Question: Chip, I gotta ask. Did you intend to make Batman a little bisexual in The Knight?

Chip Zdarsky: just a little? man, I thought it was clear.

eyyyy, yo win for the bisexual community!! <33 and yes I know this is just one universe (I believe),but uh do I care? nope! all Bruce's are canonically bi now in my mind baby and I shall never accept otherwise<33

a smaller part of my thoughts on the mw3 campaign that i think is important enough to need its own post:

(there are spoilers below)

i've seen many cod creators on here talking about the situation going on in the middle east right now, and a lot of posts condemning the ethnic cleansing and genocide happening in palestine. i think it's great, especially coming from a fandom based on games that are first and foremost military propaganda. what i don't think is great is that soap's death seems to be taking priority over the blatant terrorist storyline that happens with samara and the changing of the no russian mission.

a middle eastern woman - the second one to get a shocking, and brutal death (more brutal than soap's, might i add) - is taken hostage by a group and forcibly made to hijack a plane. she is forced to wear a bomb strapped to her chest and dragged to the back of the plane where more civilians are. when she tries to fight back we get this exchange:

hijacker: are you a terrorist?

samara: no!

hijacker: you look like one.

she is then handed a gun, shoved into a crowd, and we are forced to watch her struggle to get a phone against a crowd of people who think she is a terrorist before the plane blows up.

i see a lot of people in the fandom saying to reject canon as a way to cope, which i fully understand - canon is really really stupid sometimes. however, i'm also seeing a lot of people saying to pretend this campaign just doesn't exist, and i take a lot of issue with that.

this fandom, in particular, does not get to do that. you can be upset with soap's death, the thrown together storyline, the half-baked combat, whatever else you don't like about the game, but we do not get to ignore the purposeful mistreatment of a middle eastern character while also being vocal about palestine. we do not get to ignore that activision chose to change this mission from makarov shooting up an airport, to forcing a middle eastern character to blow up a plane while he escapes. we do not get to ignore that the cod games are military propaganda, and that just because we may enjoy playing or watching these games, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be looking at these games, their storylines, and their characters critically.

i need people to understand that it is an immense privilege to be able to turn them off and "ignore the campaign" while casually reblogging the occasional post about palestine. you are allowed to enjoy these games, and you are allowed to be angry and hurt over soap's death. these games are allowed to be a form of escapism for you, but i am begging you all to think more critically about the choices activision is making here, and understand that escapism doesn't mean you can disregard and ignore those choices.

and i think a lot of people, those who post about palestine in particular, should think about why this fandom is placing more importance on a white character's death than the blatant and egregious islamophobia and military propaganda.

hello oh great provider of art and analysis, do you have any tips on how to correctly analyse a character?

Funnily, I don't think there's a correct way to analyze media, but there are incorrect ways to do it. But my advice for sound analysis is as follows...

Look at Canon. Reference it as heavily as physically possible. Take into consideration who the author is, and what their intentions would be. Extradiegetic Analysis is extremely important. Commit to it. Do not pussyfoot around Extradiegetic Analysis. Take into consideration the story, its tone, who it's made for, who it is marketed towards, what messages it's trying to convey, how, and why. Use Occam's Razor heavily. Ground yourself, turn off "Fandom Brain", and your own personal headcanons. Remember that Characters are Plot Devices, not People- they are put in the story for a reason, and they serve a particular function within the narrative. Ask yourself what that reason is, and what that function is. It's important to get a firm grasp of the story and the characters in it before extrapolating. Ponder their relationships with themself, others, the world around them, their task at hand. Try to take into account framing, themes, motifs, and symbolism.

Grab anything that really stands out to you, see what you can do with it. Analyze why it stands out to you. Does it match your own personal experience in some way? Does it remind you of something else? Does it seem to be setting something up within the context of a story? Are the curtains blue for a reason? If not, should they be? What if they did? What function would that serve?

Analysis is largely asking questions and trying to answer them. Sometimes those questions are posed by the thing you're analyzing itself. Sometimes the question comes from your heart. Sometimes it emerges from something you've latched onto that isn't quite there - a blind spot in the narrative, missed potential, et cetera.

Again, Occam's Razor is your friend. Get very familiar with it. And... Do not consult Freud on anything. If you feel the impulse to consult Freudian analytical concepts without prompting from the narrative itself, that's the devil talking to you. Beat it to death immediately. We do not need Freudian analysis of children's cartoons. We literally do not need that. It will be wrong.

This is one I'm seeing more and more disregard for lately, especially with regards to minority headcanons... Consider the real-world implications of your analysis. I do not think it is very "woke" to headcanon unrepentant sexually abusive assholes as trans women, or characters who are known for their loudness, aggression, and abusive natures as Black. Consider optics for maybe, like, five seconds. Analysis is just as much an act of introspection as it is an act of dissecting a piece of fiction. You need to be able to ask yourself why you're seeing characters the way that you're seeing them. Sometimes that answer is latent bigotry. Unpack that. Work on it. Sometimes the answer is that the author is a bigot and trying to tell you something about the group of people a character is supposedly representative of. Acknowledge it. Unpack that. Work with it. And I mean that seriously- you cannot just skirt around bigotry without perpetuating the bigotry yourself. Analysis will, by way of the vulnerability of the practice, get uncomfortable at times. Be ready for that.

Think critically and think for yourself. A lot of people shoot themselves in the foot by being reactionary, and/or letting other people do the thinking for them. Again, analysis will get uncomfortable at times. It is vulnerable, introspective, and an act of challenging yourself and your worst habits. Commit to that.

Oh, and have fun. Yes, I just spent several paragraphs talking about how analysis is challenging and uncomfortable, but don't make yourself have a genuinely bad time on purpose. You truly do not need to give yourself an attack or episode for the sake of an internet post or something. Horror movie rules - know your limits and respect them.

That's all for now, I think. There's infinite nuance to this subject, but I believe this is a decent 101 post.

Defining Lore(bible).

Did you know TGC confirmed to the Lore community that the story isn't just being made up as they go?

Lore theorists were getting pretty upset around late 2020, because a nihilistic cultural movement was swelling amongst us over a question:

If the story was never fully created/fleshed out, then are we just theorizing about a story... that doesn't exist?

[[[Longer read ahead]]]

[[[Continue reading]]]

We are back

It's been quite an agonizing week and all I've wanted to do for so long was just get back on this. Even now that I'll barely be approaching our topic of the day/week, the question still lingers: how long does working on a single article take? Though the writing portion of the production process takes 2-4 (idle/distracted) hours of writing, I spend an entire week beforehand searching up, on average, dozens of philosophical and scientific wikis and official research studies, panning for things to help me distinguish my arguments in interesting ways. I've come to really love reading, and while I haven't been able to write; I promise that we've been reading.

