#<-not really but I'm not being nice to tl him here am I

[lilithofpenandbook]

Something I think about is how irrelevant James truly is to Harry

James, who Harry wanted to be like, is literally nothing to Harry. He threw himself at the dark lord, yes, but that's all. Just throw, no thoughts.

Lily? Lily had the chance to live. She didn't take it. She chose death, for her son. She's the one who saved Harry. Not James.

And then Snape. Snape who wanted to die when Lily did. Who would have killed himself. But he didn't. Because he agreed to protect Lily's son Harry. He lived for that.

Lily who died for Harry. Snape who lived for Harry.

Lily gave Harry her death. Snape gave Harry his life.

James Potter may have been why Harry was born. Lily Evans and Severus Snape were why Harry lived.

And Lily and Snape, in a way, are united through the boy they sacrificed it all for. In a way, Harry is more Snape's than James'. James is more central to Snape's story as his main abuser, and Sirius' as the love of his life his best friend. In Harry's story? Just the man who impulsively threw himself at the Dark Lord.

But Lily and Snape? They're parts of Harry. Harry carries the love of his mother, the weight of her protection, and he was under Snape's protection even when he didn't know it. They're Harry's protectors. His guardian angels

[plant-dad-sulu]

I'm going to make my own post on why shatner's kirk is hard to draw because i'm a star trek fan and an artist and work in theatre/film and am insane, so here we go

For reference:

I've seen someone say before that he's hard to draw because the lighting changes his features too much to pin him down, but that's just not true. If that was the problem then no one in any tv show would be easy to draw and let me tell you it's hard to get nimoy and kelley wrong. The actual reason, in my opinion, is all the soft edges.

A lot of people who complain about him being difficult to draw -- myself among them -- work with lineart, and one thing lineart depends on is defined features. Shatner has obvious and recognizable features, but the combination of the softness of those features with the way they've done his makeup means that drawing those features makes them feel too severe and leaving them out makes him feel like some generic Man.

His lips, for example, are clearly there, he's got really nice lips, but because they have been made up to be essentially the same colour as the rest of his face it feels wrong to the artist's brain to draw them as thick as they really are. To leave them out entirely removes a defining feature that makes this Shatner™ and that creates a sort of paradox in which nothing really looks right.

It's the same with his eyebrows. As we can see in the photo, he has decently thick eyebrows, but while they are defined at the bottom they seem to blend in with his forehead at the top. Partly this is because he's on the edge of blond and partly it's because they've got some makeup in there (foundation or possibly just powder to keep him from being shiny). So we are faced with the same issue: to draw them defined would feel wrong and to draw them thinner would make this Not Shatner.

His nose, too, has very soft edges in a way that's hard to depict with lineart without making it feel more defined than it actually is. His nose bridge is fairly broad and isn't super pronounced, and his nostrils aren't particularly defined from the tip of his nose either, so no matter what lighting you get, the shadows will tend towards softer. Same with his cheekbones and jawline -- they are undeniably There but because of the gradualness of the curves, none of them are super defined leaving the artist with the question of "do i draw this in or do i shade it in or do i leave it unshaded and let the viewer extrapolate?" It doesn't help that he tends to smile tenderly, which doesn't create sharp lines in the face and doesn't create much change to the other soft features.

The most definable and easily depicted aspects of his face, in fact, are his eyes and his hairline. He's got partially hooded eyes that are decently defined by his eyelids, both of which are nice and easy features to draw, and they settle into nice dark shadows by his nose bridge. The only place, in fact, where his nose and eyebrows casts sharp shadows. His hairline is insanely recognizable. The roundness at the corners of his forehead combined with the widows peak make up for the relatively light colour of his hair up top. You put together his hairline and his eyes and it's the most obvious shatner you're going to get.

And because shatner is your typical 60's leading man, his face shape is simply not noteable. Nimoy has a long face and kelley has a very square/round one. Shatner's somewhere in between. He's got a nice silhouette and that's all. But there's a million actors out there with the same silhouette because it's attractive, and so if you don't get those defining features in there -- the ones that are so difficult to draw -- then he just winds up looking generic, and so your brain tells you that's Wrong.

tl;dr soft things are hard to draw, shatner is all soft angles

[loreartisan]

Okay, I've had some time to let my thoughts settle about the River Cartwright/Louisa Guy snippet we saw in the S5 preview and (while I've kind of begrudgingly accepted it) I've come to a conclusion about why I was opposed to it.

For the most part, I've gotten the impression that River is a very very single guy who doesn't really 'go' for women/romantic situations. And to me, this makes sense. I'll elaborate below, if you're curious to see my thought process. If you're one of the ppl who think he really deserves to be with someone, then... idk this is just my own justification. Get ready, I'm going full analytical essay mode here.

Reason 1: He respects boundaries too much. In season 1, when Sid tries telling him the reason she's at Slough House, he tells her that he doesn't want to know since it's likely for personal reasons which is "none of his business". In season 2, when Lamb says that River should 'get' with Kelly if she offers, River is very opposed to this and finds it (rightfully) unethical. In season 3, River tells Louisa that her private life is not Lamb's business and that he shouldn't bring up her "way of processing her trauma". In season 4, he hesitates to share his personal problems with Louisa, emphasizing that he is considerate of "keeping things work related". There are a lot of instances where River shows how he doesn't want to take things beyond what is needed, which to me translates to: friends are all I need.

Reason 2: It's very anti-Bond of him. James Bond is this slick, suave guy who manages to charm every lady he comes across in literally every iteration he's in. One of Bond's most recognizable aspects is how he is always seducing women to get his job done. River is this awkward guy who bumbles most of his social interactions through misunderstandings and sarcasm. Most of River's characterization is on the basis that he thinks he's Bond, but continually proves in many ways how he is the opposite of him. River's relationships with women is another way to telling the audience that he is very far from being the 'perfect' spy that James Bond is.

Reason 3: He's got too much drama around him that renders romance unnecessary. River is likely one of Slow Horse's most intriguing characters, solely based on his family background. The grandson of a legendary spook, the son of an ex-CIA mercenary, the son of a bitter and neglected daughter, the brother to trained assassins who got in trouble with lots of people... There are so many points of interest around River's family alone that I just don't think a romantic plot would benefit his character. It's nice to have rounded, three-dimensional characters, but if a character has too many conflicts and side plots, it can get difficult to keep up with. If I had to choose between the themes of River coming to terms with his family legacy or allowing him to find romance with someone, I'd pick the first option because it seems far more intriguing and has more setup/depth.

There are more subtle reasons here and there, and I know that the book version of River contradicts some of my points, but these are the major aspects behind my pitch for "River should stay single and not be shipped with anyone." I see why he might be shipped with some ppl, but ultimately that is my stance on River's romantic life. His women friends should just stay friends, and I am glad Spider died because that man was TOXIC and i dont know why ppl ship them.

uhhhhh thanks for reading my essay? Hopefully yall see the way I'm thinking (maybe i convinced you to see my side of things too???). Crazy how i did all this based on 0.5 seconds of footage that is likely (in true River fashion) a misunderstanding. Yay for overthinking!

Let me know if my essay was good (was it engaging? was my writing good? did i bring up some dogwater points?), i spent more time on this than I expected but it feels good to air my thoughts out.

