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#in an extremely general sense

mx-misty-eyed · 2 years

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that trope where a character doesnt want romance until they find ~the one~ but reverse it. give me a character that centers their life around finding a partner until they realize that amatonormativity is bullshit

#i was gonna say ‘bonus points if they’re aro’ but actually?#bonus points if they’re allo #because i think aros are generally more aware of this stuff than allos by like. a lot #by which i mean like every allo i know has an extremely amatonormative point of view #idk if i phrased that in a way that makes sense #aro #aromantic #aroace #tw swearing #crow

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tanadrin · 9 months

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Do you think that people who invent things with very destructive consequences are blinded to the downsides of it more by money or more by scientific curiosity?

I think the downsides are not always immediately obvious. Coal-fired electricity looks a lot more attractive in 1882 when there's literally only one such power plant and the global population is like 18% its present value. TNT was invented as a yellow dye, and it's so stable its usefulness as an explosive wasn't discovered until thirty years later.

We have this collective mental image, promoted by simplifications of historical narratives, that the inventor is a lone genius who through his labor produces an artifact and all its consequences in a single moment in time, and without which the thing would never be invented. Pretty much every point in that narrative is wrong. New technologies are the culmination of many different discoveries; there are enough very smart people working at the cutting edge of these fields that if one of them did not discover the principles behind these inventions, another almost certainly would sooner or later; and the exact applications of new technologies, nevermind how they will change society when those applications are utilized, often take years or decades to discover.

Now, I think there is an extent to which, as a working scientists, you can reasonably be held to account for the work you do. If you work at the Acme National Horrible Death By Chemical Weapons Laboratory, and invent a new, horrible chemical weapon, you do not get to go "oh no!" in shock when somebody dies to your horrible chemical weapon. And sometimes scientists do have a pretty good idea of how their technology will be used--the Haber Process was originally invented to manufacture fertilizers, but its application to the manufacturing of explosives was pretty clear to Fritz Haber, and he joined the German effort to develop deadlier chemical weapons pretty enthusiastically.

Men like Haber seem historically to be motivated not by intrinsic greed, but by the things which motivate us all: the desire to provide for their loved ones, the approval of their peers and the respect of their colleagues, and their status in society. The problem with respect to scientists who know damn well what they're doing isn't that everybody working at the Acme National Horrible Death By Chemical Weapons Laboratory is greedy and the job pays too much; the problem is that society, by and large, respects you and looks up to you and fetes you at public events and talks about what a patriot and a community leader you are if you do really well at inventing new, horrible chemical weapons.

#i knew a guy in university who said he would have no problem working for weapons r&d #because it's not the designers of the weapons who decide how they're used #and there was a valid point there:#shaking your finger at fritz haber only absolves the german general staff of the decision to use the weapon #or the kaiser of the decision to wage war #of all the people involved in the chain of events leading to chlorine gas in the trenches of the western front #fritz haber was probably the most generic #in the sense that if you went back in time and killed him in 1915 probably nothing significant would change #i think it's a little too pat to say the person designing the horrible chemical weapon has *no* responsibility #i certainly would find the idea of trying to figure out new ways to kill people extremely morally unpleasant #but without the military and political will to use those weapons #they just sit on shelves until they stop working

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depressedraisin · 3 months

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the reason why tbh&c would always be The Album of the late 2010s-early 2020s to me is that yes the album is intrinsically rooted in the socio-political zeitgeist of the era, yes the album is alex's most 'political' writing but also it doesnt exactly engage with its political themes beyond a handful of snazzy quips and astute observations here and there. the narrator is out there lounged on his balcony in his moon hotel watching the shitstorm unfold on earth with a very blase expression on his face. he's seen so much absolute bonkers shit happen one after the other in the past few years, he has lost the capacity to feel enraged or emotional about anything. he'd rather engage with his own internal struggles. which is like. the general attitude of most people around still

#i mean alex's observations obviously comes from his pov as a rich white man in a western society. which makes it narrow #but it's also extremely accurate in that sense #here in india we are months away from a general election and the wider public attitude is still the same #tranquility base hotel and casino #you'll always be famous my love #arctic monkeys

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chibishortdeath · 3 months

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Castlevania Dracula’s Curse and I have a love hate relationship; I love it and it hates me (I am stuck on a level it is so so hard) . But yeah :3, the gang, the group, the travel companions.

