#( he even says his own name ingame and still )

[eegasleega-will-change-this-l8r]

WELL I WAS PLANNING ON PLAYING CELESTE THIS EVENING BUT INSTEAD I WILL NOW DEVOTE IT ENTIRELY TO INDULGING MY HYPERFIXATION

IT'S FINALLY TIME FOR A PORKY POST

Are Ness and Porky Friends...?

Let's talk about that 😏

First things first, I think this single moment from the beginning of the game is by FAR the most important thing to consider when thinking about how Ness and Porky's relationship is presented to us

Right at the start, when you make your way up to the meteorite, you will encounter the cops and their blockade This also serves as our first introduction to our wonderful neighbor, Porky Minch, who is currently making a nuisance of himself trying to get up to the meteorite, much to the cops' chagrin

One of the cops asks if we could help deal with Porky, and asks this vital question:

What's Ness's answer? Yes!

...or no.

I cannot understate how obsessed with this I am. Ness can't say whether or not Porky is really his friend. This is something he's unable to answer on his own. I really think this is a fantastic way to introduce Porky to the player. If he is Ness's friend... it doesn't seem like he's a very good one.

Now shortly after this, Porky begs for Ness's help in finding Picky. We get a pretty good look at Porky's character here. He's obnoxious, rude, doesn't take responsibility for his actions, and above all is pretty meek and cowardly. Now, I think some people go a little far in interpreting him as "bad" here. Porky's undeniably a jerk even now, but he's still just a kid, and a pretty pathetic one at that. If you look on the Earthbound wiki, you'll see that his age is listed as 14. As far as I'm aware, this only has one source, being Saori Kumi's Earthbound novelization. If you know even the slightest thing about this book, you will understand how ludicrous it is to use this as a source. Porky's age is never specified ingame, but I think his overall presentation implies that he should be the same age as Ness. It's fairly well-known that Ness's age is given as 13 in the American guide, but 12 in Japanese. 12 is also the age given in, again, Saori Kumi's novelization, unfortunately I don't know if this is stated elsewhere. It can also be noted that Shigesato Itoi has actually said he never thought of a specific age for Ness, just that he had his daughter in mind who at this time was in grade 4 or 5. So this gives us a range that could be as old as 13 or as young as 9. Personally, I skew toward 11-12 for how I envision the characters. In any case, Porky's clearly very young, so you really have to keep that in mind when considering... kinda everything about him, actually. But in this instance, it really contextualizes the stuff he says. For example, if you say no to him when he asks for your help, he threatens to "say something that'll cut you like a knife." I think it's silly to take this seriously (i've even heard someone describe it as Porky blackmailing Ness). He's clearly just gonna call Ness some mean name or something. ...Except he doesn't. Say no to him again, and he'll immediately deflate.

Porky is in no way a bully. He's annoying, but he's pretty lousy at being intimidating. Instead, his favorite way of getting what he wants is to appeal to others' sympathy. He's relying on Ness to help him by virtue of being "his bestest friend." Or think of his actions in battle: smiling insincerely, apologizing profusely, pretending to cry. He plays up being a sweet innocent kid whenever he's in trouble.

So, I think the picture we've painted is of a kid who's sort of a jerk, and tricks others to get what he wants. It becomes pretty clear why Ness isn't sure if he can really call Porky his friend.

...But what about Porky's side? Is he really only pretending to like Ness for his own gain, or are his own feelings much more complicated?

First off, just some minor things. While Porky leaves a pretty bad, if not altogether inaccurate first impression, there's a few things in his dialogue that speak to him thinking of Ness as more than just 'that loser who thinks we're friends.'

He promises that he'll tell Ness all about the meteorite in the morning. Probably this'd be in his typically boastful Porky-fashion, but even so, this shows that he wants to share things with Ness.

It's easy to miss because most people playing Earthbound have played A Video Game's before, and also tend not to ignore directions the game is clearly telegraphing, but Porky will actually give you advice if you're not properly prepared.

If you don't grab the Cracked Bat:

You're not taking anything on our big adventure? Why don't you look around for your Cracked bat or something?

Taking the bat but not equipping it:

Sorry about giving you this game-type advice, but you should equip your weapon! Do you know what "equip" means?

Yes:

Okay, that's good. Be sure to pay attention to details like that.

No:

It means "use" or "wear." You must equip items in order to use or wear them. "Equip" is used a lot in games like this, but you already knew that...

Finally, not answering your dad:

The phone is ringing! Answer it! At my house, my dad gets bent if I don't get the phone... within the first three rings!

These aren't anything groundbreaking, but they do show how Porky acts with Ness in casual contexts, plus how the game presents Porky surprisingly neutrally in the beginning, rather than just immediately telegraphing him as the villain. Also, nobody's seen these so hey, some obscure trivia for you.

Finally, Porky's reaction to hearing the prophecy is pretty telling of the kind of character Porky is pre-Giygas. He just talks about how much trouble Ness is in now, how he hopes he doesn't have to come, and how freaked out he is. I think this sums him up pretty well. He's the meek comic-relief friend character. Sniff from Moomin, for example. Or go watch Monster House, because Chowder is literally exactly Porky.

But none of that is super juicy. Let's dive into something juicy. This little bit murdered my brother when we got to it in our playthrough.

A quick detour to Magicant...

Ness... I envy you. You have all the luck. I have no luck. Ness... well, okay... Let's be friends forever, alright?

still hurts

Yeah so first off, I think this totally clears up Ness's feelings towards Porky. He can't say if they're really friends... But he WANTS them to be.

This is Ness's vision of Porky, the Porky he used to know before Giygas corrupted him, and the one he wishes was still around.

But even if this is just a manifestation of Ness's consciousness, I think it also gives us a look into Porky's inner self. This is what Ness sees in Porky, the confession that Porky is too insecure to say out loud. He hides it behind all his boasting and rudeness, but he really, really wants to keep his friendship with Ness.

Well.

If only.

Let's get to MOTHER 3.

This game gives us SO much more of Porky's character, and it's all sooooo deep. I cannot understate how much I hate seeing Porky reduced to 'that Eric Cartman kid who is an absolutely irredeemable suchnsuch.' King P is the culmination of a lot of aspects of Porky's character arc (you think this post is long, it's only the first of many more...), but one of the most prominent aspects is his unbelievably, painful, PATHETIC loneliness. This kid... man... is so desperate for a friend after he left the only person who ever wanted to connect with him that he literally brainwashes a whole city's worth of people into loving him.

And of course that's not enough, because all he wants is his next-door neighbor, his good buddy, his bestest friend Ness.

In closing, are Ness and Porky friends? It's complicated. Both clearly, desperately want to be. They have a history, they know each other intimately, by Itoi's own words they literally grew up playing together. But, for a number of reasons (that I've thought all too much about...), Porky just can't help but make it difficult. I'd sum it up by listening to the song that plays during Earthbound's cast credits. In the end, there are good friends, and...

[bandtrees]

AAHHHH!!! AAHHHHHHHH DIALTOWN AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay i've had a night to sit on the evil route and put my thoughts together and holy shit dude. ALL OF IT- all of it was so good but i'm obviously (being the callum and gingi guy) going to focus on the callum and gingi stuff. spoilers ahead if you have not done the evil route gooo do it!!!!

i think looking at the worst end of the evil route is best to view through the lens of "the literal opposite of ch3" and also "knowing who milt and marla and all of them are" because - for starters - i think the approach dogman has taken, out of universe, is genius. i know milt and marla aren't ingame mostly for writing constraint reasons, but the specifics of their lives (milt's especially, being basically erased from history) not being something you ever get is really really good because history just... does not remember them!

milt committed suicide but according to dogman that's not even public knowledge, as far as anyone in-universe knows he just disappeared and all of the turmoil that took place is kind of lost to time. and i think knowledge of his name, much less what happened to him, being something you have to dig through paratext and get an easter egg of a fuckin tie-in web quiz to learn, is... probably the experience you'd more or less have in-universe. he's someone you only really know if you're really into the subject.

and to be honest i dont think i would have it any other way, because what the dlc does to you if you're one of those who know is MADDENING. it's everywhere. the hat motif. i have very strong feelings on evil route peter essentially having the exact role marla must have - the conversations gingi has with the narrator, with roger, is soooooo gooooood. it's a subtle background puzzle you get to piece together that (i reckon) also would hit hard for any player who doesn't Know(tm).

(and that also segues into a general feeling i have about the dlc, being that i am not a dsaf guy at all, i was into dialtown first and i have no interest in dsaf i'm sure its great but just not something i think i'll ever look into: for a bit before this dlc i was worried if it would be enjoyable as someone who's not into dsaf or has context for any cameo characters or references - but it was and is :D the characters all exist perfectly in dialtown and the references that exist still have merit on their own and are funny/etc on their own even without whatever added context im sure dsaf gives. which is good and i love it.)

all of that to say, i really really love what this dlc did for so many characters, but especially gingi and callum (and the narrator!) - i love how, as seems to be callum's destiny with maladjusted people, gingi only sees him as an incomplete and biased ideal to strive for. we simultaneously get so much weight and nuance to callum through seeing gingi go down a similar path, but also get so little of it because the only thing gingi cares about wrt callum is him being the "greatest salesman ever" and completely discarding the parts of him that made him anything but an industrial supervillain.

i think it wouldv been easy for it to just be "phonegingi is basically becoming (the worst parts of) callum and so, when they're working with mingus, finds some degree of kinship in the pictures etc of him" but the fact they're completely dismissive of mingus and her family history in every way, demanding the pictures of him be taken down, making a jab at him being "forgetful", staining and ruining them, etc, is even MORE telling of what they've become. much like callum was, they've found success and don't really think about how they got there or who helped them get there!