Why do these articles need such thorough and often unconnected briefs and research just in order for us to post them? According to the amazing community-control dev Ash from Lorechat, we know that there is supposedly a 'canon' story that TGC's team works together to ensure is still cohesive to the 'grand plan'; fleshed out much greater than most aspiring theorists would/do believe. (Supposedly). When first announcing this to an absolutely livid Lorechat in late 2020, Ash called it "The Lore Bible". The devs have the Lore Bible. But we don't.

The Lore Bible, the original story of Sky; the descriptive, canon history of the Ancestor kingdom, was written before Sky officially launched in 2019. Which means that Ash is suggesting to the Lore community that Sky's story has always had its 'full details', with none of the major plot points of the fall of the kingdom excessively changing. There is an Answer. But to most theorists, we will never come remotely close to confidently knowing we have it, not without help anyways. But I don't think that's true. I don't think it's impossible. And I think, help or not, we can keep taking steps closer towards Knowing.

Because Sky is just a Story. Sky is a fictional world, with a structured civilization and exhaustively-planned ecosystem. They had to have come into having these ideas from somewhere. They had inspiration, and now we do too. We can decide what their inspiration was, and we try to rebuild the Story in our mind from the ground up. We've always already tried to rebuild the Story in our heads from the ground up. But I'd like to verbalize in a different light, for a different view.

Here on this blog, we won't be rebuilding this World, this concept of what a Kingdom looked like. Instead, I want to tear it back down. I want to strip the fabrics apart by their seams, and see every way that they have sewn this together. I want to peel it back until it was just a thought in their heads.

We have to reverse-engineer the entire thing.

The point, is to not start creating the entire world. I'd rather not do that. So many Sky theorists try, and it often just doesn't always work perfectly. Why? Because of the loose ends. They built their characters; their interactions, their plot, climax, falling action; relationships; tender moments; bitter tears.

But in the end those characters, those emotions, all stand on loose gravel, in quicksand, their ankles getting pulled in by the unbuilt world they've made.

This is why world building is so important, and the missing step we've been disregarding all these years. We need to prioritize creating the foundation before we can stand up on it.

The Answer is out there folks. So let's keep looking.

In your little lamb AU is Hunter's relationship with Belos different? I can see that Hunter is severely punished when he disregards the role of protector (Due to Belos's grudge to Caleb) but aside from that is he treated any differently?

i love belos & hunter's dynamic in my au honestly. i've compared it before to catra & shadow weaver's, but its actually more complicated than that because shadow weaver actually did care about catra herself in a weird, fucked up way.

but belos only cares about hunter in relation to his bond with luz. the only reason hunter is actually treated with more care and concern in this au is because belos knows luz would be upset if anything happened to him. the best part is that hunter? 100% aware of this.

it's my headcanon that belos has been raising hunter since infancy despite all the previous grimwalkers being at least 12+ years old before being exhumed and hunter being dug up early was an accident turned into an experiment of belos seeing if hunter would be more loyal and capable than the others.

so hunter grew up actually feeling wanted & loved by his uncle, but also starving for real bond and affection from him. he puts himself on a pedestal in hunter's mind with careful wording and specific choices. in canon, this leads to hunter clinging to any scrap of affection thrown his way and feeling disconnected from his uncle but also exceptionally desperate to prove himself due to his hero-worship of the man.

in my little lamb au, however, this process is completely scrapped the second he decides to bring luz into the picture. you're right that belos would be exceedingly harsh on hunter for anything he perceives as hunter disregarding his role as luz's protector. but also, hunter doesn't often give belos the chance to find discrepencies there.

hunter adores luz. luz shows hunter very early on that affection and love and care from family can be given easily and unconditionally. he learns from her that he doesn't NEED to prove himself to belos just to feel wanted. luz makes him feel wanted all on her own. so it's not belos's pressuring that makes hunter really step into the role of protecting and taking care of luz full time, it's his love for luz herself.

belos & hunter are both aware that the other knows what they're doing. there's a shaky mutual understanding between them. hunter understands to be quiet and do what he's told and belos understands not to do anything that would upset luz.

and of course hunter still somewhat hero-worships belos-- he's still suuuuper brainwashed and wants that approval that he's doing a good job, but he also understands that belos cares about luz far, far more that he'll ever care about him. and hunter is honestly... pretty okay with that.

he's also a little more secure in his role as golden guard because luz would blow tf up at belos if he tried replacing hunter with anyone else. (luz is the only person who can yell at belos and actually get away with it. he doesn't bend to her in those moments but... think more of his reaction in canon when she broke his mask.)

but once luz runs away for good... hunter begins to crack under the pressure of having all of belos's attention on him for once. and especially because of how fucking angry belos is when luz is gone.

Okay okay I’ve seen some takes regarding Orym on twitter (specifically about his relationship to Laudna) that I feel the need to refute but I have a lot of thoughts and also I don’t want to get into fights so hi tumblr! rant below the cut 😊

(tl;dr I think the bell’s hells are doing the best they can in a series of complicated situations, but people are expecting a kind of inter-party conflict to come from it that doesn’t line up with the text and I don’t get it, so I guess I must become Orym’s #1 defender, feat. a defense of the c3e63 decision, Ludinus Da’leth hate, and big big feelings about Keyleth and Vax)

Take: Orym is uncomfortable with Laudna’s weirdness/creepiness, as evidenced by him always bringing it up and trying to hide and obscure her undead presence.

My opinion: Laudna loves the fact that she’s creepy. She revels in it. Orym/Liam pointing it out in narration is part flavor text, part acknowledging an important aspect of Laudna. It’s like how he always makes sure everyone knows that Orym is Small. Not to mention, Marisha brings it up in her narration as much as Liam does.

During Laudna’s resurrection ritual, Orym says, “I don’t know what Bell’s Hells will be without your darkness, Laudna. Or your light.” He values both sides of her!

Regarding Orym’s disguises for Laudna (i.e. dressing her in white in bassuras, adding flowers to her hair to give her more color in hearthdell), again I don’t think this is a sign of Orym’s discomfort with her. Remember, Orym is a bodyguard. His job is to protect others, protect the group. Yes, several members of Bell’s Hells will draw eyes, but notably, Laudna—being undead-ish, with the Unsettling Presence feature and a canonically scary physical appearance—might strike fear into others. And fear makes people more willing to resort to violence than, say, being surprised by the presence of a robot or a faun. It’s not about making her palatable, it’s about keeping all of them safe. It’s bodyguard behavior.

Also, Orym only does this when they are actively avoiding drawing attention to themselves, and as far as I know, Laudna has only had a problem with it once.

