#I had to give them a script version of the game that they could read out or rewrite as they wished (Obviously Chara doesn't actually have

[random-autie-fangirl]

Chara number 3- Narrachara edition

@idrawgaystffs

"Statistics determine everything about you. You are but a slave to the whims of these tiny numbers."

Now this is the first time it's a quote directly from Chara, and it's (to me) at the real start of the villain arc, wonder what that means lol.

(help, why does it kinda look worse than the first two, what happened to improving)

[micer2012]

a reflection on MatPat's plagiarism

Hello, my name is Della, or micer2012, and 2 years ago Game Theory plagiarized three Tumblr posts of mine, making a video that now holds almost 6 million views.

My posts explaining his plagiarism made their rounds on Reddit, Tumblr and Twitter, but despite the Hermits and Pooka commenting on it (generally in support of me or saying they don’t know enough details about the situation to say either way), MatPat and his team have never owned up to anything, and no mention of my name is present on the video. The one Reddit post they made denying it (which was made before my detailed takedown, which they have never responded to (though the mods on the r/GameTheorists Reddit were kind and made sure it stayed up)) didn’t even mention me by name, just referring to me as “a tumblr user”. (Though one of the screenshotted comments in the body of the post does say my name)

This experience was baffling, but it’s overall had a positive impact on my life. r/Hermitcraft gave me a Golden Apple Award (post of the year, 2021). My inbox was filled with excited fans, wanting to ask me questions or pose their own theories, far more than the hate I got. (Though the hate I got from Game Theory fans was VERY funny. I wondered why none of them gave me shit about saying “MatPat misgendered Evil Xisuma” before realizing none of them read that far into the post.)

And getting on a more personal, and much more important note, I met most of my current online friends through this, including my partner. It helped me grow closer with my irl friends as well and gave me an entertaining story that I tell whenever I have the chance. It was one of the first things in my life that really made me feel like my talents, my autistic hyperfocusing and analyzing of things I love, could be valuable. Useful. Exploitable. It blew my mind that MatPat thought an autistic kid’s ramblings about a Minecraft Youtube joke character were good enough to steal. To put an audible sponsorship on. To get 6 million views off of.

And that’s why I’m writing this post, this update years later. As you might’ve been able to guess, Hbomberguy’s Youtube video on plagiarism reopened this wound. It was really hard for me to sit through, it took days of pausing and taking breaks, because I had experienced everything he was talking about firsthand. 

In my 10 page long takedown post, I wrote about how his rewording of my sentences made him say things that were incorrect, just like Filip did. The content farm production style that made big companies like Cinemassacre take one creator (AVGN/MatPat) and turn him and his content into a brand, a voice that reads out scripts by other people with other opinions/theories, is a history shared with Game Theory. What really hit me was Harris talking about how big creators only do this to people they think they can get away with doing it to. How they view their victims as lesser, as not deserving of their words, repackaging them as their own to give to an audience that can gain from hearing them, but deserves better than to have to listen to the original victim.

That’s the thing, I 100% think a video version of my theory to expose to a bigger community than “Evil Xisuma Fans on Tumblr” is a great idea!! Near the end of the video Harris talks about how video adaptations of things could be a great market, even an accessibility tool, and I completely feel that about my posts. I wrote them quickly assuming the reader was someone well versed on Evil Xisuma lore, after not even watching most of the CarnEvil series, and the diagrams I made to explain them are even less comprehensible. Harris makes a joke that I completely agree with, 

“I’m sure some of my videos would do very well if someone translated them into English.”

I don’t think I would’ve ever made my posts if I didn’t have autism, and a special fixation on Evil Xisuma and Hermitcraft. I made them because I felt the character was being done an injustice, and because I wanted to share with other superfans this theory that might explain it away. I do think that MatPat plagiarizing me was ableist. I used to wonder a lot if this would’ve happened if my posts were articulated better, if they had been peer reviewed, if the posts themselves had been spread to a wider audience before MatPat made his video. At one point when the discourse was fresh (before I had the time to write out my 10 page rebuttal), a bigger YouTuber (100k subs at the time) messaged me and started talking on Discord, interested in possibly making a video on the discourse, but I think my style of typing and general enthusiasm drove him away. You can tell by a single look at my blog (or my original 3 posts!) that I don’t usually type like this. This post you’re reading now has been peer reviewed and edited, and took me hours to format correctly. That video could’ve been huge, the entire outcome of this MatPat situation would probably be much different.

I also used to stress a lot about “being the one who ruined Evil Xisuma’s story”. If you didn’t know, to me S8 Evil Xisuma’s story got wrapped up pretty quickly and unsatisfying (in my personal autistic opinion). (though this might’ve been due to s8 being experimental and ending early with moon big) There was no real culmination of the plot points and arcs going on, and I don’t want to blame myself, but when Xisuma said on stream (when the MatPat thing was first going on) that he didn’t want to focus on the discourse or draw more attention to it, it makes a lot of sense to me that he just wanted to wrap it all up as quickly as possible. For a while I beat myself up about it, of ruining the story of this character I love, but it’s not my fault. If anyone’s, it’s MatPats, but I don’t think it’s useful to just blame someone else. That’s how the story ended up going, and that’s fine. This is Evil Xisuma we’re talking about, their inconsistent lore is what made them such an interesting character. And notably, Pooka made an animation with an awesome culmination of Jeff, the Dreamer, Evil Xisuma, and his own sona’s story, and it makes me so happy to watch. Whatever Pooka does is of course his own choice, but I’m glad he got to give this personal story his own ending (if it is an ending, and not just the start of a new chapter!). 

Typing this all out and getting it off my chest has made me feel a lot better. For a while I wanted to make my OWN video essay about Evil Xisuma’s lore and CarnEvil’s lore, actually going episode by episode to explain it instead of just assuming you knew as much about Evil Xisuma as I did. That idea is still not off the table, but MCYT isn’t something I’m that into right now. Maybe if something else comes out about Evil Xisuma I’ll get back on it, but for now I’m fine with letting that go. But I want to make other videos, share other theories and analysis… if I have the freetime I’d love to make YouTube videos, and if I don’t have the time I’ll continue posting to my tumblr and infodumping to my friends. Apparently my infodumping is valuable enough “content” to steal! Writing this out has made me feel a lot better though, I’m really glad I got it out.

If anyone ever wants to talk to me about the things I’m obsessed with, or reach out to me as a source in a bigger discussion about Game Theory or other channels, my inbox is more than welcome :] Thank you for reading! 

Sincerely, a tumblr user.

