#now mashed up with game of thrones???

[luv-assangiebatch]

Lol okay so I have never watched Game of Thrones, and I have no intention of ever doing so-- but I ended up playing this GoT casino app and they let you have a "pet" dragon. You have to earn special coins to feed him and send him on quests. They let you name your dragon so I made the mistake of naming mine Julian, lol. I say mistake because now when he is weak due to needing food I get really upset over it. I am way too emotionally attached to him, lol. But look, isn't he cute?

I also get notifications like these which make me smile, lol:

#assangie #the fifth estate #now mashed up with game of thrones??? #lmao #kind of reminds me of bethany's hunger games but that was way cooler and funnier #julian the dragon #assangie is shaking his head right now #lolol #my f/o #f/o problems #self-ship problems #self ship community

[prototypelq]

DMC DISHONORED AU

I`ve mentioned a couple of times that during answering Ember’s @dmc-questions-anon crossover ask, I mixed, purely on a whim, DMC Sparda loser twins into a Dishonored-setting-AU and truth be told, the idea has not left me ever since. A week later, I've decided to compile everything I had for this AU into one post, so here it goes.

UPDATE a month later: I went over this post again to bring up to speed some things we've thought out with @stashoflostsouls! Her help with this AU has been immense and the brainworms might have stopped a long time ago if not for her, so this whole thing is her fault now xDDD (no regrets)

This is not a complete rewrite of the original post, but the DMC3/Dishonored 1 plotline has been edited heavily and new stuff brought to light. Adaptations of other DMC and Dishonored games will be coming later too.

Big thank you to everyone who is following this monstrocity as it builds itself along!

Personal notes: I've played Dishonored games, finished only the second though, as they had not grabbed me as they do other people. Still, I am enamoured with it's setting and aesthetic. The whole AU was smashed together in my head because, in my opinion, Dishonored does not do enough work with it's characters, and DMC does not do enough to flesh out it's worldbuilding, so I mashed them together to get the best of both worlds - a super unqiue and cool thought out setting and incredibly compelling and deep characters.

Disclaimer: I am very much a DMC enjoyer, however I am not that deep into Dishonored. I've refreshed my memory with some lore videos, on the topic, but please feel free to correct/advise/give commentary on adaptation of Dishonored stuff. DMC fans too! This is very much thoughts-in-process kind of AU

With all that out of the way - as a short summary Dishonored setting is a kind of mash of royalty+hitman+humans with powers AUs together. Dishonored is a tesla-punk-ified victorian britain setting (so we got strict class division with start differences in between, helthcare is nonexsitent, and the Empire is built upon the four kingdoms, each one on their own Isle) that is built upon the whale oil and whale hunting (that is used as fuel for electricity). Setting is also magical in nature through through the Void (kind of a mix of purgatory/death/dream/eldrich horror dimension, which has an avatar/god in the form of the Outsider, his worship is considered herecy by the local 'inquisition' but it can't fuly stop the weird, horrifying or perverse rituals that are held in his name). This world is quite dark, death is abundant, and violence is quite common. Nobles play their policial games and order asassinations to eliminate their rivals, common men are exploited at industrial factories, whale hunting is the main source of income and progress, scientists and philosophers play with their deadly inventions and even human lives for the sake of their research. (for vibe purposes check out the Drunken Whaler song and Dishonored 2 trailer they sum up the aesthetic exceptionally well)

Alright, so, how can we (hopefully) meaningfully insert the DMC cast into Dishonored, and how I, with major help from Raven, see the story of the twins going on from there:

Background and general setup:

In this AU Eva Redgrave is the Empress of the Empire of the Isles, Sparda Santiago is a talented swordsman, who rose from the poor districts, climbed ranks and became the Royal Protector of the Empress (=bodyguard). Romance bloomed from there, and they had twin sons and heirs for the throne, their relationship not announced to the public, but also not a secret to anyone in court.

Twins were royal children and had a lot of freedom in their childhood. Still, they had their tutoring done by an established professor of the Academy of the Natural Phylosophy - sir Arkham. Needless to say, both boys hated their lessons, and they picked up that their father was hanging around more losely when those were held. They did enjoy fencing a lot, sparring with their dad and each other especially, and were quite good at it. (not sure where to put in so I'll insert that here) Sparda favoured using bird mail, and had a favourite crow, twins tried playing with it sometimes too.

Canon DMC Eva was able to raise her demonic sons, so I imagine she had a steel spine. In this AU I think this would mean her politics as Empress were more strict than the Empress Jessamine of thre Dishonored setting - the Spymaster was not allowed to work under the radar (as he is allowed to in canon Dishonored which causes a myriad of problems later), and she would try to manage the long list of social issues and class difference, but of course, won't be able to solve them all. Her politics were based on maintaining good trading relations with other nations and trying to improve the life of lower classes, which did earn her some opposition from nobles and 'traditinal' oriented individuals, but did not stop her. Sadly, just one Empress is one reign was able to improve the lives of common people a little, but the things mostly stayed as they were.

Since her reign and politics were not a popular choice, plus she had twins as heirs (so the chance of her sucessor continuing this course was high), an asassination was arranged.

During the outbreak of a rat plague (which happened naturally in this case), the quarantine helped prevent it's spreading, but there was no known cure. Eva tried asking the other countries for help, but received no concrete answers, and she was getting desparate. As a last resort, she decided to sent out Sparda himself on a diplomatic mission, and to conduct this search himself, he was very reluctant to part but the situation was dire.

Arkham, as he was common presense in royal court, learned of this mission, and with the help of opposing parties and the Spymaster, planned a coup to asssinate and overthrow Eva during Sparda's absence. Members of this coup were not exactly concerned about the plague, as the affected districts of the city had been quarantined in time, and posed no threat to them, plus the main casualty here are the poor. However, the plan did not exactly work out as it should - Sparda finished his mission earlier than planned, as there was no cure for the rat plague. With these grave news, he sent out his mail crow to message to Eva about this, and the fact that he was coming back earlier. Arkham was able to capture a crow with this message, caged it, and began planning for Sparda's return - with his knowledge or the arcane and acute inventor's mind he conducted a magic trap, a curse, to stop Sparda in time. Literally in this case. And so, with Sparda's early return, he was warmly met by Arkham, then subsequently betrayed and frozen in time. Frozen Sparda was held somewhere in the dungeons of the Arkham estate. The asassination took place as planned.

Eva is killed during a nighttime stroll, but the twins are a harder target inside the palace walls. Things get bloody and palace guard is alerted. However, the twins chose that night to sneak out to play in the garden, and they stumble into seeing the last of their mother. Some of the assasins stay behind to keep an eye on their escape route, they see the twins and give chase. The twins are of course, shocked and traumatised, but they did their best to give the pursuers a hard time, as both are skilled fencers. Working together, they disarmed one of them, and Vergil was even able to deal some blows, but ultimately they are just children and had to run. Twins escape to the lighthouse, which had docks with some boats that Sparda used to them swimming around. Near the cliffside, one of the asassins has had enough and, seeing as the waves will drown out any sound, shoots. Dante falls into the ocean and is held under by the waves.

Vergil has no choice but to continue running, and near the lighthouse, he gets miracuously saved by Arkham.

yes this is technically a roleswap as Vergil is saved,and Dante is forced into contact with supernatural, but if saving was done by Arkham does it really count?

Dante gets chosen by the Outsider and lives through being bestowed the Mark upon. As this was done at a young age, there will be some repercussions.

The fallout of the asassination is hard on everyone. Publically, Eva and the royal family are stated to have been deceased by the plague that they tried to prevent, and in the place of an Empress, a ruling counsil of wealthy noble houses is instated.

The curse Arkham conducted was powerful, but short-lived, so a couple of years after the tragedy he finds himself free, escapes, and finds himself displaced in time. His family dead or missing, with no trails to follow to find any of them. The tragedy weights down heavy on him, he leaves the kingdom of Gristol to try to pick up the lost pieces of himself, with no luck.

