The Purpose Of Life Is To Get Really Into Stories That Drive You So Crazy You Sometimes Feel The Need

I feel as though this is very important

I think the problem is that on both sides of fandom, the concept of a “redemption arc” has gotten twisted to a point where it’s basically meaningless.

See, a lot of the time when the woobifiers say they want a “redemption arc” for their fave, they don’t mean that they want that character to have to face the awfulness of what they’ve done or put any actual effort into changing or face any real consequences. They basically mean that they want the good guys to realize to realize their fave wasn’t so bad all along and have them hug it all out or something, with maybe a token nod to the villain feeling regret, but nothing that really holds them accountable.

So of course if you’re thinking of “redemption” that way, you’re going to have people on the other side saying “This character doesn’t deserve redemption! They’ve done awful things!” Because yeah, they don’t deserve unconditional forgiveness and support from the heroes. They don’t deserve to have the slate magically wiped clean as if all the bad things they did never happened. But that was never supposed to be what a redemption arc was about. Real redemption is long and messy and hard, and it takes a really good writer to pull a proper redemption off. But when it is done right, it’s not about letting the villain off the hook - it’s exactly the opposite.

in the art book it's mentioned that they considered having morrigan and isabela as dai-style advisors, and you know what that means. ultimate-sacrificed or succumbed-to-the-calling hof-romanced morrigan and left-in-the-fade hawke-romanced isabela middle-aged widow yuri. is what that means.

I apologize for my brief recommendation of the further novels, as it was without context and born out of my excitement for the books. Frankly, I wrote it with the assumption that whatever my feelings upon the matter you already had your own, and would do whatever you wished no matter what I said. Having said that, I will now write the reason I so quickly recommended the books without giving you context.

Reading Bujold, for me, is a baseline to expand one’s empathy for others. All books do this, to an extent, but Bujold does it with particular finesse, and with, I admit, a dry irony I very much enjoy. She writes humans who push the boundaries of how we define humanity and asks us to expand our definition of humanity to include them.

Within her books she discusses a wide variety of topics, frequently pertaining to ethics. She is at her best while writing ethical intellectuals. A shortlist of the topics Bujold breaches are, family, identity and self-discovery, redemption, ableism, patriarchy, the mechanics of privilege (from different points of view), tradition and innovation and how they relate, medical ethics, bioengineering, and more (not to mention a generous portion of science fiction ethical dilemmas). Within the world of her books she focuses more upon characters than she does upon science, giving a plausible future scenario in which she can discuss more topics more freely than she might be able to within the modern era.

Shards of Honor was Bujold’s first published novel, and therefore lacks some of the polish and skill of the later novels. She is an author whose writing gets better, not worse, as she progresses. This is even more impressive when you realize that Shards of Honor is no where near a ballpark that could be considered bad.

I do not have a reference for how much you know about the series, so I will now expound a little upon its format.

The protagonist of Shards of Honor, Cordelia, appears as the main third-person narrow point of view for one more book before a time jump and a change in perspective to her son, Miles. Miles is his own protagonist for the majority of the series, though in later books the cast expands. Miles is a complex character that I do not wish to spoil should you decide to keep reading, but he very atypical for a protagonist of his sort, and it leads to a lot of interesting things about the series at large.

In addition, it is important to note that not all of Bujold’s novels are romances. Barrayar, the next book, can be semi-classified as a romance given as Aral and Cordelia are both still present, but I find it more justly fit into a political thriller. All the novels in the series can be called space operas. Furthermore, depending on the book, she writes within the genres of horror, speculative fiction, comedy, mystery, and drama. While this has a potential to be jarring with a less skilled writer, with Bujold, the result is instead a cohesive, interesting universe with realistic societies.

The books do include trigger warnings on rape and torture, though the worst instances are in the scene you mentioned in Shards of Honor, and instances in Mirror Dance much further in the series. The most common just complaint I have heard of her books is a lack of understanding of gender and sexual orientation early within the novels. She does not handle the subject horrendously, as you have likely gathered from the nature of Beta colony, but there are some instances that reveal a lack of understanding into bisexuality and what in means to be transgender. However, this lack of understanding, too, improves as she continues to write.

The series itself is extremely important to me, which doesn’t necessarily mean it will be an extremely important to everyone. However, I would highly recommend you continuing to give it a chance. I did not receive the impression you particularly disliked it, but rather you enjoyed it well enough, but not enough to derail your reading for the next month as you finished the series. I strongly urge that you do. Personally, I find it some of the most poignant books ever written on human nature and on human hope, and have long felt the relatively insular community that knows of its existence should expand. It is a series I honestly believe would improve the world if everyone read and understood its messages. It is a story of finding joy in the darkest times, of changing the world, and of the power of human inspiration.

