happilly vacationing in the land of not coping

https://donorbox.org/lievschreiber

https://u24.gov.ua/

https://stopify.org.ua/

the tierhilfe belarus (link 1 facebook / link 2 instagram) is trying to help find sid and isabella a new home urgently. these two sweet kitties are located in the state-run kill shelter in minsk.

if you are located in germany and wish to adopt a cat, please consider them.

sid is:

male

2-3 years old

timid, but allows human touch

cat-friendly

isabella is:

female

1-2 years old

shy

cat-friendly

please contact them, let them know you're interested.

contact: [email protected]

once approved for adoption, they will travel directly to germany fully vaccinated, microchipped, neutered, and tested for fiv/felv. there is an adoption fee to help support the costs of medicine, transportation and the work the volunteers do.

again, i'm more than willing to contribute towards the adoption fee if there is true interest in adopting either of them.

There IS probably an answer to this ask out there somewhere, in the depths of my blog... But If I can't find it then I doubt anyone else can, LOL. Either way it's possible that my thoughts have changed since, so we can consider this an update.

Lae'zel: Unpopular (or perhaps just not-so-often-mentioned) opinion, but I think Devora is an absolute highlight of this game with her voice-work for Lae'zel. I feel like I can see everyone else's actors in their booths doing their character's voices - but with her, I cannot. She's just Lae'zel through and through, no magic here.

While her story isn't super interesting to me (Githyanki lore, at least as represented in the game, feels a little one-note) I also wish that her transition from Hardened Githyanki to Open Minded Vlakkith rebel had been a little more gradual - but the way that she interacts with other characters and the world around her is phenomenal. And, again, Devora should get MUCH more recognition for her work here, she made the whole difference between a simple, trope-y companion and a fully fleshed out, memorable character.

Shadowheart: I love Shadowheart because she is such a bitch, and unlike Lae'zel, she does it on purpose. She is very difficult to like for her personality at first and that makes the gradual shift of it (not entirely - but just the bits that she didn't have a good grasp of to begin with) so satisfying. She doesn't only evolve throughout the course of the game, she actually becomes a person in the first place with her own set of troubled beliefs, corny jokes, insecurities and complex feelings - a total swap from my initial impression of her as the bland goth-seductress romance option injected into the game for the sake of holding the attention of a certain subsect of the audience. I love this girl. I have never been able to romance her because I feel like she's my bestie, LOL.

Gale: Gale is probably the funniest character in this game and for that alone I always keep him around - but story-wise and personality-wise he also has SO much more potential. I really like to think of him as a very theatrical type who has, over time, developed a difficulty with actually immersing himself in the real world and operating like a real person should. Everything he says feels rehearsed until he inevitably stumbles and bashfully slinks away. Every opportunity he has to take absolute control over a situation with magic, he does. He lets people step all over him until they toe a particular line, and then he loses all composure so suddenly that it's jarring - I LOVE all the intricacies of his character and I fully believe that this ugly side of his insecurity flip-siding with self-aggrandizement was fully intended by the writers - and perhaps, had they been given more time, we would have seen Gale's grays and darks explored much more in-depth - that said, I am satisfied with the current state of affairs, and being able to have a peek at them every once in a while.

Wyll: Sadly, I do not have much positive to say about Wyll. I am well aware that his character went through last-minute rewrites and even a full voice actor change, and unfortunately, it shows! Not in the voice acting (Solomon did a wonderful job and his voice really suits the character) but in his very lackluster story and especially the romance. Wyll seems to have been intended as a character who fancied himself a hero and made something of a fantasy for himself, only to eventually have the reality of his situation and the true consequences of his actions be proven too heavy a burden for him to maintain the facade... Except that he sort of comes out of the gate having already had that realization.

He is ALWAYS modest and in control of himself and his emotions, He is NEVER angry, or unaware, or even meaningfully sad, he accepts every truth lashed out at him without struggle and catches every lie with incomparable wit. He doesn't ever even really seem tempted by power or fame despite what he says about himself, and in the end he doesn't even make some of his most meaningful story-choices himself. Wyll was, unfortunately, done a gigantic disservice for what could have been otherwise a really interesting dissection of the typical "self-insert hero" trope so commonly found in fantasy - someone who is utterly convinced he is the main character, and slowly learns that to not be case... Alas. Lets just say that I think it is Larian's duty to bring us a well-written black character in Divinity now, because this was a very, very ugly look for them.