Dante is picked up drifting in the sea by a ship. With no resources, stranded and alone, he has nothing to back up his claims of being a royal heir, and no help in sight. When the news of the royal tragedy reach him, there is no point in even trying anymore, and he is forced into the life of a street urchin. He hides the Mark he received, and slowly gets used to it's powers... and the consequences of having them. With his wits, and the advantage of the Mark, he makes the best of this situation - avoids the gangs to the best of his ability, travels by stowawaying in some caargo crates on different ships, then manipulating the crewmen to teach him sailing. He makes contacts, deals, gambles and grows street-smart and cunning. Dante is known at Enzo's bar, is a common sailor in Morrison's trader ship crew, and even dealt with some contrabandists/pirates like Lucia. When not sea-faring, he spends his time in fighting rings, or investigates anything Void-related in exchange for favours. This payment system makes his services available to locals, but he does those secretly, protected by an alternate look and a mask.

Note: this background negates some of the issues the canon twins have, most notable - their demonic-human nature conflict, and in both cases the twins grow up almost properly socialised, who would have thought. Basically what I am getting at is that there is more free space and opportunity for twins to get to know someone. However, neither me, nor Raven are really interested in going down those alleys, so there won't be shipping notes here. I just wanted to point out that in this seting, relationships are not half as complicated as they are in the canon DMC. I would not be opposed to hearing some Lady/Vergil or Dante/Lucia headcanons tho

Vergil is raised in secret by Arkham in his estate, which goes as well as you might have expected. Vergil takes very badly to everything that has happened, he growns up only slightly paranoid as the result of recurring nightmares, half of the time - not his own. Arkham trying to force himself into a father figure for Vergi was not helping matters in any way, and only made Vergil fight back against any sort of control more. Vergil spends a lot of time training his physical and fencing skills (to never be taken by surprise again), studies a lot of different science fields, as any competent heir should (heir to the throne of the Empire, an heir to Eva Redgrave, not in any way shape or form did he want to be controlled by Arkham. the only reason he even tolerated Arkham and his behavior is because Vergil had nowhere to go to, and if he wanted to reinstate himself and his family name later in life he needed the jumpstart Arkham's resourches, libraries and teachings provided). He starts attending high class events like balls and such, as a special guest of some imaginary rising noble house under the name of Paul Southworth.

-------------------------------------

As a treat, have a DMC3/Dishonored1 plot adaptation:

Twins are in their twenties.

Arkham, in all thess years has been unsuccesfull in all his attempts to 'mold' Vergil into a manipulable figure, and he tries to go for another approach - starts forcing Vergil and Mary (lot Lady yet(?)) interactions. Both are of course, aware of what Arkham wants from them and appropriatly hate each other on these forced meetings.

Somewhere, around this time, during one of the masked balls, a woman takes great interest in him, and he feels frustrated with his life and rebeliious enough to indulge her.

Probably after a screaming match or two between Lady and Vergil, they actually find a connection in this mutual hatred for the situation Arkham is forcing them into and bond instead. Lady ends up taking some fencing lessons from Vergil from the whole ordeal, which they conduct in secret, of course. They grow closer and are on their way to becoming friends, which Arkham actually sees as his plan working.

Everything changes after the mysterious death of Kalina Ann.

Mary is taking her death extremely badly, she is practically inconsolable, and wouldn't leave her room. Arkham, the wonderful parenting figure he is, and who needs his daughter for future plans, makes the best decision possible - buys her a doberman. For some reason, Mary is not thrilled at this idea at all, she hates then dog and he is not well-behaved at all, which means there's now an uncontrollable and uncared for doberman going loose in the estate. Vergil and the dog met a couple of times, but the dog left him alone because he recognised this man's authority, and Vergil himself was uninterested in bonding with it. His opinion shifter when he saw the dog harassing some estate staff, and poor person retaliating back, which almost ended badly for everyone if Vergl hadn't intervened. He berated the person for being unable to take control of the situation, and the doberman got his own share of it too. The incident did prove to the dog that Vergil was the leader here, so he accepted his 'second in command' position and started diliggently following Vergil everywhere. Doberman is not clingy or overly affectionate, so Vergil was okay with his, and also he welcomed the company a little, because the death of Kalina affected him a lot too. She was the only person in the whole estate he felt comfortable around, and while they did not spend much time together, it reminded him too much of his childhood trauma. But this time Vergil was older, more competent and decided to take control of the situation himself - so he starts researching everything he can get his hands on about the Royal Tragedy, and secretly goes vigilanty-ing at night, masked, to gather the information in other private soures or anywhere he can, really.

The trauma and the doberman dillema between them, Vergil and Mary grow distant in their hurting at this time. Mary, when she is feeling more like herself again, decides to look into the death of her mother, which was too sudden to be anything natural, and was covered up quickly by Arkham and the public. She can't say for sure, but has a hunch this is related to Arkham's private Void studies (which are publically banned), and thinks there is something very fishy going on. She finds a contact and meets a person, who is claimed to be known to help in these situations. During a metting, the person is wearing a mask, so she doesn't recogise his face. He starts looking for information on Arkham, and finds some very very messed up things on him.

On night of another big noble ball, he decides to go to the source - Arkham estate and take a look through there.

That same night Vergil decided to use this opportunity to venture out himself, he got ready and was almost out, before he notices Ceberus, the name he gave the doberman, spotting some shadowy figure on the nearby rooftops heading in the direction of the Arkham's estate. He intercepts the breaker-in and they start fighting. The fencing match is at a stalemate, neither opponent able to break another's guard, untill the intruder freezes for a moment, which was all the opening Vergil needed. He goes in for a stab, only for the intruder to teleport away and make a run for it. Vergil can't let a Marked asassin get away, not after his childhood tragedy, he commands Cerberus to alert the guard and chases after the intruder. On the rooftop they catch up to one another, and lo and behold, the breaker in was Vergil's long lost brother.

It was @stashoflostsouls' wonderful headcanon that when the twins touch for the first time, it is then that Vergil himself is visited by the Outsider and Marked.

Just as in DMC canon, the twins' goals are actually the same here - both Vergil and Dante are looking for the conspirators of their mother's asassination and for anynews on their father. Unlike in DMC canon, there are less pressuring circumstance here, twins have more breathing room to actually talk to each other, and this is why here they band Together to reach their goals.

From this point on the story goes pretty much same as Dishonored 1 story - the twins investigate different noblemen that were plotting against Eva Redgrave, and it is revealed that Arkham was in the middle of it all, which was also the reason why Vergil's search has been so unsuccesfull - the evidence has been right under his nose the entire time. This is also happening during another outbreak of the rat plague, which this time, as Dante learns, originated inside the country, and is definitely not a natural occurence is it claimed to be.

This second rat plague outbreak is the Spymaster's that worked under late Empress' rule idea of 'ending poverty' (so some Dishonored 1 canon events are mixed here as well). Twins will find this out and deal with him, and the other 'royalists' during their investigation, which ends with Arkham. In his dungeons they also find the crow Sparda favoured, the message of his early return in the midst of other papers. Arkham ignored the bird after the initial capture, but staff of the estate kept it fed in the cage, he is quite old already but the twins are happy to see him nonetheless.

This plotline ends with Vergil publically reinstating himself as Redgrave, Dante keeping himself away from nobles, perhaps with a sailing trip or two, and very supportive of his brother's cause. Vergil won't be pushing for the throne just yet, in the moment he will be satisfied with getting the Redgrave estate back, but the throne is his end goal in the future.

-------------------------

Void abilities!

