The moment Trent Ikithon and Essek have a conversation will be wild.

In one moment, I will hate every word coming from Matt as Trent. In the next, I'll adore everything he does as Essek.

3 minutes ago

come follow me on twitter for certified hot takes

long range on bad news is 800ft, and because percy has the sharpshooter feat, he rolls normally at that distance (just over two and a half football fields). it’s also worth noting that no fucking wizard spells have a range that long, so if ikithon wants to participate in this “fight” he better be a fast runner. let’s put percy at one end of this frankly absurd distance and ikithon at the other, for the sake of scientific curiosity, and see what happens.

assuming ickythot a) is a wizard, b) isn’t multiclassed, and c) didn’t take the Toughness feat, his theoretical max hp (at lvl 20 with 20 con and 6s on every hit die) is 222. now, that’s just unreasonable, so for argument’s sake let’s say he rolled median hp, his con is 16 (high for a wizard), and we’ll keep him lvl 20. his max hp is now 130. respectable! we love glass cannons!

percy rolls initiative at +11, casts hex, and shoots first. percy is pissed as fuck and blows all three of his grit on violent shot, letting him add three additional damage dice while temporarily raising the misfire score for bad news to 8. he also makes it a sharpshooter shot, taking -5 to hit and +10 to damage. oof, that’ll be a hard shot, but no worries, it’s percy. bang! natural 20! cool!

bad news’ damage is 2d12. as a dm, i would rule that its ‘damage die’ is 2d12 rather than 1d12, but 5e’s rules designer disagrees, so we’ll go with that. it, uh, it turns out it doesn’t matter all that much.

percy rolls 2d12 + 3 additional d12s + 1d6 for hex, doubling that (’double the dice’) for the crit. he then adds 5 (his dexterity) and 10 (sharpshooter). the average result for that is 87. ikithon is looking pretty rough! but he’s a wizard, he’s still got tricks up his sleeve! just wait for the next round!

ikithon spends his turn running towards percy to try and get in range to meteor swarm him, probably, and then he takes 43 points of damage from hemorrhaging critical.

he is now at precisely zero hit points, falls to the ground, and dies ignominiously and unceremoniously. death in six seconds is probably better than he deserved, but hey, no mercy percy keeps it efficient. he’s got dinner to cook for the wife and kids!

don’t worry, guys, he’s literally got seven more tries this turn!

1 hour ago

I was just reminiscing about earlier this year (and procastinating studying) when i made a decision to actually try doing art seriously and while I'm not where I want to be, I'm better than before. This piece is for @fiovske who was a huge motivator in me doing art (and whose piece i once redrew before i realised that was not...good akdjjsjs) and shay is also the reason I started to listen to Hozier, so here ya go babe

tanya it took me like.. properly getting up from bed and staring at it on my laptop… like.. i am so in love with the blue of this… thank you so so much! my heart is very full I am so happy that you feel motivated to go good things, and I know you’re going to do even greater things as time comes. this is so sweet and the trees… I already freak out about trees and yours are so nice too and just… this is entirely too sweet thank you so much bb ily <33

5 hours ago

‪*me crying for approximately 14 seconds then disassociating immediately after w no emotions* wow.... tha t was dramatic like suck it up bitch‬

5 hours ago

sometimes i think about gay people who lived centuries ago who thought they were all alone who imagined a world where they could live openly as themselves who met in secret spoke in code defied everything and everyone just to exist and i’m like..i gotta sit down. whew i gotta sit down

this is why this sappho fragment hits me so hard

5 hours ago

*wakes up in my own bed on a regular day* what? is this hell? am I in hell?

7 hours ago

fake dating omniscient narrator who immediately contradicts the characters (“This is fine,” she said. It was, in no way, shape, or form, fine.) deadpan jokes while swordfighting the “I FUCKING LOVE MY WIFE” guy oblivious pining that slowly escalates until A is going on page rants about how pretty B’s eyes are but still doesn’t seem to recognize they’re in love Strong Leader Type having to physically fall down in order for the other characters to see how exhausted they are funny villains who talk and make jokes with their heroes while they’re fighting them the villains presented as the protagonists *increasingly pulls out bigger and bigger weapons from more unlikely places* “I said all of your weapons” *pulls out more* “ALL OF THEM” *pulls out one last tiny dagger* traumatized character using humor to cover up ptsd characters going out for a break at a restaurant/movie/whatever and something bad happening using the “*gasp* what’s that over there???” trick to avert the enemy’s attention and it working a villain’s weakness being something totally random and nonsensical a hero duo arguing over who’s the sidekick while fighting a villain “don’t be silly, we don’t need [important thing]”  “you lost it, didn’t you?”  “yeah” “what’s the one thing I told you not to do tonight?”  “raise the dead”   “and what did you do?”  “raised the dead” “I think that went pretty well” *explosion in the distance*

7 hours ago

Reach within to your local graveyard and you might find a friend and a boy

8 hours ago

Jester To Essek: *holds out arms for a hug*

Essek Theylas, Shadow Hand to the Bright Queen, Powerful As Fuck Wizard of Time Magic and Shit, Courtier of Xhorhasian Court: *confused and compelled, let’s her fucking hug him* ?!????

