#i think typhon ended up abusive

[quietbluejay]

The Buried Dagger 1

OKAY mortarion time ….i forgot this was the book with purple prose and i had to go back in terror to make sure I didn't accidentally buy a McNeill novel again i did not, this is thankfully (?) someone else

I'm trying to figure out what about this pushes it into "Wow Edgy" rather than being genuinely compelling well actually this isn't too bad, to be honest, it's really the next bit which is that the population of ynyx (and WHAT a name) doesn't have mouths "the cold ember of his familiar, obdurate resentment" I feel like I'm being unfair to the book by feeling bathos instead of pathos but i think it's that everything is so over the top

wait what year was this written Mortarion is literally breathing in the chemicals 2019 I'm now going to suffer from the belief that the writer of this was listening to Radioactive (due to this plus some other things) and now I've got it stuck in my head

i want to take this seriously but i just can't, I'm sorry no one understands meeeeeeeee owo uncomfortable memory surfaces

i will say this, the prose is quite evocative

ok so mort has a giant chip on his shoulder and is an enormous misanthrope but just about every single person who has ever been in a position of authority over him DOES just use him as a tool

boy did he choose the wrong side of the war

tumblr has poisoned my mind regarding "the horrors" so it feels like "every day mortarion gets emails" mortarion: hm maybe i should get rid of the daemon and also all the stuff i used to summon him and go back to normal warfare

holy shit holy shit he really is his father's son also hey uhhh mortarion do you remember that whole slippery slope speech you gave at Nikaea about literally this exact topic

the irony is killing me you're killing me, Reaper of Men, and I'm not even a man the manreaper of….justice (????) is unisex oh yeah i forgot to bring it up but Mort calling Magnus an "arrogant braggant" fills my salty soul with glee

morty continues to try out for that fantasy villain role i think i'm warming up to the prose though

im breathing in the chemicals- im breathing in the chemicals- im breathing in the chemicals-

i think swallow's cd kept skipping while he wrote this

this is the third time he's breathed in the chemicals

it's totally not a ritual, honest! okay, this is a cool fight scene mortarion can be cool in a fight, as a treat

lmao

yes. this is funny to me. Mortarion is just so done with this whole thing Mort: why did i get sent on this sidequest rip typhon killstealing

mortarion would really like to be starring in a different genre oh no cursed idea my thought was "what genre would be funniest to put him in" which was followed by "this is our get-along harem protagonist" but it's mort and rob idk at the end of godblight they got yeeted my next thought was magical girl anime he's the dark magical girl's mascot creature he is having friendship! just hdu call him and the magical girl friends

typhon plotting out how to ambush mortarion with a hug

uhhhhhh

typhon: yeahhhh better not bring up the Fallen honestly typhon feels like one of the most intelligent characters in the series! ….huh why weren't the dark angels at Terra

dude and then typhon internally cackles evilly like a kids show villain everything is going according to keikaku does your brain on nurgle turn you into snidely whiplash?

Mortarion what the heck

normal behaviour to go along with the poison drinking or breathing in the chemicals and breathing in the chemicals- and breathing in the okay i'll stop

literally everyone on the ship is choking but typhon that was fast owo flashback time

okay so his evil dad (the first one) sent him out with golems to fight other golem things from other evil overlords as a test of some kind this is just his entire life, huh

oh lovely like wow the only reason mortarion's alive is that he's a primarch the abuse is kind of getting to ridiculous angst-fic levels and yet the way it's written is genuinely compelling? probably because he's not actually a normal human so it is survivable and not ridiculous but it is kind of walking on that line thrown to starving dogs when he was a toddler like

this really is his entire life huh

annnnd also Necare experimented on him with poison what next did necare give him a dog and then kill the dog in front of him we're starting to get into bathos here

the last bit of this scene is, yeahh

a bit. on the overwrought side.

The book is tap dancing on the line which is to be honest, making me sad i really want this to be good :/

if it's going to go all the way into goofy, i want it to go all the way so i can mock it if it's going to be half hard hitting and half goofy it feels like im pulling back to punch a small child this book also unfortunately has some kind of subplot on earth with a bunch of rando characters and also, unfortunately, Garro

oh this is i guess foreshadowing for what's going to happen to the death guard? so garro's friend got hit by an evil knife and unlike guilliman he did not have plot armour

so garro is working with a bunch of other dudes who defected from the traitor legions secretly working for malcador oh, and a psyker ultramarine

oh wait psyker ultramarine met garro on calth??? what??? how did he get to calth and back what is a timeline (i should be fair and stop banging on about this since i have not actually read the relevant books. at least I assume this has to be covered in a book I didn't read)

oh yeah sure let's undress the catatonic chained up woman oh she's a sister of silence my beloved

okay so context she had her name and serial number tattooed under her collarbone so. i guess that was more important??? apparently??? they did not take off the chains they just snapped them off of the wall and basically pushed her to start walking you couldn't just. pick her up??? wouldn't that be faster?? okay this was funny malcador sends an illusion of himself across the planet

I'm rolling my eyes

this is the guy running the imperium

does he have nothing better to do also why give them the job in the first place if he's not going to trust them not to "creatively reinterpret" his commands

oh we're back with Teen Mort and he keeps a diary ohhh a bunch of humans are rebelling and attacking

oh it's Teen Typhon meeting Teen Mort

psychic powers time

this is not the time to get angsty also he is kind of a grimdark rapunzel huh

back in the present and apparently mort broods a lot in his room and if you interrupt him he yells at you because of course he does you're interrupting his linkin park listening bluejay note: i love linkin park so i am allowed to make this joke annnd typhon is setting up the navigators on the ship to take the blame oh he just killed them all that was fast and now they're all trapped blind in the warp and typhon is being obviously evil and according to keikaku which is visible to everyone but Mort well tbf to Mort, he's very angry at Typhon for killing the navigators so he's probably missing stuff

typhon: this lifeboat is full of leeches just trust me typhon: throws it overboard

back in the past, Mort successfully rescues the spunky teens but his dad is coming so he tells them to get out while they can and then has his disney princess song realization that it's time to stand up for himself and he'd do it all again! and face his dad! and dieeeee okay the last bit isn't disney princess …ah

ah mort: wait, that's an option??? rip his hair is getting in his eyes i hate when that happens

okay this is a cheesy line but it's working here

okay i made the joke before about mortarion being the kind of guy who likes to stand on cliffs/balcony edges and look down but i DIDNT KNOW IT WAS LITERALY DONT STARE INTO THE WARP YOU IDIOT

i. oh boy we get to see an emperor-mort interaction

i think the emperor is….actually trying here? but what the emperor is trying to say here is not what mort took from it

#warhammer 40k #bluejay reads warhammer

[mocha-gladiator]

"Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."

-Fellowship of the Ring

thinking about this ^^^ and how I'd like to have a non-violent character with great power in a very violent fantasy environment. It's actually more difficult to write than I anticipated because there's so many things that will eat you in there and normalized cannibalism and child abuse and things that just really get even myself worked up and the character has to have the restraint to keep himself from getting angry in the first place so it doesn't snowball.

each of my characters has a different approach to fighting.

- Ka won't fight no matter what you do to him unless he has to stand up for someone else, then god rest your soul.

- Cairo is just "violence is okay and murder is a treat."

- Argon is interesting to me because he's calm and cold as a frozen lake if you taunt him, bother his friends, shove him, slander his name, anything. But there's a line. And you won't know where that line is until you realize you're looking down at your own body.

- Cyprien will try to defend himself and then get upset thinking he looked like a jerk and then avoid the place/person where he got his ass whooped like the plague until something changes.

- Typhon's method is to act as a shield in any situation. It's less about him and more about anyone who might need him. In a verbal, passive aggressive situation he can lighten the mood with incredible ease, or ease the tension by addressing the problem. "Is there something we can do so you both feel more comfortable?" But in a fight, he's literally just a meat shield.

- Rhoda has guards at her beckon, and can have whomever is actually violent removed (and executed quietly), but her problems lie in more complex social situations. An outsider might think her enemy was her best friend from how much they laugh together, but she's really got to dance through her words to keep it that way.

Circling back to the main point, Sorien is still new and being given flesh, and I don't know how to write him as non-violent in a place that is quite literally dog-eat-dog.

I would like to write him as someone "not safe, but good," but as a former human he is going to make mistakes. Even characters that have eaten children will beg for mercy and pity and cry for their mother when they sense their own demise, which would leave anyone wondering if they did the right thing.

#lore dump #white stag

[lycanomancy]

The DeLeon Dad Debate

Based on this ask I sent this person. 

Q: Is Typhon abusive?

My personal answer: Yes. Was he meant to be? 

No way in hell. 

Typhon DeLeon is compared to Jack by some people. Here’s the thing: Jack was meant to be A: the bad guy, and B: an abusive father. Typhon? I don’t think so. 

The parells between Jack and Typhon are in the third link, so I’m skipping them. Besides, they aren’t what I’m really complaining about. I am complaining about the entire DeLeon brood. Except Troy and Leda, because they are not the players in this game. 

I recommend reading Border-Spam’s response/analysis first, because it provides more context and insight. 

The two characters I’m going in on for existing are Tyreen and Typhon. These two are the primary problems in the DeLeon lore, because the only detailed explanations for what happened comes from them. We do get Troy’s take on things on Eden-6, but he doesn’t really go in depth or beyond “Yeah, we had a hard childhood and dad didn’t make it any better.” Troy isn’t lying, unlike either Ty or Typhon could be, because he literally has no reason to. He also has no reason to be telling the player what he does - he seems like he’s venting there, after having a fight with Tyreen. 

Now, before I really get into this, abuse is the practice of hurting your children, in any way, shape or form, regardless of your actual feelings towards them. It isn’t always physical, and more importantly, an abusive parent can still feel love toward their kid. Keyword: feel love, not actually love. Typhon was an abusive parent who felt love towards his kids. I think he was supposed to, anyway.

The DeLeon Debate has two sides: Tyreen’s side, and Typhon’s. 

Typhon is implied to have doted on Tyreen multiple times, and admits that he was a terrible father. Typhon calls the Twins monsters not for Ty’s powers, but their actions. Typhon’s side is that he was a clueless father trying his best, but ultimately failing despite his best efforts and intentions. 

Tyreen is, in contradictory, implied to have been ignored in favor of taking care of Troy. It’s also canon (not in the actual game, screw you Randy) that Typhon refused to touch her after Leda’s death. Tyreen’s suspected ordeal is that, because of her distance from her father, she turned cold and out of touch with her own humanity. 

Against Typhon, we have him physically and probably emotionally neglecting his child, possibly hating or fearing her after Leda’s fridging. Border-Spam pointed out that both of the Twins believe that Typhon saw Tyreen as a monster, which hints that something happened that instilled that belief. Probably the “No hug for you” thing. Also, TYPHON LITERALLY CALLS THEM MONSTERS IN GAME. Just a thought. Troy apparently wasn’t spared either, saying that Typhon thought he was a freak - and the little amount of concern when he learns of his son’s death supports this. 

Against Tyreen, we have...

Nothing to do with her relationship with her father. A lot against her as a person, but in regard to who was the problem in the family? Everything points to Typhon. 

So, we sided with and hero-ified an abuser. 

Remember Borderlands 2? When the bad guy was abusive to his daughter and it was like, the real reason you had to kill him? Like, everything else he had done didn’t matter, he had to die because he was an abusive dad? 