Vergil: professional swordsman. Has a cane-sword with him on all times. Cane-handle can be replaced without screwing the balance of the blade, so he goes with his favourite sword on missions when he expects trouble and keeps his wristbow (=compact crossbow). Vergil grew up in company of sharkes, disguised as nobles, so he prefers the ghost stealth approach so the target is not even alerted to anything happening, but for the same reason he will not hesistate to draw blood (that's not to say he likes killing, just that it is acceptable under pressing circumstances or to clear an objective)

Void Abilities: Displace (teleport, but requires a mark to be placed beforehand to teleport to, is a great tool for planning your approach beforehand or preparing an escape), Foresight/Shadowwalk (allows the bearer to explore ahead in a form of a summon that can scout ahead and take form of black bird, cat, or amorphous shadow creature, user is stationary during this ability and summons can only knock down enemies, but not kill them), Doppleganger (not new to DMC fans, works the same here - a controlled clone summon) and Bend time (allows user to stop time=gain amazing speed for a couple of seconds, user is able to freely move and act during this ability)

Dante: professional brawler. built like a brickhouse/sailor and not for show either. Keeps his wrists bandaged and always ready for trouble. Uses assasin's blade - shortsword with broad blade, stylised after fish scales, but has a modified crooked-up guard for catching blades and for easier disarming moves. Uses pistol for ranged combat. Prefers a stealthier approach, will absolutely brawl if a chance is presented and knock some heads down. Won't kill unless absolutely no other option is presented.

Void abilities: innate Rat hearing and rune/bonecharm sense (= Dark vision), Blink with the time-stop-before-use upgrade (a little more useful than other teleports for combat as you get time pause to think the encounter through, can't act or move during use, just stops time to looks around/think through before teleporting), Wind blast (a wind blow strong enough to literally plaster enemies if thrown into a wall... strenght of the ability is controlled), Pull (pickpocketing and eldreich-horror levitating bodies to the user), Semblance (lets the user make a void copy of a person's face and wear it around, does not alter voice or manners just casts an illusion over the wearer), and Doppleganger.

Twins's mutual connection to the Void, and with their souls attuned to each other, gives them some unique abilities too. They can establish a connection with each other through the Void dimension if in close proximity, share visions (for ex. Vergil scouts ahead with his powers and Dante will be able to see it too), and even share their abilities if in direct contact. Their souls connecting was always thing, it is why Vergil had so much nightmares in his childhood - he had been forced to see Dante's too.

Now, for Dante's early life Void contact consequences - he is sensitive to the Void. He has a sense for finding and locating any Void artefacts and he can hear and understand rat thoughts. Thankfully, the latter ability he somewhat learned to controll later in life, because let me tell you, Dishonored rat speech is Messed Up. (Gnaw, gnaw. Set teeth to hard wood, soft plaster, stone. Past it, a path. Rooms of delicious sea-scent, fish flesh. A feast for us! Soon, soon. First, we gnaw.) It did help Dante survive on the streets a lot, and he took advantage of many opportunities thanks to this. Rat speech is also how he learns the new rat plague outbreak is not natural. Whales and whale bone affect him too. In Dishonored, whales seem to be very intricately connected to the Void, once stated to even exist in both dimensions simultaniously, so to a Void-sensitive person this is going to be a lot to handle. This is one of the reasons Dante stays clear of whaler ships - he will hear loud and panicked whale screeches and whails and he won't be able to deal with that, this is an ability he cannot damper. He will grow used to it, but going near whale meat can factory or sailing during a whale migration season, when they are hunted in great numbers, is a very very big no no for him. I am absolutely not going to force him to go through something traumatising like this ever, surely not through a canon whale meat factory level from one of the DLCs, no huh, especially not with Vergil for company to literally carry him through this

Thank you for your time and I hope you like what I and Raven have been cooking up here! Next update we will have: Trish showing up to overthrow government, Dante going solo and bonding with Cerberus, Patty and her pet rat, Vergil deciding to kill God, and Kyrie being a witch.

#THE UPDATE IS DONE #now only to write another update an undetermined amount of time later.... #ry to count how many self-indulgent headcanons I stuffed into this one AU. I realized the power I have and decided to give out as many pets #NOBODY COULD HAVE STOPPED ME AHAHAHAHAHA #please listen to Honor for All #Gold Dust woman #and Drunken whaler #they are awesome and very atmospheric songs #dmc dishonored au #dmc au #dante sparda #vergil sparda #dmc eva #dmc sparda #dmc lady

[betterbesttvshowbracket]

current shows in each bracket so far (no particular order yet):

ask box and submissions open! all categories are up for debate. If you can make the case for moving a sitcom to cult classic or a misc. show to prestige, I'm open to hearing everyone out!

When each category has 32 shows locked in, I will seed them based on an average between viewership and ratings and open up the polls <3

CULT CATEGORY

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

X- Files

Columbo

MASH

Twin Peaks

Supernatural

Riverdale

Pushing Daisies

Firefly

Freaks and Geeks

Doctor Who (both)

Star Trek (original series)

Avatar the Last Airbender

Over the Garden Wall

Futurama

House MD

Sherlock

Dark Shadows

Hannibal

Fringe

Lost

Gilmore Girls

Roswell (og)

Skins UK

Midnight Gospel

Adventure Time

Angel

Eastbound and Down

Merlin

Twilight Zone

Dark

Charmed

Battlestar Galactica

"PRESTIGE" CATEGORY

Dirk Gently's

The Getdown

Succession

The Bear

Breaking Bad

Better Call Saul

Chernobyl

Game of Thrones

Boardwalk Empire

Atlanta

The Wire

Black Mirror

The Great

Big Little Lies

Justified

Mad Men

Yellowjackets

Interview with the Vampire

Black Sails

Fleabag

Yellowstone

Westworld

The Handmaid's Tale

Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Foundation

The Borgias

West Wing

True Detective

Deadwood

Mr. Robot

Band of Brothers

Fargo

Sopranos

Bojack

Boondocks

Downtown Abbey

Mind Hunter

I Hate Suzie

The Last of Us

Barry

White Lotus

Watchmen

Orange is the New Black

The Crown

Ozark

Narcos

Maniac

Undone

The Missing

Leverage

Six Feet Under

SITCOM CATEGORY

Seinfeld

Girlfriends

Bob's Burgers

Archer

The Good Place

Arrested Development

The Simpsons

The Office

Parks and Rec

30 Rock

Sex in the City

New Girl

Psych

Elementary

Abott Elementary

Community

Letterkenny

Modern Family

Scrubs

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Derry Girls

Blackish

Our Flag Means Death

Miracle Workers

What We Do in the Shadows

King of the Hill

Man Seeking Woman

Full House

Trailer Park Boys

Friends

Ted Lasso

Wilfred

That 70s Show

Girls

Broad City

Veep

Curb your Enthusiasm

Flight of the Concords

IT Crowd

Monk

Shameless

Documentary Now

Better Off Ted

Weeds

OTHER CATEGORY

The Vampire Diaries

Pretty Little Liars

Grey's Anatomy

Stranger Things

Smallville

One Tree Hill

You

Criminal Minds

Gotham

The Flash

Legends of Tomorrow

The Mandalorian

Daredevil

The Umbrella Academy

Legion

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

Blacklist

The 100

Midnight Mass

Haunting of Bly Manor

How to Get Away with Murder

Gossip Girl (og)

The OC

Young Pope

Haunting of Hill House

Euphoria

Walking Dead

Peaky Blinders

Vikings

Supergirl

Dawson's Creek

Bunheads

The Society

Prison Break

True Blood

Normal People

American Horror Story

Squid Games

Dexter

The Boys

Queen's Gambit

The OA

ER

Spinning Out

#better best tv show bracket #bcs #iwtv #riverdale #spn #supernatural #marvel #breaking bad #pushing daisies #psych #house #btvs #succession #the bear #etc

[randomlywanderingmoth]

The thing about Faerie Britain is that, when we entered and where we entered, there was literally nothing we could do to save it. Morgan was the lynchpin holding the whole mess together.

