Vikings: Valhalla (2022 - 2024) | S02e01 | 24/?

morfydd bts <3

Laura Berlin as QUEEN EMMA of NORMANDY VIKINGS: VALHALLA — Season 3 (2024)

Look I get how important Shianni is to our Tabris wardens, but I never see people give Soris the attention he deserves. For example, the first thing my Tabris would have done upon hearing he was staying at her house would be to run there and give him a big hug. She felt like shit leaving him and Shianni there to deal with the fallout and hearing how he was treated would just make her feel compelled to apologize a thousand times. Shianni AND Soris were Tabris’ cousins; pls give the soft boy some love too

House Blackwood of Raventree Hall

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Character Sheet

It's finally finished! I worked really hard on this character sheet for Dragon Age, inspired by the UI for The Veilguard. However, it can be customized to be used for any of your characters.

Available here (free, but optional donations are appreciated!)

on a second DA:I playthrough i’m noticing so much more foreshadowing in companion/advisor dialogue of how cadash/adaar/lavellan/tracelyan as a person HAS to be obliterated by the inquisition as a political, religious, and narrative force and the title of inquisitor.

mother giselle tells you from the beginning it doesn’t matter what you believe about being/not being the herald; you are an icon to the common people and the chantry.

josephine tells you after the truth about “andraste”/justinia is revealed in the fade—it doesn’t matter what you saw or felt, only what is remembered collectively.

dorian tells you if you ask to go with him to tevinter—you can never undo being the inquisitor, and would take away his agency just by being there.

varric tells you in haven that you’re a tragic hero, and asks at the wicked grace game if there is still a “you” separate from the inquisitor.

solas tells you in skyhold, if you tell him you intend to disband the inquisition, that the power you’ve amassed can’t be destroyed, and will only pass to less worthy hands if you relinquish it.

and all of that is just off the top of my head and comes up before ameridan’s name is ever mentioned.

and it’s all been said before but like! fuck! truth is the game was rigged from the start! you’ve been COOKED, inquisitor! YOU CAN NEVER GO HOME! it’s so fucking good

GWAYNE HIGHTOWER 💚 HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, 2.08

Why are British teenage girls so unhappy? Here’s the answer (Caitlin Moran, The Times, Sep 13 2024)

"The report, by the Children’s Society, found that British 15-year-old girls are the most unhappy in Europe.

British girls aged 10-15 are “significantly less happy” with their life, appearance, family and school than the average boy — and their happiness is still declining.

Boys’ life satisfaction, meanwhile, remains broadly stable. (…)

But I still didn’t have an “aha!” moment about why this so disproportionately affects girls until… I talked to some teenage girls.

It was at a party, and I went to vape with them on the patio. Because I take my nicotine like children do.

“Duh — it’s the boys,” one said when I brought it up, as all the others agreed.

“The boys?” I asked.

My last book, What About Men?, had been all about how much boys struggle these days: their loneliness; their suicide rates. I’d spent the past year feeling very sympathetic towards boys.

“Yeah, well, who do you think they’re taking out their unhappiness on? It’s us,” another girl said.

“One boy at school used to draw a picture every day of how ugly I was,” a third girl said. “Every day for two years.”

“They’ve all got ‘Rate The Girls’ polls on their WhatsApps,” the first said. “They mark you down for weight gain, haircuts, what you say.”

“But then, if you’re hot, it’s just as bad, in a different way, because they’ll be talking about how they want to f*** you.”

The girls discussed coping techniques. Bad news: none of them worked.

“The only way you can stop them is if you become ‘one of the boys’ and hang out with them. But then,” the second girl said with a sigh, “all the other girls call you a slut. Because you’ve gone over to the boys’ side.”

“Surely it’s not all the boys?” I said. “There must be some nice boys?”

“Oh, yeah,” one girl said. “But they keep their heads down. Because… well, look.”

She showed me the Instagram account of her friend. Under every picture she posted of herself — smiling in a new dress; with her dog — dozens of anonymous accounts had replied with the most rank abuse.

“Fat.” “Slut.” “You gonna try and kill yourself again, for attention?”

“They’re all boys from her school,” she said. “And look, this one boy tried to defend her.”

I saw a series of messages from a brave teenage boy, posting things like, “You’re all big men, leaving these replies under anonymous accounts.”

As I could see, this boy immediately became a target too. Mainly accusations that he was “white knighting” this girl: “You wanna f*** her, bro?”

“So,” I asked, “you don’t think it’s social media pressure to be beautiful, or the economy, that’s making girls so sad?”

