Loveee Reading Multiple Fics By The Same Author And Seeing Little Nods And References Among Them Like

@chiaroscuroverse requested: i’d love to see Nine/Rose in your style, if you want :) :) (i tried to make it somewhat film noir, to go with the vibe of the episode. not sure if it worked ❤️)

You’ll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them.

The CABINETS ONE. I am CRYINg

BBC Class + The Onion Headlines (1/?)

Veilguard in many ways is reductive while being the most directly moralizing of the Dragon Age games, which makes it impossible to play a character with politics, ideas, or morals different from those the game espouses.

The game continuously tries to convince the player that these options do exist, hints at the fact that you will need to make sacrifices in order to win the war against the Evanuris, and ultimately, to stop Solas. But it fails to actually deliver on any of those promises by providing only three major choices, and a handful of minor choices. Not to mention that most of the dialogue options won't allow you to be authoritarian with a sole focus on defeating the Evanuris.

In my mind our three major decisions are:

The City you choose to send other people to defend, resulting in it being Blighted and captured by the villains already vying for power.

The person you choose to lead the other group when attempting to kill Ghilan'nain.

Whether to provide Solas closure & redemption, trick him, or fight him.

My issue with the first decision is that it does not go far enough. In a game that is ostensibly about hard choices, the fact both cities come out of it still standing, even if one survives in very bad shape and under totalitarian rule, doesn't make sense to me. The city you help should barely survive thanks to your presence, and the one you leave others to defend should be blighted and uninhabitable.

Additionally, you should be able to give a reason to your companions, in game, as to why you chose one city and not the other. For example, my Grey Warden Rook chose to help Treviso because they knew Minrathous' history with Blights and thought they might be able to handle it without them. But there are other Rooks who will save Minrathous because they hate The Crows. There are Rooks who will flip a coin and follow its lead. There are Rooks who think Minrathous does not deserve to be saved.

But this game does not, textually, allow Rook that kind of anger. It does allow Rook to say anything at all about the choice, other than that they had to make it, and that they are sorry. The game tells us we must feel bad for not being able to save everyone. But why?

Part of my issue with the second choice lies with Lucanis, and the fact the game does not allow you to dismiss any of your companions. He fails to strike when it counts most, and Rook and the whole team seem understanding if frustrated by it, but are willing to give him a second chance. But why? Because it is the morally right thing to do? Because he needs a shot at redemption?

Those are not good enough reasons for my Rook. But the game does not allow Rook to dismiss him after a catastrophic failure. It insists he remain, despite it being more than reasonable to kick out the guy who had one shot and missed.

Which relates to my real gripe with this choice: you should be able to choose any of your companions to lead the group, resulting in any of their deaths. And they should be the one to strike the final blow, not Lucanis, unless he is the person that is chosen. This, to me, is far more narratively satisfying, and puts the choice back into Rook and the player's hand.

The final decision is the one I feel is the most well done, but I still have issues with it.

The Inquisitor, romanced or not, and Morrigan, should be there in all endings. Morrigan should always help you defeat Solas, and the Inquisitor, based upon decisions they made in the prior game and not solely relying on whether or not they romanced him, should either fight with or against you. If they meet that criteria in the ending where you trick Solas, they should be the final boss. Additionally, the Inquisitor should get to choose whether or not to go with Solas if they have high enough friendship or romance in the redeemed ending.

My frustrations with Veilguard overall are the way it tells you it is doing something, without ever showing you, the severe limitations it imposes on actually roleplaying, and the way it glosses over previously established cultural issues and flaws within its narrative. It reduces the Venatori and Antaam to shells of their former nuanced selves. References to slavery within Tevinter culture are almost entirely removed. The Crows have morphed into an illusion to an Italian Mafia rather than a brutal group of spies who take part in child slavery and kill those who do not live up to their expectations. I cannot be a dalish elf, or a city elf, in a way that at all reflects the culturally distinct upbringings those two groups have. I cannot make Rook into anything more than they already are. I cannot make a Rook that falls outside of what the game deems as acceptable.

This game sanitizes the aspects of Dragon Age that were most interesting to me personally, trying to tie up all lore questions in a nice little bow, in aim to appeal to the widest audience possible. But it fails to do that, because in doing so, it lost the identity that makes it appealing.

I have said this before, and I will say it again: All art is inherently political because art is both a reflection of and the means by which culture is facilitated. And the illusion of choice in this game, the illusion that you can make hard decisions or play a character that's antagonistic or authoritarian, feels very inline with what capitalism presents to those who live under it. The choices we are presented with are a facade. The representation we are given is surface level and largely unsatisfying. We must act, even in our fantasies, in a way that corporations deem acceptable. We must maintain the status quo.

soft tummy Griddle thirst traps

Pose refs from IAmBeckyDee over on TikTok because they came up on my fyp and I couldn’t resist!

