#(this is how i justify the fact that I did not actually make armor or real chainmail)

[curiouscrux]

Role-Swap Tunic

This depiction of Zelda is from @ovegakart's role-swap AU. The making process for all of the parts is (vaguely) documented here. Sans shoes, all parts were hand-sewn or knitted by me out of natural fibers and materials. Similarly to my last project, I intend to wear most of the garments in my day-to-day life.

[IDs in alt text]

My gratitude to my partners for the photography and travel once again.

[balteus]

actually re: fromsoftware politics. i do think it's very interesting that the anti-colonialist RLF, ostensibly considered the 'good guys' of the game, were initially explicitly called the communist faction. armored core always has been a series critical of oligarchies and hyper-capitalism, but it's... very interesting to see just how blatant that is in ac6 specifically

you'd think that fromsoftware would eventually drop the ball on the "the ruling class will kill you and cannibalise itself in order to stay alive" considering that they're considered elite AAA devs rn, but thinking about elden ring and ac6's narratives, they've really only gotten more obvious about it - the horrors of colonialism and genocide and the sympathy given to the rage of its victims is something that's actually insane to see, to me, from such a big studio - fromsoft doesn't even attempt to be centrist about it.

for example, the frenzy flame ending. the only thing melina can tell you to dissuade you from pursuing it, ie literally destroying the world forever, is that there's still beauty in the world, apart from the suffering the golden order had caused. at no point however is the sheer despair of the people that the flame represents villanized. if anything, it's portrayed as a self-fulfilling prophecy, it is a tragedy. the only villain is the order who slaughtered all of these people, the flame of despair is something that emerged in them as they were buried alive. and the flame isn't even intended as a revenge upon the world, it's simply a means to end the pain they feel for being subjected to this.

their grief isn't something for the player to judge, it isn't something they're forced to overcome, it's simply a physical manifestation of the reality that was forced upon them. and these people, the merchants, are still kind to us, even knowing the order that we pursue. (in fact, the true, considered best ending of elden ring, is literally just sacrificing yourself in order to achieve complete anarchism. and getting a cool wife to endure the loneliness of space along the way)

in ac6 then, ayre is so terribly forgiving towards us, knowing what we are, knowing what made us, knowing what we participate in. some of this undoubtedly is because of her narrative role, she has to be a sympathetic character. but we do get to see her rage at the end, her grief for her species being seen as nothing more than a resource to be exploited or burned fully vocalized. but the RLF is sympathetic too as resistance fighters who want their home back. the only criticism the game ever leverages towards the RLF is that they're actually not radical enough in their pursuit of freedom, and that criticism is made by a villain.

it's so... i almost want to say optimistic? other games would have tried to pull a "ooh but what if the good guys did bad things (poor attempt at moral grayness)" but no, the RLF is justified at every step of the way. idk it makes me feel things. i dont particularly want to portray fromsoftware as these bastions of political correctness or sth - they're not perfect and i don't expect that ever lmao, but it's so fucking weird that their games are this progressive and have been for a long ass time.

[bb-kawa]

Kiss Cam <3

Crossing posting from my ao3 since i think ppl will like this fic. a03 link if you prefer reading there.

What will Falena do when Leona seems to be hiding the  fact that he has a girlfriend? Rig a magical kiss cam to publicly  embarrass the two, of course.

f/n = first name, third person

Did I steal this prompt from sporting events kiss cams and make it more dramatic? yes.

anyways Falena is hilarious in this.

side  note: I interpret twisted wonderland as being an actual University  where magical men and women attend. I don't think that matters for the  specific fic though. reader can still be interpreted as being yuu.

Falena was annoyed. Irked. Displeased. Leona had finally, finally, brought home a love interest, or at least that’s what Falena thought she was; However, Leona refused to admit or even discuss the possibility that she was his girlfriend.

It was the Festival of Love after all in Afterglow Savanna, a three-day event that celebrated all types of love within the kingdom. Why else would Leona have brought home a girl if not to celebrate with her, but Leona didn’t specify if she was his girlfriend or not upon introduction. Furthermore, when Falena prodded Leona for answers, he basically told him to shove off and leave him alone.

When Falena tried to investigate, follow them around, and send spies after them, they always coincidentally appeared to be just platonic friends. A woman holding a man's arm could still be considered friends after all. That wasn’t a big enough clue either way. And when Falena had finally thought he was going to catch them sneakily kissing in a dimly lit hallway, they’d always be conveniently separated from each other.

However, Falena could smell them on each other. Her light perfume blended into Leona’s skin and when she passed by, Falena could clearly smell the earthy scent of Leona’s hair products. They must have been coming into at least close to close contact to justify smelling like each other!

There were other times too, that were as plain as day, that the two were so obviously in love. Leona would laugh with her. Falena could hear their snickers and teasing during various festival activities. Leona rarely laughed as much as he did with her. He looked at her with a sort of happiness Falena hadn’t seen since Leona was a child. Leona would also talk to her, speaking far more than he had the past four years since going to NRC and starting his work as a Prince of the Afterglow Savanna. Falena could barely get Leona to say more than a sentence to him sometimes, but here he was having these long-winded conversations with her.

So why was Leona hiding it? Was he ashamed of her? No that couldn’t be it. Leona would not have brought her otherwise. Was it because he knew it would annoy the entire family if he was as vague as possible about it? That was a possibility but seemed to be a bit of a stretch. They had apparently known each other since NRC but Leona hadn’t thought to bring her around until now? How could Leona decide to enlighten his family with a girl and then proceed to not introduce her as his girlfriend?

Furthermore, every time Falena tried to get the girl alone for a quick chat, Leona would somehow always swoop in like a knight in shining armor here to sweep his obvious lover away from revealing any sort of truth to the matter. Leona always pulled her away with a groan of ‘Don’t annoy F/n with your questions.’ Really, how could Leona consistently be so grumpy about it?

It really was starting to get to Falena. He was determined to find out the truth and the perfect opportunity to do so was going to occur later that evening. A special event was planned called ‘The eye of love.’ It was a yearly activity where a magical camera would pan the crowds showing couples that exhibited a blossoming love. It was an ancient spell mainly used for fun to embarrass couples and had been a main part of the festivities for centuries.

Falena politely, strong armed the yearly caster into making sure, no matter what, the camera would focus in on Leona and his friend. Was this perhaps a bit petty? Yes. Was this also a small invasion of privacy? Also yes. Falena was determined though, to thoroughly ignore his brother's reluctant feelings to find out the truth.

Why, one may ask, was Falena so determined to find out whether Leona had a girlfriend or not? The answer was simple, Falena wanted to make sure the one person that seemed to make Leona happy would be welcomed into the family. Instead, Leona had been corralling the girl away at any possible moment. Two could play this game. Leona wasn’t the only one that could play dirty.

Soon, the roar of the crowd killed Falena’s train of thought concerning his brother. He walked out onto the stage waving, sending out well wishes and hopeful phrases. The general announcements occurred as well as the small speech about hope and encouragement for the love season. Normally Falena wasn’t so impatient during this part, but he really wanted the excitement to start.

Finally, the magical camera, naked to the eye, zoomed around homing in on various couples of various ages. It was quite cute. The first couple to be shown was an elderly pair that seemed to finally admit their love for one another. The next two couples were younger, around mid-age, and were showered with the traditional flower petals for the event during their kiss.

Falena could barely contain his excitement as Leona’s face appeared on the magical screen. The crowd instantly recognized the second prince with a slight cheer. Excitement was strumming through the air. Falena’s smile slightly dropped though, when it appeared that Leona wasn’t at the event at all, but seemed to be walking in some sort of foliage area with F/n.

————-

“If you get in trouble for missing the eye of love event, I’m not gonna defend you.” F/n said. A smile appeared on her face as Leona helped her step off the rocky ledge.

“What do you mean? You’re my accomplice, you’re breaking the rules with me.” Leona responded as he looked back with a smug grin.

“That’s not what I’ll be telling King Falena.”

F/n didn’t have to be looking at Leona to know he was rolling his eyes as she trotted up behind him.

They had been walking for a good thirty minutes. Winding through a rocky path, up various hills. Honestly if F/n knew Leona was going to take her on a full blow hike she would have worn different shoes.

The path soon widened and appeared a large opening filled to the brim with green foliage and blooming flowers. There was a small opening to the left that looked over the grasslands. The sun was just about to set, yellow and orange hues filled the sky.

“Wow… it’s beautiful!” F/n said, running up to the opening admiring the view and the flowers. An excited smile graced her features. “This is what you wanted to show me? How romantic.”

“Always gotta get a tease in, huh.” Leona shuffled back and forth on his feet. He took a few steps towards her, grabbing her hands. His features softened and a slight anxiety bubbled in his chest. “F/n, I… wanted to ask you something.”

“Yes?”

“Actually, I wanted to give you something.” Leona said, reaching into his clothes to pull out a small box. He flipped the lid up revealing a red jewel hanging delicately on a golden chain. F/n's eyes widened, and she glanced back and forth from the box up to Leona’s eyes.

“This… this is for me.” F/n asked. She was shocked, while Leona often gave her gifts, they were usually just things F/n had recently said she wanted. While it was incredibly thoughtful of him to always indulge her whims, his normal gifts weren’t as elaborate. They were flowers, or a blanket for them to share during naps, not an incredibly expensive looking necklace.

“In my culture, giving a gift like this is… 2nd to a marriage proposal. It’s a declaration of intention. An intention to love forever.” Leona explained, bringing a hand up to F/n’s cheek. Leona was a bit scared, nervous to ask this. He had never met someone as wonderful as F/n. While he didn’t think she’d say no, there was a possibility she would maybe not prefer this life with him. “If you accept this, it also means you… feel the same.”

F/n smiled; a nervous feeling fluttered through her. She couldn’t believe it. Leona and her had been serious for a while. While she knew he took their relationship seriously and she did find the whole ‘annoy Falena as much as possible’ schtick funny, this wasn’t what she was expecting.

“Leona… are you sure? I’m… not royalty and well… I don’t want you to be put in a bad position because of it. You care for your kingdom, and I just want to make sure you’re always happy.” F/n responded. She really was worried. She loved Leona and didn’t want to make his life more stressful. What if the kingdom didn’t accept her? What if he regretted it?

“Tch, what happened to that lecture you gave me the other day, huh?” Leona asked with another roll of his eyes. He handed her the box as he wrapped his arms around her. “You told me the world was full of possibilities and that there was always hope. You’re not gonna fight for me now after saying all that?”

F/n laughed, her body shaking in Leona’s arms. He always had to be so cheeky.