(see: mingus having marla's hat, which gingi takes from her when they execute her - you could say that hat symbolizes the genuine good that callum did despite his mixed legacy, and the love that he had for his wife and those closest to him: and that's something gingi is completely ignoring in favor of having it be another symbol of their (and callum's) power :D)

also the space ending. You're telling me gingi became wildly successful and then in an act of innovation-induced hubris, locked themself in an inescapable box, alone? Good god man. callum is INESCAPABLE in this route its so fucking good. elements of him and what happened to him and the path he went down are everywhere - even in other routes, there's roger's amnesia, there's gingi making other people suffer for their mistakes: it's so horrifying when you realize what's happening but in retrospect the signs were always there. roger's plant is literally crown mechanics. no wonder that man's juices are all over the goddamn place!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also gingi getting a cat tail in the bad ends is genius. 10/10 design choice. really good dlc. this is not a coherent ramble but i'm hopped up on being insane about what iv witnessed this weekend and also we have like no food in the house rn. we dont even have fucking milk iv had to make pb&js with this strangely tasting strangely textured squeeze bottle jelly and not even have milk with it. roger is the only thing keeping me stable

and roger himself is like... god, i dont even know what to say about him really? i adore him so much. he's a brilliantly written character. it's to the point where i cant even like analyze anything i just kind of have to point at him really hard and hope you understand. i related to him a lot as i'm sure a lot of people did. inexperience and "stupidity" and forgetfulness are traits that often get flattened into either completely sympathetic non-flaws or completely unlikable annoyances and i think how the dlc touched upon those traits of roger's - funnily a lot of the time, yet very respectfully and sympathetically when the time came for it, while never letting you forget the genuine harm it was causing to the people around him - was reaaaaally good. you love roger but you understand why others might not - but even then, like the rest of his workers, you still care about him first and foremost, not what he can accomplish.

and i think that duality being present in the good/evil routes is really good: roger's good ending is one where he flubs the presentation and hands the reins over to someone he trusts more to fix up the place, and he acknowledges his workers love him as a friend more than they do a leader. and the evil ending is the one where he has a wildly successful, energetic presentation that people love, and he's getting praise and is saving the plant and everyone's so excited, because not only is he promoting an underhanded shitty scam, but it's not him. he IS, like gingi, becoming a HORRIBLE version of himself: the point where good intentions or even ignorance begin to matter less and less in the face of actual harm being done. again, much like callum!!!!!

i also love peter. oh my god peter. in his marla crown era

i 100% had more to say but i'm beginning to lose it. oh yeah THE FUCKING INSULIN SCAM IS CRUEL. that part had me with my hand over my mouth and my eyes just agape at how fucking grim it was. the reveal that peter's wife is also diabetic makes it go from "pretty fucked up!" to "actively devastating". truly gingi at their worst. both it and the blowout argument they have with the narrator afterwards are done excellently. taking advantage of peter's tendency to worry about roger, roger's not wanting to upset peter, peter's fucking diabetic wife, is so so cruel and i love it. really really gets into the weight of what you're doing and how fucked up scams are, we are out of the realm of silly jokes about crypto and in the realm of ruining peoples' lives. it's so good.

anyway. really good dlc. i will surely have so much more to say and create about it. it maddens me that it's only five dollars because i dont think i will ever be the same again after that to be quite honest with you!!!! literally my only gripe is the way it's kind of carried on dialtown's general problem with its non-main female characters but that's something people have talked about more and articulated better than me.

good dlc. really good dlc. cough up the five dollars because it is truly worth so much more i havent even been able to touch upon here. and if you havent played dialtown cough up the eight dollars and then cough up the five dollars. its real good.

[dwarf-hat-enjoyer]

🌼Favorite Flowers🌼 (Bachelors' V.)

synopsis: Favorite flowers of all six Stardew bachelors! No farmer mentioned, headcanons. SFW.

w.c.: 1.2k words!

content warnings: None!

A.N.: shoutout to @jellyaris for inspo on the Shane section! Hope everyone enjoys these little snippety snippets...Suuure, some of these headcanons kind of diverge from canon (yeah, yeah. Alex is neutral to dandelions ingame. Sue me, LOL.) But who cares, it's Tumblr! Might make a bachelorettes' version too.

Alex

He's a simple man with simple tastes. DANDELIONS suit him well! He has fond memories of picking dandelions with his mother and blowing the seeds away, and even vaguely remembers how to make flower chains out of them. Of course, he could never get them as neat as hers, but Granny Evelyn still asks for his help when making crowns for the Flower Dance. Apart of him wonders why they have to use nicer-looking flowers for the formal crowns when dandelions work just fine. They're sturdy yet flexible- not nearly as fragile as the more 'beautiful' flowers, and as an athlete, he can admire that about them.

On a deeper level, there are many similarities to be found between Alex and his favorite flower. First impressions can be deceiving- just like most people think of dandelions as pests, Alex can come on a bit strong and even arrogant. But looking beneath the surface, they both share the same physical and mental will to push forward and survive in even the most difficult circumstances. They both go through drastic changes as well. Just as the bright and spiky bloom of a dandelion becomes softer and more delicate, Alex's spirit softens too. His own changes, though, won't float away on the wind anytime soon :P

Elliott

As obvious as it would be to say red roses, SNAPDRAGONS would be his favorites instead! As much as he is a romantic, he's just as much a daydreamer, and snapdragons would provide his imagination with ample opportunity to run wild, both with their fantastical name and lush, delicate appearance. They remind him of adventures in far-off lands, harkening reveries of ancient castles filled with wondrous secrets and the brave heroes set out to uncover them. He's a homebody at heart, but nothing is stopping him from holing up in his cabin and writing about any of it! (Or, well, fantasizing about writing about it, in most cases. <3)

But just as established, he's a romantic. Elliott is definitely well-versed in the language of flowers, and the meaning behind snapdragons in particular hardly eludes him. They symbolize grace, earnestness and strength under pressure, but are also known to represent something less than well-intentioned. Emulating the former qualities is something Elliott has done effortlessly, but in a way, the last one entices him the most. To create something beautiful, strong and mysterious; something that draws one in and sparks love and fear and longing for an endless more- isn't that what every writer wants? What every writer dreams of?

Harvey

A little like Elliott in this regard, Harvey is the sentimental type. FORGET-ME-NOTS hold a special place in his heart. It's a simple flower in appearance with an almost childlike name, but he likes them just the same. Maybe it's because of those traits that he does- they remind him of the carefree days he's missed out on, since moving to the valley. On top of his doctoral duties, he's a very lonely person overall. Forget-Me-Nots, with their hopeful pale blue, almost cheer him up to see on days where he feels less like a member of the community and more like a robot with a stethoscope and scrubs.

It's also their name that connects with him in a way...Forget-Me-Not. On top of the way they look, they cheer him up with that name. On the rare instance that the flower comes up in conversation, he jokes that the person who named it must've had terrible memory, as cheesy as it sounds. But all jokes aside, it's comforting to him that a flower otherwise unremarkable would have a name that insists to the listening ear that it shouldn't be forgotten. Almost inspiring, even. It makes him feel as if one day, he won't be another face-in-the-crowd. Somebody important, though to whom in particular...? Well, time will tell!

Sam

For Sam, it's DAISIES all the way! He constantly flip-flops between spring and summer as his favorite seasons, but daisies give him the best of both worlds. Seeing them dotting the fields in the warmer months always brings a smile to his face. Whether or not he's close with him, Sam definitely got Alex to teach him how to make flower chains one late spring...Of course, Alex may or may not have been mildly jealous of how easily Sam picked up on the skill, but when spending time together outside, Sam's restless hands sometimes find themselves picking daisies from the grass while Abigail and Sebastian chat and bicker and making the both of them bracelets!

When he still lived in the city with his mother, father and a much younger Vincent, he'd sometimes see them poking out of cracks in the sidewalk. While they weren't as common as dandelions, they still always caught his attention. While Jodi chatted aimlessly with her fellow PTA moms outside one of the countless Zuzu City JojaMarts, he'd busy himself, plucking daisies and dandelions from whatever nooks and crannies he could find and playing with them however he wanted. Back then, he didn't think much of it, but he looks at those times with almost a fond nostalgia. Things changed, but that doesn't mean it all has to be sad, right?

Sebastian

He doesn't think about this sort of thing very often, being the lovable terminally-online dork that he is. But if you ask, Sebastian's favorite flower would have to be BLACK TULIPS. It's not a very deep answer, really. Sure, tulips are more of a spring flower, but he finds the pitch purple color to be one of the more interesting colors that plants can have. They stick out among the cheerier colors that most other breeds of tulips display- the goths of their genus, if you will, and that's small part of why he likes them!

He entertained the idea of gardening, at one point, even prior to the farmer's arrival. Though he plans to move out eventually, he thought it would be a good way to get outside and get some exercise, though it wasn't ever really anything he thought to commit to. Though, he does chat with Evelyn on occasion- their shared affinity for tulips and his occasional fantasy of maintaining a small garden has ended up providing a lot more conversation than he's used to, or even expected! Even if most people see him as an asocial shut-in, it's comforting for him to recognize his softer side.

Shane

Look at him. All gruff and mean. His favorite flower is probably a thistle of some sort, or something poisonous. All things considered, his favorite flowers are FAIRY ROSES. Don't give him that look- it's just because Jas likes them so much! Seeing the way she lights up when she sees them is contagious for this gold-hearted curmudgeon. She'd spent two entire weeks planning out a one-woman recital for him and Marnie once, and when he handed her a little JojaMart bouquet of them afterwards...Well, the look on her face made the price tag worth it. Although, her excited squeal did leave his ears ringing for the rest of the evening.

The flowers are native to the valley, too...Sometimes, he feels as if he doesn't belong. Why would he? It's not as if he was born there or has any particularly close friends. If Pelican Town was a garden, he'd just be a weed. But Jas seems to have taken like a duck to water, although she's still shy as ever. Shane can be self-defeating and pessimistic at times, but he's not made of stone. He's grateful that she's in a place where she can flourish, just like the fairy roses she adores so much.

