baldur's gate 3 ✨ characters (insp @wizardskissing)

So, about that one AU that's been marinating in my mind for years

Blue Eye Samurai Rant

So I'm cursed with the knowledge that the creators/wikipedia page/every single instance of media coverage of Blue Eye Samurai explicitly made Mizu canonically fEmALe and I hate this?? I've read the Jane Wu interview and everything and I understand where she's coming from and the show's worth watching and there's a lot of obvious talent and writing chops that went into making it but it also woulda been so much cooler and frankly more compelling if the creators weren't CIS like frfr how the hell are you going to put so much painfully, glaringly obvious queer/trans coding and transmasc trauma into quite literally every aspect of a focal character and then deny me trans Mizu with all these quotes about how "She's an unconventional woman suppressed by the oppressive patriarchy of her time"?? I don't care how reasonable this complaint is I'm fucking ANNOYED, this is a MAN and the world owes me this much

Something that really strikes me about the Rise movie (and I've been thinking about nonstop for literal weeks) is the stuff that was cut and how it opens up the little bit of the future we get to see. Leo's arm is a certain fascination, because there was a small thread that was cut from the movie where, in the present, we learn that Donnie built robot versions of his brothers. We see evidence of this in the deleted scene where Donnie recognizes the past tense in Casey's little speech about him. It's a blink and you miss it moment--but Mikey says "I hope real Raph's okay," and you can even see that this line made it to final animation because the lip sync in the movie there doesn't match up completely. Mikey's lips keep moving for a second after his voice stops.

This directly informs Leo's arm in the future. It's Robo Raph's arm. The world is ending and supplies are rare. Tech is hard to come by. Hell, Robo Leo (and Robo Donnie) was probably destroyed at some point, but Donnie still had Robo Raph's arm and he repurposed it for Leo to use.

Donnie is everywhere in the small snapshot of the future we get to see: the purple flying craft that goes down, Leo's arm, the fact that Casey's tech still works, the fact that Leo's arm still works. His presence is so loud that he couldn't have been gone for very long, but, more importantly, the fact of Leo's arm is such a strong, loving detail that I lie in bed thinking about it.

It was a necessity, yes, but it was an undertaking. Your brother loses an arm fighting a war that you're losing, and he's a sword fighter. So, you strap in and you figure it out. You have a working (or passable) thing that's already an arm, so you fix it up and you spend weeks, months, maybe even years, trying to figure out how to wire it into his neural network. Leo is able to draw with it in the final moments of the first scene, so it's capable of fine motor movement. Donnie bootstrapped his way to a prosthesis that was capable of interfacing with his brother's brain by probably using scraps he picked up off the ground.

It's a testament to his smarts, but it's also an action of intense love and tenderness. Leo could've learned to fight with one arm. Donnie's brains were needed elsewhere, but he found the time and resources, and he probably worked with Leo for hours, days, weeks to get it working, to improve his motor function, to get him back to where he was.

And the kicker? It's Raph's arm. Sure, it's an approximation of Raph, but it's still him. Leo carries a piece of Raph with him, a piece that Donnie built with his own hands, but it's still Raph. At the end of it all, Leo uses the arm that Donnie built, the arm that represents Raph, to throw Casey through the portal that Mikey opened.

It takes all four of them to save the world, whether they realize it or not.

the "big picture" - whether that refers to some detached, calculated greater good; ruthless ambition and progress for the sake of progress; or even the dear listeners' cosmic indifference - as an antagonistic force in wolf 359 is so fascinating to me because of the way eiffel as a protagonist is set up to oppose it, just by nature of who he is. eiffel retains his humanity even under the most inhumane circumstances. his strength is in connection, and with that he's able to reach others who share his core values, but he's operating under a fundamentally different framework from the show's antagonists. he can never understand where they're coming from or be swayed by their points of view because, for better or worse, he can only see the world through a close personal lens.

it's an ideological conflict he has with all of them, but notably with hilbert: "you talk about helping people, but what about the real, live people around you? [...] that's your problem. you're so zoomed out." eiffel will never, ever see that "big picture" because he is so zoomed in. at his best, he puts things into perspective and grounds the people around him. at his worst, his perspective narrows so drastically inwards that he becomes blind to everyone and everything else. his failings are deeply, tragically human - they're personal, they're impulsive, they're self-destructive. they're selfish. no matter how much he might try to narrativize or escape from himself, he's still left with doug eiffel: "it's taken me this long to realize that running from everyone else means that you're alone with yourself." eiffel could never be convinced to harm others on purpose, but he has hurt people, and it's never been because he didn't care. the very fact that he cares so much, that he's incapable of reconciling the hurt he's caused with the things he values, is what keeps him from real growth for so long. where many of the other characters in wolf 359 will justify their cruelty in service of something they consider more important, eiffel is so caught up in vilifying himself and the fear that he's always going to harm the people he cares for without meaning to that he shuts himself off from the people who care about him and perpetuates his own self-fulfilling prophecy.

hahaha i'm literally going to have to edit that doodle cause i drew soap so smol. it was an accident, one of those "there are 2 artists working on this project" DID moments. this artist is a "soap's arms are the biggest in the game" truther it just can't stand.

is this too romantic? am I going too far? is there any other way to write romance than all in, all encompassing, perfectly magical? no. this is fine.