[unreesonable]

Screenwriting advice from Mackenzie Crook, Reece Shearsmith & Jed Mercurio

Snippets from the 2015 Bafta Guru TV Craft Sessions - full video in link above. Transcript of the clips below

Interviewer: I'm delighted to be here with the TV and BAFTA Craft nominees for writing, both in comedy and TV drama. Our three lauded writers are Reece Shearsmith for "Inside Number Nine," Mackenzie Crook for "Detectorists," and Jed Mercurio for "Line of Duty." I'd like you all to tell us a little bit about each of your programmes. reece.

Reece: Well, "Inside Number Nine" is an anthology series, which is a very unusual thing, I think, to exist these days. I mean, you couldn't move for them in the '70s, and it was kind of what I grew up loving and watching. The half-hour play, "Play for Today," was a very appealing, enjoyable thing to me because you didn't know what you were going to get - same as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Twilight Zone," and of course "Tales of the Unexpected."

And that has gone out of fashion, I think, a little bit because of the mythical idea that if you're not following a set of characters, you won't return to the programme. And that's why they're not commissioned these days very much. But our argument, when we went in and pitched the idea of doing such a thing, was that if they were good you would forgive them for whatever they were. And I think we just really wanted to do that thing of kind of like chamber pieces - we talked about them being these quite claustrophobic little plays, and I think that was what drove us to do it.

Interviewer: OK and Reece what about the inspiration behind your series ?

Reece: Again, it was kind of just stuff that is enjoyable to research yourself. Some things came literally - "Sardines," episode of "Inside Number Nine," came when Steve and I write in a room in Muswell Hill and there's a massive wardrobe in the corner, and we were just literally one day - we'd been staring at it every day for however many months that we sit in that room, and then one of us said, "What about a game of sardines?" Initially, that was a funny idea just to think, well, we could just one at a time fill it with people arriving and hiding in the wardrobe. There was a version of that script that was simply that, and that was enough. Then we read it back and thought it's not enough - it's good, it's funny, and there's some quite funny dialogue in it, and it's slightly awkward, but there was something missing.

It wasn't until we went back in and peppered in the vague dread of the revelation of the child abuse that we realised that instantly elevated it into something much more fruitful. And that's always the way with our writing, I think. We are never satisfied with the first root idea of a gentle - you know, we tried to do it, and we can never do it, always feels lacking if there isn't somebody being murdered or some kind of dreadful extra element that just heightens it and gives you an element of jeopardy and peril in a supposed half-hour comedy that you would get in a drama. And I think that's why people are sometimes shocked by what we do because they are smuggled into a half-hour comedy, whereas you would be ready for it if it was at 9:00 on BBC 1 and you were set up for a drama. But I think we do things that are not that outrageous, but I think that they are a bit blindsiding because they are in the guise of comedy and maybe more powerful because of it.

Interviewer: And Reece for you - what's your writing process?

Reece: Well, we talk a lot, Steve and I. I couldn't - I admire the fact that these two write alone. I couldn't do it, I don't think. I think I need to have the instant reaction from Steve. If we can make each other laugh in the room, if it's comedy, then it goes in generally. But there's a lot of talking about - with these particular "Number Nines," being self-contained stories, we talk a lot about what the idea might be. Sometimes we've had - we've got an ending we might want to get to, or we've thought of a character that could be in something, and it's like crafting a story then and how do we most leanly tell it and what scenes do we need to get this across in however... you now, judiciously.

I think we do that because we fear the idea of beginning and feeling a little bit wayward in where we're going. But we have done that before, and I think sometimes we've written ourselves... Much like the Coen brothers when they wrote "Blood Simple" - they deliberately enjoyed writing themselves into corners and then thinking how does the character get out of it rather than being kind of ahead of the characters, which is a joyous thing and also quite surprising to yourself.

With these, some of the surprises at the end we've changed - we've thought we've had one route in our mind and we've thought, "Actually, now looking at it, we've got a third of the way in, I think people are going to - this is obvious to us," so we've changed it. So that's hopefully second-guessing what people think the story might be going. So that's been enjoyable. Writing a lot, talking a lot, and then beginning to be able to write it down with what we need to get out of the scenes as far as exposition and trying to hide the exposition. And then finally there's a pass that's "and why is it funny?" and hopefully that's the final kind of bit that puts it into BBC comedy. You know, it is meant to be funny. A lot of our things are not funny, I concede, but it's because we kind of enjoy the drama and the tension and the release of that in the mechanics of telling a joke. So yeah, a lot of writing before we dare to write so that we're not trapped not knowing where we're going.

Interviewer: Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for being so talented, being so generous with your wisdom and your experiences, and the very best of luck tomorrow night.

All: Thank you, thank you.

[deiastormborn]

Gale of Waterdeep; A much needed look beneath the surface 

Hey all. This is a script for the video I made in defense of Gale. I never had a place to put the text version of it anywhere else, but... if Tumblr isn't a good place for it, then what is?

Warning: Long Read!

________________________

Hi, my name is Stormborn. I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate for some time, enjoyed it quite a bit. As much as I can appreciate every companion that the game has introduced, Gale of Waterdeep, a charming lil’ wizard, has caught my attention the most. At glance, he is this sarcastic happy-to-go man, always joking around, trying to do the right thing. But, the more you get to know him, the more you slowly uncover his trauma, as much as he, himself, is trying to deny it.

Honestly, I thought that Gale would be liked by many people, I genuinely expected him to be one of the most chosen companions, and one of the most romanced ones. But, to my surprise, I’ve been seeing him getting more hate than I anticipated. Some people call his way of speaking way too annoying and complicated, some people call him clingy and creepy, mostly due to the glitch that would skyrocket his approval of you, probing him to romance you. Genuinely, it is okay to dislike some companion in favor of the other one. But I could not get rid of the feeling that people just despise his guts unjustifiably. 

One of the main reasons, besides the ones I covered earlier, is that people hate his ‘obsession’ with Mystra, the goddess of magic he happened to romance. I saw people complain that he just cannot stop talking about her, even while you romance him, and I can’t help but wonder if people were paying attention to his story at all. And I cannot blame them, as Gale always portrays his romance with Mystra as something so special, so unique, and as something to be proud of. But, let me explain to why you should be able to judge his story for yourself, rather than simply listen to what he is saying.

Gale is a talented wizard, so talented that he got attention from Mystra herself for his talent of channeling the weave. The story says that he is so powerful, that he could potentially destroy a whole village by basically sneezing in its direction. However, we all need to remember that he got attention from Mystra at the very, very young age. If I am not mistaken, the first time Mystra clawed onto him was when he turned 16. Ever since then, Mystra was feeding him all kinds of praise, prompting him to seek power, ensuring him that he can become Mystra’s chosen, and, mind you, *started romancing him ever since*. It is not a secret that Gale was not the first, however, if you really think of it, such revelation can seriously mess with a mind of a teenager. Not only it might boost the self-esteem, but also make him think that he is better than anyone else. And, I assure you, it is exactly what Mystra wanted. By giving him some form of attention, minimum affection, she had Gale on the hook. And Gale, as a boy obsessed with magic, who has been worshiping Mystra before he even met her, didn’t require much effort in getting hooked. But here comes the problem: as much as it is uplifting to get a praise from a literal Goddess of all magic, it is also as equally devastating to get any kind of critique or a cold shoulder.

