mdhwrites

[mdhwrites]

Idealistic Stories Vs. Pessimistic Stories Vs. Reality

Either one will set you up for failure. If all you take in is the idea of sunshine and gumdrops, you'll be hurt by the rain. If all you see is darkness and thorns, you'll be eternally left in the cold. Life as a whole is a balancing act and to treat any one type of story as more valid or better set to prepare you for life is to invite folly. Human experience is never one thing after all so why should you only invite one type of experience upon yourself?

Life is complicated and you will be disappointed one way or another. Accepting that is how you better face those trials and be able to handle them so you can make a better future by putting the effort taught to you as necessary by the pessimistic so that one day, you may live in something closer to the idealistic. Everything has something to teach you after all. That's part of the joy of stories. See you next tale.

[mdhwrites]

Look I'm sorry to anyone who thought the Saja Boys were a real band, but it was obviously fake from the beginning.

Huntr/x has been doing this gimmick for years where they'll put on a performance and some actors dressed up like demons will "interrupt" it or get into some choreo fights on stage and stuff. If you're a fan you know, the demons usually symbolize things like industry corruption, Mira's struggle with her family, Rumi being in the closet, etc, and there's lots of hints and secret messages to the fans in what they're wearing or how they show up. Check out huntresx5evah on blsky they've got an extensive examination of the "demons" over the years and what the messages to the fans are.

In the concert before Golden was released, the demons were dressed like flight attendants. That was the indication that something new was about to take off. @/queenhuntrixdontmiss and I speculated that it was going to be a new single and low and behold, it was.

But then the live performance got cancelled. It's an open secret that Rumi was having vocal issues, so that was probably not planned. They needed to buy time for her to recover, so, enter the Saja Boys -- a fake band of guys really clearly pretending to be demons, they release ONE single, do a bunch of b-tier variety shows for a week, nearly all of their public appearances have Huntr/x right there, keeping the hype and energy up until Rumi can get her throat polyps removed and furthering the routine where Huntr/x are supposed to be secret demon hunters and the Saja Boys are supposed to be secret demons.

Then the whole thing culminates in the Golden live performance at the idol awards, the big act with Huntr/x fake "break up" and the subsequent theatrics to make it up to fans for failing the first Golden performance. Huntr/x takes their obligation to fans very seriously, I've no doubt that they all felt terrible about having to cancel, so a free show was the obvious recourse to try and make it up to people. And they pulled out all the stops!

But the Saja Boys were never real. I mean they got real guys to pretend to be a boy band and do the dancing and lip syncing obviously, but come on, most of them didn't even have names.

[mdhwrites]

On a trip out with Dan Heng, March asks a history fictionologist to come up with a fairy tale about her to add to her collection of potential backstories. What if he didn't just write her history though? 2k words, fluff and angst

[mdhwrites]

Did you know that in Japanese, Guigui and Shangshang instead call each other Kei-chan and Su-chan? Do you know why Sushang calls Guinaifen Kei-chan? Neither does she, until today.

[mdhwrites]

You've mentioned before how your issues with The First Temple in Amphibia are because the episode's more telling than showing with Marcy's character, and the showing not matching up with what we're told.

Besides Marcy being "in the zone," there's another thing that doesn't add up with that episode: the temple's trials are supposed to teach Marcy humility. But...Marcy doesn't come off as arrogant? She is proud of her accomplishments, but not to the point where it warrants the stuff the temple throws at her.

Whoever built the first temple, they seem far more arrogant and egotistical than Marcy. They're the ones who purposefully rig a flipwart game, have one of their opposing playing pieces childishly taunt Marcy, and endanger the lives of Marcy's friends just to force her to throw the game and learn a lesson. If anyone needed a lesson in humility, it was them.

(Yes, I purposefully went out of my way to find a Star Rail version of this)

The final challenge is this meme though. As a once gifted kid who can be all too stubborn, I have ZERO problems with the design of the temple as a test of humility. After all, wisdom and intelligence are not the same things but it's very easy to mistake that. It's worse when you're told they're the same thing.

That is the trick of the temple. You're right that the last challenge is OBNOXIOUS. But the first two aren't. The first two make you feel good. Like you got this. Like this is no trouble at all and that's because they play fair. There's no twists to them besides needing someone else for the second one. Those ones are tests of wisdom too though so third verse same as the first, right?