Take: Laudna looked to Ashton and Orym for what to do during the scuffle with Bor’Dor, and Orym encouraged her to let Delilah back in, all because he’s hell-bent on revenge and thinks he can use Delilah’s power to get it. He actively disregarded Laudna’s well-being to further his own goals.

My opinion: No, she wasn’t looking to them for what to do. Marisha said it herself: Laudna was barely present. She couldn’t even hear Deni$e suggest keeping Bor’Dor alive; what makes you think she’s going to see a singular nod from Orym 15 feet away? She had already done Hunger of the Shadow, was already cloaked in the “purple-ish glowing hue that hasn’t been seen in a while,” and Matt had mentioned the heartbeat long before Liam ever said anything. Laudna had already let Delilah back in before Orym nodded and before she killed Bor’Dor. It was a horrible situation all around, but Orym did not convince Laudna to let Delilah back in for his own purposes. It is not his fault that Laudna embraced Delilah’s power or that Bor’Dor died. Laudna made her choice, as heartbreaking and conflicting as it may be, so let her live with it.

And for the record, I think they were justified in killing Bor’Dor. He attacked them with a pretty powerful spell (he did Vitriolic Sphere at its baseline 4th level, which is the second highest level spell he had) and nearly killed Prism in the process. Yes, Bor’Dor did a bit of waffling back and forth between “I’m gonna kill you!” and “just let me die,” but him being a pathetic mess is nothing new. He still tried to kill them all. If they let him live, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t try it again.

I don’t know how to impress this upon people who haven’t already gotten it from just watching the show, but the Ruby Vanguard is a bad group. Ludinus Da’leth is a bad person. He may have convinced some members that his goals are noble, but they aren’t. He is misleading people for his own gain, because guess what? The concept of free will exists even with the existence of the gods! People are allowed to worship them or not, and the gods aren’t smiting people down for refusing to worship them (otherwise Keyleth would be long dead, y’all. she said out loud to the champion of the raven queen that they should use her power while it benefitted them and then find a loophole to get Vax out of her service. and she is so valid for that. 15/10 would do the same).

We had a PC, a dozen or so NPCs, and an entire arc last campaign—and then a whole 4-part series!—that dealt with wizard hubris and its unfortunate consequences. Ludinus was one of those NPCs! What makes you think that Mr. “let’s steal a holy artifact and instigate a war” “should try friends sometime” “Essek looks forward to never seeing his face again” “Trent Ikithon can keep abusing children it’s not my problem” Da’leth suddenly has people’s best interests in mind?

He and the Ruby Vanguard need to be stopped, and Orym, being a person whose driving motivation is “to protect,” is willing to do what needs to be done, even when it sucks.

Take: ooohoohoo Orym’s alignment might be shifting! We need Dorian to get him back on track!

My opinion: No? To both these statements? Firstly, Orym’s alignment isn’t shifting, at least I don’t think so. I’m not an expert on D&D alignments (I think they should be more descriptive than prescriptive/ultimately they matter less than character choices, arcs, and narratives), but I would guess that fighting to maintain the balance of nature and to stop those that would harm others for their own gain is still pretty in line with neutral good? I could maybe see an argument for that being more lawful good, but it didn’t seem like those people were talking about a shift along the horizontal axis.

Secondly, I think Dorian would do the exact same thing Orym is doing. Was that not the whole draw of the Spider Queen’s crown during ExU Prime? Power to protect and save his friends? So I don’t think Dorian would see anything wrong with how Orym is acting, much less take him to task over it.

Take: Look! Orym told Keyleth about Imogen’s mom and said “I don’t care” when Imogen complained! Bad! Mean! Selfish!

My opinion: idk that felt more like Liam being a brat to Laura than anything else.

Like, yes Liam/Orym had his own goals in that convo which were unexpected and uncomfortable, but I don’t think he was wrong to point that out. The moment Keyleth swore to take down Liliana, you could feel everyone in Bell’s Hells get really tense, and I am certain that Keyleth, who has 20 wisdom and ~30 years of experience leading her people and politicking, clocked that instantly. And Orym would have clocked that immediately, and in an effort to make sure that their group had the confidence of a very powerful druid and world leader, decided that full transparency was the way to go.

And I don’t know, this is largely speculation, but Keyleth having that information might mean that she will make sure Imogen doesn’t have to be the one to take down Liliana? Or it might make her more sympathetic and willing to show some mercy to her?

Leaning more fully into speculation bc this relies mostly on inference and assumption: while I do think that Keyleth deserves to know what’s going on with Vax, withholding that information at this juncture might have been another tactical decision from Orym. We don’t know how Keyleth has mourned over the last 30 years, but we know that she’s been angry and we know that losing Vax was and is devastating. I feel like finding out that the love of your life (“forever and ever and ever and always” “I’ll never get over you”) is suffering extreme torment such that the followers of his god are in a period of mourning, basically implying that you’ve lost him all over again, that potentially the one reassurance that you would see him again has been ripped from you, etc., etc. would cause anyone to break down on a good day. Add on the fact that Keyleth is gravely, gravely injured, and you’re basically asking for her to be completely out of commission, because 1) holy moly talk about new trauma, old trauma, grief, longing, guilt, etc. bro I’m an emotional wreck just thinking about Vax and I’m not the one living through it, and 2) that would be a lot of stress on her already extremely stressed body, the consequences of which could be very bad.

It’s a tough decision to make, and while I’m not sure I 100% agree with Orym’s, I think it’s a defensible position.

Anyway thanks for reading this far, I hope you enjoyed my analysis. Again, I don’t want to fight or get into arguments, but I’m down for some brief discussions! Emphasis on brief because I can fall into a rabbit hole very easily, which means this will be the only thing I can think of and I have other things I want to do, shadowgast to write, fearnechetney to draw, and this post already took several hours over two days to write after weeks of mental build up.

okay, i'm going to spam today. mmm damian, jon (as he is in OUR minds), aaaaaaaand. lois.

hell YEAH lets go!! damian first:

Headcanon A:  realistic

he goes to veterinary school. something something not either of his parent's legacies but something of his own that still feels like it's honoring them in its own way (medicine-adjacent. hands to help heal rather than harm. you get it)

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

he pretends not to know english that well in order to make jon explain the "deez nuts" joke he just made. jon is mad about it because he KNOWS damian knows english perfectly well enough to get deez nutted, but damian refuses to drop the pretense until jon glares at him and explains the joke. damian thinks he's hilarious. and he is.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

man this isn't even hc really but do you ever think about the way he is just a little guy who never wants to hurt anyone or anything but he was born into a cycle of violence he never asked for. before he was ever old enough to understand it, there was blood on his hands. it's a guilt he'll always carry. i think he and cass should bond over this btw

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

i dont know what the fuck canon is doing over there at this point but its important to me that he and talia love each other. there can be complexity and nuance to it but he loves his mom. dc shut up and listen okay they love each other!!!!

and now jon (as he SHOULD be):

Headcanon A:  realistic

he grows up with two central struggles: a) the classic mixed kid agonies, and b) the fact that he lives with immense pressure between both of his parents legacies that he can't escape. as a hero, he's superman's son. as a civilian, he's lois lane's son. everyone compares him to his parents, and so does he.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

his puppy eyes are so strong he's literally charmed the shirt off kon's back before. ("hey, kon, i'm packing for that camping trip with my friends this weekend, can i borrow your red--oh... you're wearing it. okay... never mind... 🥺👉👈 unless? 🥺🥺🥺") (kon, actively pulling off his shirt: "YOU ARE A HORRIBLE LITTLE MANIPULATIVE GREMLIN AND I HOPE YOU KNOW THAT.")