Jester to Ludinus: *demands pastries at every future meeting to continue political collaboration*

Ludinus Da’leth, Martinet and Leader of the Cerberus Assembly, Most Powerful Mage in The Empire & Military Leader: *completely thrown off his game* I genuinely don’t know what to do. *staring into the lollipop abyss of her smile* Pastries… can be done.

9 hours ago

here is a diagram of why pacific rim is so good:

it’s just the perfect movie

15 hours ago

So with Caduceus’ updated judgements on the Nein, there’s been a lot of confusion about why Caduceus thinks that CALEB, traumatised, guilt-and-PTSD-ridden Caleb, is “on his level” along with Beau instead of being a “work in progress” like the similarly traumatised Yasha, or a “basket case” (Dani’s words, not Taliesin’s) along with Nott.

I’ve been mulling over my impression of how Caduceus views Caleb for a long time. So, I present my hypothesis:

Caduceus formed some snap judgements about the Nein right from the moment he met them, and those opinions are very, very slow to change.

When he met them, Jester, Fjord and Yasha were captives in need of rescuing from the Iron Shepherds. Beau was sensible, determined, and dedicated in the wake of losing someone she hadn’t realised was a friend. Nott shot a crossbow bolt at Beau within minutes of meeting him, and so to him Nott’s been an unstable wildcard ever since.

Most importantly he met Caleb in Murder Leader Mode, emotionally shutdown but able to successfully play as the remaining Nein’s face and strategist.

And Caduceus has never been able to shake that first impression. He takes Caleb and Beau’s opinions on battles and danger a lot more seriously than anyone else’s. He often seeks Caleb’s council unhesitatingly on the question of what they should do next, what their plan should be, what magical solutions might be viable.

I mean, Caduceus, against all apparent reason, sided with Caleb vis-a-vis going through the Dreadnaught room, and not only was he on board, he agreed to do what Caleb wanted immediately and didn’t change his mind the whole way through. 

He trusts that Caleb knows how to handle those things, because for the first few days that Caduceus knew him, that’s exactly what Caleb did. Caleb showed Caduceus right away what he was capable of, and unlike the rest of the Nein, Caduceus entered the group knowing Caleb as a ruthless and charismatic mercenary before he ever knew him as a battle-shy socially awkward wizard.

I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s blind to the times when Caleb’s judgement is compromised, but he certainly lends more weight to Caleb’s ability to function through his shutdowns and traumatic episodes than to the obvious and deep issues that cause such episodes. I mean, he felt no need to hear about Caleb’s past in Felderwin. Taliesin has literally said that all Caduceus cares to know is that there are people who upset Caleb a lot, and therefore Caduceus doesn’t like those people.

And I think that’s what it boils down to; Caleb has his own problems that are equally as bad as Fjord, Yasha and Nott’s own issues, but to Caduceus he has proven that he’s capable regardless. He’s not so outwardly lost or unsure like Yasha and Fjord, and he’s not reckless or suffering from blatantly unhealthy coping mechanisms like Nott. 

Caleb and Beau were the ones Caduceus watched showcase their ability to lead and asses situations well right from the beginning. Therefore, Caduceus can trust him, like Beau, to handle situations in an appropriately cautious and intelligent way. Therefore, Caleb and Beau are “on his level.”

That’s obviously not all that these characters are, but I think these are what Caduceus saw of them first, and as perceptive as he is, he’s had a lot of trouble seeing past that.

It seems that the story of this campaign has been the lingering effects of first impressions; we dwell on how Beau is brash, Caleb is secretive and how the Mighty Nein are just messing about, stumbling from failures to lucky successes. But they’re not, not anymore. They have grown and it’s just gonna take a little time for those perceptions to change

I’m personally more than a bit troubled at how Caduceus seems to write off Nott and Jester in particular. For all he purports to be super perceptive, it’s not until Jester all but tells him she’s badly coping with the trauma of being *kidnapped, tortured, and enslaved* that he deigns to notice. Last night on Talks, Taliesin said he was surprised that Jester is the one continually checking in on him and his wellbeing. She’s … literally the other party healer, extremely compassionate, and has been the heart of the team for a good long while. And he’s surprised at her being the one to check in on him. 

Caduceus has put a lot of emphasis on Fjord and Caleb, emphasis Caleb was uncomfortable with and tried to deter early on (Caduceus’ talk of destiny that first time was very firmly rebuked by Caleb, Fjord responded to it strongly though.) 