Explanations and text under a cut as per usual:

Grant my bestie he is so cool and fun to draw, I love combining elements of his designs. I also think the fun little ponytail and a little stubble looks nice on him. Just a little side profile study :3

Trevor before the eye scar whoah no way :O! I love drawing him smiling, he radiates pure trustworthiness. His CV3 outfit also looks very comfy ngl, especially the cape—

Another Grant, this time in 3/4 view. :D

Full body Grant doodle >:D. The Grants are taking over oh no— Did you know the cool looking knife he has in a couple promotional artworks is an actual specific type of knife? I looked it up and the closest match is a Polish bandit knife, which is a type of knife that has a lot of variation in shape but always has a distinct curve downward towards the end, it’s pretty cool!

Chibi Grant :3

Sypha got rizz lol—

Some of the only Alucard doodles on this page alas, there wasn’t anymore room for more of him (T_T ). I like depicting him with shorter hair in CV3, it mixes his CV3 and SotN designs really nicely. I also think it’s funny making his outfit kinda Kid Dracula inspired lol. I’m pretty sure there is one CV3 concept art that has some similar elements augh it’s been a while since I’ve looked up CV3 Alucard arts. There’s also one Sypha doodle here too :3.

The next two are based on a couple like draw your ship memes I ran into, the second is specifically based off of that one “hot yaoi base” lmaoooooo. Anyway, I love Sypha she’s so cool. I need to draw her more often, I have too many design ideas aaaaa—

The text says “mercenary, knight, priest, outlander”, but I spelled mercenary wrong alas. Shout out to you if you know what that’s a reference to hehehehehe >:3c

Alright, goodnight guys, hope y’all appreciate ( ^3^) <3

#castlevania #castlevania games #Castlevania Dracula’s Curse #castlevania iii #Dracula’s curse #akumajou dracula #akumajou densetsu #Trevor Belmont #castlevania alucard #alucard #grant danasty #sypha benaldes #art post #the group ever #they feel like a silly dnd troupe to me but they’re all playing some kind of good alignment #silly goobers the lot of them #Trevor gives me not golden retriever friend vibes but like husky vibes if that makes sense #weirdly moody sometimes and extremely stubborn? piercing eyes that stare into your soul and mildly intimidating? yeah #but also generally pretty nice and good at making friends wants to lead and all those generally ‘dog friend vibes’ qualities? also yeah #does that make sense #aaaaa I’m trying to think of other things to say but it’s getting late oh no #Alucard 100% gets got by ligma jokes from everyone else in the group he falls for it most times and gets so confused #I am getting very tired tho ok that’s it goodnight

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morzowo · 3 months

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so one character got to learn how to live again, how to reenter society after traumatizing event that will forever impact his life, got to heal and rebuild his relationship with his family even estranged father, reconnected with his old friends and was able to create reliable support system of people that also grew throughout this healing process and now can understand him more and be there for him, got to graduate and start his own business and now can even give inspirational speeches to help others

and the other one had to leave two closest people to him that were his only support after his family death bc 'friends' he had before weren't type of people worth reconnecting with, move out of his country abandoning everything he knew his whole life just to * checks notes * start a job he didn't really want and the main reason he needed higher pay was to establish financial stability for one of two people who he had to leave and that no longer wanted to be with him

okay yea okay sure both cases are about personal 'growth'

#last twilight #to clarify it's more about time skip and the talk at the end of part 2 bc yea ofc mhok also changed throughout whole series in general #the fact that 'growth' for mhok was equal to getting a job just doesn't sit well with me #his sister killed herself bc of their financial problems and then they put sole responsibility on him for providing for himself and day #and it felt like it was about more than just day's disability #like ironically his mechanic friend offered more support and understanding than most of the other characters #what kind of 'growth' is uprooting yourself and leaving everyone behind when you are still in vulnerable state and need someone to rely on #it would make sense in other story with other character but here it just hurts #i do have some other problems with the series as a whole but nothing that wasn't said already #everyone is angry at part 4 but end of part 2 was the breaking point for me #moving out for work is extremely lonely and alienating experience especially when it's not even to a country you particularly care about #what is the lesson here with mhok's plot line?#to completely isolate yourself to heal from your trauma somehow without anyone close to you?#and oh yea job being the most important thing for 'personal growth' actually?#in hotel in hawaii nonetheless...#i'm getting so tired of these series not being able to stick the landing fr

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autismserenity · 2 months

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Me, looking through books on Palestine: "Ilan Pappé wrote one called 'The Biggest Prison On Earth?!' People in Gaza hate it being called a prison. There's an entire hashtag for it. There's been an account dedicated to collecting pics and videos of #TheGazaYouDontSee for 6 years.