So, entreat and curry favor with Morgan? How exactly? She’s run the country fully competently in our absence, our presence isn’t going to give her anything. Warn her about the Calamity? She outright says she’s game to let it happen as long as her Britain is safe. [Cut for length and also in depth spoilers]

Could Mash have done anything back in time? Could we, if it had been us instead? No and also no, Aesc’s loss of faith is predicated on Uther’s betrayal and death- without metaknowledge there is nothing we could have done, and even with metaknowledge the best we would’ve done is stalled his death by a short few years. He would never be king, and likely his people would have been slaughtered. Again, Aesc would lose faith.

Back to the present then. Let us assume we have some metaknowledge, here and there. Could we stop Aurora from plotting Morgan’s downfall? Not particularly. She won’t listen to us, she’d turn on us if we turned on her, and her death would activate Melusine- or at the very least make her very intent on killing us, and a Melusine out for our heads would make saving anything extraordinarily difficult. If Aurora was dead, Melusine would expressly require the name of Tam Lin Lancelot to remain even remotely stable- failing that the Calamity of Fire would kick off.

What about stopping Barghest and the Calamity of the Beast? There, there is literally nothing we could do. As far as the story depicts it, her Adonis is dead, she ate him some time before we ever turned up, and her hallucinations of him are the only thing keeping her stable. She’s a time bomb and there’s nothing we could practically do about it.

So, saving Baoban Sith then. Stopping her from going wild with the curses, stopping her from turning into a lump of cursed flesh that gets unceremoniously dumped into the Pit to awaken Cernunnos. This one is not expressly impossible, unlike every other item on the list- but it might well be. Beryl Gut has her ear before we even meet her, and he’s driving her down the path of reckless play with curses before we get the chance to ever play party to her conscience, and in order to prevent that we would need to neutralize Beryl Gut as soon as humanly possible. Practically we would need to do that prior to the defense of Londinium, before he teaches her the altered Mors curse that would start to rot her soul- and you’ll note we never get anything even resembling a clear shot at Beryl as such. So, we need to curry favor with her, independent of knowing that Beryl also has her ear.

Even then, we would need to drive Baoban Sith away from Beryl’s methods as early as possible- which would require she be less in tune with curses- which would be difficult, given the thing she wants is Morgan’s praise. Baoban Sith got that by way of violent murder, and she wants to learn Magecraft- a point of order, those are both topics Beryl Gut has us beat handily in- and again, without metaknowledge, we’re playing a game of tug-o-war with someone we don’t even know who it is.

So, let us say, purely for the sake of theory, we somehow succeed. Congratulations! You stopped Baoban Sith from getting turned into a lump of easily hostage-able curse flesh! Now Morgan will kill the traitors, sit back on her throne... and kill us all, because we’re necessarily working alongside folks that are trespassing on her city. Unless we swear off the Round Table Alliance, which translates to cutting ties with Oberon and Percival (and a lot of other people), we’re under her crosshairs- and even if we do cut ties, there’s no guarantee she won’t just oust us as a generally threatening faction.

But let’s say that, somehow, for whatever reason, we save Baoban Sith, and don’t get blasted by Morgan. There’s no guarantee that Cernunnos won’t wake up on his own- and we saw how Morgan’s defenses handled Cernunnos- they weren’t enough. Granted, he had a Divine Core formed from Baoban Sith at the time, but it would be an ugly affair all around.

So, let’s say in theory we could save Baoban Sith. We could save Baoban Sith, we could keep Morgan from killing us. Let’s say that somehow Cernunnos was neutralized. Great, cool. We’re not friends enough with Percival for him to stop Albion, who will definitely turn up when Morgan decides that Aurora’s Wind Tiding was doing her no favors- and we’ve burnt bridges with Oberon. So, Morgan’s supply is exhausted, and the Pit is no longer plugged. Cue Wyrm of the Pit, Vortigern, succeeding in his plan to devour the world because all he needed to do was not care about us enough to stand close enough for us to duke it out with him.

And again, this is all predicated on us having the foreknowledge to do everything in our power, logic at the time be damned, to save Baoban Sith, and a long list of other convenient dominoes lining up.

So what if we never turned up in the first place? What if Mash never became the Knight of Sheffield, what if we never accompanied Castoria?

Well then Vortigern would just find another sucker, and events would proceed largely as normal but without us there.

Saving Fae Britain was a mission doomed to fail from the start.

So what about the reverse? Was there anyone we could save individually?

Also not really.

We couldn’t save the humans because of the nature of the Lostworld phenomenon, so we could only save faeries, and there aren’t many of those that we could save. Furthermore, on any second inspection, all these faeries were also doomed to die, because of the nature of faeries in Fae Britain. They need a purpose, a driving goal, to live. No driving goal, they turn into Mors. They could never survive just sitting in the Storm Border while we try to solve the Bleached Earth problem.

Fae Britain was doomed from the start. There was never anyone we could save. We can only save the rest of the world, from its implosion.

As with every part of our missions since departing Chaldea, all we can do is save our world from the Lostbelts.

#fgo #fgo spoilers #lostbelt 6 #lostbelt 6 spoilers #I mean we did bond with Habetrot to the point of getting her as a Servant #and we did get an iteration of Excalibur #so we did get something out of the deal #but once again our task is to safely end the Lostbelt #we just don't realize it until the end

[storyofmychoices]

from the ask game, for Daenarya: 💔 - Does forgiveness come easily or with difficulty to this oc? Can they forgive others? What about themselves? 🌍 - What are this oc’s religious views?

[BONUS] How did you come up with her name? <- it’s pretty!

🥰🥰 Thank you for the ask!!!

💔 - Does forgiveness come easily or with difficulty to this oc? Can they forgive others? What about themselves?

I feel Daenarya is fairly forgiving. She forgave Aerin when he betrayed them and she comes to forgive and have feelings for Valex. She wants to see the good in everyone and give them a second chance. Now, after the second chance, I feel she'd be less forgiving or at least it would take more time if she did decide to forgive them.

As for herself, Daenarya is definitely harder on herself. She doesn't forgive herself as quickly. She was devastated when she felt her actions led to Kade being taken in book 1. she has forgiven herself now that he is back and safe, but there are moments when she still feels guilt and is upset with herself.

🌍 - What are this oc’s religious views?

Daenarya isn't very religious. The farmer who took her in worshiped the new gods, so she did as well for a while but she fell away from practicing. Once she meets the Empress in book two, she feels even less like practicing. She finds it hard to believe in any of the gods.

[BONUS] How did you come up with her name? <- it’s pretty!

Aww thank you! I do love her name too ❤️ I kinda stole her name from Game of Thrones. It's a mash up of Daenerys and Arya. It was only a couple of years later that I found out Daenarya is actually a ship name for those two characters. I had no idea that was a ship or that was the name. I thought about changing it because I don't ship them but I do really like how the name sounds so I kept it!

Thank you so so much for the asks! I always love talking about Daenarya! 💛💛💛💛

[From this emoji ask game]

#daenarya #dani answers #daenarya of riverbend #ask game #daenarya ask #lovealexhunt #storyofmychoices

[mrmeriwether]

Bagzo Bones might be my favorite character from our D&D campaign.

For years he was a silly sidequest merchant, a strange but friendly little cloaked figure who would exchange bones for prizes. Some of our players did this eagerly, and received some useful trinkets.

But it was revealed that Bagzo was no ordinary NPC -- he was once the Fell King! Reviled monarch of the land, executed and overthrown nearly a century ago! He had not truly died, but clung to scraps of life and went into hiding, a soul without a proper body. And so, he set to work constructing one. He began collecting bones....