Mystra was messing with his mind, making him feel like, no matter how well he does, he can always do better, as he has so much potential. With such authority, Gale would believe her. And it would make him always chase something more to impress her, rather than settle and appreciate what he has. It is also a reason to why the whole mess with the Orb began in the first place. People seem to call Gale power hungry, which, as any companion in the game, it is possible for him to go down that route. But they seem to forget one important detail: Gale thought that the Orb was a missing relic of Mystra’s magic, and he wanted to, yet again, impress her by bringing it back. Please remember that Gale was still a young adult, if not a teenager, when this happened. And it would all be resolved if Mystra would not shatter his self-esteem as much as she did. So, he made a mistake, and the Orb became his burden. And yet again, rather than explain this to her ‘chosen one’, she basically banished him, and left him with no answers for many years to come.

Gale isolated himself to keep people around him safe, with nothing but the books and the cat for the company. I think I do not need to mention on how that can play with your mind, too. But, in spite of all, Gale’s blind loyalty and obsession with Mystra kept him wanting for more attention, more answers, so he kept seeking more power, and more ways to get Mystra’s approval. At the day you first meet him, this is the first time he has been amongst people. Yet he still kept his jolly appearance, messing around with Tav, and appreciating everything that surrounds him.

I do not know if this is obvious just yet, but Mystra has basically groomed the kid. If we look at the very definition of grooming, Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. And it is most prominent when it comes from the place of higher authority. I think I do not need to explain that, in the fantasy setting, there is no higher authority than the God or a Goddess. Yet, for one reason or another, this seems to not be taken serious. And I think I have an explanation as to why.

When you talk to Gale about Mystra, or when you let him talk about her first, he is still full of admiration, obsession, and the unending pride. There is still some bitterness lingering somewhere in him, yet it Is not as powerful as any other feeling he has towards her. I’ve noticed people basically hating him for saying something like ‘Yeah, I banged Mystra, that’s pretty cool, right?’. But think of it this way: wouldn’t Mystra *want* him to think that it’s ‘pretty cool’? And who are we to say that it was the real Mystra he had an intimate moment with? For all we know, she might have conjured an illusion, to satisfy him and feed into his ego. If the romance between them was as real as Gale thinks it was, do you really think Mystra would just abandon him with no answers for a mistake such as this? After all, Gale was young, and had barely any experience. All he had was wizards, such as him, or more powerful than him, and her. If she truly cared about putting him to a right path, rather than using him for her needs, the outcome would be ever so different. 

I would also like to address that people do not think of it as a simple coping mechanism. Even if you look at the society these days, most of the time, when a man comes with a confession of, say, a woman taking advantage of him, it is often met with ‘wow dude, you got lucky’, rather than with a serious concern. Who are we to say that Gale, rather than simply try to reflect and recognize his relationship with Mystra as an illusion, didn’t just decide to get along with it and be proud instead? Even then, when you romance him further, he is slowly realizing that it was not as real as he once thought. In Gale’s own words: ‘there is no love between us. I was not the first, and I certainly won’t be the last’. Gale finally, ever so slowly, starts to understand that he was simply used by Mystra for his talent. Being a deity means that you are only powered by the followers you still have. It is in the god’s interests to keep people interested in them, or they will loose power. Using Gale, knowing he was an extremely skillful wizard, was in Mystra’s interests. She does not give him answers, but keeps him interested in her enough to keep him in her claws, spreading more words of her, attracting more people to follow her godhood. There was no real romance, she was interested in his power more than himself. And you can help him realize that.

But, with such dynamic comes a price, which also becomes more prominent when you play the game further: Gale never feels good enough. With the first chance he can sacrifice himself for a greater good, he takes it. He has no real appreciation of his life, he does not take it as something valuable. He is deeply depressed and traumatized. When a person moves away from the environment that scarred them, it can become extremely overbearing, difficult, and overwhelming. People also seem to act as if it is weird that, with any kind of hurt, Gale’s first reaction is to ‘blow himself up’. It doesn’t take much to know that he won’t do it if it were to mean that someone can get hurt, but he is saying that because, maybe, partially, he *wanted* to die. He has finally found appreciation amongst other people, who are not wizards like him, people who do not know him well, and people who do not want him to constantly be the best version of himself. He falls in love with Tav, because Tav is showing him kindness, and proving to him that he does not have to be someone that he is not to be loved. In that very vulnerable state, any kind of hurt or rejection hits you more. Not to mention that, the only time he ever says it, was after the night he spent with you. After he opened up, shared his fears, more of his past, even said out loud that, in truth, he does not want to die. He let himself be vulnerable, the most vulnerable he has probably been in years, so it is not a question of his ego being hurt: it is a situation where a man, who always kept to himself, has finally let someone in, and got hurt. I am sure one of us, at one point in life, said something like ‘well guess I go die’ as a joke. This is the only way Gale knows how to respond: joking about his pain. He does not mean it, but says it anyway, because it is the first thing that came to his mind. He has been a very reserved companion through the whole time, always seemed to know what to say, and he acted on an emotion after a very emotional night. 

It is also a fact that, even while he is slowly realizing that Mystra used him, he does not mind dying because she asked him to do so. That does not only prove a point that Mystra does not have any real regards to him other than a tool, but also that she was using him for her own sake. With The Absolute getting more followers, her power also weakens. The Absolute is a threat, not only because of the infection and danger to mere humans, but also to her godhood. And who better to deal with it than the man she has so methodically conditioned to do as she wishes? You would think that, a goddess as powerful as Mystra, could try to take care of things on her own. And yet again, the only time Mystra ever gives him any answers, is when she needs him to be used. That is, yet again, a definition of the grooming.

Gale will do anything for a little bit of appreciation, anything to be noticed, and we cannot blame him. This is why you, a player, as a Tav, have a power in you to make him realize that he, as he is now, is valid. It is almost as if Gale forgot that he is such a talented wizard after all the stuff with Mystra. You, as a player, have it in you to remind him. And once you do, Gale slowly separated himself from Mystra as her ex-lover, and only answers to her as his deity. After all, she is a goddess of all magic, it will be hard to reject her entirely.

Victims of grooming or any kind of abuse often can’t let go of the person who harmed them. They will talk about them, they will mention them, they might even try to grasp onto good things, or make it seem like bad things that happened weren’t really all that bad. Combine that with a constant feeling of never being good enough, and not knowing a genuine kindness outside of his very small circle, and you have Gale. A charming, sarcastic, jolly Wizard, who is also as ever troubled. 

