#I DUNNO MAN I KINDA THINK THE WHOLE POINT WAS THE SUBVERSION OF THAT??

[lopposting]

me tryna not get pressed over youtube vidya over pino souls story

[yourlazykitkat]

3 & 4 of the fic asks (favorite line of dialogue/narration) for half a heart but is it enough? (or honestly all of have we the audacity to chase tomorrow) this is from the simp letter gal since I told you some of my favorite parts id like to hear abt yours! - (you can call me jay or moo moo as I’m sometimes known on my side blog 💛)

moo moo as in moo moo meadows? huh. No way I can pick my favourite line/narration in the whole series so i’ll do “half a heart but is it enough” since it’s freshest in my mind.

Narration: Experience will tell you, to beware the man who loses his mask.

I dunno, just rrly proud of this whole part- it’s kinda a subversion to the whole cliche of “i have a mask, I have a secret past/tragic backstory.” Here the mask just kinda talks about how the person is broken but under a lie, they’re able to hold themselves together instead of falling apart. Mask imagery is just so fun to write with because there is so much potential and no right one way to do it.

Dialogue: “To keep this,” George pressed his hand over Dream’s own ruined heart, “To keep this alive.”   

I just like my bois being soft. Here, you see the promise of recovery but there’s no guarantee. Everyone is a bit broken, unhappy with something about themselves or their lives, and a lot of these can’t be easily fixed. For some it takes time, for others, there is no solution and that’s how life is. No one needs to be perfect, at least I don’t think they have to, and they don’t have to waste their life trying to be. If they just try fighting for the small things like seeing tomorrow, that should be enough. 

WhY Am I BEinG SO EMOTIOnAL???? IT’S FRICKING BLOCKmEN! THErE IS NO POINt. I SwEAR I DOn’T HAVE A HIDDen MEANING WHen I WRITE THEsE THINGS- IT’s JUST ME GOInG: WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU GUYS CRY-

fr vck mcyters

[roc-thoughtblog]

Sense and Sensibility Readthrough Part 9

Chapter 12, Pages 49-54

Previously, Sir Middleton has started the Party Timez and Marianne is flirting it up with mysterious Mr. Charming. Meanwhile, Elinor has a sweet moment with Colonel Brandon where he alludes to a past love-related something, because they are both two lonely people watching a party.

I enjoyed this chapter, because Margaret finally opened her mouth and only gold came out. :D You little scamp, you have vindicated my small obsession with seeing you relevant in any form!

Readthrough below.

Chapter 12

AS ELINOR and Marianne were were walking together the next morning the latter communicated a piece of news to her sister which in spite of all that she knew before of Marianne's imprudence and want of thought, surprised her

Oh? OH? Marianne going to have many thoughts, head full of prudence?

by its extravagant testimony to both.

NOPE! Also, Austenism on first sentence of chapter, nice opening. I most creatively coined that for personal use and now I finally get to use it! Setup into unceremonious, and yet very extra, subversion that turns potential positives upside down. Anyway, Willoughby has given Marianne a horse, which she has accepted with zero thought into the Dashwoods' ability to keep it.

Elinor, has, of course, thought of all the things the family is lacking with regards to horse-keeping, including most prominently, a complete lack of a stable in which to house it. Was boutta ask, good Elinor answered my enquiry most quickly.

I have a friend who is a self-professed horse-girl, and many mutual friends who attest to not desiring to ride with her on account of it being quite dangerous. This isn't directly related to anything, Marianne just invited Elinor to ride her horse and I was suddenly struck by a memory of warring opinions on the risks of horseriding. Horse-girl's testimony to its relative safety was not aided by her own anecdote of having fallen off a horse onto her back once, and not being able to feel her neck for a while, or something similar to that effect (don't worry, she is fine). I imagine Elinor would be horrified.

Marianne brushes off all of Elinor's concerns in... most short-sighted fashion. No Marianne, do not keep a horse in any old shed. This reminds me of when my aunt kept her kittens in the bathroom. Bad. Awful. Don't consider keeping animals if you can't be bothered to house them properly. :(

Of course, Marianne draws the line when Elinor claims she doesn't know Willoughby well enough to receive a horse from the man;

"You are mistaken, Elinor," said she warmly, "in supposing I know very little of Willoughby. I have not known him long indeed, but I am much better acquainted with him, than I am with any other creature in the world, except yourself and mamma. [...] I should hold myself guilty of greater impropriety in accepting a horse from my brother, than from Willoughby. Of John I know very little, though we have lived together for years; but of Willoughby my judgement has long been formed."

Marianne has a great talent for speaking warmly. :'D

Ouch girl you have been hit hard. The infatuation, it speaks through you with a megaphone.

It's really fascinating how big an effect love and infatuation seems to have on apparent closeness. Like at some point it really does cross over the line to being genuinely close, but I feel like I observe a lot of the time, before that point, that people tend to... trick themselves into thinking they are close? Infatuation has a remarkable ability to warp the sense of emotional proximity between people, maybe even just through the firing of emotions on all cylinders.