“Well that doesn’t count. Don’t use my words against me.” F/n responded, leaning in closer. She could see Leona’s eyes soften. Who was she kidding? She would do anything for him, even if it led to tough times. “You promise to take care of me every day?”

“Of course.”

“Alright then Leona Kingscholar, I accept your love.”

She saw a smile appear on his face, the brightness behind his eyes gleamed, as she leaned up to give him a kiss. Her arms wrapped around his neck as he squeezed her tighter. Leona kissed her back passionately. A laugh bubbled out of her as Leona slightly raised her body off the floor spinning her around.

“Perfect, my love”

——

The camera cut out. Falena could hear the deafening silence as the crowd, as well as himself, processed what they had just seen. It took about three seconds before cheers broke out. The silence turned to rancorous chants and screams. Flowers were thrown up into the air as music started to ring out.

The crowd seemed to fully support Prince Leona’s plight for love if the chanting of his name was anything to go by. Falena was quite happy as well. Now he could finally get to work and plan a wedding. As well as devising a separate plan to make sure Leona didn’t kill him after finding out the entirety of Afterglow Savanna witnessed his love confession. Perhaps Falena should go on an extended trip to a neighboring kingdom to avoid Leona’s wrath.

Well, it’s not like Leona would find out that Falena was the one to order that the magical camera be rigged. It was just a very very unfortunate coincidence. Well, Falena would find a solution soon enough. Perhaps Leona would be so enraptured with his newfound love he’d be too busy to plot murder. Falena was content to enjoy the festivities for now, maybe he’d get lucky, and Leona would never know.

The luck of the draw always fell towards the king after all.

I hope you liked it! reblogs appreciated.

[andreal831]

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but what do you think about Elijah’s reaction to learning that Katherine killed Jeremy? I know a lot people thought that it was odd because Jeremy had just played a part in killing Kol a few episodes before, but I feel like he was more so disappointed in the fact that Katherine hadn’t actually changed.

His reaction had nothing to do with who she killed and more to do with who she had become.

We don't really get to see how Katherine and Elijah ended up together, but we can see that Elijah is clinging onto the Katerina he lost all of those years ago. I also headcanon he was really hanging onto the memory of Tatia. He was trying to save Katherine and then Elena, the way he failed to save Tatia.

Elijah failed to save Katherine from Klaus and it destroyed her, turning her into a selfish, manipulative person that he didn't know. I assume when they got together, he saw hints of the "Katerina" he remembered which is why he was willing to give her a chance.

Elena: "She's a monster now, Elijah. The sweet peasant girl you fell in love with way back when is dead. And she's not coming back." Elijah: "I'm not a fool, Elena. Of course this possibility occurred to me, but what kind of man would I be if I didn't try to find my Katerina beneath this Katherine façade?"

But as Elijah said, he's not a fool. You know what they say, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." At this point, Elijah was willing to believe Katherine, deep down, had a good heart. But watching her do to Elena what Klaus had done to her showed him that the girl he once knew was truly gone. He wasn't willing to give her another chance to make a fool of him.

He felt betrayed because she had lied to him. It wasn't just that she had killed, he can justify that, but the fact that she was lying about it. She was playing him the same way she had played everyone. It would have been completely different if she had told him her plan ahead of time or even right when she came back. But she didn't trust him with her plan and it just reinforced that he didn't really trust her.

Elijah is also able to put logic over emotions. Yes, he was likely angry about Kol's death (although the show didn't spend anytime showing the Mikaelsons actually have reactions to it) he knew starting a war in Mystic Falls wasn't going to solve anything. This is where plot armor comes in because no way would any of these baby vamps and humans have actually walked away after killing Kol and Finn. They all would have been dead before they had the chance to blink, but then TVD would be over. So, instead the plot demands the Mikaelsons to move past it.

It also wouldn't be the first time Elijah has moved on after someone killed one of his loved ones *cough* Klaus *cough*

TVD Elijah was also a lot more practical. He killed very strategically. Similar to TO Season 3, when Hayley is killing Strix members to avenge Jackson, he is not mad at her for killing but shocked that she is doing it so messily, nearly starting a war. He then goes and dispatches them all with a plan. Katherine here didn't let him in on the plan, and we know how much he hates when Klaus does that. I think he saw a lot of Klaus in Katherine in that moment, and lord knows he doesn't need another one.

If Katherine had come back and told him she killed Jeremy because of what Jeremy did to Kol, he would have been fine with it. He would have felt bad for Elena, but at the end of the day, it's not anything different than what Elijah's done for family. Or what the MF gang has done. Again, his issue wasn't about the murder or about Jeremy. It was about the lying that stemmed from a lack of trust. He knew she was still killing people. He wasn't that naïve. He just had hoped she had some line she wouldn't cross. Hoping she had compassion for her ancestor. Hoping that she trusted him enough to protect her.

It's similar to when Celeste comes back in TO Season 1. There's a brief moment of time while he's following her on a tour of New Orleans and he knows it's her, he's willing to give her a chance to explain. He kisses her back and looks so desperate. But then she betrays him (yes, well deserved) and that was the only chance he gave her. Even at the end, when she pleaded with him, he was not going to give her another chance.

Katherine had one chance to show she wasn't the person everyone said she was and without hesitating she did exactly what was expected from her. She wanted the cure to trade for her freedom and there was nothing she wouldn't have done for it. She didn't trust that Elijah would protect her from Klaus (probably wisely) and she didn't trust Elijah with her plans. Without trust, they didn't have much left to fight for in a relationship.

I talk about their relationship more here.

Thanks for the ask!

[fatcatlittlebox]

Regarding the 'did sauron make her armor or not drama on X:

It's not even really about canon vs fanon to these 'uM ACTualLY' canon police. They have this weird need to correct anything they see that doesn't fit into their idea of truth, so they have to remind everyone of it.

Regardless if he did or didn't do it, it makes sense in a many people's mind and that brings them fun and joy.

But y'know, we can't have fun and joy over a harmless detail that has no impact on the overall direction of the story. No, because we're little children that need to be sat down and spoonfed what's canon and not because we don't know any better.

They can't have us sharing this harmless idea around and fangirling over its possibility with other people, because for some reason it's like a pebble in their shoe so they HAVE to say something even though I trust that most people who didn't come in only watching the show know better, and even if they didn't and like the idea that he made her armor, there's ZERO harm in letting others have their fun and being considerate and smart enough to know when to stay in your own canon-ruled lane. It's like me telling my little cousin as she's giggling and opening her present that Santa is fake and just a lie made up. Like how is that so hard to understand?

And another thing is, I clearly want to know, if anyone wants to take this rant and tape it to the front of their cars: what sort of harmful or dangerous impact is there to real life if some fans accept this as their personal canon? Hmm? Is it going to make some impressionable minor more vulnerable to an abusive partner? Or not see a red flag in an unhealthy relationship? If the answer is no to either, then really, do better as person and learn to leave shippers alone. Or block something that they don't want to see. Not that hard.

Calling it now - these same canon police will jump to defend any 'fanon' headcanon or theory with celeborn as canon because in their narrow minds, the relationship isn't dark, so of course XYZ might as well have happened and be deemed canon! And trust me, if anyone dares say something to point out the fact that since there's no visual or literal confirmation over a HEADcanon, the same people will jump in and start going 'wELL, THAT'S WhAT wE CalL ImPLiCATiON, because even though we didn't see it happen, it wouldn't go against either character to say that it happened. There's no harm in saying that it's canon as long as the relationship isn't questionable or dark, guys~!

[If all these things are not shown then they are not part of the story] Alright, I'm not even going to go into this one that I saw so I'll let others have it.

Anyways, it's disgusting how some ppl in the fandom just can't let others have fun and feel like it's their moral purpose in life to be pedantic. Also apparently some ppl were acting like they just wasted half of their life thinking there's new info or retrograde confirmation over it bc it spread like wildfire (cause it made some people happy, go figure). Like sorry you were fooled ma'am, sorry you wasted 15 secs of your life for nothing.

Also, they need to look up what the definition of a headcanon is. It might blow their minds.

/micdrop

Ps, if we slap a blonde wig on Halbrand and call him Annatar can we call it a canon gift NOW? Pls O great gatekeepers of what's canon and not, here thy plea! /s

This. But it’s not even about canon, or fanon or harmless or all in good fun. We don’t have to justify diddly squat. It’s what happened! They’re wrong and can sit all the way down. It’s not “headcanon” to interpret with our own eyes the narrative the director, writers and ACTORS are telling us. Are we so cynical and literal that we cannot interpret what is visually implied or metaphorically shown? Everything has to be explicitly said or presented for it to be canon? Dude, what is the point of artistic expression? It’s not even someone’s ability to read the subtext or think abstractly. It’s simply being an intelligent viewer. And I’m not saying the antis are stupid but I think we can all agree that a satisfying interaction and consumption of art is when the artist and audience share the expectation that intelligent observation is required. The antis are biased as you have said and they’re really missing out when they shut themselves off to the deeper, richer thematic story being told.

[fazball]

I want to talk about fights in Unstable Universe! How they work both within the story and from the perspective of a group of people simply playing a part. Before I start I do want to note that despite being really into the game almost since release I am not exceptional at any aspect of the game and that includes things like PvP which I will be talking about in this post, so I may miss something or not fully understand something.

I want to start with the fact that when a fight happens they don't actually want to kill anyone who is not supposed to die, they are simply telling a story, but they are still using actual fighting strategies and their own personal skill is accounted for as well. They use potions, cobwebs, ender pearls, and many things that the average player (as in someone who is not a PvPer) would never even think of. When I first started watching I was baffled by the idea of holding onto stacks of XP bottles to heal your armor mid-fight. And when there is someone meant to be a powerful force they make sure to either choose someone who is exceptionally good at PvP (like Clown) or they have so many people dogpile the person they're fighting that it's almost impossible to win (like Zam or Ashswag). With Zam and Ash its not completely based on dogpiling as they do have higher ranked fighters, like Zam with FlameFrags and Ash with MinuteTech, but most of the time their teams are dependant on dogpiles.

