#...none of these characters are people. absolutely nothing in this game is literal

[dellerose]

[cracks knuckles]

TENNA DELTARUNE TUMBLR SEXYMAN PROPAGANDA TIME

Spoilers for Deltarune ahead, obviously.

Now, none of this is meant as disrespect to Cecil Palmer, an absolute OG of Tumblr Sexymen, but rather because I saw some people calling Tenna a "trend hopper" or an "industry plant." I want to prove why Tenna is here to stay in the Sexyman ecosystem and why he might deserve a chance to win!

First, his design!

Tenna seems pretty standard of a sexyman--an objecthead, specifically a TV head, with a suit and tie and sometimes some fangs. But his charm in his design isn't from that alone, it's from the fact he's 3D using an old classic technique common to the SNES era, called billboarding!

We see in his introduction cutscene he has a 3D model and then as the intro fades out... he stays 3D! He constantly moves in this bouncy squash and stretch manner. (And he's also the first and ONLY Deltarune character to get his own intro like this! He's breaking ground for the game!)

Second, his personality!

Tenna is ultimately a character marked by a profound sense of loneliness which touches the heart of players of Deltarune. He ultimately tries to act in service of others, doing anything to please them, while also hiding his motives to keep others with him at all costs. This culminates in a heel turn in the final act of Chapter 3 (which is when we first see his fanged sprite). What I'm saying is, this man is menacing but also very pathetic. Absolutely sopping wet. Which is prime material for a bunch of Tennaheads to look at him and go "I can fix him" and selfshipping is VITAL to Tumblr sexymen. Even if you don't selfship, I have seen this man shipped with so many Deltarune characters and being dragged to and fro. It is wonderful.

Third, his tragic backstory!

For those unaware, in Deltarune, there's these pillars of darkness called Dark Fountains which give a special magical form to objects in the normal world (called the Light World), giving a will and ability to speak and interact to objects that people in the Light World interact with. Tenna is the TV in the living room for the Dreemurr household, the household of the main protagonist, Kris, and their family of Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel. If you're familiar with Undertale, you know Toriel and Asgore split before the story began, and the same is true of Deltarune! Tenna witnessed enough fights and conflicts that he reflects it in his dialogue. He witnessed a divorce so bad it gave him, a literal TV, trauma... especially because he served as a distraction and coping mechanism for Kris, it seems.

The divorce was so bad, even the TV got divorced.

Wait, what? Tenna is DIVORCED?

And now we get to my final propaganda summary, Tenna is heavily implied (which in a Toby Fox game is basically canon because he uses implication to mean something rather than to shy away from it like other writers) to have formerly been married to Spamton, who hilariously is ALSO in this competition.

Uh, nothing I say will be as good as just showing you the supercut. It's pretty bad.

And this cut is missing a few things! It's Pretty Bad.

In summary. Tenna is a red suited, 15 foot tall, art style breaking, charming, tragic, pathetic, sad, endearing and canonically gay divorced character. He isn't just a trend hopper but like any Toby Fox character, if his ex is anything to go by, he will be here to stay for years. He is legitimate!

His character has so much more to offer, this is just the summary I wanted to give for people on the fence to learn Tenna's general deal.

[roguerambles]

I understand the disappointment, I really do, but I think people might be blowing the whole world state thing a bit out of proportion. "This is SPITTING IN THE FACE of long-time fans" no it's not Steve, calm down.

The series has always had to compromise when it comes to the state of the world because so many of the choices (especially from the end of Origins) were so wildly different that trying to build a sequel from so many conflicting factors would be more or less impossible. It's why we've never seen the Architect again, because him being alive or dead has HUGE ripple effects that are damn near impossible to write around.

Heck, it was entirely possible for Anders to die at the end of Awakening, but the writers wrote around it by saying "oh no he actually faked his death" even though logically that made very little sense because at that point he'd have absolutely no reason to do that? But Anders was in the sequel so that had to come up with something.

Basically nothing from Dragon Age 2 was important in Inquisition - Hawke siding with Mages or Templars made no difference, Anders being alive or dead made no difference, whether Carver or Bethany were dead or Wardens or whatever made no difference. We got some flavour text and that was literally it, everything else played out exactly the same.

Hell, the Temple of Sacred Ashes gets blown to bits at the beginning of Inquisition, rendering everything to do with that quest from Origins basically moot. And we've never gone back to Orzammar, and everything we have heard from it has been kept super vague, because depending on who the King is and if Branka is still alive things would look WILDLY different. Crafting a new story there would be borderline impossible because the dozen different possible world states make the foundation shaky at best.

It's why I highly doubt we'll be able to side with Solas and help him tear down the Veil because that would result in basically a whole new world being created. Imagine them trying to make Dragon Age 5 and being like "okay 50% sided with Solas and tore the Veil down and 50% kept the Veil intact....wtf now what do we do--?"

Again, I understand the disappointment, but I just hope once the dust has settled and people calm down a bit they'll see that, realistically, very little has changed. Your saves are still there, your experiences and enjoyment of the games and the characters and the story are still there, but they were always gonna have to draw the line SOMEWHERE.

And that's not to say none of our previous choices will come back - if we get another game, or a spin off or something they'll probably do what they're doing with the Inquisitor now. They're just taking what's relevant to the story they are trying to tell, and leaving what they aren’t going to use presently ambiguous.

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

I made a post a few months ago about how I thought Madagascar 3 was the worst movie I had ever seen. Well, after 13 years, I've finally changed my mind. A Minecraft Movie is now, hands down, the worst 2 hour experience of my life. I don't even want to get bogged down with hyperbole, it was not funny or enjoyable in any way, shape, or form to me. It is a movie for VERY little kids that was mismarketed as fun-for-all-the-family. I only saw it because it was my nephew's 6th birthday party, and I had to struggle to match his level of enthusiasm throughout the whole thing. He kept leaning over to ask questions and make comments, and I really wanted to walk out and go home. Even if I did, I couldn't ask for a refund because my sister paid for my ticket.

I knew it was from the same director but I was not expecting so many connections Napoleon Dynamite (Idaho, lady with a llama, tater tots, Jason Mamoa basically playing a hybrid of Uncle Rico and Rex Kwon Do), but it lacked all the charm and sincerity of Napoleon Dynamite. None of the Hashtag Quirky™ characters felt like real people. Not the protagonists, and certainly not the high school faculty. They all felt like they were trying too hard to be ironically funny and every single performance fell flat, they even managed to botch Matthew Berry's voice cameo at the end.

It's obvious that they wanted to cast Finn Wolfhard as the main character, but not modern Finn, Finn from 10 years ago, season 1 of Stranger Things Finn, so they got a knockoff dollar store version instead. The sister had nothing to do, the black best friend had nothing to do except say something along the lines of "aw hell naw" multiple times, Jack Black is a sellout who is nowhere near as cool as they try to make him seem, and the villain was sub-Saturday Morning Cartoon levels of intimidating and effective. It was annoying from start to finish.

It felt like a fake movie. Literally like an example script from a college freshman's How to Write Screenplays book; heavy exposition dumps, cliche dialogue ("punched up" with tons of distracting ADR), "one of the characters lies to the rest and then gets revealed and everyone is mad at them," "heroic sacrifice, SIKE, turns out he's alive and comes back 5 pages later," "everyone wants the MacGuffin because it does whatever the plot needs it to," "found family but they've only known each other for one day," quips, quips, endless quips... One of the first lines of dialogue is literally "yep, that's me." This movie has five writers, and none of them thought to do a second pass on that.

You know what? It was a perfect one-to-one adaptation of those clickbait animations my nephew watches on his ipad about things that don't happen in the game like winged shoes and mutant boss mobs and made up crafting recipes. If I had to describe it in one word, "undeserved." Every single joke, every attempt at emotion, all the 2011 Le Epic moments, all of them were undeserved. The movie did nothing to earn any response from the audience. I understand what it must have felt like for my parents to take me to Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 2005 or the Squeakquel in 2009. I loved those as a kid, but they are objectively absolute dogshit, and Hollywood will keep on making movies like that until the end of time.

TLDR, if you are over the age of 12, don't watch A Minecraft Movie. I have absolutely nothing positive to say about it.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I know you made shorts for Sora, Riku, and Kairi, but do you have any other thoughts about Kingdom Hearts?

Ik this is kinda vauge and you get these kind of asks all the goddamn time, but I hyperfixated on those games for most of elementary and middle school and its always cool to see your favorite Youtuber talk about stuff you really like. Not to guilt trip you into answering this one or anything, just. . . I'm very tired and it would be very cool lol.

Again, saving my character design thoughts for some more shorts, but I adore Kingdom Hearts. Like, the first game really ISN'T much more than a cross-promotional branding exercise for Disney and Square, same as any of a dozen other similar crossover centric franchises; it's a Saturday morning cartoon show that wants to get you invested (or keep you invested) in a bunch of fancy IPs to buy toys of, but it's a really good one of those.

And it's a game that understands that the central thing that's going to hook people IN to that kind of thing is characters that are willing to believe in what they've got going on with one thousand percent sincerity. Which I think is the thing they nailed more than anything. Sora cares SO MUCH, and he wants to find his friend and his love interest (Kairi and Riku, respectively) SO BADLY, you can't help but root for the poor kid and want to believe in it.

Then, with the first game successfully managing to hook a solid fanbase, the creative team went "hey what if we had even MORE extremely earnest cool anime people getting deep in their feelings?" and now we're off to the races with Organizations and Oblivion Castles and fractions of 358 days.

And the thing that makes all the hyper-convoluted wheels-within-wheels plot machination nonsense WORK is that down, deep down, right at the core of what the franchise is always trying to say, is that love will save us. Yeah yeah hearts and darkness and unversed and nobodies and keyblades and blah blah blah (to be clear: I adore all that nonsense), but all of it is top-to-bottom in service of that singular central thematic clarion call.

Love will save us.

What holds Ventus together after Xehanort tears his heart apart? The love of Sora. What keeps Roxas the nobody from fading into Sora? The love of Xion and Axel, and Hayner, Pence and Olette. What brings Xion back? The love of Axel and Roxas. Hearts ring together and resonate and bind themselves to each other and there is no darkness so deep, no tragedy so absolute, no villain so foul that the cry of a loving heart cannot defeat it.

Roxas is a nobody doomed to darkness? Fuck you, Kingdom Hearts is love, no he isn't. Xion is a mere replica puppet, a failed experiment that nobody will remember? >>EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER<< get seasalt icecream'd on top of a clock tower at sunset, IDIOT.

Over and over again characters sink into despair and loneliness, they fear that their connections are fake or fading, they fear being forgotten or left behind (Riku in the first game, the breaking of Ventus, Aqua and Terra, Roxas thinking nobody would miss him, Aqua in the Realm of Darkness), and over and over again they are proven beautifully wrong. There is always a hand reaching out, there is always someone who will miss you. Love will save us.

And this absolutely gets hokey, of course it does, it's a saturday morning children's cartoon. It's a bit simplistic, maybe a bit naïve, but honestly in a world where you can't walk two steps without bleak-minded doomer cynicism forcing the assumption that nothing truly good is possible and that the worst will always happen, Kingdom Hearts is a story so absolutely drenched in hope, sincerely held, that it feels like a fucking balm.

Also, LITERALLY where the fuck else are you going to get Woody from Toy Story reading an edgy anime villain for absolute filth? Nowhere, that's where. ONLY Kingdom Hearts.

None of this is to suggest I don't have criticisms of the franchise or that it's faultless. I could talk for several hours unbroken about all my gripes and problems, chief among which is LET KAIRI DO THINGS OH MY FUCKING GOD the franchise is low key misogynistic towards its female characters sometimes but I am talking about the things I love here let me just be happy for a second.

[rodolfoparras]

we talk a lot about the characters being "loser boyfailures" and having no game and being rizless but think about the reader being that. guy in his thirties, no relationship ever, negative riz, absolutely no game, my man cannot speak to people without making 13 grammatical mistakes just an absolute pathetic wet dog vibes....

and the 141 boys could not want him more. they're absolutely head over heels for their loser boyfriend. i imagine Simon sees him bump into a chair and apologise to it and he's jumping his bones right then and there. pretty boy Kyle Gaz Garrick never goes anywhere without bringing his wet dog of a man with him. people are wondering how that happened and if he's blackmailing him, he gets very offended and sassy on his boyfriends behalf and when you're back home he rants to him about stupid people while milking his loser dick. Soap is just.... he's just himself the bigger the loser the more he wants the man. his boyfriend fucks up an interraction or fails at something and looks so wet and pathetic that he just has to put his dick in his mouth idk what to say Soap loves his loser boyfriends cock and when he tries and riz him up and falls flat on his face (literally and metaphorically) Soap just has to have him cream his hole im sorry but the man isn't letting his boyfriend go anywhere without having his mans loads in him. Price just loves him for the sincerity and how endearing his loser boyfriend is (just like an old man). the boyfriend will bring him coffee with a treat he tried making for Price and fuck up both the coffee and the treat but that old man will still praise you and give you kisses while his hand wanders bellow your waistband. with him Price gets to get rid of the anxiety of being too old to be useful because someone needs to make his boyfriend into a proper man. and when his boy does things right and suceeds Price rewards him by riding his phat loser cock for the whole night, milking load after load untill nothing comes out anymore

thanks for listening to the ramble i just want some love to the losers of society, there's too many perfect people in fics

Sugar!!!!!!! This is one of my favorite things I’ve ever read why do y’all leave these masterpieces in my inbox on anon you should post this sugar 🧎🏻‍♂️🧎🏻‍♂️

Especially the gaz and price part???