One memorable conversation I will always return to was when a friend of mine referred to their boyfriend of a few months as their "best friend" in the most casual, natural way. A few months didn't seem like a long enough time, and when I asked them, they did suddenly realise they weren't quite there yet... I find it very interesting how love can so easily dominate social lives.

Anyway, Marianne has jumped to Big Conclusion about how well she knows Willoughby. It's a good thing he's probably a nice guy really, but this is also likely one of the ways predatory relationships can take root so uh, look after your friends I guess. Sometimes when this kinda emotion takes hold they need a second opinion to keep them grounded.

Elinor thought it wisest to touch that point no more. She knew her sister's temper. Opposition on so tender a subject would only attach her the more to her own opinion.

Yeah, Elinor has the right idea. Backfire effect is real, and it's not something you want to mess with when you really need to convince somebody of something. You definitely need to go around with a different approach... which Elinor does, nice! By appealing to Marianne's concern of potentially greatly burdening her mother, who would of course consent enthusiastically to a horse, but also be the most inconvenienced by its maintenance.

Marianne relents most sadly. :(

She tells Willoughby next she sees him that she can't take the horse, because of reasons. Willoughby is disappointed, but tells her that the horse is still hers, once the time arrives that she can keep- he named the horse Queen Mab? Horses. Always with funky names. Is that a historical figure? FAIRY FROM ROMEO AND JULIET! Please Mr. Willoughby! You are every bit the drama queen as Marianne. You are not so star crossed!

O-oh. Elinor overhears everything, and also realises now that they are in fact a couple? By the way Willoughby pronounces Marianne's first name, and the fact that he uses it at all. Oh, that she is now absolutely certain of it, and in no way surprised. Yeah that makes sense.

GASP! MARGARET SPEAKS!

Alright this whole sequence is gold, I dunno how to relate it here but it's a quick and fun read. Reading being generally fun, but quick doesn't usually come naturally to me. Also means I don't take notes.

Margaret thinks the two lovebirds will be married soon and Elinor is hilariously shutting her down for crying wolf about pictures that turned out to be of great-uncles. But this time Margaret has witnessed Willoughby beg for, and acquire, a lock of Marianne's hair, for romantically sentimental reasons I personally do not understand but have witnessed enough to accept without question. Because, y'know, children don't count as witnesses to secret emotional dalliances you don't the adults to see. And the account is specific and detailed enough that it doesn't seem like something a kid would just make up.

And then we go on a hilarious tangent about how Margaret accidentally spilled all the beans on Elinor's love life to Mrs. Jennings for not knowing any better how to respond to questions. :'D The poor girl asks Elinor for permission to say, so now Mrs. Jennings knows somebody exists. And then Marianne drags herself into it to defend Elinor's feelings, but Margaret innocently reminds her that all the speculation was her’s to begin with.

"Margaret," said Marianne with great warmth,

GREAT WARMTH! This is greatest warmth of Marianne yet, I have never seen her so upset, I'm rolling. Poor Margaret is a little out of her depth with all the adults bugging her for gossip, and the more the sisters try to contain her the more slips out. You can't expect so much from a kid. :'D

Thankfully Lady Middleton saves all the Dashwood sisters by abruptly and deliberately changing the topic to the weather, followed by sensitive Colonel Brandon. Nice save, guys! Willoughby, good man, invites Marianne to start playing piano too. Elinor is saved, but still thoroughly shook haha. Poor girl is not of a heart that can deal with this assault.

Chapter concludes with a quick two paragraphs which I guess will set up the next chapter; they organise a party to go party at an estate belonging to Colonel Brandon's brother-in-law, because, Sir Middleton has partied in that place all too much and yet never enough. Party. Sir Middleton: Party man, does whatever a party can. What exactly do landed lords actually do again?

All this arranged with open carriages and sailing, and I assume cold provisions to imply a picnic; "rather a bold undertaking, considering the time of year, and that it had rained every day for the last fortnight -" HA. Well, despite his extensive partying experience, we are given to understand that Sir M. is still a slow learner. Oh well.

... I just realised I found Margaret to be so entertaining I didn't realise the story had like... used her as a connecting factor to completely transition the theme, setting and topic of the chapter halfway through. I feel like this is important to note, as for the most part chapters in this story seem to stick to exploring one specific topic or person. This particular chapter was somewhat all-over-the-place topic-wise (Marillouby confirmed, Elinor's beau’s existence revealed) and the only unifying factor was Margaret shenanigans, which I love, but she isn't relevant to the central plot in the same way the two other pieces are. On top of that, the chapter ends on an otherwise random note that they're going to another party at a place related to Brandon; this isn't something that necessarily needed to cap off this chapter as far as I can tell.

I guess what I'm wondering is, this slightly frankenstinian chapter; is it the result of combining two smaller segments too short to be chapters in their own right, or is it more like... a deliberately transitional chapter? That the chapter lacks a unifyingly plot relevant topic to explore, because it's only concern is for setting up pieces for coming chapters at the new estate party? I guess I'll find out soon.