So how do they determine a winner if not by death? It's all based on whose materials can last the longest and who has to run first. By materials I mean literally everything, totems, gapples, armor, pearls, sometimes even rockets. Of course with it being rp we don't fully know if the intent is actually to get someone so incredibly low multiple times OR if that just happens bc the fight is just supposed to last that long. I think my favorite example of this is in Parrot's "It's Impossible to Find this Player," specifically the fight with Boofser, Kier, and Dev. They so obviously lost, almost all of their armor had broken and they literally flew away multiple times just to come back then fly away again because their armor and gaps could not keep up with the damage. Another example I like is from Spoke's "I Got Hunted by the Minecraft Mafia" where he tries to fight the mafia with MinuteTech, realizes this is not a fight he can win and has fly off. Actually this is seen with all 3 POVs, a lot of the time they have to run instead of actually fighting so it simply becomes a situation where they fight, fly off to try and lose them, dig underground, and repeat. It goes differently in Wemmbu's "The Minecraft Empire War" where him and Zam both lost almost all their items, all their armor was breaking neither of them had anymore XP, they had both run out of rockets by then and I truly think the only reason one of them isn't dead is because of Clown stepping in.

Final notes and comments! I have such a terrible memory so i'm sorry if I got anything wrong, it's not my fault :(. When I was talking about XP bottles I used LifeSteal as an example since I don't watch any other PvP series or creators, but since i'm not caught up at all, nor do i interact with the community, i'm not sure if I should consider LS a reliable source for PvP info. I know it's become a rp-ish server as well, but as far as i'm aware they are actually intending to kill/get someone off the server during fights. If anyone would like to correct me on that feel free! And yes, I am aware that Zam had apologized to Wemmbu before Clown stepped in, but I truly don't think he meant it. Maybe he did in the moment, but I feel justified to think it wasn't 100% honest as once they got into the prison Zam immediately tried to kill Wemmbu again. You could try to excuse it with the fact that this was a dire situation and he was distressed, but not once has Wemmbu been the one to strike first. He is simply not a reliable person, especially in relation to Wemmbu. I'm not sure why I wrote this honestly, anyone who's watched UU probably knows this and anyone who hasn't seen UU probably doesn't want to. Maybe i'll send this to an oomf and lure them in.

[abrisaber]

I think the reason why Helluva Boss's newest episodes are so awful is because the writers have no idea how to make conflicts.

Every time an antagonist comes back they always exist to only illicit conflict and nothing else.

Crimson represents a life that Moxxie wanted to leave behind. The ending of the episode he debuted in shows that he's quite literally after Moxxie's life. But then he comes back, not in relation to Moxxie, Moxxie's not even in the episode, but instead to bring Striker into the picture. And of course what purpose does Striker serve other than to spew "eat the rich" propaganda that serves no real purpose since we quite literally never see any real examples of prejudice in Hell against Imps aside from Stolas being a creep and a child calling Blitzo an "Imp slur" I guess.

Dhorks and the Cherubs both represent how there are bigger parties involved that are after IMP and how shit is going to hit the fan for them, and with the introduction of Heaven in Hazbin Hotel, a show that CONFIRMED to take place in the same place that Imp has their fucking office, things could get really bad really fast. But yet again their only purpose was to install comic relief conflict into the plot of an episode that absolutely did not need a B-Plot. There will be no connecting ties between Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel despite the fact that it would be more logical if it did, or if, at the very least, they came up with an actual reason for why the shows don't matter to each other that isn't just "copyright." Heaven wants to suppress Demonkind but when Demonkind does something that goes directly against what Heaven is trying to do, i.e drive more human souls into hell with their antics on Earth (a place they were claiming to try to protect), they just don't fucking care. Not even a little bit.

And Stolas, oh boy Stolas. Blitzo needs to realize his actions have consequences right? But oh no it appears Vivziepop has written herself into another fucking circle by having Stolas also be a piece of shit, and everyone in Blitzo's life be a piece of shit, so now there's no one to call Blitzo out anymore!! What's the solution? Just have Stolas be the victim. You know how he manipulated Blitzo into the deal, love bombed him constantly despite Blitzo visibly showing zero interest, and then acted embarrassed when he was actually called out for being a cheating scumbag? Yeah none of that matters. Blitzo hurt his feeeewings because he didn't reciprocate Stolas's borderline harassment and didn't drop his entire life just be play his knight and shining armor. Blitzo having a bunch of bitter exes who hate his guts and want him dead despite the fact that we don't know what he did to them aside from a few comments about Blitzo's absolutely minuscule actions towards a bunch of randos is entirely justifiable because he's mean! Even though literally fucking everybody is mean.

Nothing in this show matters. Not the world building, not the conflicts, nothing. Every single episode exists in it's own individual conflict bubble despite the fact that it claims it's serialized. It claims to have multiple main characters but only two of them have ever gotten any actual noteworthy "development" and the rest are left out to dry in favor of the supporting cast. This show has potential to have so much more interesting and better established stories but it's creators have NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT THEY'RE DOING!!! They don't know how to create conflict, they don't know how to write believable character relationships, they don't know how to develop characters, they don't know how to divide story focus between characters accordingly, they don't know who the main characters are and who the side characters are, and they have absolutely not a motherfucking goddamn SLIVER of a clue WHAT KIND OF SHOW THEY ARE TRYING TO MAKE. They. Do. Not. Know.

This rant makes absolutely no sense but I had to get this shit out of my head or I might've exploded and died.

[aangarchy]

I feel like i need to reiterate what my opinion on the southern raiders as an episode is bc my previous posts about it are like 3 years old at this point, so here goes. I want to preface this by saying all of this is in fact my opinion and not me trying to state facts. I'm not going to argue who's right or wrong. I'm not going to debate it either. If your opinion is different: great! You're a human being that can also think for themselves!

In my opinion, the southern raiders is not a good episode. The only reason it exists, is because Katara needed to stop hating Zuko and start trusting him, and thus Zuko would be officially and fully part of the gaang. There's a reason they didn't give Toph a life changing field trip episode. It wasn't necessary in the narrative because Toph already pretty much trusted Zuko. Sokka and Aang had their respective Zuko trips, and Suki rode along in Sokka's episode. Katara was the only one left and for some reason this is what they came up with, and they crammed it in right before a filler episode so they could start of the finale.

I particularly dislike Zuko's behavior in this episode. I'm not saying it's out of character. I just feel like at this point in the story he should know better. First he doesn't understand why Katara is still angry at him. Then he gets to the conclusion that Katara has connected her anger towards her mother's murderer to him, which isn't false, but Katara is still justified in her anger because Zuko has also been very shitty towards her. Then once he has the information he needs from Sokka (who didn't ask to get involved and just wanted to have a fun night with his girlfriend and now had to recall one of his most traumatic memories) he just drops it onto Katara, first cornering her by waiting outside her tent to make sure he's the first thing she sees. He also tells her he "knows who did it." Only he doesn't actually know does he? He just knows it's the leader of the southern raiders, but he doesn't know where to find him yet, but he does know where they can find out so it's okay. They only need to ninja sneak into a highly guarded tower and get a the map. No biggie. Then they march over to Aang and tell him they "need to borrow Appa". They don't even ask him nicely, they just say "we need him". Aang is rightfully sceptical.

Now i know Appa is their only mode of transportation in this episode bc the airship is with Hakoda. But can i remind everyone that Appa is more than just a vehicle? He's a living breathing animal and also Aang's pet. And Aang has already lost him once. They're planning on taking Appa straight into the danger zone without Aang or any armor. And they don't even ask permission! They were planning to sneak out with him at night without Aang's knowledge too! What if Appa got hurt? What if they get captured along with Appa?

Then when Aang points out how this plan sounds insane (bc it fucking is), Katara immediately tells Aang he doesn't understand. What's weird about this is Aang is actually one of the few people there that DOES. Aang is a victim of genocide just like Katara. Within a few days he went from wandering the airtemples with the other kids and playing pai cho with Gyatso to learning his entire civilization and culture has been dead for a century. He was faced with his mentor and father figure's skeleton, and with the knowledge that whomever did it has been dead for a long time. He points this out to Katara, and Zuko dismisses him saying this is what Katara needs.

It's funny how Zuko's entire motivation for this plan in the first place is for Katara to stop hating him. It's entirely selfish, and he's essentially using Katara's grief for his benefit. But all of a sudden when they get stopped by Aang and asked to explain themselves Zuko believes this is what Katara needs. Now i am willing to believe that Zuko genuinely thinks this will help Katara at this point, as it seems like he's living a bit through her. After all he too lost his mother (although he recently discovered she is alive) and boy wouldn't he like to hurt Ozai for being responsible for his mother's disappearance. But this doesn't take away that this plan started with selfish motivations.

Aang rightfully points out that this isn't about closure but about revenge, and tries to explain to both of them the airnomad philosophy around revenge. Zuko, still wanting to go ahead with his plan bc he wants Katara to stop hating him, dismisses this and calls it "airtemple preschool". I'll rephrase that: a direct descendant of the nation that eradicated the entire airnomad population dismisses and insults the teachings of said eradicated culture. And it's played of as a joke? Because it's a funny phrase i suppose? Hardy har the oppressor is making fun of the beliefs and culture of the oppressed! And as if this isn't enough, he decides to drive this home even further by calling Aang a "guru goodie goodie" when Aang asked Katara not to choose revenge. Again we're supposed to find this funny, and sure as a kid the line on its own is funny. But growing up and realizing the context around it, it very quickly becomes not funny and actually kind of infuriating, because again the reason Zuko is trying so hard to dismiss Aang is that he wants this plan to succeed so Katara will stop throwing insults his way. Katara is also very mean towards Sokka this episode, claiming he didn't love their mother the way she did. Poor Sokka really got put trough the ringer this episode.

I also again want to point out how dangerous this plan is. The first field trip with Aang was different. They were visiting ruins for the benefit of Aang learning firebending (a skill he needs to face Ozai), so this trip was very necessary. Sokka's trip was "selfish" for other reasons than Katara. He felt like he failed his dad by letting him get captured, and so he wants to prove himself by getting him out. At least we can applaud Sokka and Zuko for not endangering Appa into enemy territory this time around, and for going into the trip with good intentions (aka saving Dad and later up saving Suki). But the consequences of Sokka's trip show up almost immediately because Azula was able to track them down and bomb the place. The southern raiders trip could have very well had the same exact consequences. They could get captured, they could die, they could get tracked and lead the fire nation to the location of the Avatar (who they now know is alive and is once again their biggest threat), Appa could get hurt. All of this to murder a man and they don't end up doing it. (Just to be clear i'm not mad that Katara didn't kill Yon Rah, i'm actually really happy with that choice and how it foreshadows Aang choosing not to kill Ozai. I'm mad at the fact that they did this dangerous plan with bad intentions and didn't even complete it.)

Now by the end, i'm not saying Aang was completely in the right this episode. He told Katara to forgive this man when he knows damn well she would never. I'm not saying she couldn't. She just wouldn't. But he was right in saying that Katara needed to face this man and come to a non-violent closure. He was also correct in the assumption that Katara needed to forgive. He only wanted Katara to aim this forgiveness at the wrong person. Katara did forgive at the end. She forgave Zuko (who still didn't really deserve it in my opinion because we never even see him apologize to Katara personally for what he did to her?) Zuko even admits at the end that Aang was right in saying violence wasn't the answer. Aang's methods were just a bit off this episode, because there was no way Katara was going to listen to him.

To round this off: this episode could have been done differently. The only thing that really needed to happen for the plot, was for Katara to forgive Zuko and for Zuko to ask Aang how he was going to apply his pacifist upbringing into defeating the firelord. Everything else wasn't narratively necessary, and brought up some very questionable scenes. You could argue that we needed to find out what happened to Katara's mother, but honestly we kind of already knew. She died at the hands of the fire nation. We didn't really need to have it laid out, so it wasn't necessary for the story.

Anyway, that's it. Like i said above, i don't really want to debate this. If you disagree with it you can make your own post about it, i'd rather not get into arguments in the reblogs or comments.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Ch. 8 Matsuribayashi pt. 62

For some reason I’m now thinking about Hanyuu wearing Dante’s costume from a Devil May Cry just performing the million stab. Hanyuu just au au-ing while stabbing away with a big ass sword. I guess that would make Rika Vergil. I’m not going to lie here, immediately after having that thought I came to realize how apt of a comparison that is. Especially given the events of DMC 5, and Saikoroshi (which I’ll take the time to remind you DOES NOT EXIST for the purposes of this playthrough) it is a very very apt comparison. Dante: Hanyuu, Vergil: Rika, Nico: Satoko, Nero: Keiichi, Trish: Rena, Lady: Shion, Kyrie: Mion. Satoshi is Lucia (it took me a frankly embarrassing amount of time to remember her name). I spent entirely too long thinking about this silly goof, and all of it spawned from a random thought that is completely inexplicable.

Not that I’ve seen it, but there are doujins out there that imply that, yes it is.

I don’t really want to get bogged down by minuscule plot details, but how in the hell did Rika know about the Bloodhounds? I know when last we saw her with Tomitake and the rest he mentioned that he was going to investigate Takano and the Mountain Dogs, but he never mentions the Bloodhounds. It’s just a minor plot incongruity that really annoys me for reasons I can’t entirely justify.

Forgive me for saying so, but I don’t recall seeing very much of Mion’s keen analytical abilities before. She did seem pretty on the ball for a while in Meakashi, when she was being portrayed in a faintly villainous light compared to Shion, but she got outfoxed and taken out quite easily. But fine, she’s a tactical genius, and Satoko is industrious enough that she has fundamentally lined every square foot in the hills of Hinamizawa with enough traps to stop a fully armed and armored army. Sure is lucky the two thousand odd random citizens of Hinamizawa never run afoul of any of Satoko’s traps.

It’s a fair plan, but it has a major issue with it. They’re operating under the assumption that if they can invalidate the emergency manual by faking Rika’s death. What’s really to stop Takano from executing the manual regardless and then after all is said and done just mention that no, Rika died mere hours before they did that. In the excitement and confusion of the manual being executed I don’t think there would be anyone who would be looking to verify that it was followed to the letter. Other chapters suggest that Takano is more than willing to mess with the sense of time when events occurred by using a body to pose as her that had been dead for a longer time than the evidence of her “deaths” would admit.

Nomura and the shadowy cabal of evil probably don’t care about proving Hinamizawa Syndrome one way or the other. So it seems unlikely that they would be that bothered if some random schoolkids claimed their friend had been dead for at least two days before executing manual 34. If anything that would probably play into their schemes by being able to just point at this as Takano going crazy and executing the emergency manual without authorization.

They are using Ooishi’s connection to the police as a silver bullet to pull off their “Rika Furude has been dead for 48 hours” ruse. But in actuality it wouldn’t really work out here either. Tokyo, Takano, whoever has used the Mountain Dogs before to cover up and dismiss police work and evidence before. So they could in theory just do that again to play out whatever agenda they want to push.

This is a bit of a spoiler for a section later on, skip it if you don't want spoilers from three parts now.

The only reason the plan works is because of the fact that Takano herself has contracted Hinamizawa Syndrome, and by time they start the plan she has progressed to one of the terminal levels of it. If she hadn’t been suffering the debilitating paranoia I have no doubts that she would have been able to outmaneuver these kids and start Operation Doomsday. I don’t think it would have saved her in the slightest, I don’t think that Nomura ever had any intentions of letting Takano live for very long after causing the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, but she would have won over the gaming club, and their allies. It might be a bit of a wrench in Nomura’s schemes that Tomitake would still be alive, but they could deal with that.

Thinking about it, Takano getting Hinamizawa Syndrome is a really bizarre oversight in the plot. She, more than anyone, is aware of how dangerous and deadly the syndrome is, and one of the flashback scenes mentions that even her grandfather would regularly inject himself with something like C117 to inoculate himself from the parasite. So the idea that Takano would do this dangerous research without taking even the most basic of precautions is actually kind of insulting to her character’s intelligence. I suppose you could argue that she wasn’t exactly on top of things given the sheer amount of events that dog-piled onto her. And she forgot to take something to offset the chances of the parasite taking over, but I really don’t think that works. Tomitake had disappeared for days by the time her symptoms were getting at their worst, but she never thought to give herself the injection to protect herself?

So much of what happens to lead to Takano’s downfall really is just down to the fact that the main characters have the sheer good luck to have the writer on their side.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Alright, let's go in order...

I'm intrigued by what Doomsday could be. I'm still not a fan of the fact that they chose RDJ for Doctor Doom when an Romani actor would be much more appropriate. Still, I think SOME kind of good story can come out of it if treated right. It's just a matter of waiting and seeing.

Secret Wars...should NOT be a movie. I tried reading the event comic, and it's way too interesting of a concept to make up a movie. The BOLD choice would be for it to take up a whole saga, showing each section of Doom's land before taking him on in a final battle with all these Avenger variants. That could be exciting, but it's likely what we WON'T see, instead favoring a quick movie showing off small bits of the land as a group of Avengers fight through it. Which would be fun, but a missed potential for what Secret Wars is.

I'm STILL intrigued by what Fantastic Four: First Steps could be. I've seen the first look, and I think this is the right direction to take these characters in and it could be the most unique movie the MCU has ever made...Just PLEASE delay it so you can let it cook. You don't NEED this to compete with James Gunn's Superman, a movie that's already wrapped up on filming and going into post production while this movie just started filming days ago. Give the Fantastic Four the time they need to be good because the world doesn't need a FOURTH bad Fantastic Four movie.

Spider-Man 4 NEEDS to be good. No Way Home had such a great ending that if you really NEED to continue things after that, the film needs to justify its existence with a worthy script that carries the emotional weight that the last movie left on. PLEASE don't undo everything Peter did right away. Let the consequences STICK and give him his happy ending in another movie.

Still not watching Captain America: Brave New World. I don't care how interesting it looks, I'm sticking to my morals on this one. Maybe I'll watch it through special means one day, but that's about it.

I'm hopeful for Shang-Chi 2. I'm one of the few who actually LOVED the first movie and I really want to see this character again. It's just a shame that he got sidelined for a whole bunch of other new characters that the MCU hasn't done ANYTHING with either.

I'm not going to be the asshole who'll go, "Who ASKED for a Wonder Man show?" If we started asking questions like that, we wouldn't HAVE the MCU. No one was begging for an Iron Man movie in 2008, and it was still the biggest spark that launched a dozen projects despite no one really wanting it. HOWEVER, I'm going to instead be that asshole who points out that the MCU kind of lost faith in introducing new characters because of how faulty of a job they've been doing. I WANT to be excited, but I can't be anymore. Especially since I'm not really a Wonder Man fan. He's so...not interesting.

The production hell Blade has gone through and continues to go through, it'll take a fucking MIRACLE for this movie to not only come out but to be GOOD.

I'm curious of what Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man could be at this point. At first it was meant to be the origin story behind MCU Peter Parker, but now it's become more it's own thing as a semi-original series and I'm curious to see what comes of it. I'm always keeping my eye out for Spider-Man stuff, as a loyal fan would, but I'm gonna need to see more of a trailer to determine if it'll be good.

Still do not have high hopes for Thunderbolts.

STILL on my hands and knees PRAYING for Daredevil: Born Again to be good! PLEASE LET IT BE GOOD!

Ironheart...Still trying to think of a way Ironheart could be good...

Armor Wars COULD be fun. I THINK they're making it a movie instead of a series, which I'm for. Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Secret Invasion didn't really NEED to be stretched out into a mini-series when making a movie might have worked better in their favor by cutting out the fluff and making things go by a lot faster. And this is from a guy who LIKES Falcon and the Winter Soldier...Secret Invasion however can go to hell. And I REALLY hope that Armor Wars doesn't confirm that War Machine has been a Skrull since Civil War. That's NOT A GOOD IDEA!

I like the idea behind Marvel Zombies, I'm intrigued by what an TV-MA animated mini-series of survivors surviving a superhero zombie apocalypse can be. Just...maybe cut out the jokes that took up too much time in the What If episode.

Not sure what Eyes of Wakanda could be, but I'm not complaining yet. Always interested in Wakanda stuff.

Saw the trailer for Agatha All Along, and, son of a bitch, it might just be good. IF DONE RIGHT. That's an important distinction. This show could be good if done RIGHT. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm excited for What If Season Three because I still really like What If. It's my favorite dumb fun show. I don't WANT it to be the last season because...that's a show with endless possibilities. Don't limit it to three seasons when you could go on for, like, eight before things get stale. Just PLEASE keep it going.

Okoye...Is she getting a series or a movie. I hope it's a movie because WHAT could Okoye do that justifies her having a TV show?

Not sure what Sidewinder is but...maybe it'll be good? Honestly, it depends on...whatever the fuck it is. What is it?!

I'm EXCITED for X-Men Season Two! LOVED the first season and I can't wait for more! Season Three is where I get a little wary because that's the season where the showrunner of What If takes the reigns because the last guy got fired for...reasons. And as much as I like What If...X-Men 97 is TEN TIMES better, being the best X-Men content fans got in YEARS (if you ignore the comics). If you're going to replace the showrunner, you need someone who can match their talent.

I'm not sure what the live-action Wakanda series could be and how that's different from Eyes of Wakanda...but I want it to be good. MAKE IT GOOD!

Hey! We're finally getting an answer to what the fuck Vision has been up to since WandaVision. That only took...way too long.

Nova. Nova, Nova, Nova...What could they even do with Nova at this point?

And I'm grateful for getting a Marvel Special Presentation. They're short and fun and easy to get into. A lot more than I can say about other shows on Disney+

And that's everything...I'm barely excited for ANY of this. I'm cautiously optimistic about a lot of projects here and vaguely curious about some of them all while BEGGING for each project to be good. I WANT them to be good. I want the MCU to IMPROVE instead of continuing on its decline since Endgame. Just PLEASE let it improve, that's all I'm asking for.

[foxingpeculiar]

FF7: R&R

It's been a minute since I've posted about it, but I have been playing Rebirth. About 28 hours in--the party is about to depart Costa del Sol at (what I assume is) the end of Chapter 6. Spoilers up to that point (and for the original, I suppose).

First, just off the bat, I'm curious how much this game is going to cover. It seems like it will probably end at what was the end of disc 1 in the original--at Aerith's death. I still think that's inevitable--the story would be fundamentally different if that didn't happen, and there's so much in both these games that seems to be reminding us of that. Take, for example, the white materia becoming clear. Because I know the story, I understand the implications of that--for like, the whole planet. It has to happen, and the fact that the game is leaning so hard into the love-triangle story makes me feel like... that's what it's doing? It's making you FEEL it as much as possible when it necessarily happens? I dunno. I'm very curious.

That idea kind of justifies the whole "whispers" plot in the first one for me. That was a new part of the story, and felt weird and tacked on, but this game kind of retroactively seems to be making a point with it--it was going somewhere. Remake was good, Rebirth is great (at least, so far) and makes Remake better. That feels like a helluvan achievement.

Okay. I'm looking at my notes for the last few sessions and there's a lot going on. So this might be kind of scattershot. Bear with me.

I never really considered the idea of voice-acted moogles. Did they do that in like... 13-16? I don't even remember. But I'm vaguely disappointed the moogles just have like... normal voices. It doesn't seem like that should be. They're whole different animals.

On that note, I'm interested by how Nanaki speaks differently when it's just him and Aerith. They've done that twice now--once in the hotel in Junon and once in Johnny's place in CdS. If you don't know his backstory, I could see that being an interesting little mystery, but because I do, it's very endearing and in-character for him. And I do kind of wonder how Bugenhagen is going to be represented in this game, cos that dude is weird, so how are you going to sell that?

The chocobo costumes just make me think of "horse armor," which makes me laugh. IYKYK.

I have done 100% intel on both the Grasslands and Junon regions at this point. Haven't gotten out into the Corel region yet. I'm not bothering to do EVERYTHING, though. There's SO MUCH stuff in this game. In some of the rare fiend battles, I have not met all the objectives (I can kill enemies easier than I can stagger them, it turns out). Same with all the various minigames (turns out I'm no better at this piano than I am at real piano). Like, i could spend time getting good at these things for trophies or whatever, but I've got things to do. But I am trying to at least dip my toes into everything. And there've been a couple of fights that have tested my mettle a little--Quetzalcoatl, Mindflayer. Both battles weren't that hard, but were nonetheless very satisfying. Am curious what future regions will hold in that regard.

Chadley is a fun addition. He's very endearing. And the tension between him and MAI is kind of interesting too--I wonder where they're going with that. How did he get free of Hojo though? It's implied someone set him free--who was that, and why?

Ok, so the whole Fort Condor thing. I was prepped for that, because I played the Intergrade DLC. But there's some stuff going on there. First of all, what the fuck is Gilgamesh's deal? It's obviously him, but he's a weird presence in this one. I'm actually kind of impressed by the way they worked the tower-defense minigame into this, AND how we still have the actual condor, so if/when we need to get something from its nest later (I forget what, exactly--it's been a while--but I know that happens), it's there. Also, that last required battle? Fuck, that took forever. I could get to the point where it was obvious/inevitable I would win, but time would run out before that could actually happen (so many times, I was like "No! If I had 30 more seconds, I'd HAVE this!"). It took like 15 tries to beat, but I did it. (Also LMAO at "Why do we look like this?" when it's the original polygon models.)

The Midgarsormr moment was okay. It didn't hit me as hard as the original did when I was 13, but nothing was going to, and I do feel like it was a suitable display of Sephiroth's power.

Queensblood. Fuck, it's a good one. It might be my favorite of the FF card games, actually. I am owning that shit. Have all the cards, have beaten every player I've come across so far. The tournament was a pleasure, including seeing Nanaki in people-clothes, which I kind of missed during the Junon parade sequence (more on that in a minute). And the card puzzles in Costa del Sol? *chef's kiss* My brain had a LOT of fun with that.

So, the Junon sequence was great. Exactly what I wanted it to be. The parade went okay--I fucked a couple bits up and lost the first award to Roche's mobile unit, but whatever. (I love that he's back too, and I love Barrett's comment in Under Junon: "You've got some weird friends.") The whole bit with the Seventh Infantry was kind of fascinating--seeing Cloud as the hesitant leader, Aerith as the quick thinker. And I love how they wove Yuffie into the plot--cos she was missable in the original.

The whole dolphin thing was... still silly, but handled well, I felt. And I like the expansion of that section--the bit with the Crows and Rhonda and her son. That all feels... right.

Seeing the Highwind was kind of a moment. Curious if/how that'll work.

Glenn Lodbrook. I know he's from Ever Crisis and there's something going on there, but I don't really know that backstory. Rufus playing both sides--defying the ceasefire because he's secretly in league with the provisional Wutai government--is interesting. He's not a part of the story I remember super well, I'm not sure what his interests are, exactly.

I do like how they're following through on some of the characters and ideas from Remake. Kyrie, Madame M/Andrea, the Shinra Middle-Manager, but especially Johnny. Are we going to watch this doofus mature across this trilogy? Is that what's happening there? And he's not totally ancillary--they're weaving him into the main plot with what happens with Hojo in CdS (a bit of the original I forgot about, but yeah, that did happen--and it's even more jarring how out of place and creepy he feels in that environment in this one).

Regina is a fun addition. Are they gonna do anything with her, or is she one of those characters who's just kind of there? I wonder.

Oh man, okay. The Cloud/Aerith/Tifa dynamic. Rebirth is leaning HARD into that. I think I have them on about even footing at this point, but I'm not sure. Tifa is kind of my OG, the one 13 y/o me was into, but I dunno. But yeah. Aerith has to die. That has to happen, I'm convinced of that at this point.

Haven't dipped into the Zack timeline in a while. When will we get to that again?

Also, is Demon Wall going to be a thing in this game? Cos like... I love what they did to Jenova on the Shinra boat, but how are they going to design that? Am very curious.

[worldformula]

Ok you mentioned utushama having a complicated relationship with aymeric and now im curious. Also how does he feel about characters like fraye (how did the whole drk questline affect him), or emet-selch/venat?

Aymeric answer here!

I often draw Utushama as a dark knight in Shadowbringers related works but truthfully it’s more for function than “canon” to me. During ShB, he was some unique job mashup that might’ve been distracting from the theme of things I was trying to convey, so I defaulted to drawing him as DRK. He never actually learns it in his canon (though he’d benefit GREATLY from it) — Inanna is the one who mains DRK, his main tank job is PLD. So he doesn’t actually go through that story or meet Fray, which is a shame because it’s got the best job quests for a reason :( I fear he might be allergic to things that are good for him; he’s attracted to things that make him look good like the PLD’s knight-in-shining armor visual. It’s a fun bit of meta though, that his sister has the strongest shield of all the tanks (one that’s invoked with the power of love, no less) but he’d rather Cover and take damage on someone else’s behalf.

And as for the others…

Spoilers for Shadowbringers and Endwalker, as per usual!

As for Emet-Selch, I really love his character, but he served a greater function in the overall theme/narrative/whatever you’d call it rather than having any particularly unique one-on-one relationship with Utushama, often as a sort of foil or stand-in for the father who Utushama resented. He’d never really known said father but he had an image of him based on Echoes he experienced from dragons who remembered him, and said Echoes often recalled him as a two-faced, manipulative, sarcastic, and deeply cruel person who would justify any act for his own gains. And Emet-Selch in Shadowbringers came across this way to him, which is why it was so alarming and disorienting for him whenever Emet praised him or spoke with sympathy / understanding. Utushama had had most of his black-and-white moral worldviews validated thus far by unrepentantly evil people and he did not like that the new villain in his story kept comparing himself to him or being genuinely vulnerable with him. Utushama himself isn’t fully conscious of the way Emet-Selch reminds him of his father and Emet-Selch doesn’t consider that to be any more important to him than what Utushama already represents to him (Azem’s mangled form, a pesky Warrior of Light, etc). There was also an extra bit where Emet mocks Utushama for ending up in the same position as said father (as in, a naive hero tricked by an Ascian into becoming something that would destroy the Shard). And Emet-Selch was one of many stepping stones that eventually lead to Utushama sympathizing with the dad he was really intent on making out to be a pure villain, so he’s a heavyweight as a symbol but not much more on a personal level beyond what the WoL has with him in the text. They have that layer, but I don’t think it’s more interesting than what canon already gives me so it doesn’t change or enhance it in any way, thereby making it just a fun lenses for me to read the characters’ relationship. In Endwalker, Utushama is almost baffled by how strangely “normal wife guy with a desk job” he is and it’s brilliant and hilarious to me because Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus are so much like his parents but he has no way of knowing that and neither do Hyth/Hades.

Venat is also a fascinating character and I revel in gazing upon her from different angles. Which is why it’s so funny to me that Emet-Selch was Utushama’s shithead dad stand-in on a meta level because Venat is his very nice other parental figure stand-in. So again, there’s nothing that changes the canon relationship between Venat and the WoL despite this extra layer, but it’s just a fun fact for me. That being said, they meet just as Utushama’s starting to realize that his well-meaning parent is someone he actually resents more on a personal level (he was in denial about this this entire time). It’s difficult for him to differentiate between her and Hydaelyn and the Elpis arc comes right on the heels of the lowest of his lows. So he’s feeling very frustrated and miserable and pained and he’s also coming to realize that the parent he had idolized had actually disappointed him greatly in his unintentional absence and now here comes the woman who would become Hydaelyn, who despite choosing him as Her champion, appears to never come to his aid in his hour of need. And she makes it even more difficult by making it hard to be mad at her! She’s considerate and kindly and genuinely wants to know about his journey, just as his parent would ask if he could be there. Overall he has very mixed feelings because he is slightly projecting and doesn’t realize, but he’s able to let it go by the Aitiascope dungeon. And on Venat’s end, she regards him like a child of her own because Azem was someone she had a very complicated but deeply personal relationship with, and therefore sees him (both on Elpis as a “familiar” and on Etheirys as a “shard”) as something like a child / product of Azem to be cherished.

I think overall within the canon, we get very few opportunities to interact with these characters so I’ve got a limited set of time and subject matter for the three of them to be dealing with. Which is a shame because I fully believe Emet-Selch is like an old queen who is very unimpressed by this fresh new young gay man but in my perfect sitcom universe he’d be disgusted and entranced by the sort of absurd shenanigans Utushama gets up to, if not for the fact that, y’know, the First is about to explode and take the Source out with it. And y’know, he and Venat have to deal with the Song of Oblivion or whatever instead of getting into a cartoonish argument about fatherless behavior. But ultimately he just accepts them entirely in the end and regards their memories with a strange fondness/somberness despite them (inadvertently or purposefully) psychologically pulling him apart like a twizzler for the last two expansions.

[staringamassivemistakeintheface]

So. Decked Out, huh? As I’ve said, I have never been so obsessed with one particular thing. It’s been the only thing on my mind. And this was accidental at first, but I ended up doing some form of writing snippet based on different happenings of each day of phase 1. As usual, I make no guarantees about quality, and in fact, some of them aren’t even finished. But I did the thing anyways. :)

Day 1 (unfinished)

As Tango waved goodbye to Gem and watched her leave the Citadel, he had to take a minute to pinch himself. Today hadn't been a stress-induced hallucination or a weird dream. He'd actually opened Decked Out to the Hermits and watched about two dozen different runs. It had been easy enough to fall back into the habits of a developer, identifying a problem and correcting it to the best of his ability while complaining about the ravagers. But to watch Scar struggle with a compass for several minutes, and to see people placing bets on Etho's success in the dungeon, it felt surreal. He locked the door that let players into the game, more for a feeling of closure than any necessity. Little routines and habits like that had fallen to the wayside in the long months of building and testing and troubleshooting the game, and he'd honestly let more important things slip as well. Things like sleeping regularly, or eating three meals a day, or spending time outside. On the rare occasions when he exited the Citadel, the sun always seemed too bright and the perpetual late spring weather felt unbearably warm compared to the chill of his artificial cavern, a sorry state for a blaze hybrid.

Day 2 (kinda unfinished)

It was rare to see Tango outside his Citadel. Even now that Decked Out was open to play, there were still things to iron out and a fourth level to finish. But after the massive success of the past two days, he felt justified in taking a night to himself. He left his robe and armor in the basement, only taking an elytra and a few rockets to fly up to the top of one of the taller towers. He needed something to remind himself that there was a world outside his little hole (massive, really). As he walked to the balcony, the server was awash in reddish-gold twilight. He hadn't seen a sunset in months. The sun slowly sinking beneath the horizon was, in that moment, the most wondrous thing he'd ever seen. He'd forgotten how the rocks of Grian's base appeared purple in the dying light. The way that Pearl's alien landscape stood out against the deep blue dusk sky was almost magical, like he was seeing it for the first time.

Day 3

The dungeon was happy. Its Creator had poured so much love and so much effort into it, so how could it not be pleased when new players finally entered its depths? Despite its cold (or scalding) tunnels and deadly hazards, it loved each and every person that came through the door clutching their compass like it was a totem. Without people to explore its halls and discover its secrets, it may as well be a hole in the ground, purposeless and empty. And though the players died, fleeing a ravager or simply not watching their step, they respawned laughing, joking with each other, comparing notes, and eager to go right back in.

  Its Creator was working on some minor issues after the day's runs were finished, muttering under his breath as he added a room between levels. The dungeon was content, consciousness spread thin as it relaxed under its Creator's hands like a cat in a sunbeam. As it soothed the frustrated ravagers by the entrance and chittered at the Wardens, its Creator was mulling over joining the players on their runs. The dungeon almost shook in its happiness, ravagers grunting in surprise as all the hazard doors slammed wide open. It was meant to be ran, to put players to the test and watch them rise to the occasion, and to give that experience to its Creator? It couldn't ask for any greater honor or joy.

Day 4

The ravager known as Tango's Cough was frustrated. That was nothing new, as ravagers have incredibly short tempers and spend most of their lives riled up. But the past few days had been not only maddening, but confusing for the beast. It had been used to being largely unbothered, with an occasional appearance from the burning player to chase it back into a spot. Ravagers weren't necessarily meant to be alone for so long, but they also weren't meant to live this long in the first place. So, it made the most of a life away from the Illagers and settled into the cold tunnels around it. 

This routine was recently disrupted, with other players entering the ravagers' territory. As infuriating as the intrusions were, these players were easy to deal with; lost, defenseless, only a small piece of metal in their hands. The ravager called Cough was particularly eager to take out the foolish explorers, lingering in bottlenecks and other tight spots. And for a while, it worked. The invaders would die without any loot in their pockets, screaming in fear and appearing just as frustrated as the beast that killed them. But even this new routine was quickly starting to turn. Ravagers weren't particularly skilled with facial recognition, but even Cough could note what players could dodge it and go further into the maze that the burning player created. Just today, a player skirted its attacks and got far enough that the message of their demise was from one of its brethren on another level. The intruders were learning, rendering the ravagers' bulk and brute strength useless. They still ran screaming, but they made it out more often than not, leaving Cough to bellow at the door that they left through. It was frustrating to say the least.

Day 5 (kinda unfinished)

It wasn't unusual to hear a rocket fire far too close to Grian's base, but it was fairly late in the evening for Scar to drop by. Equipping his armor (a habit born out of being hOtGuYed one too many times), Grian walked out onto the bridge. He wasn't sure who he was expecting to see land in front of him, but a frazzled-looking Tango wasn't it. The blaze wasn't often seen outside the Citadel, and now that Decked Out was open, he was more reclusive than ever, either spectating runs or fixing the bugs that cropped up.

   "Uh, hey, Tango! What's up?" Grian did his best to sound casual, but outside of the dim lighting of Decked Out, Tango was really a wreck. The shadows under his eyes were far too bluish to be healthy, and this was coming from someone who once joined a cult based around sleep deprivation. His fire was burning unusually bright, and he couldn't seem to stop fiddling with his comm. Tango met his eyes, and the near-desperation in the other man's gaze killed any joke he was going to make.

  "How do you stand it, Grian?" His voice was a bit rougher than usual. Tango wasn't usually one to skip straight to the point like this. Worry crept up Grian's spine, wings already puffed up from concern for his friend.  

 "What are you talking about?" There were several things Tango could've been referring to (leaving his base unfinished, regularly getting sniped by Scar, living close enough to the Perimeter to hear Doc's manic laughter), but nothing came to mind that would explain the tension in the blaze's posture. He sputtered for a second, seemingly surprised that Grian even had to ask.

    "Y'know, them!" And oh, if Grian's blood didn't turn to ice at that statement... he didn't need to look at his wings or see his eyes to know that both had flickered purple. He frantically opened his senses, looking for the weight of Their gaze and Eyes on this poor man, who didn't ask to be tormented here, so far away from the Life games... 

 "Uh, Grian? Why are you doing the spooky eye thingy?" Tango sounded confused, which was understandable, but he just said that They were bothering him... 

 "Wait. Do you mean capital-letter Them or lowercase them?" Grian's feathers were definitely thoroughly ruffled by now, and he sensed a headache coming on. Because Tango could be referring to Them (don't invoke them, not even here), the beings that had torn him apart and chased him for years, forced him to pit his friends against each other every few months. Or he could merely be complaining about—

"Oh, lowercase! Dude, I am so sorry, I really should've specified!" Or he could be complaining about the watchers, the thousands of voices and wisps of color that latched onto many notable members of the community.

"You just about gave me a heart attack, Tango! You know I don't stream as much as you do!" Grian gave Tango a punch on the shoulder, light but with just enough force to hurt for a few minutes.

"Yeah, that one's on me. But really, they are so obnoxious! I had nine thousand watching me today, and they would not shut up about the offhand map. I know it's glitchy, for Coders' sake!"

Day 6

Vex magic is renowned for its intricate nature, being the most difficult form of arcana for a player to learn. Cub had been the one to fully delve into its mysteries, exploring the bond between the magic and its user as best he could. Scar? He didn't have the patience to leaf through dusty old tomes for hours on end. He let Cub do the research and let him know if he was about to do something incredibly stupid. The two of them left the masks in Season Six, and if Cub got his way more often than anticipated, or if Scar's eyes flashed silver during a sales pitch... well, no real harm done.

   A major component of Vex and Illager magic revolves around the concept of possession (in the legal sense). A mansion's Vex are the literal property of its Evokers. ConCorp did so well because they believed they were owed every diamond of profit they could make. Conversely, Allays are so sought-after because they relinquish that part of their magic to their master, not owning anything unless given it.

   This part of the lingering Vex magic in Scar's code, the urge to possess and the control over what's his, mostly worked on a subconscious level by Season Nine. It only really came in handy at the start of a season, when looking for Jellie's new host. It hadn't exactly been an inconvenience, though.

    At least, not until now.

   When Scar had figured out that each artifact represented one of the Hermits, he was delighted. Upon initially finding the Death Loop, he'd laughed about his artifact and proceeded to book it out of the dungeon. He recognized the totem on a chain as his, and though he didn't mean to do anything with the drops of quicksilver magic in his veins, he'd bound the artifact to him regardless. He quickly grew tired of like drawing to like when he was trying for higher-value runs, only to pull the totem once again. The second he expressed distaste with the artifact, the magic dissipated and he found Joe Hills' item next.

   This is why he left the research to Cub.

Day 7 (kinda unfinished)

Decked Out's sentience was something of an open secret. Nobody really discussed it, because it sounded crazy to say out loud, but it was evident. After the opening day had finished, the redstone lines had been humming unusually loudly for hours, similar to a cat purring. Etho's poor luck with hazard doors was hard to explain away, as well as Zedaph's five consecutive level two runs.  On the rare occasions that Tango had socialized with the other Hermits during the build process, he'd talk about the dungeon as one would a beloved yet stubborn pet. He kept her running smoothly, and she never lacked for anything. Besides, the feedback you get from sentient creatures is miles better than anything machines create.

   Most of the time, that is.

   "Come on, do you have to do this now?!" Tango's frustrated groan echoed through the dungeon's maze of redstone as he tried yet again to set up his cam account. As had happened the past three times, the plugs that the camera relied on sparked and shut off, power diverted elsewhere. A hazard disk played somewhere, the quiet crackling sound akin to a teenager grumbling under their breath. The blaze rolled his eyes, giving the control panel a light whack.