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

well now im just thinking of that time you were like haha what if i write a fic where lex luthor kills jon in front of kon. i don't think i can top that. you motherfucker.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

no age-up bullshit. instead he exists in our beautiful postcrisis mishmash sandbox. he's like 4 when kon hatches (unless he isn't because timelines? what are those <3) and he is simply kon's beautiful little baby brother who has him wrapped around his little finger from day one.

AND NOW LOIS!!!

Headcanon A:  realistic

she's the breadwinner for the family. clark works from home/is a stay-at-home dad while jon is little. they have to figure it out a bit whenever superman is needed, but they make it work.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

the first time she visited the kent farm, she stepped in a cow patty and clark laughed his ass off at her, so lois took off the shit-covered shoe and threw it at him.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

having to take care of baby jon during the month clark was dead/"dead" while watching everything go down in reign of the supermen is probably what she would say is the hardest thing she's ever had to do.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

i need her to take tim under her wing for a little while. she sees in him a kindred spirit: a do-gooder, incredibly nosy little fuck. she can enable all of his snooping and sneaky tendencies. she'll ruffle his hair and generally regard him like a weird kitten kon found in the gutter one day and brought home. they go on at least one (mis)adventure.

overview cont. i guess lmao. no one asked but its been something in the back of my mind for a while now & i got an anon tonight telling me i come off intimidating and i feel the need to just. make note of some things so that hopefully if anyone feels a certain way with how i run this blog then like. know and understand both my side as well as that my dms / disc is open for anyone to pop into -- just obv depends on the headspace at the time.

i know this is long & am sorry if it doesnt make sense but. just setting it gently out there.

but, again, my disc ( same as my url ) is open for any mutual. its open to shoot the shit. open for plotting. open for memes. what have you. i may not always get to every message. i may not be in the headspace for certain things or certain energies. but its open for anyone as long as we are mutuals & if handles are different between here & disc then i just get a heads-up abt who you are so i know lmao

likewise, i am fairly fucking slow writing-wise and alot of that is because of offsite issues chipping into me but also because most, if not all, of the things i DO have in the inbox or drafts are from my affiliates at this time ( tho i do have some more from the archive i need to move over from a couple people ). alot of my spoons and drive to write and post is because of the dynamics and plotting built between our muses. im not a blog centered on plotting but, it does help to have a better idea on how to navigate between muses c: esp for those technically outside of my kiddos' texas canon obviously. that being said, anyone is welcome to like any inbox calls i put out there. and my inbox is always open and accepting, even if i havent reblogged prompts in a while -- i have my tag linked on my pinned and its available always & for whomever. it just comes with the understanding that i may take a while to respond to them & they may not get as expansive as some of my posts can get with my affiliates; which again, is just simply from how much we've been building together that helps with that!

on that note. my connections with my texas pals are very dear to me. both ic & ooc. as i noted in my overview post, i talk about the dynamics we've built openly and freely here because theyre so integral to my portrayals. they & their kiddos have my entire heart and i unapologetically love having fun with them and going on tangents with them and bouncing thoughts off of each others posts on the dash.

my experiences in other corners of tumby rp have not been particularly kind. and its been a long time since ive felt comfortable especially ooc with writing partners. and i understand if i may come across closed off or intimidating or unapproachable. i understand if i also come across partial to them / play favorites because frankly... i am. i do. thats because they've built bonds not just between characters but also with me. ill be very transparent and say that i am very particular in who i get close with and that translates into here too. but thats also just something that easily can also happen with literally anyone. again i do understand if i come across closed off in any sense but genuinely? im not scary and i have options open for continuing to grow more connections with people c: theyre open always. what im not going to do, however, purely out of personal experience is chase after interactions. the last fandoms i wrote in i did so and it wore me down into my last hiatus. i will show equal enthusiasm to whats given. but i wont fish for it, either. its just not my cup of tea.

i like to think im fairly patient and understanding in a lot, probably moreso than i should in some cases -- sincerely though if theres issues know that im fine with it being brought up. but im also not going to be welcoming nor tolerate my boundaries being disregarded or disrespected, im already dealing with that with an offsite friend. not dealing with it here. i do not like feeling so uncomfortable existing on my own blog or in my own disc. and i get that already with my personal disc & this offsite friend in particular. im not dealing with it here too.

which on that note, i also wont be receptive with issues regarding what i post, what i talk about, who i write with, who i choose as affiliates or mains or w/e. my blog & my dash are my safe & comfort zones and these muses often help me alot with navigating when my headspace is at a fucked up level. if any of that is a concern yes youre welcome to come to me and talk it over but end of the day? my comfort & mental state is a priority to me. if thats ever an issue i truly would just recommend you do what you feel is best for you. everyone existing on this hell-plane are entitled on curating their space in whatever manner they see fit.

again. i promise im not scary. im not an ass. but i do curate my space to be in my best interest and at my age & experience across the 10+ yrs ive been rping on and off here, ive seen alot, heard alot, experienced alot. i do apologize however if i do come across unapproachable or intimidating. i do apologize if i seem closed off to only a select few. i dont mind if you follow / we're mutuals solely just to keep up with what i write! thats completely okay too and i thank those who are <3 but if i seem unapproachable i literally just gently gesture again to my disc or prompts tag etc! i welcome any to get to know myself or my muses. regardless of how much time has passed since following one another. just again, comes with the understanding that my social battery & headspace often does work against me. and thats not personal against anyone, ever.

i know you love the dynamics between bruce and his kids as they are, but alot of it is also due to iffy writing lmao.

in your IDEAL scenario, what would bruce parenting look like? would he still be as abusive as he is in canon? CAN he even change?

the short answer to "can bruce change?" is... no 😭 but let me try and explain!