[ginmo]

I’ve seen people say that while they admit that there are romantic feelings on both sides for JB, they don’t think they’ll ever be together romantically or sexually. Someone said that their relationship is about honour and duty and that Jaime will probably knight Brienne and then return to Cersei (they specified, ‘but as an enemy’). Another said that they prefer for Jaime to be alone if he survives this ordeal bc he needs to heal from his toxic relationship. Can you counter this? :(

Of course I can because that argument completely ignores the point/message of Brienne’s character lol. You cannot read her chapters and come away with that take, unless you truly are dense af. 

I’m going to be linking to some of Chicky’s “organized rants.”

Jaime and Brienne is a love story. (

Their individual character arcs involve honor and duty but there’s also a huge emphasis on love. I don’t know why anti arguments act as if the author is writing just one theme. I would say, “this isn’t a YA series” but even YA novels have more complexity than what people reduce Martin’s writing to.

I mean… love is a central theme to both of their characters. They are both ultimately driven by love, and they both have parallel arcs that juggle the relationship between love and honor, exploring how they relate and interfere. I’m not going to go into much detail though, because it has been done a million times, but I’ll speak a bit about the love aspect. 

Brienne felt unworthy of being a lady because of the mockery she endured as a woman. So, after falling in love with Renly and “the bitter tears she shed the night her king wed Margaery Tyrell,” she left Tarth to be a knight in his KG, because that was the only way she could marry him. Brienne doesn’t reject being a lady because she hates the idea of it, she ran away because she felt she couldn’t be one. She wasn’t willing to settle for some dumbass who treats her like dirt, so she clung to her more masculine traits and used them to get ahead and be beside a man who treated her with respect and kindness. She was… literally introduced to the readers (and viewers of the show) on a romantic rejection plot line…………… 

And yet, when Renly cut away her torn cloak and fastened a rainbow in its place, Brienne of Tarth did not look unfortunate. Her smile lit up her face, and her voice was strong and proud as she said, “My life for yours, Your Grace. From this day on, I am your shield, I swear it by the old gods and the new.” The way she looked at the king—looked down at him, she was a good hand higher, though Renly was near as tall as his brother had been—was painful to see.- ACOK

Brienne was on her feet as well. “Your Grace, give me but a moment to don my mail. You should not be without protection.” King Renly smiled. “If I am not safe in the heart of Lord Caswell’s castle, with my own host around me, one sword will make no matter … not even your sword, Brienne. Sit and eat. If I have need of you, I’ll send for you.” His words seemed to strike the girl harder than any blow she had taken that afternoon. “As you will, Your Grace.” Brienne sat, eyes downcast.- ACOK

Brienne dropped to her knees. “If I must part from Your Grace, grant me the honor of arming you for battle.” Catelyn heard someone snigger behind her. She loves him, poor thing, she thought sadly. She’d play his squire just to touch him, and never care how great a fool they think her. - ACOK

Like Brienne, Jaime left his role as heir out of love, to have a chance to be by Cersei’s side as a member of Robert’s KG. Do I even need to go into Jaime being a serious romantic and love being at his core?

I will quote this tweet from @usefulspinster every time this is brought up because it honestly can’t be put any better. 

“GRRM has a character for who love has been a cruel joke and one that takes love very seriously and pointed them at eachother. If you don’t understand how that’ll play out, I can’t help you.”

And I’m going to say this for the millionth time: 

GRRM literally said his intent with their relationship was to take the traditional format of Beauty and the Beast (A ROMANCE) and switch the roles and genders. 

“But he is subverting it by making it platonic” 

Except… no… because MAKING BATB PLATONIC DEFEATS THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT. He is subverting it by switching the roles and genders, something that is never explored with this tale. THAT’S subversion. He isn’t changing the theme and message of the tale. FFS, subverting doesn’t mean changing the entire core. 

BatB as platonic DOESN’T WORK. The core of the tale is about being ROMANTICALLY DESIRED AND TRULY LOVED despite your appearance. Not, “you can make a good friend even if your’e ugly! :D” because uh…  when they do form a relationship with someone, they often remain as just friends anyway because of their appearance???? lmfao fuck. 

Brienne’s problem isn’t focused on making friends. She had her father, Catelyn, Pod, even to an extent Hyle. They didn’t look at her and scream and run away, never being friendly. In her POV she isn’t sitting there reflecting on how she is so friendless and all she wants is a bff. You know what’s constantly repeated over and over again in her chapters? Her romantic undesirability because of how ugly she is. Oh wow that sounds kinda like… I DUNNO?! THE CORE OF BATB? 

(Not only that but one of GRRM’s is actually a romantic and one of his favorite fantasies is BatB. He even had a television called BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and he was angry that he had to kill off the woman because it ruined his romance story.)   

Anyone who has read her chapters, and isn’t lying about reading them, can see that she’s head over heels in love with Jaime. 

Now, read the bet and tell me romance isn’t a part of her arc. 

“yet now…” 

We’re hit over the head with it so often that it’s impossible to miss.