There’s been a tendency on the show and in the fandom to take the female characters at face-value and not delve that deep into them, i.e. Jester’s a cutesy bubbly idiot, Beau’s an asshole, Nott’s a “funny” drunk. I worry, with Caduceus being viewed as this Wise All Knowing Sage Figure (which he isn’t, he’s a judgey homeschool kid and Taliesin has said as much on Talks!) that people will take his views of the characters as gospel, not snap judgements he’s making based on his first time meeting these people, as the OP above pointed out. 

this has always lowkey bothered me as well — i think there’s a danger in reading too closely into it as far as intent goes, but it’s also true that caduceus really kind of dismisses the girls out of hand: they’re not the ones he’s interested in, or interested in helping. he’s always put all his focus on the guys of the party, and tends to ignore the girls.

i think, too, while caduceus did misread caleb and continues to stick by that first image, that’s not the only thing going on here. look at him and fjord:

caduceus never paid too much attention to fjord for a while. he certainly respected him (although, come to think of it, it would be interesting to ask him who he thinks the party leader is — caleb or fjord), but fjord never really was in his focus for a long time… until fjord needed him. the first major interaction i can remember was en route to xhorhas, when caduceus witnesses fjord waking up from one of his dreams. fjord ends up confiding in him, and admits to his fears. caduceus immediately latches on and becomes a mentor, which is exactly what fjord wanted and needed… and has ended up with fjord being a paladin of caduceus’s god. caduceus helped fjord, but didn’t do it… selflessly, without biases. he literally helped guide fjord into his god and his way of thinking.

(contrast this with jester, who is deeply empathetic — but her message tends to not be about “here’s the path you need to take,” as much as “remember that i’m here with you.” she doesn’t tell nott what to do, and she gives nott her flask back. what she does do is remind nott that she and caleb are alongside her no matter what.)

no doubt caduceus means the same general thing — it’s just that he views the world narrowly, and views his path as the right one. see also: his lecturing and chiding the nein about lying. he’s not wrong, it would mostly be better if they were honest and reached out to people. but it’s also what he thinks is right.

so we have fjord, who is lost and needs help getting away from an abusive relationship with his patron. and caduceus latches on, because he knows how to do this! he knows how to guide fjord away! by encouraging him and praising him and complimenting him, by nudging him to accept caduceus’s god and way of living. fjord needed and wanted that and so it worked perfectly.

but, doubling back — caduceus, i think, also tried that with caleb. he saw potential in caleb, because caleb appeared level headed and rational and not a compulsive liar (joke is on caduceus for that one) — he saw things he liked in caleb — and caleb was also looking for a direction or purpose.  or at least: he may have seemed that one. caleb has no affiliations with gods or patrons or organizations like jester, yasha, fjord, and beau do — he’s wandering aimlessly. i think caduceus probably thought: i bet i could help him. be his mentor. do what he ended up doing with fjord later on. 

we see the signs of it: caduceus praising caleb in the same ways, telling him he has a grand destiny and so much potential, that caduceus has faith in him to do great things. 

the problem is, caleb has been mentored before, and has been told he has a great destiny before, and murdered his parents because of it. caleb never responds at all to caduceus’s “mentoring,” and caduceus eventually drops it — and finds a more receptive audience in fjord.

his support is never “unconditional perceptive kindness.” that doesn’t mean that he’s not well-intentioned and doing what he thinks is right and good and helpful! it’s just that caduceus has a very specific script he’s working off of, one where he mentors and is paternalistic and brings you around to his way of thinking, and he doesn’t know what to do — and doesn’t bother engaging with you — if that script doesn’t seem to work.

You’re definitely right about Caduceus using specific scripts and pushing the Nein to do what he thinks is right and handling issues he’s comfortable with handling (as in, he knows the Right Answers about gods and destiny, but not so much about interpersonal relationships or anxiety or alcoholism).

But I think I have to disagree a little bit purely in terms of – he doesn’t dismiss all the girls, he specifically dismisses Nott and Jester. Beau, as Taliesin has mentioned several times on Talks, is actually his favourite. He almost always picks her when he needs a partner to do something important, and recommends her whenever the Nein decides they want a particular job done. It’s just that she, like Caleb, has been deemed capable and not outwardly lost or dealing with drastically unhealthy habits. 

Now that Yasha’s back, he’s starting to do the same thing with her in terms of giving her the big destiny talk and that he believes in her and so on. There’s a reason he’s framing Yasha in the same way he’s framed Fjord in his own mind, and that reason is that Yasha, too, is outwardly confused and struggling in similar “I was tied to an evil creature and caught up in a cult” ways. Yasha has never presented herself as someone with answers, someone who knows what she wants, and I think that’s an attitude Caduceus has both seen and intends to treat the same way he treated it in Fjord. That is, with Sage Guidance™.

I also don’t think he necessarily “gave up” on Caleb in regards to his opinions on Caleb having a destiny – those comments have never abated, the most recent one only a few episodes ago if I remember correctly. He just seems to have decided that Caleb doesn’t need guidance in the same way Fjord does, he only needs reassurance every now and then (which, to be fair, isn’t necessarily wrong).

And I’d argue that his first impression of Fjord HAS stuck around! The first thing Fjord did after being rescued was drag the Nein out to sea so he could figure his shit out. He didn’t figure his shit out for months after that, which is when Caduceus started playing a larger role in his journey. He still hasn’t entirely figured his shit out, though he’s in a much better place now. Again, if I remember correctly, I think there was a Talks not too long after Caduceus joined the Nein (like, when the episodes were in the 40s maybe?) where Taliesin mentioned the same thing he’s saying now – that Caduceus thought Fjord was in need of help and Caduceus was interested in helping. At the time, however, Fjord wasn’t seeking the kind of help Caduceus could give.