And then it cheats. And then it taunts. And then it does everything in its power to tell the gifted kid, "Git Gud," despite being unfair in every conceivable way. It won't let you win... So what's the point in playing? But you have to be able to step away from yourself, admit that you can't out think a rigged system by playing by its rules, to be able to win. The only winning move is not to play but you are specifically conditioned to think that way when you enter the final challenge.

The fact that you think this asshole needs to be taught a lesson in humility means that it has you RIGHT where it wants you. And that is brilliant storytelling. See you next tale.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mdhwrites]

you watched Madoka Magica?

I did! And I never gave it its own proper blog for... Well, I don't really have a particular reason for that. I never found an angle, besides to say I'd watched it and liked it, to talk about it. I don't want to wade into a conversation that has been going on for over a decade just because I finally watched THE THING.

But also I'm 29. I'm not the target demographic for Madoka in a lot of ways which makes me REALLY glad I liked it. After all, so much of why I stayed away from it kind of comes down to why I don't find Neir Automata that great a story, or Expedition 33 for that matter. I classify a lot of these as 'my first philosophy lesson' stories. Stories that are great if you're a teenager who hasn't really experienced anything about these subjects. They're blunt gateways to larger conversations and while those have merit, I do not judge anyone who likes these works, for someone like me it feels like having an airhorn blasted straight into my face while I wait for the work to remember to do more than be on topic.

Madoka does more than be on topic and I think that's one of its biggest strengths for making sure it doesn't feel derivative of its derivatives. Not that it is not still shouting but it intertwines the themes and ideas its playing with so deeply into the characters themselves that there is no way for them to not still tell the story of these characters while also exploring the concepts they want to. It's why I actually give a shit about the characters of Madoka while 2B is... fine?

The one character I would say is the exception to this is Madoka herself but that's complicated. She is a character with little agency throughout the plot, pretty much the entire time we're just having to watch her have a bad time as her status doesn't change from the big question of "You gonna become a magical girl already?" and in general she's a bit too perfect to find believable. That last point admittedly somewhat comes from the fact that everyone else has so much going on with them that she stands out for being the protagonist. That's also why she kind of gets a pass because she is the big question at the core of the whole piece so of course it takes so long to answer this question with her.

And I say this all while having had some of the bigger parts of the series spoiled for me. This is your spoiler warning because I do want to mention one other gripe I do have.

But first positive: I actually knew Homura's secret going in and it's a really well executed twist. Her being a time traveler just made her all the more interesting but even without that, she comes off as a fascinating question in her own right. On the other hand, I had literally seen memes of "Episode 3" and AMVs that had included Mami's death. When I watched episode 3, my response was:

"No one in the existence of storytelling has ever death flagged harder than this woman and then she gets the shitty sort of death I despise where a competent fighter just stands there waiting to die because it's more shocking if you get a linger before nom."

I wasn't even pissed. Hell, saying Mami dies feels like barely a spoiler with how blatant they are. It's the exact sort of "I'm SOOOO clever" sort of storytelling I associate with this sort of story because the storytelling suffered because the writer thought they were better than it. Mami is my least favorite of the five because of this and that's a shame because I think it's much more in the storytelling than her actual character that fails.

But that's actually why I care about these stories not just being their theme. It's so easy to be twirling your mustache while you work on something that feels like 'art' that you forget to write a story. To have proper build up, payoff, or maybe just think "Maybe this isn't actually that deep so I shouldn't be taking myself so seriously?" I don't want to be preached at, I want a story. After all, if I've already heard what you have to say and that's all you've got, all I'm going to be is bored.

Madoka didn't bore me. Instead, it's one of the most cohesive works I've ever seen and I'm jealous of its craft, it's so good. It deserves the praise it gets and I'm glad it's getting another movie come February. I personally need to find a way to watch Rebellion before then. See you next tale.

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As a Honkai Star Rail player, this battles with Frieren for my top spot for what I'd want to see it do a collab with next. I think that team could do something neat with the material.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mdhwrites]

Me: Hasn't managed to write almost anything in the past month to two months, especially nothing that long

Me today: I've gotten 4.5k words done already today and it's not even noon yet baby!