I don’t even know how to explain or justify or figure out how the hell this happened. I don’t know what went through the writing team’s head. I can’t tell you what they tried ot do - I can only tell you what they messed up.

They tried to make every single character sympathetic. 

Example: Katagawa is, arguably, the better-written villain in BL3, just because he’s entertaining and consistent as a character. However, this is one of the examples of the writers trying to make everything angsty. 

His name. His name is Junior Katagawa, or reversed, whichever way. We never learn what the ‘junior’ part is. This is because the writers wanted to make him look and feel insignificant. Tyreen mocks him during that quest on Skywell by calling him Junior. They tried to take his individuality away from him by making him a pawn of his father and the company. 

The bar code on his neck. The thing with that was to demonstrate how little Maliwan cared about it’s employees. But Katagawa isn’t an employee, he’s the head of Mergers and the next in line to inherit the company. It’s another attempt at devaluing him as a person. 

Finally, we have the fact that, apparently, Katagawa has so little ability in friendship that the entire Atlas-Maliwan war was because he wanted to be friends with Rhys, and befriending him by force was the only way how. 

That’s all fine and dandy, but did we need that? Why couldn’t he have just been a spoiled Daddy’s Money baby? He already is in game, because none of the things I listed are actually mentioned or are barely hinted at. What was the point? 

Sympathy. Sympathy was the point. 

Ava? No one likes her, but you’re supposed to because ~her parents died~ and you need to feel sympathy for her. 

What they did with Typhon and Tyreen, was that they started by making Ty’s Sympathy Points based of of an abusive, negligent father. You could kinda get her if you thought about it. Jack was implied to be abused, too. 

Tyreen could have been brushed off as just lying to you, but when Troy comes in and confirms it without any drama or flair, just quiet, awkward, and shy? Their backstory is an abused one and you can’t argue against it. 

Then Typhon comes in. 

When Typhon comes in, the writers have to undo and reverse all the damage against his name and parenting skills. Someone realized they can’t make an alleged abusive father look like a good guy, so they make him admit he was bad and hope for the best. They tried so, so hard to give Typhon Sympathy points that they ended with a merry-go-round of He-Said-She-Said where neither Typhon nor Tyreen come out sympathetic. Tyreen comes out a manipulative brat who abused her brother, and Typhon as an abusive, pig-headed egomaniac, and you can’t find anything likable about either. 

I think Typhon was meant to be a bad father - I don’t think he was meant to be abusive. My bet is that the writers went overboard trying to make the Twins sympathetic, and when they added Typhon to the story, realized that they couldn’t make the player side with an abuser and get away without scathing criticism. 

#borderlands 3 #troy calypso #typhon deleon #tyreen calypso #tyreen the siren #long post #i think typhon ended up abusive #unintentionally #then they just had to roll with it #and rolled right off a sheer cliff

[angeltannis]

Tannis for the ask?

😙

favorite thing about them

aaa that's hard bc i love every single thing abt her really lol...I'm gonna say it's the fact that by BL3 she's been incorporated into the core Crimson Raider "family" and they all embrace and accept her with all her quirks and unusual traits. And how she comes across as prickly and unlikeable at first, but everyone who takes the time to get to know her discovers a wacky but sweet and endearing lady underneath.

Oh also the fact that she got to become a siren, breaking away from the "sirens are all super feminine, conventionally beautiful, graceful, etc." thing to have her be like "I'm gay, mentally ill, h*rny as fuck, and also stronger than any of you, so don't try any shit"

ok that's three things LOL i'll stop there

least favorite thing about them

her h*rniness for Typhon deLeon.... there's having bad taste and then there's just. That. 👎

favorite line

there are way too many to choose rhdfh, but I love the somber bit from her BL3 journal:

"I sometimes wish I had an easier time speaking to other people. On the rare occasion I have a feeling I'd like to share, speaking is often the most efficient means of transference. The tricky thing about feelings is, they're fleeting. By the time you need to share them, all too often they're already gone.

I guess it's the same with people."

brOTP

Angel!! I absolutely ADORE how Tannis kept Angel's legacy alive by collecting and safeguarding her childhood belongings and drawings, and even named her secret lab after her (Angel's Light) - and how, out of everyone in the entire universe, Angel chose Tannis to pass her powers on to, likely because she knew the abuse her father had put Tannis through and wanted to give her the tools to protect herself in the future. And those powers ended up saving Tannis, so it worked! Every time I think of their bond even between worlds I get all emotional 😭

OTP

you mean besides Tannis/me?? lol I adore Tannith (Tannis/Lilith) ... the bond they have is so real and palpable even if most of it goes unspoken. The trust they have in each other!! The fact that Lilith is comfortable enough with Tannis to tease her, and that Tannis, even touchy as she always is, is totally okay with it because she and Lilith have such a deep bond that she knows Lilith's intentions! Even the fact that they chastise each other when they feel the other one is acting out of turn (ie Tannis telling Lilith she needs to step up and be a leader during the canon Maya funeral scene, and Lilith being like "PATRICIA-" when Tannis is rambling on during the cut funeral scene). They're so GOOD for each other but they're also BAD for each other because they have one shared brain cell that's like "Let's go travel around the galaxy unleashing alien monsters for loot and knowledge!" and that is just such a PERFECT combination

nOTP

Typhon deLeon do not interact

random headcanon

I'm gonna paste directly from my fic Someone of My Kind because I still really like this idea (and it totally isn't based on my Authentic Autism Experience as someone with very similar hair to Tannis')

"The first moment of true liberation Tannis could remember was the day she locked herself in the bathroom with a pair of scissors and lopped all her hair off. Her mother had pounded uselessly at the door, stinging young Patty’s ears with her shrieks. In spite of her mother’s reaction–or perhaps because of it–Tannis had pointedly snipped off every last lock of her wavy, cowlick-ridden mane, watching with great interest as it scattered all over the old tile floor by her feet.

Her long hair had been torturous for years–she hated the feel of brushing it, which meant it was always full of knots. Every trip to the hair salon meant hours of crying and fighting the hairdresser as they yanked at her sensitive scalp and tore through the knots with a fine-toothed comb, audibly frustrated with the twelve-year-old who was less cooperative than the toddlers in the other chairs.

The day she chopped her hair off was, to her, a day of liberation. To her mother, it was an unforgivable insult."

unpopular opinion

Does Tannis have "popular opinions"? Lol it feels like nobody but me ever talks about her... I guess me thinking she's the best character in the entire series is a pretty unpopular opinion, lol, so let's go with that!

song i associate with them

it's really niche but "What Magic You've Forsaken" by Psyche Corporation is so good for her... a song about trying to give up magic to work a mundane office job, but still being hopelessly drawn to "myths and fairytales" ... also the titular line "Little witch from a bygone empire / What magic you’ve forsaken" reminds me of Angel (from the "bygone empire" of her father, literally forsaking her magic to give to Tannis)

favorite picture of them

:')

Send me a character!

#borderlands #tannis #patricia tannis #thanks! #this got a hundred times longer than i meant it to lol! #ask meme

[border-spam]

Sorry if this is too hypothetical, but how do you think Tyreen would feel if she met someone who was somehow immune to her leeching powers? Would her opinion change depending on whether or not she was already familiar/comfortable with the person? (PS I love reading your ideas about the twins/COV! There's so much the game didn't explore, and I'm so glad people are talking and writing about their thoughts)

It’s great that lots of folks are still interested in the COV and twins alright! Some really amazing character and world building being created by fans, and I hate to see an interesting idea be wasted, so it’s a joy to read up new content when it hits from the fandom!

How do I think Tyreen would feel if she met someone who was immune to her leeching powers?

I think how far along in her timeline they met would be what affected the outcome. The earlier the better. The later? Well..

Early/ Pre COV

Coming across someone she could touch early enough on her time on Pandora would have felt fated to her. Like everything the’d been through, Nekro, growing up with Typhon, fleeing to Pandora, had all culminated to reach this point. 

Tyreen meeting someone who didn’t crumble at her touch would mean that for the first time in her entire life since her powers bloomed, she wasn’t alone. 

Troy, to Ty, is part of her in a way. She doesn’t entirely see him as a separate entity, he’s a presence that always has and always will be there at her side, and being able to touch him has never helped lesson the bottomless depths of how unwanted she felt in the universe. 

She’s spent her childhood feeling like and being treated like she was a monster. That level of mental abuse is impossible to not carry after, and to come across someone immune to the disgusting power inside that SHE can’t control?

Someone who with no effort can take her hand or wrap their arms around her and be safe, and unafraid?

Maybe she’s not really what her father believed she was. Maybe she’s a human after all, just a woman who never asked for or deserved the burden they were cursed with. 

It would shift her entire mindset away from her isolated status as a horrific freak of nature, because she would have the opportunity to not be alone anymore. Troy always had that option, but Tyreen never did. I can’t see her being threatened by or enraged with this person’s existence, not when she was on Pandora looking for belonging in the first place.

Even if they didn’t want to be around her and they weren’t actually friends, the fact that someone existed? Well, it meant maybe other people like that are out there too, and her future isn’t a doomed lifetime of complete detachment from others. 

I don’t think it would change much though. The Leech would keep eating, she’d become less and less satisfied with the attention she received, feel hungrier for more, till she ended up back on the same path she had started to avoid.

I don’t think Tyreen can have a happy ending as long as she’s cursed with that ravenous need to consume everything and everyone around her emotionally and physically...

Mid/ Late COV

A threat to everything she’s crafted herself into, an insult to the God Queen.

Tyreen has by this point established a persona that she has to treat as bulletproof. There can’t be any cracks, she can’t allow there to be weak points. 

For someone to appear during her climb to God-hood who she couldn’t reduce to ash with a touch? It would shatter the façade she'd built that lets her cope with her curse in the first place. 

Tyreen is not human. She’s not. That’s why no human can touch her, because she’s not the same as the screaming bandits, the sneering corporation toadies, she’s something else. 

Dad had thought she was a monster, but she’s proved him wrong. She’s not a monster, she’s a damn God. Look at her billions of worshippers, her temples and cathedrals. Her face shines across the Galaxy in a hundred trillion bites of data downloading and streaming into echo devices on worlds she’ll never even learn the name of, how is she anything but a deity?

Someone who can touch her shatters her lie to pieces, and she has no way to defend herself once it happens. It forces her backwards through the logic she built herself up using, through the warped beliefs she’s used to justify what she’s done. 

Not a God. Not even a monster, just Tyreen. And being “Just Tyreen” is the greatest threat that could exist to the all powerful entity she wants to become.

That person would disappear, very quickly. If they’d been a close friend? They might disappear to somewhere very, very far away. If they weren’t someone that had any form of value for her? What’s another body on Pandora.

Asks are Open!

#Borderlands #calypso twins #tyreen calypso #My hcs #Asks

[urproblematicfav-arsonk]

There's a lot of things about Borderlands 3 that makes it kinda a garbage game. And all of those things are valid and true but a aspect of bl3 that deeply bothers me isn't something I've really seen people talk about?? Maybe they have but I missed it but I want to say my interpretation. (Also like, spoiler warning throughout all of this post)

To start off with: hi, I'm a autistic afab nonbinary person and this is relevant for this little rant I'm bout to go on.

I want to begin by stating why I love this franchise so much.