As for Jester and Nott… Nott spent the Iron Shepherds Arc playing as soft comic relief in an attempt to balance out Beau and Caleb’s grimness, in a sometimes reckless way that Caduceus didn’t understand or approve of. Immediately after that they spent months at sea where her anxiety and alcoholism worsened for obvious reasons. Immediately after THAT she entered the stress fuelled spiral that was her own arc, which caused her own identity crisis… That Caduceus didn’t want to touch because he didn’t know how to deal with her drinking. The drinking thing really bothers him (not drinking in general, specifically Nott’s extreme alcoholism). I can’t pretend I really understand the dynamic between these two, but I do feel that Caduceus continually sees the worst in her, either by bias or circumstance.

I think Jester is possibly the one Caduceus has the worst read on. There have been several times when Taliesin has mentioned how surprised Caduceus was by something Jester did, whether it was comforting him or putting on an excellent fake accent. He literally didn’t comprehend she was an adult for a while, because she’s silly and fun and doesn’t react to things that upset her in the same way others do. He saw her repression in the wake of the Iron Shepherds and misread it as immaturity.

In addition to that, I think Jester confuses him because Caduceus doesn’t seem to be able to help people without presenting himself as a person with answers. Like you said, Jester pretty much does the opposite. Her reassurances are “I have no idea what’s going on or what we should do but I’m here with you no matter what.” And that helps!!! And I don’t think Caduceus understands that!!! Caduceus is a kid who came from soothing grieving loved ones, people he had to present himself to as someone with answers. Jester soothes as a ride-or-die friend, which is what most of the Nein actually needs.

Everyone’s saying, “why is he surprised that Jester has checked up on and supported him when she does it all the time?” But I don’t think Caduceus really… counted Jester’s reassurances as helping. I think, since she gives little to no advice and no answers, he dismissed it as another part of her immaturity, of her not knowing how to help people in that way yet. Which is funny considering that her reassurances have meant a lot to literally everyone she directs them at, lmao.

I’m definitely not arguing that his first impressions are all there is to his opinions on the Nein. That’s obviously not true, his opinions HAVE changed as he’s learned more about them. But I do think they’ve directed him towards a certain way of thinking about each member, and the fact that he entered the group to see the Nein at different stages of development than how they first saw each other (or how the audience first saw them) accounts for a lot of his seemingly strange opinions on them.

i’m going to paraphrase an ask i got the other day about this — i think the reason his dismissal seems to weird and glaring, is not because he’s bound and determined to be an asshole, but because he cultivates such an image of himself as a helpful leader, that when he fails to extend that to everyone it looks a bit like he must hate nott, or something.

which is a digression, but honestly the disconnect between nott and caduceus is fascinating, because i think they have the biggest distance between them when it comes to how they view the world — caduceus was downright angry with her when she tried to science her way out of his residuum quest, and i imagine if it had worked he would have not known at all what to do. period. he doesn’t get her or how she thinks, and that i think is the main reason he “dismisses” her — she’s not just unreceptive to his scripts, but he doesn’t understand or care to understand her, and he doesn’t react well to or like being dismissed or ignored.

when i say he gave up on caleb, i don’t mean entirely. he definitely seems to like caleb more than others. but he has largely stopped going up to caleb and telling him how much potential he has — the recent destiny talk was very much brought on by caleb himself, and caduceus notably dialed back his praise to a level caleb was more willing to accept.

Honestly, that’s why the Nott and Caduceus thing is such an issue – it’s not just a misunderstanding or a bad interaction, it’s that they’re WILDLY different in ways that don’t mesh well. And I think you demonstrated why perfectly; they not only value different things and see the world differently, but their interpersonal habits also clash. I don’t think Caduceus hates Nott (in fact I think he likes her well enough), he just doesn’t get her and so never initiates conversations or contact. I genuinely don’t know how they’d go about building a stronger relationship. 

And yeah, that sounds about right on the Caleb thing. I like to think he’s slowly starting to get a grasp on the inner workings of the Nein, and what kind of advice they might actually respond to.

I think what we’re all waiting for is the moment where the Nein realize all this about him, and I eagerly await that day.

The thing that people always seem to forget when they talks about Caduceus and Nott is that their relationship was actually improving after Nott’s backstory reveal—until Nott accidentally killed him, and then never really apologized. Part of that was because Taliesin was out sick for the immediate aftermath, but Matt specifically said to Sam “Don’t do this without Taliesin here” and Sam never followed up.

And then Nott blew him up again, in pretty much the exact same way. And when Caduceus indicated he was upset, Nott made a joke about it instead of apologizing, which Cad was probably–understandably–expecting. 

The thing is, Nott absolutely does not want to deal with her own errors. You can see this most obviously in her dialogue about her drinking with Caleb, which started out with Caleb frustrated about Nott’s mistakes as a result, and Nott shifted the narrative to be about her internal issues. She really doesn’t want to accept when she’s done something related to a personal bad judgement call. It’s easy to walk away from your mistakes when they happen to some random guard working for a ridiculously creepy family that does business with slavers in a city you’re leaving in a day. It’s a lot more difficult to do so when you literally share a house with the guy you’ve blown up twice. 

