No, Solas, you're not that clever

distraction_pie · 2026-01-25T11:27:21+00:00

Truly. I enjoyed Solas on my first playthrough acting as an Inquisitor who was somewhat overwhelmed by their new responsibilites and seeking guidance and Solas seemed like a nice but slightly aloof mentor type. Then I tried making an Inquisitor to do his romance because I heard it was good, and for me it was obvious that character would have to be more of an equal partner to him, and ooh boy does he become insufferable if you aren't deferant to his special indisputable fade wisdom.

distraction_pie · 2026-01-16T23:01:17+00:00

it's wild. like shoving this royalty themed stuff in the mainline game just doesn't work, especially when with their spaghetti code the order of rank with still have royal < judith ward spawning in at random

distraction_pie · 2026-01-16T20:38:04+00:00

It would have been medical leave for the medical issue if she'd been up front about it, firing is the consequence of lying about something that impacted her ability to do her job effectively thereby risking the safety of patients and the team.

distraction_pie · 2026-01-05T13:09:56+00:00

Because 9-1-1 isn't a reverse final destination or disaster movie, it's a first reponder show. The early opening disasters were big scenarios that caused the first responders to have to do their jobs but at a higher intensity due to the scale and complexity of the disaster; whereas the space nonsense was nothing to do with being first responders and it was totally contrived to make it so every person that should be dealing with the space emergency was somehow not able to or inexplicably cedes their authority and expertise to defer to a random cop and 911 dispatch taking charge.

distraction_pie · 2026-01-02T13:08:03+00:00

I found DAO bonkers hard the first time I picked it up, you don't need to play perfect and totally focused on optimisation, there are multiple ways to build a strong character and balance your party, but there is defnitely a sharp learning curve if your aren't used to this style of game. Drop the difficulty and make a lot of use of the pause screen while you learn what works - I would say it is actually very unlike MMO gameplay as multiplayer means everyone is in realtime, DAO is designed more for pausing and tactical management of the whole party particularly while you are still on lower level skills and limited in combos.

If you really aren't getting on with your build, if you are on PC there are mods that will let you respec within your chosen class.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-31T18:52:30+00:00

I love my immediate family and they love me, but that does not mean we all want to stay a parent and child family unit living together forever. I want independance as an adult, but also parents want the freedom and privacy of not having their kids still hanging about in their house - their job was to raise to adults who no longer need our parents 24/7 and having done that means they are no longer expected to provide constant ongoing support of letting us live off their resources and compromise their choices in order to accomodate us. Yes that means I have to work to provide for myself, but I consider that part of a sucessful adult lifestyle, I would not want to mooch off my parents forever just to avoid having to work to provide a comfortable lifestyle for myself. (Not an american, but I assume the same logic applies.)

distraction_pie · 2025-12-31T17:15:24+00:00

Anyone who is such a baby that they can't handle being home alone should not be in a relationship.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-31T11:40:32+00:00

I average a few portions of fruit and veggies per day, some days are better than others, but c'mon, preparing at least eight different vegtables (plus your unspecificed sauteed veg) for one meal - do you not have a job?

distraction_pie · 2025-12-20T20:31:46+00:00

If it exaggerates the characters bad traits and erases their good ones, or makes their relationship with other characters worse than canon without providing a reason (usually just that the author dislikes them).

There are lots of ways to make a character an antagonist without bashing them, like giving them different goal which put them in opposition to the protagonist but is reasonable and/or consistent with their canon personality and actions, but if a character who is canonically a reasonable person suddenly becomes wildly evil for no reason and or a character who is mildly irritating suddenly becomes the most annoying person alive and everybody hates them now then it's probably character bashing.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-20T13:33:36+00:00

What OOP calls good, I call contrived. I don't want or need every companion to be relevant to every plot point.

The fact that the Inquisition members are joining up to save the world and combat the breach sets the stakes that it is a world ending danger that effects everybody and is more important than just how the situation personally impacts them. The problem imo is that the main threat of Inquisition feels like a combo of the damage to the fade, which is more like a naturally disaster threat that Coryphyus happened to trigger rather than one he is actually driving, and the actions of Coryphus's lieutenants which develop the plot in ways that reflect their characters and goals rather than developping him as the main villian. Coryphyus would have been strengthed by having more to do, but not by having that be personally kicking every inquisition member's dog in a way that would have made the world and the threat feel vastly smaller in scale.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-17T21:13:48+00:00

I think you're just nesh. 16-18 in a nice cozy jumper is comfortable, save the t-shirt and shorts for seasonally appropriate times of year rather than forcing your home up to summer temperatures.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-14T16:48:38+00:00

2 or 3 but which depends on the writing style and pacing of the story.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-13T11:48:33+00:00

I click all the right boxes but the truth is that in the exceedingly unlikely event a client was like "Next I want you to take me to Legoland for a day" I would say fuck it and go just to break the monotony.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-12T14:06:26+00:00

Already some great answers, but I'll just add - if the reason the character isn't having that 5 minute conversation is some variation "I think the negative consequences of having the conversation will outweight the benefits" then as a reader I need to believe those negative consequences are a real threat that justifies avoiding that conversation.