TL;DR I am ✨ delusional ✨

[frikatilhi]

About that new interview. I now feel conflicted about my bojere shipping. Like, I'd NEVER send Bojan fucking letters about it (WTF is wrong with people??? I'm actually shocked), but does even the concept of it bother him for real, or is he okay with it as long as it's just fun and games (and not shoved in his face)? The Cyprus vacation took place after the interview and he didn't post anything about it himself. But he let Jere post at least a little bit and it was all extremely bojere heavy (i'm assuming they talked about it and bojan agreed that jere could post the things he did). So am I "allowed" to enjoy my little fanarts and fanfics about them (emphasis on fan FICTION) or should i feel bad and fear that i'm ruining a really special friendship, because some people take it way too far? 😅 From everything we've seen so far, I'm assuming that Jere does not mind the shipping (at least as long as it stays somewhat playful and not too serious). I really hope that it won't get to the point where we get no bojere content at all (even in just a friendship sense) bc some people ruined it for all of us. 🙁

RPF is fine taking the F to the RP's is not

my tl;dr under here

It's okay to feel conflicted about this stuff; we don't want to cause any harm! It's not a nice feeling to think our silliness here might make some wacko think they're on to something and inspire them to spew hate at anyone. But Bojan gets all kinds of shit thrown at him a lot, so if it wasn't this it would probably be something else, and everyone really is only responsible for their own actions. Keep it in fandom spaces and don't start believing your delulus are real, that's rpf 101.

I feel like regarding shipping the crux of it is here. After mentioning Käärijä he sort of backtracks a little: ”I’m not even talking about this situation [bojere] at all but in general, about all the lies that are being spread.” 

I personally get the feeling that his beef is not about the Käärijä stuff as such, but with how lies and rumours take off online and how it results in harassment. Like how he gets letters from some wacko saying how he’s a horrible person for ignoring Jere, while in reality he’s on the phone with Jere at that same moment.

Is he against shipping in general, does it bother him? I don't think we can tell either way based on this interview. In the past both of them have seemed pretty chill about it, but who knows. If people harrass him about it, I can imagine it could get tiresome.

But he keeps speaking so fondly of his fans, and international fans, and Finland, and Jere, that I get a strong feeling that he doesn't lump us all together but is only speaking of those who "can't separate reality from entertainment". Also, based on how they talk of each other, their friendship is not affected by this but they're able to support each other when things get tough.

So I'd say, anon, that you're still "allowed" to enjoy your entertainment, as much as I'm allowed to grant you that permission 😆

[kcrabb88]

Not to vent on main, but I do want to talk about this because I think it speaks to a bigger issue in fandom recently. So, there's been a small but noticeable trend recently of people coming onto Quinlan/Obi-Wan content that I make and either saying "I liked this except for the QuinObi and/or Quinlan himself" or commenting on something as to why it was QuinObi and not another more popular ship. This happened recently in a comment I got on a fic and also on a piece of QuinObi art that I paid for, among other things. First, that's a shitty thing to do. You don't come into comments and complain that it's not what you like. Second, I gotta say, I have not experienced having people who like super popular ships coming to me, whose ship is a rowboat, and complaining that my content, or content I paid to have created, isn't their ship in any fandom I've ever been in. You're right! It's my ship. I love them and will continue to write about them. If a few people have written QuinObi because of me (and they have! Which is so nice!) I'm still not rocking the fandom boat. I am not making a dent in the behemoth ships that are out there. I ran a QuinObi week which was so wonderful and I will do it again, but it's not going to suddenly steal writers away from other popular ships (also, multi-shipping exists!) I'm not a threat. Not that we should think of things that way, but it does start to come across like that when stuff like this happens, like I'm getting in the way of an agenda.

I've been in fandoms where I shipped a big ship and got complained to by someone shipping idk, I hesitate to call it a rival ship, but that's the only word I can think of. Still not nice, but coming to me about my SMALL SHIP is much more unexpected and much more unkind as far as fandom power dynamics go.

People have gotten truly aggressive about both fanon and popular ships. No one, whatever the fandom, is obligated to ship the popular ship you like. Not everyone is going to fit the mold of popular fandom trends, and they don't have to. They should be able to create what they like without being bothered about it. People seem to believe now that if you ship a pairing that you also hold an Approved slate of beliefs about every other character in fandom. That you follow what I've been calling a Fandom Map. Well, some people like to mix it up. Fandom isn't a hive mind and diversity of characters and pairings should be encouraged. I think it's ironic that I have to be extremely nervous to make a post critiquing a popular fandom trope but people can come to me and be rude about my way less popular shipping preferences. I’m not a fandom vending machine. If you don’t like one thing but enjoyed others tell me what you did like and leave the rest out. Or don’t read it. Crits like this aren’t even dislikes about story elements (and even those are more for Goodreads than Ao3) they’re crits about my personal taste.

(As to Star Wars fandom in particular, I continue to think it's really off that people are so weird about Quinlan generally, and dumb him down, among other crimes. You have to start to wonder why and when you wonder, the results of that wondering aren't great).

tl ; dr don't be a jerk. We're all here because we enjoy something.

[cinnamonest]

I know nothing about Persona let alone Goro Akechi but after reading the bsf and yan profile post I want to give this man a hug (and my tits). His story seems so sad ;-; and he's so pretty and for what?? 💢

Honestly, as much as I enjoy genshin I never truly found it to have any meaningful or extremely well written characters (which is not a bad thing, I just can't take them seriously when they all look like that lmao). All credit to making me think twice about them goes to writers and artists in the fandom. So the change in content feels soooooo nice. Made me appreciate your writing in another way

I've heard about Persona a LOT for years, but I didn't have a huge drive to play it until your liveposting (p.s I love the LP so much) and especially the posts with that one insane policeman guy who is a loser (affectionate, also giving him my pussy). Any recs? 😅

HE IS MY BABY BOY you're so right he is so pretty 😖😖😖 Akechi is genuinely an excellently written character, and Persona 5 Royal is one of the few games I think fully deserves to be so hyped as it is.

Tbh I think the problem genshin and similar games has is that there's so many characters, you have to essentially go out of your way to dig into lore to get anything beyond surface level from them. This happens a lot in series with lots of characters — like with Danganronpa for example, your experience of a lot of characters completely changes upon playing their free time events. A lot of genshin characters get very little screen time on the main story, so all their characterization is in their quests, lines, and character profile content. Which to be fair, with a game of this nature that's kinda the only way to really do it, so, I'm just glad they give us that extra content tbh. I've played some gachas that would introduce new characters but give very little beyond a design and name which is kinda sad when you want to know more about the lil guy you're playing with.

But AAAAAAAAAAAAAA thank you so much anon I am going to ramble here, but I'll put a tl;dr at the bottom!

Soooo if you want to get into Persona, I'd recommend the series in a certain order with some notes. There's 5 main entries in the series and a lot of spinoffs.

A word of advice in general with marathoning a game series: with any series it's a good idea to play in order of chronological and thus technological progression, especially if you intend to play the series back to back, otherwise going from a more recent game to an older one can damper your experience due to the decrease in graphical quality, gameplay smoothness, and general content quantity.

However for this series, the ideal order to play really depends on the factors of 1) which version of Persona 3 you choose to play, and 2) if you want to play Persona 1 & 2.