I took note of every type of bone our players donated, and used those to design Bagzo's new look. The wings and tail of a chimera they fought in the desert, the unmistakable skull of the strange moonbeast they decapitated to save a local town. Every part of him is a direct reminder of the journey our players have taken, the decisions they've made, now mashed up into a rampaging lich who has returned to claim his throne once more! They've learned more about the tyrant he once was, and now see with clarity his tragic arc.

We're on the last leg of a 5-year campaign. I don't know how it's all going to shake out -- that's the beauty of a collaborative game. But I know everyone in our group will remember the tale of Bagzo Bones for years to come.

#art #colors #dnd #lich #skeleton #character design #the unwell kingdom #bones

[hesbuckcompton-baby]

miscellaneous tag game

@xxluckystrike tagged me in one of the questions in this because Blu is LOVELY so now I'm doing it

favorite place in the world you’ve visited?

Iceland! Rome is definitely a close second, but Iceland is just such an unreal place, it almost feels like being on a different planet. Everything there is sooo beautiful, I honestly never wanted to leave, and as a huge Game of Thrones fan getting so see some of the filming locations irl was huge too!

something you’re proud of yourself for?

I've always been pretty socially anxious, so I'm really proud of myself for the friends I've made in this fandom - I was definitely a lot more shy when I first made this blog, so getting to know people has been great! I think getting into my dream uni has been my biggest achievement overall, and it's been worth all the hard work

favorite books?

Anyone who's been following me for a while knows I can go ON about books, so for the sake of brevity here's a short list of my highest-rated books: - Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, Leigh Bardugo - The Secret History, Donna Tartt - The Poppy War, R. F. Kuang - My Best Friend's Exorcism, Grady Hendrix - Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

something that makes your heart happy when thinking about it?

One of my best friends lives in an old farmhouse and has a huge field that we all love to have massive bonfires and camp in during the summer, I think those nights are some of my favourite memories, it always makes me smile to think about

favorite thing about your culture?

I really love how much of a mish-mash of culture, tradition and language we have in England. As a big history nerd, I love tracing the origins of things we think of as quintessentially 'British' and being able to see where these things have actually originated from. England's multiculturalism is something I think is incredibly central to this country, and one of the only things I can genuinely say I'm proud of these days

when did you join the hbo war fandom? what was the first show you watched?

I started posting about HBO war on here in May 2021! My first show was Band of Brothers, but I remember starting the Pacific like the day after I finished BoB, so I was pretty all-in straight away

have you read any of easy company’s books? if so, which ones were your favorite?

I haven't, but I definitely want to! I've almost bought Ambrose's book sooo many times but somehow never gotten around to it. My mum's a big HBO war fan too, and it was her that got me into the shows - she preferred the Pacific to BoB, so she had Leckie and Sledge's books, but I haven't gotten around to reading them either

favorite hbo war character and your favorite moment with them?

Ron Speirs you will always be my best friend. I think my favourite moment with him is honestly the bit where he walks in on Janovec having sex and doesn't give a single FUCK because he's just trying to steal as much shit as possible. It's such an insignificant moment but it makes me laugh sooo much every time.

do you make content for any fandoms, if so; what sort of content?

Yes! HBO War, SAS: Rogue Heroes and the A Song of Ice and Fire universe are the only fandoms I've made content for - I'm a fic writer in all three!

favorite actor/actress and your favorite film of theirs?

I worship at the altar of Florence Pugh she is my Jesus and my Princess Diana (definitely not making it weird don't worry). I think my favourite movie of hers is Little Women, mostly because I am so chronically Amy March coded

favorite quote/s that you wish to share with others?

"Thank you for the emotional abuse and the cheeseburgers" - Grover Underwood, Percy Jackson and The Olympians 1x05 (he has such a way with words xx)

random fact your mutuals/followers don’t know about you?

I tear up every time I think about the end of Paddington 2. It's fucking legit

if you’re a writer, do you need a beta reader?

I thrive off of the immediate dopamine release I get after posting chapters the minute I finish them. I live life on the edge and I have no regrets

three things that make you smile?

Shane Madej, stupid camp sci-fi from the 1960s, manipulating people into watching The Terror

any nicknames you like?

I have never been given a nickname sooo idk really

list some people you love to see around on tumblr!

@xxluckystrike @dcyllom @basilone @mercurygray @footprintsinthesxnd @trenchenjoyer @mads-weasley - you guys are all so great, I'm so happy to be in this fandom with you!! <3

what would you do during a zombie apocalypse?

off myself like. immediately. sorry but I've watched all 11 seasons of the walking dead and I'm not doing that shit

favourite movie?

Muppets Christmas Carol you are my number one bestie of all time, in the words of Mr Darcy, i ardently admire and love you

do you like horror movies?

yesssss I'm such a horror girlie I love it. The Conjuring movies are my go-to classic 'haunted house' horror movies but I'm particularly partial to a good bit of folk horror (Midsommar and The VVitch my beloveds)

Everyone mentioned above please consider yourselves tagged and feel free to do this!! If I didn't tag you, do it anyway if you want!! it's fun xx

#tagged

[twilightguardian]

Hey, its me again. I brought this blog back up, due to drama I got into with another blog who I shall remain nameless and I blocked along with their associate as soon as I brought this blog back up(which I'm not sure if that was a good choice) I kinda thought what you said and I feel like I didn't articulate what I meant in terms of adversity and struggle

My point by using Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood was that yes, the characters had adversity and struggle, but it didn't killed off the couples(then again, you could argue Hughes and his wife) along with Star Wars(of course there's Anakin and Padme and Satine), they faced these things together and *lived* instead, and I felt that should have been Arkos, Black Sun, Iceberg, and Renora(not without addressing the problems with said ships of course) along with Oscar making it and a few smaller supporting characters. I gotta get Saints of Remnant up and running, need a good Tumblr theme for it maybe.

It's not that I don't want it all fluffy and no adversity, raised stakes, or struggle or consequences, I just don't go about it like that. And you do not have to agree with this approach or my concepts, you do not have to at all.

I just feel like is such aforementioned necessary qualities we keep defining by our own personal standards along with what concepts can or cannot be and what directions they can and cannot go, which is fine as long as we are honest about it.

But now we pressure that onto others and assume the worst when they don't comply.

Not saying you are, but I feel like to say "those who don't like Pyrrha and Arkos ending tragically want it to be a super fluffy" is kinda of a leap, that's what it sounds like to me. And I apologize if I misunderstood that.

I gotta be honest, I don't really remember this conversation. So anything that I could say could be wildly off the mark for the conversation previous. So I'll just go off on a ramble.

But if we're talking about conflict in relationship, then by definition a relationship without conflict or adversity is fluffy. You can want and like Arkos as a ship, but the reality is that Pyrrha's death was necessary for the plot, as stupid as the plot may or may not have been as it gave Ruby motivation to seek answers. Without Pyrrha dying, Ruby, and subsequently Norra, Jaune and Ren would have no reason to travel across Anima.

There's more to a story than romance, and while you can say there's a certain amount of story potential lost when a character dies, it's equally true when a character lives when they should rightfully have died. There's no sense in keeping a character around when they've fulfilled their narrative purpose and the deaths are more valuable to the structure of the story than their being alive. Ned Stark from Game of Thrones is a brilliant example of this. Sure, had many story possibilities been cut off due to his death? Of course. But the story that can now be told because of his death is so much more interesting than if Ned survived.

Stories where characters survive canon deaths usually are relegated to fanfiction for a reason. Not that their stories are less valuable as being told, but that fanfiction itself has no limitations, no expectation or even standards of quality. Fanfiction can be whatever it needs to be because there's no expectation that it needs to be anything greater than what it is (and what fanfiction is ranges from expertly told epics spanning tens of thousands of pages to the keyboard mash of an intellectually savant five year old). In fanfiction people can explore those alternate stories, but more often than not those will end up being fluff pieces that don't narratively go anywhere or otherwise struggle to get the characters into the plot in a natural way other than the plot dictates for it to happen. RWBY has a lot of writing issues, and does this writing faux pas I've just mentioned, but in this instance, it is good writing. Not because a character died, but because of logical stakes and follow through to get the main characters where they need to be in the plot.