Borderlands, whether you like it or not, is INCREDIBLY queer. And not in a coded kind of way, it's just flat out gay as fuck. And that means so fucking much to me. Borderlands 2 was one of the first times I ever felt fully represented in a game. Zer0 being this dumbass making Yugioh references and generally being a fun garbage boy and also being nonbinary meant a lot to me and I adore him to this day (nonbinary people can use gendered pronouns fuc off). And getting more and more into this series and finding out that basically every character was on some level queer was really cool to me. Maya being asexual and most of the characters being attracted to multiple genders so honestly and off handily was so refreshing and amazing to get to play through. The casual mentions of a woman's wife or some man's husband in the echo's you find or Moxxi talking about her ex girlfriends was one of the reasons I loved this so much.

Another thing I loved particularly about Borderlands 2 was how feminist it was. I can not tell you how quickly I lost my shit at Mr. Torgue talking about the friend zone being misogynistic(it is btw). And the repeated jokes about fully murdering men for being rude to women was some of the highlights of my first playthrough. Punching a guy till he explodes because he disrespected a sex worker?? Fucking immaculate.

SPEAKING OF SEX WORK.

Mad Moxxi is a icon. She is a mother of MULTIPLE children, a survivor of rape and assault and a fucking bad bitch who runs a now intergalactic titty bar. Getting to have not only a sex worker be respected in a narrative, Moxxi is fun and a genuinely complex character who isn't defined by her job or her appearance. She is emotional and strong and funny and flawed but amazing person.

And then there's the way the male characters a represented and treated. I'll be honest here, I haven't really played Borderlands 1, mostly because have been spoiled by auto pick up and also I just didn't feel like it. So my idea of most of the men are based entirely off of Bl2, the pre-sequel and Tales. Anyway, Mordecai in particular is a character I really liked upfront. I love how a lot of his motivation and character is driven by his love of animals and Bloodwing. He's kind and though troubled knows when to get his shit together and be there when he needs to be. His casual "are you okay?" After the latter falls in the Arid Nexus was such a nice moment and the way he genuinely tries to be there emotionally for all of the people around him who he cares for is so fucking rare to see in a male character. And his arc of giving up alcohol to focus on being a better bird dad and you getting to help Brick make Mordecai a special gift to celebrate his sobriety is so amazing and I'm so proud of him.

Mr. Torgue is my dad and I love him. As mentioned, he is normal and believes that the friend zone is absolute garbage talk is ICONIC™ and the best scene in that game fight me. Torgue is a crybaby. He is an emotional person who is not afraid to express his pain and hurt when people are mean to him. He respects women and loves unicorns. The fact that is physical appearance is a big muscle guy who screams but is the literal opposite of toxic masculinity will forever make him the best male character of all time and I love him and he is my dad.

Roland was a character that I was never in particularly attached to but I still respect him and did enjoy his presence. I really appreciated his leadership style being primarily based on empathy and logic as opposed to him being a big meanie man with a HUGE dick who yells at people. I always really resonated with the echo from Tannis talking about how she came to Sanctuary. Roland going out of his way to bring Tannis to safety while completely respecting her autism and struggle with socializing really made his death hit harder when Tannis was very obviously distraught by losing him. It really seems that Roland was the only one who didn't treat her differently. And as someone who's autistic, finding people who legit 100% understand and respect you and just let you live the way you want/need to is kinda hard and those are the qualities I'd personally want in a leader.

Angel is also a big spot of affection for me. Handsome Jack being a irrefutably horrible person who Angel flat out says gaslights people and killed her means a lot to me considering 99% of Bad Parent stories end with "I forgive u" getting to see an abusive victim take that narrative and say fuck you was powerful and meant a lot to me coming from my own abusive home life.

There's a lot of other things I love about Borderlands but if I keep going I won't stop lol so let's get into why Borderlands 3 makes me so uncomfortable.

One of the main things that bothered me was the sexism. Its nothing too horrifying but given how feminist bl2 was it was really shocking and a bit hurtful the number of times women are called bitches or made to seem crazy. If you recall I brought up how you punch a man to death for calling a woman a bitch? Yea no, in this game we mock women for having boundaries and opinions because lol she's just a CRAZY BITCH who just needs to stop acting so hysterical am I right guys?

Yea the whole mission with that stupid bear thing and his ex robot girlfriend made me insanely uncomfortable and upset. I kept waiting for the gotcha moment where it says actually this bear guy is a dick and he shouldn't use language like that but no we just,,,,,, are supposed to laugh along. I hate it.

Even though Borderlands 3 is still very much queer, this game introducing 2 new trans characters as well as a whole DLC about a gay marriage and one of the playable characters being a lesbian there was this some shit that bothered me.

The mission where you crash and ruin a lesbian wedding.

That mission made so upset and uncomfortable. I hated how traumatized and hurt Tumorhead was as I murdered her family and wife. I hated how unfulfilling the mission was where PLOT TWIST the lady was actually a spy or whatever. I hate how there's a mission about ruining some poor psycho ladies wedding. I would've much more preferred a mission where Idk Bloodshine asks you to help her kill a spy who's causing problems and then fucking go around Promethea collecting wedding decorations or something. OR MAYBE JUST NOT A MISSION WHERE YOU KILL LESBIANS FOR NO FUCKING REASON.

I'm mad, anyway.

I also hated how Tannis was treated in this game. Under absolutely no circumstance would Doctor Patricia Tannis ever willingly take up a position of leadership. She is a severely autistic woman who gets nose bleeds from talking to people she wouldn't just be like "I'm in charge now pls talk to me!!!" Fuck off. And the joke about her dating a minecart isn't funny. The whole thing with the chairs, though funny in its absurdities was still a very important and powerful moment of character exploration. Tannis is insane. She is traumatized and hurt and in a moment of severe torture, she humanized some inanimate objects to cope. Tannis crying over the echo over Phillip is a heartbreaking moment of true vulnerability. It is also funny, because that's how good dark comedy works. It can be both hysterical and emotionally ruining at the same time. So what exactly does Tannis divorcing a minecart mean? What is this saying about her character? Why is it funny? Because lol lol reference??? Again, fuck off.

I hate how the Calypso twins childhood is handled. Troy implies it was horribly abusive and traumatic. But when we met Typhon whatever, he acts like it wasn't that bad??? He acts like he just didn't buy his kids the latest iPhone and oh no whoopsie now they're evil, my bad guys. It feels super weird and I don't like it.

Speaking of abusive parents. THEY DID MY GIRL ANGEL DIRTY SO BAD. This was literally when I decided I hated this game. Angel being the one who killed her mother and not Jack was fucking horrible. Especially after the literal foreshadowing in borderlands 2 implying he did. The fact that Jack is treated like a fearful man making what he thought was the right decision was insulting. I get that MattPat manipulated the fandom into thing Jack is a uwu bean but fuck you, you're the writers and you should fucking know better. Handsome Jack saw his daughter had power and turned her into a living battery for him to use as he saw fit. He was not scared and he was NOT right. Fuck you and fuck you for framing child abuse as chill and ok if your spooked enough like that. And the mission directly contradicts the echo's in Get To Know Jack. If Angel killed her mom why does she ask Jack where her mommy is when he's putting her in her chambers?? Why is it in the echo Jack is aggressive and forcibly and hurtfully makes her go into her chambers but in the memory, he's quiet and passive about it?? That's literally just flat out bad writing. Also fuck you.

Anyway,

I think that's really all I wanted to say about this topic. Obviously, there are also things that suck about bl3 but I'll try to chill and not make this too long.

I mostly wanted to make this to see if people cared/are bothered by the same things I am. I've seen how some of the fandom treats the more emotional and gay aspects of this franchise(the people throwing a fit over Amara, the friend zone line, not respecting trans peoples pronouns, sexualizing and being gross about Moxxi)

Anyway that's it byeeeeeeeeeeeee

#rant time #i was also gonna post this on reddit but it turns out i don't know how to use that app lol #so i prob wont #but dont worry still got tumblr #anyway #borderlands #borderlands spoilers #borderlands 3 spoilers #borderlands 3 #borderlands 2

[annalyticall]

Hiya! I'm curious what thoughts you may have on BL3 story wise. Do you have many criticisms/things you personally didn't like about it or thought could've been done a little better? Sorry if you've talked about it at length on here before, I've had all BL3 posts blacklisted until recently.

No problem! Actually, I don’t think I have ever talked about my thoughts on Borderlands 3 before on a general tumblr post. So, I’ll list some of my bigger thoughts on it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story up until Maya’s death at about the halfway point. It did take a while to get going since I felt like the introduction to the story dragged on Pandora, but I had so much fun on Promethea and Athenas. They were such refreshing settings compared to typical Borderlands fare, and I loved interacting with my two favorite characters Rhys and Maya. It was so worried with how Gearbox was going to handle Rhys, since it would have been easy to go down the Handsome Jack 2.0 route, but I’m glad they decided to keep his eccentric quirks and his dedication to becoming a better kind of CEO than Jack was. I especially loved the detail that he purposefully didn’t open the vault on Promethea because it would have put the citizens in danger, while Jack had done the exact opposite. Maya also had a lot of interesting development going back to the planet that had abused her out of her sense of duty to protect the innocent that had no part in her abuse.

Maya’s death, however, was a very, very solid turning point in the story for me. It wasn’t so much that Maya died - I could live with that narrative decision - but it was what followed. 

Eden-6 was by far my least favorite section of the story. Gearbox rehashed the entire last arc of the story and barely added anything new. Example - we are helping a perceived “good guy CEO” (Rhys and Wainwright) by defending his “better-than-the-other-guys” company (Atlas and Jakobs) from a hostile takeover by a spoiled evil sibling that wants it for themselves (Katagawa and Aurelia). This story-arc villain is being supported by the COV as well. In the end, we kill the story-arc villain and get to a vault, where Troy and Tyreen ambush the supporting Siren character (Maya and Tannis). It’s a story that was better the first time because I felt Rhys, being an established character in the franchise, better portrays the struggles of a “good” company in the universe compared to Wainwright who doesn’t even particularly want the Jakobs company which is now inexplicably a “good” company too despite canon contradictions to that in previous games. Also, they absolutely did Aurelia dirty making her a black-and-white evil villain rather than just a rich brat. And I just don’t find Eden-6 a particularly interesting setting.

I’d say I liked the story a little better once we got off Eden-6. The story involving Tannis inheriting Angel’s powers was very interesting to me since I love the Siren lore in these games. I also really liked Necrotafeyo as a setting and the small insights into just who and what Eridians were. However, I found Typhon somewhat a nuisance to the story. The echo-logs he leaves behind are not interesting whatsoever, since they don’t really talk about the lore despite him being a great vault hunter that should have an expansive knowledge of it. Instead, many of the echo-logs are used for cheap jokes, which meant that I had almost no attachment to Typhon when we finally got to meet him and I certainly didn’t feel anything when he died.

Ava is also not a very good character. She is hypocritical and rash, which is fine on its own, but she doesn’t have any sort of character arc that leads her to become a worthy successor of Maya’s powers and Lilith’s leadership. She doesn’t really learn anything, and that frustrates me a lot since she is someone who theoretically is taking the place of some of my favorite characters in the franchise.

Troy and Tyreen were... okay. In concept, they had the winning balance of comedy vs. serious threat that Handsome Jack had, but in execution, I felt both were lacking. Their story and theme potential were perfect and Gearbox could have really done something great by either pitting them against each other so much that they turn on each other and destroy themselves out of spite or, contrarily, are so devoted to each other that the death of one would spark an unspeakable fury in the other. Yet, Gearbox did neither of those things. They kinda turned on each other, but also kinda didn’t? Tyreen’s reaction to her brother nearly killing her, then her brother dying, was almost non-existent, which was very underwhelming. I also felt nearly nothing when Tyreen killed her father, which is not... good.