Moving on to other topic that people seem to judge Gale for, is that, once a chance arrives, he starts grasping onto Godhood, wishing to become a God himself. It is also in that situation where he starts to say that he would have the power to completely overthrow Mystra. People seem to criticize him for his hunger for power, and also, altogether, call him ungrateful. I would like to add another opinion on that: while Gale is slowly realizing that he was being used, he went through all 5 stages of grief. But here comes the other one, that is mentioned much less: revenge. He wants to show Mystra that she was wrong about him. He wants to prove to her that, after all this time, he *was* good, if not better than her. On top of that, he is still trying to fix his never-ending self-esteem issues. While he is seeking godhood, he still thinks that, him, as he is now, will never be enough, and only by becoming God he can truly become worthy… of anything. If you romance him, he later apologizes to you, but also asks to let him explain to why the Godhood would be good for him, and you, as a couple. Gale wants to give you everything. The entire world. He wants to be the very best version of himself, for you, his lover. He thinks that he can only achieve that by becoming a God. He doesn’t realize that, maybe, without it, he can still be a valuable partner. He even talks to you about it, openly, saying that you deserve better. It is, yet again, in your power to remind him that you do not need him to be anything more than he is now. And, rather than with anger, he answers to you with a surprise. He truly, genuinely, can’t believe that you would take him as he is now. This is how deeply his trauma runs in his mind. And, once he finally believes you, this is where he finally calms down. This is finally when he accepts himself, and lets it all go. He is not repaired, but he is on his path towards healing. All because you, a player, convinced him, and reminded him of his value.

I think Gale’s approach towards things have deeply changed the perception of the players. Because he is in so much denial, people seem to just go along with what he says. He is proud of sleeping with Mystra - so people take it for what it is. Gale might not be your type, or even the most interesting companion to you compared to others, but I truly, genuinely think, that the hate he has received has been a little too much. Every companion has a burden, everyone expresses it differently, on their own pace. Gale has chosen the approach that makes the most sense in his situation. He is just a guy who was thrown into a mess made by the Goddess he worshiped at the young age. He is just someone who is trying to do good. And I hope that a small essay such as this helped and shed some light on his story. 

Men can be groomed, they can be taken advantage of. I think it is our duty to also recognize it, and show a little patience. After all, Gale is not the first example of such abuse. And, sadly, won’t be the last.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnZHJtYkcg

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo Devlog #9 | 02.29.24

What is this?! Two devlogs in one month?! More likely than you think! This February has been very productive for me and the team, so let's dive right into it!

Ooooh boy, Raquel keeps knocking it out of the park! She managed to get done every expression for every LI, and I coded them all! Now we have our wonderful characters ready for their debut. We have been using the wonderful Image Tools for Ren'py made by the talented and hard-working Feniks, whose tutorials and resources save a lot of dev's lives every day! This tool has made everything a bit easier for newbies like me, hehe.

Here's a taste of our edgelord's expressions! 💜 They're kind of a cutie when they put some effort into it!

We also had our second valentine's day celebration art piece thanks to Kayden! Sadly with the reworked version of the demo, you won't meet Vycar yet, so we thought we could ask for his forgiveness by giving him a beautiful bouquet and reminding him how much of a sweetheart he is! 💜

Also, Raeya got a hair update!

So, we weren't completely satisfied with the way we portrayed Raeya's hair, so this has been a rework we were sure we wanted to make. At first we were just going to render it again, but we ended up working on it from scratch to better represent what we envisioned for her. We hope you like it as much as we do! ; v ;💜

As always, we are open to any critique or advice; we are white people who have the luck to be able to ask POC friends for their advice as we work, but the more the merrier! Don't hesitate to send us your opinion to our ask box or even our email, gamesravenstar@gmail.com!

When it comes to the background department, we have been making great progress thanks to Airyn, who is honestly leaving us with our mouths hanging open every time! Thanks to her, another background has been finished and another one is in the making, leaving only two backgrounds to be revised and approved!

I personally can't stop looking at this WIP! She understood perfectly what we wanted to portray just by looking at an old WIP we had, and this is what we have so far—and it's already amazing!

Allie has been OBLITERATING the script. As of today, I think we have almost gone through everything that needed to be corrected and discussing, and lord if the script doesn't look a 100% better after we put it in Allie's hands. The way she writes, the way she understands everything I want to say even when sometimes I don't even know myself—what a talented, inspiring and amazing writer they are. I know I may sound annoying at this point singing her praises endlessly, but if the script is in the state where it is now, it's thanks to her!

My programming adventure of the month has been a success, if I say so myself! I've coded the characters with aaaaall their layers, their expressions, the blinking animations, made some videos, and started coding the script. Step by step as they say; I've coded 18 pages, and there's, uh...142 more to go. Haha! *sobs*

BUT WE ARE GETTING THERE! We can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I can finally click 'new game' and read the script and see the stuff going on! YAY!

Some extras of the month—we are preparing a Casting Call to choose the voice acting talent that will hopefully give voice to our characters. The demo won't be fully voiced (it's impossible with the funds we have, which are...zero), but if we are lucky we'll use some of our personal savings to pay for at least a few lines for each character so you can get an idea of how they'll sound if we get funded! Raquel is preparing an art piece for the announcement, and I'm getting the document ready and asking fellow VA friends for advice :3.

Also, we have a new member here at Ravenstar Games! Some weeks ago Astro and I formally adopted our first kitty, 8 month old Riki, fulfilling one of our dreams. We got him from a feline association that works with volunteers and fosters cats who have been abandoned, cats they find on the street, and so on. Riki has been living with me since January, and he's a happy, long big boy who loves playing, cuddles, and sitting on my desk while I try to work!

Say hi to the Ravenstar family, Riki! 💜

A productive month full of accomplished milestones, excitement and new challenges! The team has worked so hard, and I've done my part too! We still don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but we have done a lot of stuff we were sure we wouldn't finish yet, and look at that! We are doing so well!

As you can probably tell, my batteries are starting to run low, so I'm going to leave this devlog here. Thank you all like always for cheering us on, for being here in this journey with us, and for all the love you send our way. Let's hope March is as amazing as February has been, for us and for all of you! 💜

[hallowpen]

Hi Kodakins! I miss you🙁 Insomnia has plagued me once again, and you're on my list of people I bother when I cannot sleep. Don't worry, I won't put you through another round of either/or😅

Since there are "Top 5" polls going around, I was wondering: 1) Now that ThaiGL has taken over, which top 5 series are you most looking forward to?

2) What top 5 genres/tropes would you like to see from future GL projects?

Thank you for indulging me❤️

P.S. Now that I finally have some free time, I'm catching up on fics that I had saved to read for later and um

EXCUSE ME????? WTF IS THIS????? YOU NEGLECTED TO MENTION SOMEONE DYING!