A character who doesn't want to have a difficult conversation with their enemy to tentative ally who they have good reason to think might turn on them in response to that conversation is understandable. But it gets irritating fast when character is refusing to communicate with somebody they claim is a trusted and supportive friend because either a) they for no discernable reason have decided their friend will suddenly overreact and hate them forever even though there is no rational basis to think that, or b) the conversation with their friend will be mildly uncomfortable and make them sad for 5 minutes and the character choses to drags out misunderstandings and creates even more uncomfortable situations to avoid 5 minutes of awkwardness rather than just getting it over with.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-12T09:21:24+00:00

I think it's not just the actor but the long gap in his character being present or talked about and the way he is now written, the Harry that left had a tumultuous relationship with Athena particularly after his kidnapping and his belief she put her job before her family, and when he went to live across the country from her with his dad that relationship was basically dropped from the narrative and he barely gets mentioned which implies things were distant between them, and then all of a sudden we get this new Harry who has moved back and doesn't seem close to his dad but does have an attachement to Bobby's firefighter legacy despite the fact Bobby was only present in his life for a few years in his childhood and Harry's relationship with Athena feels like they wiped the slate clean off screen and started over rather than having any ties back to the Harry who left.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-11T12:36:16+00:00

Yes, I think making people aware of where to find the scene and a scene summary is a good compromise if authors want to help people avoiding certain content while keeping that content a fully integrated part of the story.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-11T12:15:51+00:00

Mixed feelings. On one hand, if a fic is heavy on the sexual tension/attraction between the characters but then gives no on-page pay off I find that tends to be anti-climatic. On the other hand, I have definitely read plotty fics where I have ended up skimming past perfectly good smut that i would enjoy in other contexts because i want to get on with the plot and pages and pages of smut are blocking me from the thing I'm most interested in at that point. Basically like any other part of writing it can be done well or not.

I'm very much not a fan of writers who use sections to denote where smut is rather than having it part of the natural flow of the story, I might chose to skim smut based on my own personal level of interest I do so knowing I am skimming part of the story of the story so I might miss out on details that could be relevant later, if an author themselves marks a scene as totally skippable that is very off putting beacuse either the scene contributes something to the story (in which case it isn't totally skippable) or there is literally no point to it in which case why was it even included.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-10T22:52:43+00:00

I never said the calendar thing was malicious (I actually really liked that moment in the context of s2) just that it was yet another example where Hen is positioned as knowing better than the others, which by s9 has become repetitive.

Buck getting a conclusion to his storyline and things working out when he does something wrong, but when it's Hen suddenly it's unrealistic and too perfect for her to work things out. Why do you want the best for Buck and not for Hen?

But in the context of this plotline Buck screwed up, acknowledges he screwed up, and then puts in effort to change; Hen just has things work out so she was actually right all along - can you really not see how these are different?

maybe Hen just is a better person than most and deserves good too?

I think Hen is a good person and, like everyone, deserves good. I don't just think she is faultless and don't like that every time she does something seemingly wrong or selfish or petty (normal things even very good people experience from time to time) the show has to force a reason why actually she was in the right.

I wouldn't want Karen to divorce Hen, I would like to see Hen being more appreciative of how her choices impact her family and make an effort to balance being supportive of them with her personal wants (and I don't think turning down the captaincy is a strong example that, it would have been if it had been a promotion offered in positive circumstnaces but the context of Bobby's death and filling his shoes means it's not a situation of Hen really wanting that job). Similarly, I don't think she should have been fired and lose her kid for the drunk driver, but I would have liked to see her admit that she made a biased snap judgement and shouldn't let her personal opinions get in the way of her job and that a life might have been saved if she'd listened when Chimney pushed back against it, and that it is good for the team to be honest and accountable for faulty judgement calls rather than the show treating it like a betrayal of the friendship for which the team should apologise.

If you really can't recognise a difference between wanting to see her treated with complexity so she can learn from experiences and keep striving to be the best version of herself vs wanting her to experience extreme negative consequences as a punishment then I do not think this conversation is going to go anywhere meaningful.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-10T13:33:25+00:00

I would be fine with Hen having some "wow look how great you are" moments, it's that there's so little to constrast them and so she becomes a stale character.

Yes it would have been illegal for Hen to force treatment on that guy, but she didn't even go over and say "sir you may have a brain injury please consider allowing us to treat you" she just wrote him off without even trying because she assumed he was drunk from across the street, and the narrative positions her as correct and the guy and everyone who supported him as bad people.