Overall, I consider Borderlands 3 to be split into three parts: the “good” Promethea and Athenas part, the “bad” Eden-6 part, and the “okay” Pandora and Necrotafeyo part, which means my overall feelings towards Borderlands 3 is very mixed.

While I haven’t played DLC 2 or 3 yet, I did play the Handsome Jackpot and also really enjoyed it. Fleshing out Timothy was a great idea and I also really liked the new side characters they introduced there as well. I think Gearbox is much better at making mini-stories like those in the DLCs rather than over-arching narratives.

#duela-quinzel

[hungline]

Taekoook, will you be my valentine 💜💖 + Greek mythology

wings and wine 

pairing: taekook 

genre: angst, fluff, greek mythology au, pre-slash au, rated pg13

warnings: dionysus!kook, hermes!tae, mentions of alcohol, zeus 

a/n: jey, i don’t think you know what monster you unleashed within me, but i LOVE mythology so thank you for this prompt, u angel

words: 1521 

summary: He may have been the patron god of tricksters and thieves, but at least he was honest and Jeongguk found that to be the most important fact of all.

+ tag list: @jooneos​​ @kirtikagarg​ @disrespectfulkookies​ @roseyjongdae​ @reeneryu​​ @joonsvalentine​ @smoochkook​ ✨

When Jeongguk is made an Olympian, he decides that Hermes is the only god he can trust as far as he can throw him.

He may be new to the Olympian scene, but he understands a lot more than he lets on.

Hera cannot stand the sight of him and he burns to strike her down for what she did to his mother. Ares is too busy drowning in blood to spend any kind of time with him when the humans keep invoking his name to fight their wars for them. Apollo hides behind smiles that do not reach his eyes and flattery that makes Jeongguk’s skin crawl while Artemis is simply cold, only caring about her brother and her hunters. Athena makes him feel small with nothing but a glance from her blank, gray eyes and Hephaestus is sincere but easily distracted by his inventions and his wife. Aphrodite only approaches him when she wants something from him. Poseidon is as arctic as the sea and often acts as if Jeongguk doesn’t exist. Demeter can only focus on the harvest and the situation with her daughter, Kore, lest she runs wild with madness.

Hermes claps him on the shoulder and grins at him as his domain finishes settling into him, the weight of thousands of new offerings and followers resting within him. When he offers his congratulations, Jeongguk knows that he truly means what he says. Despite being the god of tricksters, thieves, and travelers, Hermes is the most straightforward and honest of all the Olympians.

Once Jeongguk’s domain has been officially proclaimed, Zeus barely spares him a glance, his disappointment in Jeongguk all too clear.

Jeongguk doesn’t understand why this is the case since gods do not choose their domains. Their domains choose them. How Zeus ever ended up “cheating” his brothers out of their deal to divide between sky, sea, and earth, Jeongguk doesn’t know and his self-preservation is strong enough to keep him from asking.

He has always belonged to wine, winemaking, and festivities, but now he also belongs to pleasure and theatre. Jeongguk knows that many of the other gods have always seen him as nothing but a foolish drunk and while he can feel the buzz of his power tingling near his core, he does his best to not draw attention to the rest of his specialties. There is something else residing within him, something hidden but present in his power as he explores it. Its jagged edges mesh with the smoothness of Jeongguk’s call on wine yet it does not reveal itself to him no matter how much he prods at it.

He takes the throne that Hestia gave up for him and finds himself itching to return to his forests and the large cities he has always found himself inexplicably drawn to. He wants to go down and mingle with the humans, bringing them joy and a way to forget their troubles by losing themselves in drink and dance. There is much war and death but birth and life as well. All of it should be celebrated; every victory, every loss, and every important event.

During Jeongguk’s first Olympian meeting, nothing of interest takes place. He is bored within a few minutes and finds his gaze drifting towards Hermes.

Hermes spares him a glance only once during the meeting but it is enough to power Jeongguk through the rest of the hours spent bored out of his mind.

As soon as they are free to do so, Jeongguk leaves Mount Olympus and returns to his forest, following a well-traveled path that will lead him straight into the heart of the forest. He and Pan have a drinking contest to hold between themselves and the Council of Cloven Elders. Pan is certain that he can outdrink Silenus and Jeongguk is certain that they are both fools if they believe they can last in a drinking contest against him.

He pauses as the flutter of wings suddenly erupts behind him, a golden light shimmering across the flora of the woods.

“Message for me already?” Jeongguk asks, not daring to turn around until the golden light has died down around him.

Hermes is smirking when their gazes meet, his black hair tousled in waves that frame his face beautifully. He may not be considered as attractive as Apollo or Aphrodite but Jeongguk knows beauty when he sees it and Hermes is it.

“No. More of a warning from me,” Hermes says.

Jeongguk pauses, brow crumpling with confusion. “Why would you be warning me?”

“You may not know it yet, but you carry a cruel and dangerous power with you,” Hermes declares, his expression devoid of his usual humor. “You need to be careful or that power will turn against you.”

“What power?”

Hermes tilts his head to the side, drawing closer as he lowers his voice. Just because no one is there doesn’t mean someone isn’t listening in after all. “Madness. You carry it within you and you will use it against humans in the future. Apollo’s Oracle told me herself.”

Jeongguk blinks, unsure of what to say or do. Birds chirp in the surrounding trees, the wind picking up suddenly around them so leaves begin to swirl in the air. It smells of wild berries and the bark of the trees but none of that is enough to distract Jeongguk from the situation at hand.

“Why would she tell you that? Why do you even care?” Jeongguk finally manages to ask, his voice rough.

Hermes smiles at him but it is cold and devoid of its usual mischief. “I like humans. I didn’t learn medicine and fight the illnesses Pandora’s Box unleashed for nothing. I don’t want to have to deal with you if you end up driving humans insane, Dionysus. We’re family after all.”

Jeongguk shivers despite himself. “And we are also not family as well. I can understand why you would want to protect humanity, but that doesn’t give me any reason to believe you. You could just be saying this to intimidate me into submission. You may be the most honest of all the Olympians, but that does not mean you never lie.”

“Will giving you my true name be enough to convince you that I speak nothing but the truth?” Hermes asks after another moment has passed.

“You would do that?” Jeongguk splutters. “For humans, you would do that?”

Shocked does not begin to cover what Jeongguk feels at that moment. True names are not meant to be given lightly. Having another being’s true name gives someone power over them, a power the being cannot easily resist. Jeongguk knows of only one being in the world who is unaffected by the power of their true name and that is Typhon, the father of all monsters.

For Hermes to be offering his true name in exchange for Jeongguk’s restraint must mean that this is devastatingly important.

Hermes steps forward and cups a hand around his jaw, dipping down until his lips are brushing against the shell of Jeongguk’s ear. His hot breath sends shivers down his spine but Jeongguk ignores his inappropriate response to the older god’s proximity and braces himself. The weight of a god’s true name is no laughing matter. Jeongguk will need all his strength to not show any outward signs of strain when Hermes shares his name.

“Taehyung,” Hermes murmurs quietly, so quiet that Jeongguk has to strain to hear him correctly.

It feels like the wind has been knocked out of his lungs, his feet have been swept out from underneath him and he has collided head-first with stone. His vision blurs for a moment, his shoulder sagging underneath the sudden heavy pressure but it passes after a few seconds have passed and Jeongguk finds himself leaning against Taehyung’s side to stay upright.

“You mean it then,” Jeongguk groans, trying to blink away the spots in his vision. “I could tell if you were lying.”

“You could do a lot worse to me,” Taehyung responds. “You have my name now but I know you won’t abuse it.”

Jeongguk sways dangerously, his head pounding with the aftershocks of receiving a true name. “Why would you do that for them?”

Taehyung shrugs, stepping back now that Jeongguk is able to stand on his own. “They’re worth it.”

He disappears within the next second, Jeongguk having enough sense to close his eyes before Taehyung shows his true godly form. Golden light bathes his closed eyelids but he does not open them again until the light has returned to its normal yellow glow and Jeongguk can no longer feel the presence of another powerful being.

“I can tell this is going to end horribly,” Jeongguk mutters to himself as he continues on the path he was taking earlier. “But I’ll do my best to not harm them. Only for you, Taehyung.”

And with that solemn promise now having been made, Jeongguk allows himself to focus on less trivial matters such as the drinking contest he is going to win in a landslide as soon as he gets his hands on Pan.

#taekook #vkook #bangtanxm #btsbookclub #btswritingcafe #btswriterscollective #kwritersworldnet #kwordsmiths #bts #angst #fluff #p:taehyung/jeongguk #f:w&w #valentine 2020 prompts #m: fic #ask #softjeon #request #jey

[heir-of-gondor]

Percabeth AU...

listen. Listen. I love the AU where Annabeth is a daughter of Ares. But consider.  What about an AU where she’s a daughter of Zeus? The daughter of Zeus. Thalia as her half-sister, promising to protect her because they’re family, right? But Thalia still dies on that hill, still becomes a pine tree, and now all Annabeth has is Luke. Annabeth, so young, just a child with the weight of the prophecy of the three on her shoulders--Chiron assumes she’s a daughter of Athena with those grey eyes (like thunderstorms) and blonde hair--and trusts her with the knowledge thinking that it she won’t be the hero. She has no wild aura (like Percy does in the OG series), no powers, just her brain, sharp as a whip. Annabeth grows up in Hermes’s cabin, Luke is her best friend, brother hero, her leader and confidant. 

Annabeth goes to activities with the Athena cabin, despite not being claimed. She fits in perfectly. Even so young, she plots and plans and earns the respect of her peers. Oh her? That’s Annabeth. She’s impulsive and proud but her plans always work out, always trust Annabeth’s instincts, always trust her plans, we’d be lost without her. Watch out though, she gives the worst static shocks. Weird, right?

None of them even consider that she might be a daughter of Zeus. Chiron knows the oath was broken once by Zeus, but Thalia is gone. They’re safe from the prophecy for now. Right?

Everything changes when Percy shows up at camp. Annabeth has been waiting for a hero to appear, to claim the prophecy, to find Zeus’s master bolt. And maybe he’s it! Maybe! When he stumbles over the hill holding the horn of the Minotaur, she knows he’s powerful. He must be the one. But as soon as he wakes up he’s on her nerves, poking and prodding and pressing her buttons like no one she’s ever met. And she’s frustrated as days pass and he isn’t claimed. But maybe, maybe the war games will be the night. She intentionally uses him as a decoy to force something out of him. He’s got to be it, right?

Percy fights off Clarisse and they win the games, they still end up at the stream and all the sudden he’s on his back, about to be mauled by a Hellhound. 

For once in her life, Annabeth doesn’t think, she doesn’t contemplate the options, she doesn’t use logic. She just pulls. And the sky responds. A pure arc of electricity blasts the hellhound into dust, and everyone stares at Percy, thinking he’s the one that’s done it. But he’s staring at her with those wild sea green eyes and oh, its not just him its everyone staring. Annabeth looks up to find a symbol, an eagle with a lightning bolt crackling above her head. She doesn’t know what to think, her whole identity had been built around wisdom and planning and now suddenly she’s supposed to be a daughter of Zeus instead? (the poetic justice of Annabeth being the hero she had always been waiting for? delicious)

So she, Percy, and Grover go on the quest to get the master bolt and save Sally Jackson. It’s unheard of, an unclaimed demigod going on a quest, but does it anyway. And when they return, Annabeth returns the bolt to her father and looks him in the eye and he is stone cold. She decides then, that even if she is his daughter, she doesn’t need his approval. She knows her own worth.