So yeah, it me.

i have three responses to "how is your writing going"

1) it's not

2) it's going

3) i am ENTHUSED. i have been BLESSED with the POWER of the MUSES. i am an UNSTOPPABLE FORCE OF CREATION i am the MOST ULTIMATE OF ALL WRITERS

[mdhwrites]

Can you please elaborate how Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel condemned the same things right wing Christians condemns. I heard of this critique before but I would like to know your perspective on it.

So I will say that this is all second hand so I can't do too much in the way of specifics or my own additions, which did make me pause on adding to my last reblog with what I did. I also want to start on a positive:

It is not a bad thing that CHARLIE reinforces Christian ideals. She is explicitly going off of Heaven's playbook to try and help sinners. Arguably, in a show that was more genuinely about it (and which does have room to get there), her learning that Heaven's playbook is wrong and isn't what makes a person good or not is what her arc should be about.

The problem is that we're told people are evil... By all the same things that a Christian would. Like in the pitch pilot for Hazbin Hotel, Angel is demonized as much for their sex work as they are for doing drugs. Why? What's wrong with sex work show? There are plenty who just like showing off their bodies and as long as everyone is consenting, sex itself is not some grave sin... except in Christianity's eyes.

Or, if we don't want to do Christian values, how about modern values? Lucifer is a deadbeat because of mental health issues that cause him to struggle to be the father he wants to be. What about exploring that? Or maybe not giving the DEVIL HIMSELF depression if you're going to paint that as a weakness and failure on his part like modern society would do to anyone in that state?

And stuff like this is why it is just... A normal show. Not even that it's a bad show but it's an extremely normal one. The tropes that lead to these sorts of decisions are tried and true. The problem only lies in that it's not as effective, sharp or unique as what the premise could have allowed with more push against convention. For a show that LOVES to flaunt how against convention it is, that rubs a lot of people the wrong way, thus where you get this criticism.

And stuff like this plus how it doesn't appeal to my personal tastes almost at all from what people have told me is why I have little interest in the show. It's just a regular show. I'd rather watch Regular Show then. See you next tale.

[mdhwrites]

This is your reminder that the shows that were supposed to be transgressive and edgy, Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel, only ended up condemning that which any right wing Christian would also condemn rather than actually advocating for the idea of that which we think should be shunned is actually maybe just a part of human nature. After all, what we consider problematic stems from somewhere and colonialism has a long shadow. Christian beliefs are moral beliefs are societal beliefs. It's just easy to tell yourself that that's not what you're basing your claims on because it's been baked so deeply into our culture. American culture. Which we tend to have a problem with forcing onto others, or is it okay because these people are holding the wrong beliefs?

Y'know. There are a lot of people who say "problematic" when they actually mean "sinful". And I kind of wish they would just say "sinful".

It'd be more honest about their perspective, and it'd save me time trying to determine whether they're critiquing something in good faith or just being reactionary conservatives.

[mdhwrites]

Also saw Kpop demon hunters recently and enjoyed it very much. Loved how they managed to balance the serious topics and the silliness. What was your favourite song?

I haven't listened to the whole soundtrack yet but even while I was listening I got to one moment and just kind of stopped. Stared. Then sighed because I'm such a basic bitch.

I love me a great villain song. You could even say I'm 'preaching to the choir' on that front, at least for most movies.

In general though, I think the music was phenomenal. I could easily see just about any of the songs being someone's favorite, helped by the fact that very few of the songs actually overlap. They're all different types of pop song. Never to the point where you go "This is too different" (though I personally had hoped for one that mixed in some classic instrumentation given how Jinu is introduced) but enough to keep each one fresh from the next. That also makes sense because each one is used narratively for different punctuation, like Golden being for triumph and hope, Takedown being for despair and brutality, How It's Done being for just being a fucking badass while having some fun, etc. like that. Even "Your Idol", my favorite, has the fun flair of any good villain song of feeling like a victory lap. Of a villain at the top of their game and reveling in it. Masks off, full force, which makes sense given the context for it.