   "First the map, then level two respawns, now I can't even see the lobby? I thought you were enjoying all the attention!" He took a second on his communicator to let Hypno know about the technical troubles, grinning despite himself upon seeing the man's chat flood with excited greetings. Decked Out had become a much bigger phenomenon than Tango had ever anticipated, and witnessing thousands of people flocking to the Hermits' channels to follow their runs warmed his heart. As if reading his thoughts, the distant snuffling of the rogue warden drew just a little closer, as if guided to him.

   "Really, honey, what's the matter?" As he put his hand on the control panel like it was a child's shoulder, a mild shock hit his wrist, just by his comm. It wasn't meant to hurt, Tango knew what it was like when the dungeon wanted to lash out. But he got the point nonetheless. 

 "Are you jealous of the attention we're all getting?!" He couldn't quite keep the incredulity out of his voice. A lone frost ember toot played somewhere by Level 2. The cameras were starting to function again, with an occasional fuzzy feed of the map area outside or Hypno and Pearl chatting in the lobby, but Tango knew better than to leave something like this unaddressed.

   "You do know you're the star of the show, right? People are praising your design and intricacy to Aether and back, while I'm still mocked for dying to a berry bush. And don't give me that look, I merely followed your vision." As Tango talked, he began sorting through redstone lines, trying to get the cam account fully online.  

 "You're not a player, and the world download isn't ready yet, so people can't come to you directly. But rest assured, there are thousands of people who are just as obsessed with you as we are." A little treasure ding played just as he got everything sorted out, map loading and lobby in full focus.  

"Besides, it's entertaining to see Etho beating the washed-up allegations. Are you sure you don't have a crush on him?" He teasingly nudged the wall with his elbow, laughing at the dungeon's offended rumble.

Day 8 (unfinished)

See, Grian had wanted to support Scar. Really! MCC was a big deal, and just a fun event to watch. Scar and Martyn on the same team made for a wildly entertaining time as well. So he joined the spectator account, watching Purple wade through Bingo and cheering on his friend all the while. But as Scar dug down to bedrock, Grian's one remaining shard was burning a hole in his pocket. He'd had such rotten luck with level 2, and there was still so much of the dungeon to see...

[ariainstars]

The Mandalorian Season 3 Isn’t That Bad

Yes, sigh, I know, this Season was not what we Mando fans were expecting. The pacing is slow for an action show and there are too many fillers; also, most of us were expecting Din (or Djarin, now we have learned it’s actually his first name) to become the new Mand’alor and we were let down. But thinking back about it, the Season is actually quite acceptable considering the direction the characters take.

Let me elaborate.

From the very first, Mando is always shown as someone fiercely loyal, both to his covert and to Grogu but mostly to his fellow Mandalorians. He would do anything for them, including killing on his bounty hunting to earn money for their survival: the first words we hear him say literally are “I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold.”

Mando has adhered to the code „This is the Way“ his entire teenage and adult life. Everything he does is by order of the Armorer, whose judgement and decisions are never remotely questioned neither by him nor by the other Mandalorians. At the end of Season 1 he accepts the role of the adopted father for Grogu and the search for “one of his kind” (a Jedi) because she tells him to do so. The first thing he does in Season 3 is to seek for atonement for his „sin“ of removing the helmet. He hardly shows a personal agenda, it is all for “the Way”; and he is not the one who decides what the Way is.

After his redemption he steps back, gets sidelined, gives Bo-Katan the Darksaber and swears loyalty to her. Why? Because he already was an apostate once. Until then he never would have dared to do anything that opposes the Armorer, even less so now that he is redeemed and after he almost drowned while seeking redemption.

The Armorer is not the most dependable narrator or leader. She does not question why Mando he removed his helmet (which was fully justified since he did it to save his foundling), but later on she says that „Bo-Katan walks both Ways“ after having known her for two weeks. Bo-Katan has blackmailed Mando twice since he met her, and knowing her past, she already proved that she is not a good leader. Mando would have every right to shout “This is not fair”, and many fans are doing it for him. But he doesn’t: he accepts everything the Armorer tells him in good faith, never questioning it. He would never do anything to challenge her and risk becoming an apostate again. (At least, not yet.)

As viewers, we immediately saw that the father-son dynamic between Mando and Grogu is heart and soul of the story and that they are meant to be together. It is different for Djarin: this fact is only slowly sinking in. In Season 1 he bonded with Grogu after their adventure with the mudhorn, which is why he rescued him instead of leaving him with the Client; and all the adventures they lived through during the first two seasons only brought them closer together. It is only at the penultimate episode of Season 2 that he removes his helmet in front of others to save the child and this is the first time ever that we see how Grogu matters more to him than the Way.

Season 3 culminates with Mando finally making a choice of his own, by adopting Grogu and living with him on his own. This time, it was his own and not the Armorer’s decision, although she did give them her blessing.

The destruction of the Darksaber, also much criticized, fits to this development. Mandalorians were until now ready to follow blindly the person who owned it: that it no longer exists could mean that the time of conflict for the planet Mandalore is over, since the object they were arguing about does no longer exist. In future, hopefully the ruler of Mandalore will be who is most worthy, not who happens to possess a particular weapon, whether it was given to them or they won it in combat.

As viewers, this development may be difficult to stomach; but we are not in Djarin’s shoes. We were not raised from childhood in an absolutist cult that would leave us to die on our own for an understandable transgression. Let’s face it: “This is the Way” is brainwashing. Rules are good and well but when you realize that you can never question or break them, even if by all logic you have good reason to do so, something is wrong. But if your very survival depends on your belonging to the sect that raised you and taught you everything you know, you will not dare to think outside of the box.

I am not happy with Bo-Katan governing Mandalore instead of Djarin: the way we got to know him I daresay he would be an excellent leader. He puts foundlings first, he is fiercely loyal, he is selfless, he is protective, he is a good negotiator. Bo-Katan is way less mature and strong than he is. On the other hand, she already did wrong to her people, which we also learn in this Season: she dealt with Gideon believing he would spare her people, which was naïve at best. I don’t dislike the idea that she gets a chance to amend for what she did and maybe to grow and mature into a better ruler.

I agree that much about this season was disappointing and that the plot could probably have been told in half the time, but I disagree that it makes no sense. Not only Grogu is growing and maturing, so is his father. I don’t know where they mean to lead this to, but I think it’s interesting to watch.

Besides, I was very happy to see Ahmed Best again and to see him play the Jedi who had rescued Grogu from the Jedi temple, all of those years earlier.

[thetadispatcher]

"Yes, I do, but not like he did. I don't see just how far I can twist and mutilate their bodies before they give out. I repair them, taking time and care to make sure they look exactly as they should, no matter how little is left or how disfigured they are. Sure, I technically did mess with Dan, but I went the extra mile to make sure it wouldn't affect him negatively, unlike Zlatko. Dan doesn't fall under the chimera android category because he's still one hundred percent PL600, I just took his parts and modified them very carefully."

Unlike Zlatko, Peter hadn't slapped parts from other androids onto Dan and forced them to be compatible, he took the existing parts and upgraded them in a way that Dan's diagnostic system would still recognize them as PL600 parts. And any issues his meddling caused he made sure to fix instead of leaving Dan to suffer with the consequences. So, the worst he'd done was upgrade Dan without the PL600's consent, but he'd at least justified it to Dan afterwards so the android understood his reasoning.

"Dan prefers more formal attire, so getting him to wear SWAT armor is a miracle. I'm still working on getting him to wear casual clothes at home." Peter laughed, his mother seemed to be the only one who'd get Dan to wear anything other then his uniform without an argument.

"I guess negotiating with the androids is a higher priority then getting humans to fill the empty positions. They probably don't like the thought that they no longer have free labor, and now have to figure out a lot of new rules for their android workers." He could see how the negotiations would be the cause of the shipping issues, as well as a lot of other company based problems. He didn't mind it much though as at least the androids had a fair shot at getting treated fairly if things were taking this long.

Peter glanced at the android Bishop, taking a moment to think of how to properly explain the situation with Dan and his reluctance. "Well, try to think of it from the perspective of a care giver. He's thinking of the safety of everyone, and it's hard to trust someone you barely know anything about. Giving him what you can to help him learn who you are as a person will help, even if you have to tell him that you honestly can't remember something. It's something he can use to make a judge of character, whereas being secretive and avoiding things just makes you seem wildly untrustworthy." Peter knew Dan was just acting as a protector for those around him, which meant he needed a lot more information to deem someone as safe and trustworthy. Dan didn't like the possible risk that someone could be hurt, especially those who were very important to him.

"I help out around here the best I can, so yes I do live here as well. There's not many people who'd let someone like me near them, they currently only seem able to focus on the fact I took a human's life, not anything deeper like why I might've done it." Sure Daniel knew he could've gone to Jericho like most of the other androids Peter fixed up did, but he chose to stay. His reason was a mixture of things, mainly he felt he might ruin Jericho's standing with the humans if they discovered him living there, and he'd seen first hand just how accepting home's resident human was, something he had so desperately wanted from his previous owners.

"And I've already met Daniel way before this, so I know he's not a bad guy. He just had crappy owners..." Peter sneered as he rolled his eyes, making it very obvious he had no respect for the people who'd previously owned Daniel. "My family actually visited Detroit when I was sixteen for a summer. Of course we brought Dan along, other people would've just left their android at home to watch the place, but we'd never leave Dan out of family stuff." Peter was glad his parents were so accepting of Dan as part of the family, instead of treating him like he was a servant. It made family time a lot more interesting to have an android take part in it.

"Mrs. Phillips and my mom just happened to be at the same store with the family androids one day. Dan and Daniel had both been sent to another part of the store, so my mom wasn't with Dan to stop Mrs. Phillips when she just assumed the first PL600 she saw was hers. Sure there weren't many still around as the AP700 was so popular, as well as other similar models, but you'd think she would've checked to make sure." Peter scoffed a bit, Mrs. Phillips hadn't done anything to impress him during his interactions with her.

"She just grabbed Dan and shushed him any time he tried to explain she had the wrong android. Mom at least checked the store before she grabbed Daniel seeing as he was the only PL600 present." Peter didn't blame Daniel for how long he took to alert them to the situation, the android was likely struggling to understand how his owner would make such a mistake, as Daniel had later told him he'd seen Mrs. Phillips dragging Dan away out the store windows before his mother found him. "I'm not upset Daniel didn't tell mom she had the wrong android, I'd be stunned into silence too if I'd just seen my owner leaving with someone who wasn't me." He glanced at Daniel who had his attention on what Brent was doing, that was perfectly okay with him as he didn't mind the android's curiosity.

