i just love how a switch flipped inside daryl once he found out lydia is being abused

Woe Lydia and Remus be upon ye

Hey, do u take questions about your ocs? Just that the hare and that rabbit and owl family are just. I love them so much. I would kill for them. If you've played any games by Rusty Lake, they kinda have the same vibe I think. And i like that. Idk anyway I was just wondering if there's any lore behind them?

oh theres plenty of lore theyre actually characters from my comic (x) but otherwise heres a rundown. the animal thing is a metaphor theyre not actually animals

lollygaggin' 2.0

Still playing Skyrim. And I’m interested to report that the game is actually better than I remember, on balance. But I’m kind of fascinated by what’s going on with Lydia, mechanically and narratively.

Lydia is the first follower who gets shoved in your face just by virtue of following the main quest. There are others you can pick up earlier, but not without finishing errands (for Faendal and Sven), by forking up a pretty big chunk of change for the early game by hiring Janessa, or by going out of your way in some other manner. If you’re completely new to the game and you’re just powering through the main story as it’s presented, she’s the first option for a follower that the game highlights for you in giant blinking neon lights. And as a quest reward, she’s mechanically kind of a godsend at that point in the story; a doubling of carry capacity, an excellent meat shield and distraction, a way to extract utility from weapons and armor you don’t want to use yourself. More subjectively she provides the impression of a stalwart ally or companion in what can be a very lonely worldspace to exist in. There’s very little reason not to take her with you, and once you have her, the majority of companions being equal, there’s very little reason to get rid of her until she stops level scaling.

Despite the mechanical utility Lydia provides at a crucial point, and the resultant likelyhood that you’ll haul her along for the ride, she’s only a couple steps up from the companion cube. She has no specific, non-fungible impact on the narrative beyond demonstrating Jarl Balgruuf’s favor. Her deferral to you is automatic; if someone is actively paying her a salary to help you defile graves, cut deals with every deity on the continent and invade the afterlife, it sure as hell isn’t you. It isn’t clear what her gig under Balgruuf was before she was assigned to you. She has no personal narrative. She has no personal side quest. One of her biggest inklings of personality is when she expresses vague dissatisfaction with being treated as a pack mule, but then she does it anyway.  She’s party to world-shaking events and political upheavals, but she’s present purely in her capacity as your appendix, so reality simply treats her as your plus-one. 

She’ll block doors you’re trying to get through, and she’ll get mad at you if you push her out of the way. She’ll charge into battle or set off traps while you’re trying to sneak. She’ll microaggress you with stock Nord dialogue while pulverizing your enemies, a plurality of whom are also Nords. She’ll distract bosses long enough to buy you breathing room for a healing spell or a potion. You’ll kill her by accident with an ill-timed area-of-effect spell, roll your eyes, and, ultimately, probably reload your save. Because she might only be a couple steps up from a companion cube, but the whole gag with the companion cube is how ridiculously low the threshold is for the audience to get genuinely attached to something in a video game. A thin character invites apophenia. Behaviors that are purely downstream of dev thoughtlessness will still imply character traits if taken at Watsonian Face Value. In this case, inexplicable undying loyalty, reserved comments on impressive landmarks, and comical stoicism in the face of some of the weirdest events it’s conceptually possible to encounter.  So here’s to weird, underbaked companions in Bethesda Games, and everything we can project onto the void they provide. And Here’s to that related genus of character- units in squad-based tactics or management-sim games with permadeath mechanics who last long enough and accumulate enough equipment, skill points, etc. that they become your Special Little Guy despite otherwise lacking any deliberate character traits.

Beej & Lyds!

Partners in crime!

*NO SHIP

LET'S GET PHYSICAL

The girls hitting the gym while rocking the new Balance & Grace collection by @joliebean & @daylifesims 💅

Check them out here & here ♡

Models: Alondra, Lydia, Payton & Jennie by me

WE'LL BE TOGETHER #5 Cynthia and Lydia

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies - Season 1

Three Lydias from Beetlejuice hanging out for a kofi, feat. musical Lydia sharing some surely weird pics lol

Jackson Whittemore + accurately describing Beacon Hills

Lydia and Remus sketches

Dragonborn: They hate me because they want to be me

Lydia: Or because of the atrocities you commit

Dragonborn: You shut the fuck up

reader pronouns: she/her

Lydia watched Negan's expression, the sparkle in his eyes as they flickered over your face as you said goodbye. They followed your figure until you disappeared into a building down the street. "Wow. You like her," she said with a laugh. "A lot," she emphasized.

Negan pulled his ball cap off and rubbed a hand over his hair, sighing. There was an almost abashed expression on his face. "Yeah... I look at her and I just—I can't fuckin' help it—it's like when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes," he said.

Lydia gave him a strange look. "What's the Grinch?" she asked.

"Ah. Right... Uhh... Well," Negan tipped his head thoughtfully. "It's this character from a kid's book back in the day. He's an angry, mean-tempered asshole."

Lydia snorted. "Oh, that is like you."

Negan shot her a half-serious glare. "Don't you have some zombie to go hit with a stick or something?" Lydia grinned at him. "Anyway, he's a real dickbag at first but through kindness and a little whimsical Christmas magic and really irritating singing he learns to love again. Heart grows three sizes. And he becomes less of asshole and does what he can to make amends," he finished. Fuck, that was an even more appropriate comparison than he'd first realized. His eyes drifted back to where your fingers had brushed his as you'd handed him that shiny red apple. They still seemed to tingle slightly.

"Negan," Lydia said, her brow furrowing.

"Hmm?" he hummed, taking a bite and savoring the crisp sweetness.

"Are—are you in love with her?" Lydia asked, surprised, but smiling vaguely.

He looked suddenly uncomfortable, and a bit shocked, as if the idea hadn't occurred to him before. Shit. "Fuck," he murmured. "I might be, kiddo. I might be..."

Prompt: "I look at her and I just—I can't help it—it's like when the Grinch's heart grows three sizes."

I hate hearing people talk crap about ROTPL being "too woke"

Do they not realize that POC, queer people and feminism existed in the 50s? May have had different names for them back then but they all existed.

I'm irritated.