Which also just makes it a well put together musical despite the fact that by all means, it SHOULDN'T work as a musical. Or, more that it closes in on a jukebox musical's biggest problem commonly: These are actually pop songs. Ones made for the movie but written like pop songs. That's why MUCH more than most musical songs, these have genuine choruses that are repeated.

HOWEVER, the conceit helps a lot here. These people are cutting tracks for a crowd, rather than just belting their hearts out, minus one song. As such, they should be written like pop songs because that actually keeps the flavor of the whole thing consistent. That and they're good about how much of a given song they use at a time. Like Golden never gets to play in full so you don't notice as much the parts that don't fit for the scene or are repetitive. The fact that the lyrics also are actually synced to the purpose in the movie helps a lot too.

It's a balance and that is the eternal thing that I admire this movie for. Any criticisms I have, I have no good solutions on how to fix without throwing something else out of whack. It's the sort of thing that really tells you a work committed properly to its concept. Could there maybe a more perfect version of a story like this? Maybe? But it'd be hard to make a more perfect of THIS story.

See you next tale.

[mdhwrites]

K-Pop Demon Hunters: Something to Fangirl About (non-spoiler)

Netflix's new animated movie is a hell of a thing. On the surface, a shallow pitch of a kid's movie. K-Pop is popular so here's a movie taking the popularity of K/DA and BTS to make a flashy, loud cash grab of a movie. The Emoji Movie but for the K-Pop stans.

What we get is a human story about the demons we hold. The sins we hide. The shame we feel that devours us piece by piece. The power we draw from those around us while cautioning us against giving ourselves entirely, lest we lose our souls to that which we covet. PACKAGED in something with a lot of color, great animation, a sharp sense of comedy and an EXPERT understanding of what it is using to do what it's doing. A movie that had to walk a tightrope of genuinely wanting to use its subject matter as a part of its narrative but also not condemn that which it was playing with. Not to demonize those who love K-Pop while building a story that has themes that both resonate with the genre but also with people as a whole.

On the non-thematic level, I also love the characters. The supporting cast is strong and helps lighten the mood whenever they're around while the leads have dynamic enough characters to let them shift between scenes with a mostly smooth glide. My only real complaint is that the deference given certain characters causes the movie to feel lopsided at times in ways that cause it to have to do a bit more blunt work than I'd like to catch the others up for the plot. It never gets bad or entirely tell instead of show but it was a problem for me at times, especially towards the center of the movie.

In general though, it's a movie absolutely worth your time. See you next time.

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As I'm also a fanfic writer, if you're seeing this and want to pitch me a story idea (I specialize in romance and boy the ships are STRONG in this), my asks are open.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mdhwrites]

I've been thinking about a blog you made back in 2023; in case you have trouble remembering here's the link: https://www.tumblr.com/mdhwrites/737325931479367680/have-you-watch-infinity-train?source=share

Specifically, I've been thinking about this part of the blog:

People would mention good characters and an interesting world but not WHY these characters were good. WHY the world was interesting. WHY these basic narrative elements would appeal to others.

And...sorry if this is a cynical thing to ask, but maybe that's because people have just gotten...lazier? Like, using their brains to think about why they like things is too much work, so they just go with "whatever gives me the highest dopamine boost."

Or do you think there's another, not-so-cynical reason?

Okay so I don't think so. I think it falls much more into three camps.

1: Talking about a why a good thing is a good is a lot harder than talking about why a bad thing is bad. Not everyone is going to be able to articulate what makes a particular character or setting special. This is actually a large part of why you see so much regurgitation of talking points EVERYWHERE. Someone makes a compelling argument for what makes it work and that's what people stick with. This is how I get "Thank you so much for putting my feelings into words," because I have a brain better wired for putting those things together.

2: I call these basic elements because... They are. You expect a good work to have good characters and an interesting premise. In fact, I've scrapped blogs because as I wrote it, it sounded like I was telling someone the writing equivalent of "Have you made sure it's on?" Because why should the absolute basics be a selling point? That's a large part of why the rest of that blog exists because saying what makes a work different or unique feels like a more impactful pitch even as you leave the things that make people enjoy a product at its core behind.

