl]

So I was thinking about vampires smp (suprise) and I was going to make a post about innocents and killers, but I got hung up on Apo.

Most of the other cast are easy to quantify, (assuming innocent until proving otherwise) and yes, technically Apo didn't kill anyone.

She killed Truffle, and while that was a bit of a dick move - doesn't count because Truffle is a pig not a person. But she did intend to kill people.

Attempted murder is still a crime even if it doesn't work. If Scott had been human- she would have killed him. If she had staked him correctly and he wasn't at stage 3 when she did - Avid would have died by her hand.

"but it was self defence - they were both trying to kill her".

Yeah- not when she went after Scott. The kill in the crypt yes. The following back to the castle to kill him again. Nope that's not self defence.

"She was going to turn the beacon she didn't know he was still alive"

Not sure that'll hold up when she repeatably 'kills' him again.

"She's a soldier it's her job".

Oooh no no no. Scott Goldsmith is not a soldier or commander - he's a dick. But he's a civilian dick. A soldier cannot just kill a civilian outside of the law because they are a soldier.

"But he deserved it"

Maybe. Maybe Pyro 'deserved it' when Shelby murdered him. But even if he 'deserved' it it doesn't mean she's innocent for doing it. This post isn't about whether he deserved it.

I will forgive her for turning Sausage, because it was an accident. But that's still manslaughter (if vampires are actually dead - which it does seem from the convo with Shelby that Apo believes they are).

So - is Apo innocent. I don't think she is. That's two counts of attempted murder and one manslaughter. She's correct. She's justified even. But if she arrived in Oakhurst innocent, she certainly didn't leave that way.

[thecabbagegirl]

Gotta say, I love it when chat talks to other people in chat. I'm a bit of a lurker usually, (other than Nukes streams I guess) - but when you say bye, and whether or not the streamer says bye - the chat says goodbye- it makes me feel part of it you know. I love when chat is a community as well as an audience.

[thecabbagegirl]

Was a wonderful Nuke stream today. The energy was hype the chat was great. I spent too much money on asmr :). This community has gone through some shit, because of morons, but we are so much better than that. Better days are coming? Better days are here. Ask Gemini how much better we're doing without certain individuals. The atmosphere today was brilliant, and with Nuke 'steel chair' Nukeri. It'll remains so!!

[starry-blooms]

Can’t watch the stream rn cuz doing stuff but I HAVE seen these two comments

Doovid did make me laugh

[thecabbagegirl]

[redstonebug]

good days ahead

[vampostingtime]

as much as apo sparing shelby in the finale during their bat fight is a really compelling story beat, someone getting staked mid-air is metal as fuck and I think we could think about a world where apo did kill shelby there. permanently.

[thecabbagegirl]

Oooh. I wonder how this would change the story. Scott is hunting Apo down till she is dead. I can see him forgiving Pyro (or at least allowing him to live) to help hunt down Apo. Drift also hunting down Apo (or potentially running to hide behind Cleo)?

So either Apo is dead. Or Pyro switches sides and turns on Scott. Dead Scott. Apo can turn back now, so can Drift. Abolish and Pearl are gunning for Pyro. I don't think he survives betraying Scott. But if he does those two are going to force turn him human.

Oooh this might actually lead to a human win. Owens story remains the same. It might be all leave human.

[thecabbagegirl]

Oh for Scott Smajor to choose Dionysus as his patron god, make him so Scottish and not acknowledge it AT ALL.

[thecabbagegirl]

Oooh I'm thinking Hephaestus for Cleo actually. God associated with fire, and blacksmiths. But also automatons and, critically... Statues