#At this point this is my comfort save | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

kopivie · 15 days ago

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(genshin/zzz/hsr rant incoming. these are all my personal opinions.)

look, varesa is cute, i guess, but genshin impact is becoming so disappointing that i sincerely can't indulge in it anymore. i'm not even joking.

for example: varesa is iansan's pupil – that's who is quoted in her character intro on twitter. but if that's the case, why the fuck is iansan – the literal promo character for natlan – a 4 star with grey skin, while varesa is a 5 star? how much fucking sense does that make? did the devs forget that iansan was the character who was pushed in that trailer showcasing the nations all those years ago?

i understand that ningguang got the same treatment, being a 4 star and all, but in spite of that, we got displays of her strength and significance countless times. meanwhile, iansan isn't even remotely the same skin color as she was in the promo trailer.

also, varesa is meant to be "plus size" but... really? c'mon, dude. her thighs and arms are just drawn thicker, that's all. give her a tummy and rounder cheeks, at least. or some fucking melanin, for crying out loud. if anything, it's just an excuse to create a character that eats a lot and has fat in the "right" places. ugh.

(also, why the fuck do npcs get to have melanin, but not playable characters? cyno, xinyan, sethos, and candace are special cases, but the sumeru characters from the desert should definitely be darker since they're literally from the desert. and if natlan characters are based on indigenous and/or african cultures, their skin tones should reflect that. the most striking aspects of their designs are the colors that appear when they use their nightsoul blessings, but it's wasted since they're all so fucking pale. but okay. whatever.)

something that people have been complaining about lately is that genshin impact fell off super hard after the release of fontaine, and i have to agree. while i'm personally not as enthusiastic about fontaine's characters as i am about those that came before, fontaine was still super compelling, the characters were interesting, and the story as a whole was pretty cool. natlan had the potential to be the same, what with the plot being so morbid, canonically relevant, and emotional, but the characters flopped so hard that natlan as a whole feels soulless. the momentum crashed and fucking burned.

which is disheartening, to say the least. the most vibrant nation – both in terms of visuals, aesthetics, and culture – reduced to absolutely nothing because of how fucking soggy the cast is. it's bad enough that hoyoverse refuses to handle characters with melanin with any sort of care & openly fuses and disrespects several cultures from vastly different countries, but i digress.

because i need you to be so fr: what is kinich's favorite food? what's the deal with k'uhul ajaw? what about mualani's past? outside of mavuika, what do you actually know about any of natlan's playable characters? genuinely. excluding what you experience in tribal chronicles, the archon quest, and reading through their character stories, what do you really know about them?

characters like kazuha and xiao are so easy to cling to because you've seen so much of them. xiao's aloof and self-sacrifical nature melted away very quickly even before we got tons of content to watch him evolve. hell, even jeht, a fucking npc, got infinitely more character depth than some playable characters have to this day. so why are natlan's characters so fucking hollow?

another thing i've seen people mention is that genshin has become gooner or waifu bait, which... yeah..? i guess? people try to counter that argument by pointing at zenless zone zero, but that argument falls flat when you understand that zzz never tried to be anything else. a lot of people got into zzz for nicole's tits and stayed for the lore, great mechanics, and generous reward system. zzz literally baited people and is doing a pretty good job balancing it out, if you ask me. the fanservice is blatant because that's exactly what they chose to be.

like seriously, if you look at zenless zone zero's pre-release cbt vs. what it looks like now, you'll find that they censored quite a bit of the game. it's still fan service heavy with a lot of jiggle physics, but it doesn't distract from the content of the game in any way. like it's evident, but not uncomfortably so. if it was, i'm sure the game would get far more hate.

take jane doe as an example. her trailers are insanely erotic. she literally oozes sex appeal even though her occupation technically doesn't require her to make use of it. but does that detract from her character in the special story? nope. it's not even something she utilizes, actually. she's simply a fantastic actress, convincing even seth, a fellow pubsec officer, that she's a bad guy. (i know he's supposed to be naïve, but c'mon. she had so many people fooled.)

on the other hand, genshin never advertised itself as such. fanservice was expected, but it was never their main selling point – and don't misunderstand me, it still isn't, but it doesn't feel that way anymore.

genshin was supposed to be that one revolutionary gacha game with complex lore, fun fight mechanics, cool character designs, and cultural references. obviously it delivered, but lately it's been... shamelessly leaning in a certain direction. in fact, it's leaning so far that the game itself is lacking in actual compelling content.