Imagine all eyes on Gaz in whatever room he walks in they barley notice you behind him but he’s always got a hand around your waist, gently nudging you forward and introducing you as his boyfriend to whoever’s there

He lets you take the stage just endearingly staring at you while you try to make conversation with whoever was eager to meet the two of you

And after you’re done you got a goofy smile on your face feeling happy that you managed to get through that conversation without fucking it up

And Gaz? He’s swiftly pulling you into a room crashing his lips against yours and it doesn’t take much before he’s riding your cock marking you up and feeling all possessive because yes this wonderful sweetheart is his boyfriend and he needs the world to know that

Or you, Price’s boyfriend feeling a bit insecure because Price has so much experience and you have none but he loves it, loves how you look at his old man body with such amazement love how eager you are to learn how to get him off, tears trickling down your cheek as you suck his cock, using your hands wherever your mouth can’t reach

Or you being careful as ever when you first fuck, asking him if he’s okay, if you’re hurting him all while he’s looking at you with the biggest smile on his face because bloody hell how did he get so lucky to have someone as sweet as you and he’s even more endeared when you’re swiftly apologizing because you came too quickly

[erriga]

THE QUARANTINE QUERY

(tl dr I didn't vibe with the demo for some silly and not so silly reasons)

Welcome to my special post where I will try to explain my personal problems with Quarantine and the general creative and narrative direction the next game seems to be heading towards. I decided to write a longer text instead of a couple of bullet points, because one does not simply write a thesis about a game just to later complain about it in a sarcastically laconic tone.

Things this essay is going to be:

my opinion/critique

an analysis

a reflection upon my feelings about the series in general

Things this essay is not going to be:

an angry rant about the new game in the spirit of they changed it so now it sucks

an attempt to prove that old pathologic = smart and new pathologic = stupid

Ok, with the disclaimers out of the way, let's get into it, and by it I mean levels of pretentious nerdiness unknown to many.

I wrote down four statements that describe my general feelings about the demo. They will serve as a frame of reference for what my critique will fundamentally touch upon instead of trying to fit every possible complaint I might have in a disjointed fashion. Here they are:

I feel like Quarantine expects me to:

Consider Dankovsky to be a specific Character in a specific Story

Believe Dankovsky has an internal world that can be mechanically represented in the ludo-narrative

Find said internal world to be compelling enough to let it filter the whole experience of the game

(presumably) emotionally connect with Dankovsky due to all of the above

If all this sounds confusing - good! Keep reading, it's going to get even better.

So, is Daniil a character?

Yes, of course he is. But what does it mean in the context of the original game compared to Pathologic 2 and now Quarantine?

Over the years I've come across vastly different opinions about the quality of character writing in the original Pathologic. I am not including complaints about the English translations or other technical aspects, just the most basic tendency of how the game portrays its characters. Most people I've seen who have passionately engaged with the game (including me) tend to describe the original game's characterizations as nuanced, complex and strangely realistic despite their rather theatrical tendencies. But I've also heard others say the exact opposite. That the characters don't feel like real people at all, their personalities are incoherent and fall flat due to a lack of consistency, and that every single one of them, from an old man to a literal toddler, falls back on the same pseudo-philosophical cadence, which while attempting to make them seem deeper ends up dehumanizing them even further. And even though those two opinions seem to be contradictory, I think that they are both the exact same reason why the writing of the original game captivates me so much. Because it doesn't really matter.

I wrote my thesis about the brechtian influences in Classic. One of the most characteristic aspects of the Epic Theatre is the attempt to remove illusions typical to traditional theatre, among which is the illusion of a character's psychology. I believe that you can absolutely argue that the characters in patho 1 were designed to behave like Brecht's characters - lacking internal psychology, mainly serving as mouthpieces for political and philosophical arguments, more so types than individuals. But here's the catch - I believe it's actually impossible to create a character completely immune to identification, because we as humans love to project our silly little emotions on pretty much anything, including animals and inanimate objects. Compared to those cases, Gorkhon's gallery of strange individuals is a painfully human display. So it's no wonder that many of us did indeed relate to those weirdos, just like nothing can possibly stop an audience member from identifying with Mother Courage or Galileo in Brecht's play. But the fact still remains that none of those characters were designed with this kind of simple emotional identification in mind and thus the attachment we may feel to them is more of a byproduct than the main goal. Taking a character who was meant to be analytically pondered and instead adopting them as a breathing human being is in that case, almost an act of rebellion. It's like saying, this is mine now.

Coming back to Daniil, this lack of clarity of how much he was written with this sort of characterization in mind is the main reason why I found him so compelling, he always kept me asking: is this part of Daniil as a coherent whole or is it just a philosophical stance which I should ponder at this moment or is it the writer's attempt at predicting what the player (presumably a straight male player) may want to say through this character? Does Daniil say "wow" because that's how he speaks, or is it just an oversight? Am I supposed to treat optional dialogue as things he would say or just things that are sometimes said in his world? The point is I DON'T KNOW and I love that I don't know that! It gives me so many posibilities! To me Daniil's character isn't so much about what he exactly says or does, but rather the internal logic that guides him. And I am the one who can choose its exact mechanism. He is mine.

Meanwhile, I feel like Quarantine wants me to treat Dankovsky like I would treat most other characters in traditional/popular media. Here are his personality traits. He is intelligent, he says so himself, and that lady over there also said it and he knows science and formulas and speaks Latin. Here are his thoughts. He has a memory about this thing. He feels guilty about that. I suddenly have a whole army of simple sentences that are meant to help me umderstand Daniil in this new iteration. Not so much a puzzle but a construction manual. And I'm not saying that this way of storytelling is fundamentally bad just because I can parody it as simpler than it really is. I want to engage with the new game's writing on it's own terms but so far I haven't done that mostly due to the giant dankovsky shaped object blocking the view.

Speaking of-

THE BACHELOR-CENTRIC MODEL OF THE UNIVERSE

This demo is so much about Dankovsky that it almost makes me embarrassed in his name. And honestly, I'm surprised I feel that way, considering how much I usually enjoy stories where a character's perception shapes the narrative to a great extent. I love symbolic dream sequences, guilt-driven visions and unreliable narrators. But the way Daniil's perception of himself and his surroundings doesn't really feel like a service to him as a character, but rather a narrative shorthand to spoonfeed me, the player, the most relevant information. The way Daniil's thoughts appear around objects is realistic to the extent that yes, human thoughts can be often rather simple and disjointed but there are moments where I think this mental streamlining is detrimental to his characterization and rubs him of nuance. The worst culprits of that are (IN MY OPINION):

Him calling Eva a ray of sunshine

The part where he references the fact that he and Artemy always fight about whose methods are better

Any time Daniil or someone around him refers to him as especially intelligent

Mr Little's Special Tutorial Perspective or Please Daniil Explain This To Me Once Again

None of those ideas are fundamentally bad, not at all. I'm curious to see his relationship with Eva develop, I want to see him interact with Artemy more like they did in the original, I can see some great ironic potential in the constant hyping up of Daniil's intellect and yeah, I hope Yakov is revealed to be some secret government agent or something. But I'm annoyed that I feel like I can predict all of this from just a couple of lines in the demo. I want to be confused and unsure of my own judgement. I want to be proven wrong, surprised, and ashamed of my own surface level analysis. And that can still very much happen, perhaps even in the comments on this very post or once the full games comes out. But right now I feel rather pessimistic.

I don't have a good segue for this part so now let's talk mechanics.

PRESS B TO EAT A CIGARRETE

The new mechanics try to break away from the body-first focus of the original game and the way Pathologic 2 expanded on those ideas even further. This time it's all about the mind, baby. Which - again - on itself isn't a bad idea. If this game was just 2 with different dialogues it would be very hard to justify its existence as a stand-alone product that needed to somehow be funded over those last 6 years. But the result to me feels more like novelty for novelty's sake. Not everything of course - the diagnosis part of the gameplay is definitely its most well-designed aspect, and there is a consistent logic behind it. Where Artemy saw systems, Daniils sees individual parts, where Artemy had to rely on luck, Daniil controls all the variables etc etc. The same, however, cannot be said about some of the other new mechanics.

Managing Daniil's mental state doesn't feel that much different than making sure Artemy drinks enough water and I personally think it's a wasted opportunity. I'm not going to insert myself into the discussion about whether the game's use of terms associated with bipolar disorder is accurate/tasteful because other people with relevant experiences have already voiced their opinions about that and will hopefully continue to do so in the future. My point is - regardless of what exact mental condition or more general function of the human psyche the game is trying to convey, it does so in a manner so simplistic that it doesn't encourage me as a player to connect with it on a deeper level. Apathy is blue because it's sad, Mania means, well, mania so it's red. Once again, I have only experienced a small portion of the game's final system so I might be in for a surprise and perhaps I will get to see Daniil experience something... purple?

Also adding to my previous point about switching perspectives - I think this mechanic will be an absolute gut punch in the final game. I hope it's something akin to the original meeting with the Powers That Be, especially with the way multiple characters can "jump" into one conversation at any moment. This will surely be utilized for some mind-fuckery and I can't wait to see it. I think this is also the one aspect of the demo that gives me the most hope as far as my beloved emotional confusion is concerned. Because what is the switching of perspectives supposed to indicate really? Are we supposed to filter it once again through Daniil's perspective because of the framing device of him recollecting the events? So nothing we learn by getting the insight into other characters' thoughts can be taken at face value because that's just how Daniil sees them? Are those other/new characters even real or just exist in Daniil's psyche? Does it have something to do with the time travel blahblah? Or are we not playing as Daniil at all but some other entity entirely? That's the main question I hope I don't get a clear answer to but rather contradicting paths to follow. But despite that optimistic outlook I still need to get into the final aspect that made it difficult for me to engage with the new game on its own terms, and instead deciding to take its dead corpse apart.

I CARE TOO MUCH BUT NOT ENOUGH

I just can't get over the fact how much this game wants me to identify with Daniil or at the very least find him cool. Cool as in how modern characters are often cool. Wet cats, chaotic bastards, jerks with hearts of gold and vaguely homoerotic energy with other male characters. And I'm not saying this as an insult, narrative trends are a thing, I find many of those archetypes to be endearing more often than not, but my problem is that it still only serves Dankovsky as our center of the world. By flanderizing him and making him fit into a more recognizable character archetype we lose the feeling of him being always at odds with the world around him, the way he used to be conflicted over every single thing in the original game. This new world is too suited for him to be a hero of his story, a tragic hero but a hero nonetheless, while in my opinion what made him uniquely tragic in classic was precisely the fact that he wasn't anyone's hero.

I know this constant comparison to patho classic can get tiring, so let me use another point of reference which is also the reason why I am even writing this post in the first place - The Marble Nest. I love the marble nest. I find its narrative structure to be expertly crafted, emotional beats placed in just the right places and godd i still cry over the fact that they put his soul into a nutshell. And the funny thing is that TMN does share a lot of similarities with the new demo. It's a Daniil-centric story with a framing device that encourages us to look at the entire experience as Daniil's impression of the reality around him. It's a short and rather simple experience with a strong central theme. So why do I feel so emotional when Daniil talks to the death in that game but feel pretty much nothing when he talk about dying in Quarantine? Maybe because The Marble Nest is still steeped so deeply in the theatre influences which I hold dear to my heart while Quarantine moves away from them and maybe towards another medium entirely. Theatre never pretends to be reality and it's artificiality is always front and center. Film meanwhile often has the tendency to try to replicate reality or even try to be reality itself. In one of those cases I feel like an active audience member and in the other like a passive voyeur of some vision of reality. Or to put it simply, in one case I am afraid of Death and in the other, I am watching someone act out being afraid of death. That is a highly personal preference though and I'm genuinely happy to see that many people do indeed relate to this portrayal of Daniil, especially when it comes to how his mental problems are displayed front and center. And that's amazing! I want to see all the fan input that comes out of it and I hope the final game delivers on everything they hope for. But for me? I think I might need to take a back seat, at least for now. Watch the scene from afar, perhaps get a fuller picture. Because I want to care and understand and know and feel. I really do. But sometimes it's not possible and that's also good.

So, if you've read this overwritten mess to the end, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and encourage you to voice your opinion. Art doesn't exist without discussion so let's discuss!

POST-SCRIPTUM - ON THE NATURE OF MAKING GOOD THINGS IN YOUR PAST

One last thing I wanted to add which feels highly relevant to the my critique is the question of what to do when someone says they liked your old work better? I like to think of myself as an artist and I think that many of us do, even without getting into how according to Beuys everyone is an artist. So you make a thing, some people like, perhaps many people do. So you keep making things, you grow with them, change, realize your old ideas were often childish or naive which you can only do through gaining experience. So you make new things, often drastically different from the ones you made before. And someone says "I liked the old stuff better". And they don't say it as an insult, even though it may sometimes feel like it. Because you cannot recreate whatever you did in your past. And you want to grow. Does that mean that you got worse instead? That you peaked in your past and it's all downhill from here? Of course not. You know that. I know that. I hope every artist knows that. And yet it still hurts. It hurts to be perceived as a line graph when in reality you are a recursive function.