its not because of who bruce is as a character or batman as a hero, but because it is basically impossible for a popular character like him to have any consistent writing. we've seen it before where he's a great father and mentor for a few issues, and then less than six months later he does something horrific and takes ten steps back in that regard.

it's why this conversation (to me) is a very complicated one, because i can't for sure say who bruce is as a person without taking into consideration the literal decades of almost hundreds of different writers, runs and universes. of course, he has made some terrible and very harmful decisions, but again, so much context is required to truly comprehend those situations. that doesn't remove the fact that he has hurt his children, both accidentally and purposefully.

do i think bruce is a bad dad in canon? no. do i think he is a good dad? also no. depending on where in time you're reading him, who's writing him etc — he acts like completely different people. my head spins trying to come up with a simple answer to this otherwise simple question.

a good example i think is the current zdarsky batman run. arguably some of the best bruce wayne as a father introspection we've had in a LONG TIME, the story doing well to remove the 'child soldiers' narrative that frank miller infamously popularised to main continuity despite it not being from the canon timeline. but who's to say this sort of perspective will last before being completely disregarded by the next writer?

it's no secret i pick and choose what i (personally) view as canon, my own personal bias against Certain writers making me ignore their writing entirely, but i am also not ignorant to the fact that bruce can and desperately NEEDS to improve as a parent.

sorry for rambling but back to your original question about what my ideal parent bruce would like and to that it's two very simple words; honest and communicative.

that's really all he needs to do. almost all his shitty decisions can be linked back to him lying or purposely evading the truth and just refusing to communicate to his children, which in turn makes them not want to communicate with him. this then leads to much larger problems and much more devastating outcomes.

bruce needs to realise that his children don't owe him anything more than the very little he's given them emotionally. this whole "soldier-team" mentality that he adopts when he's batman filters into his dynamics with them as family and as bruce wayne, and that is why he keeps hurting them and not taking responsibility for it.

they should not be vigilantes before they are his children. but to do that, writers also need to make the distinction that batman is also bruce wayne, but that is an entirely different conversation.

again, current batman writing (mark waid batman vs robin, zdarsky batman, ram v detective comics, tom taylor batman etc) seems very promising in giving bruce a chance to be a better father, so we can only hope it continues this way. maybe, we'll even get bruce actually holding himself accountable one day.

i try not to discuss this topic too much because in my experience it's far too nuanced to explain in short text posts on the internet but i hope this answered your questions <3

What do u think about the fans mainly fans of the originals who say that klaroline was just a hookup and that caroline never liked klaus/ klaus never loved her. I see this sentiment alot on reddit and its so frustrating.

I think people are allowed to have their own opinions and interpretations of the show. Personally I have no hard feelings towards fans who aren't into Klaroline. I have my own opinions, which are obviously very biased, so I think it's fair that people will have their own biased opinions favoring different characters/ships that are more convenient to them. That's really the thing with media in general, different people can look at the exact same thing and have completely different views, and I'm totally ok with that.

Having said that, MY opinion is that Klaroline denialists (lol) have to pointedly ignore/turn a blind eye to a lot of things in order to completely disregard it. 😂 There's a hell of a lot of evidence, even in the final season of The Originals. I like to pretend that s5 never happened too, but it's mostly because it's an awful piece of television writing of which the KC parts and that one episode that is completely focused on Elijah are the only parts that can be salvaged. 🥲

I think that kind of thing tends to come from a new wave of fans who have started their TVDverse journey through The Originals rather than TVD, although ship wars have been around since the dawn of time. If you have only ever seen TO, then I guess Klaroline really doesn't make any sense. Even the crossover episodes that feature KC, the KC bits are kept mostly in the TVD portion. She seems to come out of nowhere in S5. Both are equally canon, one isn't truer than the other, and you need both to get a bigger picture, but some people would rather stick to just one of them. And when you've seen TO first and gotten attached to a certain ship and then go back to watch TVD, you're obviously going to have a biased view over that because what you find there is obviously not going to suit your heart's desire. It happens the other way around too.

The way I see it, it's really hard to simply deny KC when you watch TVD tho. 😂 It takes a LOT of determination lol Klaus was a total puppy for Caroline, in ways he never was for anyone else, and even in the crossover episodes, he still acts the exact same way. And come on 'he's your first love, I intend to be your last, however long it takes?' 😂 If that's not a love declaration 🤷‍

As for Caroline not liking him, it's very complex. When we get down to 5x11 in TVD, and then to S5 of TO, it becomes obvious that he's always messed with her head and she had complicated feelings for him she never wanted to tap into. Which is perfectly understandable. Klaus was a villain in TVD. He killed Elena, he ruined Tyler's life, he ruined Stefan's life, tortured him, murdered Tyler in cold blood right in front of everyone to force them to find the way to make him a hybrid, caused all sorts of havoc all over her home town. Klaus was THE BAD GUY. That's a problem I have with TO that I think gets worse for people who only see that show or who see that show first and then go back to watch TVD: they seem to think Klaus is not that bad. He's just a bad boy with a bad attitude. They fall for that cheap conversation they try to sell with Cami's character, the ~~explainer, that he's just misunderstood and all he really needed was someone to be on his side. No! Klaus is AWFUL. He's killed thousands of people! He's a villain! And that's what makes him such a great character! He never needed redemption. It's way easier for people to find him redeemable when he's done nothing to personally attack them/destroy their lives, which is obviously not Caroline's case. She's seen the very worst of Klaus. He's threatened everyone she knows, including her. And Caroline is someone who, aside from having a very strong however biased moral code, is also INCREDIBLY loyal, so of course it's going to be way harder for her to forgive Klaus and forget about the terrible things he's done to just see that she's an exception for him.

What becomes clear throughout S4 of TVD (for me, at least) is that she was struggling with how she felt and in a lot of denial. A lot of the things she says to him ('people who do terrible things are just terrible people') are really things she's saying to herself. She gets mad at the fact she's obviously ~~drawn to the darkness, and so she lashes out (because, you know, she has a personality 🤷‍). 5x11 makes that very clear as well. She doesn't want Klaus around because he clouds her judgement and it makes her mad that she's probably afraid she's not gonna be able to resist him for much longer and that's only going to complicate her life further. Everyone around her makes her feel guilty for not hating Klaus, so of course she's going to feel reluctant. But when they they do meet again in S5 of TO they're both at a point of their lives where she's ok admitting that she always wanted him to prove to her that he could do better, and that she always knew he wasn't her villain, even if he never hesitated to hurt anyone else around her, she knew she was safe with him (hence why she drove to Nola after him with her kids). She doesn't want him to die, tries to stop him by telling Elijah, and the fact she goes to New Orleans to have a last day with him, having saved that message for years and across different iPhones, probably, tells us that she had, deep down, had hopes that some day, down the line, they'd find each other again. But then they do, and it's too late (and that's really the only part of that season that is written with a certain degree of poetry tbh).