"Is Pappé even Palestinian? oh god wait I can tell already. this is gonna be an 'Israeli apologist' isn't it." Internet: "Yeah, Pappé's Israeli."

Me: "For fuck's--- so people will believe Israelis unquestioningly if they're shit-talking Israel, but in all other situations, Israelis are all liars?"

Internet: "Pretty much. Also, at best, Ilan Pappé must be one of the world’s sloppiest historians."

Me, admittedly in full schadenfreude now: "What?!?!"

Internet: "Benny Morris. That historian who's extremely hard-core about primary source documentation, who wrote that detailed book about how and why each group of Palestinian refugees left in 1947-9. He reviewed three books about Palestine."

Me: "Holy shit. And the book by Pappé is about the Husaynis. The family that Nazi war criminal Amin al-Husseini came from, the guy who fucked absolutely everything up for both Israel and Palestine."

Internet: "That's the one. Morris wrote, 'At best, Ilan Pappe must be one of the world’s sloppiest historians; at worst, one of the most dishonest. In truth, he probably merits a place somewhere between the two.'"

Me: "Why??"

Internet: "He says, 'Here is a clear and typical example—in detail, which is where the devil resides—of Pappe’s handiwork. I take this example from The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'....

"Blah blah blah, basically in 1947 the UN voted to partition the land into Palestine and Israel, and extremist militias started shooting at Jewish towns and people. David Ben-Gurion was the leader of the Jewish community there, and his journal describes a visit from a scientist named Aharon Katzir, telling him about an experiment codenamed "Shimshon." Morris gives us the journal entry:

...An experiment was conducted on animals. The researchers were clothed in gas masks and suit. The suit costs 20 grush, the mask about 20 grush (all must be bought immediately). The operation [or experiment] went well. No animal died, the [animals] remained dazzled [as when a car’s headlights dazzle an oncoming driver] for 24 hours. There are some 50 kilos [of the gas]. [They] were moved to Tel Aviv. The [production] equipment is being moved here. On the laboratory level, some 20 kilos can be produced per day.

"Morris says, 'This is the only accessible source that exists, to the best of my knowledge, about the meeting and the gas experiment, and it is the sole source cited by Pappe for his description of the meeting and the "Shimshon" project. But this is how Pappe gives the passage in English:

Katzir reported to Ben-Gurion: 'We are experimenting with animals. Our researchers were wearing gas masks and adequate outfit. Good results. The animals did not die (they were just blinded). We can produce 20 kilos a day of this stuff.'

"'The translation is flecked with inaccuracies, but the outrage is in Pappe’s perversion of "dazzled," or sunveru, to "blinded"—in Hebrew "blinded" would be uvru, the verb not used by Ben-Gurion—coupled with the willful omission of the qualifier '"for 24 hours."'

"'Pappe’s version of this text is driven by something other than linguistic and historiographical accuracy. Published in English for the English-speaking world, where animal-lovers are legion and deliberately blinding animals would be regarded as a barbaric act, the passage, as published by Pappe, cannot fail to provoke a strong aversion to Ben-Gurion and to Israel.

"'Such distortions, large and small, characterize almost every page of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. So I should add, to make the historical context perfectly clear, that no gas was ever used in the war of 1948 by any of the participants. [Or, he later notes, by either Israel or Palestine ever.] Pappe never tells the reader this.

"'Raising the subject of gas is historical irrelevance. But the paragraph will dangle in the reader’s imagination as a dark possibility, or worse, a dark reality: the Jews, gassed by the Nazis three years before, were about to gas, or were gassing, Arabs.'"

Me: "Uuuuggghhhhhhhhh. Yeah, it will."

Internet: "He does say, 'Palestinian Dynasty was a good idea.' Then he does some really detailed historian-dragging about the lack of primary sources and reliance on people's interpretations of what they say instead.

"'Almost all of Pappe’s references direct the reader to books and articles in English, Hebrew, and Arabic by other scholars, or to the memoirs of various Arab politicians, which are not the most reliable of sources. Occasionally there is a reference to an Arab or Western travelogue or genealogy, or to a diplomat’s memoir; but there is barely an allusion to documents in the relevant British, American, and Zionist/Israeli archives.