People who don’t see the romance arc are either a) choosing not see it because it ruins their headcanons or ships or b) Brienne isn’t the typical character to have a romance arc that’s serious and isn’t there for comedic relief. She’s ugly and a female warrior and people are conditioned to see those types of characters as either love-less out of choice, or having romance not even come up for them. It also plays into the whole “love weakens a strong female character” bullshit, and they don’t even realize that’s what’s happening because for most people it’s unconscious. 

The seeds for the Jaime and Brienne relationship trajectory are found in both of their POV chapters, but at least half of the JB relationship is explored through Brienne’s chapters. The laughable out-of-context meta you see is from antis who have other motives, have lied about reading her POVs carefully because boring, and some even admitted to not reading Brienne’s POVs at all.

[botslayer]

Top Ten games of the 2010′s

This trend seems to be doing the rounds at the moment and seeing as I’ve been gaming for about as long as I can remember, It just feels right. So, let’s get into it. But first, worth saying: These aren't really in any specific order, it's just the games I've personally had the most fun with overall, but it's pretty hard to decide what the hard numbers on things you enjoy for different reasons are if that makes any sense. 10. The 2010's weren't exactly the best time for anyone, I think. For me they were a slog of finding myself and learning things I wish I didn't. Amid all those things I wanted some levity. The world needs something and stupid. We got a lot of it ion 2013 but I feel like we could have used it scattered around a bit more. In that spirit, allow me to show you one hell of a pick me up:

Saints Row 4

Saints Row 4 does not give a fuck. It is aggressively demonstrating that the entire time you play. It doesn't care in the slightest what you think or why, It just wants to show you cool, if juvenile, and interesting, if weird shit. It's the finer points of Ratchet and Clank's arsenal, SR3's humor, And superpowers that genuinely put Prototype and Infamous in a blender and tell you to go ape shit with them. The soundtrack isn't top shelf, it's the roof of the building the shelf is in. Saints Row Two had a better story overall but SR Four's was just plain fun and a solid enough story to still be invested.

The DLC was just as irreverent and madcap, Featuring everything from an evil Santa Clause to evil Gimps on Game of thrones chairs made of dildos Or Tropey-ass costumes and weapon reskins that I'd be genuinely surprised the game dev didn't get sued over. It has earned its place in my top 10 and I will die by that decision.

9.

2016 saw the advent of a new genre. They blended TF2 and MOBAs, and we got hero shooters in their first AAA forms, Overwatch and Battleborn. But neither of these games is on this list, much as I liked them. Partly because the whole time, I kept thinking of one simple question: "Why do I keep thinking of...?"

Anarchy Reigns

Anarchy Reigns is my favorite Platinum game. Full Stop. The Story mode is interesting and has genuinely good character moments, the characters themselves are completely mental, ranging from a mercenary with a bionic cat leg that secretly has a gun built into it to a giant cyborg bull-man with a jet-powered hammer. The soundtrack is mostly angry hip-hop, making every song a banger and fittingly speedy for things like random bombing runs from jet fighters that come from absolutely nowhere.

There are giant monsters, cars with mounted flame throwers, giant robots, and the online is still pretty sweet because even when abandoned, loading it up with bots still rules. I regularly have more fun with this than I ever did with Overwatch, and I don't care how insane that sounds.

8.

Some games want to make you feel something and fail. Some games make you feel some things accidentally, for example, a desperate need to laugh. This game made me feel like a human blender. Like a Chthonic god of mangled flesh and raw destructive power. Nyarlathotep ain't got nothing on me. I speak, of course, of...

[Prototype] 2

There's no end to the absolute destruction you feel like you're causing in this game. It feels more fluid than the first, the main character is a pinch more relatable, and all the body horror, superpowers, zombie hordes, and big old monsters make for some of the most memorable and fun moments and fights in gaming. The DLC is also pretty solid, adding new fun side challenges, and new powers and weapons that elevate you from "Flesh god" to "Screw physics, I made them" Omnipotent. Best god/monster simulation of all time.

7.

Sometimes some games are at an honest tie in your mind. Be it that you like them for essentially the same reasons, or for completely different reasons, but the overall total joy or entertainment they bring is roughly equivalent. Here, we have a case of the former:

Furi/Cuphead

Both games have a tight focus on giving players a unique, boss-centric challenge, both have interesting, somewhat minimal narratives, and both are absolute eye candy.

Furi has a more "Samurai Jack" Quality to me. A complete badass on a relatively simple quest with a somewhat minimalistic art style learning some things as he goes.

Cuphead on the other hand, nails that rubber hose animation style, and the fun levity of such animations while still making the player's ability to interact with the world damn impactful and fun.

They share a spot in my soul, games I love everything about but will never be able to finish. Hats off to both dev teams.

6.

Now here we have another tie. Mostly because the games are so close together, they need to be evaluated more or less as one product IMO, not enough changed for me to consider them separate games, fortunately, that is the furthest thing from an insult it can be in this situation. I present to you, my next pick(s).

Costume Quest 1/2

Now, This might seem pretty random considering my other picks, but honestly, I love Halloween, I love creative madness, I love subversion, I love good characters, and I love cool action, these games have all these things by the bucketload.