Read further. Just do it.

@unexpected-firestorms replied to your text post

Read further. Just do it

I’m not absolutely opposed to the idea, but I’m gonna need way more of a convincing pitch than that.

George R.R. Martin: dragons are huge ferocious beasts who answer to a master  

Tolkien: dragons are annoying, talking assholes

I need this

@cookiemonsterrsims​ asked me for a list of recommended mods for Fallout 4, so I figured I’d just post it publicly for ease of format, and just in case anyone else was curious.

Obviously none of these are necessary, and are completely subjective to your own wants and what your PC can handle, but these are some of the primary mods I use:

CLOTHING/ARMOR MODS

Proto Vault Suit - A slightly different take on the Vanilla vault suit, that is a lot nicer to look at, and it still feels lore friendly.

Commonwealth Survivalist Gear - One of my favorite clothing mods. Creates many new, unique outfits that utilize vanilla assets. Very much lore friendly.

Survivalist Go-Bags - A mod by the same author that adds a nice variety of backpacks that you can create ♥

Eli’s Armour Compendium - Elianora creates some reeeeally neat looking armors/clothes.

Minuteman Outfit Reimagined - Just a mod I personally enjoy - the vanilla colors of the Minutement Outfit really bugged me, and this gives you a few options to replace it. I personally utilized the blue flannel variation :)

Eyewear and Mask Retexture - A mod that really spruces up some of the glasses/goggles/mask textures in the game.

CHARACTER AESTHETIC MODS

LooksMenu - Changes the menu in character creator a bit so that certain features are more easily accessible through a list. Also allows for saving character presets.

Real HD Face Textures 2k - A face texture mod.

Starlight Eyes - The eye texture mod I’m currently using.

Kirs Freckles - Changes the vanilla freckles and adds a bit more character to them.

DeLuxe Makeup - Replaces the vanilla makeups with some that are a lot easier on the eyes.

THBrows - Some nice new eyebrow options for your female characters.

Hair/Facial Hair mods: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

SETTLEMENT RELATED MODS

Spring Cleaning - Allows you to trash a lot more objects in your settlements and make them look more lived-in and clean.

Homemaker - Choc full of new stuff you can build!

Snappy HouseKit - A mod that adds a whole slew of home pieces you can use to build.

Thematic and Practical - Another mod that adds a whole slew of stuff you can build; this one primarily includes unique vendor stalls, furnishings that truly look like they’ve been made from things you’ve scavenged, and a really neat set of Brotherhood of Steel themed build components.

Cozy Beds - Adds a bunch of inviting looking new beds.

OCDecorator - Adds many vanilla items as static objects for placing in your settlements. Great for clutter and making your settlements look lived in.

Do It Yourshelf - Another great mod for making your places look lived in; a variety of shelves and clutter that snap to one another. Even comes with a variation of the clutter items that double as storage for your items!

Gruffydd’s Signs of the Times - A whole slew of signs and posters and so much more.

Orphans of the Commonwealth - Makes it possible for children to come to your settlements.

Lots More Settlers and Enemies - One of many mods that give you a wider variety of settlers.

Snap n’ Build is another FANTASTIC mod, but the author seems to have removed it for some reason. If you can find a reliable download from another website, I would recommend installing it. Comes with many different home shells.

ANIMATION MODS

Idle Hands - Gives your sole a wider variety of idle animations.

Lowered Weapons  - Simply lowers your character’s weapon when you have it out, but it’s not in use.

RETEXTURE/GAME AESTHETICS

Vivid Fallout Series - A series of mods that revamps a lot of the in-game textures, adding details, and in many cases, saving space as well.

DynaVision - Adds customizable depth of field and gives a more unique look to your game.

Fallout 4 Seasons - This is totally dependent on your preference. I’m personally loving the Spring mod.

I hope this has been helpful! ♥

journeys end in lovers meeting, every wise man’s son doth know

edit: credit

Modern Star Wars by @thisuserisangry

Things I don’t really see people talking about from Solo:

-They had Lando pronounce Han “Hān”

-and made it REALLY SUPER clear that parsecs were a unit of distance (but made doing the Kessel run in 12 parsecs still really impressive)

-just to cover some relatively minor plot holes from the original trilogy

-and I absolutely loved it.

Harry hesitated, but after all, Ron had been honest with him, so he told Ron the truth…

one of my absolute favorite bits from the hp books that never made it into the movies. though admittedly, the ootp movie had to rly condense a lot. i think the relationship between harry and ron is super underrated/overlooked - there’s so much love, trust, and support between them in this scene.