Regarding Persona 1 and 2: These are some of those games where your enjoyment will strongly depend on whether or not you're a person who is okay with some of the frustrations, limitations and slowness/jankiness common to old games (they came out between 1996-1999). I know some people don't mind or see it as a sort of vintage charm, while others get very frustrated with that — if you're the latter, I'd recommend saving yourself the frustration and skipping them, but if you like old games or have a high tolerance for jankiness, you could start here. I will also say that, even amongst the vintage/90s games fan crowd, P2 is definitely more popular and considered better than P1. It's also much better on the aforementioned issues.

Also, unless you have an original PlayStation or PSP, you'll have to emulate these.

Regarding Persona 3: there's several versions — the original came out in like 2006, then there was a remake version called P3 FES which added an epilogue (which is being added to the recent remake soon anyway), then a PSP remake called Persona 3 Portable (which has ports on modern consoles), then the most recent remake, Persona 3 Reload, came out just a few months ago in 2024.

Obviously the newest remake has vastly improved graphics and added lots of gameplay content. However, one of the biggest differences is that P3 Portable had the option to play as a female protagonist — this altered a lot of aspects of the game and is exclusive to that version (which has disappointed a lot of people hoping she'd be in the 2024 remake), so you can't play as her if you play Reload (unless, I believe, you play PC, there's a volunteer team currently making a mod for her).

Personally, I bought P3 Reload, and couldn't get into it, so I dropped it. Then I bought P3P on a whim and LOVE it so far. Getting to play as the girl protagonist makes a massive difference in my opinion, and more than compensates for the older graphics/gameplay. It's not just the romance routes either, her dialogue options, interactions, music, and overall vibe is different enough that it changes the feel of the story.

It really depends on what you value more — 2024-tier visual quality/gameplay and the epilogue, versus the Female Protagonist experience, so just pick which you prefer.

For the order thing, if you choose to play P3P (or the original/FES for whatever reason), I'd start here, but if you want to play Reload, I'd play it either last or just before P5 Royal.

Moving on, Persona 4: Golden and Persona 5: Royal are both the definitive editions of their respective games. They're remakes of the originals with a lot of added content, and unlike Persona 3, there's no reason to play the older versions over these. Notably their themes/vibes are kinda opposite of each other (big city world-scale societal rebellion versus small rural town murder mystery), I wouldn't say either story is better or worse, they're not really comparable and more a matter of personal taste.

As for the stories, admittedly if you've read my posts, you've essentially already been spoiled on the identity of the killers, but honestly it's still worth experiencing the story, there's multiple big plot twists before and after the reveals regarding Akechi/Adachi.

I would play Persona 5 Royal last, largely because it's widely considered the best entry to the series and is by far the longest. However if you only intend to play one game, it should definitely be P5 Royal. The only real flaw to P5 is it's much easier than previous games.

From here, there's a few more spinoff games, whether or not you want to play them really just depends on if you enjoy the genre. There's a bit of lore in some of them but nothing critical.

Dancing All Night/Starlight/Moonlight - dancing rhythm games

Arena Ultimax - fighting game, acts as an epilogue to P3&4

Persona Q 1&2

These are Nintendo DS spinoffs with chibi style art. I haven't played these and admittedly don't know much about them, I think they're dungeon crawler genre? It's popular for the aspect of which it involves the characters of the different main games, so you get to see them interact with each other.

The downside is that these games are oddly expensive, I think because there weren't too many copies. I intend to get them eventually.

Persona 5 Tactica/Strikers:

These are P5 spinoffs that put the cast in alternate stories, strikers is the closest to a true sequel from my understanding, tactica is more of a dungeon-crawler. I didn't get them because Akechi isn't in strikers and is just minor dlc for tactica.

The Phantom X

This is upcoming I believe, it's going to be a mobile game with a new cast.

The TL;DR of my advice:

- Play P2 only if you're into vintage gaming

- Play P1 only if you're REALLY into vintage gaming

- Play Persona 3 Portable if you really value the female protagonist/male character romance experience, otherwise play Persona 3 Reload

- If you play the original Persona 3, FES, or P3 Portable: start with that, then P4 Golden, then P5 Royal

- If you play Persona 3 Reload: play P4 Golden FIRST, then both P5 Royal and P3 Reload in either order.

- Play the spinoffs just based on what type of games you like, if any.

[youmakethelight]

Watching the reactions to tboc is actually whiplash.

My tl is the most contrasting mix of bad emotions about out of character dialogue, another stupid thing one of the male EPs said, daryl treating carol like shit, and then blushing and swooning over the reunion and how right the world is that they're together again.

Almost all the good vibes I could have got from the reunion are sucked out by 99% of the rest of the show. I wasn't even that impressed with the reunion, honestly. I wanted more. The camera angle was off, I didn't see daryl's hand on carol's head, the music was off, and it faded out too quick to the worst acting I've ever seen from Norman, going "nonono" running towards dying isabelle. Like, wow. Way to IMMEDIATELY take daryl away again. Who WAS that?

For almost a whole day, I was feeling a bit better, seeing everyone's reactions to episode 4. But now I feel shitter than I did before. Like the reunion did NOT have that much impact on me - how did it for y'all? I'm jealous.

Episode 4 was literally 1 step forward 5 steps back the whole way through. The good doesn't outweigh the bad at all. The "you're too much" scene is starting to annoy me. I mean.. it was funny, but considering daryl still hasn't shown any real appreciation or care for carol yet, I wasn't in love with him being so grumpy with her (also directly after the barn scene, like wtf?). But it's more annoying bc it's feeling overhyped at this point. Like, there's like 4 nice scenes in episode 4 that I'm seeing over and over, and at this point, all it's doing is reminding me that that's all we have. The rest is bad.

At least when pretty much the whole thing is so bad that 99% of the response is negative, it feels like AMC might actually be forced to do something about it. This way, it just feels like they're keeping us fed with crumbs so that they can get away with keeping the rest of it a pile of shit.

And all I remember about episode 5 is that it made me feel worse. I just remember feeling like Carol felt like a spare part, and it made me feel like shit. For 2 seconds, I got to see her enjoying looking around where she was in Paris, and then Daryl is being grumpy with her again. Like holy shit. And I can't even be bothered to make a joke about it, bc it isn't funny. When I first saw the screeners' reviews and the negative speculation, I really didn't think it would be as bad as I imagined it could be, but it is.

And I'm just scared people on sm are just going to be so happy that they're together again, that any issues with it are going to get swept under the carpet (and then perpetuated into the next season). And my feelings are going to feel totally invalidated. Like ok I can kiss goodbye to any hope that I'll ever feel like im seeing my favourite characters on screen again bc AMC doesn't think it needs to change anything. 🙃🙂🙃

I am not trying to say that people shouldn't be finding joy where they can get it. This is all AMC and a bunch of men in charge, NOT fans. I'm just feeling shit about it all, and idk, oversharing on the internet and treating tumblr like my personal diary is my coping mechanism now ig.

I just hate it here.