~FIN~

[carlyraejepsans]

What's your interpretaion of Chara? I mean the one that we see at the end of the genocide run. Because I've seen some people now say that the one we see at the end of that route might be an entirely different species (as an actual demon) and I kind of want to hear your opinion on that

oh they're just human, but most importantly I'm of the very strong opinion that, fandom aside, you can't fully separate yourself from chara. they're the watsonian quantification of our role and influence within the game. undertale as a metanarrative lives in this precarious balance between worldbuilding that stands on its own, and its nature as a videogame, thus it being created to Be Played By Us. it makes some aspects of its world kinda wobbly. take the LOVE/EXP mechanic, for example. there's not really a reason why LV 20 should be the maximum LV you can reach, after all, there's still plenty more people we haven't killed. that is to say, no reason other than establishing when the genocide run is fully locked in. and the moment you try to apply that mechanic objectively to the rest of its world and its characters, it begins to flake apart. but i think chara is the most effective use of this kind of metanarrative in undertale.

there's this really weird moment at the end of the mother games where the game breaks the 4th wall and calls to the player directly. the games gather OUR name (and i mean our ours, the person playing the game at the moment) in... well, very silly ways. like a friend of one of the main characters calling for help on his school research about player names. it's not so much integrated into the plot, as a way to create a touching moment of connection directly between player and player characters (we pray for the safety of ness and his friends. lucas thanks us and says he's so happy to meet us in the endgame) that is not extended anywhere else in the game.

i didn't have the vocabulary for it before playing these games myself, but now i'm pretty much convinced that the fallen human/"chara" in UNDERTALE was a direct response to those moments in earthbound and mother 3. I don't need to recount those moments in the game where it becomes obvious that the intended way to name the fallen human is giving them your own name or nickname, but even if you don't do that, by the end of the game, you're meant to think of frisk as "chara" and "chara" as "your character". that's where the main plot twist of the story jumps off from.

and well... that IS what they are. "your character". the true character, in fact. so instead of the game breaking the 4th wall and calling to YOU, player, across the screen in a way that is alien and separate from the story, the game calls to YOU, THROUGH chara. through your character. remaining within the confines of its story and characters.

chara isn't us, WE are chara, and chara is the spirit of the first fallen human who died and was reawakened when frisk fell in the underground. when we play the game, we play AS "chara" controlling/guiding frisk through the underground (not gonna get into the chara/frisk dynamic here, that's a WHOLE 'nother can of worms).

however, there is an exception. because you see, although chara is meant to represent our actions ingame, we... aren't chara after all. we are real people playing a videogame. and because undertale is such a heavily meta game, it does, indeed, go there. acknowledging us as a separate entity, outside of this world, and more powerful than anything it has ever seen, and the way the game does that is through the genocide run.

it's not a coincidence that LOVEing up as a mechanic results in you "distancing yourself", as per sans' speech pre-judgement. if chara represents us in-game, then genocide is nothing but us pushing that link connecting us to its breaking point. because chara is who we are in the game, killing people is making THEM stronger (we can't get stronger ourselves, we're not fictional characters), but because EXP and LV make you distance from yourself, we are also making them independent. severing them from us and our will. it's kind of a negative parallel to our journey in pacifist, where chara is established as "not frisk" once and for all and THEY get to go on living their own life. hopefully. sorta.

so... yeah! chara is our true character in undertale and, aside from the genocide run, which tears the two of us apart, we have almost no reason to treat them as separate. and yes, that includes the violent acts. i am a narrachara/non-evil plotting mastermind chara believer through and true, but posing them as some hapless victim in our hands is... I'm sorry I can't take it seriously. it was a necessary overcorrection with the way they used to be treated by fanon back in the day, but it is an overcorrection nonetheless. YES, they might kill people. yes they might do that to their former family/friends, for very much the same reason asriel, as flowey, did. they were not the most adjusted person to begin with, but more importantly than that, the SOUL we see in undertale isn't theirs, it's FRISK'S. flowey says as much. when we defeat his omega form, the 6 SOULs disappear. when asriel died, the monsters started at 0 human SOULs, not 1 (ie: chara). chara is as soulless as asriel was when he was rein-cornaceaeted (lol) as flowey, with their ability to feel love and compassion stunted.

and with the added context of the SAVE powers removing consequences to their actions, and the repetitive nature of the game becoming tiring, well... we know what THAT did to flowey, right?

[chowmoon2]

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror is a pretty interesting game especially for a mainline title

It contains some cool characters that originate from that game such as Big Waddle Dee,Moley,Dark Meta Knight and Capcom’s Nightmare -

What the fuck are you Dark Mind? I’m sick of it

There is two things that really intrigues me with this series,thing number one:

Fuck you Dark Mind!

(A small essay/analysis/theory(?) about a very mysterious villian in the Kirby series,under the cut!)

Okay,I think Dark Mind is the most Nothing Burger mainline Kirby villian ever,if not in the entire series

Almost nothing is known about him ingame besides “He is evil and wants to take over the Mirror World”

And yeah,he is referenced by Void Termina in one of their attacks which might mean something but like,almost every boss is so he is not special

I will argue that Nightmare and Dark Nebula (two similar final bosses with little to no info on them) are more talked about,the former because of the anime (without it,he won’t really be that popular me thinks) and the latter because ‘Lord of the Underworld’ title (despite being a localization thing) and his possible connection to the Sparkling Star among other reasons

Not saying nobody cares for him at all,he just have less attention then all of the other mainline villians because the lack of depth and info he has compare to the others

Now,a theory that I have seen thrown around is that Dark Mind is the Mirror World counterpart of either Nightmare or Zero.or even a combination of both counterparts,and yeah,I can see it especially since he have aspects of both of them

However

As shown in this official tweet by the Kirby Twitter account,it heavily implies that Magolor doesn’t have a mirror counterpart because nothing is shown while looking at the dimensional mirror

This tells me that not everyone has a Mirror World self and if Magolor doesn’t have one,I seriously doubt both Nightmare and Zero would have one as well

I still do think that Dark Mind is atleast somewhat connected to Dark Matter,even if it’s just the substance and not the actual species (if that makes sense)

His name brings the phrase “Mind over Matter” to mind (heh,mind) which means this:

So my epic game theory is that maybe he is like,a advanced version of Dark Matter that gained perception or something???? I think that would be cool

Or maybe he is just his own thing exclusive to the Mirror World,since some Mirror Worlders (like Dark Meta Knight) reflects the darkness their Popstar counterpart,maybe Dark Mind was formed by the leftover darkness from the hearts of many? That may be true but it is still very vague compare to other bosses lore

There is the possibility that he corrupted Queen Sectonia because of the whole mirror thing,it’s way more likely then DMK doing it,that’s for sure

Oh,let’s now talk about something that is also l related to Dark Mind,sorta!

This is King D-Mind from the Team Kirby Clash Deluxe,a king of darkness who is summoned through the Black Mirror by Dark Taranza but he proceeded to shatter the dumb spider

After clashing with Team Kirby,they managed to trap him back the mirror and shatter it,saving the Dream Kingdom

He also had a role in Super Kirby Clash but idgaf

In a interview about Kirby Clash,which can be found here:

I found some interesting stuff like with Taranza using the Black Mirror so much that the balance of worlds breaks and lots of Parallel versions are born alongside Taranza’s dark counterpart

And King D-Mind being born from Dark Taranza’s evil mind who he considers to be the most strongest and savage warrior

Let’s take a look at the Black Mirror itself actually,it bears a striking resemblance to Dark Mind himself,perhaps it was created with him in mind or his origin place because remember,even before Dark Taranza summoned him,King D-Mind was manipulating regular Taranza through this mirror to summon rampaging monsters

Of course,the Kirby Clash games take place in a alternate universe but I always saw the Mirror World as can be visited/connected to all these universes as long if they have a variant of the Dimensional Mirror

Oh,and also it’s probably not important but his internal file name is “MaskedBlackDedede” Black Dedede being Shadow Dedede name In Japanese,but there is not enough evidence (if at all) to suggest Shadoe Dedede and D-Mind are the same

In fact,this might not even BE the same Dark Mind from the Amazing Mirror

So like,can multiple D-Minds exist as long as if people has evil minds? What’s up with the skull mask and flaming eyeballs? Did Dark Taranza considered both Shadow Dedede and Dark Mind as extremely savage it created King D-Mind?

Who knows?

So in conclusion,idk,maybe Dark Mind isn’t meant to be that deep,he was just a villian that needed to be overcomed and that’s it

Either way,I enjoyed rambling about him,let me know if yo I want to see more of these kinds of post from me and let me know what are your interpretations of Dark Mind!

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 27-30 author notes

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

I make these notes as I work on an episode, however, people have been so attentive and observant with their comments that I started a tag fragments feedback where we dive even deeper into themes and interactions in the comic. These comments are a blessing, often pointing out things that my own brain doesn't register.

Obligatory ShB spoiler warning.

Episode 27 begins with a chat about the original weapons that are merely a stylish-looking convenience for them ic and for me ooc, so that I don't have to draw them lugging their weapons around.

Essentia's just a name for Vivi's spear, not like the whole concept. I introduced it around the beginning of the ShB arc. Alisaie's weapons have no name yet, there's a possibility to do something cute referring to twins.. I shall think of it :3c

Look at this child being all smug for having been able to help recreating something previously thought unique, and, um, flirting.. In her own way.....

Vivi be like, sigh, "ah, back on her bs already... Better indulge her while she's still in a nice mood".

Alisaie's left arm's stronger than both Vivi's. As a dragoon he doesn't only use magic to amplify his jumps, if it works on legs, why not extend it to arms as well? Not unlike what monks do, minus the actual physical training. Basically he cheats with magic in real fights. A casual friendly duel isn't worth expending aether, so he only relies on his actual strength :'>

He also can't do friendly duels because his Echo only telegraphs hostile attacks. A friend would stop before his blade cuts him, so Vivi's kinda blind, only relying on his own average skill. A legendary hero that's no fun to spar with if you're remotely competent.