"'When referring to the content of American consular reports about Arab riots in the 1920s, for example, Pappe invariably directs the reader to an article in Hebrew by Gideon Biger—“The American Consulate in Jerusalem and the Events of 1920-1921,” in Cathedra, September 1988—and not to the documents themselves, which are easily accessible in the United States National Archive.

"'Those who falsify history routinely take the path of omission. They ignore crucial facts and important pieces of evidence while cherry-picking from the documentation to prove a case.

"'But Pappe is more brazen. He, too, often omits and ignores significant evidence, and he, too, alleges that a source tells us the opposite of what it in fact says, but he will also simply and straightforwardly falsify evidence.

"'Consider his handling of the Arab anti-Jewish riots of the 1920s.

"'Pappe writes of the “Nabi Musa” riots in April 1920: “The [British] Palin Commission... reported that the Jewish presence in the country was provoking the Arab population and was the cause of the riots.” He also quotes at length Musa Kazim al-Husayni, the clan’s leading notable at the time, to the effect that “it was not the [Arab] Hebronites who had started the riots but the Jews.”

"'But the (never published) [Palin Commission Report], while forthrightly anti-Zionist, thereby accurately reflecting the prevailing views in the British military government that ruled Palestine until mid-1920, flatly and strikingly charged the Arabs with responsibility for the bloodshed.

"'The team chaired by Major-General P.C. Palin wrote that “it is perfectly clear that with... few exceptions the Jews were the sufferers, and were, moreover, the victims of a peculiarly brutal and cowardly attack, the majority of the casualties being old men, women and children.” The inquiry pointed out that whereas 216 Jews were killed or injured, the British security forces and the Jews, in defending themselves or in retaliatory attacks, caused only twenty-five Arab casualties.'"

Me: "Yeah. I'm looking at that report right now and it says there had been an explosion, and then people were looting Jewish stores and beating Jews with stones, and in one case stabbing someone. Some people said that some Jews got up on the roof of a hotel and retaliated by throwing stones themselves.

"And then it literally says, 'The point as to the retaliation by Jews is of importance because it seems to have impressed the Military and led them to imagine that the Jews were to some extent responsible for provoking the rising.' That's the only thing it really says about anyone blaming the Jews.

"Except.... the very beginning gives some historical context. And it does say that when the Balfour Declaration came out, Muslims and Christians 'considered that they were to be handed over to an oppression which they hated far more than the Turk's and were aghast at the thought of this domination....

"'If this intensity of feeling proceeded merely from wounded pride of race and disappointment in political aspirations, it would be easier to criticise and rebuke: but it must be borne in mind that at the bottom of all is a deepseated fear of the Jew, both as a possible ruler and as an economic competitor. Rightly or wrongly they fear the Jew as a ruler, regarding his race as one of the most intolerant known to history....

"'The prospect of extensive Jewish immigration fills him with a panic fear, which may be exaggerated, but is none the less genuine. He sees the ablest race intellectually in the world, past-masters in all the arts of ousting competitors whether on the market, in the farm or the bureaucratic offices, backed by apparently inexhaustible funds given by their compatriots in all lands and possessed of powerful influence in the councils of the nations, prepared to enter the lists against him in every one of his normal occupations, backed by the one thing wanted to make them irresistible, the physical force of a great Imperial Power, and he feels himself overmastered and defeated before the contest is begun.'

"Wow! What a great fucking example of how 'positive' stereotypes are actually used to fuck people over! We're not antisemitic, we actually think Jews are the smartest, most powerful, richest group with tremendous global power! So positive!! Not at all being used here to justify antisemitic violence!

"Also, immigration from all over the world actually meant that different agricultural and manufacturing techniques were brought into the region, and yes, financial investments to start businesses sometimes, which meant that Arab Palestinians there had the highest per capita income in the Middle East, the highest daily wages, and started a lot of businesses of their own. But go off, I guess."

"Anyfuckingway.... it basically says that the Muslims and Christians were angry and scared, the Jews were too quick to set up the functioning government that the Brits were supposed to be there to help both sides create -- and which the Arab leaders completely refused to create for Palestine, because (1) fascists and (2) didn't want Jews nearby -- and that they were "ready prey for any form of agitation hostile to the British Government and the Jews." Then it says the movement for a United Syria was agitating them real hard, and so were the Sherifians.

"Is that what Ilan Passe, I mean Pappe, meant by the Palin Report blaming the Jews?! That when it says it's understandable the Arabs were freaking out, because antisemitism, Pappe thinks it's saying the Jews were provoking them?!"