also, the devs adding the ability to skip through certain things doesn't do much for player retention imo. because once you skip through these things and collect your materials, what's left? an event that you don't care about that yields little to no meaningful rewards? articles are being made about how barren the updates have become and if you're like me and you've got endless quests that could be completed, there's no real incentive for completing them.

the developers of honkai star rail are so observant that they recognized that the game is evolving in such a way that renders their early release characters useless. so what are they promising to do? buff the old characters so that they're still useful, even as the combat evolves beyond what those early characters were made for. i'm not sure if they're buffing all of them, but to ensure people can still play the game with old characters (without having to spend money/resources to get the new ones), they're fixing the game so that that is possible.

sunday may have been released before this announcement, but he was definitely the first step because he gave jing yuan, a character that got power crept by literally everyone released after him, more value. that's how you refresh a game, dammit.

zenless zone zero isn't old enough to warrant such changes, nor does it have such complex combat mechanics. the characters are organized into five categories – support, anomaly, stun, attack, and defense – and every agent that comes out has their own unique animations & ways to expand upon their designated combat role. even without proper synergy between agents, you can still succeed.

even the element distribution is unique in zzz. the canonical reason for there being only three ether characters is because developing ether weapons is expensive and ether is a dangerous element that can corrupt the user, so not many can use it. (this is just my assumption, but) zhu yuan likely has ether bullets because she's got pubsec to pay for her weapons, and nicole is nicole, so she probably has some secret connection who gave her the suitcase.

also, the dev team understands that ether is unique to the world of zzz, so they're being extremely careful when handling it. that said, it's safe to assume that the abundance of agents who use more natural elements – ice/frost, fire, physical, and electric – is due in part to the fact that it's simply safer for agents to fight using things that are easily accessible and less prone to corrupting them.

there's also the matter of certain pieces of canon lore being shown in regular gameplay, such as miyabi's hair glowing. with her w-engine her hair glows indefinitely, but without it, it still glows. in canon, her father and other citizens have seen that glow whenever she fights – hence why you can see it in combat. that's fucking amazing; the consistency is absolutely wild.

i'm not saying all of this to say that genshin lacks these traits; you can absolutely achieve the same synergy using unconventional team comps and so on. there's also aspects of lore being shown through on-field character action, be it via combat or idles. but because most of genshin's true value is hidden behind endless walls of text and occasionally hard-to-locate items, it falls short. players communicate ways to improve the game and sometimes the devs will answer, but they'll over-deliver and make things upsetting all over again like they did with the over-simplified puzzles.

inazuma was fun imo because the puzzle difficulty was perfect. complex, but not overly so. sumeru expanded on that beautifully, and world quests for both nations were riveting from start to finish.

natlan has its own gimmick, being the nation of war, after all. everything is centered around combat which is understandable and fun. but once again, i sincerely feel like natlan is just... underwhelming. the potential fizzles out upon contact.

my point in saying all of this is just to reiterate something that i've said several times on this blog: genshin impact is no longer appealing to me. it no longer gets me as amped up as it used to. i don't yearn for updates or characters – quite frankly, i don't care anymore. i treat genshin the same way i treat k-pop idols that i used to obsess over; i tune in for important updates but don't bother engaging any further than that. genshin is only interesting for the lore and theories at this point.

the characters still hold a special place in my heart, though i can't really say i care for anyone post-sumeru. i'm at the point where i'm more fascinated by fanart and creating fic ideas than actually engaging with the damn game itself. i want to do things like explore sumeru and inazuma all over again, but... i dunno. genshin's grown dull and has done nothing but disappoint me as of late, and it's breaking my heart. i could obtain new characters all i wanted, but still not give a damn.

i got arlecchino and i was excited until i pulled clorinde's weapon. i got arlecchino to a point where she's playable and for a time, i was excited to go back to building the characters that i've been itching to build for years so i could have various team comps to swap out and have fun with. but did i follow through? no. that's not a new development; genshin's always been tedious. but it's not laziness that's stopping me anymore – it's the fact that i just don't care.

it will forever confuse me how genshin impact put hoyoverse on the map and yet that's the game that fell apart first. instead of improving genshin directly, it almost seems as though zzz and hsr are learning from genshin's mistakes.

genshin locks talent and weapon materials behind real world time constraints; you can only obtain a specific mat on a specific day. but in hsr and zzz, all mats are available at all times. i'm aware that this is due to the fact that there are significantly less materials since those games are smaller, but my point remains. like, instead of locking mats behind a specific day of the week, why not combine the hsr strat and choose a difficulty along with the specific mat you want whenever you pick a domain? why make this so damn difficult?

zzz and hsr are also more generous with their rewards, be it for events or otherwise. why not allow genshin to do the same? it's weird, but of little concern to me at this point tbh.

i just wanted to get that out my system. i'm not mad, just... fiercely disappointed.