..Which has no negative effect on Exarch's fanboyism.

Several people said they look forward to said sparring session, and I felt like I failed them because I had no plans to follow through with this. Then I thought some more.. Do we mean every little thing we say or think? Sometimes it's just distracted nonsense. If every action and word were hooks/setups for the story, it'd feel artificial. This's just my opinion, but some scenes have to have idle chatter and musings for realism.

Vivi and Alphi look like door-to-door salesmen, yet the Chais are buying multiples of whatever they sell.

This's a looooooongg post, under the cut we go~

A random thing that thematically belongs here, but didn't make it in the comic: Vivi ended up being more freaked out by Eulmore than Amh Araeng.

Feo "privacy breach" Ul :> They greet each other so casually that it's clear, this's far from being the first time.

One of my personal fav panels so far. People loved the "crystal mystel" so much but I can't take credit for that! My brain's full of soup that's a mix of everything canon and my own generous additions, but I THINK one of the pixies calls him that ingame, sometime post 5.0.

You probably didn't know that you needed more Exarch and Feo Ul interactions till now, I've got you covered. Their scenes will take time to trickle in, but they EXIST and go back as far as their first meeting.

Exactly what happened.

One more episode where Vivi doesn't utter a word, but it doesn't feel like that.

Tank!Exarch fanclub, +1 member. Vivi's pleasantly surprised by the sudden shift in Exarch's demeanor. He genuinely admires him here. "Lead me anywhere daddy".

Ready for a guild wars 1 (one!) joke? No? I'm making it anyway. Lyna casts gaze of contempt (effect: removes enchantments on target foe)

She's such a good daughter with great intuition. She feels uneasy about this way before Vivi feels anything at all. He just looks. Perceives. He has eyes, dammit! And Exarch has those stupid sexy sandals and shiny crystal arm and stylish flowy robes and he's generally kinda cool? It's official, it has begun: Vivi's attracted to Exarch here.

Zooming in super close to bring your attention to his thigh gap <w<

A closeup for the hell of it C: His eyes have a natural faint glow that's just there, it doesn't mean anything, like, genuinely.

Vivi tries to appease Lyna. He has no idea why she keeps glaring at him, probably still not trusting a stranger. He uses his charm as a casual manipulation. Unfortunately, Lyna falls for it. For now.

As per msq, Exarch's kneeling, not collapsing (although that would've been just as fitting tbh). While still not trusting him too much, Vivi slowly begins to respect a reputable ruler and a skilled fighter, and WHY IS HE KNEELING MY LORD GET UP?! Vivi hates being treated like some sort of a messiah. That pushes him further inside the box of being a mythical figure, and denies his humanity.

Normal colors and lighting!! For one episode....

The scene on the left isn't meant to feel cozy and inviting, while the right one is. Sickly, cold, washed out colors vs darker and warmer ones. I'm putting a lot of thought into this, just wanted to celebrate it a lil C:

Episodes 28-29 show Vivi and Exarch's ways of handling unexpected personal hostility. Vivi casually whips out a V and a silly grin, while Exarch.....

He tried, okay?!

A thing on their positioning in this scene that I didn't plan consciously, it just happened: Exarch's framed by the Crystarium, appearing more aligned with it, while the elf pile's surrounded by an idyllic natural frame. Something something about the greenery meaning life, and Exarch looking a bit out of place here.

This's our first, but not last encounter of an imagination theater :>

The dragons are goofy on purpose. Well, sort of. I can count on one hand the amount of times I drew non-humanoid creatures, and the tone here doesn't demand anything super serious from me. Also it makes sense in-character, Exarch probably never saw a dragon up close.

Take a good look at this lil shit. I indulged in illustrating his badass moment before pointing the "camera" away for a while. We're heading into the Il Mheg arc that lasts for months and has no cats ;w;

Vivi's iconic Protagonist Grin >:D

Also, Ryne. Just to keep your expectations grounded: while I personally like her, she has no relevance in this story, and very little screentime. I'm currently having Eden raid brainworms, might write a scene or two related to that, but we're talking many years into the future. Until then, she doesn't do much.

ShB cast's diverse and extremely fun to explore, but if I went on tangents the comic would literally never progress. Gotta be honest, I'm already terrified that some readers might drift away before reaching the wolgraha part of this wolgraha comic. I don't wanna rush OR dilute the main plot too much, if that makes sense. Also, just like in real life, you probably don't form perfect connections with every member of your social circle, some people grow closer than others. Vivi has next to no connection to Minfilia/Ryne, he also stays away from little girls after one of those ended up becoming his lifelong problem *snorts and points at Alisaie*

Desires, and feasting on them? A dungeon meshi nod? More likely than you think.

Feo Ul, sprawled out on his chest like that, visually resembles a burning heart.

Emet antithesis :3c

Imagine loving your pet so much that you let him do this. Feo Ul isn't moved by the physical act AND the joking accusation.

While seemingly slacking for a dozen episodes, Vivi formed bonds with Feo Ul and Ardbert, and thus secured the future of the two stars. Now he has friends that aren't his coworkers first and foremost, that he genuinely wants to fight for. This's what makes him tick as a hero: a quiet plea of a friend, not even asking him directly, a stark contrast to being dragged around and cried at for help. If Vivi's introduction to an entity (person/group of people) is "they suffer, they need help", he shrugs it off. Everyone suffers and needs help, he can't split into thousands of vivis to please them all.

He's only truly motivated to help, or empathizes with those who he gets to know through other means. Take Ardbert, his strange behavior on the Source, then reintroduction that's confusion and companionable snark, but not wailing for help. And Feo Ul, they hang out with him just because, they're safe.

He may not run off to fight the local Lightwarden this instant, but when he gets around to it, he's earnest for a change.

This's all I have for now, thanks for reading!!

[zeondraws]

Random thoughts so I don't forget them while researching

Note to myself, make a list of where I can find multiple occasions of dead crew members reappearing inside the shape

keep hearing the term absorbed but I have a hard time understanding how they'd do that

My assumption is the moment they transform the form they take on, is the way they look like from then on.

If Raffs is stuck in the bell, how come I find his head reappear in multiple areas according to the game file maps. He's stuck on Roper too.

The area Addair stays in before his first reveal in Engineering has a strange amount of copies of his body inside the shape. I have to check if they're labelled with his name. Roper probably didn't see infected Addair? Why is there a part of Addair on Roper? Same with Alex, but I need to compare ingame and gamefile stuff side by side next time. I don't know WHERE Alex died. His body appears multiple times.

Does this somewhat say when everyone got infected or is this random. The mobile infected don't change forms. However immobile infected like Ken can burst out, this can't be seen by the player normally. But I think the shape bursted out of him when Caz wanted to go to the lifeboats.

How Roper transformed is a mystery for me, either the shape got him through the roof of marine control. Or he got covered in it too and transformed at a later moment. Which means the shape maybe used him as an anchor point to grow through? I need to research all of this and actually make proper keynotes to it all. Otherwise I will always forget

Trots is obvious for me, the shape bursted through the pipes in the bathroom which caught him. Making him transform. In said bathroom are remains of another person, but only one of the legs is from Trots, the remaining parts are not labelled with a name. Didn't somebody else have Trots leg attached? I need to recheck..

Gibbo appears multiple times in different levels, someone thought that's how he'd look like and whatever is talking to you in the water tanks is a copy of some sorts. But I don't believe that theory. Game is inspired by the thing but the shape seems to operate differently.

My head breaks about the whole absorb thing, the dead crew members that Gibbo and Muir killed don't transform. However there is one crewmember in the Muir level somewhat grown into the shape, I need to check what's below him, did the shape come out of engineering and grab him through the ground? I don't think I see him anymore in the late game. Did he morph into spherical balls at the end? There is a different body near this location- before said body gets replaced with dead Muir

Is it only possible for immobile infected to absorb? I don't know if eating or mauling crew members like Rennick and Trots count as absorbing? Or does it?

I should align the rig maps together in some way

Trots doesn't seem to change appearance even after mauling multiple of his crewmates in the Cabin Floor. Roy seems completely unaffected by everything aside from the insulin problem. I get the slight feeling the shape doesn't want to get to Roy in some way.

People think the infected crewmembers aren't aware of things (or not fully). Maybe it's true to some extent but judging deleted files and the way some of them speak, they're probably still very aware. Emotions drastically influenced by the shape. Hearing, smelling and feeling pain is drastically increased.

Maybe they communicate to each other with howls or through minds, but dunno. Caz only sees his own memories. Didn't one soundfile really indicate him being more infected than suggested. His voice weirdly distorted, or maybe I have to listen to it again. Tho it makes sense what Finlay said before she died, Caz would've transformed at some point sooner or later, I think. The amount of times he was submerged in the substance would suggest it, Same with Gibbo who got it on him.

Puppet Choir files is where Caz wonders if they're talking to each other, but he might refer to the howling.

Yeah no I definitely need to learn how to do bullet points or make some sketches to connect everything together. I have noticed how overwhelmed I get with the info I discovered, but putting 2 and 2 together is difficult

Did Addair knew something before he fell down to the ocean, if Caz talked to the shape in a deleted scene about the drill. Was Addair trying to stop Caz from doing something incorrectly (flare stack). Or maybe there is no big meaning and Addair doesn't feel like stuff being messed with

He probably hid in processing quad to escape the rising water levels in engineering. Gibbo must've died down there, poor bastard.

These are all just loose thoughts so only take it with a grain of salt... I struggle putting my thoughts out because I usually think I say half of it incorrectly. I dunno, I need more research probably. And write it down in some word file

okay I go do some art now...and play the game AGAIN-

[afniel]

I'm into editing (still 2 chapters to write but we're not talking about that yet) and I'm proud to say that I have divested myself of the old habit of starting sentences with the word 'and.'