Sam even indicated on a Talks that if Caduceus had an issue with it, he’d have to take it up with Nott, she wasn’t going to bring it up. Which. I mean he did, Sam, and Nott made a joke about it, but okay. That clearly isn’t direct enough.

But Caduceus has always been notably non-confrontational about his own issues. He’s the kid that went hungry in a big loud family instead of asking for anything. He didn’t want to leave the Sea Hag alive, but instead of saying anything when he knew he’d have back up (Nott and Beau were right there, hunting for her as well) he just left. He isn’t comfortable with Speak with Dead, but when he brings it up no one even registers it, so he just keeps doing it. He’s never going to get directly confrontational with Nott about this–unless he has a total meltdown, which may actually be coming given his slowly declining mental health–and Nott is never going to bring it up, so they’re never going to air out the dirty laundry. So he’s written her off as a reckless drunk, and she’s written him off as a big weirdo, and that’s where it will stay unless something drastic happens.

Also, if we’re talking first impressions… One of the very first things Nott did after meeting Caduceus was to shoot Beau with her crossbow just to see whether Cad really is a healer. I know this is one of the things that get dismissed as Sam just messing around because he’s “the funny one”. But irl if I met someone who after hearing I am a nurse/doctor/etc hurt their friend just to test my skills, I’d forever think of them as a sociopath and you couldn’t do much to change my mind.

23 hours ago

Scanlan "I taught Vecna counterspell" Shorthalt wasn't even using a bard spell. Counterspell is not (somehow!) on the bard spell list. He grabbed it from the Magical Secrets class/college feature, the absolute lad.

Three of Scanlan's most iconic spells, bigby's hand, counterspell and wish, are the result of being a nosy little bard with his fingers in all the (meat) pies. They weren't formal training. They are stolen arcane knowledge, bless this shameless gnome. No wonder Allura reacted so viscerally.

And the poetic cinema of using spells from a feature called "(Additional) Magical Secrets" against Vecna, the god of secrets... *chef's kiss*

1 day ago

literally going insane because of this

1 day ago

1 day ago

unpopular opinion but people who are righthanded can go fuck themselves. we lefties out here living our best lives

How dare you attack me like this on my own post. You righthanded ppl are salty as hell and can’t accept how fun, bouncy and energetic the lefties are

1 day ago

My teacher: makes a general statement to the class

My RSD: she’s targeting you specifically

Me, sobbing: o-oh okay

1 day ago

eodwulf: “...you look good.”

me:

1 day ago

a rlly good trope is a teenager who was forced to grow up too fast suddenly being surrounded by teens who love having fun and goofing off, and just slowly starting to come out of their shell and do dumb stuff just for the hell of it bc they can finally act their age

#im thinking abt zuko and hnghgj #him and sokka are so funny #3 swords #2 teenage boys #1 brain cell

op why would you hide this vital content in the tags i’m

1 day ago

So I’m seeing more “see, Caleb really isn’t a big deal to Trent, he doesn’t care that much!” sentiment going around, and while that could be true and I can see where people are coming from, I still disagree pretty firmly with it.

Because you really have to consider the context of Caleb’s reappearance. He returned as a clearly powerful wizard, a lot more powerful than Trent ever saw him, with equally powerful backup. Six equally powerful backup, to be exact. He was also in the middle of basically a court before the whole Assembly, foreign dignitaries, and the King, who promptly gave his group a task of extreme national importance.

What the fuck is Trent supposed to do, in that situation?

He can’t just kill Caleb if he wants to. He can’t just lock him up all over again. Caleb isn’t some poor farm boy who’s family is dead, anymore. He’s part of a group under international scrutiny, with friends who I’m pretty sure Trent can tell are gunning for him already and only need the slightest excuse to start a brawl.

Trent literally can’t start some big dramatic showdown like he may or may not want to. I think we’d have a far better gauge on his interest in Caleb if he’d run into the Nein in the middle of nowhere when they were still nobodies (and personally I bet crusty ass McBitch would have Power Word-Killed half of them right there and snatched Caleb up all over again). Because locking Caleb up for years in an Assembly asylum, assigning people to keep watch over him, remembering him specifically, his name, his face, SIXTEEN FUCKING YEARS after Caleb was last “useful,” FIVE YEARS since he’d last seen him in person, and going out of his way to tell him that speaks of a man exactly as obsessed with Caleb as Caleb’s always worried about.

It’s because of Caleb’s paranoia that we’ll never know would have happened had Trent had found Caleb during those five years alone, those five years of hiding as a level 1 wizard with too little to eat. That is the scenario that always terrified Caleb. There’s a reason Caleb was able to stand in the place Trent kept him locked up for years, look him in the eye and call him on his bullshit, and it wasn’t because he’d realized Trent had “moved on” after all. 

It was because the head of the Assembly and all his friends were in the room.

The thing about abuse, is that it’s (not always) but often a game of ‘not wanting and then wanting, and then not wanting again’. 