At the end of the summer, Luke still attacks Percy after nearly everyone has left. And just like that they’re back at the start, with Annabeth nursing him back to health only its just them. In a wonderful parallel to their position in the Last Olympian when Percy tells her about his Achilles spot, (though this time their places are reversed) Percy tells her then that he knows who his parent is. She appeared to him in the woods as he was dying, telling him that one day he would have to choose between revenge and conceding to another’s decision. He would decide the fate of the Gods, and she expected him to choose right. 

Nemesis. 

Percy pulls a fortune cookie from his pocket and asks her to keep it for him--he doesn’t want the weight of the decision right now, when he feels so vengeful toward Luke. 

He is powerful for being the son of a minor goddess. He and Annabeth work in tandem like no one else. Checks and Balances--Annabeth’s power lending itself to Percy and he keeps her pride in check, just as Nemesis does, cutting heroes and gods down when their hubris is out of control. Soon what set them at odds at the beginning (challenging each other) binds them together. They trust each other completely. Percy fully leans into his powers (similar to Domino, who has uncanny luck).

In the Battle of the Labyrinth, Annabeth presses the fortune cookie from that first summer into his hands as she turns and runs from the volcano. As the Telkhines attack and Annabeth escapes, he cracks open the cookie in desperation. The gift Nemesis bestows on him is an earthshattering quake that causes Mt. St. Helens to erupt--Percy rides the rubble out, waking up on Ogygia. What he gives in return for saving one love is three loves lost (romantic, platonic, brotherly) Calypso, Beckendorf, Ethan Nakamura. And of course, Nemesis twists fate in favor of Kronos by giving Percy the power to release Typhon. But Percy doesn’t know the limitations of his payment. Every death, every bad toss of the dice, every mistake made feels like a kick in the face for opening that dam(n) fortune cookie. He hates himself more than usual and constantly blames himself for the things that go wrong. Needing an escape, he hangs out with Rachel more and more, etc. we all know where that ends up. 

The great prophecy culminates with Percy, Annabeth, Luke, and Grover in the throne room again. Percy has the blade to Luke’s throat, ready to take revenge for all the pain he put his friends and family through, (especially Annabeth--Percy doesn’t take kindly to emotional abuse and manipulation after living with an abusive stepfather for the formative years of his life). Everything in him screams to kill Luke. Annabeth says one word, Percy’s name, and oh. he understands what Nemesis meant about taking revenge or conceding to someone else’s choice. For once in his life, he goes against his instincts. He hands the knife to Annabeth. Just as he gave the head of Medusa to his mother, he gives the knife to Annabeth to decide her abuser’s fate. Annabeth weeps as she drives into the place Luke points to just as the gods burst into the throne room.

After, when Annabeth is recognized as the hero of the day, she is offered immortality. One look at Percy and she suddenly knows--no. of course not. she can’t. How could she choose to stay the same forever when so many things need changing? Percy, Ethan, all the unclaimed. they needed recognition (even now she stands in front of the throne, daughter of Zeus, as Percy stands in the shadows--even though they had an equal hand in defeating Kronos). But it isn’t just for her to ask. So she demands that her gift be given to Percy, who she urges forward to stand at her side as her equal. After a silent conversation, they’re both on the same page and together they demand that the Gods recognize their children. 

feel free to add other thoughts!

#percabeth #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #the lightning thief #tlt #battle of the labyrinth #botl #tlo #the last olympian

[oodlyenough]

aight... here’s a pretty long yet tip-of-the-iceberg collection on my overall thoughts on bl3 now that i’ve finished the damn thing, every main mission & every sidequest (dynasty dash don’t interact). 

obviously mega spoilers

the good

aside from that one infuriating difficulty spike when i arrived on promethea, i had a lot of fun playing. i found the gameplay a lot smoother than the others in the series (as it should be), i liked being able to climb stuff, i liked having an easy mode tbh!!

i really liked playing amara and i like the flexibility of action skills and being able to swap on the go without having to respec. the brawl tree ended up being very well suited to my type of play, it hindered me only during boss fights and even then at least i could switch to phasecast y’know

i had a lot of big fears about what this game would do and it managed to not do anything that makes me want to, like, burn and salt the earth, so that’s a win

i thought it was pretty funny! or at least on par with the other main games, which always kind of ride the line between funny and obnoxious and sometimes misstep

i enjoyed a lot of the cast, both new characters and characters who were returning but who i had no particular feelings about before, hammerlock, zer0 and ellie as particular examples

hammerlock and wainwright were cute af and it’s nice to see a gay couple in a triple-a game 

thought the twins were fun and funny af i liked them. because fandom is Like That i was a little exhausted by troy before he even showed up but even then, like, idk i liked them as a duo and i liked the break from jack honestly 

a lot of the new gun quirks were fun. i’m not like a big... gun person... but i found some cool ones i enjoyed playing with. 

loved getting to see different planets, it was a nice break from pandora all the time. and skywell was super fun! love the low-grav playfulness from TPS without the infuriating oz kit nonsense

the little quality of life improvements from previous games were great, like fast travel from anywhere, auto-refilling ammo, etc

some of the side quests were really fun. i liked the ratch quest for rhys, the birthday party quest for mordecai, the claptrap dancing quest was sweet, the buff movie buff quest was fun, the quest where i killed grandpappy 2 seconds in and got a reward was funny as hell esp because i drove off a cliff by accident, etc

lots of people had really bad glitches and stuff but... honestly can’t relate the game ran very well for me. advantages to not marathoning it before they’ve released their first couple patches, i guess, lol 

the less good

i played a solo amara and there are some bosses that seem like they would’ve been pure hell to do alone... i was lucky and able to phone a friend for a lifeline in those scenarios (shoutout to @heavybreathingcatt and @valoscope) but if i couldn’t do that idk i would’ve just broken my controller in rage i guess lmao 

why is resurrecting each other so hard? i don’t think i’ve ever done it successfully, because it takes too long and more importantly bc while i’m doing it some enemy will just toss a grenade or punch me and i get knocked away from the ally, rendering it useless

rest in peace maya, the best res AI in the whole damn game, got me through the rampager fight her damn self

there were a lot of characters and themes and ideas that i liked in theory more than in practice... because in practice they felt like a first draft. very often i felt like i liked a thing, and then on reflection thought about nine hundred ways it could’ve been better, deeper, more emotionally resonant, more developed, whatever. 

the angel stuff was kinda nice but... also... my longest deepest sigh ever @ Poor Sad Jack Some People Terrorize Entire Planets And Abuse Their Daughters To Cope With Their Fridged Wife

like the siren lore... wish i coulda heard it without having to backtrack across every map post-game

while i found the game generally pretty funny,  almost all the emotional scenes fell completely flat for me and there were a number of scenes that SHOULD have been emotional that just were not 

for eg i am actually not upset about maya or lilith dying (or turning into the moon as it were) -- i am ok with those beats for those characters, especially lilith getting a heroic sendoff. however... both of those scenes could’ve been more impactful than they were. maya’s i think was better than lilith’s, but both of them felt flatter, either in the moment or in the aftermath, than those characters deserved. 

related: NPCs reacting to major events is fun. i liked to do the tour and check in with all my buds to get their couple custom lines after a big plot thing happened. HOWEVER... those lines are obviously timed which is *mostly* fine but in some cases really, really weird? the lines about maya should stay in rotation for a lot longer. ava shouldn’t go back to LOL LET’S STEAL two seconds after maya’s gone. i missed zer0′s maya lines entirely bc i didn’t track down zer0 on time lol. stuff like that 

the bad

i miss my girls :( we really did keep only the white men huh

the last act felt severely underbaked. i have to wonder how many rewrites this game went through, and how much the back end was slapped together last minute, or cobbled together from various drafts. a lot of this felt very first or second draft, where the characters and themes are *there* but not refined at all, or they contradict each other. the family theme that goes basically nowhere and says nothing. the way the story handles atlas vs the way the story handles jakobs vs the way the story handles corporations writ large. 

for the twins -- lack of proper emotional resonance or development for them is one of the biggest failures imo, because i think they WERE very enjoyable villains and the core concept of like... evil video game streamers is honestly on-brand and funny af for the franchise... but as soon as troy died everything went downhill? tyreen’s non-reaction to her brother dying isn’t even a reaction, it’s not even “tyreen doesn’t care she’s evil lol” which would’ve been a boring direction to take anyway) it’s just.... “we barely wrote a response don’t worry about it”. her endgame is to be a big monster because... she’s ... fame hungry? huh? her motivation fell apart.w whether they went with “troy and tyreen are shitty people who get caught up in a power struggle but ultimately love each other” OR “troy and tyreen are shitty people who turn against each other in individual bids for power” could both have been interesting stories but they did neither. 

i’m def missing some echos on the twins which brings me to another thing i hate although it’s endemic to the series and not to bl3 specifically -- hiding important lore and characterization in random echos in random places on the map without even an indication of how many there are total, how many you’ve collected, where to find them... frustrating as hell. a lot of those echos are some of my favourite material in the game! at LEAST tell me “1 of 5 echos on this map” if you don’t wanna tell me where they are! why is major lore like the twins’ backstories hidden?????? 

and bc i haven’t heard them i don’t know if it’s fandom doing what fandom always does, or if it really is the game implying tyreen is The Evil Mastermind and troy is poor manipulated brother, but either way fuck that entire noise lmao of course the women of colour in the series are just Born Evil but jack and troy and whoever else are just Sad :( fuck off actually 

typhon... sucks... what an irritating character. irritating to retcon him in as The First Vault Hunter, irritating to have him talk about shit and sex all the time, irritating to have every established NPC be like oh wow my HERO typhon deleon what a HERO i LOVE him, irritating that we skate over his parenting failures, irritating that he has a fridged beloved wife, ESPECIALLY irritating he gets a memorial sidequest and maya didn’t . just. bad.

aurelia is evil now cause reasons... bad... 

vaughn also bad lmao i can’t believe they made amara yell “blood feud”... disgusting... 

the playable had no role in the story. they’re just a fly on the wall in every cut scene. this is whack in general, and a crit i can apply to all of the main borderlands games, however it is extremely jarring to play amara in a siren-heavy game and have no one acknowledge it. 

OVERALL... I guess like a B-? Maybe a B. I had fun playing it and I’m still having fun running around in Mayhem Mode and I am def looking forward to the DLCs. Gameplay is great. But while I had hoped this installment would take the storytelling of the main games a step further, it actually felt like a step back in virtually every respect. 

#bl3 spoilers #borderlands 3 #borderlands

[acabang]

Nerding out on the Borderlands

I finally got around to playing Borderlands 3 and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Personal order of preference for the franchise: Tales ≥ BL2 > BL3 > BL1 > TPS

Depending on how the DLC goes though, 3 could be just as good as 2 for me. Unlikely but it’s possible.

I really enjoyed playing all the Vault Hunters, Zane in particular, even if it seems like he lags behind the rest of them. And while she’s fun as just a straight up gunner, my only real bummer is Moze. For me when it comes to the playable characters, it’s all about their Action Skills and if I don’t find myself using it regularly then I hope they have something fun in their skill trees to make up for the lack of it other than shooting guns exceptionally well (ie. Gaige with Ricochet-Anarchy stacking abuse, Krieg with Flame of the Firehawk-Raving Retribution Hellborn madness, etc.). The idea of Iron Bear is rad but vehicles have never been useful outside of a means of map traversal, which this mech isn’t for, and if I’m gonna give up the benefits of my gear then it better be fucking OP or at least viable, especially at the highest of difficulties. So far it’s not looking like it is and I don’t expect it ever will get to that level. For the most part though, she’s still a lot of fun to use as a Plain Jane FPS character.