Unfortunately! I have picked up using 'quite' all the damn time for no reason, and I'll still comma splice a motherfucker to death, especially in dialogue. So there's that. It's at least easier to wrangle than literally 500+ superfluous uses of 'and,' which is what stopped me eventually from editing my old original novella from like, 2007. It was too much to deal with. I just had to stop.

But like. It's still definitely A Thing that I've got to get under control before I even consider posting. Sigh.

For the most part, though? I'm really enjoying the re-reading part of editing. It's actually pretty solid. I think there's some sticky-uppy pacing edges, but it's not as much the actual pacing and more that I just need to sell some events/reactions a little harder. So that's cool. I'm excited as hell and very hopeful that I'll have it out in maybe a week or so.

And honestly I'm trying to make it interesting sci-fi on its own merits. (I'm allowing myself that one initial 'and,' nobody @ me.) I think it'll still potentially be interesting even if you haven't played the games. There's so much personal worldbuilding, exploration of things that the games never get into at all, and alternate canon that I could almost file the serial numbers off, but I don't feel the need. So if you keep thinking it sounds interesting but eeeeh you aren't into Mega Man X...I dunno, give it a shot anyway?

I put a lot of work into turning it into something that's almost standalone in characterization (the only truly onscreen canon character is X himself and he gets fully characterized in the story outside of his ingame history anyway) and definitely standalone in themes, knowing that I've got friends who expressed interest but haven't played any of the games. So hopefully it'll be cool even if you don't go here at all. If you do go here, there are a few name drops that will help certain events hit a little harder, but it's not at all necessary. Think of it more like Easter eggs. There's enough essential information throughout that you should be able to put it together without any background, and I even resisted just infodumping at random, because that's not usually fun in a story.

ANYWAY. SOON. PLEASE LOOK FORWARD TO IT.

Also I'm doing character art and illustrating some of my more favorite moments. Like you do, when you're a weirdo polymath who can do both. So that's fun too.

[chameleonspell]

HTDC commentary - 5: slide & 6: trap

[Looking back at HTDC after nearly ten years: comments on lore, character notes, influences, art, whatever. May contain spoilers for later chapters.]

chapter text: 5: slide & 6: trap

I should have made these one chapter, really, but I was enjoying the punchy brevity of these scenes, and making each one try to express one main idea, from which I derived the chapter-title word. I wrote to a friend at the time: "bonus points if the word applies to one thing explicitly and one or more others metaphorically, but I only manage that when the special writing fairies are listening". I had a whole list of words I definitely wanted to use, and at once point, I toyed with the idea of having them create some overall secret message or code, like the 36 Lessons. I did not do this, but you are welcome to use them as a fridge-poetry set to create secret messages (or emo poetry) of your own.

Iriel has reintroduced himself to civilisation... well. Urbanisation, at least. He was probably better off in the swamp.

Iriel on his way into Vivec.

“I TOLD you already, you filthy n'wah! I don’t have any more, and I’m not going to get any! It was a one-off, do you hear?

The whole scene in the No Name Club was more reheated gameplay - the barkeeper is one of the only people in Vivec who sells moon sugar, but he doesn't restock it, so once it's gone, it's gone. I made up a plausible narrative justification for this. I did not attempt to reproduce or justify the fact that he, like all non-Khajiit shopkeepers in Morrowind, will refuse to talk to you while carrying moon sugar, even if you just bought it off him! Constantly having to drop your stash at your feet in shops, then forget to pick it up after your transaction and have to scurry, cursing, throughout the canton, retracing your steps until you found where you left it - a complication of the Morrowind drug addict's life that I spared Iriel. Because while it might be funny, it's also incredibly stupid.

nasty-looking Camonna Tong Dunmer

I could have done more to actually explain who the Camonna Tong are, since their war with the Thieves Guild ended up being more significant than I expected in the story. But it's clear they're a gang of xenophobic local thugs, at least.

But his top priority was surviving, and if that meant continuing to take sugar until he was in a better position to kick the habit, then that’s how it had to be.

Iriel has to keep taking the sugar, because the moment he stops, he has to face up to himself and his situation, and getting one more hit of sugar is a way to keep kicking that can down the road.

“Because you’re a Khajiit.” said Ire, seeing no reason to beat around the stereotype.

Ire isn't as racially sheltered as he would have been when he moved from Summerset to the Imperial City, but he still isn't very familiar with Khajiit. Now he's doing the awful thing white university students do, where they ask a random Black guy with dreadlocks if he can sell them weed.

Ire had a brief, guilty pang of regret that he’d never learned a Charm spell.

Guilty, because, as he lectures people later, once he's in a position to start caring about ethics again, he considers Charm spells to be unethical.

He had to settle for making the most pitiful face he could muster, which was pretty damn pitiful, since it involved no acting whatsoever.

See, there's no real charisma at work here, just puppy-dog eyes. I think I actually banned myself from using the Persuade mechanism, ingame. If Ire couldn't win people over through raw Personality skill, he wasn't allowed to try and talk anyone round.

It did not prevent him now, in these straitened circumstances, from taking to petty thievery to support his drug habit, but it did mean he felt really, really awful about it.

When I was young, it seemed like every other celebrity was a junkie. Maybe it's less fashionable nowadays, but it used to be everywhere. Not that it sounded glamourous! I can't say I read, eg,  William Burroughs, and thought that kind of existence sounded aspirational. But I understood it as something human beings were drawn to, sometimes, and that while addiction was, in itself, morally neutral, it could very easily put you in a place where everything in your life became subordinate to the drug.

one-room hovel he was crashing in. It was in the St Delyn canton, and Iriel was sure something was terribly wrong with it.

I wish I'd spent more time on the bleak reality of Ire's existence in St Delyn, the sordid poverty of the area, row upon rows of tiny dwellings full of miserable people. Everyone scraping out an existence, all living on top of each other, but with little real contact beyond hoping the 3am screaming coming from your neighbour's flat will stop, soon. It's a grim, concrete high-rise block of flats, basically. Everything is piled high with rubbish and covered in mould.

Instead of having it here where I ought to, I put all the nasty details and description of St Delyn to chapter 83, when Iriel returns here with Julan. And now I'm trying to twist it into something clever - maybe it kinda works? That when we're seeing it only through Iriel's eyes, nothing registers, because he's numbing himself to everything, and we just skim over the details, because he barely remembers, himself, and anyway, he thinks he deserves it. But then, later, we have Julan there, being all clear-sighted about it and saying "this is awful and unacceptable and you deserved better", and suddenly all the horrible details become visible? Work with me, here, I refuse to revise this fic again.

Iriel was then able to convert the ingredients into potions, and the potions into money at the many traders around Vivec.

It's actually sort of hard to play at poverty in Morrowind if you know alchemy, because it's a totally broken way to make infinite money. Thank Azura for moon sugar habits.

On reflection, I shouldn't have said Iriel was doing alchemy for money, that's a silly relic of what you do in gameplay, and it shouldn't work in reality, especially when he's in no condition to keep anything sterile, or stay awake long enough to monitor a reaction. He should just have been stealing things, and getting occasional coins tossed to him, when he passed out on the canton walkway again.

Dro'Zaymar had a quiet manner, but a certain precision to his movements and uncompromising directness in his gaze hinted that he was not to be underestimated.

He's an assassin, according to his class, and holds one of the Threads of the Webspinner, a Morag Tong quest item. Iriel has no idea about this, and is lucky Dro'Zaymar is at least a little bit susceptible to Ire's pathetic woobie charms, and is therefore way more patient with his bullshit than he needs to be.

Iriel, for his part, has found someone willing to tolerate him, and, his inhibitions sufficiently sugar-dampened, has relaxed somewhat. Which is to say, he's started being a bit of a brat, and Dro'Zaymar's patience is wearing thin.

He pulled a book labelled Words of Clan Mother Ahnissi from his bag. “It’s a Khajiiti creation myth! But there are some fascinating changes from those in other mythologies. I wondered if you could explain something to me about how–”

Iriel may claim to be a scholar, but he is not, and never has been, a scholar of comparative religion, and has no interest in it beyond cheap pretexts to talk to his Khajiiti neighbour. Probably best that said neighbour shuts him down before he says something cluelessly offensive. Oh wait, apparently he's already done even worse:

One night, under the influence of a potent mixture of sugar and loneliness, Ire had tried to persuade Dro'Zaymar to educate him about certain peculiarities of Khajiiti male anatomy he had heard about. Dro'Zaymar had told him, not unkindly, that Ire didn’t want that as much as he thought he did, and had gently but firmly sent him back to his room.

Quite a lot of sugar, presumably, as Iriel is still mortified about this, months later. But even sober, he has a tendency to move straight to blunt sexual overtures, when craving affection, because, in his head, that's a less complicated way to get it (or something close to it) than other forms of social interaction.

Even with the sugar, this still might seem like remarkably forward behaviour from damp mouse Iriel. What's happened here is this: Iriel has decided that Dro'Zaymar is a safe person. Probably Ire said something accidentally gay, and Dro'Zaymar didn't react badly - there's evidence Khajiiti culture is pretty relaxed about these things. And in Ire's head, safe/unsafe is an immutable category of person, so he's flipped his social switch from "mute terror" to "no filter whatsoever".

Anyway, Ire's inappropriate behaviour isn't about attraction, libido or anything similar, it's just his need for contact expressing itself in stupid, desperate, embarrassing ways,and Dro'Zaymar is well aware of this. (Also, possibly saving Iriel from himself.)

“You told Dro'Zaymar a pack of lies you tell yourself to make it easier to take the sugar. There is no good time to stop taking the sugar, because the nature of sugar is that it is sweet! But it is a trap for you, Irrrriel, and you must get yourself out of it. It will hurt very much - ask the one who chews off his foot to get out of the trap! It will hurt, yes, and you do not like to hurt. But you must do it to free yourself, Irrriel, because to be free is sweeter than any sugar.”