[lunar-years]

https://x.com/JRRnotTolkien/status/1827492547960434945?t=oFRRrF9CB-V8MfBWZZEyQg&s=08 not sure if you saw this but this is maybe more positive - like, a casting director wanted him to come in for something but learned from Phil's people that he may have this commitment. Of course, this means that if the article detail is correct, that's the Ted Lasso people actively being like "we aren't gonna bother with Jamie, sorry Phil" like them choosing not to renew, or seeing the authentic best path for Jamie as a star footballer would be sold to a bigger and more aspirational team. I get that this happens to players but I don't like the idea that it would be canon to do that in Roy's first season. Surely he would want to stay with Roy as manager and play in the Champions League under him. It would feel OOC for him to leave.

original tweet from two days ago:

today's amendment:

Especially considering the amendment tweet here I can't say this changes much for me one way or another. There's for sure a lot of contrasting information out there at the moment and it's really impossible for any of us to know for sure what's happening. At the moment I am trying to remain a bit hopeful that I'll be nicely surprised whilst also preparing to be letdown. Based on everything I've seen, the number of times these supposed scheduling conflicts have been mentioned by different sources makes me lean towards thinking (very unfortunately) that they are in fact real and Phil isn't going to be coming back as a regular, but could (and I would assume will) guest star. i really really REALLY hope i'm wrong (or that "guest star" in this capacity means he's just gonna be in 11 out of 12 episodes 🤪). Quite frankly if Phil couldn't make the proposed TL filming schedule work due to prior commitments, TL should've just changed the filming schedule. Like...damn! Literally just push it back a few months we've already waited this long. I think losing him as a regular is a massive mistake.

As for your second point, I very strongly doubt that the Ted Lasso people didn't want to option Phil to return tbh. Everything we've seen so far indicates the issues came from Phil's side. Besides that, I really don't think this show cares about realism anywhere near enough to write off a beloved main character just because that's what might happen if Jamie were a real footballer 😭 Jamie was arguably the most well-received character and arc of s3 for the show and they for sure would capitalize on that if they could (and writing him off is going to be really weird and undoubtedly effect the plans for other characters' s4 arcs as well, he was very intertwined with Roy's plot in particular in s3, plus they were still going with the ot3 love triangle thing, plus they introduced the recovery arc with his dad. I think they will probably have to scrap part of their s4 vision to work around losing him and that Sucks!

[tessenpai]

Kono Oto Tomare! Chapter 124 Scans and Rough TL

Disclaimer: Please DO NOT use this translation to make your own TL of the chapter!! The KOT TL group works very hard to give you the most accurate translation, that does as much justice to the original script as possible. This is a ROUGH translation. That means is faulty and there must be mistakes in certain places. This is just for impatient people like myself to get a grasp on what is going on in the chapter! You can REFERENCE my TL if you want to discuss the chapter but never USE it as it was your own.

Scans:

Page 1

Side text: Landing on the Northern Land...

Page 2

Side text: Seeking Love/Chika in the Summer/Natsu

Chapter Title: Ignorance is Bliss

Page 3

Isaki: Hold on, Takaoka-kun. Where are you going?

Tetsuki: Ah, I'm going to take the train from here. I will see you tomorrow, then.

Isaki: What are you talking about? I told you I rented a car, didn't I? Don't be shy.

Tetsuki: I'm not being shy, I'm just trying to protect myself.

Isaki: Hey, now.

Isaki: You're not pretending anymore, are you, Takaoka-kun?

Tetsuki: Aren't you the one having fun pretending to be dull, Isaki-san? Please stop it alrea-

Tetsuki: Ah. I'm sorr...

Page 4

Tetsuki: !! Uzuki!

Page 5

Uzuki: Takaoka-ku...

Isaki: Huh!!? Did you say "Uzuki" just now!?? That "Uzuki" I cannot forgive-

Isaki: ...

Isaki: "Uzuki"?

Uzuki: ...Yes

Isaki: The "Uzuki" that tormented Chika so much and also messed up my father's place...?

Page 6

Uzuki: ....

Uzuki: Yes...

Isaki: Is this the actual dude? I think even I could take him down!!?

Tetsuki: Well, the one who actually executed it was someone else...

Isaki: ...

Isaki: Ejem

Isaki: Nice meeting you. I'm Chika's aunt. It seems you brought my nephew a lot of grief. I was thinking about punching you after the National Competition was over.

Page 7

Isaki: Chika told me that he had invited you to listen to their performance. So you actually came.

Uzuki: ...I'm sorry. I am truly... regret... ful...

Isaki: I wasn't being sarcastic. After all, Chika was being serious when he invited you.

Uzuki: Eh? ....Ah....

Page 8

Isaki: You look pale. More like, you look like death. Do you even eat properly?

Uzuki: Eh...

Uzuki: !

Isaki: Have you eaten lunch?

Uzuki: I.... Have not

Isaki: I see. Us neither.

Tetsuki [thoughts]: Isaki-san, you are not planning to...

Isaki: Smiles

Page 9

Isaki: We are going.

Uzuki: Eh?

Isaki: Come on, start walking.

Uzuki: Um

Isaki: Takaoka-kun, you too. Quickly!

Tetsuki [thoughts]: Seriously....?

Mittsu: Fuaaaaaah

Kota: I'm starting to lose focus.

Page 10

Chika: You guys are pitiful. I'm still full of energy.

Sane: That's only you! You are the only one who is still lively!

Sane: We've already heard the performances of 23 schools, y'know?

Sane: Not even in class have I ever listened with that much concentration.

Takezou: Are you two okay? Is your first time at a competition, and with the volume of the sound...

Natsu: I'm tired, to be honest.

Atsumu: I'm having so much fun!!!

Atsumu: I thought all the performances were only koto, but there were high schools that had sangen* and shakuhachi**, too!

Chika: Ah! That was awesome-- I got so excited!!

Atsumu: Yes!!

3-baka: That's Yoshinaga, the heir of Chikaism, for you.

Mittsu: How many schools are left, by the way?

Sane: Let's see-- 1, 2... 9 schools.

Kota: That's an amazing number in just one day---

Page 11

Suzuka: It's not like is mandatory for you to listen to all of them, you know?

Akira: Guys, we have practice after we go back. It may be too much...

Mittsu: No... We've made it this far...

Keishi: Ahaha You don't have to be so stubborn-- Remember that the most important thing is your own condition.

Keishi: There are some schools that don't listen to other schools' performances so as to not be influenced by them in any way.

Keishi: I think a lot of them give themselves until the last minute to practice.

Keishi: But if you really want to stay and listen, that's no problem at all.

Sane: Uuugh...

Natsu: By the way, are there any strong schools within the remaining 9?

Page 12

Akira: Let's see...

Akira: Aah. If I remember correctly Chibana Girls High School is regularly a top school.

Sane: Chibana, Chibana... Ooooh dead last...

Natsu: Those are the girls that we saw in the hotel meal room, isn't that right?

Sane: Eh?

Natsu: They ones that seemed to be mad at you Senpais at the opening ceremony.

Sane: Those girls are from Chibana?

Natsu: They had CHIBANA written on their T-Shirts. And in the sign at their table.

Sane: You are so observant, dude---

Page 13

Natsu: As soon as they found out we were from Tokise, they changed their attitude real quick.

Natsu: I thought it would be funny if their performance sucked.

Sane: Woah. You are so bad, Momoya.

Natsu: I mean, I just got super annoyed.

Chika: Pats

Kota: Hugs

Natsu: What is this...

Takezou: For now, let's decide when Kurusu-san and Houzuki-san come back.

Sane: Right!

Page 14

Tomoe: Ugh.

Tomoe: Bleeeeegh

Chibana Student: Oooh maan. Come on, get a grip. You act so strong, but you're really nervous, aren't you?