Overall, I actually enjoy all four initial characters pretty much equally which I can’t say about the other games. I still had fun with them but I didn’t like Roland, Salvador and Nisha as much as their fellow Vault Hunters in their respective games. I’m really looking forward to what DLC Vault Hunters they have in store though, they’ve all been pretty solid and just plain fun to play as.

                               -SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT-

I liked the story well enough and felt engaged the entire time. I didn’t really feel bogged down throughout and enjoyed the pace. Even the sidequests I thought played along well with the storyline missions, they didn’t feel as jarring with too much backtracking or as tediously boring as The Pre-Sequel had it. Although, all the games are guilty of this, the Underdome/Circle of Slaughter missions are still lame.

I loved pretty much most of the new NPCs, however major or minor a role they played. Lorelei was interesting and I want to know more about her, the same goes for Clay, who I could both see becoming Vault Hunters themselves (hopefully) in a future game. The Katagawa-Rhys dynamic was fun, as was BALEX and GenIVIV. I loved Wainwright Jakobs and I especially loved Typhon DeLeon, two of the more likable and wholesome characters in the entire franchise. They don’t hold a candle to Loader Bot & Gortys from Tales but still very admirable in a universe full of assholes and psychopaths. Even some of the minor villains were fun, the Traunt Brothers and Pain & Terror specifically.

Now it’s going to be unfair to compare the Twins to Jack but... they still could've been written better. Brats with god complexes and one with an inferiority complex to boot is fine, not the most compelling, but wait! They’re also streamers because *nudge, nudge, wink, wink*. Despite that, the VA performances of what they were given were both still very well done. When they start to actively antagonize each other is when they started to turn around for me, especially with the power corrupting Troy to the point of almost killing off Tyreen. The Twins being the children of Typhon is a neat twist reveal but I feel like if you’ve been discovering his logs throughout the maps you can put two and two together long before they outright state it.

Though I should probably give credit to the Twins for being a part of why I love Typhon so much. With him being revered the way he was, especially by Tannis, as the first Vault Hunter, it’s refreshing to see a fabricated myth actually turn out to be mostly a myth and not a 100% accurate depiction or historic event like most other games usually do. Even the damn posters of Typhon got him all wrong which I loved. He’s endearingly flawed and his admittance to not being the best father to Tyreen & Troy after they lost their mother actually really got to me. He wasn’t around for long but it was smart of Gearbox to have built up his backstory through those logs, it allowed his character to make some sort of impact like it did on me which made his death actually quite poignant.

Thus leading to probably what I can only assume, since I haven’t bothered to read other people’s reaction to it, is the most controversial part of the game. I love character deaths, especially for ones I adore. When done properly it brings more meaning to them and for the character that may have taken their lives. Bloodwing and Roland helped build Jack up to be even more of the villain that most people love (to hate). Hell, even Sasha’s death in Tales actually had me crying... then immediately laughing because I totally got baited by it especially after already losing Scooter.

Now, like I said, I love character deaths and I’m totally fine with Maya being the one we lose but the way she dies was more of a pathetic wail than whatever Gearbox was hoping to achieve. And for what? All I hope for in a character death is to have more meaning to it than a passing of the torch to a cipher of a character that was basically just introduced and I have no real connection towards, good or bad, because going forward from then on certainly isn’t going to be positive at all. Who knows, she could end up being a favourite character of mine in the future as she develops more but as of right now, no, the only reason for her existence in this game world so far was to take the place from two beloved characters that hasn’t been earned yet.

The other character being Lilith as she sacrifices herself to keep Pandora closed. I don’t believe she’s actually dead, gone for now but at least not dead. It’ll probably be the main focus of the next game, if not in a DLC, in figuring out a way to get her back from Elpis, if she’s even stuck up there. It’s sad to lose her immediately after regaining her powers back but at least she went out with Alicia Keys singing her a fire swan song. Unfortunately, before going off to save the day and Gearbox not being entirely satisfied yet with shoving Ava down our throats the first time, Lilith hands over protection of Sanctuary III to her. Hopefully Ava is given an extremely satisfying character arc in the proceeding games because woof, that’s going to be a tough mountain to climb especially if it takes another 2-5 years for the next game to release.

I don’t actually hate Ava, I just don’t care about her. Also our Vault Hunter(s) were right there, technically, and as was Tannis. She may not be able to fight but she’s more than capable of leading the Crimson Raiders. She’s also the most consistently well written character that’s shown growth over the games that she’s been a part of in the franchise, in my opinion.

As for the rest of the characters, I’m good with moving on from Vaughn now. He was unexpectedly funny to okay during Tales but yeah, he’s already worn out his welcome for me. Rhys was fine, not as good as he was in Tales but he wasn’t really even my favourite character from that game anyway. Who I was missing was Fiona, I really wish that she had shown up but hopefully that might still be a possibility in DLC. Maybe she’ll show up alongside Athena & Janey, continuing her VH training somehow saved from wherever she disappeared off to. Preferably with Loader Bot and Gortys as well. It’d also be nice to run into Axton, Sal, Gaige and especially Kreig considering the whole Maya situation and her promising to see him again.

Then there’s also the B-Team, which a part of me wanted to interact with more but another part where I think I’m okay with what we got. I was disappointed in Tina’s development however, I didn’t expect a full maturation of character but I also hoped she wouldn’t be the spaz that she was when she was a young teen. Even in Dragon Keep she showed a little bit of growth with her acceptance of Roland’s death but I guess they wanted to keep her annoying, which was fine back in 2 and TPS when she was basically a kid but I believe she’s supposed to be at least 18 now? I guess it’s fine as long as it fits the dynamic between her, Brick and Mordecai. I will also say that Mordecai’s side quest to attend his protégé’s birthday party was really bittersweet, I loved that brief respite from the chaos that is the rest of the game and a stark reminder that Pandora sucks.

Aside from the actual plot and characters, I thought they did an even better job at world building the rest of the universe. The mega-corporations side of Borderlands has always been fascinating to me and I feel like they often take a backseat by most fans since they’re just these ever present entities in the universe and not actual characters themselves, despite each of them having quite unique “personalities” in the products they manufacture and the individuals that represent them. We had Commandant Steele & General Knoxx show off a militaristic side of the original Atlas as The Crimson Lance, then there was Jack as the face of the Hyperion we knew, and the fallout from his demise during Tales. There’s also Tannis giving us slight tidbits of how Dahl operated on Pandora between the first & second game and, of course, Mr. Torgue with, well, Torgue and I guess now he’s in charge of the battle arenas. Now we get insight on the current incarnation of Atlas with Rhys at the helm, Maliwan with Katagawa Jr. and Wainwright as the heir to Jakobs. It’s just fun to see these corporations steadily being fleshed out with each game and I’m interested to see how Tediore, Vladof and maybe even S&S Munitions, if they ever make a return, will turn out.

On the other end of the spectrum and more of an active danger to the universe are the Vaults, their purpose and the monsters contained within, one of them called the Timekeeper who we have yet to encounter. Also more insight into who the Eridians were, the siren Nyriad’s role with their eradication and warning of a seventh siren who shouldn’t be found. There’s definitely plenty of seeds that were planted, it’s just a shame that it’ll probably be a long time from now before any of them get answered unless they start pumping out these games which I hope they don’t. Oversaturation and fatigue can ruin a franchise.

This has been my TED Talk, thank you for reading.

#Borderlands #BL1 #BL2 #BL3 #TPS #The Pre-Sequel #Tales from the Borderlands #gaming

[what-even-is-thiss]

I love learning new mythology stuff if you want to go in depth about your ideas! Admittedly I know the most about Greek mythology, so you might have to give more details on any other myths you use.

I know the most about Greek/Roman and Norse mythology and a bit from my ancient Egyptian obsession I had back in sixth grade, but I’ve dabbled just a little in Polynesian, Japanese, and Celtic mythology, as well as several folktales from around Europe and one or two Aztec myths, and I’ve been meaning to do some research on the Orisha from eastern Africa I think it is, but haven’t gotten around to it.

Anyways, I’ve been developing a bit of a complicated mythology themed universe in my head and it only gets more confusing as I add more pantheons to the list, so for right now for this explaination I’ll stick with the Greek, Norse, and Egyptian ones, and maybe touch a bit on the Hawaiian stuff, but I’m not as comfortable putting that out there because I’m not overly well read on that yet.

I’m putting a cut here for anybody that doesn’t want to read this, because it gets long and complicated, and I’m not even close to being done with it, and I’m giving you all the simplified version.

So, the beginnings of my idea started when I was reading that wonderful wonderful author Rick Riordin. Specifically a short story crossover between his Egyptian and Greek series. This got me wondering if I could possibly make any of these pantheons coexist long term.

So, I began with what I call cross-pantheon deities. These are children of gods/goddesses from different pantheons. But then I had to figure out a way that these gods could meet each other.

So, the gods of old in this universe are a magical species I call manas deva from the Sanskrit words for “invented” and “god”. They are beings that came to exist because of human belief, and are a bit more contained and limited than the traditional idea of gods, but still the most powerful beings in this universe. And now that they exist, they can go do things like screw a few mortals and dink around with the weather just for the hell of it.

So once in a while you’ll get someone, (probably Zeus if we’re being honest) hanging around a mortal pub or something disguised as a mortal, and another disguised god or goddess disguised as a mortal, and since the pantheons shouldn’t interact with each other they don’t know what to look out for and therefore don’t know they’ve made a huge mistake until the morning after when they both decide to mention oh yeah you just did the thing with a god bye.

And that’s where the cross-pantheon characters come from.

I’m still working on characters and plot, but my main characters are this guy Deon, who is a cross-pantheon son of Zeus Greek god of lightning and being a terrible womanizer, and Freja, Norse goddess of beauty, war, and uh, fertility. The other main character is his twin sister Talin, which is also his half sister. (And yeah, fraternal twins can have different biological dads, it happens look it up) Her dad is Ra, god of the sun and everybody worshiped him in ancient Egypt it was just the cool thing to do.

Our buddy Deon doesn’t like either side of his family, but he kind of depends on them because his immortality is all wonky. Norse deities stay young by eating special golden apples distributed by the goddess of youth and can be killed, whereas Greek gods are just eternally young and can’t die. Deon got an awkward combination of these traits and can’t be killed but still ages, so he has to keep both sides of his family okay with him and not run off to join the mortals or something, because he can’t die and there are complications like lost limbs that can come from that, and he keeps aging, so he needs those sweet sweet golden apples to keep looking like a fresh twenty something, because who wants to spend all of eternity with joint pain? One of his best friends, Asger, son of Aphrodite, son of Odin, has the opposite problem. He’s eternally young but can be killed.