The first game is a wild ride through Halloween in multiple very lively locations and the second, slightly confusing as it is, is pretty awesome for the things it introduces, including time travel. Other elements, like the battle stamps, the truly epic forms of everything in the fights, The ability to customize your costumes, etc. they blur together in a pretty big way, but again, there's not a thing wrong with that when both games rock like crystal candy. 

5.

Now, if you hadn't noticed, all of the games on this list have had some hard action at their core, and while I don't HATE calmer games, a lot of the time, so many are kinda dull to me in that with the exception of easter eggs of some sort, most farming sims, for example, just have you doing normal farm stuff with very few twists, may as well start a real farm in that case. My most chill entry is a game that tosses that to one side, asks you to grab a suck cannon, and start harvesting gelatinous monster poop.

Slime Rancher

While you don't spend a lot of time actually interacting with other characters, they just talk at you, the story of the game is pretty effective, the player character of Beatrix has left Earth for a simpler life of Slime Ranching, which entails the raising of alien crops, delightfully derpy and colorful chickens, and going all around in an attempt to farm new breeds of slime for their genetic material to sell off or trade-in for the creation of gadgets while being surrounded by a cast of interesting characters. It's all very wholesome family fun.

The game looks great, has great ideas, and is genuinely the best farming game I have ever played. @ me all you want.

4.

The 80's are almost fetishized nowadays. Given all the property reboots, games that go for the vibe and aesthetic of the time, etc. It almost seems as though the eighties vibe train ain't gonna stop rolling any time soon. But we owe it to ourselves to remember the first big swipe of madcap neon-colored actiony B-movie bullshit and how mind-meltingly epic it was. Ladies, Gents, and whatever else, I present:

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Blood Dragon's story is relatively simple, you play Sargent Rex "Power" Colt (A name said in full so many times I thought his last name was "Powercolt" for the longest time), a former "Omega force" cyborg. Rex and his friend "Spider" were sent into a secret island base to investigate the supposed defection and treachery of their old commander, Ike Sloan. It turns out he has gone rogue and taken an army of "Mark 5" Omegaforce cyber-soldiers with him. What follows is a long story of betrayal, science fiction of the highest nonsensical level, comedy, and brilliantly cathartic action.

The collectibles range from data on animals, to research notes from a scientist, to literal VHS cassette tapes that have full descriptions of movies that I would legitimately watch if I could. "You may now kill the brides" is not a real film and I am angry for every day that that is true. Anyway, play Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, I dunno if it's on PS4 but it's one game I'd buy a new/old console for.

3.

A lot of superhero games NEED to railroad you. Your goals MUST be to save the lives of the people and help the weak and all that. But one dev asked the simple question: "What if it didn't?" "What if the player chose how to use their power? What if the player could be as evil or as good as they damn well pleased?" One game gave you the powers of thunder and lightning and asked what you'd do with it. It's sequel asked you the same, but against more... interesting forces.

InFamous 2

InFamous 2 is a game about making choices, just like the first one, also just like the first one, it can have an effect on gameplay. That effect went from "What does this particular power do in this allignment?" To "Which new set of NEW powers would you like?" The forces of the last game went from “Three flavors of gun-toting whackos” To “Possibly an allegory for the Klan, Swamp monsters, and Ice-powered super soldiers.”

This was, and still is, the best game in the whole series, The powers felt distinct from anything else and still do, the story is solid as a rock, and the enemy types were still varied enough to be interesting, I miss the Reapers from the first game, but that's about it. Everything else was a massive step up. If you have something that can run it, play it.

2.

Action is something I think we can all appreciate on some level. We can understand when it does or does not work, we can understand when we do or do not like how it feels when we are the ones partaking in it. EX: Any schlep can tell you when the weapons in your game lack impact, or when your character moves too slow for the game to be fun. The following game is something I can't say anything of the sort about. And it's kind of like Wolfenstein, when you have enemies this bad, who the hell cares how many you kill?

Doom 2016

Y'all are lying if you say you didn't expect this one. It's DOOM 2016. This game is made of hate and fuck. AND I LOVE IT. You move so fast, you may as well be half cheetah and half sports car. You slaughter the dregs of hell by the dozens and even the biggest, baddest things this game throws at you can be beaten with the starting pistol if you have the stones for it. It looks amazing graphically, the demons all look appropriately threatening, and even the Multiplayer is a great deal of fun in my book.

Something worth noting: The story presented by default is pretty barebones, but that's where supplementary material fills in the gaps, the difference between supplementary material in most games and supplementary material here is the material is till IN THE GAME. You're free to ignore most of the plot as it happens around you, and even interesting tidbits of the lore like how certain demons function. Not only are these things missable collectibles, prompting continued play to find them, they are also pretty interesting reads. So yeah, just about everything you could want in a sequel/remake, builds the on lore and gameplay very organically. 

1.