3: The internet is an asshole. Because negativity is so powerful, a lot of people shit on things for their basic elements. Power Fantasy has become the WORST label for something for a reason. You're not allowed to enjoy something just because it's enjoyable, it NEEDS to be special. It can't just be trashy fun. It's why the one time I've defended The Big Bang Theory's depiction of nerds, I explicitly stated that I was throwing away my credibility because oh my god, I was using a basic bitch sitcom to talk positively about something and not even one of the ones people tell you are the best like Parks and Rec or Community (that's not a judgement on either.)

Basic narrative elements like a compelling world and compelling characters thrive best when people are most excited for the sincere. When people are willing to be honest with what they like and why they like it. When you get to the point where even big named studios like Disney start mocking the very things that make their products enjoyable, ala Frozen and every movie after that, then these elements become devalued. If even the work itself mocks the audience for wanting a basic fable, why should you as an audience pitch the work to others off of those elements?

I worry myself that I look for stuff that is too special. Like do these very elements make me not talk about Honkai Star Rail in a way that actually makes it approachable? Or sells it correctly because I want to make sure it sounds special? I'm not immune to these problems myself, especially as I want to have more of a point for a blog than 'It good'.

But sometimes that's all it is. And 'thing good' is not a bad thing. Not when we live in a world where just wanting to escape and be happy is a pretty reasonable desire. Let people have their trash and be merry. See you next tale.

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I want to include some sort of trashy recommendation here so: Quintessential Quintuplets. It's a harem anime and it is not afraid of being that but its five girls are fun and the fact that they are all siblings matters to the comedy and drama. It also has actually a likable trait on the main character and that's that he's incredibly hard working, even if he'll also shove the success he gets from that in your face. I argue that there are THREE best girls in this all fighting for the spot and for very different reasons for each of them. One for being cute and adorkable, one for being compelling and multi-faceted and one for being the person who in reality anyone would actually want to get with. It was fun, even if I ended up not finishing it for a variety of reasons. I still got through well over a season with a smile on my face so it's worth a shot if you like stuff like this.

Sorry I don't have a more recent recommendation. I still continue to be bad at watching things, not helped that the things I've been trying... God I wish I wasn't so critical.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mdhwrites]

Do you think first impressions can risk breaking a character, no matter how well-written they are?

I mean, Bakugou is one of MHA's most popular characters, but a good few people will never forgive his "take a swan dive off a roof" remark to Izuku in the very first chapter. I mean, words like that are gonna stick with audiences even if they're in the middle of a story, but if that's part of how you're introduced to a character?

I think it can leave people thinking "no, I'll never like this character, they're the one who said/did that". But at the same time, I think negative first impressions can be beneficial. Part of the whole point of Scrooge's story in A Christmas Carol is that he's supposed to come off as unlikable as possible, so the audience understands he needs to change.

What do you think?

Yes.

If you've ever heard people talk about not 'earning their redemption', this is essentially the same principal. If someone is introduced as an asshole, people are just going to make that be the only thing they care about. They'll see the character as having crossed a line at the start of their existence and there's no way to uncross it for those people because they make a snap judgement on the character and then move on. In one of my fandoms, we have multiple women who dare to be gray at all and that is enough to make them absolutely despised by some people because these aren't rational arguments. I mean... My Hero is not exactly a down to Earth anime so someone going "Kill yourself," shouldn't hold the same weight as in a more serious drama or our own world. That doesn't matter though. It rubbed these people the wrong way, end of discussion.

What makes someone like Scrooge work in most situations is that you know from go that the character is going to go through Hell for every awful thing he did. That's the only way to turn it around for many of these people. The story has to do an entire movie's worth of putting in the work and making the person suffer for daring to step out of line. This is even worse if it serves no narrative point, though again the people who side on this will hear ZERO argument on that front because again, their mind is made up.

This is not to say you can't fuck up a character introduction. It's one of the easiest things TO fuck up. You want a strong first impression after all so cranking their character traits up to 11 to make them as loud as possible is one way to do it. However, that can cause them to feel like a caricature, or it never matches up with the four in which they act normally at. You can also make them do things that, without proper context or justification, actively goes against the narrative goals you're trying to get across.

Just being abrasive though? Well... That's why so many characters are blandly likable. To make them actually rough to the touch is going to make some people just say no. There's nothing you can do about that though and you'll find a LOT more people appreciate the texture than those you rubbed the wrong way by taking a risk, at least if you do it right. See you next tale.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mdhwrites]

Why the Obsession With 0 Cycle?

