tuxedo-rabbit

[tuxedo-rabbit]

[tuxedo-rabbit]

Rereading Sunshine by Robin McKinley (one of my favourite vampire books). All I remember from reading it 10 years ago is the amount of page-time dedicated to baking cinnamon rolls. But I've realised, this time round, that the baking of cinnamon rolls is the symptom of a much larger theme in characterisation - Rae's ride-or-die commitment to the 'I'm just some guy' bit.

Every single chapter, another thing is revealed about Rae that puts her closer to being a special snowflake Chosen One: her name is Raven Blase but her nickname is Sunshine, she has sunlight powers, she's not just an innocent bystander but the daughter of a powerful warlock, she can help a vampire walk in sunlight, she's performing powerful magic. And every single time Rae just turns round and says to the reader, "but that's not important :) I'm just some guy :) I really like baking :) ignore that gothic heroine coding :) it's time to get up at 4am to make bread :)"

Her commitment to being Just Some Guy is genuinely carrying the novel. Every single day she becomes more of a Chosen One, but there's cinnamon rolls to make. Fucking D&D-ass characterisation. High art.

#oh! I loved robin mckiney's beauty & the beast retelling #i never thought to look up her other books #ill have to check this out

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Dungeon Meshi - Anime screening booklet extra

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Having more dragon age thoughts- this time about my dwarves, and partially about Varric.

So, hot take to lead with- Oghren is actually a much better and more insightful character to criticse dwarven cast system and culture then Varric. The best dwarven companion we ever got is obviously Sigrun but I feel like this one is pretty much self-explanatory, so I feel much more compelled to talk through our two lovely dwarven gentleman.

First thing I want to say is that, while I usually feel need to say that I do not hold anything against Varric as a character, his disdain for dwarven culture is something that bothers me a little. Especially since he is one of 3 dwarven companions we get across whole 3 games, and by far the most popular one. He is actually pretty similar to Sera at times in a way he views his own heretige but the games refuse to address it. Which is a shame because I think his view on the culture he was basically excommunicated from before he was even born should be a bigger deal then some quips about beards and getting antsy any time he steps near a thaig. Like Varric clearly has some very very complicated feelings about all things dwarven- something that no so subtly is a mirror of his very very complicated feelings on his brother who was much more of a 'real dwarf'. It feels like in an attempt to distance himself from what his brother represented Varric also felt a need to distance himself from anything too dwarven. But at the same time we see that it's something he never really let's go off- he is moved by his ancestor's fate in Legacy dlc questline, he keeps up with dwarven politics, he will get a bit miffed at mere mention of him not looking your standard dwarf.

However since dwarven culture doesn't come up half as much as elven one in later games we never really get to do anything with Varric's internalized issues. It's just sort of becomes a running joke that he is "not like other dwarves, that guy he HATES deep roads and he doesn't have a beard". And while that in itself is fine, not all characters have to focus on their relationship with their culture it becomes an issue when Varric is the only companion representative of said culture through 2 out of 3 games. It means the game has much less opportunities to present us with fun lore in an organic fashion because Varric is too busy making sure we know he hates it here. Like why I am more tempted to take Iron Bull to a dwarven ruins the Varric.

Oghren was ultimately a much better point of reference for dwarves because he is a product of this environment and he is surprisingly insightful and self-aware about it. And despite the multitude of ways in which Orzammar failed him he still cares about it. He still takes a lot of pride in his heretige even if all it really brought him is being rejected for becoming the thing it wanted him to be- a killing machine.

And now I am stuck on one hand wishing that there will be SOMETHING done with Varric's not feeling dwarfy enough- on the other however if Varric will be the only dwarven companion in DA:D I am going to scream. I am sorry all the Varric fans, he is either coming back in an advisor style role or I do not want to see him . It sometimes feels like the writers are not comfortable with writing dwarves and they use the 'least dwarfy dwarf' Varric as a get out of jail card and I just want something new.