#[ 🌱 — blah blah. ]#blah blah indeed.#damn.#this shit took me an hour to write bc i have so many things to say about this #genshin impact is so fucking empty to me now.#kazuha cannot save this game. like i will not touch that damn game for his sake #i won't abandon my comfort characters but i'm definitely not any more likely to touch the game for their sake #i'm literally just waiting for major archon quest updates because i poured so much time and money into the game #i have to see how it ends. like i think i'm obligated to at this point

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cosmicterrorthe8th · 1 year ago

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Another Grant headcanon:

I think he wrote love notes when in relationships, and he went all out with like making the paper scented and stuff. But like he had no good perfume so he ended up using his horrible body spray. So like the lucky boyfriend would like find a paper reeking of the body spray like every once in a while.

Also I think he was someone who fell deep into romance because having a crush and feeling butterflies in his stomach was better than numbness. So he would pursue every crush even if he knew it would not end well because of the thrill of it. I think this sucked but I think he atleast felt like this is a normal way for life to suck.

#honestly I was thinking he continued the note thing with marco in college maybe?#and now marco likes the smell of the body spray even if grant found better perfumes cuz nostalgia #i think i am in my own la dee da world after this episode #where I think if willy takes a break from torturing the parents they should form a circle and become bffs #they should form a circle #toast to rebecca #and then just talk shit idk #i think they would be very funny as a group after they are done grieving #like cassandra would be like how could I have dated such a loser #he literally kidnapped like four of my exs ex friends and put collars on them when we were dating #and they would be like no its not your fault he is that manipulative #and then one of them would talk about their ex to comfort her #and then somwhow it would come out that willy is like the age of their grandparents #and cassandra would be like why did this senior citizen get me so bad #he told me to make him a sandwich and I #a multimillionaire made him a sndwich #this will probably never happen in canon #dndads #grant wilson #dungeons and daddies #the tags are their own seperate post at this point #dndads s2 #looking back on this(tags)#all the spouses knew willy as a nice guy who saved them #rebecca was the only one who suspected him so thats why he killed her #they must be feeling so duped getting tortured except for marco who saw him kill a man #cassandra has been feeling duped since heaven #this is killing me all of them are having conversations in my head now the comedy and the pain is killing me mostly the comedy #marco li wilson #grant li wilson

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cryptic-rainfall · 11 months ago

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Theory: I am genderfluid

Hypothesis: My perception of my own gender changes day to day

Method: record what gender I am feeling most like when I get a strong sense of gender, along with the date, in my notes app

Data: gone when my fucking phone got stolen [it spanned a good 2 years, from early 2019 to mid/late 2023]

Conclusion: Although my sense of my own gender did not change every day, as predicted if I were indeed genderfluid, it did change every few days. The change in gender perception was not regular; sometimes it changed day to day, more often it changed every 2-4 days. Very rarely, the gender I related to most even changed within the same day. The longest gender change gap was probably like 7 days, I don't know for sure because all my data was fucking lost. The hypothesis was proven false, with daily gender changes being so rare they should be considered outliers. However, this does not negate the theory, as my experience of gender was varied, and changed across certain periods of time. Some genders I related strongly to were genderqueer, nonbinary, boy who is a girl, gendervoid, and specific varied descriptions (such as "gender emulator" and "the static from a CRT monitor"). Some genders that appeared infrequently were agender, boy, girl, woman, and genderfuck. With this wide range of different gender feelings, and with the change in which gender I related strongest to being every few days on average, it is safe to say that I am indeed genderfluid. The shift in my own gender perception would not change so drastically if my gender was stagnant.

Final Thoughts: Despite the fact that this experiment concluded many years ago in mid/late 2022, since reaching the conclusion part way through the research, when ample evidence had been gathered, I felt comfortable enough to consider myself genderfluid. This experiment long surpassed its scope when the data was abruptly lost. However, since considering myself genderfluid, I have noticed that I've become more and more comfortable calling myself trans as well. This self reflection is insightful, and although I am no longer collecting data as per the methods outlined here, there is still much to explore and research regarding my gender and my relationship to it.