----

all images made by me, the ones with yellow background are from a shitpost animatic, the white one was a joke I made after hearing the famous"sherlock mind palace fruit ninja" pitch, and the last one is me in my Daniil cosplay. Goodnight Bikini Bottom

[theesteppenwolf]

As an aroace i am glad Mary Kirby intended for Lucanis to be demi/panromantic. BUT

But like everything else the writers love to tack on their bluesky or reddit ama none of it is in the actual game. This is essentially just as valid as anybody else's headcanon. That's basically what that post was, her saying that somebody reading Bellara and Lucanis as on the ace spectrum is ok, which of course it is it's your personal interpretation why wouldn't it be ok.

The reason why a lot of us ace peeps hc characters as being on the ace spectrum is because seeing meaningful ace rep is rare, hell i hc Varric as on the ace spectrum even though i know that he isn't written that way at all. But none of this is actual real representation like Todd from Bojack Horseman or Parvati in Outer Worlds (which are the only addressed ace characters I've encountered in media personally)

Literally nothing is ''confirmed'' I'm sorry. I want real meaningful ace rep yes, this means absolutely nothing. I and plenty of other aces could in no way “read” Lucanis as demi going by what the game does, personally i read it as trauma responses and the effects of the way he was raised in tangent with general personality quirks. If you read it as demi that’s fine but the writing isn’t fully there to actually universally convey this, it’s completely a personal interpretation and her post feels like a way to excuse his poor romance writing and lack of content/reactions.

That reddit AMA was also crap.

Sorry for the bitterness y'all i have a lot of feeling about the way people talk about asexuality and how it's portrayed and talked about very often as a ''character quirk'' instead of an actual sexuality.

If this post makes you angry at me or if you think I'm overreacting that's fine, you do you but my feelings are also valid on this.

Anyway back to work! <3

[kikyoupdates]

Tears of a Villainess ⭑˚🗡️⭑ 𝑠𝑢𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠

yandere!ocs x reader

yandere, reverse harem, isekai, original characters x fem!reader, slowburn, slowburn yandere

Reincarnation isn't as great as it sounds, especially when you've been reborn as none other than the villainess. Fated to die if you stand in the heroine's way, you immediately resolve to distance yourself from the plot. As long as you have nothing to do with any of the relevant characters, surely, you'll be able to avoid an untimely death. But in a horrible turn of events, the heroine ends up wanting to get close to you. Are you really doomed to meet the villainess' tragic end? Or is there an even more sinister fate that awaits you?

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There are three possible love interests that you can pursue in the game.  

Firstly, Alistair Calderwood. Prior to meeting the heroine, he is engaged to the villainess, but holds no romantic feelings for her. Needless to say, he falls deeply in love with the heroine and ends his engagement, which drives the villainess absolutely insane. In Alistair’s route, her obsessive tendencies result in her regularly harassing the heroine. Although it starts off small, similar to playground bullying, it quickly devolves into something more vicious. On one occasion, she even succeeds in poisoning the heroine, though she survives because the dose is thankfully non-lethal. And also because of plot armor. Definitely plot armor.  

Anyways, long story short, the villainess spirals more and more due to her obsession with Alistair, and she is eventually punished for her crimes through execution—by none other than Carmine, the man standing before you.  

That’s only the first route, though.  

Carmine Mortis is the second love interest in the game. His is an admittedly clichéd story, with that whole trope of a knight falling for a noblewoman and coveting her affections, but societal norms and social status end up standing in the way of their relationship. It’s not a particularly original concept, but you’ve always had a soft spot for characters that will fight tooth and nail for their loved ones, which is why he was your favorite out of the trio.  

Eventually, Carmine and the heroine overcome all the obstacles in their way and obtain their happy ending. But this ending unsurprisingly comes at the cost of the villainess’ life. She is a recurring antagonist, regardless of whether or not you choose Alistair’s route and her engagement falls through. Yet another reason why you think she’s such a poorly written character, because her motives in this route are much less established. The premise of the game is that the heroine is from a failing noble household, and her family moves to a new kingdom after being driven from their own land. The villainess kind of just decides to pick on her when she is introduced into high society, for remarkably petty reasons.  

God. You seriously don’t know who’s writing these villainess-type characters, but it’s a literal tragedy how poorly done they are. How hard is it to create a convincing and humane antagonist that people can maybe even sympathize with at times? Even villains that are flat-out meant to be hated can still be well-written, provided you understand their motives and they have a compelling character arc.  

But you suppose it’s a bit too late for such criticism, because from now on, this isn’t just a story, and these people are no longer simply characters.  

This is your life.  

And you’re sure as hell not going to throw it away.  

Carmine purses his lips. “Is everything alright, my lady? You seem a bit disoriented. The shock of the situation must have really frightened you.”  

You blink, realizing that you’re still holding onto his hand after he helped you to your feet. You pull away as fast as you can, and while it’s true that coming face to face with your would-be executioner is jarring, to say the least, there’s no reason for you to actually panic at this stage.  

You are innocent. You have yet to commit any of the crimes the villainess did—and you don’t ever plan to. There’s no reason why Carmine would ever slice your head off with his sword. Having played the game, you know exactly how powerful he is, and how incredibly easy it would be for him to end your life, but there’s simply no situation where that would ever occur.  

As far as you’re concerned, this will be the last meeting the two of you ever have.  

“I’m fine,” you reassure. The longer you stare at him, the more you calm down. He’s still a knight, after all. A protector of the people. He only punishes criminals, and since you’re not a piece of shit (presumably), there’s no conflict to be had.  

“Why did you try to apprehend that thief all by yourself?” Carmine frowns. Rather than looking angry, he just looks confused, which seems to be how most people react to you these days. “Even if he wasn’t concealing a weapon, did you plan on restraining him on your own? He would have overpowered you with ease.”  

Well, that’s not necessarily true. You could have done… something. Probably. Maybe.  

…fine, it was a stupid, spur-of-the-moment idea. But at least your heart was in the right place.  

“I just wanted to help,” you shrug. “I couldn’t let that man get away with stealing. I wasn’t sure if anyone else would act in time, so I took my chances. Admittedly, the thought that he might have a weapon didn’t really cross my mind… but I’m sure he wasn’t actually going to hurt me.”  

From a little distance off, the thief, who has since been tied up and bound with rope, proceeds to glare at you. 

“No, I had every intention of stabbing you,” he states.  

“Oh. Well, that’s… good to know. Thank you for your candor, I guess.”  

You flash him an awkward thumbs-up, but he merely spits on the floor and curses you in response. Meanwhile, Carmine stares at you in abject horror, and Fiona looks like she wants to curl up in a ball and die.  

Carmine shakes his head. “Try to ignore him, my lady. Deplorable scum like that isn’t worth your time. I assure you, he will be punished accordingly. Not only did he steal, but he also threatened violence. It’s a good thing I was able to apprehend him before anyone actually got hurt.”  

You look back at the thief again, who is muttering under his breath, no doubt saying immensely unflattering things about you. Still, you catch him muttering something about ‘spoiled nobles’, and how ‘people like you will never understand what it’s like to go hungry’. While you certainly don’t condone his crimes, you try to remain sympathetic to the fact that there are people who are less fortunate than you, and sometimes, those people turn to drastic measures in order to survive.  

“I wish I’d at least ripped a hole in your stomach before I got arrested,” the thief snarls.  

Dude. You’re making it really hard to feel sorry for you right now.  

Carmine narrows his eyes. “On your feet, criminal. And don’t speak to her like that. Have you no concept of respect?”  

Carmine jerks the thief up by the rope binding his limbs together, and makes a big show of keeping one hand poised above the hilt of his blade. It’s a silent threat. A warning of what will happen if he doesn’t cooperate. 

“I need to have this man brought in,” Carmine says, turning towards you again. He pauses to look you over. It seems like he’s still worried you might be hurt, or perhaps shaken up, and it’s true that you were shaken up—but for a different reason entirely. 

After what feels like an eternity of silence, he smiles.  

“There’s no doubt that what you did earlier was incredibly reckless. However… I can appreciate that you have a penchant for justice. It’s very admirable that you were willing to put yourself in harm’s way to stop a criminal.”  

Oh, wow. He’s actually complimenting you? That’s awesome! This was pretty much exactly what you intended. The more favorable impressions people have of you, the better your reputation will be, and the less likely it is that you’ll find yourself on the wrong end of a pointed blade.  

It’s definitely going to take a while, but already, it looks like your villainess title is starting to be stripped away.  

“I just want to help, however I can,” you say, smiling sweetly and batting your eyes.  

Carmine chuckles. “Yes, well, your intentions are respectable, but from now on, please be more careful and avoid placing yourself in harm’s way. Us knights are always on the lookout for criminals. We’ll be sure to keep everyone safe.”  

“Will do, boss.”  

Your smile turns to a wide grin, and Carmine gives you a curious look, clearly not used to your modern-day slang. You’ve been trying to adopt the mannerisms and way of speaking of people in this setting, but it’s difficult to completely overwrite old habits. Maybe you’ll get used to it with time. Or maybe other people will get used to how much you’ve changed. Whichever comes first.  

What started off as a rather tense encounter has fortunately ended without any issues. If you avoid the heroine, there’s no reason your path should ever cross with Carmine’s again. It’s possible you might catch glimpses of him in town every now and then, but otherwise, you will both lead separate lives.  

So far, it looks like you’ve managed to distance yourself from two of the three major love interests in the game. Not bad for less than a week in your new body. Not bad at all.  

“God, I’m so epic,” you sigh. 

Fiona, however, doesn’t seem to think you’re that epic. In fact, she has rather strong opinions on the matter.  

“Lady [Name]!” she fumes, and you watch as she balls her hands into cute little fists and shakes them wildly. She’s clearly upset, but honestly, she’s just too adorable to take seriously.  

“What is it?” you chuckle.  

“How can you even ask me that? You could have gotten seriously hurt earlier! If that man’s knife had struck you, you could have died!”  

She gasps for breath after exclaiming her last point, more riled up than you’ve ever seen her. What a loud scream to be coming from such a small little maid. It’s actually rather impressive.  

“Yes, I was reckless,” you admit. You reach out, hesitating for a moment, then you grin and pat her on the head. “It’s a good thing you reacted so fast. I sure am glad I brought you with me. You saved my life, Fiona. You’re amazing.”  

Fiona bristles. “Huh? O-Oh. Well, of course! I couldn’t possibly have let my lady get hurt! B-But what you did still wasn’t safe! There’s no telling what could have happened if that knight hadn’t been passing by!”  

She puffs out her cheeks, still very much indignant, but it looks like she’s not opposed to you patting her head. It actually seems like she’s enjoying it quite a bit. 

You finally let your hand drop, then smile again. “You’re right, Fiona. That was very rash of me, and I promise it won’t happen again. I overestimated my authority and thought I could get a criminal to behave. I guess I just wanted to feel like I was doing a good deed.”  

Fiona’s eyes widen, and you can’t blame her, because based on everything she knows of the previous [Name], wanting to ‘do good’ must sound like some kind of sick joke.  

But you can see it in her expression. Slowly but surely, her doubts and reservations are melting away. Perhaps she felt your sincerity when you patted her head, or even before, when you expressed interest in remembering her name. Whatever the case, you can tell that she’s making an effort to look past all the offenses [Name] committed against her, and is choosing to believe in the you of the present.  

You’ve just gained the cutest little ally you could possibly ask for.  

“I-I understand what you were trying to accomplish, but it was still terrifying!” she insists. She presses a palm to her chest and exhales shakily. “Just… please don’t ever do that again. I’m not sure if my heart will hold out.” 

“Aw. I’m sorry for scaring you. Don’t worry. I’ve learned my lesson.”  

You wink playfully, to which she just sighs and hangs her head in resignation.   

Still, Fiona has a point.  

At this rate, it’s much more likely that you’ll die because of your own stupidity, rather than the plot of the game.  

“...holy shit, is that stall selling mini donuts?!” 

“I’m telling you, honey, our daughter might actually be a genius!”  

Your father beams proudly as he flips through the latest pages of homework he assigned you. Needless to say, you completed everything again, and with stellar marks too. Your mother watches on with obvious skepticism, peeking out from behind her frilly hand fan. She can’t quite seem to wrap her head around what’s happening. As far as she knows, you’ve always been, well… an idiot.  

“[Name] really solved all of these questions herself?” your mother asks, still not buying into the whole thing.  

“She most certainly did,” your father hums. “I even sat here and watched her do it! Isn’t that incredible? To think that we were housing such a prodigy all this time!”  

You grin cheekily, to which your mother starts fanning herself faster, mumbling something inaudible under her breath. Probably to do with the fact that she thinks you might be possessed. It’s a popular theory that still hasn’t died down, by the looks of it.  

Whatever. You’re fully aware of the fact that you’re behaving very differently than the previous [Name], but you need to do this. You need to make a massive change, otherwise, there’s no doubt that people will resent you for the heinous acts the villainess committed before. Besides, it’s not entirely unheard of for people to reinvent themselves. It’s not especially common, but it does happen every now and then.  

