The Direct Actors: A Baldur's Gate 3 "Adventure" pt. 10 live tonight at 6pm Pacific!

WE! ARE! SO! BACK! After a several months hiatus @caputvulpinum is back from wandering the earth as penance for its numerous crimes against me, the channel, and the sovereign nation of Venezuela. We can get the team together again! Join us for the return of our co op campaign of BG3, with @radiofreederry as Dhudlei Durite, @caputvulpinum as Micah Harper, my friends Nana and April as Leviathan, and me as Delilah "Mama D" Harper! See y'all then!

Art by @terrafey, recap under the cut

THE STORY SO FAR: On the way to a union rally, Delilah "Mama D" Harper and her grandson Micah were abducted and taken aboard an ilithid nautiloid, which they escaped with mysterious dancer Leviathan and self-proclaimed "Champion of Ilmater and Paladin of Good" Dhudlei Durite. Each infected by a mind flayer tadpole, but so far immune from transforming into mind flayers themselves, The Direct Actors, as the party have come to be known, now turn their attention to the Shadow-Cursed Lands, where Moonrise Towers, the lair of the Cult of the Absolute, awaits them...

LAST TIME: With Leviathan missing after falling off a cliff, the Direct Actors allowed Lae'zel to venture forth with them, and at her insistence headed into the mountains in search of a Githyanki creche. Along the way, the party killed a racist who was trying to steal a Githyanki egg, and met a blue jay who asked them to kill some eagles. At the creche, the Direct Actors were introduced to the finer points of Githyanki culture, including a brutal training regimen. Dhudlei was allowed to take an egg to raise with his girlfriend, and said girlfriend was subsequently nearly killed by the Zaith'isk, a supposed device for purifying those infected by mind flayers. As it turned out, the device was really meant to kill the infected as sacrifices to the lich queen Vlaakith. Initially in denial about her queen's sinister nature, Lae'zel insisted that the party seek the Githyanki inquisitor, and an audience with Vlaakith herself led the party to enter the Astral Prism, the Githyanki artifact they'd been carrying which had protected them from ceremorphosis. Vlaakith demanded they kill the Prism's occupant, but Dhudlei was more interested in getting some answers from this being which bore his mother's face. The Dream Visitor explained how Vlaakith had deceived her people and, her secret exposed, Vlaakith declared Lae'zel a traitor and ordered her death. Fighting their way out of the creche, the Direct Actors stopped to catch their breath at camp. They were visited by Kith'rak Voss, who declared his allegiance to the Githyanki Prince Orpheus, and called for Lae'zel to meet him in Baldur's Gate, as Micah chastised Dhudlei for his recklessness in the creche. The argument was interrupted by the sudden return of not only Leviathan, who had spent days wandering the Shadow-Cursed Lands, but New Gale, who had taken a new form as a gnome. Leviathan remembered little of his time in the shadowlands, but seemed shaken by it. The Direct Actors returned to the monetary which housed the creche, and Dhudlei guided Micah to claim the Blood of Lathander, a holy weapon, for his own. Afterwards, after a conversation with Mama D about choice and destiny, Micah received a surprising visit from Ilmater himself, who promised that they would meet again, and answers would be revealed...

Will Lae'zel leave her cult programming behind her, and will she and Micah be able to bond? What has Dhudlei figured out about the Dream Visitor? What - and who - did Leviathan see in his time in the Shadow-Cursed Lands? Will Ilmater reveal himself again? Find out in another exciting instalment of Baldur's Gate 3, starring the Direct Actors!

Don't ask.

Rick Riordan constantly trashing the movies for not sticking to his books then releasing a show in which he rewrites everything and loses the spirit of the books entirely

if i see a single one of you pissed that your faves canceled an event or a con appearance because they're striking for fair wages then imma come for you in your sleep 🔪🔪🔪

(direct that fury where it belongs: AMPTP and the execs)

I really like the way Ramona was portrayed, I loved seeing Knives getting so much justice and gaining a healthier relationship with the older characters in comparison to the comics, I love the exes interactions with Ramona.