Sometimes you do get the types of people who are openly obsessive, but more often than not, abusers prefer to leave a shroud of confusion, switching from hot to cold, to keep their target guessing their motives and what they’re going to do. What Trent is doing in that scene is actually a form of gaslighting, by pretending Caleb is just someone he used to know, with little weight or concern to it (even though we all KNOW what happened with Trent and Caleb. And what Trent has done to who knows how many other people).  

Just think of sexual harassers who will simultaneously go out of their way to claim they don’t give a shit about you, you’re ugly, and you’re overreacting, and then a few moments later, in a lowered voice, tell you that they’re going to follow you home when no one’s watching. 

- Trent’s apparent disinterest in Caleb is a very common behaviour when it comes to abusing someone. What he’s doing is very carefully measured. Perhaps it’s because Trent’s behaviour in this scene reminds me so strongly of boys at my school that used to bully and sexually harrass me, but…I can tell from that scene that he is far more interested in Caleb than he seems. There is something behind his eyes whenever he looks in Caleb’s direction. And if he was TRULY, no longer interested in Caleb, he would have made some excuse not to be in the same room as him. An abuser who has truly moved on, would not want any contact with their victim or the victim’s friends, unless it was completely on the victim’s terms. (And in this case -it is not. Caleb and the Mighty Nein feel like they have no choice but to interact with Trent. And Trent knows this. And yet he still chooses to meet with them, and in a very casual way. That is a deliberate power move on Trent’s part. Because he knows they can’t NOT talk to him.)  

Trent is also a clever man, and he knows that there is a use for the mighty nein, and therefore trying anything too overt at this point would be very unwise. Instead, you can see him constantly testing the waters in that scene. Keeping things casual is very deliberate. 

They’re in an interesting situation, power balance-wise, where the mighty nein can’t overtly do anything to Trent, and Trent can’t do anything to the mighty nein. Which is why Trent resorts to emotionally torturing Caleb in this scene instead, because it’s so much more subtle. (Arranging the ‘relic’ to be viewed in the very asylum where Caleb was kept in and has trauma attached to the past experiences there? With Trent and Eodwulf being present? That alone is going to fuck with Caleb’s head. That’s extremely triggering for Caleb - and Trent will know that. And then for Trent and Eodwulf to be so casual about it, after all that’s happened. And Trent still taking an interest in Yasha, and acting like nothing’s going on and nothing’s wrong… All these elements add up.)   

Caleb not being a big deal to Trent, is exactly what Trent wants you to think. Why be overt about it? Think of how much more pain he can cause Caleb and how much more influence he can have over him, by appearing relatively harmless and not that interested in Caleb? That sort of thing messes with your head, makes you question your own views on how you were mistreated. There’s a little part of your brain that goes ‘maybe it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it to be. Maybe I am being paranoid and hostile for no reason’. Esepecially when you’ve been abused by that person in the past. It’s gaslighting and it’s horrifying. Everything about that scene where they view the orb and question Trent, is pure psychological horror.  

Trauma from abuse does several things to your mind, and one of the things that it does, is that it can create a feedback loop where your abuser merely has to breathe in the same space as you, and your own mind can do the rest of the work for them. Trent knows that just by being in the same room as Caleb, that Caleb will suffer and also question his own reality, and it will mess with his head. Which, given that Caleb is surrounded by his friends, what Trent did in this scene was the only thing he could do, if he wanted to get at Caleb. Quietly getting underneath Caleb’s skin by deliberately setting up that environment and behaving in that way - those are the actions of someone who is still interested in caleb, very much. If Trent really had no more interest in Caleb, he would not put a survivor of abuse through that.     

- On the plus side, Caleb does have his friends there, so there is only so much Trent can do - and Caleb clearly feels more emboldened to hit back at Trent after all of that provoking, because he’s surrounded by his friends and the situation they’re in, as negotiators for the empire. That gives him a bit of the power back. But Trent is still working very hard in that scene to undermine Caleb and unsettle him.  

1 day ago

it makes me so so angry knowing how terribly buzzfeed treats their employees and knowing that they are most definitely way underpaying ryan and shane for the amount viewership they’ve brought in with unsolved and how they’re absolutely going to fuck them over and make it so that if they ever want to leave buzzfeed they can’t take any part of the unsolved brand with them and will have to start from scratch. It’s so frustrating to see this happening in real time because ryan created buzzfeed unsolved as his own series that he has personally put so much hard work into from the start and made sure to make a QUALITY show and that’s why it has become so popular. He does so much research and writing work and also stars and voices almost every episode and he’s put so much of himself into it from day 1 that unsolved truly could not and can not exist without ryan bergara. And that’s why it makes me so nervous to see how bf has tried to branch out the “unsolved” brand in a bunch of weird unrelated directions, the number one reason being to capitalize on the unsolved name to get more views on other videos, but also to tie unsolved to buzzfeed as a specifically buzzfeed property rather than ryan’s property. Keep in mind that the “buzzfeed unsolved network” was launched just mere WEEKS before the try guys launched their own independent channel after leaving buzzfeed. I know this sounds like a tinfoil hat thing and that there are bigger problems in the world but to me it’s just so grossly obvious that after the try guys left buzzfeed and were able to successfully buy their own brand from bf to be independent creators, and ended up taking a huge fanbase with them, buzzfeed wanted to make sure that NEVER happened again and so have started trying to make “unsolved” a bigger buzzfeed brand (like tasty) that ryan and shane could never possibly buy for themselves and go independent with. And it’s also just so embarrassing the type of lazy content they’ve added to the channel to branch out and make it a buzzfeed brand. Like, look at this shit