#the woman who wrote the majority of the dwarf lore in origins left the company after da2 #and i think that explains a lot of things with how dwarf characters and plots were written in dai #it was jennifer hepler and like. i don't think anyones happy with what she based anders's characterization on in da2 #but I am sad that one of the only writers interested dwarves left and no one picked up that chunk of lore after her

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Kind of hilarious to me how poorly the title "Mob Psycho 100" localized to English-speaking areas. To someone whose first language is English, it scans as:

Mob (Yakuza, Mafia)

Psycho (violent person with "crazy" behaviors)

Thus: a particularly violent member of organized crime.

But in Japanese it scans as:

Mob (background characters in crowd scenes in manga or anime)

Psycho (short for psychic)

Thus: a psychic who looks/acts like someone you'd never pick out of a crowd scene in a comic.

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taco bell takes all those crunchwrap pictures with 40x the amount of ground beef that they will regularly allow, not permitting more than a fucking teaspoon of their meat slurry to put used per dish, and then have the unmitigated gall to tell me its worth ten dollars.

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I am watching the part of cr3 where Fearne and FCG literally walk into Otohan and I'm so stressed

#yes i know what happens in later episodes #no it doesnt make this moment less scary #idek how they are gonna be able to get out of this #otohan is one of the most terrifying villains to me #she just is so good at killing them

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the first complaynts are coming in: jess thinks my rimes are but a sin. she canot see the meme’s apeel. the bredlik love she does not feel.

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This was a lie btw.

Tristan is the buffing king. He and Harrim take turns being party cleric.

Who cares about deceit or being squishy when he can cast blessing of the faithful every turn.

After finally being able to put Tristan in my party I am baffled as to why he's the cleric everyone loves.

Like yes he's pretty, but an enemy can simply look at him and he dies.

Meanwhile nihilist dwarf king Harrim can heal AND curse AND wears heavy armor.

Never switching him out for Tristan again.

#and fireball #fireball is nice too #(along with the other cleric buffs) #harrim is still my nihilist king though #love him

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I spent $10 on this game.

I cant believe this game was only $10. Its got so much content. I've enjoyed it more than a lot of recent $60-$70 games I've bought.

Please play the pathfinder games if you haven't already.

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This was prompted by me doing 2 main plot quests today and then later feeling like I didnt really get to play the game bc I didn't do any kingdom management.

The kingdom management in kingmaker is addicting. I know a lot of people found it tedious but I love creating little villages, planning out where the buildings should go, even the war table missions are fun!

It ticks that same box for me that sid meyer's civilization games & settlement building in fo4 do.

#yes i did a dungeon and saved some companions #but i still havent built a city in the south naarlmarches so does it even really matter? #no maegar varn i dont want to go help you rescue your girlfriend #i want to spend 14 days helping my general deal with an avalanche!! #(meanwhile a week ago i was making sad posts about said gf getting stranded)

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The kingdom management in kingmaker is addicting. I know a lot of people found it tedious but I love creating little villages, planning out where the buildings should go, even the war table missions are fun!

It ticks that same box for me that sid meyer's civilization games & settlement building in fo4 do.

#pathfinder kingmaker #i hate having to take breaks to do plot stuff #i mean the main plot is good too #but if there wasnt a timer on it id be grinding my barony till it was max level before i did any of the big quests #god its just the perfect mix of civilization plus rpg mechanics

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Excuse me? He asked for no pickles!

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I really like how it feels like each character represents different player styles. Or specs.

Lucy feels like the player that just ~can't~ be mean to the npcs. Tries to talk down violent npcs. Maxed charisma.

Norm is the player who'd read all the computer entries and flavor text. Lore is really important to him. Perception and intelligence are maxed so he can hack and lockpick anything.

Max is a bit of a bro who thinks they want a BoS playthrough because military hoorah, but ends up really really liking a companion that dislikes half of your choices that align with the BoS. Would probably force close the game if he saw [Lucy disliked that.] To try again. Also maxed luck.

Coop clearly wants to be a badass that shoots first and asks questions later, but ends up being a lovable rouge who begrudgingly helps the npcs. Maxed agility.

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I love love love how Lucy has shown Maximus that he can feel safe and loved and find a home to feel happiness for once in all his lifetime and the fact Maximus is holding that with all his might to have that hope to have that happiness and safety with Lucy

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Pls Maximus's little "oops" after he just beat tf outta like 5 people and threw a damn fridge is so funny