I think that there is an excess of sexuality but absence of substantial inclusions of the same in most games - sex is either embodied by characters and serves as eye-candy, or it is inherently exploitative (throw-away sex-worker NPCs; the threat of sexual violence over side characters or the player; the quintessential perverted, ugly, violent cast-member with a receding hairline and the filthy sweatpans) but seldom do I see sex discussed and talked about in ways adults do. There is a lot of that with Astarion - his character's sexual predilections aren't just there to progress your relationship or to allure, they are actually spoken about frankly: the good, the bad, and the 🤷. I found that to really stand out in his writing; as someone who laments the almost strictly unserious way we talk about intimacy in the modern day. This is what's kept me hooked all this time, I think.

Besides that, of course, his character is extremely funny and well-rounded, and his quest doesn't only lead to an incredibly satisfying conclusion but it's a rather fresh take on a vampire story - which is fantasy trope that used to bore me to tears. I have given the rest of the spawn so much thought and importance in shaping who Astarion eventually came to be, you have no idea, lol.

Karlach: Another character that I'd say got done a little dirty, not as much as Wyll by a mile, but I certainly still feel like a lot got left on the cutting-room floor with Karlach. I wasn't necessarily expecting for a cure to her affliction by the end of the game (In fact, I kind of wish that her death was non-avoidable) but opportunities seem to have been missed at truly exhausting the possibilities. While all of Karlach's dialogue about her situation hit HARD and feel incredibly real, the actual events that lead up to them lack a little gravitas, in my opinion.

That all being said, I really like Karlach. She is a wonderful subversion on the "dumb barbarian" trope - not because she's book-smart and poised, but because she actually displays a lot of emotional intelligence and skill in introspection. Karlach is an example of someone that can be kind, rambunctious, and willing to give people the benefit of the doubt without being naive - though perhaps that is something she had to learn the hard way.

Halsin: This may be my shortest input yet - but I just don't find Halsin very interesting. There is nothing wrong with his character, he's just kind of a good guy who largely seems to have already done the emotional labor that the rest of the party is working towards - he's funny, and his uncontained yet "polite" brand of horny pursuit is novel, but he just isn't my type of character 😔

Jaheira: HER, on the other hand -

Jaheira presents a lot more flaws that I can latch onto. She has her own, mutating idea of justice and morality and her own exceptions to the same - she's a questionable mother who just seems to pick up strays off the side of the road and then leave the door open in the hopes they will feed themselves. She drugs you immediately upon meeting you like a lunatic and is proud about it. Her banter is phenomenal and I love how she plays along if you make fun of her. When will someone make a Jaheira Romance mod....

Minthara: I love Minthara's fish-out-of-water perspective a lot - she is not a "good" drow or a rebel to Lolth (not willingly, anyways) but someone who has already fully matured in their culture and thrived in it, enough so that they understand how different it is to that of others - her willingness to participate in top-side affairs while casually commentating in its strangeness is hilarious to me. Her pragmatism is hilarious to me. In no small part because it brings a lot of realism to the world that was previously missing to me- the idea that cultures of SUCH extremes can still respect each other and cohabitate, especially when they find themselves in each other's territory is... Fascinatingly human, LOL.

She also has some of the most interesting dialogue, in my opinion. Her introspections about her own actions and of each of the companions are shockingly objective, and she might be the only companion to have made me strongly reflect on IRL behaviors of mine.

the tierhilfe belarus (link 1 facebook / link 2 instagram) is trying to help find patchouli, karlo and cashew urgently a new home. these three sweet floofs are located in the state-run kill shelter in minsk.

if you are located in germany and wish to adopt a cat, please consider them.

patchouli is:

male

1-2 years old

timid and shy

cat-friendly

karlo is:

male

2-3 years old

shy

cat-friendly

cashew is:

male

4-5 years old

scared

cat-friendly

please contact them, let them know you're interested.

contact: [email protected]

once approved for adoption, they will travel directly to germany fully vaccinated, microchipped, neutered, and tested for fiv/felv. there is an adoption fee to help support the costs of medicine, transportation and the work the volunteers do.

again, i'm more than willing to help with the adoption fee if there is true interest in adopting them.

“I had time to run home and pack a bag and get to the beach where the boats were waiting,” said a member of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation (Collins). “We literally had minutes to get on the boats and flee before it took our town. “Once we left my house finally after packing what I could in a pack sack, the fire was right behind our place. We had to run to the beach and once we got there, it was only moments before the fire had jumped over the (train) track and was coming for us.”

it has since been confirmed that namaygoosisagagun first nation has completely burnt to the ground. if you would like to help the community navigate an ongoing crisis, i urge you to donate to the anishinabek nation 7th generation, a registered charity seeking to improve the lives of first nations people. donations are going directly to members of namaygoosisagagun first nation.

Their page on CanadaHelps / CanaDon: