Why You Should Read "A Little Wicked"

Danny not confronting Lisa's authority really sells how little confidence he has on himself as a parent. The guy just keeps making mistakes.

you know what. im going to follow my heart so we can move on with the wormread and just copy-paste what i said about danny in chapter 6.9 on discord with some minimal editing because it's not pretty but the general thesis is there and i don't feel like making it into proper paragraph form

okay so the thing thats fucking killing me abotu 6.9 is that danny is literally like. he tries to call taylor a nickname only her mom called her once he realizes he's fucked up bad and is trying to recover whichi s insane [because it's obviously going to be upsetting to her by reminding her of her mom being gone, and it also indicates that his fall-back for something going wrong w/ taylor is to try to appeal to her by poorly copying someone else's parenting style] and he also randomly tells her about how her mom wanted to move her a grade ahead but he wanted her to stay in school with emma to make her happy. and he's been Stewing On That despite knowing it's objectively not his fault (and i am reminded of how in his interlude he spends time Stewing about how he wishes annette were there to give advice) and he also cops up to the fact that that the whole thing about "being her parent and not her ally" (<- demented thing to say for obvious reasons) wherein he locks her in a room and demands emotional vulnerability from her even as she's becoming visibly upset & compares his actions to emma's was her grandmother's idea and then. here's the real kicker. once lisa shows up and prepares to take taylor away there are any number of actions a parent confident that they're doing the right thing for their child would normally do in response--not, like, Good actions, but things that a parent would be likely to pull. threatening to call the cops bc blah blah you're my daughter, wanting to speak to lisa's parents, any form of power move pulled over these two teenage girls but instead he speaks to lisa like she's an equal authority over taylor and seriously asks if she's "okay with this" (i should remind you of the concussion chapter where lisa is doing some insane power move shit over taylors dad covertly establishing herself as more competent at caring 4 her than him lmao) which is just like. it's so glaringly wildly obvious how this guy has Zero confidence in himself as a parent so he generally does nothing and then while he's doing nothing he oscillates btwn rationalizing it to himself as allowing her privacy/dignity, getting angry at himself/calling himself a coward, or getting mad at TAYLOR and blaming HER for not being the one to take initiation to be vulnerable with him and, like. he literally does make functional decisions prior to this for a bit! he's good and supportive at the meeting with the school board about the bullying!!! but it doesn't immediately solve literal years of distance between them that have led to taylor having to take decisionmaking for her wellbeing entirely into her own hands w/o being able to tell him about it [& having literally no route for human connection or support other than the undersiders] so he just completely crumbles on his own calls and seeks out/takes completely shit advice from taylor's grandma instead so i very much think what's insinuated here is like. especially given that he knows he has anger issues and never wants to Be Scary with them. he might have frequently leaned on annette for parenting decisions before she died and/or is really fucking haunted by the time(s) he didn't listen to her and it went wrong and now that she's gone he's just kinda floundering and trying to toss the baton for parental decisionmaking onto anyone else, including, at one point, the literal teenage girl who shows up to help taylor run away from his house. insane ! also. thinking about how taylor says her grandma (maternal) never liked her dad. that man would literally rather talk to the mother of his dead wife, who hates him, and take her advice than go 'yeah ithink im gonna keep using my own judgement for compassion towards my daughter' fucking worst anyones ever done it this guy has the spine of a twizzler it's great

...and then doing All That & severely triggering taylor's trauma from the bullying in the process completely shatters any trust he had built with her, catalyzing her realization that she wants to be able to have meaningful relationships with the undersiders & leading to her running away to leave with them! i don't think anyone can say for sure whether or not danny Not doing this would have led to taylor turning the undersiders in before realizing that she would regret it, but oh fucking boy does he make SURE she doesn't go thru with it. and it would be bad to call the cops on a bunch of systematically neglected traumatized teenagers regardless of how much crime they're doing so you know what maybe we should actually thank danny for his Shit Parenting stopping taylor from being a narc

getting other people into rarepairs is so hard. wtf am i supposed to show them?? the 30k+ multichapter fic… written by ME?? the multiple pieces of fullbody fanart… ALSO by me?? the 12hr long spotify playlist… curated by ME?? i don’t think so. nuh-uh. no sir.