Star Trek: Discovery + The Onion headlines (1/?)

"sex scenes have no narrative purpose" is such a funny take on so many levels. people will really believe that the whole human experience is valuable to portray artistically except sex, which of course has never held emotional weight or significance for anybody

and more from the same series

top Vor things, no particular order:

Piotr, who wouldn’t accept Miles as his grandson until he was like five, asking if maybe Miles failed the Imperial Academy physical test because the instructor was a jealous prole

the end of Warrior’s Apprentice when Miles finally tells Baz his house colors and Baz nearly faints, and Miles tosses, “Break him in gently, Elena!” over his shoulder as he walks away

Gregor being like 95% sure that neither Miles nor Elena would ever point a loaded cannon at him

I’m almost entirely certain Simon isn’t actually, legally technically, sworn to Aral in any way, but every single person treats them as such

“Vor really does mean thief.” -drunk, furious Duv Galeni

Aral Vorkosigan, Admiral, Regent, Prime Minister and Viceroy, wears bright, floral shirts in his downtime. 

“Let’s see what happens” (every. time.)

“But of course. Every Vor lady go to the capital to shop.”

when Vordrozda draws the needler in the Council of Counts, in the presence of the emperor, and fully half of them, these old men with the status, stuffiness, and average age of the UK’s House of Lords, get up and run forward to tackle him

Miles, what have you done with your baby brother?

when Miles reluctantly admits to Ekaterin that they would have had to sacrifice her and Professora Vorthys for the good of the station and Komarr, if it came to it, and Ekaterin replies, “Of course. We’re Vor.” And you can hear Miles’ jaw hit the floor, because coincidentally it’s the same sound my jaw is making, because holy mothergrubbing shit, if you were not convinced by this point that they were perfect for each other…

when Richars says “Lady Alys doesn’t have a seat on the Council of Counts” and five days later, Alys has whipped up like seven votes against him, mostly by talking to various Countesses and their daughters

when Miles shows up at Ivan’s office in Memory to requesition him, and Ivan is like, “NOPE” until Miles explains that it’s for Illyan, and Ivan is like, “…about time. Mother’s been complaining” and falls in behind him.

Mark haphazardly enlisting Elena as an armswoman-simple

Ivan explaining the secret code of Gregor’s suit choice to the Arquas

this list could go on for so long; I’m going to stop it with a reminded that Aral Vorkosigan wears bright Hawaiian shirts, and also honorary mention to the time Bel Thorne pretended to buy Mark’s charade of being Miles so they could go rescue a bunch of clones from Jackson’s Whole. That was the most Milesian thing anyone non-Miles has ever done, with the possible exception of sinking ImpSec.

Yknow what, I'm keeping this prompt for...reasons

time-travel au except instead of anakin/obi-wan/padmé going back in time, it’s one or a few of the Brothers

can you imagine what that would be like?

qui-gon and obi-wan are fighting darth maul on naboo, maul is clearly winning, and out of nowhere there’s this h u g e surge in the force

everyone is disoriented, maul recovers first and moves to deliver a killing blow, and all of a sudden he gets shot in the back like 27 times

in the background there’s the nearly incoherent babble of “kriffing hells that hurt what was it what happened holy shit that’s a sith that is definitely a sith should we shoot it sir we should definitely shoot it it’s about to kill a general we have to help did we kill it is it dead it’s gotta be dead now go check it i don’t want to check it let’s just shoot it again there it’s gotta be dead now are you alright generals”

maul is definitely dead, the energy shield things power down, obi-wan rushes to his master’s side and the incoherent babble gets louder as they’re suddenly surrounded by a team of men in white and blue armor all scrambling to provide aid

obi-wan, satisfied that his master isn’t going to get himself fucking m u r d e r e d any time soon, turns to examine to newcomers

a hush falls over the group when they see his face

then, out of the silence, comes “….holy kriff, sir, your boyfriend is a b a b y” followed by one of the men smacking the back of another’s helmet with a loud crack and growling “shut the fuck up, fives”

everyone is very confused for the foreseeable future

(bonus: the Brothers are d e l i g h t e d to meet baby!anakin, and he is equally delighted. no one else is delighted by a group of highly-trained soldiers calling a 9yo “general” and visibly restraining themselves from doing exactly what he tells them at all times.)

posting all of these kids together again because that’s how decisive i am

So Gaider tweeted these today and here they are voiced (aside from Morrigan unfortunately)!