almost everything on the unsolved network channel other than buzzfeed unsolved is clearly quickly-made, clickbait content with no other goals than getting more views and subscribers for the channel. They’ve also started posting stuff that is way more exploitative than anything that’s ever been on buzzfeed unsolved and is just trying to piggyback off the general popularity of the “conspiracy theory” genre and weird serial killer fandom stuff on youtube

anyway i know this is a long rant with 0 purpose other to say fuck buzzfeed and i just really hope ryan and shane are able to leave one day and take the really cool series they’ve created with them 

They did leave!! Theyre starting their own youtube series and company!!

OH YO THIS IS HUGE

First the tryguys now Ryan and Shane good for them

1 day ago

I think we need to apply this to older movies as well:

The homophobic gag in that rom com,

the racist side character in that coming of age story,

don’t just brush it of as a product of the time, acknowledge that it was bad then and remains a terrible aspect of the film today

1 day ago

Someone: did you go to class today?

Me: I was physically present in the room.

1 day ago

good fucking morning *levitates towards you with ill intent*

last thing trent sees before Essek crunches his torso like an empty plastic bottle

1 day ago

For all the stress and sadness of ep 87, I loved Yashas contributions. I'm so glad we have her back as Caleb's backstory comes calling, bc there's so much to relate about their stories. It's heartbreaking and beautiful to see her actively making sure Caleb understands she knows what he's been through.

She understand how complicated being a longtime victim of abuse is. The others can scream that Trent is evil all day long, and Caleb knows!! But Yasha understands the awful sense of responsibility for being part of someone like that's schemes. (Caleb wanting to "cut the cancer out of the Assembly" vs Yasha saying killing Oban "doesn't feel like enough")

Also:

"Sometimes...he would apologize"

"That can be very confusing"

Just...I hope they can have more moments together bc it seems like Caleb is actually drawing a lot of comfort from her, and she from having him around as well.

1 day ago

matt’s policy on making shopkeepers: if i don’t give travis nightmares whats even the point

1 day ago

It’s a crime/comedy movie about two rivaling crime robbing syndicates trying to beat each other to the same deals. Pretty generic, right?

The twist is that they don’t really know anyone on the other side of the war and one day, the top agents go to steal the prize jewel, run into each other and end in a fight that results in their masks being taken off.

Turns out, the two groups are clones of each other and all the main ones are played by actors that are always confused because they look so similar.

Tom Hardy and Logan Marshal Green

Jeffery Dean Morgan and Javier Bardem

Amy Adams and Isla Fisher

Keira Knightly and Natalie Portman

The teams even have their own janitors/voice of reason!

Rupert Grint and Ed Sheeran

And, of course, the leader of both gangs and eventual main villain are Elijah Woods and Daniel Radcliffe.

Someone tell Dan and Elijah. These assholes are the kind of tiny men who would make it happen and we all know it.

1 day ago

So I’m seeing more “see, Caleb really isn’t a big deal to Trent, he doesn’t care that much!” sentiment going around, and while that could be true and I can see where people are coming from, I still disagree pretty firmly with it.

Because you really have to consider the context of Caleb’s reappearance. He returned as a clearly powerful wizard, a lot more powerful than Trent ever saw him, with equally powerful backup. Six equally powerful backup, to be exact. He was also in the middle of basically a court before the whole Assembly, foreign dignitaries, and the King, who promptly gave his group a task of extreme national importance.

What the fuck is Trent supposed to do, in that situation?

He can’t just kill Caleb if he wants to. He can’t just lock him up all over again. Caleb isn’t some poor farm boy who’s family is dead, anymore. He’s part of a group under international scrutiny, with friends who I’m pretty sure Trent can tell are gunning for him already and only need the slightest excuse to start a brawl.

Trent literally can’t start some big dramatic showdown like he may or may not want to. I think we’d have a far better gauge on his interest in Caleb if he’d run into the Nein in the middle of nowhere when they were still nobodies (and personally I bet crusty ass McBitch would have Power Word-Killed half of them right there and snatched Caleb up all over again). Because locking Caleb up for years in an Assembly asylum, assigning people to keep watch over him, remembering him specifically, his name, his face, SIXTEEN FUCKING YEARS after Caleb was last “useful,” FIVE YEARS since he’d last seen him in person, and going out of his way to tell him that speaks of a man exactly as obsessed with Caleb as Caleb’s always worried about.

It’s because of Caleb’s paranoia that we’ll never know would have happened had Trent had found Caleb during those five years alone, those five years of hiding as a level 1 wizard with too little to eat. That is the scenario that always terrified Caleb. There’s a reason Caleb was able to stand in the place Trent kept him locked up for years, look him in the eye and call him on his bullshit, and it wasn’t because he’d realized Trent had “moved on” after all. 