And here we are, the last game I'd put in this category. An entire decade, and here, we end on the last game that left such an impact I'd put it in my top ten. But first, let's talk about expectations and delivery: When you say a game is coming out, there are certain expectations you have for gameplay, EX: I say "Ratchet and Clank" and you expect a TPS with platforming elements and crazy guns. I say "Gears of War" and people expect something to do with lumbering about in big armor, dismembering things with a chainsaw gun and otherwise shooting them to paste. We might also expect changes to things, better graphics, innovations in grenade variety, something as that franchise goes on.

After the last game in this series was released, there were tons of people who felt let down and disappointed by it. Then they released the still somewhat disappointing special edition of it. They were both still fun, but neither really felt like the full next step in the series. After a failed reboot, they returned to the original story and the lot of us rejoiced. And when it finally came out? It was a step up in most, if not, all regards, to its predecessors. You know what this last one is. Please, give a warm round of applause to:

Devil May Cry 5

A game that was not only a return to form, but a major escalation in gameplay for one character, and a new style of gameplay all together by way of yet another new character. It didn’t exactly hurt that the story kicked ten kinds of ass and that the game looked spectacular in both the design of everything and the actual graphical fidelity.DMC 5 is, like DOOM, Like InFamous 2, Like [PROTOTYPE] 2, everything you want in a good sequel. It built very well on already solid foundations and it was generally just a fun, slightly goofy, massively stylish, and ultra badass ride. I recommend this, and all these games, to anyone.Good night everyone, have a great 2020. And the rest of the decade, for that matter. 

[tumblunni]

More thoughts and stuff from this weird old dream I had the other day

* I’VE GOT REALLY ATTATCHED TO THE VIRUS HIVEMIND HOLY SHIT Like noooo this poor innocent friend that doesn’t understand it’s the villain I was just imagining its like “hey lets send an envoy of peace to the humans” and being so genuinely offended when they start shooting but... isn’t a horde of viral supermonsters the greatest fruit basket of all? :(

* Also like... Human assistant girl: We must destroy this wretched humanity Virus mind: That means hug them, right?

* Actually ended up thinking a lot about the design of the ‘hugging monster for hugging’! I’m thinking it has big spooky hand-wings and also hands for legs and maybe a hand tail similar to Yvetal? And either it has no head or maybe its like one of those fluffy birdy final fantasy dragons. Also a jewel on its head because Why Not.

like here’s my terrible 15 seconds scribble but i’m thinking maybe the body smaller and the wings super big so it can like.. deliver three power levels of hug hugs all the humans in its massive wings and its slightly less massive arms and then just rolls one last one up in a burrito hug on its tail

* Virus Mind: WHY DOES NO-ONE LOVE MY BEAUTIFUL MASCOT CHARACTER T_T alas they end up being melee attack units instead of making all the humans totally switch sides just at the sight of their cuteness

* it would totally just be like a super cute shoujo sparkles game of love and positivity and weird dark comedy laugh at poor virus mind thinking up silly strategies to make the humans love them, don’t pay attention to the fact you’re destroying 99% of civilization in every level Virus Mind: *puts tiny hats on the human assimilation army*

post is getting a bit long whoops

* I was also considering maybe this might even work better in an olden times jrpg setting? like, I was only thinking modern times cos thats your standard zombie game setting. or maybe future sci fi cos it could be an alien hivemind instead, but i just DO NOT LIKE sci fi so i wouldn’t be very good at writing that. But it could be like jrpg style and just like ‘the mysterious miasma that brings monsters’ and honestly there would be less Genre Rules if we’re defying tradition and mashing two genres together. And I wouldn’t be limited to what sorts of monsters I could design, which is the most important part! Also I wouldn’t really have to make it all super gross and gory and such. cos like.. i know the whole point is the subversion of the Doom Virus Of Zombies And Stuff being actually a good guy, and probably it’d be a bigger contrast if it was 100% stereotypical zombies, but also like.. i just don’t want to do it. It would be less playable by less people, and it’d be stressful to make too if i was designing characters that actually scare me. And when the whole point is that theyre NOT scary, then making them actually look it would probably just make the experience uncomfortable for everyone. But also of course like.. if they weren’t remotely MONSTERY or like SCARY IN-UNIVERSE then it also wouldnt work?? or not necessarily even scary but just like Cliche Dark Overlordy so the contrast exists. I DUNNO LOL I just know that its a hell of a lot more fun to design a whole lineup of fantasy monsters than just a bunch of gory crud. Also honestly wouldnt it be more terrifying to turn into a dragon or something instead of being exactly the same and just rotting slightly? THESE THINGS ARE SO DISSIMILAR IT IS FAR MORE SPOOKY, MY GUY also far more badass man i love dragons

* Also! a jrpg setting is just way less equipped to handle a ‘zombie phenomenon’. All the cliches would just totally not be there, they’d have to think up more creative and interesting solutions. And they also wouldnt have any perspective of seeing a bunch of movies about this, lol! And like.. wouldn’t it be interesting to think about a jrpg world where monsters have like.. a reason for being there? Theyre not a natural thing? And we’re seeing the genesis of when they first appeared in this world? Just imagine being a regular olden times peasant who’s never even seen a giraffe, and you just turn a corner and half your village is being destroyed by The First Dragon Ever And then this mysterious disembodied conciousness virus hivemind comes along and turns all the dead guys into more dragons and just What The Hap Is Fuckening, I Just Wanted To Churn Some Butter Today

* i dunno. I’m just trying to think about what should actually be changed to turn this from a weird dream into a real thing.