Internet: "I don't know. I kinda tuned out after the first hour you were talking."

Me: "OGH MY GOD"

Internet: "So anyway, then Morris ALSO says, 'About the 1929 “Temple Mount” riots, which included two large-scale massacres of Jews, in Hebron and in Safed, Pappe writes: “The opposite camp, Zionist and British, was no less ruthless [than the Arabs]. In Jaffa a Jewish mob murdered seven Palestinians.”

Me: "What the ENTIRE FUCK? There was no united 'Zionist and British' camp! The Brits would barely let any Holocaust refugees in, ffs!"

Internet: "Morris says, 'Actually, there were no massacres of Arabs by Jews, though a number of Arabs were killed when Jews defended themselves or retaliated after Arab violence.

"'Pappe adds that the British “Shaw Commission,” so-called because it was chaired by Sir Walter Shaw (a former chief justice of the Straits Settlements), which investigated the riots, “upheld the basic Arab claim that Jewish provocations had caused the violent outbreak. ‘The principal cause... was twelve years of pro-Zionist [British] policy.’”

"'It is unclear what Pappe is quoting from. I did not find this sentence in the commission’s report. Pappe’s bibliography refers, under “Primary Sources,” simply to “The Shaw Commission.” The report? The deliberations? Memoranda by or about? Who can tell?

"'The footnote attached to the quote, presumably to give its source, says, simply, “Ibid.”

"'The one before it says, “Ibid., p. 103.”

"'The one before that says, “The Shaw Commission, session 46, p. 92.”

"'But the quoted passage does not appear on page 103 of the report.

"In the text of Palestinian Dynasty, Pappe states that “Shaw wrote [this] after leaving the country [Palestine].” But if it is not in the report, where did Shaw “write” it?'"

Me: "I'M ON IT. [rapid-fire googling] OMG. This is.... Not the first time. In 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,' he reported that in a 1937 letter to his son, David Ben-Gurion declared: 'The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as war.'

"It's not in the source he gave. It's not in any of the three different sources he's given for it.

"He apparently has never responded to any requests for an explanation, either from the journal he published in, or from other historians. But it says he did "obliquely [acknowledge] the controversy in an article in Electronic Intifada, in which he portrayed himself as the victim of intimidation at the hands of “Zionist hooligans.”'

"This is absolutely fucking wild. THEN it says the chair of the Ethics Committee where he was teaching eventually said that the second part of the quote ('but one needs,' etc) was a (combined?) paraphrase of a diary entry and a speech Ben-Gurion gave, and that the first half is 'based on' a letter to his son.

"And it's so convincing! The chair says, 'Shabtai Teveth[,] Ben Gurion’s biographer, Benny Morris and the historian Nur Maslaha have all quoted this letter. In fact their translation was stronger than the quotation from Professor Pappé: ‘We must expel the Arabs and take their place.’ Professor Pappé has documentary evidence of these quotations and the source will ensure that this is correctly cited in any future editions of the publication or related studies.'

"And IT'S NOT EVEN TRUE?!

"Ben-Gurion's actual diary entry (not a letter) says the opposite.

“'We do not want and do not need to expel Arabs and take their places.... All our aspiration is built on the assumption – proven throughout all our activity – that there is enough room in the country for ourselves and the Arabs.'

"Benny Morris misquoted it as "We must expel the Arabs and take their places" in the English version of his 1987 book The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, although it was correct in the Hebrew version. He corrected himself in the 2001 book Righteous Victims.

"Teveth also misquoted it in the English version of his 1985 book Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs, but again, had it correct in the Hebrew edition.

"And both Morris and Teveth explicitly point out the rest of the entry. The part about all their aspiration being built on the assumption and experience that there was enough room in the country for everyone.

"Historian Efraim Karsh’s 1997 book Fabricating Israeli History pointed out and corrected their mistakes.

"This is apparently a very well-known issue among historians of Israel and Palestine. It was a big deal in 2003, when an evangelist Christian publisher put out a book FULL of disinformation, which not only used the same quote as Pappe does, but also could not give a real source for it.

"But Pappe STILL USED THE MISQUOTE AND DOUBLED DOWN ON IT EVERY SINGLE TIME."

Internet: "Are you done? I know all this already."

Me: "Also, there are literally only two places where the phrase 'twelve years of pro-Zionist policy' shows up online, and they're both about Pappe making quotes up.