TL:DR: For Honkai Star Rail, 0 cycle is just really useful as a comparison point. For discussions of the game, we have essentially nothing that's even close to as useful as it. This is partially because the Memory of Chaos is our most consistent and hardest end game mode that can't be cheesed as easily as others with certain characters. Even if an MoC caters to a character, they're still usually only doing one or two cycles better, at most, than characters who can utilize it less. As such, how someone performs in MoC has a clear contrast point in the number of cycles it can take and with minimal argument that it's because a certain boss or bonus catered to them to a degree that makes comparison pointless. The big problem is that all these useful elements has led to such a degree of overuse that people have forgotten that you're not allowed only one cycle in MoC, you're allowed TEN and that people need to breathe.

I get that long TL:DR out of the way because the why for 0 cycle is actually pretty simply. From an analytical standpoint, it's simply the most useful data point for comparison we have. No, instead, the rest of this blog is going to be talking about WHY it has been pushed so hard. Why so many people even bother with a data point that is so far beyond necessary that it seems ridiculous.

I want to preface this part with the fact that for the most part, I am not looking down on the groups of people I'm talking about. I'm trying to be fair about the pressures on them that lead to this form of discussion coming about. There will be one at the end where I'll need to get mean but we'll talk about that when we get there. Anyways, let's begin with: (also, there will be some overlap between the groups.)

Character Mains:

Why would these people care about 0 cycle? They'll use the character no matter their performance and be willing to invest in them to keep them relevant. If anyone doesn't care about this conversation, it should be the people who have staked their flag already... right?

Well, no. Jingliu Mains had to watch as she slid back to 1 cycle, 2 cycle, 3 three cycle and so on and that was a genuinely important conversation for them. When HP inflation and Power Creep was screeched at its loudest, the Seele Mains came out to defend the game with the power of their E0S0 showcases that STILL 0 cycled through smart play and using good supports. How many cycles a character takes is important as a barometer for the health of the character, as well as a way to show off what effort and work can do in this game.

It's also a really useful tool for helping convince new players not to let worries of power creep stop them from joining a specific cult/Mains Reddit. After all, if someone hears a character was released two years ago and Prydwen has them at T2 or lower, you need SOMETHING to show that your character still has it. Thus, a 0 cycle showcase.

Content Creators:

This one blurs a lot with the next group but their incentives ARE different. I'm also talking about CCs who are coming at this from good faith. Who just want to showcase a 0 cycle because, well... It's flashy and it's quick.

Not from a production standpoint of course. It can take a lot to get that perfect 0 cycle done with whatever challenge you've set for yourself. No, I mean that it is flashy and quick as content. It's the shortest version of a showcase possible and the most impressive version of a showcase. As far as trying to get them clicks and make the algorithm happy, you don't get much better than this.

Honestly, this is just generally part of why 0 cycles are shown in general. The biggest difference between this group and the next group is that if they can't 0 cycle, they won't show it. On the other hand:

Meta Chasers:

I use the derogatory name here for them but it's probably better to call them meta talkers. Honestly, Prydwen falls pretty close into this. These are the people who do 0 cycle most specifically to talk about the state of the game and to figure out how to break the game over their knee. These are the people who realized that giving Robin a Bronya Pass before immediately ulting with Robin would boost Robin's damage by the bonuses of the pass the entire time. Fear them.

These are the most likely people to also then go "What if I can 0 cycle with Arlan?" and run that into the ground. Not because they're a main but because they want to stress test the limits of the game. They're the people who will tell you that investing in Supports is WAY more important than investing in a sole DPS, almost like this is a team based game or something and that's how that works.

They'd also be the first to say you don't have to be perfect. Prydwen is a database for gacha game meta discussion and the endgame stats they put on characters are NOT their perfect stats. Not the WTF rating you can get out there but usually about half of that. You don't need to 0 cycle. A team just has to manage an average of five with the other one. If you want the people who won't admit that?

Armchair Game Devs:

Welcome to the hypocrites. Character they don't like is doing amazing? Post that powercreep is out of control. Character they do like can't 0 cycle solo with one arm tied behind their back? Bitch about how they got nerfed and Hoyo hates them specifically.