* Also like!! More creative ideas for the visuals! of how on earth it works! I was thinking maybe either The Mysterious Dark Fog or like The Black Snow or something? Some sort of ominous sign of reality being subtly wrong that foreshadows the impending approach of the monsters. And then the landscape itself is consumed and converted too, and its like ‘oh god do i try and venture into this twisted alien land to try and rescue my friend who got dragged off by that beast, or are they already dead?’ And then you see like a twisted corrupted reverse world of this town you’ve always known, where even the laws of physics don’t obey anymore. And its like... risking your own sanity with every second you run through this hellscape, and there’s the evil whispers from behind the trees that it would be so much easier to just give up and join the collective. Man, okay, that does actually sound like a good dark horror story, maybe it would be wasted on this premise lol? Maybe could have alternating chapters where you play as the virus and you play as the humans fleeing it? I DUNNO LOL

* I also had a vague idea for how it would work with there being poor sympathetic characters on the human side that you inevitably have to assimilate into the hivemind. I was thinking maybe they could also act like lesser ‘general’ units, like the one little girl assistant character but not quite as powerful. They wouldn’t retain as much sentience as she has, but they’d become particularly powerful monsters that could be super useful to the army. And maybe you could have sidequests to untangle their memories and resolve their last regrets? Like, get sympathetic and super depressed about these characters hours after you killed them. poor virus hivemind! it was all just a tragic misunderstanding!

* One idea I was thinking of was a duo of rival soldier guys, who I guess would be like.. warriors or town guards if this is gonna be olden times instead? Basically just generic early enemies in the first town. They’d be comic relief team rocket type guys, and hilariously inequipped to deal with the problem. And they’d kinda be jerks so you don’t feel bad for assimilating them. Not really bad guys or anything, just bad bosses who’re more obsessed with one-upping each other and getting fame and fortune than actually addressing the threat in front of them. They wouldnt believe any of the rumours about monsters until it’s too late, so its pretty much entirely their fault that the town gets so easily defeated by you. And I’m thinking maybe have them be a classic ‘grumpy and cheerful, serious and laid-back’ duo or something. though they both are equally as egotistical and competitive!

* So yeah you’d defeat them super early on in a tutorialy level, and then they’d become some of your most reliable army units for the rest of the game. I’m thinking they might actually be the ‘hug dragon’ type? And I was thinking of maybe the upgraded general version having more normal feathery wings, and these two would be colour coded. Purple and green rather than the more cliche red and blue, lol. And then like HOOOOOOOURS later you’d actually get some more backstory on these two and find out they weren’t really all that bad, and they never really hated each other. In fact they had a mutal crush that had gone unconfessed before they died, and that’s their last regret you need to fullfill to erase the last of their humanity :( Demon dragon things doing a little nose kiss :) But it symbolizes sadness :( And then maybe its possible to let one of them get away during the tutorial mission, but its impossible to spare both. And if one of them is left alive, he becomes a recurring enemy across the rest of the game and gradually develops from comic relief into a genuine threat because he’s gone mad from grief. And then in the final battle you could get an instant kill on him if you fight him with the monster that was once his friend. He just falls down crying and lets himself be taken so that he can see him again. THIS WAS WHAT I DREAMED ABOUT LAST NIGHT I KNOW I OFTEN ASK FOR SEQUELS TO MY DREAMS BUT THAT ONE WAS REALLY UNFAIR YO

* Tho I was also thinking that maybe in a golden ending you’d be able to restore the humanity of everyone you’d ever taken, at the cost of sacrificing your life. It’d be super depressing because lil girl assistant is the only one who ever knew you existed, and she’ll never be able to adjust back to a normal life knowing that you’re gone. And as far as everyone else knows you were just pure evil :( But i mean on the positive side you get to see grumpy guard and cheery guard all back to normal and like “wait why do i feel like i confessed my love to you while I was asleep, what happened”. And Then They Lived Happily Ever After

* Tho also i was thinking it’d be interesting and kind of a sequel hook if all the generals retained their powers even after being cured. Like they get their sentience back but theyre like.. were-dragons now. Thats one thing I think could actually work better in a modern day setting! Like, even after the whole thing is over, the government rounds up all the victims and experiments on them to try and discover more about the virus. “Hey please report to your local doctor for purely non sinister checkups” So were-dragon guard boyfriends have to go on the run from a shadowy government conspiracy that’s gained way too much power in the wake of this disaster. And maybe the villain in the sequel could be the government synthesizing a clone of the virus or something, and the original virus somehow comes back to fight it?

* I DUNNO LOL i just know it would be cute to imagine a were dragon wedding HOW DID THIS CONVERSATION GO FROM ZOMBIES TO END UP HERE

[diverdowns]

Gyro for the ask meme

(send me a character and i’ll rate them + their story arcs!)