"NOW I'm done."

Benny Morris wasn't, though. The review continues at the link below. And the next part starts, "To the deliberate slanting of history Pappe adds a profound ignorance of basic facts. Together these sins and deficiencies render his “histories” worthless as representations of the past, though they are important as documents in the current political and historiographic disputations about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Pappe’s grasp of the facts of World War I, for example, is weak in the extreme."

#i hate people misrepresenting history in general #i extra hate it when people do it with malice aforethought #ilan pappe #is a lying liar and people need to stop recommending his bullshit when it's been so thoroughly debunked #this is a good example of anti-Zionism being antisemitism tbh. I have yet to see anti-Zionist accounts of history that are accurate #like if you have to victim-blame people who were baked in ovens during an anti-Jewish riot you are PROBABLY in the wrong #I was looking for a piece explaining the 1920 and 1929 anti-Jewish riots that I could link here that wasn't from an explicitly Jewish sourc #because I don't trust people to take an article from the Jewish Virtual Library or whatever without being like “this is Zionist propaganda!#even if it's about an extremely violent massacre of Jews #so I clicked specifically on the Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question and similar sources #and what all of them did was gloss right over the massacres and violence and just vaguely mention “the demonstrations in 1920”#or not mention them at all of course #I guess that makes sense but wow. now I understand more of how ignorant people are about the entire history here #not only has it all been presented to you as “this started in 1947 or 48! the Jews stole all the land! it's been genocide ever since!”#so that people literally tell me “they invaded in 1947 and kicked out the Palestinians and took their land”#but also you have to fill in anything before that yourself #and the only propaganda you have access to usually is this myth that everyone was perfectly happy together until Israel... killed everyone?#it's really super weird to see people say that Jews and Muslims and Christians all lived happily together before this #like what do you think happened? everyone was happy and suddenly the jews were like “fuck you we're taking over and killing everyone?”#that probably is what people think happened tbh #they don't need for there to be any motivation or for that to make sense because they've bought the idea that it's just pure evil ig #for some reason people have to reverse-engineer hamas's massacre and imagine that israel did even worse to justify it #a terrorist group doesn't come out of nowhere! i don't think you know what terrorism is tbh #but they're happy to assume that whatever they think israel did came out of nowhere #god i'm fucking tired #anyway fuck ilan pappe #there are WAY BETTER HISTORIES OF PALESTINE #i've heard good things about Gaza: A History but of course that's not all of palestine #long post #such a long post

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galedekarios · 5 months

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im insanely thankful to you for writing the larian critical posts. i love the game to PIECES but when my friend tells me about the ast*rion scenes and lines and everything and we compare it to what gale has its just... sad. and i appreciate you pointing this stuff out. helps take the rose colored glasses off i guess. all that said, thank you SO SO much for your meta posts theyre SUCH a joy to read <3

thank you so much for your message. it means a lot to me. 🖤

#i should say that i don't like to be negative or overly critical #but i feel like this needs to be pointed out #and i feel like for gale especially it's not only the lack of scenes and development and reactivity in general #but also just how he is treated within the game itself #others and i have talked about how he's ridiculed how he's the butt of the joke to the point where even you playing the protag are made #to feel ashamed of your choice to pick gale #so it just makes for an absolutely double whammy in that sense #that you do get this reinforced feeling of a bias on the developers side that is just... sad to see and extremely discouraging #text: asks #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #bg3 critical #larian critical

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twistedappletree · 6 months

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I love how pissy Jin Ling is about Wei Wuxian using demonic cultivation and being BFFs with Wen Ning but when Lan Sizhui defends both Wen Ning and the use of demonic cultivation, Jin Ling is like “hmmm interesting, let’s be best friends for the rest of our lives while I protect you from everything that ever threatens to harm you”

#??????????????#like what was that lmFAO #mxtx explain pls #idc that JLs a Scorpio that was some two faced Gemini ass behavior #and I’m saying this as a Gemini bc same LOL #also just realized #he’s a Scorpio and LSZs a capricorn #and those are actually extremely compatible together oop #bc scorpios in general are attracted to stability ambition and practicality #which is all Capricorn #so it really does make sense that they become lifelong BFFs in canon #apple babble 🍎#not tagging just random thoughts

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fated-normal-767 · 1 month

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Sometimes a family is just two insane programmers with weird homosexual connections to several people and their terrifying pacifist daughter .

iris is not a programmer but this is otherwise entirely true. I don’t think anyone actually knows what iris’ job is. I certainly don’t remember. He’s definitely sold drugs before but I don’t remember if that’s actually his job. I don’t think iris knows how computers work at all.

