Steppenwolfs Lair

sppiiiiiIiiiiIIIIiiiin him

I love characters who are like "I'm a terrible person" but when you look closer it's more like

"I adapted to survive something and now I don't know how to stop being that version of myself."

Something I think is neat and really cute about fanfic is that there’s a personal version of each character in it? Like, each writer focuses on different traits and qualities and even though there can be a hundred fics with the same character, they’re really not exactly the same.

So even if you and I are writing a fic with the same characters, they can still be uniquely different despite having the same core and they’re each dear to us personally as our take on the person.

I don’t know, I just think it’s cute that each writer cherishes these characters in personal and unique ways.

without dismissing the ways in which zevran DOES have an ability to be v conscientious and kind and tactful, i think sometimes we tend to ascribe his respect of the warden's boundaries or shaping his tactics around protecting the warden or general charm to those things being kind of instinctual and inherent or romantic. but while balancing this w the fact that there's no reason he can't be good at those things simply bc he's good at them or that his motivations remain static, 9/10 at least certainly at the beginning of his relationship w the warden, he is doing those things bc he wants to be in the warden's good graces. he does not display the same restraint and care for the other companions from the get-go, nor do the stories he tells abt himself indicate he bestows those abilities on the mage he gets credit for assassinating, for example, or, more pertinently, rinna.

he's not in love w the warden from the start. his motivation wrt warden from the start is: make this person like me so they'll protect me. he's trying to be whatever the warden needs so that he isn't disposable. it can get romantic later; it seems a real disservice to his whole arc to say that where he ends up by the end of the game if you've taken the time to get to know him is simply who he's been the whole time.

no one cares that you shave your legs because of sensory issues shut the fuck up forever

really galling amount of people misinterpreting this post so i'd like to clarify. i'm saying that when discussions about patriarchal beauty standards and the way women are heavily shamed and coerced into eschewing their own natural state of being (hairy) are occurring, it is unhelpful (AT BEST) to interrupt and say that the reason YOU remove the hair from your body is because of sensory issues. that's not what we're talking about. stop asking for validation for doing something that society at large wants you to do. stop derailing the conversation because you feel uncomfortable about being made aware that you, for whatever reason it is, adhere to harmful, unfair and ridiculous beauty standards. you're stepping into the middle of an important conversation that needs to be had and making it all about you. shut the fuck up forever.

also quite frankly i think a lot less people would experience sensory issues if they let their hair grow out so that it isn't bristly and rough and irritating. and i cannot help but wonder why these sensory issues aren't as predominant in men. maybe you're uncomfortable with the hair on your body because you've been taught to be uncomfortable with it. just a thought.

okay real talk DA fandom, i know it's fun and cool and popular to use Solavellans as the fandom whipping boy (gn) and it has been since 2014 and especially since 2015, and i know that there are indeed a lot of Solavellans that are extremely cisheteronormative and do/say insane things that absolutely should be dunked on, and I also know that the writers opted to make Solas mechanically a straight romance because they were erroneously of the opinion that it would be bad and wrong for him to be a bisexual villain and that does have some really unforch implications, and i know it's frustrating that Solavellans seemingly got a fuckload of bones thrown to them in the festering shit sandwich that is Veilguard, esp when considering how bipoc and more openly queer characters and their romances were treated narratively which is absolutely a problem, but like. you gotta stop throwing solavellans under the bus. esp the solavellans that have been in the trenches with you over how bad veilguard is and also how stupidly neoliberal the series is in general. we could all be getting hammered in the forum and having beautiful discussions about lore and politics and and and but the infighting is so ugly. the real enemy is the fucking cullen tradwife shortbread mfers and i-never-bothered-to-examine-my-penchant-for-antiblackness mfers and also bioware. amen.

if you ever find yourself using “solavellans” in the same way redditor use “females ruining our hobby”#maybe it's time to think about that a little bit :')

OC checkpoint because I'm curious... What's the physical trait you like the most on your OC's face? A little detail you love paying attention to when you draw them. Their face just doesn't feel complete until you've added that thing. Tell me

Every time I play Origins I get horribly blindsided by how often Wynne will tell the Warden to seek martyrdom and constantly self-sacrifice. It hits a lot especially playing a female mage... how much of that does she actually believe, and how much of that are the lies she desperately told herself to make life in the Circle possible? They took her freedom, her child, her life, and so Wynne is convinced that you have to be willing to sacrifice yourself for some "greater good". It's just safer for the warden to believe now, so that anything later won't hurt them as much. Wynne makes me so unwell...

I think perhaps the only way in which queer people have achieved true parity with straight people is that queer romantasy is just as bad.

i wish there was a way to say "you're right, but this is really ineffective and even counterproductive messaging to anyone who doesn't already agree with you" without sounding like an asshole

characters who get the "i can fix him" urge not because theyre a saint who loves everyone inherently but because they think "if i can prove there's good in everyone, maybe i can start feeling like i'm worthy or being seen as good too."

a boy and his dog

Some Arue fragments from a Pathfinder ask

Having way too much fun drawing my demon wife uwu