But even more importantly...

Him.

As always, all my praises go to the gay man ever. Slay you magnificent king.

"Oh no, someone's attracted to the aesthetics of my -punk movement but doesn't know the praxis and history behind it like I do--"

OK. Tell them. Make it a teaching moment. Everyone who's in your movement learned the background from somewhere at some point, maybe this is that point for that person. Give them a jumping off point that they can dive into later.

"Oh but I shouldn't be responsible for teaching baby -punks about the history and the how-tos and--"

OK. Then don't tell them. You don't have to be responsible for teaching people with a budding interest in your group the ins and outs and how-tos. That's fair and valid! It can be a lot of work. Someone else will handle it

"But I'm annoyed that they would try to claim to be part of/be interested in my community without knowing all the details that I know after being in it for months/years/decades, they're dumb, they're posers, they're--"

OK. Then don't engage with them, if it's that bad. Maybe someone else will come around and tell them the history, maybe they'll pick it up on their own, maybe they'll just enjoy the fashion elements for awhile.

"But they shouldn't claim to be part of the -punk community if they don't know the--"

I feel like we have a few options here. People can either talk to them, share the history, share the values, share the praxis. Or they can just chase off anyone who even thinks about dipping a toe in their community, and then wonder why it's dying off later down the line.

I dunno, maybe I'm too naive and patient or whatever. But if people are entering your -punk spaces without knowing The Rundown of what you feel they need to know, maybe being nice about it and informing people instead of immediately assuming stupidity and malicious intent could help you make a new friend. Even the loudest voices in a space had to learn from somewhere, and not everyone has the luxury of being in the space as the History was Happening--whether it's an age thing or a not being aware of the space thing. Or maybe I just don't see what the big deal is behind people hating people who like the aesthetic of something and don't know the behind the scenes history about it yet.

Because I believe in the word 'yet.' No one comes into this world knowing everything about everything, and we're all constantly learning new things. I'm not gonna degrade someone and call them a poser for not knowing what I know. Because if it were me, interested in a scene but getting chased out and called a poser? I wouldn't hit the books and study up, I'd go 'that fuckin sucks, those people sucked' and then avoid anyone and anything having to do with it.

So chase people off and call them posers if you want. But if your community starts dwindling, don't be fucking shocked.

I did not have high expectations to begin with, but I am genuinely blown away by how much I despise NATLA. Every moment reeks of cynical corporate cowardice. "We can't have Sokka be sexist, people will think we're endorsing sexism!" "We can't have Katarra be angry, people will think she's a nag!" "We can't have Aang abandon his responsibilities on purpose, people might think he's bad or flawed instead of the perfect good hero!" Just, decision after decision that demonstrates not only a complete misunderstanding of the source material, but a lack of understanding of, like, stories in general. Of why they work. Of why we even bother to tell them. Every decision made in NATLA feels like it was born in a board room and designed to make the characters and world a more palatable product, something they could more easily sell, something that will go down smooth and not offend anyone. Well, newsflash, assholes; I'm pretty fuckin' offended, and I'm not alone. You're too cowardly to give your characters flaws they need to work to overcome, but you have no problem showing a genocide onscreen, that's fine. Character development is bad! Let's replace it all with pointless action scenes and the dryest, most sleepily delivered exposition in the history of film! Fun? We can't show our characters having fun. Fun is for children. What's that? Our characters are children? Well, too bad, our target audience is people who liked Game of Thrones, so those kids are just gonna have to learn to be miserable.

Alright, I gotta stop talking about this or I'm going to choke someone, possibly myself.

truly the most egregious part of the 2012 Les Mis is that they changed Valjean’s line from

“It’s the story of those who always loved you, your mother gave her life for you then gave you to my keeping.”

to

“it’s the story, of one who turned from hating. The man who only learned to love when you were in his keeping.”

LIKE?????!! How dare they remove Valjean specifically mentioning Fantine’s sacrifice and putting that before he mentions his own part in the story?? How dare they make Valjean imply that it was only when Cosette came into his keeping that he stopped hating everything and learned to love WHEN THE FUCKING BISHOP IS THE REASON FOR THE GODDAMN SEASON????