“Well, yeah, them too,” the first girl said. “But, Monday-Friday, 9-3, I’m not on social media. I’m not… in the economy. I’m just with these boys. And no one talks about how horrible they are.”

I thought about another recent report, showing a 30 per cent ideological gap between Gen Z men, who are increasingly conservative, and Gen Z women, who are increasingly progressive.

I thought about Andrew Tate, who has nine million mostly young male followers — and faces human trafficking charges, which he denies.

And I thought: maybe these girls are on to something. Maybe more people need to vape with teenage girls and ask them for the school gossip."

Newly minted ambassador Josephine Montilyet is being shown around the Grand Necropolis by the snivelling nobility. They intend to show her how Mourn Watch take care of the Necropolis as well as boast about their ethically sourced workforce. When they enter, the first thing Ambassador Montilyet notices is a skeleton wearing a flower crown. It's poorly constructed yet surprisingly holds together as the skeleton swings it pickaxe.

They come across another and another until now even the skeleton guards are wearing them. The noble is getting noticeably upset, confused and somewhat angry thinking someone is playing a prank on them and trying to ruin the ambassadors opinion of Nevarra. They decide to take her to the memorial gardens only to find the source of the disruption.

A young Foundling who goes by the name Ingellvar is offering anyone they come across a flower crown, grinning from ear to ear when they take it. Vorgoth assists. The noble intends to take the being aside and lecture them on keeping their ward in check only for Ingellvar to offer Josephine a flower crown.

She accepts.

Twenty years later, Josephine still has that flower crown pressed and safely preserved behind framed glass. It's one of her favorite gifts and a fond memory of a child happy amongst the dead and their eldritch guardian watching over them.

actually. 🫷😀🫸 THOUGHTS ON AVELINE

i think aveline is a CORE da2 character, and her relationship with hawke is super super interesting. she’s hawke’s oldest friend in the game & by act 3, maybe the only enduring connection to their homeland & childhood besides the mabari. her voice, her bearing, her stated values are all very noble & movingly fereldan—but her actions both as guard captain & as a party member should be so profoundly disappointing to hawke almost no matter how you play them, which generates a powerful tension. imo it’s really poignant and adds a lot to the game’s central tragedy.

because how can hawke cut her off! but look at how she behaves: ignoring the serial killing & sexual assault of isolated older women and elf girls, baiting the arishok, slut shaming isabela, condescending to merrill. but how can they cut her off? the question is a privilege and a torment!

in this way i think she strikingly complements gamlen. like no matter what gamlen does and says to you, your love interest, leandra, the surviving hawke twin—he’s family and the only way into kirkwall. hawke is not permitted to sever those ties. and no matter what aveline does and says to you and all the women in your party, she remains your oldest friend and the only way back to ferelden, emotionally.

both aveline & gamlen will maintain a warm relationship with hawke as long as hawke tolerates their picking on those in proximity to hawke—but if hawke pushes back with aggressive dialogue options, both will tone match and became sour and hostile. aveline can be really quite awful to a red hawke, and will throw them to the ground and beat them at 100% rivalry. so there’s kind of an underlying challenge in both of these characters: how much will hawke, as gang leader & player character, put up with when it’s not directed at them?

of course, for all the nostalgia that seems to occlude av’s wrongdoings in kirkwall, she’s not really a childhood friend of hawke’s. she was a grown woman when they met, lothering was lost, and the moment was pretty heated thanks to aveline’s hostile templar husband.

and yet hawke is no more reliable & objective in their treatment of the past than varric is. and aveline is what they have! she’s standing in for all of ferelden, all of the past before the blight!

and likewise hawke for her! hawke is the only one left in act 3 who remembers wesley! aveline is the only one who remembers the dead hawke twin!

and as reprehensible as some of her decisions are, aveline’s grief for wesley and her enmity toward the old corrupt guard captain are sympathetic and her voice is sexy and husky and beautiful enough that. well im sorry i just lost the plot for a minute. uh

there’s also the act 3 subplot of the templars trying to take over the city guard, which sets up aveline as the only thing standing between kirkwall’s mages & absolute templar authority in the city. it’s literally her or cullen at his most brainwashed & violent. (to cullen’s credit he also thought it was a bad idea. but i won’t give him so much credit that i believe he’d turn down the position if aveline was removed.) between a knight-commander and a hard place, a pro-mage hawke has to choose the hard place.

so both of my playthroughs i’ve felt like hawke’s friendship with her is at the very least strained, if not completely ruptured, but they have to back her. how much that feels like fucking sandpaper may vary from hawke to hawke.

ultimately i just think she brings a lot to the table. i don’t necessarily understand why she’d be anyone’s all time #1 favorite companion, but you know.