#rwby #rwde #fanfiction #divinecompedyproductions

[lexiklecksi]

10 songs (tag game)

Thanks for tagging me @captain-kraken & @writernopal <3 I'm tagging @hraewordsmith @kirkshiresloss @zettelkaestchen to put a playlist on shuffle and share the first 10 songs that come up without cheating! ;-) Also this is an open tag so whoever wants to do that, tag me in your post

I put my "liked songs" Spotify playlist on shuffle which consists of 2700 songs and now that I see what comes up I can't even say I have a taste in music, I just like random songs haha also beware of my oversharing of why I like these songs because I feel like I have to explain myself XD

This is a perfect mash-up! Miley Cyrus is an icon and I also love "Where is my mind?" by The Pixies (and the end scene of Fight Club), but if someone told me a few years ago that Miley Cyrus would perform a mash-up of her song "We can't stop" and "Where is my mind?" on stage, I couldn't believe that it would turn out so awesome.

Solar-based hip-hop based on sun-drunk sounds! I have high hopes for her, she's still a newcomer and her music style is so unique.

Balkan Beats from Germany <3 also yes, we are still here to tell our stories!

Two of my favourite German singer-songwriter bands (Milky Chance & AnnenMayKantereit) having a jam session with Suzanne Vega's song, and it's ... it is perfection! I like it more than the original. The voices of the lead singers are raspy and sexy, but you can also hear them smiling while singing, and that makes it so much better.

This song still makes me cry ... that's all I have to say really, it's perfect fantasy music, but it's also a captivating piece

If you watched the Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 you get it. And if you haven't, go watch their winning performance. Yes, Italian rock won the ESC and I am still amazed by that.

This is probably the best German hip-hop song with an actual political message for Christmas. The music video is pure art, you will understand the themes even if you don't speak German ;-)

Arya Lee is a German singer, YouTuber, actor and film director. He fled from Iran and this song is about his refugee trauma. We should reinforce refugee voices and this hip-hop song demands to be heard. I had a roommate who also fled from Iran, so this song has a special place in my hear, because it made me understand better what he had to endure to make it to a safe place.

You're a part of the dawn where the light comes from the dark You're a part of the morning and еverything matters Herе we are, an atom and a star You're a part of the movement and everything matters

Quand la lumière veut nous voir Quelque part dans le monde Un oiseau s'endort sans bruit Toi et moi, dans la nuit on trouvera Quelque part où déposer les fleurs qu'on a cueillies

If I could write just one poem in my whole life that comes near Aurora's and Pomme's songwriting, I can die in peace. We are so blessed that these faeries share their wisdom with us trough music.

A cellist who is also a songwriter and I'm one of 36 monthly listeners (yes this is a humble brag)

#Spotify #10 songs #tag game #Spotify playlist #favourite songs #weird taste in music #alternative music

[kellyvela]

THE WINDS OF WINTER UPDATE

A Winter Garden

JULY 8, 2022

I have done a lot of interviews over the years, more than even I can possibly keep track of.   Inevitably, a lot of them touch on the same subjects.   One of the things I have been asked about most is my writing process.   If you have seen any of those interviews, you have probably heard me talking about the two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners.   I have given that same spiel numerous times.  Here’s one of the most thorough explanations.

Another question that I get a lot, especially since the end of GAME OF THRONES on HBO, is whether A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, will end the same way.  An architect would be able to give a short, concise, simple answer to that, but I am much more of a gardener.   My stories grow and evolve and change as I write them.  I generally know where I am going, sure… the final destinations, the big set pieces, they have been my head for years… for decades, in the case of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE.   There are lots of devils in the details, though, and sometimes the ground changes under my feet as the words pour forth.

(Another question fans and interviewers alike ask a lot if “Where do you get your ideas?”   Honestly, I wish I knew.   When confronted with the same question, Harlan Ellison used to say, “Schenectady.”   The ancient Greeks spoke of the muses.   Freud talked of the conscious and subconscious minds, the id, the ego, the superego.  More recently, we hear about the right brain and the left brain, one analytic and rational, the other imaginative and creative.   I am pretty sure the answer is not Schenectady, but aside from that… hell, I don’t know.   Yes, there are some instances where I know the seed from which something in my garden sprang.  The Wall sprang from my visit to Hadrian’s Wall in 1981.   The Wars of the Roses inspired much of GAME OF THRONES.   The Red Wedding was a mash up of the Glencoe Massacre and the Black Dinner from Scottish history, turned up way past eleven.   But for every instance like that, there are a hundred for which I have to say, “I don’t know.   One day the thought just came to me.   It wasn’t there, and then it was.”   If that was the work of a muse, may she keep on musing).

Which brings me to THE WINDS OF WINTER.

Most of you know by now that I do not like to give detailed updates on WINDS.   I am working on it, I have been working on it, I will continue to work on it.   (Yes, I work on other things as well).   I love nothing more than to surprise my readers with twists and turns they did not see coming, and I risk losing those moments if I go into too much detail.   Spoilers, you know.   Even saying that I am working on a Tyrion chapter, as I did last week, gives away the fact that Tyrion is not dead.   Reading sample chapters at cons, or posting them on line, which I did for years, gives away even more.   I actually quite enjoyed doing that, until the day came that I realized I had read and/or posted the first couple of hundred pages of WINDS, or thereabouts.  If I had kept on with the readings, half the book might be out by now.

So I am not going to give you all any kind of detailed report on the book, but…

I will say this.

I have been at work in my winter garden.   Things are growing… and changing, as does happen with us gardeners.   Things twist, things change, new ideas come to me (thank you, muse), old ideas prove unworkable, I write, I rewrite, I restructure, I rip everything apart and rewrite again, I go through doors that lead nowhere, and doors that open on marvels.

Sounds mad, I know.   But it’s how I write.   Always has been.   Always will be.   For good or ill.

What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series.   Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in GAME OF THRONES you will also see in THE WINDS OF WINTER (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different.

And really, when you think about it, this was inevitable.   The novels are much bigger and much much more complex than the series.   Certain things that happened on HBO will not happen in the books.   And vice versa.   I have viewpoint characters in the books never seen on the show: Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell, Areo Hotah, Jon Connington, Aeron Damphair   They will all have chapters, and the things they do and say will impact the story and the major characters who were on the show.   I have legions of secondary characters, not POVs but nonetheless important to the plot, who also figure in the story: Lady Stoneheart, Young Griff,  the Tattered Prince, Penny, Brown Ben Plumm, the Shavepate, Marwyn the Mage, Darkstar, Jeyne Westerling.  Some characters you saw in the show are quite different than the versions in the novels.   Yarra Greyjoy is not Asha Greyjoy, and HBO’s Euron Greyjoy is way, way, way, way different from mine.   Quaithe still has a part to play.  So does Rickon Stark.   And poor Jeyne Poole.   And… well, the list is long.    (And all this is part of why WINDS is taking so long.   This is hard, guys).

Oh, and there will be new characters as well.   No new viewpoints, I promise you that, but with all these journeys and battles and scheming to come, inevitably our major players will be encountering new people in lands far and near.

One thing I can say,  in general enough terms that I will not be spoiling anything:  not all of the characters who survived until the end of GAME OF THRONES will survive until the end of A SONG OF ICE & FIRE, and not all of the characters who died on GAME OF THRONES will die in A SONG OF ICE & FIRE.   (Some will, sure.  Of course.   Maybe most.   But definitely not all)   ((Of course, I could change my mind again next week, with the next chapter I write.   That’s gardening)).

And the ending?   You will need to wait until I get there.   Some things will be the same.   A lot will not.