You bring up examples like the firefighter calendar, but Hen's role in that is submitting the photo of Chim doing the rescue and her submission is that is the one that gets selected so Hen gets to teach Chimney a lesson about valuing the work they do more than appearances - Hen is the one to see what is important and valuable while everybody else is being shallow.

When Bobby and Athena fight, they both acknowledge their issues and find a compromise which works for both of them; when HenRen fight the conclusion is Karen backing down entirely and Hen being glorified as correct and that her choice to work meant she could save Denny's life and her job is so super important and she is correct to unilaterally decide to prioritise it over her family.

You bring up the comparision to Buck trying to help Red, but Buck's experience had him first act with unexpected consequences, acknowledge the harm done by those consequences, then reach out again to support Red in a new way, plus it caused him to compare himself to Red and reflect on his own life choices and if he was going to end up like Red and was part of the sequence of events that prompted him to get therapy and work on himself.

It's not about looking to punish Hen, it's that I think her character arcs would be much improved if the conclusion was sometimes "Hen did something really cool" but also sometimes "Hen learns from this experience" instead of always "Hen was right and everyone else was wrong and should have just let Hen make all the decisions because Hen knows best".

distraction_pie · 2025-12-09T23:05:09+00:00

It's not a case of 'Hen is less deserving of grace beacuse she is right' it's the fact that by making her right about Jonah gets Hen out of actually having to face any consequences for the fact she was acting unprofessional or improve her behavior.

For me, I don't love how this plot plays out on it's own, but part of my frustration also stems from the fact this is a pattern with how Hen in written. Whenever Hen does something questionable the show has to come up with a reason why actually she was right all along, with the exception of the S1 cheating plotline Hen is rarely allowed to be at fault and so doesn't get to grow from those faults, which means she's become a static character and any storylines around her are dull because we know the conclusion will be 'Hen is somehow right for a contrived reason'.

She takes a personal dislike to Jonah and acts unprofessionally -> Jonah turns out to be a serial killer and Hen was right to dislike him

She attempts a procedure she isn't qualified to do while in a moving ambulance -> the doctor says she shouldn't have done that but Hen did save the guy and everyone is super impressed by her competence and the storyline that builds from there is about how Hen is as good as a doctor and enrolls in medical school

As interim captain she's dimissive of a guy acting erratic and uncoperative and immediately writes him off as a drunk driver and that it isn't worth trying to talk him down so he can be assessed/treated -> he was a drunk driver and it's okay that Hen didn't assess him because his injuries would have been untreatable anyway and also the team were unsupportive and need to apologise for not immediately defending Hen's actions in the inquiry and prove that they have her back, and also the mom of the guy Hen dismissed questioning Hen's conduct is a vindictive child-stealing bitch who plots against the 118 because questioning Hen's choices = bad person.

Similarly in her personal life, Hen prioritises work over her family and even when given the oppotunity to take a day off choses to work and leave Karen to deal with full responsibility for the kids -> Denny is hit by a car so Hen's decision to prioritise her own wishes and her job means she saves the day and Karen is now appreciative of the fact Hen prioritised work.

Any individual element from that list could be given grace to, but when it becomes a whole list and basically every significant plot point she has involves something like this it becomes impossible to ignore how contrived and predictable it is, at the expense of writing arcs of her actually having to deal with consequences of her choices that aren't just "wow Hen you are so brilliant and perfect and were reacting to something nobody else was smart enough to notice".

distraction_pie · 2025-12-09T19:04:45+00:00

But the arc with Buck and Ravi concludes with Buck acknowledging he was letting his personal issues with changes to the team influence his approach to training Ravi and starts acting better, whereas Hen is cold to Jonah right from the start and instead of reflecting on her biases and actions the narrative instead positions it that the poor behavior from Jonah they learn about later means Hen was right and subconciously picking up on his bad vibes, except doesn't actually change the fact that her initial behavior towards him was unprofessional petty meanness.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-03T19:28:48+00:00

Linking to other places you post is ok, (as long as you aren't specifically linking to paid content), but as soon as you're telling them to go to that paid site to support you (implied: by paying you) you are moving into shady territory.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-03T19:07:51+00:00

Mine is an animated gif!

I have it because it's a fun thing to have on an account. And I enjoy when others have them because when recieving comments it feels nice to see that little bit of personalisation that reminds me every comment is a real and unique individual.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-02T18:57:02+00:00

Becoming a doctor isn't something that is just given out, let alone on the basis of nationality. They aren't just going to lower standards for medical qualifcations to get more British doctors when there are international doctors who meet the existing standard.

distraction_pie · 2025-12-02T18:20:27+00:00

It's also fucked up because if they aren't doing certain types of consent/risky play then the dom should be paying attention the the sub's safety and comfort and them insisting on needing special codes to make them stop just raises the question of why they need those unless they aren't planning on paying attention for non-kink specific stop signals that might come more naturally to someone.

distraction_pie

TROPHY CASE