karna and amangeaux's relationship absolutely ruins me. they both develop in opposite directions until they converge in the finale. amangeaux's struggle sharpening her until she's stone, keeping herself alive through connection in a literal sense. but karna's life post FDA has been better than anything she's ever known. she's been rotting for as long as she can remember, shes living on borrowed time with the people (mainly deli we're talking about deli here) that she loved. her time is softening her, in both an emotional and a literal sense. by the finale they've effectively gone through opposite arcs. even their designs are extremely similar at this point. by the end they've swapped spots. karna at the softest she's ever been. in a literal sense: her body fully rotting away before her death, and in an emotional sense: confessing her love to deli. trying her best to save the one she cares most about in the best way she knows how. amangeaux continues to harden even after the battle. she shifts into karna's place, slipping in and out of shadows and disguises, running on what she thinks is borrowed time.
its about sisterly love to me. its about looking out for the other in the only way you know how. amangeaux WANTS karna to be soft! she encourages her endeavors with deli! she wants her to build relationships and let down her walls. and the opposite is the same for karna. karna wants amangeaux to toughen up. she wants her to be stronger and more secretive and tougher because thats how she knows she won't get hurt. she wants her to be safe. they both care for one another so much but neither of them understand the depths of the other until the end, when they've experienced it for themselves.
Something about Adaine saying "Is this justice?" to Ankarna and Crystal saying "What about them? Where's their justice?" to Lilith. Rage as a teenage girl. I don't need your sword. I don't have to believe in a god. You have seven believers right here. You get it.
"because you were lied to, does not mean that everything is a lie. do not take the crimes of those who have manipulated us and put them at the feet of the world."
brennan lee mulligan sometimes you say shit like this during a campaign and it makes me want to tear my hair out
something about angwyn saying "I will find what is wrong with your mind and I will change it" and adaine telling him "you've been trying to do that for a very long time and I'm sorry to tell you that it has not worked" and jawbone shaking her "having panic attacks is not a character flaw" and adaine saying "this medicine is great!" and summoning a familiar and learning how to help herself and how to channel and manage her anxiety and live with it, and learning how to love herself and love her brain even though it's fucking hard but doing it anyway because "I know that my friends do love me, so maybe there is hope for us yet" so if that's enough, oh god maybe thats enough, maybe she is enough, maybe her brain is enough, is making me. feel. things.,
Ame is a child when she first wonders through Grandmother Wren’s cottage. She wakes to the stomps of a fierce rooster, the smell of juk, the chorus of small sounds that builds the cottage.
Ame is a child when she falls in love with magic, the scent of it, the purity and the heart that lives at the core of it. Magic, the ability to connect with the earth, to provide for the animals and the trees, for the Spirits and honour their works. To help humans with sickness and mending.
The humanity in magic, the spinning of life to vow service to all that breathes on Umora.
Yet Ame is still a child as other children scowl at her, throw piercing gazes and words, “you’re a witch!” and see nothing but body, a little girl disconnected from the flesh of their own, a witch, nothing but a witch, an orphan, a stranger, a child. All but human.
But Ame had never thought herself anything other than human.
Ame, a child that never was, never could be, and forever will be.
She is a child when she is given to Grandmother Wren. Unwanted, strange child. She is a child when she is othered by the other children. Witch and apprentice, and still a child.
Ame never experiences childhood. She knows the wonders of magic and medicine, of healing and earth. But she never experiences the wonders of friendship, of connections in childhood. Ame never experiences the wonders of playing make belief, the warm hug after a heated argument, the small secrets shared in childhood.
But Ame is a child when finds more to her little family. A wizard, a witch and a wild one. Each child with a deep and profound sadness etched into the core of their beings and yet all too young to form the words to it.
Ame is still a child when she waves goodbye to her best and most True Friend. Tears wet her cheeks and the summer falls to her feet in a sweet breeze and a distant memory unforgotten. Ame is a child when she whispers her final goodnight to her brother, her True Friend, without and fully knowing so. She wakes up to the smell of moss and nothing but moss. She finds the cottage all too quiet.
Ame gains more than childhood during one summer and looses more than it when it is over. She finds fellowship and family in two True Friends. A secret and bond in childhood that cannot be simply broken. A thread that stretches across over water and mountains that no matter how far they are, they know they have a piece of themselves, of a simpler yet complicated summer in childhood somewhere across the lands. A small shard of childhood, of their true humanities stuck in memory of the scent of honey and magic and fur, a time long ago.
"The Years will go by and everyone will find someone that matters more to them than you" is such a way to point out the one fear all ace-spec, aro-spec people have. Thank you Brennan Lee Mulligan
Every dropout subscriber loves comedy, and beneath that we love psychological horror. And beneath that? Comedy again, but weirder and gay.
Not me absolutely bawling my eyes out at 3am after a very unproductive day listening to the first 10 minutes of Worlds Beyond Number, The Wizard preview
Podcasts are my least favourite form of content cause purely auditory concentration is my weakest but this is so so good for me and my mental health
ive been thinking about this today and just feel the need to sing praises to it
the last stand fight is literally one of my favourites if not the favourite from D20
and, you know, its probably not the hardest or the most story important one, but god its just so good
like the fact that non of them dropped??? that they didnt even get that injured and yeah on some part it obviously was the dice as it often tends to be in dnd but it was also them showing how well they work together
i feel like they all play into their strengths very well it this fight and they even talk about it in the adventuring party like if it werent for spell casters with area of effect spell the fighters would stand no chance, but also noone else could probably tank all that shit from the purple worm like gorgug
and like the decision from emily axford to disguise herself as the proctor was so good and yeah again luck also played into that but if she didnt do it, there would be no chance at even having that luck
and also her spirit guardians (love that spell) delt so much damage, and adaine coming in with the scatter to move the proctor away, which leads to kristin coming closer to there, which allows her to see kipper whats her face and stop whatever she was about to do
and then theres the exams part which they fully blow out of the park, like im pretty sure there was at least one question from like freshman year like prompts to you for remembering, also them actually attempting the math and essay and the essay actually kind of making sense and being about something that the characters genuinely care about
even if we go back to the dice, fig is struggling it that fight (and honestly the whole season) but because of so many good strategical decisions that emily makes, the impact of the dice is not as big as it could have been, if she had done things differently
also everyones vibe is so good the entire fight, like this fight was not made to be easy, they were probably met to at least drop maybe even multiple times, but they are having fun with it, joking around about the rats and the jellies and honestly its a very on brand fight for the bad kids
i also just remember the amount of nat 20 zac rolled in that fight, like that was insane
zac oyama PCs and kindness unbefitting of their station, of themselves. colin having violence as basically his only skill but refusing the kind of violence they committed under the fda's orders and deli's pursuit of it that follows; lapin casting fly on theo instead of himself, a moment where he could have guaranteed himself an out but instead chose to better the rest of the party's chances, ending in his own death; pib being a trickster spirit (and thus should be a certified piece of shit) but having all his trickery guided and motivated by his ultimate goal to help - to help his friends and whatever pathetic men he decides to take under his wing along the way. does anyone understand what the hell i'm talking about over here