No doubt, once I am done, there will be huge debate about which version of the story is better.   Some people will like my book, others will prefer the television show.   And that’s fine, you pays your money and your make your choice.   (I do fear that a certain proportion of fans are so angry about how long WINDS has taken me that they are prepared to hate the book, unread.   That saddens me, but there nothing I can do about it, but write the best book that I can, and hope that when it comes out most fans will read it with clean hands and an open mind).

That’s all I can tell you right now.  I need to get back to the garden.   Tyrion is waiting for me.

#grrm #asoiaf #twow #latest update

[dutchdread]

I think I understand what are you trying to say. the reason why Clerith will never be end game is the same reason why Cloud will never lose to Sephiroth in the final battle because he slips on a banana peel. that may happen in real life but it suck as a story.

Basically this yeah. Not just because it sucks as a story, but also because it's not set-up as that kind of story. There are stories where the villain wins, and sometimes the villain wins or loses by something as innocent as a banana peel by virtue of dramatic irony, but that's not the kind of story FFVII seems to be telling. In the book of the lord of the rings, the reason the ring is finally destroyed is literally just because Gollum slips. But that slip is still the result of forshadowing throughout the books combined with the themes of the story. No one could destroy the ring through strength of will, yet in the end, the pity of Bilbo ruled the fate of many. Frodo told Gollum that if he were to try to take the ring Frodo would command him to throw himself into the fire. And so the ring does end, destroyed by people fighting over it, in the end evil destroys itself.

Ultimately Sephiroth will lose, we understand this, not just because of set-up, but because we loosely understand the type of story this is. I am going to borrow a part of insanehobbits rundown of the LTD, which you can find here, because I think they said it perfectly already. They point out that there are two different types of narratives.

Messy narratives are ones I would define as stories that try to illuminate something about the human condition, but may not leave the audience feeling very good by the end of it. The protagonists, while not always anti-heroes, don’t always exhibit the kind of growth we’d like, don’t always learn their lessons, probably aren’t the best role models. The endings are often ambivalent, ambiguous, and leaves room for the audience to take away from it what they will. This is the category I would put art films and prestige cable dramas.

Clean narratives are where I would categorize most popular forms of entertainment. Not that these characters necessarily lack nuance, but whatever flaws are portrayed are something to be overcome by the end of story. The protagonists are characters you’re supposed to want to root for

I'd argue that Messy vs Clean are just two opposing elements on a spectrum of different ways to catagorize stories, but what the important take-away is that stories in general have a "type". We can all recognize a certain type of story and when an element of the story doesn't fit the type that causes a whiplash effect, it causes the story, or the feel of the story, to become disjointed. There is a reason we expect graphic violence, blood, nudity, and incest in game of thrones while the same things would constitute a tonal disconnect in Harry Potter. And it's the same reason why we all knew that in the end Harry Potter would have a happy ending while with Game of Thrones that wasn't that certain.

Because there is a thing that I like to call thematic congruency. By which I mean that there are certain events and concepts simply don't mash well together. The same thing goes for narrative congruency and atmospheric congruency. An example of thematic incongruency would be this. Cloud has an alter ego based on Zack, Zack is a Soldier first class, Cloud is basically a nobody. In order to fulfill the heroes journey Cloud has to accept the past, and who he really is. In order to actually defeat Sephiroth he needs to stop living a lie, and stop living a fantasy. There are also two girls, one that is intricately tied to his real identity, that of the nobody. And one that is intricately tied to fantasy alter ego, she is both the girlfriend of the person that persona is based on, as well as an actual fantasy girl from an ancient magical race.

Now if Clouds thematic road to happiness is to accept who he really is, then in order to stay consistent he should also choose to be with the girl who is narratively linked to that real self. While there is no direct causal link that concretely prevents him from ending up with the fantasy girl, it would still be incongruent with the messages, themes, and even general atmosphere that all tangentially correlate to form a coherent whole, aka, the identity of the story. And a story without an identity isn't likely to capture people hearts.

#FFVII #analysis

[ashen-crest]

[ID: a video showing a gallery frame of photos. The photos are comparisons of fictional characters and my cosplays of them. The characters include Percy de Rolo, Suki from ATLA, Ellie from TLOU, Claude from Fire Emblem, Hiccup from HTTYD, Link from BOTW, Rey from Star Wars, Evie Frye from Assassins Creed, Crowley from Good Omens, Loki from Thor Ragnarok, Arya from GoT, and a Scout soldier from Attack of Titan. End ID]

My birthday present from my husband!!

if you weren’t already aware that my husband is the most supportive person on the planet, then you certainly are now.

Cosplays not pictured: Astrid from HTTYD, Catra from She-Ra, Yara from Game of Thrones, and a waterbender assassin mash-up I did.

[ID: a photo of a white woman cosplaying as Catra from She-Ra, wearing the characters purple and pink suit from the prom episode. She’s standing against a white fence, has one hand on her hip, and the other by her face, as if she’s inspecting her long black nails. End ID]

[ID: a comparison triptych showing Astrid from HTTYD on the left, a front view of my cosplay in the middle, and a back view of my cosplay on the right. End ID]

#cosplay #tlovm #ATLA #tlou #fe3h #httyd #loz botw #Star Wars #evie frye #good omens #Loki #arya stark #attack on titan

[inbarfink]

💫💕🏘️

Okay, so my current Special Interest is the Israeli Annual Hannukah Musical Stage Show 'Festigal' sooo....

💫- Favorite fact about your special interest?

Absolutely "Dog on a Dog", the Festigal 1987 Song about a kid and his parents coming across two dogs fucking in the street, while the parents struggle to explain to their kid what's going on in front of him.

I will just always cherish the feeling that I had when I first watched Festigal 1987 and slowly realized what This Song in the children's stage show is actually about. It is an absolutely bizarre moment but it's kinda hard to actually make fun of it cause the song itself is about justifying it's existance.

Like the punchline is that the POV kid DID understand what these two dogs are doing and didn't see what the big deal of it was - unlike his two embarrassed trying to bullshit something for him. He thought they straight-up didn't understand themselves and explained to them "that's how they love and make more puppies".

The, like, moral of this song is that it's silly to try and shield children from facts of nature like Two Dogs Fucking. Thereby justifying the existance of this Two Dogs Fucking Song.

💕 - What’s your fav thing about your special interest?

I love how weird and ridiculous it can get, espacially the way this weirdness can come from just like... thoughtlessness and stupidity and such a shameless attempt to chase trends that it circles back into being original.

Like how Festigal 2014 tried to mash together "The Hunger Games" and "Games of Thrones" into one child-friendly package and ended up with an Epic Furry Space Opera, or how Festigal 1999 had a romantic subplot between a spacefaring magical woman and a talking space blimp, or like... basically everything that happened on stage in Festigal 2000.

I also love that it has such a long and storied history, it had so many changes and evolution going from it's original "The Unofficial Northen Branch of the Children's Songs Festigal" origins to it's current "Jukebox Musical Starring Every Tween's Favorite Popstars" incarnation.

There's so much for me to explore in WHAT things did actually change and HOW and how these changes almost always tie back into bigger changes in media culture since the early 80's. There's a lot here to analyize and you can use it as a lens to analyize other things as well!

🏘️ - What was your first special interest you can remember?

Animals. I had like fifty billion nonfiction books about zoology and different animals. Some of them are so worn-down now that they're basically unreadable. I decorated my room with rainforest-themed drawings and pictures (and most of them are still up), I had imaginary friends which were just... whatever animal I thought was the coolest at the moment (spidermonkeys, aye-aye, hedgehogs). I'm actually really thankful for much following your blog has helped kinda re-ignite my love for zoology, @taggthewanderer!

....although I still can't talk about it as much as I can my stupid stage show lol.

