So I’ve been playing violet for about 2-3 hours? My framerate is not nearly as bad as some of the videos I’ve seen, not sure if it’s bc it’s still early or if I’ve just been lucky.. still experience clipping though, but I’m enjoying the game so far regardless

I’m really enamored with the dynamic of two characters who work perfectly in tandem, like pacific rim drift compatible level, but they don’t like each other. It’s not even as strong an emotion as hate it’s just a very neutral-negative dislike, but they still act in perfect concert and their individual abilities are fully complementary

Watching this game has me on the edge of my seat, I didn’t realize that 11 minutes had passed until I looked at the clock. Let’s go ducks!

did not expect grian entering a toxic codependent relationship w/the ocean this season 😭😭😭 “please ive been so good to you” “get this over with so i can move on with my life” girl run

Alright, so: I want to explain a little more about this connection between the Twilight fandom, Fifty Shades of Grey, and seemingly, the self-publishing industry as a whole. It's a lot, so I'm going to have to chip away at it a bit at a time, and I think the best place to start is by describing the scene in late 2000s Twilight fandom.

In 2009, Twilight was one of the biggest fandoms in the world, although it was nearly invisible to outsiders because it

Was about a straight couple, while most other fandoms were predominantly gay, and

Was conducted almost entirely on fanfiction.net among a group of people who had little other background in fandom. (x)

That meant for many Twilight fans, Twilight was fandom. It was all they knew, and many had no path out. That also made it a corked champagne bottle with the pressure building.

Because of these community dynamics and the declining quality of the Twilight books themselves, Twilight fanfiction evolved to be mostly AUs so alternate they were more-or-less original romance novels that used Bella and Edward as broad character templates. (x)

Seriously, Twilight fandom got really crazy big for a few years there. It was not totally uncommon to get multi-million clicks on a semi-popular story. It's weird looking back on it and calling it "Twilight fandom" because it was really more like "Romance Novel fandom". For real, for a period there, calling a Twilight fanfic author a 'Twilight fan' would be the ultimate insult. But they never stopped writing about Edward and Bella! It's so weird. (x)

If you were in 2000s era fandom, you're probably aware of the phenomenon of Big Name Fans and the various social-climbing dynamics that happened around them. The Twilight fandom took this social power game another level:

This wasn't even just an author thing. There were Big Name Authors (BNAs) but there were also Big Name Readers. These were basically like... full-time rabid fans of a BNA. They devoted so much of their time to helping out the BNAs, reviewing their chapters, making them fanart, promoting their fics, kissing their asses with cringe-worthy intensity, you name it. Which is why you saw what looked like BNAs having 'employees', such as Moi, tby789's Director of Marketing. (x)

It became apparent that these power games weren't just for fandom clout. The fandom was proving that that social power could be translated into real-world dollars. You see, the Twilight fandom used to organize charity auctions where big name authors would auction off custom fanfiction, and the money generated was substantial:

Mostly authors would auction off stories. So if you donated in my name, I'd write you 10,000 words of porn in my Tattward universe, or something new, etc. That's how it worked. The 2009 auction raised $80,000. The 2010 auction raised $140,000. The 2011 auction raised $20,00. [NOTE: this is likely a typo] (x)

A lot of these dynamics were not unique to the Twilight fandom, but it was the combination that created a perfect storm of opportunism. This would end up changing not just fandom dynamics but the publishing industry as a whole.

Iskall commissioning Joel for a.... particular statue (feat horrified gem in chat)

what the hell did he mean by this

porter has always hated gorgug because their definitions/uses of rages are fundamentally different. gorgug clashes so hard because his rage DOES come from a place of protection and defensiveness (and justice...) and that threatens the foundations of porters beliefs with ankarna

He doesn't remember his mother... he doesn't remember her face.... I don't think he even HAS a mother, only the memory of a mother.... oh my god. What the hell. I hate it here

The feds propoganda trying to paint the islanders as the bad guys for pressing the island destroying button... girl why was there an island destroying button in the first place!!!

Guys please this post is about a fictional minecraft roleplay server. Hawaii has not been bombed. I am a mere fandom blog. This post has no relevance to real life events.

just got a lame ass new man i hope hes gonna be easy to crate train

pkm violet pet peeve: the map rotates and I cannot disable map rotation so I am CONSTANTLY lost

max being shocked asf and laughing then covering it up watching the crash 😭

i know its partly the nature of critical role as a whole changing for this third campaign, but its SO funny to me that "Dont Trust Anyone Not Even Yourself" Paranoid Chucklefucks The Mighty Nein were showered in kind and helpful guest PC's and ended up So Good at the Magic Of Friendship (threatening). While Bell's Hells of "time for therapy!!!!" "do you think they'll be our friend" "what the fuck is up with that game time!!" have wound up with a like. 40% hit rate for villains in their close friends. like this is a MASSIVE oversimplification and it makes sense but its mostly very funny to me. rip to early campaign m9 you would have loved all of your paranoid instincts constantly paying off in the worst way

i will say going from grian and joels minecraft videos where they just went balls to the wall 74 tnt leaving a fucking moon sized crater versus going to iskalls where he's using five and asking ren and beef to make sure they're okay with this, as he can't unrig it and it'll leave a crater is just so funny. iskall's being so careful to make sure they understand the consequences of their actions and grian and joel are like GO GO GO GO GO IF THIS DOESN'T KILL HIM WE WILL JUST USE A CONSTANTLY EXPANDING NUMBER OF TNT GOD IS DEAD AND WE BLEW HIM THE FUCK UP

and btw, grian's last stand against gem and the scotts? Insane. I cant help but replay the scene where he tells Cleo to get away over and over again, "You need to move out of the way, there's no trigger. I'm manually triggering it." because like. there's no way he really thought he was gonna get out of this. He had to be there in order for the trap to go off, the escape hatch was a pipe dream. What he was really saying to Cleo was, "Save yourself, I'll hold them back." He knows he's not going to get away from Gem and the Scotts, but he just wants to give Cleo a fighting chance.

And then I cant help but remember Grian's last words in Last Life, "Not like this! Not like this!". Ever since Last Life, his deaths have been... a little sad. Stabbed in the back while running away from Scott, killed by a warden through a wall, falling onto the very corner of a cobblestone block after falling off his tower -- right next to the water, too.

I think, in this season, grian wanted to die for a reason. he didn't want it to be an accident, a preventable goof, and more importantly he wanted it to mean something. He wanted to die protecting someone else. Outlive his teammates for a change.

Cleo still dies before he does, but he doesn't have any confirmation of that, just the distant sound of thunder, and he's too busy fighting to really process it. When he dies, he doesn't have any complaints. No 'I don't feel good"s, no "Not like this"s, no "I'm so sorry, Scar"s, no "Don't tell Tim"s. This time all he says is, "I did a lot of damage." He's satisfied with his death, proud of it, even.

And I think, even if he died, even if his sacrifice didn't mean too much, he felt his death was a lot more honorable than his other ones. He died on his own terms, he died protecting someone, he died fighting, and, just like Grian always aims to go, he went out with a bang.