Also, you think it’s really funny how your parents keep acting like you’re the second coming of Einstein. You’ve always considered yourself to be decently smart, but given how straightforward your father’s math problems are… they’re definitely giving you too much credit.  

Oh, well. It’s much better to have naive, supportive parents than ones that will make your life hell.  

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” your mother frowns. “[Name], you always used to whine and avoid studying. You said you would rather die than have to do homework, and one time you threw a fit and threatened to jump out the window.”  

“...”  

I already knew the villainess was a whiny little bitch, but come on. Whatever happened to standards, sis?  

“Um.” You awkwardly clear your throat. “Yes, well, I’d rather not speak of that incident. I’m embarrassed with how I behaved. It’s true that my sudden change in demeanor might seem rather shocking, but I really am trying to become a better, more accomplished person. Once I started actually applying myself, I realized it wasn’t as difficult as I initially thought. I only wish I’d done this sooner.”  

Unlike your father, who is absolutely giddy with the newly-improved version of his daughter, your mother seems to be much more dubious of this whole situation. Perhaps it’s a mother’s intuition or something. Obviously, she would never be able to guess that you’re an entirely different person trapped inside a new body, but it’s clear that she still has her suspicions.  

She snaps her hand fan shut, then nods. “I see. Well, this is a relief. It’s good to see you taking things seriously for a change. A strong work ethic is something to be admired.”  

She pats your shoulder and smiles encouragingly, but as she’s walking away, you swear you catch her frowning at you out of the corner of her eye.  

Yeah. She’s definitely not fully on board yet. You can only hope that, with time, she’ll come to accept the change.  

At least your father’s having a field day.  

“My darling little genius,” he praises, ruffling your hair affectionately. “[Name], I want you to know that your mother and I are both very proud of you. In fact, we’re considering finding a tutor for you to work with. Clearly, someone of your intellect needs to be challenged accordingly, and with their help, you’ll learn at a much more accelerated pace.”  

A tutor, huh? Well, you’re not opposed to it. You’ve spent the past few years of your life listening to countless professors drone on during lectures, most of which didn’t teach you jack shit. The better portion of your academic career has been self-taught. A tutor should be fine, because you get to work one-on-one with them and they’ll actually listen to your questions.  

“Of course, father. I’m excited to expand my knowledge and push past my limits.”  

He outright squeals in delight, then pulls you into his arms and gives you the biggest bear hug of all time. He was initially furious when you broke off your engagement with Alistair, but it looks like he’s completely gotten over to it.  

And to think that all it took was solving a few math problems. 

“Thank you, math,” you mumble quietly, which are undoubtedly words that nobody has ever spoken before.  

Your father eventually pulls away from you, still smiling. “Keep up the good work, my dear. And remember that we’ve been invited to attend a social function tonight. I wanted to remind you in case you’d forgotten. If you continue to be diligent with your studies, I’d be more than happy to let you pick out some new dresses for future events. You mentioned before that your wardrobe has been looking rather sparse as of late.”  

You’re tempted to roll your eyes, because what the villainess considers to be sparse is easily a hundred times more clothes than you’ve ever had. 

“Thank you for your generosity, father. I would certainly appreciate some new clothes, but I’ll shelf the issue for the time being. I’d like to make sure I’ve earned my reward. It still feels like I have a long way to go.”  

Your father chuckles. “My, my. To think that you’re even exerting so much restraint! Who are you and what have you done with my daughter? Haha.”  

“Haha… ha.”  

Don’t play with me, old man.  

He grins one last time, pure adoration in his eyes, before eventually leaving. So far, it’s pretty safe to say that your father is on your side, Fiona is loyal and is slowly coming around to the fact that you’re a better person, and your mother remains to be fully convinced. But either way, you’ve successfully broken up with Alistair and haven’t had to face any consequences, which is a win in your book.  

Now, then. It’s time for the most challenging task you’ve had thus far.  

Etiquette. 

Having played the game, you’re somewhat conscious of how certain characters within the nobility were expected to behave, but putting it in practice is a different matter entirely.  

Up until now, you’ve been able to get away with your crude, modern-day way of acting, mainly because you haven’t attended any parties or notable social gatherings. You’ve stayed within the confines of your manor, and save for when you went into town that day, you haven’t made any public appearances.  

This time, however, things are different.  

Your parents can mostly excuse your erratic behavior. You are their daughter, after all, and so long as no one important is there to bear witness, they don’t seem too concerned with it. But when faced with countless members of the nobility, most of which are looking for just about any opportunity to gossip and scrutinize, your carefree attitude won’t go over that well.  

Your one saving grace is that people already have a bad impression of the villainess. They already expect you to make rude, shameless remarks and go around trying to stir up trouble. Obviously, you won’t be doing any of that, but you hope that whatever mistakes you might make tonight will be overlooked. The last thing you want is to stick out like a sore thumb.  

“Can you believe it? [Name] actually had the gall to show up.” 

“Didn’t she make one of the other ladies cry at the last party?”  

“She did. I heard that poor thing couldn't handle the abuse and ran out into the garden, then she tripped and broke her ankle.”  

You blink tiredly.  

Looks like not standing out is a hollow dream. 

“Shh! She’s coming over here,” one of the gossiping women chides. They’re all huddled up in a group, but the second they notice you passing by, they throw on practiced smiles and pretend like nothing ever happened.  

“[Name]!” the same woman coos, using a very obviously fake, superficial tone of voice. She then curtsies, most likely because you outrank her. “Oh, how lovely it is to see you! I was wondering if you’d been invited. You always have a way of… spicing the evening up.”  

The women standing behind her giggle obnoxiously. It’s obvious that this is intended to be a passive-aggressive display, as well as an attempt to humiliate you. 

But what they don’t realize is that you’re not the same person anymore—quite literally. Therefore, no matter how they try to insult you, there’s no reason for you to take it seriously. And besides, your foremost concern is ensuring that you survive. What’s a few catty bitches compared to the threat of death?  

“Hello,” you smile. “It’s nice to see all of you as well. Also, in regards to what you were whispering about earlier, I’m afraid I don’t remember. Did I make someone cry? Truly, it must have slipped my mind. Perhaps I need a reminder.”  

They stiffen up, because normally in high society, these underhanded remarks are rarely acknowledged face to face. You’re expected to play the long game and retort with passive-aggressive comments of your own, not call them out on their bullshit.  

You have to admit, pretending to be a villainess can be pretty fun at times.  

“I-I’m not sure what you’re referring to,” the woman mutters. She then gestures towards her lackeys, glaring at you before she leaves. “I believe a close friend of mine has just arrived. You’ll have to excuse us.”  

They leave without further issue, good riddance. It’s best to keep people like that at arm’s length. You do want to establish a better reputation for yourself, but if you let others walk all over you instead of holding your ground, you’ll never be taken seriously.  

Anyways, for obvious reasons, it looks like most people are avoiding you. Officially, your parents are the actual guests, but as their daughter, you’re expected to accompany them. They’ve already gone off to exchange niceties with the host of the evening, which fortunately leaves you free to do what you want.  

And right now, what you want is to have some of that expensive wine that everyone’s drinking.  

There are a few servants roaming around carrying trays stacked with alcohol, and you gingerly pick up a glass, smiling appreciatively.  

“Thank you,” you say, and the servant reacts by flinching in surprise. Being thanked by the villainess is probably just as big of a shock as being hit by a bus.  

He scurries off, and surprise, surprise—no one else has come to talk to you yet. You take a sip of the wine and let out a sigh. Well, this is fine. From what you remember, the villainess doesn’t have many actual friends, for obvious reasons. There are a few noblewomen who occasionally flock around her and help her harass the heroine, but those same noblewomen also talk shit about the villainess behind her back, so it’s hardly a genuine friendship.  

You decide to make like a wallflower for a bit and just observe. There’s a lot to be learned, after all. High society has all kinds of unwritten rules, and the more you know, the better you’ll fare.  

Okay, so… that dude is apparently having an affair. Everyone knows it, including his wife, but they’re pretending like it doesn’t exist. And that woman over there showed up wearing the same dress as someone else, which is apparently mortifying enough to quietly cry over.  

“This is all so confusing,” you mutter, taking another gulp of wine.  

“What’s confusing?”  

You squeal. You’re so startled that you nearly drop the glass of wine in the process, but fortunately, your amazing (self-proclaimed) reflexes kick in just in time.  

Some rude bastard just snuck up on you! The absolute nerve! You’re actually about to chew him out for it, since you nearly had a damn heart attack, but you stop yourself the moment you make eye contact.  

Standing before you is none other than the third and final love interest—Flynn Pearce.  

Flynn leans closer, tilting his head. “What’s so confusing? You look unusually focused. I noticed you standing over here and mumbling to yourself. You seem to be drinking much more slowly than usual too.”  

You press your lips together. The third love interest from the game, Flynn, is none other than the villainess’ close childhood friend. They basically grew up together. That’s how far back their friendship dates. This of course means that when he starts developing feelings for the heroine, someone that the villainess has decided she hates, she openly expresses her disapproval and makes efforts to keep the two of them apart.  

Flynn is an interesting character, because he’s a bit more morally gray than the other love interests. He is obviously aware of all the villainess’ flaws, but still defends her in the initial acts of his route, because of their long-standing friendship. Unlike Alistair, who is written to be charming, poised, and compassionate, or Carmine, who despises acts of injustice and can’t stand the villainess’ wrongdoings, Flynn isn’t meant to be so clear-cut. It takes a while for him to come to terms with his feelings for the heroine and realize how permissive he’s been of the villainess’ behavior over the years. His character arc leads him to realize how guilty he is by association, and after dealing with the self-loathing that comes with this realization, he eventually casts the villainess out of his life.  

This is the only ending where the villainess isn’t executed by Carmine. In an act of hateful desperation, she lunges at the heroine with a knife, fully intent on killing her.  

But the villainess obviously doesn’t succeed, and instead, she finds that same knife plunged into her chest.  

By none other than her dearest friend.  

You could argue that Flynn is the only real friend the villainess ever had, which could have potentially made her death more tragic, if not for the fact that she was horribly written and had no redeemable qualities.  

Anyways, that same friend is now standing right in front of you. Just like Carmine, if you make the wrong choices and somehow end up tangled in the plot, he too has the potential to end your life.  

It’s always fun staring death in the face.  

“Um, nothing really,” you say, doing your best not to openly grimace. “I was just thinking… that this wine is a weird choice. I’m not sure why they picked it. It’s a bit confusing, is all.”  

Flynn frowns. “I tried the wine. Didn’t you say before that it was one of your favorites?”  

“Oh. D-Did I? Well, maybe the batch is off or something. Either way, it’s not a big deal. I’ll drink it all the same.”  

To prove your point, you throw your head back and chug the rest of the wine. Come to think of it, you do recall that the villainess is a bit of a heavy drinker. You suppose you should do your best to play the part.  

You hoped that would put Flynn’s suspicions to rest, but instead, he narrows his eyes even further. 

“Not a big deal…? If the wine really wasn’t to your taste, surely you’d have more to say about it. Normally, you would have been more vocal about your complaints. I remember you once argued with the hosts for their poor choice of hors d’oeuvres.”  

You gape at him. 

Oh my god. Fuck you, shitty villainess! Why do you have to be such a massive asshole all the time? It’s impossible to meet your ridiculously trashy standards! 

“Ah, right,” you chuckle, hurrying to compose yourself. You wave your hand dismissively. “It’s true. To be honest, I have a lot of improvements in mind for tonight, but I’m rather tired. I just don’t have the energy to go and throw their mistakes in their face. Besides, incompetent people will never learn, I’m afraid. It’s just a waste of my time. Anyways. I’m off to go grab more wine! It may not be good, but it’s palatable, at the very least. I need something to keep me busy for the rest of this mind-numbing ordeal.”  

You leave without giving him another chance to comment. Shit! You weren’t expecting to run into him so soon, and you knew from the start that he’d be the most troublesome one to deal with, since he knows the villainess so well. It won’t be as easy to cut him out of your life as it was with Alistair and Carmine. You’ll need to avoid him to the best of your ability, but you just don’t know how.  

While you clumsily weave through all the people, freaking out internally, Flynn stares at you from afar, without blinking once.  

He purses his lips.  

“She’s… acting strange.”  

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[nthspecialll]

Sorry if I'm a bit dumb but I did not understand what you meant by this in your last post:

"He (Dutch) is also the only person in the gang to have middle names, or in fact just more than a first and middle name. Even in something as simple as names, he has to have more than others."

Do you mean "Van" and "Der"? Because they are not middle names but part of the surname, which in Dutch means "from the lime/linden trees" and it is apparently quite a common surname among Dutch people. If Dutch's parents gave him the name "Dutch van der Linde", I don't really see how it can be used as an example of Dutch elevating himself over others. There are certainly other examples.

Sorry if I didn't read you correctly or misunderstood

Absolutely, let me explain myself a bit better and sorry for the bad well explaination.

Firstly, pardon the wrong uh... classification (?) of his name. What I merely meant with 'van der linde' is that it is more than two word, I suppose? Like none of the other characters have more than Mary-Beth's and hers is connected with the - whatever that line is called in english.

and secondly, lets talk about names and their meanings. Dutch having a very unique names compared to everyone else in practially the entire game is naturally something that the developers were highly aware of when naming their characters, and they were likely also aware of how important names are in terms of fitting in or excluding yourself from different groups.