❤️❤️❤️

Don't worry, I won't put you through another round of either/or😅

Thank you!!!

My Top 5 Upcoming Thai GL Series (I think you can probably predict most of these hehe)

1 - The Loyal Pin It's one of my favorite yuri novels (I own both the Thai and English versions). It's FreenBeck. It's promoting Thai culture on an international scale. It's the first Thai GL series to be backed by the MOC. It will break barriers... and my soul. I AM SOOO READY!!!

2 - The Last Case It's an original script. It stars openly queer actresses. It's being directed by N'App who is also openly queer. ESTER ORUCHE!!! The only reason it's not number one on my list is simply because it is Identity's first series and I have nothing to gauge their production by.

3 - Reverse 4 You I am a huge fan of Be My Favorite and while the premise is not exactly the same, it has its similarities. If this series comes anywhere close to being just as good, I'll be a very happy camper.

4 - Pluto Putting any issues I have with its source aside... I love Namtan Tipnaree. I tend to favor actors who have really great emotional range and Namtan can certainly deliver. Her being paired with an equally compelling actress like Film Rachanun certainly caught my attention. All I can hope for? That GMM will do right by them and the other female actresses involved 🤞🏾🤞🏾🤞🏾

5 - I'm Your Moon "กัษธิษฐาน" (the novel this series is based on) is a story of fated lovers and reincarnation...and that is one of my favorite tropes!!! The series is still in the very early stages of production, so anything can happen...

I'm generally not too concerned about genre or tropes in a series so instead, I'll answer you this...

My Top 5 Hopes for Future Thai GL Series

1 - Alright... there is one genre I want. VAMPIRES!!! Bet ya didn't see that one coming! 🤣🤣🤣 No...but in all seriousness, I'll take anything supernatural. Vampires, Sirens, Wiccans... it's all fair game. Bonus points if there's an incorporation of Thai mythology... there's such a rich history there.

2 - More Inclusivity. I'd love to see more sapphic stories beyond the standard variety. Give me trans leads, give me ace rep, give me neurodiversity, give me more disability rep, more Thai-black rep... there are so many identities that could benefit from more on-screen representation. I don't know if Thailand is fully there yet, but I hope someday we will be.

3 - Original Content. I'd love to see production companies develop their own original stories (much like The Last Case). I'm not saying to eliminate the Novel-to-Series model altogether, but original scripts tend to help diversify a genre.

4 - Step away from adapting Planoy novels. I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but my issue with them goes beyond their writing. I'll continue to say that they have contributed to the harm of the Thai queer community in both word and action. I will never support them and production companies should really stop giving them a platform. There are other, less problematic, GL authors who are more deserving of an opportunity.

5 - MilkLove in another, more mature GL. I'd (selfishly) love to see them in a series more suited to an older/adult audience.

...as for the fic, I don't know what to tell you hehe It's Shadowhunters. These are life/death situations... but just trust me. Not all is what it seems!!! (Thank you for reminding me to finish writing the fighting scenes for that. Those are always the most difficult to do and I've been putting it off for far too long)

[coraniaid]

More than any specific plot details, the whole concept of the post-Chosen comics as published by Dark Horse simply doesn't work for me in principle.

Partly that's because the idea that they are, or could ever be, meaningfully "canon" continuations of Buffy's story strikes me as almost offensively absurd. Buffy was a television show and so its characters were a collaborative creation on behalf of both the writers and the actors who play them. The actors aren't just there to read out the scripts the writers came up with; they played a fundamental role in bringing their characters to life.

Surely an attempt to film a putative "Season 8" that recast Buffy in SMG's absence wouldn't have been accepted as canon by most of the audience? But then how can a Season 8 that effectively gets rid of not just SMG but all of the other actors be any different?

[Although worth acknowledging here that the show actually did recast Nikki Wood between Seasons 5 and 7 -- and did so despite the original actor wanting to come back as well -- and nobody seemed to particularly care about that. But I think the general point stands anyway.]

Since comic books and television are very different mediums, the Season 8 comics can either choose tell stories that make sense in that medium or it can pretend to be a glimpse into what the show would have been like if it had continued beyond Chosen. (Or neither, I guess.) But it can't really do both: and once you start telling stories that would never have worked on the screen it becomes harder still to pretend that this is in any sense "canonical" or that it somehow reflects the way that the story "would have" gone if Buffy had had additional seasons.

But also, and even more fundamentally, the post-Chosen comics don't work for me because the whole point of Chosen is surely that Buffy escaped the narrative: she doesn't have to be The Slayer anymore. She changed the rules of the game; she broke the cycle. She won!

Which doesn't really work, as an ending, if it turns out she's still trapped in the role of the Main Character after all, still having to live separate and apart from the rest of humanity -- arguably, in the comics, even more so than she ever was as a high school student! -- and that she's doomed to have to save the world from supernatural horrors on a regular basis again and again and again. The whole appeal, to me, of the Season 7 finale is that it leaves Buffy at a moment of almost infinite possibility. She doesn't know what she's going to do next, or where she's going to go, or who -- if anyone -- she's going to end up with romantically. As she tells us herself, she still hasn't figured out who she's going to be. That's why the ending works: because it's a beginning to whatever direction you want to imagine Buffy's story going from this point on. And that simply doesn't work at all if you then insist there's a "canon" answer to the question of What Happens Next? It robs Chosen -- or at least, it attempts to rob Chosen, if you take it seriously -- of something important.

On the other hand, the premise of the more recent Boom! comic series is a lot more appealing to me. A full reboot, starting from the begining of the show, not claiming to replace the original but telling a parallel story alongside it? A version of Buffy with, from the start, a much better idea of where it's going or what type of stories it might want to tell, which can introduce minor recurring characters and prophecies and foreshadowing early without having to worry about the vagaries of casting actors to play the roles? A story in a different medium that can play with the audience's expectations and flesh out minor characters or bring them into the story at a different point or give them a different fate than they got the first time around? More Kendra? More Robin Wood? That sounds like exactly my thing. I love that.

And yet, genuinely, I don't think I've heard a single specific detail about the Boom! comics -- and over the years, without really trying, I've picked up a lot of details -- that hasn't made me think: well, no, that's really stupid, I don't like that at all.

[lapin-avarie]

The Devil Wears Prada AU:

(actor version)

Severus is a well respected veteran actor who keeps running his PA's away. Nobody lasts more than two weeks.

Severus is extremely curt, harsh, critical, and suffers no incompetence. Harry does not like him but Dumbledore asked him to try because no one was able to handle Severus either.

He quickly learns Snape's tea and coffee preferences and keeps his looseleaf stocked, to learning every role Snape has lined up. He does the dry cleaning, helps Snape's manager manage his brand deals and making sure everything not a gift goes back. He apologizes for Snape during set altercations and keeps Snape's trailer spotless. He cleans up after Severus' one night stands and tells them Severus isn't interested in anything serious. He's even manhandled away a few haters and stalkers when there isn't security and it's come up.