Talin hates her dad and would like to just stay in Vanaheim with her brother and favorite cousins all the time(also she might have a girlfriend there but I haven’t invented her yet), but keeps going back to the sun and puts up with her dad because there are several people there in the realm of gods and spirits that depend on her. I’m still thinking through her motivations and backstory, but she’s shaping up to be quite dangerous. She’s loud and slightly violent and is confrontational in a good way. She believes she knows what is right and will fight for it. She and Deon make nice foils for each other because he is much quieter and shy and prefers a more sneaky or indirect approach to conflict and doesn’t see morals as something set in stone. He has charming abilities and will use his magic to get what he wants, all the while making the other person believe it was their idea. So, she’s the huntress, he’s the trickster. Neither of them are overly gorgeous by society’s standards but have the ability to trick people into thinking that they are because their mom is a love goddess. Does that make sense?

I’ve got all kinds of other side characters I’m working on. None of them are overly developed at this point, but here’s some of my more well thought out ones.

I’m calling this one Jessie for now. She/her Greek/Hawaiian. Dad is Kanaloa, Hawaiian god of the underworld and magic, mom is Kymopoleia, Greek Goddess of sea storms. You’d expect somebody with that parentage to be pretty volatile, and you’d be right. Pansexual Demigirl that’s best friends with Deon and Asger and Deon is a trans guy as of right now, but I might change that later, but anyways, Jessie and Deon first got to know each other as of right now because they both wanted a trans friend and she got to know Asger through Deon. But like I said, I’m thinking about changing a few things we’ll see how it goes.

Apollo. Yes, that Apollo. He looked away from the mirror just long enough to be one of Deon’s mentors and teach him how to shoot. This is a modern day story, so that includes guns as well as bows and arrows. Don’t get the impression he’s a good person here. He’s not. He just chooses to care about his siblings sometimes.

Asger. he/him My one straight cis character. I needed one in there. He’s the son of Aphrodite Greek goddess of love and Odin, leader of the Norse aesir gods. He became friends with Deon after finding out he also had a love goddess mom and they bonded over how their moms are both just the worst. He’s incredibly strong and people often call him if they need a giant or dragon disposed of and Thor isn’t avalible. He’s also good friends with Talin and they bond over being kind of violent. They both like weapons and fighting and whatnot. The Norse gods find them to be fun at parties.

Eric, Dalia, and Astrid. Not much of a backstory for these three yet, but they are former demigods that were made gods after the Norse deities found them useful. They deliver messages, because I noticed the Norse pantheon has a god of messengers, but they don’t have a god whose job it is to deliver messages, so I invented the story of the four messengers. One for each season. Eric son of Loki in the winter, Astrid daughter of Thor in the spring, Dalia daughter of Tyr in the fall, and Deon is the summer messenger. This is an interesting device, because all four of these characters are very powerful and useful, but one of them is missing at any given time, because during the season they work they are busy almost all of the time and the only way to get a hold of them is to deliver a message. I’ve got a whole complicated story planned out how they were all added one at a time over the course of a few centuries, but this post is getting too long anyways.

Freja. Goddess of beauty and war. She runs a house of fallen warriors that are training for ragnarok, same as Valhalla. She seems ditzy and is basically the world’s worst beauty pageant mom, but if you piss her off you will suffer a fate worse than any of the underworld gods/goddesses could imagine for you. Do not cross her. She can run in heels.

Zeus. I don’t need to talk about this guy, do I? He sucks. He just really sucks. Get him out of my face. He’s a horribly abusive parent.

Ra. Good king, bad dad. Argues with other sun gods/goddesses. Sol never has any time to talk to him because she’s being chased by a wolf. For crying out loud, Ra. Stay in your lane. Focus on your own thing. This is why you have like three cross-pantheon kids.

Yeah, those are the more developed ones. I have tons more, but I don’t think I have time to get into those.

As for what kind of plot I’d have in this context? That’s a little fuzzy. I’m thinking something like demigods and minor deities are going missing, and since the gods can’t exactly throw demigods or mortal heroes at the problem, because the problem is that they’re disappearing they send some cross pantheon gods because they’re pretty much on the lowest rung right above mortals in these godly societies and their parents don’t really care for them that much. So, it would probably follow several characters on their quest to find out what the freak is going on and why all these spirits and demigods and favored mortals are disappearing across so many pantheons.

That probably leads to all kinds of shenanigans, including various figures from these mythologies that aren’t supposed to meet crossing paths. I like to imagine a scene ending with Asger smashing in some Greek monster’s head with Mjolnir or a similar Norse weapon. Probably Typhon. Can we have Typhon, a giant monster with insane features and probably bigger than mount everest get defeated by a tap from Thor’s hammer? Please and thank you?

Anyways, it’ll probably be a very long time before I get all of my thoughts together enough to actually get a screenplay together because this is taking a lot of sorting out and it would probably be several movies long, but there’s the bare bones of my mythology themed universe for you. It all takes place in modern day, so imagining Apollo sitting on the couch eating cereal and watching the golden girls on Netflix is totally something you can do, and something I have done, obviously.

Thanks for reading all of that. It’s kind of a lot.

[templarhalo]

Roman Fempercy AU

I’ll probably write a fic for this. Oh who am I kidding, I wrote a fic for this and turned it into a 40k crossover fanfiction involving a Deathwatch Kill-team and now I’ll never get to that third Chapter of Endryd Haar: The Riven Hound for @sisterofsilence or Simple Souls.

Anyway here it goes.

Fempercy’s name is Persephone. Real original, I know, but Sally thought it sounded better than Prosperina.   Persephone is also lesbian. 

Speaking of Sally, she’s like a Roman Matron. Not even Juno can find something to criticize her about and Venus is jealous of her looks. If the Empire was still around she’d be Empress.

Her life and time at Yancy Academy follow Canon. But Chrion and Grover have an “Oh shit we’re screwed.” moment when they’re looking at Persephone’s grades. When it comes to translating Greek, she’s a D-. Latin translatians  an A+. She always uses the Roman names when they discuss mythology in class. Plus she smiles even more when Chiron shows off his Roman legionare equipment.

Chiron actually starts cussing out Neptune. He says more cursewords that day then he has in centuries.

A child of Posidon would be bad enough, but a child of Neptune? In New York? At Camp Half-Blood’s doorstep? Does he want Chiron to retire early?

Anyway The Lightning thief happens as canon. With a few changes.

Persephone feels really isolated and unwelcome at Camp Half-Blood. She has nightmares about the campers killing her and even has a panic attack during archery practice.

Her only friends are Annabeth and Grocer. She’s uneasy around Annabeth because the idea of Minerva breaking her vow of maidenhood even if she’s technically not doing via actual sex is weird.  She actually meets Hestia and she really listens to Persephone and accepts her.

Ares actually appears as Mars to Persephone after they fight and congratulates her on beating him as Ares.

After they return the Master Bolt, Persephone has to swear an oath on the Styx to never reveal the existence of Greek demigods.

Grover and Annabeth have to swear an oath to never reveal the existence of Roman demigods.

After they  return to  Camp Half-Blood and celebrate, Persephone leaves a few days later.  Officially it’s because she’s returning home early to spend some time with her mother.  Which  is actually true.   She and Annabeth promise to Iris message each other.  Persephone and Sally spend some time in the cabin Montauk.  Neptune actually briefly visits.  Some family bonding time.   Neptune has some Cyclops make her and Sally some very nice jewelry and a very nice Pugio for Persephone.  Persephone gets a tour of Neptune’s palace.  Triton told himself he was going to make a conscious effort to dislike her, but actually ends up liking her.

Lupa’s wolves show up at the Montauk cabin on their last day there.  Hugs are exchanged and than it’s off to the Wolf House.

Lupa has a lot of fun training Persephone.  Persephone has a lot of fun training with Lupa.  Persephone’s panic attacks and nightmares stop.   Persephone ends up terrorizing the wolves and some of them even beg Lupa to  send her off to Camp Jupiter early because she’s adapted so well there.

Lupa actually keeps her for a day longer then she intended to.  She doesn’t tell  Persephone this, but she’s one of the best Roman demigods she’s trained since Jason Grace and Romulus and Remus.

During her trip to  Camp Jupiter the other two gorgons show up.  She kills them just like Percy did in  the Son of Neptune. 

Arriving at Camp Jupiter is like coming home for Persephone.  She meets Jason and they  hit it off.  Persephone is a little upset that she can’t tell him Thalia’s fate because of her oath on the Styx.   Persephone becomes Jason’s Optio in the Fifth Cohort.  She pisses off Octavian, chats with the Lars and Terminus, spars with Jason and kicks his ass 55% percent of the time and becomes pretty well-respected in Camp Jupiter.  Camp is a paradise for her.  She feels a sense of belonging she’s never felt before.  She and Jason  are like siblings,  and Jason confides in her some of his doubts and the pressure he’s under as a Son of Jupiter.

Meanwhile, Luke betrayed the camp and the events of the Sea of Monsters happens.

Percy actually meets Tyson during a visit to  her father’s palace.  Tyson makes her a cool collapsible Roman shield for her and reforges some damaged Imperial Gold weapons she and Jason recovered on a quest.

About a week after the Sea of Monsters, she begins having dreams about Heracles and what went down in the Garden of the Hesperides.  About two days later the Hunters of Artemis show up at Camp Jupiter to  rest and resupply.  Persephone meets Zoe Nightshade and they talk.  Persephone mentions her dreams and offers to return Riptide to  her.  Zoe refuses and tells her to keep it. 

Before they leave, Zoe and Diana lay on the sales pitch thick to  try and convince Persephone to  join  the Hunters.

At first, they think, she’s refusing because she and Jason are dating, but Persephone tells them that she and Jason are not dating because she’s lesbian and she and Jason are friends.  Very close friends, but just friends.  Persephone actually snaps at them and tells them they  don’t know a damn thing about Jason.  That’s he’s a better hero than Heracles and that apart from her and Juno, his patron, she’s his only real friend and she’s not going to abandon him.  Zoe and Diana actually apologize and Zoe and Diana depart on good terms with Persephone. 

After the Titan’s Curse, she get’s a tearful iris message from Annabeth about what happened.  Persephone is crying herself and really wants to  tell Jason his sister is alive and is now Diana’s Lieutenant. 

It’s a good thing Persephone didn’t join  the Hunters because soon  after they leave, Reyna shows up at camp.

And damn  Persephone is crushing hard.   She’s nervously asking Jason what she should do and Jason is like “I don’t know I’ve never had a girlfriend before.”

Persephone does a lot of praying and offering to  the Olympians, talks to Vesta when she visits and even considers asking Octavian to  do his augur thing and see if Reyna is in  her future.

Reyna is doing the same thing.  She and Persephone have built up a solid friendship and she’s kind of realizing she’s Bi and wishing Hylla or her mother was around to give her advice.

Then the mission to  retrieve those Imperial Gold Torpedo’s from the CSS Hunley in Charleston happens.  The air between Reyna and Persephone is a little thick and Jason is hoping the two confess ftheir feelings for each other because sick  of his two best friends tiptoeing around each other. 

During the quest, Jason is separated from Reyna and Persephone.

The two actually are about to confess their feelings for one another when Venus shows up and lays on  the whole “No demigod shall heal your heart.” speech.

And both of them flat out refuse and confess their feeling for each  other.   They tell Venus to piss off.  Venus relents but warns Reyna that her fate will be passed onto another.

The two meet back up with Jason and tell Jason what happened.  Jason is happy for them, but he’s praying to Jupiter for Venus to not screw things up for his friends.