Rains Fall has a lakota name, however does not use it when speaking to any english speakers because it often troubles them and it would further exclude him in their minds. Javier's name is pronounced wrong, which production wise was due to a mistake of Robs, but still in game Javier accepts that his name is mispronounced over and over and doesn't even make an attempt at correcting them.

Those might seem like very weak examples of trying to show how names can bind you to a group, but lets look at Colm. Colm is Irish or at least Irish American, he is running a gang of irish folk yet he deliberately mispronounces his own name over and over to fit the Americans. Now it sounds like such a small thing, but Irish folk during this time were discriminated against violently, like when job listings were made they literally said irish folk shouldn't apply.

Colm is Irish, his name is irish, he is running a gang of irish folk yet he goes out of his way to not sound irish. He does not want to be part of his gang consisting of a discriminated minority, he wants to lead them but not be part of them. He doesn't care about being an outlaw, he admits that he is, but he does not want to be irish, thus he changes the way his name is pronounced.

Now to relate that to Van Der Linde. Firstly, we don't know if his birth name is Dutch so there is that but, Van Der Linde by default has a very special name, one that catches attention, but it is also one that makes him stand out in contrast to his gang members.

Remember how I said Colm doesn't care about being an outlaw, he just doesn't want to be irish? Dutch doesn't want to be a criminal and a low life, despite the fact he is, it is the reason why he has a better tent, the reason he has better clothing, the reason he has all of these things that seem of higher class and seem more expensive. You can also see when he does want to try to fit in he will use names that don't stand out as much, like Archibald Smith, Hoagy Macintosh, Aiden O'Malley.

Embracing a name that makes him stand out, is absolutely not the most obvious way that Dutch deattches himself from the rest of the gang, however it is just a small detail that I found interesting. It is nothing major and might just be me reading too far into things, but it was a random thought I had and threw out there.

[erika111111]

The Quarry and queer-baiting

It's a pretty known issue within The Quarry fanbase that this game basically set us up with two gay couples for them to just... not happen. In fact, it's almost as if the game rubs it in the players' faces that they don't, won't, and can't happen, besides the first half of the game setting them up rather clearly. It feels like the writers completely abandoned the idea halfway through, or for some reason just wanted to draw players in with the concept of queer relationships/characters just to rip it away in the end.

Disclaimer: This topic has been in my rough drafts for like, nearly two years at this point. I updated and added some stuff, but forgive me if I missed any crucial details.

So in the beginning, a lot of people wind up shipping both Ryan x Dylan (Rylan) and Emma x Abigail (Blygbank). Let's start with Blygbank since it's the shorter of the two.

So we do establish that Emma had a boyfriend, but the keyword is "had." To be fair, Jacob and Kaitlyn talk about it for the entire first section and that's the whole reason this game even happens, since Jacob wants another shot with Emma. So this straight couple is obviously very prominent. But, throughout the entire game, from multiple characters (Emma herself, Kaitlyn, Dylan, Ryan), it's repeatedly stated that Emma wants to move on from Jacob. Then we're introduced to Abigail, who's first scene is of her drawing a sketch of Emma. It's established that Emma and Abi are good friends. Maybe Emma and Abi will start a relationship? But, then we're introduced to Abi's crush on Nick. So I guess that idea just got blown out of the water...

To be fair, Emma's lack of interest in Jacob and Abi sketching Emma all happens very quickly within the first chapter. Perhaps it's the players' fault for jumping to that conclusion so quickly... but still.

What's more disappointing is that Abi and Nick are basically useless after chapter 6. There is actually yet another opportunity to develop some Blygbank relationship, but once again, it goes nowhere. Nick is bit and infected and starts acting absolutely horrible toward Abi, which very noticeably turns Abi off from him. Then Nick disappears for the rest of the game. But given Abi survives, she'll have another opportunity to have some alone time with Emma. Yet nothing of actual importance is discussed here. Not Emma kissing Nick. Not how Nick treated Abi. Not where Abi and Emma's relationship stands. Not where Emma and Jacob's relationship stands. We do get a moment where Emma reveals some of her true colors and she says that she needs Abi and she's been great to her, but once again, this goes nowhere. I guess we could see this as romantic, but Abi kind of seems just tired of and annoyed with Emma at this point and doesn't comment much about any of it. Basically there's just no conclusion. We have literally no idea where their relationship stands, romantically or otherwise. It's a huge missed opportunity.

While you can't get both of these scenes in the same playthrough, they do also push the Blygbank agenda. If you can get the "Nobody's Fool" route where Emma and Jacob reunite and Jacob tells her the truth, Emma will be completely and entirely done with Jacob. No more joking, no more mixed signals, she's just done. Which is kind of where the entire game was leading to from the beginning anyway, but this route gives it to us loud and clear. This accompanied with Abi and Nick going south again leaves us with a Blygbank option, but obviously, we get none of it. I know there's not much time left in the game by the time any of these scenes happen; maybe this is something else that could've been developed if we got any post-credits scenes, police interviews, I don't know. Again, maybe I'm reaching way too far with this one, but I think there's pretty good reason to ship Blygbank and assume maybe that's the direction they planned on going in. But I digress...

Onto part two, we have Rylan. And... Ryka? I have no idea what the ship name for Ryan x Kaitlyn is and I don't know if shippers for this couple even exist, so I'll just call them Ryka. And they're not a queer couple, but it's necessary to talk about the two at the same time.

I'll be honest, during my first several playthoughs/watchthroughs of The Quarry, I had no idea Kaitlyn was interested in Ryan. They do not do a good job of establishing that at all, and you can very easily miss every single opportunity for it to be brought up until chapter freaking nine. So honestly, Kaitlyn is pretty much a non-factor here. Dylan's crush on Ryan is very vocal and obvious, and the two are paired up very often throughout the game. Even if Kaitlyn's crush on Ryan was more well-known, Dylan is still the more obvious one between the two because, again, Dylan and Ryan are always paired up together.

Ryan is rather... uninterested in everything and everyone. But between everyone, he seems closest to Dylan. Of course, this can depend on how you play as both characters. You can make them argue A LOT, and Ryan won't always say the "I'm a bit closer to Dylan, I guess" line, but regardless, there's some scenes with them being close that will always happen. The most prominent scene between them is when they're walking to the radio hut and Dylan actually opens up to Ryan about who he is and what he likes to do. Ryan will have unwavering, non-negotiable interest in Dylan as a person here. Sure, they CAN kiss at the firepit, but Ryan can also choose to kiss Kaitlyn. They can joke around about the Bizarre Yet Bonafide podcast name, or they can't. They can agree over the gun, or they can argue instead. Ryan can cheer Dylan on or rush him. They can grab the phones and go or Dylan can annoy Ryan so much, he'll yell at him. Point being, there's a lot of options you can take with their relationship. You can make them close or you can make them bicker. Regardless, Dylan will remain interested. And regardless, they will have this intimate moment together on the way to the radio hut. Point being again, it's veryyyy obvious this a queer relationship in the making. Justice Smith is even a queer actor, and Miles Robbins is a very vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.

Then Laura comes and fucks the whole thing up. And I love Laura, mind you, but for some reason the writers decided to take this whole ship and spin it on its head when Laura arrives.

Before we get into the Laura segment, let me point a few more things out. I personally thought that Ryan was maybe oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings, didn't really know which one he liked more, or most prominently, maybe he was asexual. When Emma tells him to kiss either Dylan or Kaitlyn, he asks if he can kiss both. I thought that was kind of an odd thing to say unless he either liked both or just didn't care. Also, he can ask Laura, "You're doing all of this for a boy?" He really seems like he doesn't understand this kind of love or investment in another person romantically. Upon discovering that line, I pretty much accepted Ryan as asexual.

But then he's not asexual. And he's not oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings. And he's not interested in either of them. According to Justice Smith himself, when Laura asks Ryan who he likes more and he answers with "Maybe neither," it means that Ryan has a crush on Laura. And I truly don't get this, for several reasons. For starters, yes, Laura is doing all of this for a boy--her boyfriend, Max. She literally has a boyfriend already. And Ryan already had a thing going with Dylan. So why, seven whole chapters through this entire game, giving us LauraMax and Rylan, do they suddenly pair together Lyan? It's just a creative decision I will never understand. Maybe if Laura and Max had broken up, but still. She's not reintroduced until chapter 7 so we've already had six chapters of Rylan still. Maybe they could have made it more obvious from the beginning that Ryan wasn't interested in Dylan or Kaitlyn, but they just didn't do that. They particularly paired Ryan and Dylan up all the time and made them close. So, I call queer-baiting.

Of course, Lyan never goes anywhere. The only ending you can get that involves any kind of romance is actually Laura and Max reuniting. Laura and Ryan's romance happens in basically two seconds and there's barely any romance to even speak of. Laura does flirt with him a lot, but I believe that's due to the werewolf curse, as she stops that kind of behavior after her curse is lifted. They do seem to be close friends by then, she just doesn't flirt anymore or make weird comments. And really neither does Ryan. Sure, you don't always get the "maybe neither" line and you can choose less flirty options sometimes, but then they have a whole ass The Lovers card. So it's extremely obvious what the developers were going for. I just don't understand why suddenly go for this couple eight chapters through after already establishing a gay couple with Ryan himself and Dylan.

The only other thing we get on this matter is Dylan and Kaitlyn discussing Ryan's relationship with Laura on their way to the scrapyard. The most positive outcome for Rylan here is when Dylan says he and Ryan got close and Kaitlyn tells him "There's always next year." So it does give a bit of hope to this ship, leaving it open-ended despite the sudden occurrence of Lyan. Of course, you might not always get these lines, and Dylan and Kaitlyn can both agree "screw Ryan" and move on. So... I don't fucking know. It's like they purposefully set players up to support this clearly laid out queer ship of Rylan to then make it all insanely confusing and open-ended and piss people off. I think they really fumbled the bag with this one, and it's why I have a hard time shipping Ryan with literally anyone. It's all just a confusing mess.

I'd definitely say that the whole Supermassive Games chain of video games definitely got less queer-baity and more queer accepting over time. Just a few months later, The Devil in Me is released and they give us a Lesbian ship with Jamie and Erin. Also, with the Until Dawn remake, they cranked up the Jemily and Climbing Class. Not by much, mind you, but regardless, they acknowledged the popularity of these queer couples in the fanbase and added some crumbs for the players. It makes me wonder if they'll ever delve on Blygbank or Rylan in the future. I'm doubting The Quarry will ever get a remaster/remake with added content like Until Dawn, but who knows, I guess. As I said, both ships are pretty much left open-ended. But for now, I think The Quarry has a serious problem with queer-baiting, or maybe they just had no idea how to handle writing queer characters. I really don't know.

Lastly, none of this was supposed to be negative or attacking any single one of the ships mentioned in this post. I don't know how anything I said could be interpreted that way, but you never know. This post was just supposed to be informative. I hear a lot of people criticizing the queer-baiting within this game, as they should, and I decided to make an informative post covering all of the points and how I believe they screwed up the opportunities to put in these queer couples and somewhat alienate their queer audience.

Link to part two here.

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

Day 58

Hey remember when randomly a couple days ago in the event I mentioned that one of these days makes me irrationally angry??? Yeah this is the one. 

So context for this one is that in the danganronpa section of a server I’m in someone asked a question around the lines of-

“Who is your favorite character for a Mastermind AU?”

Nowadays if you asked me, I’m very fond of the Mastermind AU I drew for Toko and Komaru during Tokomaru Week this year, and it’d probably be my answer nowadays.

However if you asked Jem from several months ago, who was brainrotted to absolute hell over these two to the point that she could barely form an opinion on other characters (don’t worry I fixed that issue in my brain, kinda), you know damn well her instant response was Mikan.

At first it was kind of a non-serious filler answer because I didn’t have anyone else who piqued my interest for that at the time. Arguably at first I wasn’t even interested in Mastermind Mikan initially. And then my brain saw I was apathetic to it and was like “Hold my drink” before it spiraled into an AU, which I of course would then use for Day 58 at the time. 

I drew up a character design and some basic details in a total rush, and then drew a really basic but cute enough image of the two alongside various headcanons for this version of the relationship. I actually intended to draw a bonus image of the two on their own just because I felt like I was kinda scamming ya’ll if I didn’t. However I have like, none of the time for that on my hands right now, I’m JUST starting to learn Web Design at the time of writing this. If people like this enough I might try and actually draw some proper art of this AU again though.

As for why this day makes me angry, uhhhh yeah no it’s completely irrational. I have no justification in the slightest I just know that every time i scroll past this  one while looking through the folder of Junkan art for the project I just get annoyed.

I’m actually really happy with the Mastermind Mikan design, might be a biiiit overdesigned? But let’s be real if we’ve learned anything over the course of whatever the hell you’d call this project, it’d be that I am nothing if not a woman of pure excess, especially within the small realm of this ship. 

Okay so hi this is Jem from like, slightly in the future. And when I say slightly I mean like 20 minutes ahead of the previous paragraph. 