#q&a #ask game #taggthewanderer

[xwendigox]

I just felt like sharing this because lately I’ve been in the feels. For over 4 years now, I’ve been working on an extensive fantasy world that I plan to make into multiple series. I’m talking like in-depth fantasy world. History, lore, legends, myths, etc kind of thing. Currently working on finishing up the different languages. Which is why it’s taking so long.

Watching the Obi-wan Star Wars series brought back so many memories as to what inspired my story. The tragic love story of Anakin Skywalker and Padme that tore apart worlds and rippled throughout time, long after their decease. While mine is more of like a whole mash-up of Game Of Thrones, Lord Of The Rings, Wings Of Fire, etc.

But, the whole Skywalker story is so alluring. His undying love for his wife to point he’d take extreme actions to save her, ended up killing her. His unwavering self-hatred for himself for his failure made him the most powerful figure in the history of the franchise, and the most tragic figure. A broken man, seeking redemption, and after years, finally seeing his son, the last piece of his beloved wife, he could lay everything to rest.

It’s beautiful and moving. You can’t convince me otherwise.

#wendigo’s thoughts #star wars #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #star wars padme

[wetladss]

Day 8

Had a look around Hossogor now that all the French had gone due to the turn in weather and it was easier to get around. Ate some more pastries and head back off down the coastline to Saint Jean De Luz. Went for a swim at the beach which was nice and had a look around the town before heading further down the coast and finding a nice spot to camp. Well a car park ahah. Had a nice home cooked pasta and went for a walk at sunset. Tomorrow we are off to spain.

Day 9

Headed towards Spain and found a nice spot to have a coffee and see the sunrise above the clouds. Cool rock formation in this area as the are huge slabs layered on top of each other. In the waves they create interesting patterns in the water. We continued along the coast line and started seeing heaps of Spanish number plates and without realising had crossed the boarder and where in Spain. Happily greeted with the cheapest fuel prices and now Spanish speakers. We continued along the coastline to Sans Sabastion. This city was beautiful and I hadn’t realize there was a different culture / language / people. Basque Country. It originates from Pagen people and is a bit different to the rest of Spain. Great walks in the area as there was a bay surrounded by hills and had a fort guarding the port which we walked yoo. Then had a beautiful beach we chilled at. Then explored the foods they had to offer. Ham and salami pasties and pintos for dinner. Highlight being duck brioche and the beef cheeks stew in gravy and served with mash potatoes.

Day 10

We woke up and did a workout and had a swim. But cold but felt good. Then got some food and headed off on the road again. We where heading to Basque capital Bilbao. We took the coastal road as it was very scenic and it was cool seeing all the small coastal towns with there ports. Looks like instead of trucks they might be using the ports to get supplies to the towns. We stop at the old Basque capital which had been bomb in the Spain ish civil war and hence moved it to a new city. It had recovered since then by was pretty tame. We arrive in Bilbao which was an epic arrival. Very beautiful city. The Guggenheim museum which had amazing architecture. We grabbed a spanish sandwich. Thalia didn’t want to eat the delicious pizza unfortunately. Then headed to the museum. Pretty cool steel installations which where huge and educated you on the iron ore in the mountains and how it was a huge part of Basque commerce back in the day. Then a few other art works around including some from Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and jean-michel basquiat. Walked around the city some more before finding a place to camp the night.

Day 11

We woke up and headed toward the coastline as one of the Game of Thrones Castle location (Dragon Stone). Pretty epic coastline and awesome walk. Very step but such a cool church built with old stone and a island/headland. Afterward we made Breaky and oversaw the ocean. Interesting to see on one side of the church it was an oil rig and the other side had a wind turbine in the ocean. Probably why fuels really cheap around here. We headed more inland toward Potes and saw some of the major industrial. Then we where greeted by a gorgeous road that was surround by stone mountains that surround a river. It was a bit slow due to them rebuilding most of the road but it was a very speccy place so that wa perfect. We made it to Potes which was cute town which was renowned for amazing food. Thalia wasn’t hungry but I forced us to go try at the Mexican. It was amazing and delicious and I wish we ate more food in this town. Apparently great steaks here. As I assume a lot of the produce is local and most of it was pretty well priced. We had some mixed tacos and they where all really good. After that we headed up the mountain for a walk. It was pretty nice and all the flowers where out. But then a clap a thunder and it started hailing. We rushed back. Very cold. The. Went to head early as it was a huge day.

[linuxgamenews]

A Journey Into Dominions 6: Unleash Your Creativity and Skill

Dominions 6 turn based 4x strategy game launches on Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. All of this is possible due to the incredible creativity and skill of the team at Illwinter Game Design. Available now on Steam with 91% Very Positive reviews. Let's dive into the epic world of Dominions 6, a turn based 4x strategy title that's all about ruling your own nation and battling it out to become the ultimate god. This title isn't your usual fantasy fare on Linux; it's a blend of history, culture, and myth, making it a unique experience. As, a Pretender God, with a nation at your command. You could be anything from a mighty wizard to a colossal titan, or even a significant monument. The thing is, your choice of god and nation shapes your strengths and strategies. Your god-like abilities and the devotion of your people are key. If your followers lose faith, it's game over for you. But keep their spirits high, and your sacred warriors become even mightier. Winning in Dominions 6 is also a challenge. You've have three ways to clinch victory: take over enemy territories, wipe out their belief systems, or claim the Thrones of Ascension. These paths to victory keep every play through exciting and more riveting. Now, let's talk about the setting. Forget the usual elves and orcs; Dominions 6 takes you through a mash-up of real-world cultures and mythical lore. You could lead a group inspired by the Norse vanir, the Aztecs, or ancient Romans, or even step into the shoes of Lovecraftian entities. This title has been evolving since its first release in 2002, and it's still going strong, making it one of the longest lasting strategy series out there.

Dominions 6 - Official Trailer

This new edition ups the ante from its predecessor, Dominions 5. In Dominions 6, expect bigger battles and armies. The designers tweaked the balance between brute force and magic. You'll find that resources and incomes are up, but magic users cost more. Big, game changing spells are harder to cast, but there's a wider selection of intermediate spells to play with. One of the unique new features is the addition of the Glamour magic path. This isn't just about pulling rabbits out of hats; we're talking illusions, illusions, and the stuff of legends. This new magic path brings fresh spells, items, and locales to explore. Another big change is how cavalry units work. Now, riders and mounts are separate entities with their own stats. This might seem like a small tweak, but it really changes how you use mounted units in battle. Linux players can also play Dominions 6 in solo play, battle against others online or over LAN, team up in co-op modes both online and locally, and even play on split-screen. Plus, it offers cross-platform multiplayer, Steam Workshop support, and the ability to use Steam Play Together! Lastly, this launch also brings new nations and updates to existing ones, thanks to the new Glamour path. There are also several tweaks to make your gaming experience smoother and more fun. See the documentation page for the manuals as well as videos for beginners.

What Players are saying:

Players rave about the unique Dominions 6 scenarios, like raising undead armies or shaping dream demons, that make each game a distinct storytelling adventure. The appeal lies in its blend of simplicity in learning and depth in strategy, particularly highlighted in its multiplayer mode. While the AI may not always match human cunning, the title's community and the potential for modding promise ongoing enhancements. Veterans of the series note big upgrades in Dominions 6 over its predecessor, such as bigger battlefields, more nuanced magic systems, and intriguing new realms to explore. Despite some criticism over the price and the similarity to Dominions 5, the release is celebrated for its intricate mechanics and rich, myth inspired lore, making it a standout choice for strategy fans. So, get ready to claim your godhood in Dominions 6. It's a turn based 4x strategy adventure where history, myth, and your decisions shape the world. Available on Steam priced at $38.24 USD / £32.29 / 37,39€ with the 15% launch discount. Along with support for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC.

#dominions 6 #turn based #4x strategy #linux #gaming news #illwinter game design #ubuntu #mac #windows #pc #Youtube