He feeds Severus lines without trying until Snape squints at him and he gives it a go and proves to be a natural. Snape starts lecturing him on his delivery, and teaches Harry the basics, throws him books on film acting and tells him to learn. And Harry does, because he loves reading these scripts alongside Severus. Snape stops seeing other people.

They argue constantly, but Harry gets him where he needs to be.

One second it's "Keep talking like that and they'll replace you with Lupin," then the next second, "Don't forget your coffee."

Or "I don't know why I suffer you, though I suppose you are less of a dunderhead than most before you," then the next second, "I don't know what I'd do without you, Potter. (sarcasm)"

Dumbledore wants to replace Severus' manager with Harry, but Harry is always [this] close to quitting because Snape is such a giant diva, no matter how much Severus pays him.

He learns Snape's preferences on scripts even better than his manager, and helps filter scripts. He's on Snape's arm at award events.

Snape's often looking at Harry. People notice. Rumours circulate.

Harry comes into the apartment to find Draco Malfoy leaving it, smirking at him, having dropped off a smashed Severus from their hotel.

And Harry walks out.

Harry gets cast as an actor instead, and Severus never forgets him.

Harry knows Severus recommended Harry for those roles, but he refuses to take anything alongside Severus.

Twitter will not shut up about their break up of ages (not that they were ever together). People suspect Snape broke Harry's heart.

Harry is in his second film role, his first role having been well acclaimed.

Until Severus confronts him, and tells him he tried to sleep with Draco to get over Harry. He didn't think they would work, romantically.

"I never meant to have him bring me back, then... I never wanted to hurt you like that. I didn't know, how to be with you and not destroy what we had.

I am in love with you. I don't want you to come back to work for me. I want you to stand as my equal."

And Harry takes his hands. "Why couldn't you just say that to begin with, you big dunderhead?" He kisses Severus.

Severus laughs.

When Severus shows up to the BAFTAs with Harry on his arm, it is to heavy papparazi attention, but no one is surprised.

Fans show up at their next film's promotional event, cheering and holding signs rooting for them, while Snape's new PAs (he needs two) skit around Snape, as Harry defends them from Severus' wrath and gives them tips.

Harry takes 4 months in Hollywood and after his next film, ends up more famous than Snape.

In an interview, Skeeter asks,

"Is it true that Severus Snape pays for your PA's salary?"

Harry laughs. "Yes, it is. To make up for the absolute hell when I was his PA."

"When are you two getting married?"

Harry spits out his drink. "Hopefully, never. God, could you imagine planning that wedding? Do you know how particular he is about his shades of black?" Harry jokes. "Joking aside, shh!! You'll give away the game plan!"

[descendant-of-truth]

Heads up, I'm gonna be discussing Sonic x Shadow Generations leaks below the cut, so if you don't want extra-early spoilers then just feel free to skip this one for now.

That being said: it's come to my attention that the Sonic Generations portion of the game is, in fact, being rewritten... but not reanimated. Meaning that it's just new dialogue on top of the pre-existing animations.

This is. quite possibly the worst route they could have taken. not to mention the weirdest??

I can see what the train of thought most likely was, to be fair. Shadow Generations is being written by Ian Flynn, while the original game was written by Ken Pontac and Warren Graff, and their versions of the characters are very different from Flynn's. Clearly, they wanted some sense of internal consistency between the writing of the re-release. That part is normal.

But then, I guess they just... didn't have the budget, or interest, or whatever it was they needed to reanimate everything from scratch. So they just added some lipsyncing when necessary and called it a day.

The problem is that doing it this way fundamentally kneecaps what you can actually do with a rewrite. The revised dialogue I saw in a video doesn't feel any less stilted or awkward, and the only thing it really changes is giving the characters slightly more reasonable priorities, or filling in gaps in their knowledge that were there before.

And those aren't bad things to do, but it's... kind of the ONLY thing they can do. It doesn't fix the game's story. It's barely putting a band-aid over it. All it does is read like an amateur fan project, especially with the addition of Modern Sonic responding to his friends after he saves them where he didn't before; I'm convinced I've seen videos of fans doing that exact thing in the past.

Yes, everyone knows that the few seconds of silence while he gestures felt unnatural, but so does trying to fit a relevant sentence over such a short animation. The official attempt isn't going much better, adding this really out-of-place and forced "alright!" when Sonic gives Knuckles a thumbs-up, and it doesn't flow naturally with the rest of what he was saying at all. It's there seemingly just to fill the space, so that there's no moment where Sonic is animating and not talking. It's bad.

Not to mention, I kind of assumed that the reason Modern Sonic was silent during those segments was because Classic Sonic was. You can play either Act of each stage in whatever order you want, so you could rescue the others as either Sonic. It would give people an unfair incentive to always play Act 2 second if it meant they would get more dialogue that way, and they would miss out on Classic's interactions as a result. Sure, neither of their interactions are anything to write home about, but... that's not really the point, here.

Trying to insert new personalities and character dynamics into animations that were meant for something different only works if you're doing a fanmade parody. Doing it in an official capacity feels... weirdly insulting to both the original writers and animators, honestly?

Like, no, that's not the script they spent hours animating for. That's not the tone they were trying to convey with those character movements. No, Sonic isn't face-palming in exasperation because Amy's too focused on "saving Sonic next time," he's doing that because she's joking about how scared she was that she'd never get to flirt with him again. Those are not comparable interactions.

I understand why they wanted to change the script, I really do, I don't even like the original version but for crying out loud, swapping out the dialogue does not make the game more interesting. There's a reason the story felt utterly bland and lifeless and an extremely large part of that was the animation and cinematography. The white space that most of the cutscenes took place in was literally just the side-scrolling hub world, they had maybe five square inches that each character could move around in and it was really, really boring.

A rewrite of Sonic Generations, especially with the goal of making it an equivalent experience to Shadow Generations, desperately needs more than this. Shadow's story is going all-out with the animations and camera angles and the severity of the situation and the deep-dive into Shadow's character and Sonic gets. this. a slap in the face to the original writers with no attempt to meaningfully improve upon their story.

It doesn't solve the problem of Sonic's story being jarringly lackluster in comparison to Shadow's. If anything, it's just going to stand out as being even weirder, because if this was all they were going to do, then... why did they even bother? What was the point? Does Tails recognizing the Chemical Plant from Sonic 2 mean anything when there's no new scenes that actually take place in it? Are we really making "Sonic References: the Game" into nothing more than a vehicle for Slightly More Accurate Sonic References and Nothing Else??