I'm not going anywhere, for the record.

I haven't been posting for quite a long time, and I know it's gotten slow. But I'm still here! Updates are slow, but they are coming. Believe me, I'm not leaving this place for a longggg time. I have so many asks to answer, so many wips to post, and I'm still going to finish A Little Kindness. I'm sticking around, and it's staying that way for a good while.

The Owl House that has given me friendships and inspiration I never would've had otherwise. I owe a lot to this show, to Dana Terrace, and everyone who worked on it. I can't find myself to mourn it, only wave it goodbye and say thank you. And the people I've met through this show have been so overwhelmingly kind, I can't feel nothing but bittersweet. All good things gotta end eventually, y'know? It was an amazing ride while it was here, but that doesn't mean I'm leaving anytime soon.

Happy finale, everybody.

Rosawatts, from memory (Patreon)

Found an old unfinished piece of my mc making cove a flower crown! I'll likely never finish it but I still think it's cute 💕

cursed to arrive at every point of somewhat-popular media enjoyment like fifteen fuckin years after the Internet Culture Cringe Train has already left the station.

Tomorrow/later today brings good news for people who like The Silt Verses and 8 minute long narrative folk songs

estrangement.

Hello I have come here poke you

So I remember you wanted to introduce 2 character here? Or am I entirely confused (I come here to ask basically to give you an excuse to talk about them kjsdflakdj)

I have been wanting to introduce four all together 😭

So I've been working on making a D&D character of every class that I can plug and play into any campaign, rather than having to make a new one every time. And I want to make them all in BG3 eventually.

Kazimir is the ranger I made for said purpose, and also one of my favorite OCs I've ever made. Hence, he's my "main" Tav. Arcangelo is my bard for that reason, as well. I made Angel not long after Kaz, which is why he's also been introduced already.

However, I have four more who aren't quite as fleshed out, but I'm getting there! They are as follows;

Desdemona Araviir (top left) Seldarine Drow - Cleric of Light - Follower of Eilistraee Valerian Carthana (top right) Half-Drow - Warlock of the Archfey - Patronage of Queen Titania Sylleth of House Xethiri (bottom left) High Elf - Divine Soul Sorcerer - Blessed of Corellon Sir Mordred Vervaine (bottom right) Abyssal Tiefling - Oath of the Watcher Paladin - Follower of Helm

Desdemona was raised by her father, Kalanath, after he escaped Menzoberranzan with her as a toddler. He had been following Eilistraee for years in secret. As such, her birth heralded that Eilistraee would protect their passage to the surface, since she was born with the same silver hair and silver eyes of the Dark Maiden. He treasures her more than life itself, and she grew up in the Church of Eilistraee with the goal of leading her own shrine someday. Valerian is the only child of a Silver Hair Knight and Underdark escapee, Nyloth Carthana, and his human wife, Cateline Burke. He was once an apprentice wizard at Blackstaff Academy with research interests in the Feywild. Until he unwittingly slept with a fey, Liege-in-Waiting Lark of Titania's court. The Queen rewarded him with her patronage since Lark took such as liking to him. He was promptly expelled from Blackstaff after that and works as an adventurer for hire with his newfound powers. Sylleth of House Xethiri is a High Elf noble and Divine Soul sorcerer from Evereska. They are a homebrew third elven sex from the D&D campaigns I play in called a Cormiira, or a Blessed of Corellon. Sylleth is a Su-Cormiira, meaning he was born with female anatomy but underwent male puberty. They're seen as holy in elf-majority society, since Corellon originally made elves to be hermaphroditic. It was Lolth's convincing that caused elves to split into male and female. So the Cormiira are considered blessed by Corellon to embody what elves once would've been. Sylleth's sorcery comes from their connection to the god, hence Divine Soul (I know that isn't in BG3, shh) Sir Mordred Vervaine comes from a long line of Paladins of Helm, and also a long line of Abyssal tieflings (also not in BG3, rip 😭). He is a member of the Watcher's Hand, or essentially the planar FBI. He specializes in responding to extraplanar messes that need to be banished to their original realm and quit interfering with the Material Plane.

After playing TTR for some time and getting used to the odd feel of a lot of aspects of this server I think it's actually quite fun, so I'll definitely be playing more of it

*reads Literally Just A Summary Of The Events Of Separation Arc and starts foaming at the mouth*