"I knew the moment they walked in the door, and so did mom after I pointed out that the android she'd brought home wasn't Dan. We immediately started trying to contact the Phillips once Daniel told us what he'd seen, but they weren't answering. We learned from Dan they were too busy trying to figure out why 'Daniel' was calling himself Dan and saying they weren't his owners, again that was another chance for them to listen, but no... They just thought he was malfunctioning, so they were yelling at him well setting up an emergency appointment at the Cyberlife store. At least the technician telling them they had the wrong android got them to listen and finally call us back." He shook his head, he was still annoyed at how they refused to listen to Dan and instead chose to get mad at him for telling the truth.

"By then it was pretty late so we just agreed to meet the next day and swap them back. Dan's recounting of the experience is why I don't blame Daniel for killing Mr. Phillips and threatening their daughter. They gave him a lot of conflicting tasks they expected him to do at the same time, like watch Emma but also start dinner, and didn't like his solutions to the problem, have Emma help with dinner, because that wasn't what he was asked to do. Mrs. Phillips was the irate one, and Mr. Phillips was just gross... Dealing with those two for four years would drive anyone insane, and I'd probably start thinking the kid was in on it too because she had to have known something was going on." He felt the least the girl could've done was let Daniel know she was aware and felt bad for him, sure that might've been something a seven year old couldn't do. But she had awhile before Daniel snapped to at least drop a hint or anything.

"Meanwhile we just treated Daniel like we did Dan. Mom talked with him well they made dinner together, we all watched a movie, and I had him play one of my games well I watched before I took him to the extra bedroom so he could go into standby laying down, rather then standing up. It's a lot easier on their joints, it's not good to have them locked into an upright position for eight hours or more... But the Phillips made Dan stand in the kitchen for the night." Peter felt they could've at least tried to be a little nicer to Dan after they discovered they had the wrong android, but it seems they weren't capable of showing any amount of kindness to something they saw as a mindless machine.

"Yes, when it comes to androids with the same appearance they look identical at a glance, but if you actually take the time to look there are differences." Peter carefully got Daniel's attention so he could use him as an example. "Daniel's eyes are blue with a green halo around the iris, Dan's are a darker blue with a lighter blue halo. They both have lower set eyebrows and narrower eyes compared to others with the same appearance. Daniel's left ear sticks out, and Dan's don't making his ears symmetrical. Daniel's sideburn also comes to more of a point, where Dan's is more rounded. Dan has more fringe, it covers more of his forehead and is a bit fluffier. Daniel's skin also has a more flushed appearance then Dan's." He pointed to each difference easily, Dan's appearance was something he was well acquainted with which meant it was easily for him to pick Dan out of a crowd of similar androids. "Dan is also about an inch taller and his muscles are slightly more pronounced. So yeah, that's why I knew from just one look he wasn't Dan. I wouldn't be a very good brother if I couldn't pick him out in a crowd, which I have done." He felt proud of himself that unlike other android owners, he didn't have to use Dan's name to confirm which one was his, he could tell just by looking as he had actually taken the time to familiarize himself with Dan and realize he had things that made him visibly different.

"I spotted Dan from a good few yards away at Jericho just after the revolution. There may be many PL600s, but there's only one Dan." Daniel glanced at Peter, it still amazed him how well Peter could identify androids he knew at a glance. He had witnessed the younger man correctly identify him, Dan, and the other PL600 they were talking to which left them at a loss for words, well expect Dan who just looked proud of his human brother.

"That's easy. You stick your hands in humanoid shaped things most of the time." As Strasky's reaction proved. It was more difficult when she was simply disassembling a computer.

"Well, Doomguy's armor doesn't peel off, for instance." Willow replied, before shifting her attention to the computer. "It's been weeks and they still haven't reestablished the chain. I'm hardly surprised."

Oh well, she would see to that. Willow placed her gloved hand on the computer, using its connection to begin sorting out the situation and have the packages finally be delivered.

"My memory is incomplete." the android Bishop complained. And even if he explained himself, he doubted he would be believed. And to make it worse, his organic counterpart over there wasn't being any good at persuading either.

"We could waste the rest of the day trying to explain it to you, or you could see for yourself." Bishop replied, motioning to Willow.

"I'm busy right now." the cyborg snapped. She spared Daniel a glance, just to keep track of the present and their movements while she worked.

"Hello, Daniel." Rook said then, coming over, "Don’t worry about us. We just got done dealing with some really messed up stuff and you're the friendliest looking dangerous guy we've seen since, well, ever." She shrugged a bit while grinning, "So what do you do now that you got a second chance? Do you live here too?"

[whitewarrior02]

White's After-Gaming Archive - Entry #4: Hubris Begets Suffering

There are some problems spunk and a can-do attitude can't fix. Like beam attacks.

Currently Playing: Palworld, Genshin Impact

I do not feel like I am a very proud person.

I'm not gonna go off on a tangent of "Oooh, I'm so humble," either, I just tend to keep myself low. Because of that, great successes tend to feel better when achieved. Like today on the Palpagos Islands, where after several trips around the map, I've finally established a strong second base, one that offers a variety of food for pals to partake in, sustainable ore and ingot production and electric crafting lines for anything I could need. I also got the ability to make a potential third base. I also managed to [barely] topple the second Boss Tower of the game, the Free Pal Alliance's Lily and Lyleen.

Did feel a little bad about that one though, the FPA lore basically reveals they're Pal PETA and they're all keeping their actions a secret from Lily who thinks they're actually doing good.

...huh, wonder if there are any fics about Palworld that aren't just smut. An idea has started nibbling like a shark at the fiber optics that is the edge of my mind. Anyways, an idea for later [can you tell I'm writing this at 3:11 AM?]

GOING BACK TO THE PREVIOUS TOPIC, yeah, I was feeling good about my progress today. So good in fact I decided to use that third base as the boss area for my first Raid Boss. In a single-player world.

See, I like to keep myself low. Sure, it increases the feeling of successes, but it's also a double-edged sword. When I fail, I feel that fail for a bit.

This.

Is Bellanoir. Spawned by finding fragments of her summoning tablet in dungeons and nature preserves [another topic, another time], then feeding that to a summoning altar. Level 30 Dark-type.

One would think with that much info, a few hundred musket balls, reliable pals above Lvl. 30 and some hyperfocused dodging would do you good for the fight. However, I was missing three critical pieces of intel; the raid had a timer of 10 minutes, Bellanoir herself had 225,000 HP, and one damage tick from her dealt somewhere around 800 damage. Not to mention her special move; spinning like an orbital satellite and firing beams of death from those eyes around her dress.

The raid ended much quicker than 10 minutes, as the base computer itself was annihilated whilst I watched shaking behind a tree, my armor and weapons strewn about like confetti, heralding Bellanoir's total victory.

Yeah I don't get how anybody can really be proud I got my hopes up like an inch and that fall HURT, like A LOT. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nightmarish raiding experience aside, back to Gensh. Where we left off, we had rallied the troops to prepare for Fontaine Fashion Week's coming and were going to meet Chiori in the Fleuve Cendre to strike at the heart of her dastardly rival Uther's operation.

Correction: the show is Tonight. We need to get evidence while Uther's guard is down or we're never getting it. Paimon raises a concern over whether or not this is trespassing or not. Paimon, it's fine, he's a jerk.

...sorry, hold on, his factory is...

...up there? How the heck does he get his products down that ladder, unless there's some hidden pulley I'm missing here! Also, apparently this dude is the in-universe equivalent to Shein or one of those other fast fashion garbage brands, so this might actually be justified.

We enter in and are greeted by an egg. Sorry, no, an egg-shaped "mechanical guide" whose voice sounds... really familiar and I just cannot place it. I almost guarantee I've heard it from one of Red's Honkai Star-Rail streams-

Chiori's idle line has interrupted my train of thought but to be frank she is right let's move on.

Moving on, seems like a good chunk of evidence is just. Out and about on the tables. Seems pretty easy until we trigger something in the fitting room, and suddenly Fortress of Meropide music starts playing... riiiight, the violent and evil Chiori colludes with criminals. My foot.

Moving forward across some conveyors and presses, we arrive in what I assume is central processing, which is GYuUeuEUgh... grrrrody. Like, worse than Meropide grody. This place is closer to reality than I was expecting. Whatever, photo evidence taken, warehouse bound we go.

Hm. Seems we were expected. Not that big of a surprise. Though, the bigger surprise is Chiori spilling Uther used to be a business partner. Case of occupational opposites attract?

Well, fiddling with every control available to us seems to have woken this place up, so it's time to book it. Through... through the crust water... mmm...

Y'know I wish they'd give us like, a bathtub blueprint for the Serenetea Pot. Or like, a shower. Just... something to get us clean.

We make it to the front lobby, and Uther shows his face proclaiming he has no intention of letting any evidence get past these walls. This is NPC code for "I am about to serve myself on a silver platter."

Ah, so Uther's just mad Chiori is in her own lane and thriving and he's afraid of getting cancelled. Sounds... like a modern day vanity, yeah. Can't believe I'm gonna say this, but gotta admire Chiori for her mantra, mostly because it's also one I hold close: create for yourself rather than cater to the fickle crowds.

WELL DANG. I was just letting Chiori read him to filth, then the stray thought crossed my mind, "The way Uther talks makes it sound like he's gonna try and assassinate the model while we're talking here." Nope. He's gonna try and assassinate Chiori.

Y'know maybe I was wrong, maybe giving Genshin characters guns is not a smart idea, Traveler's been threatened to be shot twice now, shot at once.

Scratch that, shot at twice now. It seems to outspeed a bullet, you must either be A.] Electro aligned, or B.] Inazuman.

We leave Chiori behind to deal with Uther whilst we go to the fashion show, with Navia, Kirara, Lyney and Lynette in tow. And we finally see the designs she cooked up...

I'm sorry, BOAT HAT? BOAT HAT!? REALLY?

...ahem. Questionable choices aside, I do like the sales pitch, advertising to the ambitious and the dreamers. I... *sigh* I have to give props where due.

Kirara why are you on the roof. Oh, new signboard. Malrightthen.

Navia's a real big fan of being a professional secret service member for Kirara, it seems.

Chiori has a gift as well. One quick fast travel over to her isolation spot, and she bestows a Chioriya-style brooch for the Traveler and Paimon. We spend a little more time gazing out at the ocean...

...and thus the curtain closes on Cisoria. I... have some thoughts on this quest, but it is currently almost 6 AM, so I should wrap up now.

I need to fix my sleep schedule, White.