And what really gets me about this is that I would've gone nuts for an official Generations rewrite as a kid. My Sonic Generations Phase(TM) was both extremely long-lasting and filled to the brim with others' fan projects, because I couldn't get enough of this idea of Sonic and Tails meeting their past selves while trying to save the very fabric of reality. It's such an inherently cool and fun idea!

But what I was invested in as a kid was just that: an idea of a story. The reason I was obsessively reading and watching fanfic about it was because the actual game gave me nothing to work with. Now, it seems we're still getting nothing, just in a different flavor. Like, plain oats, but this time they're gluten free so that means they're totally what I wanted, right?

No. I didn't want a Sonic Generations fandub that happened to be paid for. I wanted a story. It should not be this difficult to give me one.

(To clarify, this is not a diss on Ian Flynn himself or his ability to write. I think he was given a task that was impossible to do well and I'm mad at whoever made this decision)

[managician]

Ooh, I'm looking forward to all the prompts, love me some more Sontails fics! 😁 May I ask what parts of Sonic Frontiers left a bad taste in your mouth, exactly?

I hope you'll enjoy them when they're finished then :D

As for the Frontiers stuff, since it's mostly negativity, I'll put it under a read more just in case someone else stumbles upon this:

Gameplay wise, I had enough fun running around and trying to S rank the difficult cyberspace stages, like the ever memorable 1-2. I'm not very picky with gameplay, the Sonic storybook games that are known for notoriously messy controls are some of my favourites, so while it certainly isn't my favourite game in that aspect, I'm willing to give the formula a try in future installments. A more polished open world game could be really fun.

My main problem comes with the English story script. I just don't see the vision behind any of the character arcs our cast was given.

Amy wanting to 'share love with the world' is an extremely vague and flimsy goal—she has been doing that since the start, by showing her compassion and kindness to other characters and helping them (her arc with Gamma in SA1, Shadow in SA2, Silver and Elise in 06, helping Cream and Big look for Chocola and Froggy in Heroes, etc etc you get the point). So why does helping people suddenly sound like this grand, all-encompassing goal that would make her part ways with Sonic? While playing the game, frankly, I didn't even understand what was she talking about half the time.

Knuckles' resolution being that he needs to go out and see more of the world (or "live a little" as they put it) is also nonsensical to me, considering the past couple of games have... uh... already had him doing that when he was supposed to be guarding the Master Emerald. Again, I don't really understand what the growth was meant to be if they just reinforce what he was already doing.

And Tails staring at the camera and acknowledging his dubious characterisation of the 2010s with such a blatantly cheap line like "I'm wildly inconsistent!" is probably the worst offender. Not to mention the end conclusion being that he needs time away from Sonic to grow into his full potential—like he didn't, oh, I don't know, stop an entire tyrannical invasion in his homeland, all by himself, all the way back in Tails Adventure or something...

Note that I do say I have a problem with the /English/ script, because the Japanese one gives them arcs that fit much better for what their characters have been so far, imo.

As opposed to the vague, somewhat incoherent goals of the English version, Amy strives to be a better version of herself, Knuckles wishes to preserve the past and culture of his people, and Tails has renewed courage to do the things only he can do.

Those are in line with their personalities and actual directions I can see their characters going in, rather than Amy and Tails (who literally adore Sonic) deciding that nope, they need to be away from the guy that inspires them, and Knuckles being like "lmao the Master Emerald? What's that. YOLO".

Not to say the Japanese script is without flaws, because there's places where you can tell the dialogue doesn't fit the original intent (for better or worse) and Sonic's engrish is awkwardly absent, but aside from those glaring flaws, I found it much more personally satisfying than whatever Flynn was attempting.

I guess Frontiers ended up being a really sore spot for me because, for the reasonings stated above, I really don't want to see future games going with the plot lines given in the original script.

[fairytale-poll]

ROUND 3C, MATCH 3 OUT OF 4!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Saki:

Psychic goth girl who was cast as Cinderella in a school play. The play was so poorly cast overall that the entire script had to be rewritten, thus “Cinderella-ish” was born. Hanajima played a Cinderella dressed in all black, and when confronted by the fairy godmother, she simply wished for meat.

idk if this is what you meant by 'acting' as Cinderella but in-universe she got cast as Cinderella in the school play, and the characters ended up re-writing the entire play to work around her because she was too Goth and disinterested to play a classic Cinderella character.

She plays the best version of Cinderella. All she cared about was going to the ball for the barbecue. The episode she's in is a really good one as well.

Overall Saki is not a Cinderella character, but you did say we could submit them if they were Cinderella in an in-universe play, and that she was! In Season 2 Episode 23 "It's Cinderella-ish", her class puts on a production of Cinderella and she ends up getting cast as the titular role, which a lot of other characters think is crazy because she's this straight-faced, emotionally-repressed, exclusively-wears-black kinda girl. Also her best friend Tohru (the anime's protagonist) gets cast as an evil stepsister, and she's one of the sweetest people ever and has so much trouble being mean to Saki even fakely and vice versa. Of course, Saki has no problems being rude to the Prince Charming character in the play, played by Kyo, a guy who's sweet deep down (but only to Tohru and his adoptive father) but is other wise a hot head who's always getting into fights. So between Saki as Cinderella having a genuine love for her stepsister and a general animosity with the prince, in addition to the fact that when she goes to the ball, all she wants to do is eat, not mingle, she makes for a very interesting Cinderella.

so this shoujo series has a storyline where the class puts on a Cinderella play but instead of the heroine playing Cinderella, shenanigans happen that lead to the heroine's goth best friend, Saki Hanajima, aka Hana-chan, aka Demon Queen, playing the lead role. Hana-chan's Cinderella dresses in all black against the wishes of the play's director, does not give 2 shits about the prince, and is just a general menace to society. I know she's probably not gonna win but I just wanted to share her with all of you bc I love her and the Cinderella-ish arc is to this day some of the funniest shit I've seen in a manga

their high school class decided to randomize who played which characters in their production of Cinderella & the creepy goth girl got cast as Cinderella & her painfully kind-hearted bestie got cast as the evil stepsister (among other mismatched roles) so they rewrote the play into "Sorta Cinderella" & Cinderella became a deadpan, lazy girl who only wants the best for her darling step-sister & who only went to the ball for the food.  in the end, instead of marrying the prince she takes his money & opens a restaurant with her sister & I love that for them <3

Cendrillon:

[Mod's Note: Warning for Persona 5 spoilers]

Her Persona is Cinderella. Her story is about disguising herself as another person to gain acceptance.

Her persona is Cendrillon, the French name for Cinderella and the name of an opera based on the story, and it mirrors her arc in the game. When you boil her down to the essentials, she essentially made a wish that was granted by her....... fairy godtherapist to go from pauper (bland and talentless depressed Sumire) to princess (her dead sister Kasumi, bubbly, personable star gymnast). As far as she sees it, even, it's this transformation that helps her 'get the prince' (read: befriend the protagonist). Why should she win, though? Umm because she's my baby my angel my sweetie my cherub specialist character in fiction and most important girl in the universe. Out of love in your heart for me, tumblr user [REDACTED], vote for her.