Tomoe: Aaah shut up. This is just my constitution, my constitution!!

Chibana Student: Yeah yeah. There's not much time left anymore.

Satowa: Um, are you okay?

Hiro: Do you need us to call someone for you?

Tomoe: Ah, I'm okay--

Page 15

Tomoe: Ugh!!!

Tomoe[thoughts]: The girls from Tokise...!!

Hiro: !

Satowa: Ah.

Chibana Student: This girl gets like this before a performance. It's like a regular event.

Tomoe: Hey...

Chibana Student: You don't have to worry.

Tomoe: Blushes...

Tomoe: You don't have to say unnecessary things! I'm fine now!

Satowa & Hiro: ...

Hiro: The time just before a performance is nerve-wracking, isn't it?

Hiro: I'm the same.

Page 16

Tomoe: Eh...

Satowa: Ah, that's right.

Satowa: If you'd like, I've got some candy.

Satowa: Do you need some? To cleanse your palate...

Tomoe: Strawberry Milk...

Satowa: Ah! M- mint or citrus flavored would've been better, right? I'm sorry.

Satowa: Wh- When I get nervous or feel under the weather, these help me calm down.

Page 17

Tomoe: ...Thank you...

Tomoe: ...Thi- this candy.

Tomoe: I like it as well.

Page 18

Satowa: I'm glad.

Tomoe: Umm--- I- um-

Chibana Student 2: Tomoe!! How long are going to be chatting!? We are starting to move!!

Tomoe: I- I know!!

Tomoe: Thank you for this!

Satowa: Not at all.

Page 19

Hiro & Satowa: Good luck with the performance!!

Hiro: ...Hozuki-chan.

Hiro: Aren't those the candies Chika-kun always carries around...?

Page 20

Hiro: Sqeeeeal---

Hiro: Oh--- Gosh--- You are so cuuuute----

Hiro: I so totally get you. You start to like the same things the person you like does, right----

Satowa: Don't- Don't tell- Don't tell Kudou-

Hiro: Whaaaat---? I wonder, what should I do---?

Satowa: Hiro-senpaaai---

Page 21

Chibana Student: ...They were just

Chibana Student: Really good girls.

Tomoe: Yeah...

Tomoe[thoughts]: The first time I watched Tokise's viral video

Page 22

Tomoe [thoughts]: The club was in the middle of pushing for Nationals

Tomoe [thoughts]: While everyone was practicing hard and raising their spirits every day.

Video title: National Koto Club Member. The truth is revealed. Video discretion is advised.

Tomoe: ---Huh? What is this...?

User 1 Comment: This is the first time I hear about something like a "Koto club"

Reply to User 1: No fr. What's a koto club to begin with? Sorry lol

User 2 comment: If a club with a member like that can go to Nationals, then isn't the level in the mud? Lmao

Page 23

Tomoe [thoughts]: I was so mad.

Tomoe [thoughts]: Because of some random guy who doesn't know what he's doing…

Tomoe [thoughts]: The koto club

Tomoe [thoughts]: The national competition that we'd worked so hard to reach every year.

Tomoe [thoughts]: We were being made fun of by people who didn't know what they were talking about.

Tomoe [thoughts]: And they underestimated us.

Tomoe [thoughts]: Don't lump us together with the guy from that club...!

Tomoe [thoughts]: It was unforgivable.

Page 24

Tomoe's comment: I'm a member of a koto club. I don't want people like this to play. I don't want to be near them. They're a nuisance.

Tomoe [thoughts]: The thoughts and feelings that I spit out on social media spread quickly.

Tomoe [thoughts]: I received many messages of agreement.

Reply 1: What she said!

Reply 2: I'm also in a Koto Club! Well said---!

Reply 3: I missed the Nationals this year. And yet a club with a member like this... I'm so disappointed and frustrated.

Tomoe: ...!

Tomoe [thoughts]: They'll pay for that!! For sure!!

Tomoe [thoughts]: I will show you what a serious performance looks like!!

Page 25

Chibana Student: Well, I know it's a bit complicated, but let's concentrate on the performance ahead of us.

Chibana Student: What Tokise is really like... We will find out when we hear their performance.

Tomoe: You're right.

Page 26

Tetsuki & Uzuki: Uuuuuuuuugh

Isaki: You two are pathetic---

Isaki: I just ran a little.

Tetsuki: Isaki-san, your driving is not a matter of if you run or not

Isaki: What!?

Isaki: Whatever. Order whatever you like. This big sis here will treat you.

Page 27

Uzuki: No... I'm fine with just water...

Isaki: I said eat.

Tetsuki: Isaki-san

Isaki: You look so unhealthy. You don't eat enough on a regular basis, do you?

Uzuki: I don't... Have much of an appetite.

Uzuki: Food doesn't really... have a flavor.

Uzuki: I can't tolerate it.

Uzuki: ...I'm sorry.

Page 28

Isaki: Chika didn't eat any food when he first came to my house either.

Isaki: It was right after my father died. It was the same thing when the recent turmoil happened.

Isaki: When something happens, he loses his appetite. That child.

Isaki: It was like he lost his interest in life.

Isaki: You are the same. You give that impression.

Page 29

Uzuki: The same as Chika...

Isaki: Is not something to be happy about.

Isaki: Dammit...

Isaki: Listen, I don't care if you just order porridge or soup.

Isaki: Even if it's just a bite.

Isaki: You can leave it. You can spit it out. But first, eat.

Isaki: It takes a hell of a lot of strength to face what you've done and to live with it.

Page 30

Isaki: If you don't have that kind of resolution, you don't deserve to hear Chika and the rest's performance.

Isaki: Your face looks like death. This is not a joke.

Isaki: What Chika meant when he asked you to come. Think about it.

Page 31

Chika: ---I will stay until the very end, as planned.

Chika: I wanna listen for as long as I can.

Chika: I want to know.

Chika: You guys can go back first and rest---

Atsumu: I also want to listen!!

Satowa: That was our plan all along though?

Hiro: The ones who are tired can go back to the hotel, that's ok.

Page 32

Mittsu: ...Hey. Who is tired here?

Sane: I can't see them.

Kota: Our concentration power knows no limits--

3-baka: Let's goooo!!! To the very end---!!!

Atsumu: Stares...

3-baka: Let's get it. Hahahah.

Natsu: Sigh...

Suzuka: That is exactly what I thought would happen.

Akira: Right?

Chika: You don't have to force yourselves.

Sane: We are not-- Don't underestimate us.

Chika [memories]: No matter how much you cry or wail.

Page 33

Chika[memories]: The things you've done will never disappear.

Chika [memories]: The things we can do

Uzuki [thoughts]: Are probably things we can only do

Uzuki [thoughts]: Now, or

Page 34

Uzuki [thoughts]: From now on.

Tetsuki: --------

Isaki: Takaoka-kun, order whatever you like.

Page 35

Tetsuki: Fu Okay.

Side text: Only the accumulation of the present will make the "From now on (Future)"

---Kono Oto Tomare! will continue in the next issue---

[lewis-winters]

would love to hear more about the skinny/speirs confrontation 👀 (I'm sure other would too so feel free to answer publicly)

Ok I did not actually anticipate ppl being interested HAHAHAH but since ya'll asked nicely (@ep6bastogne and @hellofanidea mWAH to you too), here it is under the cut.