All that to say, Klaus and Caroline were complicated and clashed a lot and that's part of what made it so compelling to me. There were genuine reasons why they shouldn't be together, they were virtually on opposing sides almost the whole time, and I love that about the ship. It forced Klaus to grow a conscience. He wasn't sorry for the things he did, he wasn't trying to become a better person, there was no one petting him on the back and saying 'poor you, misundertood boy'. He was confronted with the consequences of his actions, which is, for me, the best (or worst) thing that could happen to someone like Klaus, unlike with Cami, for instance, who was just there to excuse his bad behavior.

But like I said, my opinions are completely colored by the fact that I 100% support that ship. And the same way I look down on other ships because I can't stand them, I get that other people are going to look down on my otp as well and have wildly different opinions. It's a fandom, we're never going to agree on everything, and I'm totally cool with that. There's room for everyone. Unless they come directly to my doorstep to talk shit about it, it honestly doesn't bother me. I'm all for ship and let ship.

ANYWAY 😂 Sorry for the long ted talk nonnie, I RAMBLE a lot 🥲

I feel like another way that could 'fix' or like at least mend the whole thing with the continuity w/the New Republic and the 'failings' and Thrawn is apart from his apparent cause in the show just being defeated, if they go with what his plan was in the (canon) books. Since in the books he basically makes his way into the empire and climbs up the ranks purely so he can use them as like a line of defence or bait or something to protect the Chiss from surrounding threats. Like that way they could I guess at least go with an interesting way of approaching it rather than disregarding whole thing they've been (trying to) building up? Like it'd provide intrigue to his character and introduce the space beyond the outer-rim and new species e.t.c., while still removing him from association with the New Republic which would allow them (writing) to fix what they've done with the NR and make it more consistent/better (?). But we all know they probably won't do that.

Just thought I'd tell you since I saw some of your posts. :) Apologies if I've said anything wrong here.

Personally, I don't know that I feel like this show needed to explore Thrawn's backstory from the books and utilize those specific motivations in order to work. I don't have much of an issue with Thrawn being nothing more than a power-hungry fascist asshole. Star Wars could use more villains who are evil for the sake of being evil rather than constantly trying to make its villains into these sympathetic tragic characters. Not every villain needs an Anakin Skywalker backstory, some of them can just be Palpatines. The original Thrawn Trilogy didn't bother to give Thrawn a backstory or grander motivations of any kind, he just happens to be evil and smart and was too far away to be around during the Original Trilogy, so now that he's made it back to the area, he's taking over and working to bring back the Empire because he CAN and it gives him the power he desires.

I'm also not entirely sure how giving Thrawn a sympathetic motivation for wanting an Empire would fix the New Republic storyline. My personal issue with the New Republic storyline is this idea in the Mandoverse we're getting that the New Republic is so flawed that it may as well be the Empire by another name, that it is SO flawed that it was basically destined for failure from its inception. Having that be true is just... so insulting and makes the entire franchise feel so meaningless and pointless and hopeless. I hate it. Giving Thrawn some sort of motivation about protecting his people doesn't really change any of that from what little I know about it.

I know a lot of people love Thrawn and love those new trilogies exploring his background and all of that, so I'm sure a lot of his fans are really upset and annoyed that none of it has been brought up or made relevant yet, but I just... don't care. I don't find Thrawn that compelling of a villain, he mostly just annoys me. I don't know that I feel like Thrawn really FITS into the mainstream franchise very well, either, and I kind-of wish he'd stayed in the novels and never been brought into the TV shows at all.

I'd MUCH rather this show had just dropped the whole New Republic storyline and focused on exploring Ahsoka, the titular character of the show. And I'd rather they had used ANYTHING but the Rebels story to explore her through. Ahsoka and the Rebels characters all deserved better than this.

are you surprised that I'm asking you to do Wu Xie for the blorbo bingo ?

(alternative offers if you want to do them: Li Cu, since you're finishing sha hai and/or Huo Xiuxiu)

i’m very late in replying to this sorryyy

absolutely not surprised but i appreciate the window of opportunity to let me *unintelligible noises* about wu xie <3

(for disclaimer purposes as always these are all just my personal opinions and aren’t pretending to be objective facts)

i’m totally normal about wu xie my beloved (who absolutely has pretty boy privilege that he definitely uses to his advantage whether he fully realizes he does or not, also this man is vain af in the most human way possible), he’s the ultimate blorbo and i’d be writing essays about him if i actually fully got into why i love him. wu xie is incredibly complex and goes through one of the most realistic and in-depth developments i’ve seen in a fictional character honestly. it says something that usually first person narration isn’t really my thing, but wu xie’s pov is so enjoyable and compelling you can’t put the books down. because of that unique perspective, we get wu xie in all that he is as he changes (though not quite as much as he himself thinks he does) throughout his experiences, the good and the ugly both, and while he’s deeply flawed, it’s because he’s deeply flawed and contradictory and so painfully human as a result that he’s as interesting and endearing as he is, i love him a very normal amount :))

the one maybe controversial opinion i have is that while not most because that would be exaggerating, i still find a number of popular fandom takes on wu xie, on the western side of the fandom specifically, are off just enough they bother me. it’s hard to narrow it down to a single reason because it’s a mix of different things that aren’t always objective (as in some things are just my preference vs someone else’s), but i would say one of the bigger ones is the sometimes gross misunderstanding of cultural backdrop and framework that have made him into who he is. you can easily extend this to pretty much all the characters, it’s just more noticeable in the portrayals of the main ones, but dmbj is a story deeply informed by its cultural framework, both in terms of narrative and in terms of the characters, how they act, their thought processes, and how all this impacts their interactions with others. so it’s not hard to understand that disregarding that would skew the characters on a fundamental level, which is something i find happens to wu xie more than it should. but that’s just me

next! li cu

i don’t have anything crazy to say about li cu really outside the fact i find him a little more compelling in the book than in the drama, mostly because you get his thought process a little more in-depth in the book, and he’s interesting as a contrast to how wu xie works. he’s clearly way in over his head and trying his best to cope with increasing trauma that just keeps heaping itself on top of itself without letting him really process it so yes he needs to stop being in situations (even if arguably being in situations is what ultimately saves his life). he’s also a teenage boy which just makes me want to fix him. just a little bit. i swear he can be better it’s not his fault teenage boys are a little dumb in the head! he does show up more in later canon post-ten years later, so it’s not like he completely disappears, but him and the desert triangle squad aren’t uninteresting characters so it’s interesting enough to keep up with them even if his strained relationship with wu xie hurts me for both of them (li cu using wu xie as a convenient party to pin the blame on for all his misfortunes vs wu xie perceiving li cu as the consequences of his necessary evils made flesh ouchouchouch)