#so I typed this up at 3 in the morning last night #on my phone and saved as a draft so I wouldnt lose it #idk why my insomnia was so bad or why I was compelled to write this 3 years after the fact (of figuring out my gender)#(at least to a point where I was comfortable with it)#this experiment hasn't even been running for 1.5 years #anyway I thought of just keeping it as a draft for my own reference or adding it to my journal or something #but you know what. I think it's funny and should be shared #this is not even exaggeration this is how I processed this #gender #mine #my writing #genderfluid

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martyrbat · 2 years ago

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hm hm hm i feel like this will be really interesting to read with the knowledge of korra and how that effected her instead.... because korra (from my limited knowledge so i could be talking out my ass here) knew she was the avatar at an early age and DID get that community. she had katara and her parents, she had her mentors, she was isolated from the real world during so and perfected the elements other than air (which i kinda recall her struggling with and how its the opposite element of earth so im excited to see if those kinda play out :3) and she was more eager to be the avatar and the excitement and significance it brought (which was a bit clouded by her being sheltered but also would have been expected more before the war impacted things)

i also remember matty saying kyoshi struggled with earth bending (which im super excited to get to and see/see her journey and how it will differ) but!!! i just think its really fun how theyre kinda off the bat setting up this expectation and new grounding for readers who have a past grasp of the avatar universe. even as someone who isnt super familiar with the lore, i know enough to recognize that oh! thats something new!! so just kudos to the writer(s?) for just setting this up to be something very different and in a natural way :3

#again. talking out my ass here. if im an idiot no one say anything okay? okay <3 #but i think its fun to already see some parallels or ways kyoshi and korra are different or similar #and how korra got the set-up stage that was considered ideal (i think?) for these two characters #like !!! the avatar is supposed to know theyre the avatar at a young age!#and aang learning when he was 12 instead?? i think?#or being told hey man you gotta fucking get ready/do your teen duties instead of preeteen ones cause theres a war....#but no sorry my head is scattered i cant keep a line of thought but the point was i know a lot of people bash korra because shes too #‘abrasive’ or comfortable with being the avatar when?? for previous experiences that eagerness was something more expected (i think)#like its so difficult to make a solid grounding argument when im not lore caught up but korras excitement to be the avatar and that she #knows its significant and important is something that would been encouraged before the war because of that hope and belief #that the avatar will keep that balance or save the world when others cant. aang disappearing and the genocide and war #obviously effected how people will see the avatar in universe and how her teachers are more hesitant and restrictive #none of this makes sense im just thinkin to myself while half distracted lol but ! go cringegirl bosses go !!!!#RoK (ransom style)

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rosesradio · 3 months ago

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man i sure hope things get better soon…

#perhaps it’s just me seeing things online but like. ofc i’m concerned about the state of the economy and the housing market & job market #my family wants to keep my late grandfather’s house but all the siblings need the money and can’t afford to buy each other out #i saw a thing on ai taking an entire department’s jobs and it’ll be implemented worldwide taking tens of thousands of jobs #saw a reddit thread on if things were ever gonna get better and there was nothing comforting. it was all just ‘this is the new norm’ and #‘i dumpster dive outside of my work for food’ and ‘i’m planning to end my life because i can’t afford to live’#it’s like…i’m lucky to come from a middle class family. for the most part i’ve never had to worry about food or shelter #but i’m worried i’ll never be able to have my own life or i’ll be forced out at some point—working myself to the bone to afford a tiny plac #and just maximizing protein/suppressing my appetite to save money…i’ll never get to enjoy anything in life and it’s not fair because #this is my one chance #and everyone’s gonna ignore me or tell me not to worry but i don’t know what to do. i don’t know anything #maybe i should choose a different career path for one but i don’t know what the hell to do atp #tw vent #rose.txt