So I drew a Monokuma for this AU. Something I didn’t do for my Mastermind Tokomaru AU. I kind of had the idea for a Mikan version of Monokuma in my head for a decent amount of time, partially because I also want to do some art of Mikan and Junko in Shiro/Kurokuma cosplays later (yeah sorry spoilers there is no shiro or kurokuma representation in this project. But worry not, UDG does have representation, muuuuuch later). That made me think about how Shirokuma does kind of have similarities to Mikan (i think, it’s been awhile), which made me realize that monokuma but purple sounded neat. So there’s this now.

I imagine that Junko would still be voicing this version from behind the scenes. Partially because unless it’s literally an Ultimate Voice Actor Mikan AU there’s no way she can do that for a whole killing game. The other reason is I just kind of imagine that Mikan would take a similar role to Tsumugi, being both a member of the killing game and the mastermind, rather than what Junko did where she faked her death and orchestrated from behind the scenes without suspicions. Also yes this would mean that Junko is behind the scenes as normal, just that this time she’s solely focused on managing Monokuma. The Control Room is directly connected to Mikan’s room for easy, non-suspicious access to all the mechanisms. And also so the two of them can cuddle at night, obviously. 

Oh yeah with this Monokuma Redesign I would probably also change Mikan’s hair pin to reflect the same color scheme, even if I do like the way it looks with normal Monokuma colors. I would also probably make a “normal” Mikan design for this version. Just tone back certain parts of it to give the illusion that she isn’t the mastermind. Y’know, for the game that will totally exist based off this au, definitely. 

Honestly I think rambling about it has made me soften up on this one a bit, for now at least. So for real I might try and draw more of this AU regardless of whether people want it or not. That said y’know, if you DO want more of it feel free to say so cause that will in fact give me some mild motivation lol.

Oh I guess last thing. When I first showed the initial Reference image of this Mikan to friends one of them pointed out that I accidentally made her plan into, what is essentially the American Healthcare System. I swear to god that wasn’t intentional but it did make me laugh. 

As always, Reblogs, Comments, and Little Notes in the Tags are appreciated!~ They always make my day!~

[lividria]

Every (Serious) Prediction I Had for DELTARUNE Chapters 3 & 4

exactly what it says on the tin, just about everything I had some degree of confidence in would happen while having avoided subscribing to any particular major theories lol, obviously spoilers and all that, i'll throw in a couple predictions i made as i was playing too

obviously even besides everything i had written here the general way things went was absolutely nothing like i expected lol

i had an entire like soundcloud take parody planned out to make fun of how ridiculous some of them got but gave up on it due to not having enough freetime to learn music and more pressingly getting outstupided by people unironically doing things so maybe i'll make a post out of that too eventually, but i'm leaving that stuff out of this because none of it was genuine lol

Chapter 3 (Before Playing)

Chapters live up to the hype - HELL YEAH THEY DID

Chapter 3 is the house in general, not just the TV - Mostly incorrect I think

Lots of minigames - Correct

Tenna ruler & final boss - Correct

Tenna lives up to the hype - Correct, thank god

Chapter premise being forced into shows by Tenna - Correct

POINTs as chapter-specific currency - Correct

Perfect score rewards to torture players - Correct, T-Ranks

Tenna fight has a Mettaton EX rating-esque gimmick - Correct somefuckinghow

...But you beat him by making his ratings tank - FUCK.

Toriel is this chapter's Noelle - Incorrect

One of the cops shows up, probably Undyne - Correct somefuckinghow

...But as this chapter's Berdly - FUCK.

Mike is the phone - Incorrect

Mike doesn't live up to the hype, minor role, everyone was wrong about who he is - Correct (Unless you count the fight in Castle Town as "living up to the hype" which no everybody was saying he was gonna be integral to the plot, and those Mikes were literally making fun of Mike theories)

Chairiel character, shopkeeper? - Incorrect

SB is either Technician Theory or the Flowers - Incorrect (Though I'm much more pleased with the SBs we got than I would've been with either of those for obvious reasons)

Remote is a character and got a messiah complex from being saved from the couch after however long they were stuck there, potential SB given they were just given Freedom by Susie, or final boss by taking over Tenna? - Incorrect, I never saw anybody actually say this (Closest was a take with a Rook as the remote) that was literally just my own cooking lol

More Susie personal life lore - Correct

...Leading to Toriel letting Susie sleep on her couch as a guest - Incorrect, I wasn't super serious about that one I just thought it would've been sweet and I guess we kinda got something similar of her going to church?

Knight irrelevant to this chapter, if brought up by anyone only by Ralsei - Goddammit

Ralsei'd chew Kris out for making this Fountain - Incorrect

Reverse Undertale theory, corresponds to Hotland - Correct I think?

Squiddles and/or Midnight Crew references - Goddammit lol

Tenna (And CH3 recruits in general) doesn't come to Castle Town because why would Toriel let you take the TV - Incorrect

Rouxls rematch - Correct

Another milk boss - Incorrect

FRIEND is an actual character that wouldn't be properly revealed yet - ????????????

Shadow Mantle isn't actually here, has greater significance (Gaster's robe in the Mysteryman sprite or something?) - Incorrect, do we even know what it actually is???

Susiezilla doesn't actually come up - Incorrect

SB has Purple Soul - Goddammit

CH3&4 have more scenes for visiting the Shelter like what happened in CH2, and for every chapter up to 6 - Incorrect lol

Video game theming would be some other chapter, probably 5 so Reverse Undertale theory with Snowdin & Ice Palace - Incorrect apparently

At one point months ago I made a joke about Tenna having body doubles that look nothing alike as a joke making fun of takes - I was so close. If I had just said Mike. IF I HAD JUST SAID MIKE. THAT WOULD'VE BEEN THE CRAZIEST CALL I COULD'VE EVER MADE.

Chapter 4 (Before Playing)

Church - Correct, but that was only because of the last trailer so that doesn't really count (I had NO IDEA what it was going to be beforehand, in my take from earlier I mentioned I had the Church as Chapter 6 to be the Ruins since I figured that made the most sense but I wasn't also trying to be correct with that so like whatever)

Chess theory not necessarily debunked by Tenna, they only appear in Fountains made by the Knight - GODDAMMIT

Ruler is Bishop, Darkner version of the lectern - GODDAMMIT^2

Catti, Jockington and/or Alvin - GODDAMMIT^3

Jockington's amount of new portraits is equal to the amount of duplicate ones he had in the files lol - GODDAMMIT^4

Gerson relevance - HELL YEAH

Knight debuts here - Uhhhh... I mean... They do appear...

...But isn't fought - AWESOME

...Their identity not hinted at besides maybe by the SB - FUCK.

...Directly shown to be ordering the Bishop around, Bishop realizes they suck and that's how they come to Castle Town - I mean... The Knight does make the final boss here? I... I guess?

Mayor debuts, only in the Light World - Correct

If the Sweepstakes pizza box does appear in a DW related to it's physical location and not just a random cameo, it'd be here - ...I mean... Uh... Is it too early to write this off? Like, that caveat means I win if it doesn't appear at all or just randomly appears outside of it's context as an SB or whatever... But also wasn't it said the Sweepstakes stuff was noncanon actually or something??? I don't know anymore

New Roaring lore - Correct

New Angel lore - Incorrect kinda they at least get brought up I guess

New Ralsei lore - Correct, though I was thinking like his specific nature as a Darkner not just him as a person so maybe this doesn't count

Reverse Undertale theory, this is Waterfall - Definitely correct, thanks Gerson (Though it also kinda felt like the Ruins at times)

Weird Route either has Berdly funeral since it's the church, or he's in the hospital - Latter's correct

...And he's Fallen Down - GODDAMMIT (AFAIK that's not said, at least, I forgot to check the hospital when I did my Weird Route run)

Noelle doesn't have major relevance again yet - ...I mean... I meant in the Dark World... So... I guess I was right? Kinda?

...Because she'll be in Chapter 5 which is Ice-E's - Prominent theory is Flower King now so FUCK.

Piano puzzles because Waterfall - Correct somefuckinghow

Pianpian motif shows up here as a culmination of the piano puzzles - I'm gonna take Pianpian itself playing as a victory here even if it's not exactly what I guessed

SB is Gerson's Hammer - CORRECT SOMEHOW. SOMEFUCKINGHOW. I THREW THIS OUT AS A BULLSHIT GUESS BECAUSE I HAD NOTHING. This is the one that got me the most out of all the things I got right, this and Undyne

Other SB guesses were either some kind of apocryphal book of the Angel religion that explains the Angel's Heaven is Bad Actually, or the Legendary Artifact - I would've bet way more on those than the goddamn hammer so do I still lose

Pluey is irrelevant - Correct, unless you count them being one of the Mikes but I swear someone made like a half-hour video trying to guess what they'd be and I thought that was the dumbest shit ever (I also didn't watch it)

Another Rouxls rematch, another milk boss - Incorrect

SB has Green Soul - Correct

Predictions During Playthrough

Rabbicks return in Chapter 3 - Sorta correct, with the Ribbicks and the single Rabbick in the S-Rank room

Fourth collectibles in the Boards factor into the SB - ...I mean, you do need S-Ranks, and those do help a lot... But that's not what I meant...

Block puzzles lead directly to Rouxls rematch - Incorrect

Ramb SB - Incorrect but I think everybody thought that, kinda wanna cook up my own take on what his fight would've been like so post coming soon maybe (Is it just me or does his hair shape almost look like a phone? Not that that'd make any sense for him to be the phone, but I thought it at the time)

Tenna's looking for Toriel - Correct I think? It was never specifically stated who that call was about but I dunno who else he would've been after

Tenna kidnaps Toriel - Correct

I'd start hating Tenna once the kidnap reveal happens - Incorrect, thank god

You can enter the "leftover area" - What actually happens doesn't really count, does it? You just pass through it to get back to the part you see in the main Board

Rouxls' rematch will be him in a weather-themed outfit - Incorrect, that would've been so funny though

Tenna's going to kill Toriel for being strict about what Kris could watch - Incorrect, that came from me reading the Raise Up Your Bat lyrics but I was so focused on the minigame because I sucked ass at it I only actually saw a few lines

Something funny'd happen if you rafted to the Atlantis tile early - Incorrect, goddammit

The manhole in the S-Rank room factors into the Egg - I haven't actually gotten the CH3 Egg since I only tried in my Weird Route run where killing everyone seems to disable one of the NPCs needed for this one, but it doesn't seem like the manhole ties in from the instructions I've read?

Cold desert area is the Glaceir - Nope, I saw the leaked song names so I was just trying to guess ahead of time what played where lol, only guess I actually had for what'd play where was Concert For You was the Pianpian motif, which I was close lol

The noodle amalgamate you know the one appears behind one of the Chapter 3 curtains - Thankfully not, though the 1225 secret made up the Would've Scared The Shit Out Of Me factor this would've had

Tenna bringing up the Knight meant they're not an actual Light World person but some kind of avatar of the Fountains/Darkness in general to communicate with the rulers because there's no way the Knight just knew to show up to this random Fountain Kris made, right - Incorrect

For the like 5 seconds when Tenna was attacked before it was revealed it was the Knight I thought it was Undyne attacking Tenna due to misunderstanding him as a threat just as he stops being one - Incorrect, though I was so close to her timing lol

Catti makes the Church Fountain - Incorrect

Tenna actually died - Only in the Jerk Route lol

Batshit theories like Friend Inside Me wouldn't be acknowledged because why would they - Goddammit

Dark-colored door is Dess' room - Does this even count as a prediction like obviously it was lol

Kris ripping the Soul out and storming out of the room meant they were about to make a Fountain in front of Susie & Noelle - Thankfully incorrect, could you have imagined

Segment of running around as the Soul would lead to you either controlling Susie or Noelle - Thankfully incorrect again that would've been HORRIFIC for the Weird Route

Phone's the Knight - Incorrect lol, I called it being the Mayor when it said they'd be right there but that doesn't count

Mayor'd chew Noelle out upon showing up/be a negative presence - Obviously correct, also made me had to pause the game because I Sure Do Have No Personal Problems This Would Stir Up At All Nope I'm Okay!