Ok so like. Understandably, people are more focused on Web and Lieb when it comes to the mountain top scene and that's perfectly fine. They're the ones I first thought about too. But then the more I watched that scene, the more I nyoomed in on two details: 1) It is implied that Speirs personally gave the order for Liebgott to go up there and deal with the officer, and 2) Skinny is the one who ends up pulling the trigger.

Which brings me to like. This fic I started planning in my head but couldn't quite write down because I am. Lazy. Anyway, it follows several plot points:

1) This is piggyback riding off my meta that Ron had ulterior motives to sending Liebgott up the mountain, which I have outlined in this post. TL;DR Ron used Lieb's anger (and to some extent, Web's too-- in my head, he heard about the incident with the baker in ep9, and he wanted to exploit that, not anticipating that Web's own self-preservation (of both his own person and morals) would get in the way) to do his dirty work, knowing that he wouldn't be questioned because of his position and because of said anger blindsiding all logic Lieb might have.

2) Skinny somehow knows this. He's more intuitive that people give him credit for. If Ron handpicked Lieb and Web because he knew, at least to some extent, that their anger would push them to do what he wants, then what the hell was Skinny doing there?

3) That question will haunt Skinny for awhile. Because why did Ron know, somehow, that Skinny would pull the trigger when either Lieb or Web could not? What anger and violence did Ron see in Skinny that made him think: "ah, yes, him; that's my killer of killers"? And most importantly, why did Skinny prove him right?

This is very much informed by how irl Skinny's PTSD was very much centered on the people he killed as a soldier (as opposed to people he lost). He's constantly cited in his writings and his letters that he felt unforgivable. So it isn't a massive leap for me to go yeah!! that boy killed an unarmed man (albeit a nazi, but I don't think even that could help him justify this) and then was later present when Web says "war's over, anyone would run" which no doubt would add to his already guilty conscience.

Add all of that together, and you have a recipe for a very traumatized lost boy wondering if maybe he's carrying a monster inside of him, and if maybe Ron could see it.

4) the answer, in the end, is that Ron couldn't see it. This was the dialogue I wrote first, and it has had me by the balls ever since:

"So why me? What did you see in me that was so twisted and cruel that you decided I should be up there, huh? Tell me!"

"... Nothing. I just needed a third man."

5) anyway. Ronald does, finally, admit to having used Lieb and Web to get what he wants. But Skinny doesn't care, because all he hears is that he's collateral damage. And that's not quite as comforting as Ron thinks it is.

soooooo. yeah.

**another plot point I have listed but couldn't really put anywhere in this weird ass list: there's also some cognitive dissonance sprinkled in there-- Skinny could justify Lieb and Web's reactions. He'd say Lieb has the right to do it. He'd also say Web's attempt at perserving himself as wise. it's important to note that Skinny went into this with the mindset that he was already unforgivable from the beginning. this just exacerbated it, but also gave him somebody who could probably answer his questions (i.e. am I really unforgivable? am I rreally a monster? am I a murderer? etc etc).

[stuckyonbucky]

Ok after playing through Veilguard twice and having some time to sit on it, here are my final thoughts. Under the cut due to length and mild spoilers.

Tl;dr: Overall I think I would give Veilguard a 6/10. I think its biggest issue is just straight up inconsistency. There are bits of this game that I absolutely love and am so happy I got to experience but then there are bits that just make me wring my hands in frustration.

What I liked:

The overall story. I liked Solas being trapped in his own prison and Elgar'nan and Gilan'nain escaping. I liked the connection between Solas and Rook and having to begrudgingly work with him. I thought the big story missions were really fun and were some of the craziest things we've ever had to do in a Dragon Age game. El and Gil felt really intimidating and it makes looking back at the Archdemon in Origins kinda funny - he's so cute. Act 3 was super intense and had really strong writing. I genuinely cried multiple times, laughed, had fun, got heart broken, got pissed off. I was moved and the end left me wanting another game. I don't want to give up Thedas yet.

Out of all the Dragon Age games, I enjoyed this combat the most. I'm not a combat girlie and it's usually just something I have to trudge through to get to the next story point but it was less of a drag in this.

The environments were interesting and beautiful. I appreciated the move away from the giant empty maps of Inquisition. The side quests were more satisfying because they contributed to your reputation with the faction and weren't just meaningless fetch quests.

What I think could have been improved:

The companions and romances. I didn't like the move away from Inquisition and not being able to talk to your companions whenever you wanted. They went back to DA2 where you only get to interact with them after completing missions. I didn't really feel like I got to know the companions as well as we did in Inquisition and Origins. And even though DA2 was also like that I still feel like we got to know that group better, maybe because that game took place over 7 years whereas there is no sense of a timeline in this game. The companions all interact with each other more than you get to interact with them. And I think because I didn't feel like we really got to know them, the romances felt lacking. It was really unfortunate because I actually like the companions, I liked the romances, I just wish there was more to them.

Dialogue and Rook. Sometimes the dialogue feels very Disney Channel. Rook is always so nice, so supportive, so morally straight. Not that I was expecting to be Durge from BG3, and not that I usually play an asshole but it felt like this game would have benefited from some kind of Paragon/Renegade system and that maybe not all your companions would like you but respected that you can get shit done in this world ending situation. I mean, you can play as a Crow ffs - do you think everyone would be ok with that? There should have been more tension depending on your background with some people. I almost expected everyone to burst out and sing 'We're All in this Together' at some points. This is supposed to be a mature, dark fantasy game and sometimes the dialogue just didn't fit that.

Solas and the Inquisitor. I'm not a Solavellan, but I just straight up wished there was more of these two because I love them so much and I still wish we had gotten to play as the Inquisitor again in this. I wish they had gotten to interact more. I wanted more angst. I wanted the Inquisitor to haunt Solas's narrative more. But a lot of that comes from headcanons so I understand this probably was never going to meet my expectations as long as we were playing a new protagonist.

Pacing. Some parts of the story feel like they go by too fast, or aren't really explained well. El and Gil feel like they amassed followers like the day after they got out. How did they get the human elitist cult and Qun defectors to follow them so quickly?? Both of those groups would be super against doing the bidding of elves just on principal. I know they can mess with your mind and take advantage of greedy and power hungry people but it just felt too quick. Did you know we were stuck in the Fade for weeks after Solas switches places with us?? I sure didn't when I played because the only person who actually mentions that is Bellara during her romance scene (which I watched on youtube). I was very confused on how they managed to make a replica dagger in what I thought were the few hours I was stuck there. How did they find us? What else did they do while we were there?? It's all just glossed over.

Catering to new players vs established fans. This game definitely feels like the existing fans were put on the back-burner a bit in favor of trying to attract a new audience. I get that it's been 10 years since the last game, and you want to get those older teens/early 20s who have maybe never played the games before but I think they could have done a soft reboot of the franchise without dismissing us as much as they did.

Enemy redesigns. I get the reason for the darkspawn and really my main issue is with the demons. C'mon - the pride demon design was so iconic and you just made it look silly!