Like OF COURSE Cosette softened Valjean, of course he became a better man when he became her father, of course their relationship is important.

But this story would not have happened without the love of the bishop and it was his love that rekindled the love that was dormant in Valjean’s heart. And it was Fantine that fanned that flame, then Cosette’s that kept it steady.

I just hate how flat it makes Valjean’s story seem. “It’s the story, of those who always loved you.” Is THE answer Cosette has been searching for her whole life. I wish they’d kept it in instead of feeling like the audience would only feel fulfilled by Valjean’s story if he only mentioned his direct relationship to Cosette.

Whatever idk. It’s a good Les Mis for a lot of reasons, but a bad one for a lot of reasons too 🥲

redraw of AleksLeVO's photo from anime expo! it's the boys!

sorry not to be negative or anything i think a lot of the jokes about maria dying are funny but am i the only one who thinks that its taking it a liiiittle too far to flood the comments of the live action actors posts with stuff about how shes gonna get shot or you cant wait to see her die (and yes this is actually happening im not making up a guy to get mad at)

BG3 co-op tonight at 6pm pacific!!!

Welcome back everybody! Last time we kicked off the adventure, got to meet the NPC allies, arrived at the tiefling and druid camp, and things are already going so so wrong. Dhudlei's in debt, Levi's in jail, Micah's been traumatized, and Mama D keeps getting lost and getting into scuffs with children. Let's see how the quest to stop the druid ritual goes tonight! See y'all then!

But can we talk about how amazing the acting was in season 3?

Omar - Outstanding

Edvin - Outdid himself

Frida - Spectacular

Malte - Amazing

Nikita - Better than ever

Ellen McLain’s commentary from my trivia playthrough

One of the many Wolf 359 script directions that is Important To Me is this bit from Ep15 What's Up, Doc?, which comes after Hilbert has been threatening to tell Minkowski how Eiffel ended up on the Hephaestus:

I just need to talk more about amount of work actors from Only Friends do. And I want to talk about Book specifically. I saw this

and it makes me think. Firstly, I’m sorry for Book and hope he’s okay. Secondly, he’s doing such an amazing job.

The thing is, Only Friends is a messy story with very grey characters. It’s also a very much drama more than anything. Young adults figuring their way to life, growing up and making mistakes.

This is as far as I know (I can be mistaken) the very early experience with such dramatic roles for most people in the cast. First and Khao have a lot of it - 55:15, Not me, The Eclipse, Moonlight Chicken like come on I do understand why they want comedy for now - but the others? Not so much.

Book is most known for his roles with Force in classic romantic comedies - Enchante and A Boss and a Babe. And while I do think that comedy is very underrated genre in case of how hard it is to make it funny, I do understand that comedies require less emotional effort.

I watched ABAAB and I loved it, Book’s acting there was great and on point. But I am amazed by him in Only Friends.

And it is very much about personal taste, but I do think that Mew is one of the hardest characters to play. The hardest one is Ray btw - and it’s both cause of his complicated personality and the fact that he is drunk almost all the time. The physicality Khao needs constantly support while acting 50 different emotions is so freaking hard.

But Mew is the character that requires a lot of mental energy and work. And that’s because - as @wen-kexing-apologist perfectly explains here - Mew doesn’t know who he is. So Book has to play a character who doesn’t have a strong sense of himself. He needs to play a character who constantly changes his identity cause of external factors.

And I can only imagine how hard it is for Book’s mentality. We see Mew behaving quite differently with different characters in the show. He constantly changes not only his appearance but also voice tone and mannerism and it is so fascinating to watch.

And this is no actual point in this post except of me praising the work people put in Only Friends.

Force nailing both arrogant ass and wet puppy behavior.

Mark is stealing his drama performances.

Neo is so good at every second of being Boston.

No one beats First in his micro expressions.

It’s just so good to see the great work all actors and directors do.

I’m amazed.