These people have an agenda that at any time they're trying to push. The best crackback to these people I have ever seen was:

"Would you seriously call Seele better than Jing Yuan, Acheron or Feixaio just because, in more situations, she can 0 cycle?"

Because THAT is why this conversation has gotten toxic. 0 cycle has been put on top of consistency because it's the most useful data point for meaningful conversation AND rage bait. The worst CCs use it to pronounce the game dead. The worst mains use it to try and pressure the community to yell at Hoyo to make their favorites unbalanced. The untrue meta chasers use it to scare people into thinking the game is harder than it is and so those showcases are even more impressive than they are.

These are not people who are engaging with this conversation in good faith. The best news about them: They're mostly a problem if you pay attention to the beta. After all, they're blowing smoke. They can only exist so long as people can't step through the fog and see things for themselves. That's also why these people are the least likely to have their own showcases, or stat breakdowns or anything like that. Maybe they'll get something from somewhere else but only if it supports their narrative.

Anaxa was supposed to be UNPLAYABLE on release. He's Tier .5 in MoC in either of his roles despite the fact that him having two roles should have made him less useful in either one.

Cipher was supposed to be worse than even the worst supports. As good as a four star in most places you would use her. She's Tier 0 in MoC.

Lingsha was supposed to be worse than E6 Gallagher. Now people showcase her as their main DPS because fuck you.

These people are not correct but they are loud. They are loud enough that they have damaged the very useful reasons we do talk about 0 cycle. The fact that it is just a cool fact of the game that a LOT more people than you think can manage it. Because when HP Inflation was indeed a problem (they have pulled back on those numbers now if you didn't already know), 0 cycle was a good way to show both how some were being crowded and also sooth people from going into a panic about the state of the game.

Do not listen to these people. You have 10 cycles. Use one to breathe and another to enjoy yourself and don't let the fact of what is possible ruin your fun because it's not what you're doing. See you next cycle.

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Edit: I do want to make it clear that it IS okay to be negative. That's not the problem with the last group. The problem is that they'll say whatever they need to. I don't judge Jingliu Mains for having despaired at the state of the game as their girl got left behind because that was an accurate and reasonable thing for them to say and they could back it up. Even the people admitting that it takes extra cycles are evaluating WHY it takes extra cycles now and brought about the conversations of things like HP Inflation as a legitimate issue with the game that the devs are now working on. Question that which you consume but don't lose your head while doing so or else you'll look like a fool.

Just to share: I think the lowest I've ever been on MoC 12 is like 6? MAYBE? And the worst I've done while still full clearing was the gimmick killing the boss during the tickover to 19 which counted as a ten cycle clear anyways. That one was HEART STOPPING.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mdhwrites]

Do you think "mystery boxes" can damage a story?

The term was coined by J.J. Abrams, and while it's a narrative device he's fond of, it's not exclusive to his works. It's basically when characters are dropped into a "mystery-in-progress" and the story's main hook is the mystery.

It can work, sure - mystery/detective stories are a thing for a reason. But sometimes, I think it can really take away from a story.

Without giving away too many spoilers, there's this chapter in Deltarune which features some awful revelation that leaves central characters deeply shaken and reeling from it all...and we never learn what said revelation is. Sorry, but how am I supposed to be invested in how hurt the characters are when I don't know what it is they're hurt by?

This is because the writer here is more concerned with the player going "ooh, what was the revelation? Guess I'll have to wait until the final chapter to find out!" than the player's emotional investment with the characters. And that, to me, is a big problem with the mystery box. Agree?

So the problem with a mystery box only comes once a work is finished or at least once the mystery is over. That's because what people criticize about a mystery box approach isn't that there's a mystery. No, the problem with Abram's concept is that it is a mystery WITHOUT A SOLUTION. A mystery for the sake of having a mystery.

What this sounds like is not that. It is a cliffhanger of sorts. Something looming in the back of your mind as to what this must be, especially since with such impact on the characters, it should be addressed. It can only be seen as a problem of mystery box storytelling if it either NEVER gets addressed, making it feel like something cheap for this character beat that never has to be addressed. Or, conversely, it's revealed what it was and there's no reason for it to have been so shocking to the characters in the first place, once again making the character beat feel cheap and unearned.