[euclydya]

4, 9, 14

4: What’s switching like for your System? - ⟨Very quick, usually!! We focus on a certain starmate and imagine handing them a baton which symbolizes the switch and after that they're in main fromt! Most of the time though it's instantaneous!⟩ -Felidae

9: What’s your earliest memory of interacting with a systemmate? - Hmmmm. I think... Being at our grandparents' house and talking about our "imaginary friend" Horsea. Pokemon was our first special interest so it makes sense that our first starmates were sourced from it. Back then we'd visualize our starmates in the real world and interact with them that way; we remember "holding" Horsea and giving it pets while we rambled about it to our grandma lmao. Horsea was what we'd now consider an in-sys pet and not exactly a starmate but we couldn't control its actions so it. Definitely wasn't an imaginary friend? Idk it was kind of like an NPC starmate too! -Jimmy

14: Say something nice about one of your systemmates! - ⟨!!! I think Jimmy is really neat!!! He's only been around for lil over a month I think but he's grown a lot since he formed!!! And we're all really proud of him for the progress he's made when it comes to self worth and all!! At first he really really hated himself because of his actions in source but he's slowly getting over that and he's learning that this is a new life so we can all start again and essentially have a do-over, and that he's not exempt from that, if that makes sense! He tries really hard to be as nice and good as possible and it really shows I think? Idk, he's currently a core component in keeping the infernal engine going (that is to say, he's important to keeping our body alive and functioning) and he's doing a good job at it so far! And. Oh he's crying now. Whoops!! uh tl;dr I think he's neat and I'm glad he's here!! But I guess I'm biased, as I am apart of his subsystem!⟩ -Felidae

[limeade-l3sbian]

I had such a good day today !!!

Here's what I think contributed to it:

I changed my physics lab group, they're nice, but I had to explain everything to them and like I had no time to process stuff for myself. My new group is awesome, we divide stuff equally, there's a girl in my group oh and my phyiscs professor is awesome !!! So the girl in my group went to ask him a question, he came to help the boy lab partner took over tl fix the equipment, my Prof said "typical male response, she's the one who asked she's the one who gets to fix the problem" like damn seeing him stand up for her like that like🤍🤍🤍🤍.

I'm so ahopy and grateful I get to study something I love so much I can't believe I someday will get to make a contribution to science. Hopefully I'll be able to deal with my health stuff but oh am I happy today. 😊

Some my health stuff getting better some still crap but better. I'm no longer scared of being a TA now I walk witch confidence in that lab. Today I also took time to notice the different colors and the change in colors due to fal and all that. I bought those dried fruit I really wanted they were expensive but there's like a variety in them and they're not sweetened!!

Anon, you don't have a clue how happy I am for you! It was just one good thing after another the more I read on. 💜 I Hope you and your new group discover the cure to eczema and I hope the dried fruit was delicious. 💜🫶🏾

[ebonysplendor]

Parasite in Love Review 🦠

TL;DR: You're pretty much in a toxic, nonconsensual relationship with an even more toxic amoeba. Yes, an amoeba. That's it. That's the game

Game Link: https://night-asob u.itch.io/parasite-in-love

Notable Features: She/Her/Hers MC, Named MC, Yandere LI, partial voice acting Spiciness: 0/5 -- No explicit content LI Red Flags: 2/5 -- lack of consent, a lil hands on...but from the inside...?

Want to know more? Well, let's get into it!

Let me just start off by saying... I genuinely thought this game was going to be wack lol. Like, no lie.

First off, from the synopsis I had read on the page, I initially thought that it was going to be more of the hallucinations that we were experiencing versus the parasite itself.

That being said, when I booted up the game...it was mad boring. I'm not even gonna lie to y'all, I was 2 seconds from clicking that ish out and moving on to another visual novel that I had saved to play later; however, I was like "Well, it just started. Let me give it a fair chance because this is clearly only the intro" because let's be real for a second. An intro is kind've hard to write without making it so plain that the person playing just loses interest nor making it so that shit just starts popping off out of seemingly no where. So, with that in consideration, I pushed through. I got through the first, like, day and 3/4 of the second day. THAT'S when things started getting a little more interesting, and I was like "Okay! Here we go!". After that, it was pleasantly interesting!

It definitely had a slow start with all the "I did this, then I did this, and then after that I did this" blah, blah, blah, but once it truly started? Oh, it was on. With that, I think I've rambled enough about my personal experience. Let's talk about the game (with as little spoilers as possible, as always)

So, boom, we're -- well, actually Marlowe -- is taking a vacay by...going in the wilderness.

No shade, no tea to you if this is your style of vacationing. I support, but no way in hell am I partaking. Ain't no way I'm going to get away from indoor struggles by experiencing outdoor struggles, like nu uh. Then again, Marlowe isn't exactly out here roughing it. She has this really nice cabin that she rented out, and she's going to chill the week there.

Even though this is a horror themed game, she actually has pretty solid reception out here, so we're good! We can call for help should we need it, right? ...Right?

Anyways, she goes to take a swim in this lake, and I honestly get why she did that...but why did she do that? Literally the intro to the game was a news story on this brain-eating bacteria that resides in -- you guessed it -- freshwater lakes.

What did we just take a swim in? A freshwater lake. Lol you already know where this is headed.

Okay, now that I'm actually trying to type this out, I don't really know how to present this story without spoiling it, but I'm going to try my damnedest, so bear with me.

So, without spoiling it too much, basically what ends up happening is that Marlowe gets really sick, and the friendly neighborhood germ, who's actually a lil toxic sumbetch, falls in love with her.

...

I know, I know, I said the same thing lol. We -- and by we, I mean Marlowe -- got sick, and the brain-eating bacteria that I mentioned earlier has fallen in love with us. But hear me out! It actually gets super interesting from here, so stay with me!

From this point, it's this odd tug-o-war game of survival. We're trying to survive it, and it is essentially trying to survive us from trying to kill it. To it -- this amoeba that named himself Niall and goes by he/him/his pronouns -- Marlowe isn't a host, but a spouse, and it's trying to build this family with her from inside her. For him, her survival means his death, and for Marlowe, it's the literal opposite.

By the way, this is Niall. Our...husband.

Anyways

During this tug-o-war game, Marlowe gets a little feisty with Niall, and Niall literally keeps her in check without physically touching her. Remember, Niall is a literal brain-eating bacteria. He's very real, but he isn't a person like she's hallucinating -- he's a disease. He's a disease that's making her ill, and he makes her symptoms worse whenever he gets pissed at her. Holy. Shit. Now, that's a crazy concept.

In an attempt to not ruin more than I may already have, I'll just say at this point, it's either him or Marlowe. As with a majority of visual novels, how this ends is completely up to the choices you make.

Like always, I'm not gonna lie to y'all. This game was significantly better than what I was initially expecting.

Like I mentioned before, the beginning was just really mundane to me, and I thought it was going to be the same scenario as another game I'm planning on writing a review about, but thankfully, it did not continue in that manner. Now that I've completed the game, it reads more like a "Everything was going great until it wasn't" type of thing, and it wasn't as "boring" as I initially thought. Still boring, but not "I wish this coworker would stop talking to me about this thing I don't care about" boring.

Now, that what I didn't care for is out of the way, let's talk about what I did care for: the concept of the story.

I could go on and on about how absolutely GENIUS I thought the concept of this VN was. Admittedly, if I did that, this review would turn out way longer than I'd want, and it'd seem like rambling. That being said, I'll just say this: By far, out of all the VNs that I've read so far (and admittedly, I'm relatively new to all of this, but hear me out), this has been the most original and the most interesting one as far as the concept that was chosen, not to mention it was executed well.