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batsplat · 3 months ago

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i just remember something i meant to ask ages ago but why did Valentinos relationship with Honda end so bad like was he already wanting to switch bike for the 2004 season or was he happy to stay at Honda if things didn't go sideways. Cause I know why he left Yamaha for Ducati, i just haven't found definite sources and reasoning for his Honda to Yamaha switch. (also while i'm here I am going to start a vale career watch once I finish Marcs (upto 2019 atleast i dont think im ready for the honda dark years just yet so i'll make myself feel a little better by watching Vale who will also be joined by Dani, Jorge and Casey)) so excited to watch caseys 2007 season when I get to it, i'm Australian and i've always been aware of him i saw an advert of his on my train the other day so that was fun this ask got so sidetracked sorry, but i'm definalty going to go over your race rec tag but i'll probably just end up watching whole seasons cause i like having the context of things if something in a previous race is going to set up tension in later races.

okay, so this is MOSTLY covered in the sete post. which I understand is a bit long lol so I'll try and give the sparknotes version here. he was getting kinda miserable at honda! winning felt too routine... the way he frames it is that he didn't feel like honda particularly appreciated his efforts and thought it was mostly just their bike doing the trick, not the rider. he talks about it in this autobiography excerpt - he felt like nobody was really getting enthusiastic about his victories anymore, that it was just expected of him, and honda didn't really give a shit if it was him or someone else doing the winning. throw in the press who were also giving him a tough time in early 2003... it just wasn't fun anymore. valentino needs stimulation, he needs challenges, he wants to feel like he's part of a team and he wants to feel loved by that team (and love them in return). it's partly an ego thing and partly just... a question of passion. winning felt too easy and it felt like it had lost his meaning - like it was just a job

and y'know, yamaha did actively court them. which even valentino at the beginning was deeply sceptical of... even though he already felt dissatisfied with honda over the winter of 2002-03, switching to another manufacturer just felt like competitive suicide. he was also being courted by ducati - and even though it doesn't seem like he seriously considered that, until quite late in the season it looked like he might go any of three ways. iirc ducati was willing to throw a particularly obscene amount of money his way lol. but in the end, valentino felt that ducati would be much like honda in their disconnect from its riders and their refusal to listen to them (gosh, could someone not have read his own words back to him in 2010). yamaha was willing to build their whole team around him... and it was also just a special challenge. it'd be something new!! valentino isn't really built for easy domination I reckon, like he just has a trigger in his brain every 2-3 years that starts making him a bit restless idk

and yeah, I always think watching full seasons is well worth it!! there's some seasons that really live and die by the complete storylines, the sense of tension and build-up - especially the first half of 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008 don't work anywhere near as well without context I reckon. and obviously I'm a massive casey fan... though I will warn you that for reasons entirely unrelated to casey, there is a massive drop-off in average race quality between 2006 and 2007 lol. I'm actually intending to go back over the winter break and fix up my casey race recs list because it was the first I did and quite casual when compared to the later ones - I thought I could do that one without consulting my notes, which in retrospect was a bit high on the hubris and I feel like I want to do that one justice. casey's actually already a really fun presence in 2006!! it doesn't show as much in the results because he'd often drop back or crash, but you see quite a lot of him - including the first few fights with valentino. he has a very pedro-like rookie season if you want a cheap and easy comparison... results are a bit worse on paper but the vibe is quite similar, including the spectacular early season form that trailed off for various reasons. but I do have a lot of fondness for 2007, even if it has some absolute howlers. qatar, mugello, catalunya, assen, donington and estoril the highlights as I recall. still wish we'd gotten casey/valentino with a continuation of the 2006 engine regs and just like. dogfights galore featuring those two... but on the plus side, I suppose laguna 2008 wouldn't have hit quite as hard if it hadn't been such a contrast to everything else happening during that time

#i think this is an ask i didn't save from my inbox into my drafts and then the website crashed #and then i never got round to actually answering. this has a tendency to happen #also man i do feel a teensy bit bad about the ask response rate but genuinely the inbox is so full.... lads it is intimidating #//#brr brr #motogpnewbie #//clt #batsplat responds #i actually have an odd fondness for early 2008 like i quite like them as comfort watches to put on in the background #just felt like such a time of possibility... all the aliens fighting it out. all these open storylines #the alien era wasn't all bad but it didn't quite deliver what it should have really #and there's no way around it that after 2008 it got progressively worse. 2009 is already a step down but after that...#i do feel quite bad like u get casey doing such a big open innocent grin at valentino and ur like. t minus three on laguna #i mean casey had already moaned a fair bit about valentino in the press by that point but it's like. it's a complicated vibe idk man #AND i will say i feel like journalists have overcorrected in talking about how boring the alien era is vs the current stuff #not many last lap battles but they had overtakes for the lead!! i promise u

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