aaaand huo xiuxiu

huo xiuxiu my beloved, best girl hands down, none can compare <3

when i say the writers dropped the ball on her, i mostly mean the dramas, although tbh more specifically lost tomb 2 and 2.5 that. yeah that’s not xiuxiu that’s all i’ll say. i find the closest to book version of her is in ultimate note, that still for introducing characters earlier than they should have been reasons couldn’t give her some of her coolest scenes. she’s intelligent, she’s skilled and cunning and pretty, yet in the beginning she also has that gap of practical inexperience that make her human. she’s the whole deal really. interestingly enough when they meet in the books, wu xie often finds he and xiuxiu are similar in terms of the way they think and react, which i find is interesting and pretty accurate. she’s also not in the story enough, so i’m happy that in current canon she’s been upgraded to one of the main squad and is down in dangerous tombs with the iron triangle and heihua. she’s also as unhinged as they all are i love her <3

i like makoto too but its... interesting, to say the least, that you feel the need to explain away and justify his actions and treatment of his sister instead of just... discussing them or explaining how you think he is mentally and/or how he can make up for his actions... regardless of his theoretical mental illness and trauma, hes STILL responsible for his own actions, and his sister never deserved to be treated that way.

long post ahead sorry about it

eh i'm trying my best to not justify him. i've just been so attached to the character and he means a lot to me so him being disregarded as a creepy siscon just bothers me yk? and i made my own posts and analysis of his mental illness i suspected... i just try to not correct or confront people about it whenver they do talk about him. that scares me lol

the thing is... he can't make up for his actions? he's a comedic relief siscon character that doesn't get any depth nor character development throughout the series. what could he possibly do to redeem himself without us having to write fanfiction about it? yes, i like to imagine him being a better brother, getting help for his disorder and issues. but that's just my interpretation of a flawed and underwritten character. and a lot of it is influenced by makokuu. but canon doesn't help much here.

he's not great, but he would've had more redeeming qualities if he wasn't a one joke character. i can't really do much about it but make up my own scenarios and stories on how he could be a good brother while acknowledging he's not a great person.

kokomi doesn't deserve to be stalked and makoto being so jealous and protective of her in his disturbed ways. i agree. but some people make him out to be some sort of sexual abuser in this scenario, which he isnt. we see domestic teruhashi siblings only what 3 times? maybe 2 more if we count them going to the movies together and on christmas... id love to see more scenarios of them just being siblings. but no. most of the scenes with him were written to be an exaggerated siscon trope. to be funny...

yes he is responsible for his actions, but he does need help. the help everyone is aware he shouldve gotten long ago before his obsession morphed his perception of whats acceptable for him to do to someone he loves and cares about. but what can we do about it when we never get to see him get better?

but at the same time i simply cannot think of him as the fanon "GUYS HE WANTS TO DO DIRTY STUFF TO HER KILL THAT PERVERT" anymore. despite his nonexisting depth, im doing my best to explore his character as much as i can.

😔 yeah, i apologize for rambling or getting defensive whenever someone gives an opinion on that one boy i have an unhealthy attachment to.

i'm likely this way due to being harassed before back when i had to pretend like i only like a purified version of makoto to not have my safety threatened. i take this stuff too personally sometimes and feel genuinely threatened, apologies. a doxxing attempt over an anime boy and opinions can fuck someone up for years yk? :(

i do love this character dearly and i know i'm getting enough weird looks in the fandom for it, its even worse when my autistic ass can't explain themselves properly, my bad..

hope this long rambling session cleared some stuff up, heres a wholesome terusibs moment <3

Hi! I lovee your blog, I was wondering if you knew of any fics happening during their time at hogwarts (not eight year). I’ve been dying for some canon divergence recently!!

❤️

Hello anon! I rarely read this trope so I think my followers will be more helpful. These are the few I’ve read and enjoyed:

Erosmancy by astolat (M, 11k)

Blaise was immune to whatever it was people usually felt around his mother, for which he was profoundly grateful, since no one needed an Oedipal complex on quite that spectacular a scale, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a thorough respect for her gift.

Catch 22 by jad (M, 50k)

As if NEWTS weren't enough, Dumbledore's gone and had another one of his 'bright ideas.' If all ends well, the Houses will be getting along in no time. Or according to Harry's correspondent, an Apocalypse will be in order. [OotP/HBP/DH disregarded]

Transformation by amalin (E, 98k)

Harry/Draco, with a mild shot of Harry/Tonks. In Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts, he must face the consequences of the attack on the Department of Mysteries and the effects of Voldemort's return. And in doing so, he finds that even your enemies can teach you valuable lessons—about the world, and about yourself.

Changing Tides by carpemermaid (E, 109k)

Draco has spent half of his life spouting the things his father has taught him without much thought about how he feels about what he says. When he unexpectedly comes face to face with the Dark Lord, he grapples with the harsh realities of the world and struggles with his changing views on life.

Bond by AnnaFugazzi (M, 173k)

I started to write this before HBP came out, and crossed my fingers that HBP wouldn't make it totally non-canon. No such luck, I'm afraid. This, therefore, is an AU story, where (SPOILER) still teaches (SPOILER), (SPOILER) didn't try to (SPOILER), (SPOILER) didn't succeed in (SPOILER), (SPOILER) never dated (SPOILER), and most importantly, (MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS) never happened.

The Secret Keeper by fools_errand (M, 225k)

On Halloween 1981, Albus Dumbledore made a decision that would change the course of history, concealing Harry Potter’s survival at the hands of Lord Voldemort underneath a Fidelius Charm. But when Harry comes of age in the Muggle world, Dumbledore realises too late that the fate of the world may depend on a boy who has never held a wand.

Twist of Fate by Oakstone730 (T, 300k)

Draco asks Harry to help him beat the Imperius curse during 4th year. The lessons turn into more than either expected. A story of redemption and forgiveness. Pairings: HP/DM (Slash) Timeframe: 1994-2002 Goblet to 4 yrs post-DH EWE Rating T for language, high angst, content.

Bonus: I haven’t read these three but I’ve seen them recced all around so I’m adding them:

Evitative by Vichan (T, 220k)

In the summer before his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry is drawn to a room in Grimmauld Place. Like the Gryffindor he is, he enters the room without fear. The room is a library, and Harry is surprised to find that he’s eager to learn.