Iriel reacts defensively, but he does take in Dro'Zaymar's speech. He's just not capable of responding to a tough-love approach to coming off the sugar, because he doesn't have anything else in his life to replace it with.

D'you know the Rat Park experiment? Rats were offered two water sources, one plain and one laced with sweetened morphine. Some rats were isolated, left alone in small, bare cages. These rats drank the morphine water obsessively, until they overdosed and died. Other rats were housed in "Rat Park", a large enclosure, full of toys and, crucially, lots of their fellow rats. These rats preferred the plain water, sometimes drinking the morphine, but not as much, and never to the point of overdose. In an experient where addicted rats were taken out of isolation, and placed in Rat Park, where they could play, mate and socialise with other rats, many of them stopped taking the morphine of their own accord, even though they still had access.

Drug addiction as a replacement for love, sure, okay, we can work with that narratively, right?

Except that I knew this wasn't a story about Iriel finding someone to magically fix him by loving him.

Rat Park was important, in that it highlighted the social factors of addiction, and the key role of family, friends and community support in recovery.

The trouble is, people are more complex than rats.

The trouble is, while addiction is morally neutral, it is highly stigmatised, and so causes shame. And if kicking addictions requires love, and love requires self-worth in order to successfully absorb it then if you're a shame-filled, self-loathing addict, it's extremely difficult to get yourself in a position where you can successfully metabolise enough love for it to replace the drug, and this is something you need to keep doing all the time, for the rest of your life, and if you slip up, you get more shame, and next time is harder, and...

We've already established that Iriel was drowning in shame before the drugs.

Welcome to Operation: Getting Iriel Out of the Pit - lightened with as many jokes as I could manage, because we are going to have to watch him scrabble and slip back down the slime-slick sides of this for a while.

Playlist pick: The Smiths - Shoplifters of the World Unite. You'd think more Smiths songs would fit Iriel, because Morrissey's always on about some irritatingly hot criminal boy, or being snarkily self-deprecating. But in the end, this is the only one that survived on the playlist, and mostly just for the shoplifting. I think it's that with Morrissey, you never actually believe him when he's being self-deprecating, you always get the impression he thinks he's fantastic, and the real problem is everyone else. For all his sins, Iriel's self-esteem isn't on that level, and while he can certainly be reflexively racist, he's conscious of the lie of Altmeri supremacy. Not that I would ever suggest Morrissey was a massive racist - he sues people who do that. Anyway. While writing, I would occasionally lecture Iriel, when he threatened to get too over-dramatically maudlin about something: "character development" does not mean you get to turn into fucking Morrissey! Words to live by, to be sure.

My only weakness is a list of crimes. My only weakness is... well, never mind, never mind.

next: 7: choice & 8: simple previous: 4: falling

[fandom-geek]

i finally started my new playthrough of da:o, which i think is the first time i've played it in... eight or nine years?

a bit of context, since da:o is near and dear to my heart. da:o was actually the first rpg i played on pc, and one of the first video games i played where you could make proper choices (second to bioshock, i think?). it might actually be in the first five or so games i even played on pc, behind ck2, portal, and bioshock.

so even though i have considerably soured on dragon age as a series (sorry not sorry), i wanted to see if da:o still lived up to my memories of it. i might even play da2 and inquisition after this (even if it means finding my origin account, urgh) to see how they compare as well.

that said, initial thoughts.

my very first thought is that the opening is still insanely exciting. da2 and origins both nailed their openings, especially with the playable sections. this is something that i remember being quite disappointed that inquisition failed at since you don't get to play your inquisitor before the explosion, but that's a criticism for later if i play da:i

second thought - 'wait, is that how they pronounced cousland???'. for some reason i've been mentally pronouncing it as "COZ-land" for god knows how long when it's actually pronounced "COOS-land" ingame.

the movement is way floatier than i remember, probably because i've played a lot more games since then and origins was jointly released on pc and xbox/ps3. it's not really a qualm per se, but it's just really noticeable. probs doesn't help i've started playing this alongside code vein, a literal soulslike

courtesy of this being a fem!cousland run, i've got to say that the faux-feminist criticisms really hold up. origins does the very 00s "male 'feminist' who doesn't think abt it beyond a surface level" thing of "women can do anything but you've got to deal with comments and defend yourself for doing it" and considering it egalitarian. which. yeah. definitely somewhere later games improved upon, especially as it made zero sense within the worldbuilding context.

ostagar is so fucking pretty. highever is so beautiful. even the korcari wilds are delightful (if hilarious how you can spot the darkspawn loading in from 50+ metres away). not to be permanently putting inquisition in the shade, but there's one time i can think of them nailing the atmosphere for the frostback mountains as well as origins does all the way from ostagar. they're just so goddamn beautiful and isolating.

morrigan and alistair, my beloveds. alistair's whole "deflecting with humour" thing is a lot more blatant as an adult, and morrigan's attitude towards a fem!warden is so deeply refreshing after all the bullshit mentioned above. add in that i'm keeping that insight from the recent cousland post, so my warden is delighted/fascinated to meet a chasind woman (and slightly side-eyeing the witch mother coincidentally named flemeth like that lady who let the couslands take over highever). i am starting to recall why those two plus the warden were a favourite trio of mine.

SPEAKING of couslands, your introduction to cailan is fucking hilarious. it's interesting that a cousland warden has somehow never met cailan despite being from the second highest family of the land, but i write that off as bioware not wanting to make a cousland warden too op by already knowing him.

that said, i love cailan. his resemblance to alistair is so blatant, and it's interesting how they're both a bit sheltered and love their stories - even if cailan's a bit too sheltered for his role. alistair's thoughts on his own brother are pretty interesting too, since he clearly views loghain as the one in charge and doesn't seem to view cailan that positively.

(this is the bit where i go, ah fuck, i wish grandenchanterfiona was still about because i loved their takes on the theirins and loghain and their thoughts on this would've been great. may their memory be a blessing)

also, the combat was not as hard for me to get back into as i feared. the whole combat system, especially tactics, are a lot more straightforward than it is in poe (as much as i love it), even if i've got to remember how to get these fuckers to actually drink apply their poultices before they get knocked on their arses. playing as a rogue is particularly fun because it's basically auto crits as soon as you flank someone, so i suppose that's something i've missed.

i haven't actually finished ostagar yet - i basically got as far as the joining - so more thoughts once i'm further along. definitely looking forward to seeing leliana and sten soon, i'm very curious to see how my thoughts on them have changed over the last decade

[springagainafter]

Chatting with Liara post-Therum!

For her ME1 romance, I am absolutely taking artistic liberties and am bending canon a little.

This is mostly because 1) she only gets three conversations 2) she spends a lot of time worrying about her lack of romantic experience and/or explaining how the romantic version of asari melding works and 3) her explanation takes up pretty much her entire third conversation.

I think the intended dynamic is opposites attract (Liara says at one point that she and Shepard have "almost nothing in common"), but there is no dialogue with fun multiple choice answers to a personal question (a la Ash's "why are you here?" question) and I had trouble picking out any dialogue where they bond over the same thing besides the mutual "I'm attracted to you" part.

So instead I am going for "similar personalities and similar social experiences during schooling and deciding on a job because of their families but picking wildly different career paths."

Anyway, Merrick's first conversation with Liara was pretty brief. He checked in to see how she was doing, she said she was going to be fine and they briefly discussed Dr. Chakwas, and she thanked him for saving her from the geth and he said he was glad they got there in time.

The game has Shepard immediately refer to her by her first name (in contrast to Ash and Kaidan, who get referred to as Williams and Alenko) but I am ignoring that in favor of Merrick gravely referring to her as "Dr. T'Soni" for quite a while, which is mostly a respect thing and only a little bit of a "avoiding calling her by her first name because I'm attracted to her and getting involved is not a great idea and I'm not even sure if she's interested anyway" thing.

Merrick sets her up with How To Not Die On Missions lessons with Kaidan (biotics, specifically in terms of having to use lethal force) and Ash (how armor works, hand-to-hand combat).

The intention there - besides teaching Liara how to not die - is to confirm Liara really isn't working for her mother or Saren and is who she says she is and to quickly get her to trust the other two and vice versa.

It does not take long at all before Ash (who is disinclined to trust Liara's story since her own family is super close) and Kaidan (who likes Liara but is not attracted to her, aside from the whole "he has eyes and can see she's pretty" aspect) - both go "yeah, she's definitely telling the truth" and they and Merrick are content that this is the right conclusion.

Liara still gets side-eyed by the rest of the crew for a bit but Merrick and Ash and Kaidan make it a point to demonstrate that they trust her and eventually the rest of the crew buys into that.

In the meantime, Liara does point out the crew's distrust to Merrick.

Liara: I know you took a chance bringing me aboard this ship. I have seen the way your crew looks at me. They do not trust me. Liara: But I am not like Benezia. I will do whatever I can to help you stop Saren. I promise.

(Her first conversation is not strictly a romance one but oooo, first instance of one of the two of them making a promise to the other person - either by specifically saying "I promise" or implying it. Which continues into LotSB and 3!)

Shepard: Don't worry, Liara. I trust you. I know you won't let me down.

(This seems like such a very trusting thing for Shepard to say when she's *just* gotten on the ship, hence my it's-been-a-few-days-and-there's-been-a-consensus-with-Ash-and-Kaidan headcanon.)

Liara: It means a lot to hear you say that, Commander. Thank you.

Liara mostly calls him Commander ingame throughout this convo and then Shepard at one point; in my headcanon she instead calls him Commander for quite a while, which is mostly a respect thing and only a little bit of a "I'm attracted to him but trying not to blurt that out and therefore referring to him only by his rank" thing. (Everyone else - except Anderson, who occasionally uses his first name - calls him either Commander or Shepard all the time so she blends right in).

[ask-the-walls-scream-au]

Your son doesn’t *hate* you. He’s just disappointed. I mean, who wouldn’t want their fathers love growing up only to be rejected. It’s not fun. *but* I’m sure he would like you if you help him not die from a rat

“I will help him though… I know he’s not because of it. It made me black out every time after that first one… I hope at least one of those other babies made it out alive. Though perhaps it is foolish to be optimistic on such things.”

Disclaimer: So the cause of events and some of the events themselves are a little… ok a lot… different in this AU and before we go much further than this I need to stress that no matter the cause NONE of Scorpion’s actions were justified. This is an *AU* that takes elements from canon but overall intends to tell a very different story and even in this different story I’m not just saying Scorpion is exempt from blame for his actions just because there was more going on. He still sucks. Keep in mind going forward that Scorpion especially is: 1, not written to be accurate to ingame portrayals, and 2, still at fault for his actions. It’s best to think of TWS Scorpion as almost a different character by the same name with traits of the original character, because there are a lot of differences, such as, for one, being capable of basic empathy.

I’m not entirely sure I needed to clarify that since we all by now are familiar with AUs and what they are but but it’s better safe than sorry in my opinion to clarify that to justify anything this Satan spawn of a character has done is not at all my intent, this is an *AU* with a very fundamentally different narrative especially, and especially because of my own personal history that I won’t go into on the internet, I’m not the kinda writer who goes for justifying the actions of narcissistic abusers. He’s a cruel devil. The game made that rather abundantly clear. And Ask The Walls Scream is an alternate universe, and even within it hes still not being excused. This is unfortunately as much as I can say without spoilers but I’d like to hear what you think.

[shmowder]

Piercing anon back again! I’ll admit my thoughts on Clara were 100% inspired by the fact as a teenager around her age I myself did my own piercing which ended about as well as one would expect it to end. Also didn’t even think of artemy with pierced ears but now I will never get it out of my brain and I shall consider it canon modern au artemy wears a single one in the right ear.

Speaking more on Daniil “prunde” dankovsky he also strikes me as the type who if someone he was with romantically had piercings he’d roll his eyes and go “well I guess they look acceptable on you” but I feel like he’d only really give that pass to minor piercings like a nose ring or maybe at the extremest snake bites but anything more crazier and he’s back to prudevsky mood. Not piercing related but I could see Clara in a modern setting where it’s possible doing stick and poke tattoos as well maybe I’m projecting a tad bit of Clara, I could also see Eva having a tattoo or two possibly but having since gotten them covered up or they just weren’t in a visible spot to even begin with.

sorry for rambling none of my friends aren’t in Patho and I have to let someone know about my in depth headcanons over this subject sorry 😭

PLEASE DO RAMBLE, PLEASE I BEG I WANNA HEAR MORE.

I mean really, you're apologising for rambling on the pathologic rambling blog? That's literally all I do in here. I absolutely love listening to what other people's ideas, and endlessly talking about my own.

God Artemy with a single earring is going to be the death of me, oh my god Artemy with a septum piercing. Just Artemy in general with any piercing... Artemy with a belly button piercing someone please take me to the back of the store and shoot me.

What kind of earring would he wear? Maybe a handmade one by the kin where it's weaved from swyrve and dried plants? maybe one in the shape of the steppe letters? since the Kin clothes ingame do use the letters as a print for their clothes. It could even be one his mother used to wear and Isidor kept save in a box as a memory, planning to give it to Artemy when he finally gets the Menkhu role.

Or maybe an earring that Murky and Sticky made for him from clay, dried rose petals and colourful stones. The options are so many.

And the right ear too 👀 That is so clever. Do you know who else would wear subtle queer signals? Yuilia. She would 100% have a single earring in her right ear. Prude Dankovsky even complains about her wearing pants and dressing like a man, which was uncommon for the type period.

Artemy probably picked up on the meaning from his days in the army where homosexaulity was more of an open secret between men. Daniil definitely knows the meaning but doesn't want to pierce his ears in order to wear one, he definitely uses other signals instead.

Prude Daniil definitely has some suppressed fantasies about piercings and tattoos, which make him seem disgusted by the notion. I'm just saying Daniil getting a glance at Artemy's belly button piercing or seeing your periced nipples poking under your thin shirt is all that it would take for him to see piercings under a new light.

When it comes to tattoos, I think Peter would be the best at giving them. I mean they still get infected, that man cares not for medical hygiene, but they look absolutely amazing at least.

The Kin might prefer non permanent tattoos. Something made from clay that stains the skin for a long while but washes out after a month or so, like henna! Artemy can give tattoos, but his art skils are worse than a 6y old attempting to write their name with a dry marker on a board for the whole class.

Eva would definitely want a matching tattoo with you, Andrey would, too. Maria wouldn't want it on her own body but she'll definitely get a rush from seeing her name tattooed on yours.

I like to think Alexander Saburov got a tattoo when he was a teenager that he is very embarrassed about and got removed while he was in the Capital, he denies that fact whenever an old person in town recalls the story of how angry his mother was the day she found out.

I think Nina had a tattoo, like a spider or a snake. But she kept convered up.

Aglaya probably has one too but not a willing tattoo? More like the inquisition symbol permanently marked somewhere on her back or arm. It's a very tiny symbol with a serial number. This symbol yk? Or it could be on her chest, directly on top of her heart.

Maybe in meta reality, it's her doll's brand and production number, and the only reason hers show on her body is because she is aware she is a doll. So the other's can't see it, much like they can't see how the whole town is made out of sand.

For Clara's stick and poke services, I see her being actually decent at art. Her lines are confident and it goes much smoother than her DIY piercing business. She does small doodles of animals mostly, the souls n half love it and ask for tattoos of their other halves aka pets.

You'd expect she gets busted a second time when one of the angry mothers drag her kid to Katerina Saburova to complain about what Clara did to her angel child. Except Katerina just asks Clara for a tattoo of her own, a small spider on her ring finger.

Capella 100% asks her for a tattoo of a butterfly or an infinitely symbol, any hipster tattoos you could think of.

Khan is... Khan is too scared of needles to ask for one. So he forbids the whole of dogheads from getting any.

[teecupangel]

Ark: Aberration Edition

Submitted by @saberamane

I’m back with the next ‘Ark Survival Evolved AC Edition’!

They have finally figured out the whole thing going on with ‘Scorched Earth’, defeat the Manticore (which Desmond is super bummed out that he couldn’t tame that thing, it was so cool), they ‘ascend’ again, and the new area they land in is horrible. But also pretty cool. Desmond loves all the bio luminescent creatures to be found on ‘Aberration’.

(Just a note, they all have a Rock Drake, so it won’t be listed with their other tames.)

Desmond:

Aberrant Carno

Aberrant Equus

1 Ravager (She’s more ‘pet’ than ‘tame’, she’s pretty but not ‘high level’ so she stays at base. Basically she’s an event color dino.)

Basilisk

Seeker (non-tameable, but it’s Desmond. He wanted the little eldritch flying creature, so he got it.)

Reaper King (Of course)

Shoulder Pet: Bulbdog (He finds it right away and needed it. It’s one of those ‘it’s so ugly it’s cute’ scenarios.)

Altair:

Aberrant Otter

Aberrant Purlovia

Aberrant Pulmonoscorpius

Aberrant Parasaur

Karkinos

Aberrant Megalosaurus

Shoulder Pet: Shinehorn (I just enjoy the thought of Altair having an adorable little goat on his shoulder all the time.)

Ezio:

Aberrant Ovis

Aberrant Spino

Aberrant Paracer

Aberrant Doedicurus

Roll Rat

Aberrant Baryonyx

Shoulder Pet: Featherlight (It reminds him of Petruccio, and all the feathers he used to collect for his little brother. Needless to say, anything so much as looks at this featherlight wrong dies.)

Ratonhnhaké:ton:

Aberrant Megalania

Aberrant Iguanodon

Aberrant Direbear

Pack of Aberrant Raptor’s

Pack of Ravagers

Aberrant Sarco

Shoulder Pet: Glowtail (They are noted as having the quickest recharge of their light of all ‘glow pets’, which would greatly benefit Ratonhnhaké:ton as he’s typically the ‘hunter’)

=========================

Additions by teecup:

The Ark Survival Evolved AU idea (this one and this one too)

Tames for The Island Ark

Tames for the Scorched Earth Ark

At this point, they have all agreed to just let Desmond do whatever thing he does and they don’t even bat an eye anymore if Desmond returns with some kind of monster/animal that shouldn’t be tameable. At some point, it’s become a running joke about what next untameable beast Desmond would return with. Altaïr is currently winning with his suggestion of “God” and the deadpan way he stated it and the fact that they all know he’s an atheist makes it all the more funnier and it’s really hard to top that one.

(All of their Rock Drakes have the same ‘nest’ and a few months later, they learned that one of them laid an egg and they’re not entirely sure which one it is?)

Desmond:

His Abberant Carno is named Rex The Second because, according to him, Rex Two sounds a bit ‘sad’.

His Equus is usually used for patrols nearby.

His Ravager follows him around the base and likes to get pets but doesn’t like it when others try to pet him. He actually just followed Desmond into the base and just… never left.

His Basilisk is a jerk. He likes to burrow deep underneath the ground then pop out whenever someone passed by. Nobody gets surprised anyway since the Basilisk glows as light blue in their Eagle Vision but still… jerk move. But he mostly accompanies Desmond whenever he goes out because it’s a good companion for taming other monsters/beasts.