After the quest preparations for the war against Saturn are made.  Annabeth is informed of the events of The Battle of the Labyrinth via Iris message.  Persephone, Jason  and Reyna are jokingly referred to  as the Triumvirate

When Jason and Reyna become Praetors, everyone expects Persephone to  take Jason’s place as Centurion of the Fifth.  Instead she hand Gwen the vine cane and is promoted to Tribune.   As a Tribune, she serves as an official  advisor to the Praetor’s, assists in  the day to day running of the legion  and should a cohort or two be deployed and a Praetor be unavailable, assume direct command.  Octavian  complains  saying it was an abuse of power,  but most legionaries didn’t give a damn.  

There were a couple dates.   A sharing of Jelly beans and  kisses.  Hands held when they thought no one was looking during senate meetings. 

Meanwhile, the Olympian’s are debating on the Great Prophecy.  Typhon has been awakened,   Thalia’s joined the Hunters, and Persephone is at Camp Jupiter.  Zeus suggests they bring her back  to Camp Half-Blood .

Neptune, Vesta and Juno all put their foot down.  

Neptune because he doesn’t want his daughter anywhere near Camp Half-Blood.  Vesta told him what Persephone had to  deal with at Camp Half- Blood, how isolated  and uneasy she felt there.

Juno was not going to have her champion/adopted son’s best friend disappear right before they Legion’s assault on Mount Orthyrs.  It would demoralize him.  It’s not because she actually cares for the girl. Nope no Sirree. She still hates demigods and her husband’s bastard children.

Anyway the Legion attacks Mount Orthrys. 

It goes pretty well.

Jason and Persephone make a huge hurricane and Reyna lends her strength ot the legion, they tear there way through the Titan army ranks, It’s a bitter battle, the Legion is relentless, there’s no turning back.  Better to strike now than wait for the Titan Lord’s army to encircle Camp Jupiter. 

Any way at the end , Jason kills Krios, Saturn’s throne crumbles to dust and the enemy is routed. 

Than Saturn himself shows up.

He’s lost his host body, his scythe, his throne and taking a huge beating from the Olympians.  His body is riddled with arrows from  Artemis and Apollo, burned by Hestia and Hephestaeus and he took a Lightening Bolt.

But he’s still not dead, and he could kill most of the Legion before he is finally defeated.

Jason is exhausted and semiconscious after curb stomping Krios.

Reyna has given most of here strength to the legion.

Most of legion is bloodied, but unbowed.  There’s no way they can kill Saturn, they can only prolong their own deaths and buy time for the Olympians show up.

So Persephone challenges him.

She summons the power of the sea and takes on Saturn herself.

With a little strength lended from Reyna, she sends Saturn screaming back to  Tartarus.

When the Olympians show up, Persephone is on her knees, Riptide still clutched in her hand, bleeding from at least a half a dozen wounds.

After, the Greek demigods receive their awards, Persephone, Reyna and Jason are ushered into Olympus.

Persephone is offered immortality.

She refuses.

She makes,the gods swear on the Styx to claim their children by 13 and to pardon all the traitor demigods and titans and minor gods.

After that.  There’s some peace and quiet, and things go back  to normal at Camp Jupiter.

Than Jason disappears and contact with Olympus has been cut off.

#female percy jackson. #heroes of olympus #romanfempercy!au

[abybweisse]

I love all your analysis' of BB! Can you give feedback on my backstory for Seb? So far I have: Seb's the 7th prince of hell (youngest), parent's are Lucifer&Lilith, has an amulet to show his status (tear shaped that appears like water in the inside), parallels to Earl-was kidnapped when 8ish and forced into slavery and 'used'-killed kidnappers, catches up on school at a ridiculous pace, is ignored (this is important not sure how tho), goes to Earl bc he had parallels&status. Thnx if you read it!

Very interesting and inventive!

Different from my own, though there are some interesting similarities. I try to keep my fantasies about his background somewhat in keeping with what little we have from canon. Yana-san seems to have combined two (possibly three or four) demons from the Lesser Key of Solomon in order to create his demonic appearance (what little we’ve seen) and personality/abilities.

I’ve written about this before a few times and expanded it over time. The easiest way to read up on it in detail is visit my side blog @abybweissekurodemonology and start at the beginning. Look for the posts about Seb’s demonic nature.

Short version: he might be a combo of Marquis Naberius/Cerberus, President Malphas, and Count Raum. They are all crow-form demons but have different abilities and personalities. His abilities and personality traits seem like bits of those three thrown in together.

So, for my fantasy background for Seb… I envision him as starting as Cerberus (later demonized and renamed Marquis Naberius) in the Underworld, servant (slave) of Hades. Yes, this means the three-headed *dog* who was born to Typhon and Echidna. (Echidna https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echidna_(mythology)….) Typhon was Gaia’s last son and considered the most-deadly monster in Greek mythology. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhon As you can see in the pic of Typhon on the pottery, he (sometimes) takes a form that is part man, part *black-winged bird*, and part snake. Cerberus has/had many siblings, but many of them were killed by Greek heroes.

In order to transition him from Cerberus to Naberius, I **imagine** that he was gifted by Typhon to Hades about as soon as he was born… without proper care instructions. Hades mistreated (abused/neglected) his loyal guard dog. Hades gave him only raw flesh to eat but Cerberus was insatiable. Greek myth really does describe Cerberus as a flesh-eating monster who was never satisfied. I *imagine* the reason is that he required souls even then, not flesh. However, Hades didn’t know this (or just refused to lose souls to his appetite), and Cerberus couldn’t explain (or even understand) his own needs. Just as William says in canon, starving demons go mad. So *my* story has Cerberus slowing descending into madness. He also has to deal with abuse from Heracles (gets dragged to the surface/human world and paraded around before being returned to Hades) and deceit from Orpheus (makes Cerberus fall asleep to the music of the lyre) so he can sneak into the Underworld trying to retrieve his wife. These are two of the best-known myths involving Cerberus. I *imagine* Cerberus eventually being unable to perform his duties, so Hades kicks him out. Grimoires that claim Cerberus and Naberius are the same creature claim he was given the ability to shape-shift (into a crow) by Hades. My version has him being kicked out as the three-headed dog, and then he discovers on his own that he can change his form.

As older myths and religions are replaced by new ones, Cerberus is re-categorized as a demon, this Marquis Naberius. By then, he’s figured out he craves souls, and he (as he says in canon) “messily samples” from them… until deciding to make contracts and, as Yana-san describes it, “prepare his own meals”.

Now (in my story), once he was reclassified as a demon, we was accepted back into the Underworld (or at least the part called Hell) by Hades (now called Satan and only ruling the part called Hell). He can transform into a crow, a crow-dog chimera, a bird-human “angelic form” chimera, and the mostly human-looking form he uses as butler. He had to experiment with and practice these transformations. He cannot change the color of his hair or nails because he hasn’t perfected his human form…. Though he’s been alive for thousands of years, he’s still learning from his new experiences.

Like Hannah in s2 of the anime had never encountered/had a contract with a soul like that of Luka before, I think Sebastian has never encountered anyone quite like the earl before. (Take note: the Mother3 theory parallel to our earl is a younger mirror twin named Lucas….)

Other details about my story of Sebastian’s background:1. His main reason for not liking dogs is because he had been one and he doesn’t like reminders of being abused/neglected as one. So it’s extra hurtful/offensive to him that he’s named after a dog and often treated as one. Yana-san once sketched ideas for Sebastian having a small dog named Cerberus, so this adds to that connection (in my mind, at least). Also, his initial parallel in Mother3 theory is Lucas’ loyal dog, Boney. At the end of the game, Sebastian’s parallel switches to the “Dark Dragon” (you know it’s, in name, also reminiscent of “Black Butler”)….2. His demon aesthetic of not lying - and not liking *liars* - is sort of a pun on Orpheus making him (as Cerberus) fall asleep to the sound of the *lyre*. So, though he likes violins (and music in general)… I imagine that he avoids lyres and harps…. (stereotypical “angelic” music instruments) LOL3. I think he knows his father was Typhon, but he isn’t sure Echidna’s really his mother. I *imagine* that this was a fake story humans created and that his real mother turns out to be a regular dog (who died giving birth to him and his older brother, the two-headed dog, Orthrus.) I imagine, too, that his other siblings are really half-siblings, and that Echidna is -their- mother. Like the earl, this essentially makes Sebastian the younger of a set of twins (since I have them being the only two pups in the litter that killed her). 4. I *imagine* that Typhon was re-classified as the demon President Malphas, second only to Satan himself in the court of Hell… and Sebastian doesn’t know this. This is why he shares certain traits and abilities with Malphas. Count Raum might also be closely related, like a cousin, or something.5. He has no formal education; he’s learned everything on his own and, like Edward, tries to learn from others. Nothing less than perfection is acceptable…. Because he was “dismissed” by Hades for incompetence (due to starvation), he’s now somewhat obsessed with being perfect, particularly when under contract….

6. Since Sebastian was treated so poorly by Hades (a god), he's not particularly fond of Hades as Satan, either. In fact (according to my fanciful story), Sebastian's comment to Agni about the uselessness of most gods is aimed at Hades/Satan.

This creates certain parallels to our earl, too! Younger of twins (and his older twin is killed), ends up enslaved and abused/neglected, feels ignored by his father, education is outside school (earl only attended Weston for a short time)… and similarities of circumstance could add to their bond…. In particular, when Sebastian and the earl make their contract, part of the earl's complaint (reason for revenge) is that he had been treated "worse than a dog". This strikes a cord with Sebastian, since he had *been* a dog... and had been treated quite poorly, indeed.

——

Yeah, I have a bit of a fantasy for his back story…. ;)

LOL! Thanks for the ask!!

#black butler #sebastian michaelis #sebbythedemon #background story #fantasy #mental fanfic #anon asks #i answer

[border-spam]

Typhon + Twins article is up. Enraging so much of this wasn't in the game, but here's some interesting bits courtesy of @lazulizard

Calypso being Leda's name confirmed. A lot of us HCd this, nice!

Twins conjoined finally mentioned outside of that one cutscene. Completely forgotten about ingame, nice to see it here. Troy a Siren by word of God, even though he's a broken one without powers (cept he does have powers as he can drain other Sirens , so.. I don't know actually. I don't think the writers know.)

Some reasoning for why Typhon insisted on keeping the twins prisoner. Knowing it was a fear of what corporations would do them is.. good? I feel like thats much stronger than the generic "oh bandits would tear them apart" info in the game.

Confirmation on what a lot of us picked up on. While Tyreen is pretty assured of her own goals from the start, Troy is, well, a bit more complex. His role was always one of compliance based on not having any other choice, and was definitely written to be the more tragic of the two.

This wording is weird but it reads as Troy's "villainy" being due to the basic fact that if he doesn't do what Tyreen wants? He'll die.

He's broken beyond repair and has a twin sister who rubs that in in public. I think there are still quite of a few people who want to argue Tyreen wasn't manipulative or abusive towards her twin but honestly, that really is how she is written.

Both twins should have had far better or more fleshed out endings than they got. Troy getting a taste of being independent and then just killing him off was shameful.

Tyreen being portrayed as almost emotionless bar greed and anger, and like she was manipulative towards her twin and seeing him as a burden from an early age without any love being shown from her towards him ingame was damaging towards her as a character. She could be so wonderfully deep with just a little bit of work, but they left her to try and hold the ending of the game on her own with no writing support. Sorry Ty, didn't deserve it.

Anyway, link to article in source. All of this shit should have been clear ingame not released in text months later. Yay for so many of our HCs being right? I guess..

#Borderlands #Borderlands 3 #tyreen calypso #troy calypso #calypso twins #Typhon #Typhon deleon #Leda #God the writing was atrocious #Sirens

[carengunther04-blog]

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