It was because the head of the Assembly and all his friends were in the room.

1 day ago

Honestly I thought it was hilarious how Trent Icky-thot was talking about the spooky weird Xhorhasian magic that is so hard to understand and study

meanwhile our boy Caleb was right there with a bunch of Dunamancy spells in his book that he got from a hot boi drow for a persuasion roll of 12 like

1 day ago

I spent like all night thinking about one of the last things Liam said during game yesterday about Caleb sneaking off or something to see Astrid without the others and all I could think about was how Caleb has been doing so well but now here in the center of his trauma and in the face of his abusers he’s regressing a little back to a point of keeping his feelings to himself (lot’s of “I am fine”, which is a lie, and suggesting they work with Trent because they have to*) and actively avoiding the support of his friends and overall acting a bit like in the early days and it’s like good job Liam because that seems like realistic reaction for a person to have when suddenly exposed to their trauma and taken to sites of previous abuse but also god dammit Liam because that shit HURTS.

*although he did have that one worked up moment where he admitted he had thought about this moment and meeting Trent and how much he wants to kill him and now he can’t but you could tell he was trying to hold himself back even then

1 day ago

But you know what, full kudos to Liam and Matt for creating Trent as a character. 

They could have gone the traditional route of making Trent a very typical villain, with very in-your-face kind of abuse tactics .(which to be fair, some real life abusers do that too, especially in the later stages of abuse. It’s just a very common portrayal of abuse in fiction - and it’s generally the kind of abuse that springs to mind, when people imagine what abuse looks like).  

- But instead, Matt plays Trent almost completely subtle - very few dramatics so far, to the extent that it’s very very reminiscent of how a lot of real life abusers behave. 

Which, on the one hand - it’s a bit too real and too close to home for some of us who have experienced that kind of abuse. But on the other hand - that is amazing commitment to the role and a very truthful portrayal, and really makes Trent a believable threat. 

I would not nearly be as terrified of Trent as a villain, if he was more dramatic about it, especially if he did so from the start. 

The fact that Trent’s behaving in a way that makes even some members of the audience doubtful if he’s really that much of a threat at the moment, while others of us recognise the red flags of our own abusers in Trent and know what’s really going on, even now, and we also know what’s yet to come - that’s one hell of a villain. 

10/10 villain. 10/10 terrifying and horrifying. Excellent character creation/writing of the character, and acting. And a very truthful portrayal of an abusive and manipulative (and very creepy) man. 

The few times I’ve had to play even vaguely Trent-esque characters or NPCs in my own home games I’ve had to spend a solid hour just trying to get out of that headspace (huge shoutout to cat compilations on YouTube). I give major props to Matt for portraying this character so well and to Liam for designing him. He is an excellent and genuinely fascinating villain.

1 day ago

Vax, after he and Keyleth realize that for better or worse, he has the attention of the Raven Queen: Keyleth, I love you.

Keyleth: And I think I love you. I just don’t know if I can allow myself to. I’m terrified to allow myself to. You do realize that, if by some crazy chance, we all somehow make it through this domination alive, with the Chroma Conclave, and I complete my Aramente, I’ll still watch all of you die. 

Everything could go phenomenally well. And by becoming Headmaster, we enter a bit of a realm of immortality where I could live for a very, very long time. I’m afraid every time I look at one of your faces that it’s going to be the last, and I feel like deep down I know that day is coming. So because of that I’m afraid to let myself feel anything deeper than I already do.

Vax leaves.

Keyleth, breaking down crying for the second time that day: Why do people keep leaving me in rooms alone?

Welcome to one of the few things that Vax’ildan has ever regretted in his entire life, aside from breaking up with Gilmore: walking out on the woman he’s in love with instead of staying put. Because that’s what Vax often did when faced with emotional situations: he walked away, unable to face it head-on.

1 day ago

cADUCEUS FUCKING THRILLED ABOUT THIS BONE FLUTE ASKSFFHL I LOV HIM,, 

1 day ago

Rhodey: Barnes, you know Tony? He’s nice. He’s not bad to look at, right?

Tony: Thanks, Honey Bear.

Bucky: Well, of course.

Rhodey: Do you want to go out on a date with him?

Tony: Rhodey!

Bucky: Absolutely! Is Friday okay?

Rhodey: Friday’s perfect. He can’t wait.

Bucky: [to Rhodey] On the date, I will be able to talk to him directly?

1 day ago

End recordeing

When you get your sister to join you in your obsessions and manage to finish a certain wip :D

[ID/ A realistic drawing of Jonathan Sims, from the Magnus Archives, in his office. Jon is a tall, thin man sitting at his desk. He’s slouched over and has his face in his hand. He looks exhausted. The room is dark, lit only by his desk lamp. There are boxes and boxes of tapes scattered and piled about the office, some with their lids open, some not. The only thing on his desk is a tape recorder. The door to his office is cracked open slightly.

The second image is the first drawing, but now there are a bunch of eyes peeking into the room from around from the door. Jon is facing away from them. /end ID]

2 days ago