#iris is A Lot #if I remember correctly he was raised (partially) by dolos who just Found Him. he’s 25-26 at average present time though #so only about 5 years younger than dolos . but yeah that probably gives you an extremely good idea of how this guy acts #every time you meet iris his hair is a different shade of pink like im genuinely going to make it randomly generated #he loves apple monster energy #and the first time he meets python they get in an argument and python holds a knife to his throat #theproject.#ive probably mentioned this before but iris is friends with nova (makes sense)

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spotsupstuff · 8 months

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I think it would be such a soul destroying moment if like in an argument between moon and tarrows and moon finally snaps and screams at tarrows for all the horrible things the ancients did to her and her family, letting loose all the emotions she had to hold back from every awful thing she endured, said every thing she couldn't say because she was powerless when it came to the ancients and their actions, all the while tarrows is completely backed into a corner, when moon finishes her rant she sees that sparrows is curled up like a scared slugcat crying, and they both just cry together for a while. I think eventually moon would feel bad for taking it all out on tarrows but I think it's important moon gets everything out.

i mean sure it's important to get shit out, but not on expanse of a complete stranger??? sorry but the phrasing of that end sounds like Sparrows either deserved it or is supposed to be just standing there and take everyone's shit n i just can't leave that alone. just because one party suffered immensely doesn't justify that they take it out on someone who never did anything wrong like t hat

either way, i don't think Moon would be crying n also that Sparrows would end up in a corner alone like that. no way the Anemoi aren't gonna be always nearby to step in, she's one of em! they'll look out for her n if that means getting in the way of one of the oldest still-alive Iterators, then so be it

#spot says stuff #rw #oc tag #moon Is gon blow up though yea. get that woman loss of control and politeness it will be interesting to see. let her be a villain in a-#-reasonable way. shes still in the fucking wrong and absolute asshole but it makes sense character-wise #like in this instance moon would deserve to get slapped and put into the time out corner thats just nasty. same as boreas btw. these two go #-thru basically the same thing n no matter how they suffered they shouldnt have seen sparrows as some monolit of all ancients ever #extremism and generalization. those two are some of the most dangerous things out there #buuut i will not lie that it is a lot of fun to point at spars n shout at her that all that sufferin Is her fault. its so messed up <3

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vonaegiremblem · 11 months

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When I first started playing TotK, I wasn't sure if it would have a Guardian-equivalent enemy, and if it did, I wasn't sure how it would live up to the presence Guardians had in BotW. Now that I've encountered the Gloom Spawn/Gloom Hands (really they should have just been Floormasters), I think they at least live up to the Guardians, though I've yet to decide if they surpass them.

To really get into how the Guardians and Gloom Hands affect their respective games, I have to talk about how BotW creates a sense of danger through isolation and TotK creates a sense of security through companionship in their two starting areas. Despite their many similarities, the Great Plateau feels far, far more lonely than the Great Sky Island. The only NPC you can talk to, save for a few Koroks, is Rhoam, and outside of visiting his cabin, you only really interact with him when progressing the tutorial.

Contrast this with the Great Sky Island, which is filled with non-hostile characters. The Constructs are charming. They crack jokes and aim to be helpful. And they are everywhere. Rauru, who fills the role of Rhoam, doesn't just show up to progress the tutorial. He also just pops up to talk about things you encounter. The feelings of companionship even continue after the tutorial, since the first place you are expected to go after jumping off the island is a fortified settlement with people who know Link and are happy to see him alive. If you go to the first intended location after jumping off the Great Plateau, you probably won't see another person until you get to the Dueling Peaks Stable, and if you head straight for Hyrule Castle, you will be accosted by a whole bunch of Guardians.