GYRO.. my love… too good for this (alternate) world tbh, i love him more than i love life itself. he’s so good. who wouldn’t love him? gyro defense squad 2k17

this got a bit out of hand, so feast your eyes on my rambling under the cut:

> gyro zeppeli

looks: somewhat attractive | eh | not really my type | pretty | handsome | beautiful | stud | gorgeous | SWEET LORD MERCY

JESUS JUST FUCK ME UP, i love gyro. the thing with his teeth, is like, kinda weird, but it grew on me tbh, and i dont know how to feel about this. he’s so gorgeous — and sure, i can blame a lot of that on araki’s art style in part 7-8 making everyone unfairly pretty, but i mean.. have you seen this cowboy? he’s also nowhere near my usual type, but like.. i dunno, i just love him too much. he’s perfect. god. i’m losing my ability to type coherently. i need to take a moment, hold on. i love gyro so much.

there are days when i stare out the window and i just suddenly remember how much i love gyro zeppeli and i’m suddenly overcome with pain and also Emotion

can you relate to this character on a personal level?: no | not really | somewhat | yes | they are me

i love gyro but…. yeah, he’s totally Not Me. gyro’s typed as estp quite a bit, which means i mean, at least superficially by mbti, we’re almost all opposites in the way we approach things + our general views — which is true. i’m not driven by any kind of ideal, and i’m not necessarily a noble person — gyro is both of those, and he notably has trouble taking a life, which is contrasted with johnny’s “killing intent.” on that front, and in general, i’d definitely relate more to johnny than to gyro, as a whole. (honestly it’s probably because i can relate to johnny that i ended up loving gyro so much.)

would you date/be friends with this character in real life if they were real?: total bros | friends | best friends | date | become their steady boyfriend/ girlfriend | neither | i don’t kno

ahahah, gyro seems like a really great bro, in general. he’s loyal, knows how to joke around and have a good time, and you can always count on him to have your back when things really get rough. he’s like, one of the Dream Jobros. i’d love to just hang out with him and be, well, bros. (of course… if i thought me x gyro would ever really work out, i definitely wouldn’t complain about that, either.)

anyway, where do i even begin to talk about gyro? i love him. overall, i don’t think i’ve ever really talked about it on this blog but… steel ball run is, in my opinion, overall the best jjba part. my subjective favorite is battle tendency, but if i had to pick a part that i think is overall just the best, in terms of writing, art, characters — just, everything — it’d be sbr. this honestly surprised me a lot, because i wasn’t expecting to like sbr, from the premise. i have a bad track record with western themes — i normally just don’t like / don’t get into them.

steel ball run hit me like a cowboy wrecking ball, oh man. and one of the main reasons sbr was just so good was because of the robustness of the main characters’ development and characterization. i could write a whole essay about how much i loved johnny as a main character and how human his struggles and motivations were, but gyro was every bit as good, and gyro is, in my opinion, the backbone of a lot of sbr.

johnny’s the protagonist, but gyro provides a lot of driving force for the continuation of the race — johnny, throughout the first half, just cares about walking again. gyro’s the one with loftier goals, the one who wants to win this race and return to his family. this shifts, of course, as johnny and gyro develop more motivations and goals — their hunt for the corpse parts and the bond developing between them, for example. i can honestly say that if gyro wasn’t as solid of a character, steel ball run would not have been the goddamn masterpiece i thought it was.

in an interesting subversion, gyro has a reason for running the race that’s bigger than himself — he wants to save a child and bring honor to his family and his country, and normally these are the kinds of goals that are totally appropriate for a setting like this. but not in sbr! johnny calls him out, because the thing is, while these ideals are well and good in theory, gyro doesn’t have a personal stake in it yet — he doesn’t really want to win enough for himself to, well, win. it’s such an interesting twist on the classic “you need a goal greater than yourself!” trope, and while the execution’s a little weird at times (i mean, the “real man’s world” thing was actually a pretty interesting plot arc, but boy was it a strange concept at first), i think it’s really well done and introduces gyro as a complex character who’s just trying to find good reasons to do the things he already knows are right.

compared to johnny, gyro’s more of a static character, but we see him open up to johnny over the course of part 7, and it’s — well, everything i’d wanted to see from caejose, really. we see gyro bond on a personal level with johnny, transcending the simple mentor-student bond we saw in phantom blood, forming something definitely more reminiscent of caesar and joseph’s alliance in battle tendency. (and maybe that’s why it hit me so hard, because i had never really gotten over caejose) but god do gyro and johnny help each other grow, so, so much. their growth and their story arcs are so intricately codependent on each other, and it’s so gratifying as a reader to be able to see them develop along with their friendship. everything feels so natural and gyro, at no point, comes across as unrealistic or artificial. he’s written so well and the concept for his character is so great, and i honestly love everything about him. 

(this became less Real analysis and a “why i love gyro and also sbr” ramble but it’s like, 3 am and i’ve been on a plane for 4 hours, so cut me some slack. good thing this is just an informal ask meme, whew)