Altaïr had researched on the Seekers before to check if they could be tamed and, if not, what’s the best way to take them own, and that’s how he theorized that the reason why Desmond got a Seeker is because it sees Desmond as a light source. His Seeker is always energetic and acts the same way wild Seekers would act whenever they are near light sources like a Bulbdog which earns Desmond the nickname “Our very own Bulbdog”

Oh god. Oh my god. Are we saying that Desmond got impregnated by a female Reaper since that’s the only way to get a Reaper ingame? Are we going for that? Because I hella am in for that! Just imagine Altaïr checking Desmond after an encounter with a Ravager Queen that left him alive and him gravely saying, “You’re… pregnant.” and everyone just stares at Desmond and Desmond is like “It’s not like that! Oh my god, no!” In the end, Desmond ‘shoots’ out the baby Reaper and takes care of it like… I guess a child of his own (oh man, the angst that will happen when they leave this Ark and have to leave the Reaper behind, yeeesss)

Desmond likes to keep the Bulbdog with him always and its deathly afraid of the Seeker but the Seeker just ignores it and goes for Desmond every time.

Altaïr:

Altaïr’s Otter mostly does whatever it wants but he serves mostly as Altaïr’s assistant, bringing him tools or holding things for Altaïr while he’s busy with his current project.

His Purlovia primarily just lazes around in his workshop but he always likes to burrow all over and is sorta maybe best friends with Desmond’s Basilisk? Or maybe they’re burrowing rivals, no one is really sure.

His Pulmonoscorpius usually accompanies him whenever he’s away from their base as it’s a good bodyguard and its poison can be used to weaken or tamed any beast that catches his fancy (and the poison is also used for some of his creations). He got his Pulmonoscorpius from a cave too so he uses that as a mount whenever he goes to a cave so other monsters/beasts won’t be alerted.

His Parasaur loves to gather berries. No one knows why but he just lets him do what he wants since Parasaur also warns them of any dangers near their base that he sees during his berry picking.

What his Karkinos lacks in speed, he makes up with his sheer utility. If his Otter is his assistant in the base, the Karkinos is his assistant when out in the wilds and there have been many encounters that ended in their favor thanks to him.

No, Desmond, this Megalosaurus will not be named Megalosaurus the Second. No. Megalosaurus Junior is also out of the question. Stop it.

Shinehorn is a good lightsource. That’s the reason why he’s on Altaïr’s shoulder. Yup. That’s the only reason why. No, the fact that Desmond had been the one to give it to him had nothing to do with Altaïr’s preferential treatment to the damn goat.

Ezio:

To continue with the whole ‘naming farm creatures’, these herd of Ovis have a Haytham, an Abbas (the one that always tries to chew Altaïr’s robes) and a Lucy (named after Lucrezia Borgia or so Desmond says)

His Spino mainly patrols all of Ezio’s other tames and he actually let Desmond name it Spino the Second.

His Paracer served as their first base actually while they were looking for a good place to ‘settle down’ as Desmond likes to call it. He’s their oldest tame and he mainly just lounges in the base as a reward for having to deal with all the shenanigans the group had to go thru while he served as their mobile base.

Doedicurus likes to roll around and, really, Ezio enjoys watching his Doedicurus roll around to beat the crap of any creature that tries any funny business.

Roll Rat was used to help build their base, mostly by rolling onto obstacles to destroy them. Now, he’s mainly used to harvest wood and mushrooms. Hell, he and Parasaur sometimes return at the same time filled with berries they have collected. Desmond called it berry-bonding.

Baryonyx is Ezio’s primary companion when he goes outside and also their main source of underwater resources.

Featherlight is nicknamed ‘asfoor’ which means little sparrow and Ezio has a soft spot for it. He once gifted Desmond one of the feather that had fallen from the Featherlight and Desmond is the only person who understands how much the little creature reminds Ezio of his family (not just Petruccio but Maria Auditore as well)

Ratonhnhaké:ton

Megalania is always almost on walls or ceilings and helps by ambushing hostile creatures while they’re focused on Ratonhnhaké:ton and his ‘main force’.

Iguanodon usually helps with farming and gathering resources in the base but he’s important when Ratonhnhaké:ton leaves for long periods of time as he helps hunt food and resources they may need in the wild (like poison that Ratonhnhaké:ton can use to craft items)

Ratonhnhaké:ton refused to call his new Dire Bear Dire Bear The Second because that he felt like he was comparing it to his previous Dire Bear. He did agree to naming it Teddy Bear though. (he doesn’t know what teddybear actually means)

His main force is composed of a pack of Aberrant Raptors that all have names and Ratonhnhaké:ton can distinguish each of them with a glance. They’re very well coordinated with the ambush tactics of the Megalania and like to corral their enemies to where the Magalania is waiting to pounce them.

The pack of Ravagers is actually the children of the Ravager that followed Desmond to their base. Every time they’re in the base, they stay with their mother (which means Desmond takes care of them). They’re very energetic and the Raptors actually usually have to corral them to stay in formation.

Sarco is Ratonhnhaké:ton’s preferred mount whenever there is a need to dive somewhere.

Glowtail prefers to wrap around Ratonhnhaké:ton neck and sometimes around the crown of his head.

[cherubinym]

Have you seen this man?

Now you have!

This is Yinan, my Bladestar OC.

I've had him a long while now.

He's like... I want to say in the Top 5 Bladestar Agents?

Aka he's an Admin/Executive -of sorts-, along with V, Ryland, and Jenkel.

He resides in the underground and runs a casino and bar under there. Well, his own anyway. He technically monopolizes many of the bars and casinos but nobody has to know that.

His Pokemon help manage the establishment he works at when he's out doing Bladestar stuff or even taking a break.

He uses only Pokemon gotten from the casinos or Chance games (such as the fishing tank) ingame (as of V13. He will still use these mons even if one of removed in the future.)

(Mega Aggron/Durant/Dewgong*/Heliolisk/Mienshao/Grumpig/Haxorus*/Braviary*/Maractus/Wishiwashi/Kingdra)

He claims to be able to match up to an E8 member in power-- though this is unclear as either he's too busy or finds an excuse to not battle. Yinan generally makes grunts go and do work for him until he absolutely has to show up himself (contrary to at his casino/bar --- where he will insist on doing most of the work himself unless he absolutely has to go somewhere.)

"No V, I'm not buying your Sawsbuck Coffee for the fourth week in a row."

"Sure Jenkel. Have fun. You're responsible for all the damages though."

"..."

His intentions are rather unclear. Yinan appears VERY wealthy, and often orders food into the underground specifically to feed orphans, Pokemon, and starving children/family, whom may get their usual rations stolen by more aggressive members of the underground.

These people are known to be protected by them, and Yinan does work with Dylan on this matter on occasion despite Dylan wanting nothing to do with Bladestar. Mutual goal of compassion, whether they'll admit it aloud or not.

Their code name among Bladestar is Lotus. Ironically, Yinan is Also an Alias. He really does not want to be tied back to his family, as he expresses a certain disgust when the topic of such is brought up...

Keeps feeding the Zigzagoon even though he's told not to. Filled with glee at the little fellas.

He always seems to be Waiting for something to happen, in a way ...

Perhaps loyalty can become a downfall.

[satsuha]

D V and Z for the ask game? :D

under the cut bc idk if this counts as ship hate and it got really long

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

hika ag... (not putting the eng ship name for search reasons) i already knew the devs were gonna push them the moment i saw the crossed paths illust released but ultimately it felt disappointing to me in the game orz i already don't like the feeling when a certain ship is being pushed if they aren't going to go the whole mile and make it canon but in a game like octopath where the protags have such minimal interaction i don't like that it feels like these two got special attention (they have the most banters together tied with thro/oche) and yet their interactions aren't.... interesting....! some of hikari's story banters with her literally feel like he could be talking to a random npc instead and the things hikari says in agnea's story ring very hollow to me 😞 given like the fact that they both lost their mothers, illusts show hikari dancing with her or playing the flute (even the lyre in a concept art draft), it's disappointing to me that their ingame banters don't touch on this at all... complained about their crossed paths story another time but honestly for all this complaining i don't hate them i just feel very disappointed and sort of like they wasted their interactions together ngrhg

V - Which character do you relate to most?

KINDA dungeon meshi spoilers... completely off topic from what i usually talk about but i like marcille's character arc and her goals arising from her fear of being left behind. i'm gonna keep things vague since dunmeshi just got an anime and is getting bigger and also since i don't want to go too deep into why i relate to her but stories about learning to value the time you have with friends while knowing it will end one day (frieren is another obvious one) are very close to me

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!

sorry when you say ramble i think it will always be complaining-adjacent with me but after playing agnea ch3 with english voices i got so surprised at the difference between eng and jp giselle that i got compelled to make a comparison of it and it JUST... makes me so sad that certain chars will be more likely to be overlooked or overshadowed, even liked/disliked depending on localization efforts o<-< i know it's unrealistic to ask people to play in multiple languages bc that isn't feasible for everybody but honestly it's jarring sometimes how different certain characters or scenes can come off as... i struggle with interacting in fandom spaces bc i don't always agree with english localizing efforts (and i get it, it really is a difficult job and by no means do i think they did a BAD job at it most of the time) but because so many people who will interact with my posts have only been exposed to that version, i'll feel very... alienated?? by some interpretations that i see. but i mean ultimately interpretation is more subjective and i think localization only nudges you to one side or another, so i still just do the same as i would do otherwise and find people whose content i enjoy... that was a lot of rambling but did you know that in hikari's ch2 banter with castti the english changed his lines quite a bit ?? i've already talked about how i think eng hikari is more expressive in his voice acting but i think it's something that was present in the text first and i... AM VERY MIXED about it bc i do think it works Really nicely in certain scenes, but i still like how restrained jp hikari sounds because i think it suits him more... anyway this is just a small snippet of the kind of thing i think about when looking at localization like in the end it's just Different versions, i guess i do look at the original jp version as more accurate to the creators' intentions but i think having an "official" interpretation in english can be nice and valuable in its own right.. if i didn't think so i just wouldn't play these games in english at all lmao (by comparison i don't play korean games in english bc at least the ones i've gotten into don't have great localizations so i don't think it adds much merit)

crying the last one is so long but you asked me to ramble 😭 LMAO... but ty for leaving an ask!

alphabet asks