The danger presented by enemies in both starting areas even continues to emphasize the difference in feelings of safety between the two starting areas. The Great Sky Island contains two enemies that are likely to kill you: the Flux Construct and the Captain Construct. Both of these are fairly well telegraphed, though. The Flux Construct is sitting in a giant, arena-like circle, and the Captain Construct is standing in a box right in front of a treasure chest. The Great Plateau has a similar boss monster and stronger enemy variant, but they are much less obvious. The Talus is camouflaged as a bunch of rocks and is encounterable by literally taking one wrong turn when you first gain control of Link. The Blue Bokoblin with a Soldier's Broadsword is also just randomly in an enemy camp. The Captain Construct at least has the courtesy to immediately show you that it can fuse weapons, an ability that you know makes weapons stronger, so that you know that you're in for a more dangerous opponent.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Great Plateau and Great Sky Island is that the Great Plateau forces you to interact with Guardians. To get at one of the mandatory tutorial shrines, you have to get past some Decayed Guardians. These Guardians teach the player some important lessons. Guardians can and will one shot you. Even decayed ones have a ton of HP and killing them with weak weapons is not viable. Guardians that seem deactivated may reactivate unexpectedly. Guardians are large--large enough to see from a distance--so avoid them if you see one from far away.

The point of all this preamble is to establish how the two games set you up for their scary, dangerous, non-boss enemies that get their own track when aggro'd. BotW prepares you for it by forcing you to interact with them, making you learn how to deal with them, and creating a constant sense of danger to keep you on edge. TotK lulls you into a sense of security early on, and then shocks you out of it with that first Gloom Hands encounter. If you go the "intended" route, your first encounter with them should be in Lindor's Brow Cave, near the tower and the spot where Impa tells you about Dragon's Tears. I think this location works so well because 1) you will be immediately drawn to it while going up the path to the tower, 2) it's a cave, and 3) there's a shrine inside of it. The cave ensures that you can't see the sky, which turns the same shade of red as when a Blood Moon appears. The shrine distracts you from the gloom puddle as it moves towards you. Your only indication that something is happening is the new music and the visual effect that shows up when Gloom Hands spawn. It is perfectly set up to catch new players off guard.

The shrine does not serve just to distract you, though. It's also meant to teach you a simple way to escape Gloom Hands: you have to climb onto a shelf in the cave to get to the shrine, and Gloom Hands can't climb walls. Entering the shrine or waiting around a little bit also reveals that Gloom Hands will just leave after a while. After an initial scare and, perhaps, a few deaths, Lindor's Brow Cave teaches you basically everything you need to know about Gloom Hands, at least for the early game. It also breaks that feeling of safety that the game presented early on and colors the rest of the early-to-mid game when you don't have the resources to properly deal with them. Unlike Guardians, these things are far less obvious, seeming to appear anywhere, at anytime, with very little warning. You have to always keep in the back of your mind that there might just be Gloom Hands somewhere near by.

The Gloom Hands also have one final trick for those that played BotW and became adept at dealing with Guardians. For the most part, once you figure out the perfect parry timing, Guardians are pretty simple to deal with. Your reward for becoming decent at fighting Guardians was the rare, ancient materials they dropped. Those who think they can deal with Gloom Hands similarly are in for a surprise. The Gloom Hands are pretty resource intensive early on. The best way to deal with them safely is to use arrows with elemental effects, which you probably don't have a ton of when you first encounter the Hands in Lindor's Brow Cave. Also, if you aren't fast enough, they will just start regenerating. Once you manage to beat them, you don't get rare materials, you get a miniboss that can oneshot you at that point, especially if the Gloom Hands inflicted you with gloom. Admittedly, the boss is not that difficult if you don't panic; the flurry rush timing is pretty generous and the attacks are clearly telegraphed. And your reward for defeating the boss? Two weapons that have gimmicks relating to health, making them less useful in the early game.

I think that Guardians will probably remain more iconic from both a design and story perspective. Nothing quite hits like encountering a field of decimated Guardians early on and then discovering later that Link was the one who destroyed them. That being said, I think Gloom Hands do a better job of evoking panic in players. The sky changing color, the music playing, the fact that they appear out of seemingly nowhere, the fact that they basically have to be right on top of you to attack, the fact that they are living creatures instead of just being machines. All these things contribute to them being more intimidating to face than Guardians. I still can't make a call on which I think is handled better until I spend some more time with TotK, but I would not be surprised if in the end it just comes down to personal preference

#the legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #lox #totk #breath of the wild #botw #spoilers #totk spoilers #long post #there are a few other things I could bring up about the sense of safety you get from the Great Sky Island #like how it has a warmer color palette and how the enemy designs are generally less threatening #also how even the first quest that takes you into the depths is extremely safe and you have a companion for it #This took a few days to properly word #but I had to get it out there since I think it's genuinely fascinating how well they set up the initial scare of the gloom hands #and it works anywhere; but I think it is strongest in the cave before the tower near that first impa encounter #but those are a bit more subjective

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