when your mutual reblogs something with a full page of tags its like. girl (gender neutral) i am filling my mug with coffee and reading this like the morning paper. i am so interested in your thoughts on this post. i love you.
my fav part of origins is the fact that it’s a love letter to “the end does not justify the means”. the entire game, in almost every quest, this is the constant question that’s thrown at us. everyone in the story tells us that they did what they did because it would achieve the best outcome. from uldred’s uprising in the circle tower, to zathrian’s cursing of the werewolves, to bhelen’s coup. loghain himself uses this as justification for the retreat at ostagar - that it was the morally correct decision to abandon the field, because it guaranteed some of the army would survive and could regroup for a new assault on the darkspawn in ostagar. and it’s so specific that loghain, as the primary antagonist, loghain is the one arguing that the ends justifies the means because he is either your parallel, or your mirror.
to be more specific, my favourite thing about origins is that you, as the player character, are faced with the exact same choice. you will always resolve the circle tower uprising. you will always resolve the issue between the dalish and the werewolves. you will always settle the secession crisis in orzammar. you will always fight the archdemon and win over it. but how? what are your means? will you murder a child to spare redcliffe? will you slaughter cornered circle mages trapped in a tower with no escape? will you kill innocent werewolves who had nothing to do with a tragedy that happened hundreds of years ago? will you support a king that has his own family’s blood on his hands because he wants change or a king that’s more committed to culture & tradition over justice?
does it matter? to you? to anyone? why does it matter, if you’re going to get to the same place in the story at the end?
and the story tells you. again and again. it matters. it matters because the ends do not justify the means. to roughly quote ursula k le guin, it matters because there is no end - you start the awakening dlc as your own warden if you survived, or as an orlesian warden if not. so, all you have left is the means.
it’s very clumsy in a lot of places, and there’s obvious issues if you look at each case in closer detail (e.g. the ideas around social justice re: dalish elves & mages), but overall, this is the kind of story that makes origins so special to me tbh. it really holds up a mirror to this kind of cold, utilitarian morality that’s so often rewarded in “dark” fantasy genres. like idk it’s very good to me.
I hate when I say things like “oh I want an ipod classic but with bluetooth so I can use wireless headphones” and some peanut comes in and replies with “so a smartphone with spotify?” No. I want a 160GB+ rectangular monstrosity where I can download every version of every song I want to it and it does nothing except play music and I don’t need a data connection and don’t have to pay a subscription to not have ads and don’t have popups suggesting terrible AI playlists all over the menus.
Gimme the clicky wheel and song titles like “My Chemical Romance- The Black Parade- Blood (Bonus Track)- secret track- album rip- high quality”
Tangara is an open source iPod clone, which includes bluetooth:
I’ve noticed more and more in public bathrooms that people skip the handwash and just take a squirt of hand sanitizer from wall dispensers on the way out. hand sanitizer is NOT effective against most things that come out of your ass. i cannot stress this enough. i’m begging y'all. please. please please please please please use the soap.
i’m out here immunosupressed fighting for my life to not get naturally selected while people around me touch a public toilet handles and walk back to their tables to immediately eat a burger
Thank you for bringing this up! Many hand sanitizers and household cleaners proudly claim to “Kill 99.99% of germs.”
In fact, this does not mean that the product kills 99.99% of all germs known to exist.
It means that, during product testing in a controlled environment, the product killed 99.99% of the germs it was specifically tested against. As you might imagine, Lysol isn’t testing its kitchen disinfectant spray against millions and millions of unique microbes.
In the U.S., labeling laws usually require that companies actually identify somewhere else on the label which germs are being tested and killed. Next time you see a “kills 99.99% of germs” label, check out the rest of the label, and you’ll find the small print which specifies that it kills 99.9% of one type of flu, or Covid, or E. Coli, etc. This is why many labels even include an asterisk, i.e.: “Kills 99.99% of Germs!*” Look for the companion asterisk elsewhere on the label for more info.
The way we kill these germs to prevent infections varies based on the germs’ structure. Essentially, we need different “weapons” (cleaning methods) to fight different microbes. A product that kills Flu Viruses and E. Coli can’t necessarily destroy Norovirus or Giardia.
No product is effective against every type of germ, even common germs which regularly cause illness in households and communities.
Hand washing is effective against more germs, not only because it can destroy germs which hand sanitizer cannot, but because it simply washes them off your hands.
Thing about Book! Frodo (and something I wish the films would have kept) is that not only is he a sarcastic little shit, being sassy is basically his love-language.
He’s unfailingly polite with strangers and and people he doesn’t like, but when he starts ribbing you and/or openly talking shit about his insufferable neighbours in your presence? That’s when you know you’ve made it into his inner circle.
Now imagine a canon-divergence or AU where he has access to non-otherworldly help after the Quest. Imagine you’re Rosie Cotton. You’ve only ever known Mr Baggins as this nice but reclusive gentleman, and post-quest as your Sam’s Frodo, all sad eyes and quiet, solemn dignity…
And then one day he gives you a cup of tea and goes on the bitchiest rant you’ve ever heard about some self-important busybody of a relative he wishes he didn’t have… And before you can truly start reeling your Sam bursts into tears because THANK THE STARS Frodo is healing, he finally got some of his spirit back!
Hello! I’m Beth, I’m a nerd, and a feminist, and a bibliophile. And I really don’t know what else to add… I like cats? I read and watch predominantly sci-fi/fantasy? How about this: if you have a question, ask.