If Tenna reappeared in Castle Town his arms would be gone - Incorrect but this would've been hilarious, could you imagine him doing his stupid dance animation but without his arms

Church Field theme one-ups the one Church Field theme I found one time that was one of my favorite fansongs - Correct, thank god, all of Chapter 4's songs were peak

If Chapter 4 has a Weird Route, Toriel may die - Thankfully the Weird Route didn't effect the Dark World that would've given me a heart attack with how freaky it got here

Chapter 4 would be my favorite chapter - Thankfully correct, minus the mayor bit obviously

Ralsei's being shifty because he doesn't know the real Prophecy/has the wrong one - Incorrect... I think, I know the theory going around now is the Prophecy is inaccurate lol but like I mean as in he knows the same one we saw here

The Red Things in the black rooms were Gerson fucking around/having some kind of evil alter ego he'd slip into due to being undead - Incorrect thank fuck, you can imagine the fear I felt thinking this might be the case when the Fake Gerson fight happened

Gerson's writing a letter to Alvin - Correct, but that was pretty easy I think

If the Weird Route effects the Dark World, Gerson the Undying - Thankfully incorrect, but again you can imagine the fear I felt from Fake Gerson

...Or you have to kill Gerson in - Also thankfully incorrect, I would've CRIED

Sealing the first Fountain wasn't actually the end - Correct, though I expected a surprise fight like how Spamton NEO cuts you off in the CH2 Weird Route so incorrect I guess

Ralsei'd chew Susie out for making this Fountain - Incorrect again

@friendlyneighborhoodmenace said there was "an enemy I'd really like" and "I'd know it when I see it", and I figured it'd just be a witch instead of anything specific - Correct lol, Wicabel (My big worldbuilding bullshit has a shitton of witches, for context, I'd link it here but nobody's fucking reading my 70-page psychosis because of a Deltarune post ...it's in my pinned post btw)

The weird black orb things get a Smorgs-type fight - Incorrect for now, I assume they're related to the Knight/Titans so hopefully we'll get one eventually that'd be so fun

Final Prophecy is someone dying (One of the main trio, Noelle, or Dess), the Roaring can't actually be stopped, or the main fountain has to be sealed - Guess we'll see

Ralsei saying he wants there to be more than one ending bodes poorly for the Weird Route - Guess we'll see^2

so uh all in all i'm glad i avoided watching all of those super long video essays because i honestly did way better than i expected myself to lol... i say as if anyone will believe i called fucking undyne & gerson you're all gonna think i'm full of shit

[verdantcreek]

thinking about the reboot mw games collectively and it’s so sadly unfortunate because like. when put up against the other two, mwiii fails so visibly.

first of all you’ve got their thesis/emotional core, right. for mw19, it’s all about the personal motivation of being a solider, the cost of war on an individual. what it means to fight and discovering the importance of what you’re fighting for. for mwii, it’s about trust. the importance of knowing that your team has each others backs, the weight that it has between individuals. what happens when that trust is broken and how it’s found again through vulnerability, because that’s how you truly know you’re there for each other.

and then there’s mwiii..? you should let your sergeant kill a prisoner illegally so said prisoner, when he breaks out of maximum security prison, doesn’t kill your sergeant 4 years later? you should illegally kill people who piss you off (shepherd)? sure there’s the whole “never bury your enemies alive”, but where does that come in to play outside of the soap/makarov interaction? it’s definitely not a valid reason for price to kill an american general in his own office. they could’ve used it for graves if they wanted to take it a step further, but no— graves doesn’t betray the team again, for whatever reason. we’re expected to consider him just a much a member of the team as anyone else, and the narrative treats him as such outside of a few bristly reactions to his involvement.

secondly i take a huge issue with how characters were handled in mwiii. literally everyone is here, and there is no reason for several of them to be. alex felt like a cameo— you see him actually on screen for maybe 30 seconds. farah’s missions feel forced for the sake of her involvement. not that farah shouldn’t be in this game, but makarov’s flimsy reasoning for targeting the ulf is so clearly an excuse to involve her. it feels very random and transparent as a decision to reuse her character because she’s familiar. again with graves— why is he here? i still genuinely do not understand why they decided to retcon his death. it was a perfect arc for mwii to kill him, and him being alive adds absolutely nothing to the story. he has nothing to do in mwiii and there is zero reason for his involvement other than “people liked him in mwii and he has a cool accent.”

within the 141, it’s mostly rehashing of the growth/personality that each of them showed in previous games. none of them have an arc, except maybe price if you’re willing to call the *post credit scene* where he commits cold blooded murder a completion of an arc. gaz, soap, and ghost are static versions of themselves that simply are just … there for most of the plot. they’re not out of character or ruined, but none of them individually have anything going on that can’t be tied back to price.

i think a lot of it comes down to the way they tried to shoehorn mwiii into the original trilogy’s storyline. people loved those games, and nostalgia sells. i don’t think it’s a coincidence that makarov was a big marketing factor for this game— and that’s not to say that mw19 or mwii didn’t abuse that either, but in execution you can feel the difference. price, gaz, soap and ghost are all their own characters miles away from their original trilogy counterparts. makarov… isn’t. he’s a poorly written villain riding on the success of the original trilogy— he’s scary because he’s *makarov*, not because he’s a real threat. it’s cheap. the knockoff “no russian” mission felt insulting. it’s a callback with no real impact in the story, just simply “look! remember when we did this in 2009 and everyone loved it?”

and all of it culminates into a shit ending with shock factor that it tries to make you feel emotional. i’m not sad over this character death. i’m mad, because it’s unearned and lazy. i realize it’s a lot to ask a multi-billion dollar corporation to actually put effort into their stories, but… it’s such a let down when the previous games actually had at least an ounce of passion. i’m just still so disappointed with this game ruining what could’ve been a really interesting and unique story.

[thegoldencontracts]

Honestly, I will forever be of the opinion that Leona deserved better. Like, not just backstory wise (but also that his life is awful even if people don't realize because of the way it's presented) but specifically just... Book 2 did him so dirty in my opinion??? It's literally supposed to be HIS book but honestly, I feel like I can get a better gauge of Leona's character from looking at a Vignette, or event, or Book 6, or literally anything but Book 2?

Outside of this one specific book, Leona is an amazing and likable yet still obviously very flawed character. He is extremely intelligent and competent, raises very genuinely good points about his brother's failures as a ruler, and is actually very kind to those he cares for—notable example being the advice, tutoring, and clothing items he is repeatedly shown to give Ruggie during vignettes. He really would be a good king. He's charismatic, intelligent, powerful, and considerate, too.

So then, why is he specifically so absolutely stupid in Book Two?

His scheme is hare-brained and the type of thing you'd expect from a Saturday morning cartoon villain—"Heh... we're going to... stampede Malleus... so genius and evil..."—and the fact that any of the accidents went by undetected in the first place really feels like it required everyone to lose all their braincells. "Oh, I do so wonder who's behind these accidents that exclusively afflict prominent Sports players not from Savannaclaw and involve people losing control of their bodies! Certainly not the notable athlete from Savannaclaw who has a Unique Magic that controls people's bodies and a vested interest in sports due to being in good position to receive a sports scholarship!!!!!!!"

Nah it was actually AZUL ASHENGROTTO behind the accidents THAT'S RIGHT... he was jealous that everyone else could play sports but he couldn't... so he decided to break their bones... what do you mean it was Ruggie Bucchi he would never??!?!? look at his innocent little face does this look like a bone breaker to you?????

Just look at him. How could you possibly accuse this respectable young man of such a thing.

No no n onoooooo it was actually... NEIGE LEBLANCHE!!! I just knew he was hiding something evil underneath that mask of his...

But yeah. It just feels like Leona literally took out half of that massive, wrinkled brain of his and then proceeded to toss it into a fucking blender, and everyone else in the game followed suit, because how the fuck does this work?

And of course... the thing.

You know, where Leona turns Ruggie into sand.

It's not this action itself I'm against. I actually thought it was unique for an overblotter to hurt one of their own allies like this. Unlike Jamil, Leona didn't appear to be secretly harboring any resentment against Ruggie. I thought the fallout of something so major would be interesting! Attempted murder against your own dormmate and ally? That's gotta be a big deal!

But there's... literally none. There IS NO FALLOUT. WHERE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF THIS MASSIVE ACTION??!?! HELLO?!??! I'm not saying I think Leona should actually be sent to jail and executed or something, I understand that he was on the verge of overblot but like... why does no one react to this attempted murder?? Ruggie himself literally does not give a shit?

PLEASE GIVE ME SOME FALLOUT I AM BEGGING YOU

AND THEN... the backstory... sigh...

It's so tragic, because you have this little boy, this child, being constantly shamed for not being able to live up to someone ten years his senior. This child, who is constantly put down, seen as nothing but a spare, treated like a monster for things completely out of his control. Leona was well acquainted with privilege and wealth, but he was also acquainted with hate all too well.

BUT JHAT'S NOT HOW THEy FRAME ITTTT UGHHHH Why is one of the two scenes (which, only two, come on no one else's backstory was that short) literally just his brother trying to be nice to him. Why don't we focus on that part when servants were comparing him to someone ten years his senior, using him, a child, as a prop to make his older brother look better, and shunning him for something completely out of his control?

One of the two scenes is literally just his brother being nice to him I feel soso bad for Leona but like. when this is how they present it no wonder people think he's just being entitled COME ON?!??

All this to say if anyone knows any rewrites for Book Two please please i will eat them up

[davekat-sucks]

look, i’m sorry, but I just can’t get over this, in that screenshot you posted the hicu even called him the most self-adjusted in the cast, what the actual fuck. Faggot Vantas? Self-adjusted? How. If they are not making the same tired, rancid jokes about how ~HOT~ his mantits are now, they’re sucking on their own OOC shitty version of Karkat’s dick until it’s dry.

i’m beyond tired of this shitshow hyper-focusing every single update (whenever they actually happen once in a fucking blue moon because the pacing is that fucking horrible and slow) on dragging Jade and Rose, who used to be my favorite characters, through the mud and humiliating them just to prop up Karkat as their moral paragon mouthpiece on a soapbox screaming down at everyone else and calling them desperate whiny whores and wombs.

So, I’m going to do exactly what he does and go on a way too long rant against the nu-fandom and hicu’s golden boy, whom they love to project onto so much that they don’t even realize he’s the worst-written asshole in the entire comic. Or maybe they do, and that’s why Karkat is such a fucking imbecile now, because they relate to him and genuinely think he’s in the right.

Karkat ranting and telling Rose about how she supposedly wasted years doing nothing or that she was never good enough for Cucknaya, all while unironically shouting some cringy-ass “Troll Lives Matter” bullshit is RICH, considering he spent his entire life begging on his knees to be a Threshecutioner so he could personally execute the very trolls that eugenicist tyrant fish-fucking-Hitler deemed as “not good enough”. He literally said on text that he admired her leadership so much that he wanted to serve her, even knowing damn well that she would have culled him and everyone he cared about without a second thought if given the chance, and he was fine with that, just as long as he was an exception.

And look at him now, Meenah’s little glorified dildo, helping her commit genocide, pretending as if he cares about “his people”. As if he’s not just using the war as an excuse to kill people for a scrap of highblood validation (the Signless doing backflips in his grave) all while doing absolutely nothing of substance in the story except for whining about missing Dave.

The EXACT same fucking pattern as what happened to him in the retconned timeline after Game Over, where he was totally fine with letting Meenah lead the ghosts of all his dead friends to their death by Lord English, as long as he got to give a cringy speech (about Dave) and be "second in command", all so he could feel special. Because god forbid he be reminded that he’s just another one of those “unworthy, disgusting mutants” or that he’s a worthless leader who never had what it takes, or else he’ll just cry about it like a little bitch like he always does. His self-esteem and moral are that fucking nonexistent.

So NO, sit the fuck down Karkat, you traitorous Judas bitch with negative self awareness, who do you think you are to tell ANYONE that they were never good enough. You’re so fucking worthless that Terezi literally had John go back in time to tell her past self you weren’t shit *instead* of reviving the trolls that died because she didn’t want to date your sorry ass and regretted wasting so much time on you. And she chose to revive fucking Vriska of all people (the one bitch that ruined her life more than you did) just so she could forget about you and find someone else to take her for granted and treat her like shit.

But no, according to Karkat, Jade is the desperate bitchy one. And I’m quoting him in the new upd8 here, because this shit pissed me off with how hypocritical it is:

KARKAT: MAYBE THE REST OF YOU HAVE A LOT TO CATCH UP ON VIS A VIS JADE HARLEY'S DESPERATION SITUATION, BUT I LIVED IT. KARKAT: FOR YEARS! KARKAT: "OH POOR ME, EVERYTHING GETS TAKEN AWAY FROM ME, NOBODY EVER CONSIDERS MY FEELINGS." KARKAT: "NONE OF THE FRIENDS IN MY LIFE GIVE A SHIT ABOUT ME DESPITE ALWAYS BEING THERE FOR ME WHENEVER I NEED TO BITCH AND MOAN."

They really wrote this about JADE, who was the one person that was genuinely ignored and lonely for YEARS and still was willing to always helping everyone she cared for with a smile and pushing down her feelings to do so ever since the comic started, and sacrificed her life to save John's dreamself. While Karkat was the desperate horny simp that got canonically horny over the idea of Jade making out with Jadesprite, who was crying after realizing she died, and only helped her because he wanted to make Terezi jealous and later on wanted Jade to like him so fucking badly because he had such a big fucking crush on her that he made something she said the password to his room. Fucking Cascade happened thanks to her going God tier, nobody would be alive without her.

I think the fact that the writers retconned and swapped Jade and Karkat’s characters and relationship so they could frame HER as the desperate horny mess that was thirsty for everyone, all so they can paint Dave and Karkat as victims and her a homewrecking sex pest forcing herself onto Karkat because they genuinely think that is treating her character as “good” or making her “complex and layered” really says a lot about them. Underage yaoi fangirls that write fanfics killing the female character that gets in between their ship wish they could get paid for doing the same shit.

So now Jade is the desperate whiny bitch for daring to imply that nobody gave a single iota of a fuck about her, as though this is incorrect, or she wasn’t completely abandoned, left to rot alone in that ship thinking John was dead for good, and Davesprite left her without telling her why. And that’s the thing, despite what Hussie and HICU try to do retconning Jade and calling her a whiny ungrateful bitch to make Dave & Karkat look good, she never once complained about growing up alone in the original comic. Never whined, never threw a fit, never made her loneliness growing up anyone else’s problem. Never once said anything about doing taxidermy with her grandfather's corpse at 5 years old, since we are turning gags into grounded narratives now.

