How To Greet A New Pal

I still have thoughts about this, so to continue in something of the same vein as last night…

The thing about Rincewind is, he’s not really a character who ever becomes a hero.

I know we can argue all night about the definition of the word hero, but he doesn’t consider himself one, and other characters don’t consider him one, so there’s that. But what I really mean is that he doesn’t have a hero’s journey.

I sometimes see people talking about the Rincewind books in the context of facing your fears. That’s fantastic; whatever you get out of it is good, of course, that’s what fiction is for.

But Rincewind himself doesn’t get brave. He doesn’t really learn to face his fears. He doesn’t slowly grow into someone who thinks of it as his solemn duty to save the world. He is always and foremost a cowards. The entire span of the books, this is true.

Mostly he just gets more resigned to how the world works. In The Last Hero he has a genre-savvy knowledge of how things are going to end up, so he volunteers; but it’s not out of bravery, it’s out of weariness. He knows how his life works so he just skips all the fuss and gets on with doing something he still, really, does not want to do.

He doesn’t get what most of what he wants. He doesn’t learn to use magic. He doesn’t develop any extraordinary skills. He doesn’t get a love interest, which is fiction’s common recourse when rewarding a hero (a device which bothers me immensely, so personally I’m glad of that). His major reward after the conclusion of his independent story arc is, essentially, a semi-peaceful retirement from adventure.

Rincewind is a mess. He is a coward, and he will admit that freely. When he does save the world, it’s because no one else is going to do it, and someone has to, and he doesn’t want to die. He doesn’t get rewarded, except possibly by continued living. He doesn’t learn to be brave, except in the desperate last-chance way he’s always been. He doesn’t learn to be good at what he loves.

That’s important. That’s very important. That’s what makes him stand out. Because - where do you go, when you’re too tired to be a hero, when you’re exhausted from people telling you to be brave and stick it out, when you’ve been trying so hard and you still can’t do well? When heroes only remind you of how inadequate you are, how much you can’t be them? When you don’t, especially, want to be inspired, because you are just trying to get by. Who do you turn to then?

That’s Rincewind. You may be down in the mud and unable to pull yourself out, but at least he’s down there with you, sighing and talking about how this always happens to him. And it’s okay. It may or may not get better, but you’ll be okay, for a given value of ‘okay’. You’ll survive. That’s an achievement

That’s what he means to me.

Ah Vander...

I'm still cracking up over this one line!

Vander has seen Silco turn a teen into a monster who killed 5 armed enforcers, the sheriff and then Benzo, got knocked out and dragged here, heard Silco's passionate speech, and he still seems to think that Silco could possibly be satisfied with just killing him.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, VANDER??

What have you done to Silco, that you believe that he might stop everything he's got going and call it quits after killing you?

The more I look at this sentence and the more it feels like Vander has this sort of... self important perception of who he is, or what he means to Silco.

Vander betrays a massive lack of understanding for Silco's dreams and passions, which is sort of heartbreaking, and feeds my perception of a young Vander who was always more in on it for himself than for ideals or true beliefs.

Vander would settle for personal revenge. Vander understands revenge more than anything else, because even after Silco's speech, he *still* believes that deep down it's all this is really about.

It hints at a young Vander who was full of rage and violence, but devoid of ideals. Silco thought he'd shared his dream with him, but he only gave him a direction to channel his anger, a conduit for his violence. Vander, I think, never really cared for a free Zaun, or never believed in it. That probably made betraying Silco that much easier, back then.

Silco asks him if he's forgotten, and he hasn't. He simply never really believed.

is this what you want?? you sickos???

in which minerva is just a little jealous suspicious

sorry but it’s sympathetic reading of agamemnon time, feel free to scroll past this if you don’t want to see agamemnon appreciation, but agamemnon is so interesting because he DOES learn from the lessons of his ancestors and from the cursed history of his house. he looks at his great-grandfather who killed and cooked his own son, his grandfather who betrayed and killed the man who helped him win his wife, and his father who killed his nephews and fed them to his brother (as well as previously killing his other brother), all three of them thoroughly cursed for their actions. and agamemnon takes away from that the message that godcrimes are a serious thing. not something to be trifled with. so he’s very very careful to live his life in keeping with the gods’ rules of right and wrong. when he’s offended artemis, he takes every possible measure to set things right with her, because he knows what happens when a god has it in for a man. he’s so hesitant to tread on the carpet clytemnestra lays out because he’s afraid of appearing over-proud and of offending the gods by rising above his place as a mortal. he makes so many sacrifices and is so careful to avoid getting on the bad side of the gods, any gods, because he knows what a terrible fate it is to have a god hate you. 

and in doing so, he forgets to avoid getting on the bad side of other mortals. he does not consider what it might mean to be on their bad side. in the eyes of the gods he’s done nothing wrong– it was a god that ordered him to sacrifice iphigenia, and why should the gods concern themselves with petty mortal things like the seizure of briseis or the murder of the trojans? no godcrimes were committed, no godlaws broken, it’s not like it was wife-stealing or kin-slaying or the murder of a guest. slaves and trojans are fair game. by the rules set forth by the gods, he has been pious, afraid to misstep and careful to make amends. he forgets that other mortals may not see his actions the same way. he forgets the mortals have different ideas of right and wrong and that what is right and proper by the laws of the gods may not be so in the eyes of his wife or his comrades.

concept: a death god that is actually surprisingly supportive and on the side of the good guys, supporting actions and promoting policies that will lead to the kingdom growing and thriving instead of being destroyed, because the more the kingdom grows, the more people there are, and the more people there are the more people will eventually  die, and when you’re an immortal god of death, you know there’s no need to rush. you’ll get them all in the end

Jinx :  😠

Silco : you’re my daughter 🥺 , I’ll never forsake you

Jinx :  🥺

DELTA_EXPERIMENT - Chapter 3-13

[MASTERPOST]

[Discord]

[Art Blog]

This is basically the dynamic I was talking about in this post, in which both Sans and Papyrus are faking being the other's "original brother"

They're both new to the world of Undertale, but due to a misunderstanding, they each assume the other is native to it; hence this conversation.

I think the funniest outcome here would be that there really isn't any milk in the Underground, and they both make a point to never bring that up to each other but still wonder about it in the dead of night

Though I prefer Barry and Ross’s voices for the skelebros. - this moment was just too perfect not to animate!!