🎶you will remember me…remember me for centuries🎶

This kind of in-universe material would probably work really well in getting across the sort of piece-meal way a lot of superhero media works best in. You could tether it in the reactions of people and the world and have the feeling of there being a larger history in the background of the character, without having to go through the enormous backlog of comic-book history.

Superman is the character this would be the smoothest to pull off with, due to his global influence in-world, and wide-spread imaginery in real life. But it could likely work with others too. A documentary showing the effects of Batman on Gotham, or the evolving public perspection of the Hulk would be so cool to watch too.

The news montage sequence from Batman Vs Superman remains, to this day, one of my favorite three minutes of superhero fiction

This really comes to play in a fun way later, after talking to Mystra. Gale will justify being given ultimate power by saying something to the effect of, "you know me to be a moral and reasonable person, right?" The very same Gale who you can convince to do atrocities and break the rules of magic with.

This is such a fun aspect of Gale that is not often talked about. He is polite, even caring towards the struggle of others, but his moral center is aligned with your character in such interesting ways. The ways that he mirrors the player characters morality makes him a real joy on both good and evil playthroughs!

now I'm curious...who is Gale morally imitating?

I know you haven't played the game so I'll write this through that lens, but I think he imitates the player! More so than the other companions, he is willing to go along with what you suggest including some pretty morally abhorrent choices (which he pushes back against... but he doesn't leave unlike two of the more explicitly good characters). He voices support for seeking power even when it's through pretty questionable means. I have often said he's more nice than good and part of that is if he develops a close relationship with the player, he'll go along with their version of morality, the prioritizes the people close to him far more than any broader moral obligations... this can be beautiful like wanting to stay with you if you become an illithid brain eating monster but also beautiful because you know he'd definitely help you source the brains to eat. he'd find a way to justify it for sure

Just the possibility of Venom Victoria is amazing. The following mental struggle between the Wretch, her Warrior Monk philosophy and the symbiote third-wheeling in is simply too good to pass up.

I do think Taylor would enjoy the Batman rogue's gallery more. The struggles between territory, once in a while S9-like attacks and the lack of trustworthy authority figures in Gotham would make her feel right at home.

Hmm.

Odd question, which one fits better for Taylor and Victoria: fighting Batman Rogues Gallery or Spider-Man Rogue Gallery (and why?)

If Amy actually did this she would instantly become one of my favorite characters. Insanely good take right here.

Now, being a healer cape is extremely exhausting, just, in general. Mentally, and also physically, because I am not in great shape, and I suspect I never will be. And, uh, being a healer that can heal pretty much anything (except brain stuff), it pretty much quadruples the pressure. You ask me how I cope?

Well, I, personally, sneak around town and turn people into vampires.

But Panacea, you say. That's unethical! And vampires are evil!

And I say you are a fucking moron. One, vampires are entirely sapient creatures, so they are inherently morally neutral. Two, have you seen Brockton Bay? This city has shape-shifting metallic nazis, dragon gangsters and Brandish. What do the normal people have? Nothing, exactly. Regeneration, speed, no aging, cool fangs and ability to climb walls like a gecko for some mild rash in the sunlight is a fucking bargain. And people shouldn't be entering people's homes uninvited anyway, that's just good manners. And a precaution against assholes.

Gortash has a 'love' for humanity and it's making me sick cuz that's perhaps why I even like him. Cuz it's twisted and messed up and rotten, so fucking rotten, but it's there, and his every step and every plan of his strives towards the betterment of the status quo in some way and advancement of humanity in a way that's just making me sick.

In this essay I will-

What made me like the Emperor is the perspective that he acts in a lot of ways more like a "player" than a character. He is more removed from the direct action, creates an avatar to interact with the others in the world, and ends up getting more attached to his "tools" than he would have thought.

As a person before the tadpole, from what we see, Balduran was an architypical adventurer, someone who valued his freedom above all else. This likely resonates with a lot of "main character" Tavs.

In-game it is an interesting mystery to what degree the Emperor has maintained his personality post-ilithid form, and is a perspective on what might happen to Tav. It leaves a lot up to interpretation about his past and Tavs future.

I get that he is quite divisive, but Emps is a really fun character to engage with out of game, with interesting themes and questions in-game. Not every character would/should wibe with him, but personally I find him oddly likeable!

Next playthrough I gotta figure out a way to like the Emperor... what do so many people see in him... he feels like a simulator for dating a 36-year-old when you're 19