Contrast that with fucking Act 6 DAVE, who made his daddy issues everyone else’s problem by being the excuse he gave to not want to kill Lord English, essentially choosing to let his friends die. Or fucking Act 6 and beyond Karkat, who, when not BITCHING AND MOANING about how Terezi chose Dave over him or how Dave “took” Terezi away from him (and rejected his stupid chart to share her), spent every single second of his screentime wallowing in self-pity over how everyone supposedly hated him for his blood color or that he was a bad leader, even though they weren’t in Alternia anymore and not a single person ever actually giving a fuck about that, not even ONCE. During his session he was ALWAYS supported even though he didn’t deserve it since he NEVER FUCKING THANKED ANYONE FOR *THEIR* SACRIFICES TO HIM.

And I point this out because they also had the gall to have Candy!Karkat call SOLLUX a lazy, uncaring asshole. One of the FEW people who actually DID SHIT for his team, programming the actual fucking game Karkat needed to even get in, managing the trolls’ computers and viewports so Karkat could chat with the humans and be able to confess his hatedom for John, and literally DYING TWICE to save Karkat’s pathetic ass.

Because, just like his nonexistant brain, this pedantic manlet’s backbone is so pathetically underdeveloped that the only thing it ever allowed him to do when it MATTERED was piss his diapers in fear of Gamzee, Vriska and Eridan (who, by the way, all got taken down in five seconds by fucking Cucknaya, the only person as much of a spineless enabling pansy as he is) while throwing the burden of confrontation onto his personal meatshield Equius getting both Nepeta and Tavros killed in the process, after crying like a little bitch that his other meatshield Sollux was knocked out by Eridan, because all Karkat did when Eridan knocked Sollux out and killed Feferi&Kanaya was stand there like a drooling retard with his mouth open in shock instead of cutting this shit out like the leader he claimed he was and later gave up being, so fucking VRISKA could take the mantle and order everyone around. The bitch that was the entire reason they got stuck in murderstuck, because she was the one that CREATED BEC NOIR and gave Jade narcolepsy, all so she could play hero.

Such a half-assed pathetic coward, so allergic to accountability and confrontation, that he couldn’t even own up to his feelings for Terezi without resorting to manipulative games. Couldn’t have the basic decency to give Nepeta a clear rejection despite hypocritically telling Eridan to treat her like a person. Couldn’t handle the humbling of John rejecting HIM and so instead went back in time to troll him backwards. Couldn’t confess to Jade either after only liking her when she insulted him back because he’s a raving masochist.

Terezi was getting isolated by Gamzee, Kanaya had to deal with Rose being an alcoholic, and Jade was isolated alone in the ship after thinking John had died. And did Karkat give any of a shit about that, or even try to go God Tier or try to find a way to revive his dead friends? Fuck no, for he was too busy spending the rest of his screentime fellating himself for years over his thousandth rewatch of The Notebook while his pookiebear deadbeat Dave passed out on that crusty-ass couch from sheer boredom in that stupid meteor after he dumped Terezi for daring to get trapped in an abusive relationship with Gamzee, because Karkat also COULDN’T do his *ONE* fucking duty of PACIFYING HIS OWN FUCKING MOIRAIL or at least LETTING KANAYA KILL HIM.

And somehow, ridiculously, out of nowhere, Hussie decided that the best way to "develop" this character was to have him latch onto Terezi’s sloppy seconds, since Dave looked and acted just enough like Sollux to make him horny. And with that, Hussie found a new target to paint Karkat as the victim and satisfy his disgusting fantasy of asinine romcom love triangles: Jade. A character Hussie clearly hated, stripping her of any dignity by giving her a dog dick, making her a terrible mother, complicit in cheating and naming her daughter fucking Yiffy, all just to further humiliate her.

And now the writers decide Karkat grows a spine? Now he suddenly has the nerve to hypocritically claim that Rose did nothing for years? Just to defend his pookie Dave, after he broke down sobbing at the sight of his dead carcass like a little bitch, right in front of his girlfriend? He insults those two, but not Meenah, Vriska's groomer, whose only personality trait now is thirsting after his tiny dick, consoling him every time he whines about Dave, get cheated on by Karkat with Davebot later, and apparently now having a plan to keep her boytoy alive longer since he's mortal? Exactly like HIC did with the fucking Psiioniic?

And on top of all that, they have Karkat have the audacity to insult Jade and call HER desperate and make Rose cry? AND MAKE JOHN CLAP AT HIM RIGHT AFTERWARDS FOR INSULTING HIS OLDEST FRIENDS AND SAY THAT NOW THINGS ARE BETTER THANKS TO KARKAT PUTTING THEM IN THEIR PLACE?

They always have to character assassinate SOMEONE to make Karkat look better. John so Karkat can be the leader figure, Jane so Karkat can become an ~oppressed minority~ again by making her become a trump allegory because the writers are THAT fucking crazy obsessed with politics, Roxy so she can be mocked as a "centrist" as if it's a derogatory slur for not wanting Karkat to murder Jane after she was already beheaded, Jake so they can go "see! karkat is not the ONLY one sexualized! we're not perverts, it's a PLOT thing uwu", Jade so someone gets in between Karkat and his true love Dave, Dirk so he can force davekat to happen because it really is THAT nonsensical and unplausible to happen naturally, Sollux so Karkat can whine and criticize him for not doing anything and mock for not getting laid, Meenah so she can constantly say how hot he is and how stupid Jade is for not wanting him, Rose so they can point out how Karkat is not the most morally reprehensible lazy piece of shit around, Kanaya so Karkat can be shown to care about ONE of his troll friends, and Dave who can validate everything Karkat is saying about how Jade is a fucking crazy whore because he also canonically has said that she was a whiny bitch that didn't have a life as hard as his, and that's why he and Karkat belong together. Because they both are lazy deadbeats that hate Jade and think she's a whiny bitch that didn't have as hard of a life as neither of them.

Because at the end of the day, no matter how HARD they try to hamfistedly shove in every sentence that Karkat is ~SOOOOO~ caring and thoughtful, how he is the glue that keeps them together or some shit, what was actually SHOWN of Karkat’s entire incomprehensible mess of a character has been about how he only cares about HIS wants and needs. HIS problems. HIS motivation. HIS pain. HIS insecurities. HIS Strider. Everyone else? Completely irrelevant, unless they align with his wants or make him feel good about himself.

Nothing Karkat did was selfless, it was always because he wanted to get something out of it. Otherwise why not revive his dead friends if he allegedly cared so much about them? Why not help Rose with her alcoholism in the meteor? Or visit John since he was lonely? Nothing to gain out of it, except being a good friend to him. But I guess since John didn’t want his dick, Karkat thought he could choke.

So here he is once again, Karkat horrendous ooc shitshow manipulating the narrative to make hismself the victim and Jade the horrendous villain, because the writers related a little bit too fucking much to him and Dave, as per usual.

And so, to me, this whole rant about Jade’s supposed "desperation" is really just Karkat (and the writers) projecting.

The ONE thing that was prevalent and has remained from Karkat’s shitty inconsistent mess of a character is that he was always a fucking disaster reeking of desperation: desperate for approval, for validation, for a relationship he can cling to.

Desperate enough to spend his entire existence crying about how he was the victim while completely ignoring the suffering of literally everyone else around him. Desperate enough to always play second fiddle to Vriska or Meenah leadership and doing shit in the story, when he was supposed to be a main character. And now, to top it all off, turns out this spineless loser faked having a yeast infection just to avoid fucking Jade, whom he previously LIKED, because he was too much of a coward to confront the nicest girl he ever knew, a character who was absolutely butchered in this dogshit sequel, all because he was THAT desperate for Dave’s cock to accept being in a throuple for an opportunity to get Jade’s sloppy seconds.

Instead of showing even one sliver of maturity or growth for what happened to his friends, he chose to use this as fuel for his never ending self-pity parties and forever stayed a whiny little bitch with zero dignity, with his character reduced to retarded teenage lovedrama until the very end and to this day. And even if Karkat DOES revive his friends later? Fuck you, too little too late.

And what is Meat!Karkat doing?

Sucking Dave's disck with gusto, not caring that Jade was possessed or that Kanaya was cucked or that John was killed.

So fucking nothing. The same shit he always has done.

Pathetic.

And this is why Clover <3 Candy!Karkat at Super weenie hut jr is better than davekat,

Because reminder that this hypocritical selfish, self-absorbed, resentful manchild's last and ONLY feat in the original comic right after the timeline got retconned thanks to him being so unlikable and incompetent, was him celebrating beating CLOVER.

Clover <3 Candy!Karkat at Super Weenie Hut Jr is better than Davekat. And everything you just typed. About Karkat, about this update, all of it...is just PERFECT!!!

[theflagscene]

My Top 10 Fave QL Characters of 2024 🤩

More end of the years lists from me, because clearly I have nothing to do for the rest of the week... I wish I was joking. Much like my pervious lists, my only rule for this is that at least some of the series needed to air this year. It can have started in 2023 or will be ending in 2025, as long as some—or all—of the series aired this year, then it's fair game.

1 ) God - Monster Next Door

What can I say about God that hasn't already been screamed from the rooftops by literally everyone who watched the series? He was aptly nicknamed, because this gentle giant was a gift from heaven. The greenest green flag, even when mad or upset, he was still as green as a damn emerald! The sweetest golden retriever character to have graced my screen this year, I will always love this character and this series, it's become a comfort watch for me, that's for sure.

2 ) Yai - The Sign

There aren't enough sweet himbos in QLs imo, typically whilst cute but dumb, they're also mean or bigoted or just not very likable. Yai broke all of those stereotypes, he was cutest himbo around, a perfect brother, friend, bro and husband. I knew I would adore him from the very first episode and I was not wrong, he did not disappoint. Every scene Yai was in wasn't enough, I wanted so much more of Yai (and his scary beautiful wife, Sand).

3 ) Joker - Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart

Joker and his emotional support idiots might have fumbled the ball at damn near every turn, but he was absolutely adorable whilst doing it. I think it's physically impossible for me to dislike a character War plays, so me adoring Joke was not a surprise to me. A master thief who really wasn't that great at not getting caught, a hopeless romantic, mama bear and perfect grandson-in-law? What more could I have asked for?... Possibly better fake tattoos, but we can't have it all lol.

4 ) Jeff - Pit Babe

I admit with no shame whatsoever that I found Jeff to be one of the most interesting characters on the show. His powers were the ones with the farthest reaching consequences and the most difficult to live with, he was tragic in all the ways I love a character to be tragic. I really wished I could've watched a version of the series from his pov, because I feel like I would’ve fast forwarded way less lol!

5 ) Tae Myungha - Love For Love's Sake

His depressive aura bewitched me body and soul, what can I say? The fact that he tried so hard to make everyone around him feel loved, wanted and important whilst he spent his entire life feeling none of that just broke my damn heart. He was the perfectly example of: the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it's like to feel absolutely worthless and they don't want anybody to feel like that.

6 ) JJ - This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans

Poor JJ has an idiot for a bestie and a douchebag (affection) for a love interest, this dude did not have an easy time of it lol. His forever exasperated resting bitch face and constant annoyance at literally everything that came out of both Plawan and Methas's mouths made me laugh so much, JJ had absolutely no time for any of their shit and yet he was constantly dealing with their shit. The poor guy needed a vacation away from the people in his life even though he loved them, which I totally understand lol!

7 ) Aylin - 23.5

While this wasn't my favourite series, Aylin was definitely one of my favourite characters. Her autistic coded self just spoke to me, I too dislike humans to a level that I would easily take the first alien spaceship off the planet lol. Aylin was so sweet and funny, I loved the way she spoke and her lil hats! I just wanted to squish her!

8 ) Fadel - The Heart Killers

Was I expecting to go into this series loving Fadel? No. Should I have? Absolutely. I have always loved the shrew characters when it came to adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew, which is the point of the character so ya know, duh! Lol. Any series with FirstKhao in it I always assume one of them will end up being my fave because well, it's them! But Fadel is the realest of the real when it comes to the slog of daily life, his routines, his annoyance with the general population, his need to remind himself that killing people whilst working in customer service is not worth the clean up nor the prison time. Sure, he's an assassin on the weekends, but hell, who isn't working two jobs in our current economy?

9 ) Rock - Cherry Magic TH

Rock was the perfect sunshine dope of a sidekick and I loved him for it, completely oblivious yet extremely caring at the same time. A man smitten with the idea of a woman who wants to eat fatty foods, will kidnap his Phi for a super secret mission no questions asked and respects a woman's right to say no without becoming an incel about it, he really was a joy to watch. It also helped that Sing played him, because Sing is an adorable ball of sunshine and I luff him.

10 ) Tan - We Are

The first person to get his man, and so easily. It made perfect sense why Fang fell for Tan, his hyperactive sunshine energy was like an instant 'smile' button. He was so genuine with his emotions and interests, he was a simp and made no apologies for it. He loved Fang so completely and unconditionally, he did whatever he needed to make sure that Fang felt safe and cared for. Tan really raised the bar when it came to clingy boyfriends that aren’t cringy, which is a hard thing to do.