Men Who Love Dragons Too Much by fencer_x

‘Kill Albus Dumbledore’ is less a challenging task and more a suicide mission, so when Draco Malfoy is presented with the option to either dispatch his Headmaster or suffer an excruciating and most ignominious death of his own, along with his parents, he reaches deep into his black little Slytherin heart and manages to scrape together enough courage to go with option C instead: Spend Sixth Year secretly studying Animagecraft in the hopes he’ll turn into something sufficiently imposing even the Dark Lord himself won’t be able to keep Draco under his thumb. But just his luck, his Animagus form turns out to be a dragon, and a rather randy juvenile at that, intent on finding its mate: one Harry James Potter.

The Mirror of Ecidyrue by starbrigid (T/M, WIP)

All it takes is one look in a mirror and an ill-advised attempt to shatter it, before an embittered Draco Malfoy fresh out of Azkaban is sent back into his body on the day he gets his Hogwarts letter.

For the ask game: Hot Rod/Rodimus (any continuity) 1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

23. Favorite picture of this character?

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Character Ask Game

I'm such a simp for him in general. Here we go.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I love Roddy because he is so funny and flawed! Some versions of him I love more than others, but that all boils down to how the little details of each version of him are written. Most, if not all, versions of him are so full of passion, sarcasm, and stubbornness, and that is something I resonate with!

My number one favorite version of him is G1 (shocker, I know). G1 Roddy starts out as enthusiastic, optimistic, and potentially carefree. He's confident in his abilities and if he falls on his face, he just gets back up and hops back on the saddle of his metaphorical horse. And then he unceremoniously inherits the Matrix of Leadership and is forced to grow up. He becomes bitter, frustrated, and angsty. The falls hit him harder and he needs help getting back on that saddle.

But despite the change in his demeanor, the thing that doesn't change about him is that he sticks to his guns. If something he believes in is challenged, he's going to argue for it, even if he's wrong. That said, when he comes to realize that he's wrong, he does back down and own up to it. Which is refreshing to see. I loved watching him go through his soul-searching in Season 3, and I'm kinda bummed out that the writing for it seemed... a little rushed? Or not quite resolved?

Still, as a fic writer, I guess I should be grateful that the canon allows me to play around with how he grows as a character and resolves his inner conflicts. He is full of potential.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

I haven't really come across any ships of him that I don't like, but I envision that he's paired with Optimus by someone, and that's really just not my thing.

When pairing characters together nowadays, I not only look at how canon has them interact, but also how their personalities would potentially mesh with each other. It's how I come up with so many rarepairs, such as Misfire/Grapple. No canon interaction whatsoever, but their personalities would balance each other out and make for some fun times.

Disregarding the fact that canon shows Optimus being a sort of hero-figure Roddy looks up to and strives to be, I just don't see Optimus and Roddy's personalities meshing well. They're too similar. And I'm well aware that like-minded people can be attracted to each other. My husband and I are in that pool. But I mean there wouldn't be much balance in the relationship. It's about the give-and-take system.

Talking about this ship from the G1 side of things, they have similar views and core beliefs, they have similar methods of handling problems, and they have similar ways of thinking. Roddy is just a younger Optimus. And I'm sure that they have a great platonic relationship.

But I think that Roddy's energy and lack of experience would make Optimus tired. And while the older mech can be patient, one can only handle so much. He's the leader of an entire army and if he was alive to win the war, he would have had to take up the mantel of getting Cybertron back on its feet. He would need someone experienced and a little lower-maintenanced to help him keep from burning himself out.

Roddy tends to be higher-maintenance and runs into trouble more often than he keeps away from it. I do think that he can benefit from having a low-maintenance and patient partner, but I can't see it being Optimus because he doesn't get much out of the relationship in return.

So that's the method behind my madness. ...But also for simplicity's sake, I just don't see Roddy being romantically interested in the hero he looks up to.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

I have so many~ But I will reduce it to two.

Top pic just looks like Galvatron is struggling with ballroom dancing.

Bottom pic is so wholesome and precious and I just melt~

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Glad you asked~ Recently I've been having a lot of fun comparing Genshin Impact characters to Transformers characters, and the one that matches Roddy the most is Navia. Both have hidden guns, both are stylish, both are determined, energetic, and have conviction, they're both extroverted, and a bunch of other small details that I have fun going through.

Plumbing the Depths: Ben Milton's subscribers' hot takes, Part 3

See Part 1 for context. Today's hot take is:

Intensive DM prep has the same drawbacks as players prepping big backstories. Everyone wants their own prep to matter, but others have competing ideas and expectations, plus unexpected stuff happens in play. When you establish canon as you play instead, everyone forms expectations and competes less because they're present and participating in choices in context. Malleable and inspiring DM prep is awesome, just like malleable and inspiring backstories.

Milton argues that it's best to build only as much of the world as the players can acclimate to at one time – but my greater concerns are with the cause, and the fate, of "overprep".

When a person (GM or player) invests their time and labour into the creation of game materials in advance, they become incentivized to make sure that they see that material show up in the game, or else their efforts were wasted. In my experience, most players don't bother with creating a "big backstory" unless prompted to do so, but they do still get invested in whatever character build decisions the game compels them to make, and will potentially get pushy about finding chances to incorporate that stuff into play.

This problem is deeply exacerbated for the GM, because the official versions of D&D don't provide tools to help GMs rapidly or easily generate compelling sources of drama. Instead, the default expectation is that the GM will prepare extensive bespoke material – environments, monsters, NPCs, traps, items, and so on – for the player characters to encounter. This is a labour and time intensive process, so the GM is powerfully incentivized to force their prepared material on the game.

A few rare GMs relish the prep for its own sake and don't mind if the players never see the vast majority of what they generate. But for most GMs, this incentive eventually compels them to engage in some form of "railroading" (the process of restricting or disregarding the players' input in order to ensure that prepared material comes into play). Players usually dislike railroading – they find that it's immersion-breaking and/or feels unfair – so the modern advice to GMs is to also employ "illusionism" (the process of presenting false choices to the players to create an illusion of agency).

Illusionism is what the author is implying when they refer to "malleable" prep. This is prepared material that can be easily recycled and redeployed (malleable) so that even if the players avoid it in one case (the false choice), they inevitably encounter it somewhere else (railroading). Most GMs seem to think that "malleable prep" doesn't count as "railroading", but in my experience, players certainly do.

I want to be clear that illusionism isn't an inherently bad thing. If you've played a lot of video games, then you've probably enjoyed it many times in the past. But because players usually react badly to being deceived, I strongly advise that GMs discuss illusionism with their players in advance. Like the audience of a stage magic show, people who know they're about to be "tricked" for entertainment's sake generally don't mind it. By contrast, if some advice guru is suggesting that you employ an illusionist method because "your players will never know that you've done it", then you ought to take that as a red flag.

A much better alternative is to switch to a system that incorporates rapid generative tools to reduce the need for prep. I'll be discussing those in an upcoming post, so stay tuned.