That is the true problem with a mystery box. For a mystery to be good, it needs to be compelling. If it's compelling, you invest/react to it. You even being angry about it shows you are invested in it. That's why mysteries need as good of big, comprehensive payoffs as they do because that is the payoff for the investment and lack of satisfaction you're left with prior to that. To have a bad answer, or no answer, betrays that trust from your audience.

It's a balance you have to strike though. Personally, I'm probably with you that if characters want to act all dramatic about some Noodle Incident then it's going to be hard for me to care because it's going to feel random and unearned. Brooding on its own isn't compelling, it's what it says about the character and how it informs the character that is. Not knowing the source can make it hard to grasp those knock on effects, especially if it's a sudden change in the story. It's the sort of thing that can easily make you disinvest, like Maelle's visions in Expedition 33 did for me as I waited... Well, until I dropped the game close to the end of Act 2 to get an answer for, 20 hours after they began because I could only invest in the mystery so long without other things to properly invest into plot wise.

Mysteries are one of the three major hooks into a story for a reason. Done well, they are incredibly effective for getting an audience to buy in. However, very few great mysteries actually come out because it is hard to truly do right, let alone when it's the focus. I've seen a lot of things add mystery without knowing how to do it right and it's the hook that can feel the cheapest when done wrong.

And 'the mystery box' is a very cheap hook. See you next tale.

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This is my second Deltarune ask so I'll say this: I have no interest in Deltarune. I watched someone play Chapter 1 when it came out and was actively unimpressed/annoyed at it and have left it to the side since. I also think Undertale is good but once someone pointed out to me how cheap the Spare system was, it lost a lot of its bites, especially since I couldn't get past plenty of its flaws, especially flaws that I saw continue into Deltarune. So it's good that the people asking about Deltarune so far are asking for my thoughts on tropes with the game as the example since I can't really comment on the game.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mdhwrites]

Paint Me an Era Nova

Okhema's market days are always such chaos. Most consider them to be the worst the city gets because of the noise and confusion they can cause, especially with those colorful characters that are drawn to the center of it all. 1k words, fluff

[mdhwrites]

E4s are Weird in Star Rail

This is true for anything using the system but as I'm a Star Rail player and I need to use some sort of term, I'm using eidolons. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, I'm talking about what you get when you get a dupe for a character. In modern Hoyo games, every character has six of these. E1, 2, 4 and 6 all come with a new ability for the character that changes their performance while E3 and 6 just increase base values on their main abilities. E1, 2, 4 and 6 are the attractive ones for this potential to change a character.

No one actually talks about Eidolon 4 though. This isn't even a judgement thing, it's just a fact. Someone might bring up that it's good or bad but never is it a factor within pull plans and for good reason. It takes a lot to pull a character ONCE. To get any of these, you have to do that AGAIN. As such, anything past E2 is seen as out of reach for anyone but the heavier spenders.

Buuut if you're a heavy spender who is deeply investing into a character, why would you stop at E4 instead of E6? So you have two camps. People who talk about pulling for E6 who are doing that because they love the character and have the pockets to do so and E1 and 2 for anyone who is a free to play player or a light spender because those might have a dramatic enough effect to convince you to get another copy instead of a brand new character. E4 is NEVER in that latter conversation though because it would need to be so dramatic as to be worth two entire new characters with little value for half of that investment.

So when I see something like Firefly's E4, where she gets 50% MORE effect resist in her ult state, I wish it were better for Firefly fans but it is the eidolon to throw a garbage eidolon on. This is because from a marketing perspective, it's not really one that matters. Not that it can never matter, Kafka's E4 is arguably her best eidolon, but that doesn't change normal player behavior and the psychology that goes behind pull plans.

Let me know though if you've ever decided to just stop at E4 for a character though and see you next tale.

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Just a fun fact: I'm a toolbox puller for the most part so I've only recently started pulling eidolons or lightcones now that I have four different teams to tackle various situations. Even then, I'm still being conservative, like how I'm ALL IN on Cipher and by that I mean I plan to E0S1, MAYBE E1S1 if my pulls go well. Then again, I'm also a light spender so every copy of a character means a lot to me.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.