During this VN, I actually got a "...Okay, this is actually terrifying if you think about it" feeling. Not to mention, the take of "We're the same but different" premise. Like, Marlowe and Niall wanted the same exact thing as far as lifestyle but from different aspects. Hers was more of a life milestone or value that she had, and his was for the sheer aspect of survival. That was what made him cling to her the way that he had. It wasn't even about her looks or from the typical "You were the only person that was ever nice to me" trope, but a "You have the same will to survive like I do". Like damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn! A deadly bacteria falls in love with you because he sees similarities in the two of you and is under the impression that you understand and consent to what he's doing. That is such an insane concept, and damn do I want to talk about it more, but I won't because I'll start rambling it and ruin it.

Overall, I'd recommend giving this game a go! Honestly, to me, it's not the most interesting reading-wise, but if you stick with it for the concept, it's a pretty solid read! Not to mention there's some partial voice acting which is super cool! Be sure to leave your comments on the dev's page if you feel like they're doing a good job, and you want to give them that extra reassurance. Like mentioned at the top, here is the link to the game if you'd like to try it out yourself! I definitely think that you should if you want to experience something different from the norm.

Anyways! That's all from me! Drink water, don't be dumb, and hope to see you around! Until next time~!

Parasite in Love Game Link and Page

[zannolin]

loving the stranger things posting as someone going through a sudden random stranger things phase lol. i have a question: what makes byler an interesting dynamic for you? i'm not a big shipper person personally but i like to hear people's thoughts!

it's so funny i got here because i was suffering from cares too much disease about the karate kid and i needed something to distract me and then um. it did more than distract.

sidenote: coming back to say this got??? so long. so i'm sorry lol. i'm a chronic rambler.

i'll be honest i never actually shipped byler seriously until literally 2 months ago today. i sort of went "haha what if...?" back in 2022 mostly because my friend was into it and i really love mike as a character. oh mike wheeler the character that you are...i've loved him since 2016 lol and i loved him and will as a dynamic since i saw s2. i was so sold on their friendship, and then s3 and s4 were brutal for me to watch as someone who has grown apart from a lot of friends because of similar circumstances (moving, mostly, but also some relationships, and the inherent tragedy of growing up, and the fact that having a shitty family and being 15 can do a lot of damage to your relationships if you're not careful, etc) so like basically i then got More into them because i am obsessed with friendship estrangement plots. and i like both their characters. ("like" is such an understatement even in 2022 i was unhinged about michael wheeler)

frankly they're interesting to me as a ship for all the same reasons as they're interesting to me as a friendship: devotion, knowing someone better than you know yourself, the fear of loss, the fear of change, how easy vs how hard it is to grow up with someone, estrangement, feeling like you're a bad person and self-sabotaging, etc. the funny thing is i didn't even think will was gay or that there WAS (one-sided, anyway) byler until the literal van scene in s4 because i have that little faith in netflix lol, not to mention i used to be a mileven shipper. and then s3 happened which killed my interest in that and then s4 beat the dead horse from here to california. i realized for one thing mike being queer is really interesting to me and opens a lot of room for fun angles on his canonical character with comphet and internalized homophobia, etc, and it works very well with established canon. to me.

i'm honestlyyyy kind of surprised i got into it at all because besides the fact that i'm not a big shipper anymore, i'm RARELY a childhood friends to lovers fan because 1) it's often boring to me, i'm like but why do we need something Other than friendship?? (aro alert) and 2) i personally do not enjoy romance where it's like. you end up with the person you dated in high school? like it's jsut a me thing but i go aaaaaa when it's idk 12 year olds being like "i'm in love" no you're not you're twelve. i literally have DMs of me to my sister watching s4 where i was like michael why are you saying you loved eleven the day you met her, you were twelve and spent the entire season fucking obsessed with finding your best friend and kept dropping her the second she wasn't useful for that, like i love you but you were— what. (regardless of whether or not that bullshit turns out to be, you know, Actually canonically bullshit. that was my reaction lol). um i'm rambling sorry. anyway. they just happened to hit really good beats for me where it could go either way for me (platonic or romantic) and i wouldn't mind and i'm happy with both. but apparently my brain is like What If Romance when it comes to fic for them and i'm being a bit self-indulgent. i want will byers to have nice things and i want mike to not be stuck in the world's worst written relationship ever (to me).

actually the tl;dr is basically everything i like about mike as a character has to do with his plots concerning will, and everything i don't like about what they've been doing with him lately has to do with his relationship with el, so via potentially unintentional gay symbolism, the power of friendship estrangement plots + my love of friendship breakup/makeup scenarios, and my fascination with writing queer loneliness and mutual pining, AND that "good luck, babe" edit, i ended up here.

also finn wolfhard keeps making the most ridiculously intensely tender expressions during byler scenes and i'm a simple creature i see a man with big wet brown eyes and i go oh well mayyybe....

[festive-unserious-fellow]

With Frozen 3 being a Thing that Is Happening, a couple of people(or maybe a lot idk) have started theorizing about what the plot could POSSIBLY be. I, personally, have nothing to offer in that regard. I think pretty much everything got wrapped up nicely in Frozen 2 and they well and truly do NOT need another installment, and also the plot of a 3rd movie in a Disney trilogy is usually WILDLY unpredictable. Aladdin 3 was about finding a golden hand on a magic turtle island with Aladdin's Hot Dad or whatever Karina Drawfee called him, Cinderella 3 was about motherfucking TIME TRAVEL, these things are fuckin wild. No, instead, I'm here to say what I think Frozen 3 SHOULDN'T be about, and that would be Anna getting powers of her own.

Okay, to be fair, I don't think they should introduce ANY human characters with powers in the 3rd movie. It would feel cheap and fan-service-y at best, and make the lore 8 MILLION times more complicated at worst. But, hypothetically speaking, I think I could potentially be okay with them introducing some other human elemental magic user to the story. Unless it's Anna.

Why am I so against the concept of Anna having powers? It would make more sense then if like... Kristoff had them or some shit. She's Elsa's sister, after all! Well, I hate the idea of Anna having powers because it undermines her as a character. The narrative has NEVER, not even ONCE, implied that Anna is any lesser then Elsa because she doesn't have powers. The only moment I can find that comes even remotely close to that is the fuckin... don't run into fire scene in Frozen 2, I guess, but even then that's really, really stretching it. Anna not having powers has never been a source of conflict. She's been put into situations that having powers would probably make somewhat easier, sure, but uh. Most characters end up in situations like that. Cool powers make fighting easier, but just because it would be easier doesn't mean it's the only solution. Anna not having powers doesn't actively make her life more difficult in any capacity.

All that to say, why retroactively give her them, then? They wouldn't add anything to her as a character, and would in fact take away from all the things she's accomplished in the past by making it seem like the Brand New Powers are putting her on equal footing with Elsa, when in reality, as far as the narrative is concerned, they've always been equals. All it would do is take away from the story, distract us from the parts of it that actually matter. Kinda like the Hans plot twist did in the first movie.

So, tl;dr is basically that there really shouldn't be any new elemental magic users in the next movie, but if there ARE then Anna definitely shouldn't be one of them because giving her powers undercuts everything we've seen her accomplish in the last two movies, and retroactively makes it seem like Anna and Elsa were never equals to eachother because Anna wasn't "special" enough.