One Reason Why Calamity Is A Fucking Masterpiece: Zerxus Taking His Oath Of Redemption So Seriously That

One reason why Calamity is a fucking masterpiece: Zerxus taking his oath of redemption so seriously that he tries to atone the literal lord of the hells AND STILL PITIES HIM WHEN HE IS BETRAYED BY ASMODEUS. Brennan was wild for that whole monologue in E4 and "to reach a hand down to somebody they need to be BENEATH YOU" still lives rent free in my brain.

We get many different representations of hubris in this campaign. But I love how for Zerxus it's not the almost arrogant behaviour we see in Laerryn for example. She selfishly and recklessly does everything for her goal no matter the consequences (good for her tho, confident queen, I love her in this narrative just as much).

Zerxus' downfall is his deep belief in humanity even with godly beings like Asmodeus. His beliefs are ignorant of the fact that the gods (most of them at least) were never ordinary people. Humanity doesn't extend to them. The people of Exandria make the gods more person-like in their minds to understand an approximation of what they truly are. And Zerxus got blinded by that through his oath. Yes, his actions are following a goal no matter the consequences too, but it's not selfish in the same sense like a wizard achieving her goal. He selflessly tries so hard to 'help' Asmodeus, he believes he can save even the Devil from his own corruption. The only thing selfish is the wish to fulfill his oath to a level he cannot achieve.

His hubris is believing in the inherent goodness of anyone who just wants to overcome what is keeping them from living it. In Asmodeus' case: being a devil, a fiend, being evil. And Zerxus gets corrupted in trying. It's so beautifully tragic.

Above image is a pride flag with every color band represented by a NASA image. White is Earth clouds, pink is aurora, blue is the Sun in a specific wavelength, brown is Jupiter clouds, black is the Hubble deep field, red is the top of sprites, orange is a Mars crater, yellow is the surface of Io, green is a lake with algae, blue is Neptune, and purple is the Crab Nebula in a specific wavelength.

don’t!!! fake!!!! your!!!! interests!!!! to!!!! make!!!! someone!!!! like!!!!! you!!!!

Writing fics is sometimes a balance of

"I know exactly how this one character works, I know them so well because they practically lived in my brain rent free for years"

and

"I know pretty well how this other character works but over the course of writing this fic I accidentally started heavily projecting on them and they became a blend between my conciousness and themself and—wait are you even still this character? Why can't I see your face in my brain??"

and I think that's beautiful.

Smoochin’ their way through Aeor

archers gloves vs digital artist gloves being opposite of one another