Chalk @unhookedchalk48 - Tumblr Blog

Violence is Extremely Natural

#critical role #critical role fanart #star razor #fjord #fjord stone #orym of the air ashari #orym #seedling the wayward pilgrim #my artwork #my art #sword

teaboot

Wild that folks keep saying beekeepers abuse bees as if bees are not both venomous flying animals and fully unionized

teaboot

Hubris to think you COULD abuse bees

teaboot

I think that if you see a balrog in an unlocked kitty kennel then you can assume that it wants to be there

vegance

Actually, beekeepers take many precautions to keep their bees from leaving.

many clip the wings of the queen, destroy new queen cells, cull queens they don't like and use bee pheromones to prevent a hive from naturally swarming or absconding. They also try and prevent mating with the African honey bee, which makes them less docile among other things. During artificial insemination of queens, drones are crushed and „spare“ queens are killed.

and commercial beekeepers even cull their hives during winter, or when they are not producing well.

Coupled with the fact that there is evidence that insects do feel pain, this is not great.

(Not to mention that honeybees are an invasive species in most places, competing with native pollinators and spreading disease)

tetrafelino

It is so fucking bold of you to link the exact same paywalled book thirteen times in your reblog to throw people off the fact that you're using one source from 1859.

champawattigress

I don't think there's ever been a funnier vegan response in the history of this hell site. This is actual gold. If you cited an argument like this in a first year undergrad intro to bio module, then your lecturer would be legally entitled to fire you out of a cannon. I think I'm dying

nyaa

ERASER@YepWn

captainbragd-personal

Everyones allways like "Go, My Scarab" and throws me at a guy but no ones ever like "Come Here My Scarab" and gives me a hug, know what I mean?

utilitycaster

I keep trying to make this post and I keep providing a ton of examples and never getting to the point so: the thing is, re: Taliesin's line on Tale Gate about facts being more transient than story, he has a point in terms of how stories occupy the imagination and how they can be incredibly effective in spurring people to action - indeed, we see this in-world with KoTher'ai, and in Thjazi telling Hal that maybe all he has is a story. Stories do endure within the mind of most people in a particular way that facts, especially unconnected facts, do not.

But I think that's the problem. Bolaire, as a museum curator, should be trying to provide the facts about a war that has, despite being within living memory for the longer-lived peoples and even a few older orcs, very much become a thing of story. Indeed, we can tie a lot of the complacency of the Revolutionary Council to the fact that the people of Araman and especially Dol-Makjar have been semi-resting on their laurels for 70 years because they have this narrative of revolution constantly around them when the truth is the power vacuum is rapidly filling with the Sundered Houses. The term "Sundered Houses" is itself a narrative, that of people who lost their homes to the Barrowdells, except that's not really the truth either, because now they all have multiple estates and immense power. At this point, these terms have passed into the realm of story and even propaganda.

At the same time, Bolaire as one of the Panto is about telling a story and making the story true, which is something directly in conflict with museum curation, which should be about showing the truth behind the story. And then, in his personal life, Bolaire is dedicated to this idea of truth-telling about Thjazi and stripping away that mythology. And all of this contradiction and hypocrisy would be really, really interesting if any of it was actually being explored in the slightest, but it's not.

More generally I am very much on the record for being skeptical of higher concept characters not because I think it's a bad thing, but because they are very hard to pull off, and I don't think it's happening here. If you show up to the table and say "hey I'm a human fighter" then there's plenty you can do with your character but you haven't set up any specific hoops to jump through; you have a great deal of freedom in terms of how you proceed. If you show up to the table with a high concept, you need to be prepared to execute that concept.

All of this is to say there's a reason why people have so many reservations about this character and it's because even a fairly generous and reparative reading of Taliesin's commentary on Tale Gate when placed up against how he's actually playing Bolaire leaves much to be desired.

#critical role

utilitycaster

ok one last thing actually and I apologize in advance for how fanwanky this will be but I think it's necessary to say. which is that I and many others in the audience are obviously annoyed with Bolaire. but I don't think there's any like, interpersonal conflict at the table at this time and frankly I think it's bizarre that people keep jumping to the idea that that's what people are saying. Like no, the issue is "We don't think that Taliesin actually thought about how this character fits into the story being told, especially as it's being told by 13 other people and his premise requires him to be The Only Guy Who Gets It even though one of the 13 other people is the DM, and also his statements on Tale Gate are kind of off," not "there is active conflict."

I think that Brennan's largely just been redirecting a lot of plot-critical things to other players, and being very clear with Taliesin about the potential consequences (see: Terminamariya casting Disintegrate) and I think that like, Hal is mad at Bolaire in-game but Liam has no quarrel with Taliesin. Like, I am interested in seeing what happens in the narrative since I do not believe that Bolaire (and, as many of us suspect, Taliesin's) feelings about Thjazi are going to be validated in an objective sense - ie, I think people in-story will be sympathetic and say it sucks he was blackmailed, but I don't think he's going to like, succeed in getting them to believe that Thjazi was actually a horrible person - but that's again, in-narrative. I have no idea how Taliesin will respond if that's the case but like, my guess is that at worst the cast will have a shardgate-esque argument off screen and move on.

(I also think that a lot of this idea that there's Deep Cast Conflict comes from the fact that people defending Bolaire initially argued that the problem is that no one is digging into the character when Taliesin is CLEARLY inviting it and like. straight up I don't fucking think that was happening. I think that's a pure fabrication. Like if it was then yeah, it's Taliesin's responsibility to talk to people, and if he's talked to people and they're not engaging with Bolaire then that is a problem...but I don't even think that's an accurate assessment of what's going on. Which is funny, it's like you guys made up a problem, and then got mad at the idea that people think there's a problem, and you are the guys who made up that problem, and the fans you're mad at do not think that's the problem.)

More generally, while Campaign 3 I think demonstrated that no, actually, the cast might not talk about all things and/or disagreements might not come to the surface until after the fact (and indeed the cast's closeness might cause them to let things that are a narrative issue but not an interpersonal one slide), I and most other people are talking about our concerns with Bolaire and how they stem from both in-game and out-of-game statements and actions. I don't want the cast to be arguing but frankly that's not relevant to the current criticism in the first place. I think a lot of people are just either mad that people don't like their favorite character, in which case, skill issue; or mad that people engage in discourse in a fandom on tumblr dot com, in which case, lmao and also skill issue.

#critical role

ariadne-mouse

No, Bolaire's behavior around food is not a good metaphor for an eating disorder, or at least not one that centers Bolaire The Character. (I also don’t really think metaphor is quite the right word, but let’s ignore that for simplicity.) Anyway: Bolaire does not experience hunger. He does not experience metabolic physical nourishment from eating. He does not have an organic physical body at all. He does not personally experience health consequences for his eating patterns. It is his host who suffers, full stop. While some of his behaviors may—without context—echo irl disordered eating habits, such as restricting intake or buying more to disguise that restriction, the strength of comparison immediately collapses because he is not doing it to himself. A better actual metaphor would be starving a prisoner or not maintaining your car, externalizing your own feelings on someone or something else under your control.

And look, I'm not here to tell anyone they can't personally identify with a character for any reason, or that we can't use Bolaire's behavior as an analogy for disordered eating. Absolutely someone could watch Bolaire mechanically eating a shred of jerky and think, I have been like that, I have resented that my body needs nourishment, I have felt like my body is a thing I am separate from. But per above we can’t make a strong representative connection that honors this sentiment (Bolaire’s actions can sometimes emulate disordered eating) and the facts of the text (the one Bolaire is depriving is actually his host) unless we zoom out and treat host and mask as a symbolic connected unit, a single person, where Bolaire is the disordered mentality itself. Anyone can be affected by disordered eating; once the mentality (the mask of Bolaire, in this metaphor) is on, you feel out of control, your basic needs suppressed as inconvenient, undesirable, and deeply contemptible, and you neglect your own body even though you desperately need to eat, you are cruel to it, and you hide this from your friends and family, who you may also push away and become a stranger to. You might genuinely die this way. If only you could be free of these feelings, this mask you're wearing! With some external help, maybe you could take it off. Taliesin has said before that Bolaire is intended to portray themes of dissociation, and tbh this metaphor works really well for that too. An alienation from the self.

But if you read that and thought, hey, Bolaire doesn't represent a negative mentality! This isn't about the hosts, he's his own little guy on a journey with his own anxieties and behaviors, independently! Then congrats, we have determined that the disordered eating metaphor lives best above the story and maybe isn't the best fit for what's going on with him as a character in-game except as the most surface-level resemblance. And you can do both btw: enjoy the character in-story and also enjoy metaphors they inform above the text that may not, strictly speaking, be “complimentary” to the character themself. But I do think that if we try to make this about “Bolaire has a metaphorical eating disorder within the narrative”, we are ignoring his mechanics and airballing pretty egregiously on more incisive symbolism.

#critical role

captainofthetidesbreath

since the post I just reblogged about this Tale Gate is making me think about these comments all over again, it remains that this is a crazy insane thing to say earnestly and unironically in this era of post-truth politics

#critical role #Taliesin genuinely needs to learn to STFU

shovelwareyaoi

by-grace-of-god

Le Figaro have a newly published photograph from inside Notre Dame shortly before the roof collapsed, as molten lead fell into the nave. (+)

thebaconsandwichofregret

This is what I love about photojournalism. It is just a history of moments where human beings have gone “I know I should really be hauling ass out of here but I have to get a picture of this”

inthesensethat

cordic

its important to me that all y'all know that mannertee has an arch nemesis

his name is Ikanzame and he's a shark with bad driving etiquette!!

butch-of-the-blades

ikanzame!!! your people of virginia desire you carnally!!!!

literally a cartoon bad guy

wigmund

When a Hopkinsville goblin manages to get inside your home

burr-ell

I caught up with the Schemers' Tale Gate a little bit ago, and Taliesin said something there that stood out to me, in response to Liam discussing Hal's use of the theatre to portray the history of the Rungjani. His commentary is...not great, and I think it also lies at the heart of the issue with the way Taliesin is handling Bolaire's view of Thjazi:

"I can retort with history is a snapshot of the present, and history is made by storytellers. Facts come and go; stories are what lasts. [...] It only takes one good diary to change our perspective on a whole situation that happened a hundred years ago. [...] I was literally thinking of a diary that was found during the San Francisco earthquake that actually, like—we find these things and suddenly we realize that a whole bunch of people were full of shit."

Yeah, I don't need a doctorate in history to know this sucks. One single primary source may be all it takes to convince a subset of people that actually a historical figure was incompetent or terrible, but that does not mean that perception is accurate. One lone diary isn't a study of history in any meaningful sense; it's a record of one person's experience, and that alone is not historiography. Caring more about story than about facts is not a good thing—one of those things is pretend and the other has an actual impact on real people's lives. This is incredibly self-congratulatory; it has nothing substantive to do with this entirely separate discipline; it's frankly pretty bad storytelling anyway; and it would furthermore make most actual academics grind their teeth at the kindest.

But it also sheds some light on why Taliesin, out of game, insists that Thjazi can't possibly be working for a happy ending that is inclusive of the PCs and that he actually planned for half the PCs to die and that everyone who likes him is a "schmuck". He truly believes that if only everyone could just read Bolaire's diary, they'd all agree Thjazi was full of shit. He truly believes that he alone has the game-changing knowledge, and everyone else is too willfully blind to try to look for it.

I don't think that's particularly nuanced. I think it's just inverted Great Man Theory. Considering I learned better in my APUSH classes, I think calling that sophomoric is an insult to high school sophomores.

#now as i said this is also bad storytelling. as other people have pointed out if you're in a room with 13 other people #and you decide only you know the truth about the story you're all collaborating on together? you are going to be incoherent #but also like. yeah one diary can convince people of a story. yeah a lot of people don't care about facts. this is bad actually.#like if i may get a bit spicy? caring more about story than facts is an anti-intellectual take and we should always be wary of it #prev tags #critical role

mihri-the-sasscatte

Size comparison of Y’gathok, the Ceaseless Hunger and Bjorn, our level 20 Goliath Barbarian.

professorsparklepants

Hey quick question: why the FUCK do you have that

kittyopteryx

Imagine, from out of nowhere, your dm casually slapping this thing down on the table like any other encounter.

mooretimetoplay

“Yeah, the fight will start in a sec, uh…I’ll give inspiration to whomever helps me get this fucking box out of my car.”

necrowemancer

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/7asxci/oc_ygathok_the_ceaseless_hunger_final_boss_of_our/ This is the reveal of this ridiculousness during their game

jelloapocalypse

Please watch this reveal video it’s kickass

creepsandcrawlers

FUCK ME the reveal video

threefeline

“CHRIS??????”

tanoraqui

“Um, I don’t think our plan is gonna work.”

8bitmickey

island-delver-go

Always reblog Y'gathok

robot-roadtrip-rants

always ALWAYS reblog Y'gathok!

chimaerakitten

“Would you block someone just for disagreeing with you?” Pal, I’ll block someone for agreeing with me in the wrong tone of voice.

curlsandstems

Have you ever seen a violinist going APESHIT?!

Be sure to check out IAmDSharp!

thegreynightsky

GO OFFF

babydollbucky

Ok so I’ve been playing for 18 years and i’m a string teacher. Can i just say how IMPORTANT it is for young kids to see a BLACK, MALE-PRESENTING PERSON playing, nae, SHREDDING on a violin? I’ve know maybe 5 black people who played stringed instruments throughout my schooling and teaching (predumably because i’m an upper middle class white woman). In districts where the population is predominantly black, funding is always low, so the instruments are crappy. Kids quit, or the program is dismantled. I’ve seen very few professional string players who are black.

Obviously there are black string players. We just don’t see them because they “don’t look like” string players.

This person is the real deal. They were clearly classically trained, and seems to have some fiddle training as well. How cool is that?