GOD I LOVE HER SO MUCH ok ok ok everyone here's my autism. Major spoilers as you get closer to the end btw! - She has three personas, in order they go: Cendrion, Vanadis, Ella. The first and last are taken from Cinderella, with Cendrion being the german name for Cinderella, and of course Ella just being a shortened form of Cinderella. - She does gymnastics, although a lot of her phantom thief design is heavily based off of ballet as well! In particular the black swan mimicking the white swan, and while of course that's not cinderella, it does remind me of how Cinderella was treated in the beginnings of the story - Cinderella and her both have major sibling trauma! It's a huge point about her character. Major spoilers, but she pretends to be her older sister Kasumi for most of the game; the sad truth is that she's in fact the younger sister Sumire. She's pretending to be her older sister because she can't deal with the trauma of that day she ran out into traffic and her sister got hit instead of her. (It does not help that her therapist uses eldritch god powers to gaslight her into thinking she is her sister.) - They're both pretty and also I love sumi so much she's everything to me. unironically the character of all time NOT FOR PROPAGANDA but for mod: image because it can be awkward to find one: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UyOsg26GnZU/maxresdefault.jpg also!!!! if you're interested in not potentially spoiling people you should call her Kasumi Yoshizawa. If you aren't worried about that though and want to be accurate, Sumire Yoshizawa is better. Or just call her Violet because that's her codename!

Initially introduced as Kasumi, she is a dorky and sweet first-year student who looks up to the protagonist as a mentor and eventually joins the Phantom Thieves in figuring out the fake reality they're trapped in. However, it's revealed that she's actually Kasumi's sister Sumire, who was always stuck in her more talented sister's shadow and yearned to be Kasumi. Unfortunately, she got her wish when her sister died saving her and her therapist brainwashed her into believing herself to be Kasumi. With help from the protagonist, Sumire realizes she was holding herself back and breaks free from her false identity, embracing her true self and rebelling against the hollow utopia. Her initial Persona--an embodiment of her true self--is Cendrillon, and her third tier ultimate Persona is Ella.

Sumire dosen't just pretends to be her dead sister, she was brainwashed into believing to be her by the final act's main villain/her fairy godfather figure, because that was her (misguided by trauma) wish as she believed that her sister was better than her. The final acts has a lot of 'making wishes come true' theme that connects her to Cinderella even more, also she does have a bit of 'save by the prince' thing going on with the game's protagonist

Please please vote my girl!!

Sumire is such a cute and cool character and deserves to leave the life of cinders how the fandom treats her and be a shiny princess!!

[riewritten]

I'm terrible at writing stories like that person I've never tried to write a story, but that's not the point hehee

If you don't mind, do you mind if I tell you about the scenarios that I keep running through my mind?

Have you ever read watched or heard the trope of hero/main character x his side guide female character?

So… I got the idea of lord/knight Erwin x maiden Yn. If you don't know what a Maiden is, they are a kind of guide and assistant of people in the upper echelon (such as lord lady). Male versions are also called summoner.

I've seen this trope most often in FromSoftware's games, the soulslike games.

( Umm do you mind if I post this as a reference 😳 😶‍🌫️?? https://www.instagram.com/reel/C89-RK5OJxh/?igsh=MWRhbjh4a3JodXZ3Ng== )

And recently, after the dlc of elden ring came out recently, after I finished the dlc, I went back to playing elden ring again and played the frenzied frame ending, which is the dark ending that I was internally disturbed by.

And I thought of a scenario where Erwin gives up his lordship and throws the world into chaos for Yn to survive. And there are a lot of scripted soulslike au's like that, but if I tell them, it would be too complicated and ridiculously long hehee

If I need to explain this game so that it's not confusing, in this game we are assigned a maiden named Melina who guides us to become a lord for the order of this world, who transforms our power into runes, who helps us along the way. And after the journey we learn that in order for us to become lord, we need to burn the erdtree, the great blessing of this world. And for this tree to burn, the maiden's body is needed and Melina agrees because her goal as a maiden is to elevate her guide to lordship and burn for it. And instead of burning Melina and becoming a lord and fixing the world, as there are a few endings in this game, you can do the most nihilistic ending, the frenzied flame ending, and burn the whole world into chaos. So melina can live. But Melina is not happy about this because you have ruined the world and you have not fulfilled her purpose, so in this ending she turns against you and vows to kill you.

I apologize for explaining the game rather than the scenario. I mean, I imagined it as an AU with Erwin and Yn in this scenario. Erwin, manipulative, manipulating others for his own ends, takes a liking to his maiden, his guide throughout the journey but he was saddened to learn that he had to make sacrifices for his cause and for his rise to lordship. He looks for many ways to save her and realizes that the only way out is to become the lord of chaos, the lord of the frenzied frame, and… it happens.

first of all, i'd like to thank u @collinnmckinley bc had u not shared your erwin royalty AU this anon wouldn't have gathered the courage to share such a lovely story idea as well 😭❣ i am blessed with very creative and imaginative readers and it fills me with warmth

i'll be honest with u anon, ive never read an erwin x reader fic crafted as intricately as this one and if u ever gather the courage to publish this as an actual fic, i think you'll be the first ever to do so. and our fellow erwin x reader girlies would SURELY love it.

i know very well that writing it out is such a hard task compared to just imagining it inside your head, but if i could only convince you to publish this, it'd be so nice 🥺

im also currently venturing a version of erwin that would be very much willing to burn down the world for a certain someone when he could sacrifice them for the greater good through the story Edge of the Precipice, and let me tell you that because of this factor, writing it is just so much fun compared to my other fics. exploring a facet of erwin's character by venturing this type of 'what if?' is just so cathartic and it makes me enjoy erwin more!!

and your reader's initial characterization is soooo good already. she's not a mere blind blank MC who only looks at erwin. can i just say how much i love having readers like that??? it makes the chemistry more palpable💕

thank you so much for sending this!! i love love love this idea so much

[anti3000]

The Player and Narrachara: An in-depth Critique of Undertale

This is an edited version of my two Reddit critique posts of Undertale's Player and Narrachara concepts, now combined into one easy to read megapost for Tumblr.

This post serves as a critique of Undertale's writing under the what-if lens that Player theory and Narrachara theory are canon. On the rare chance that Toby ever directly confirms that the player is meant to be diegetic in Undertale, I've decided to analyze his execution of that concept and how well it works with the most important characters who supposedly know about us. And since Narrachara is the second most popular theory that people believe in, I'll also be considering it canon for these posts. 

Note: To bypass the 30 media limit, some of the images and vids had to be placed in Imgur links. Click on them when you see them for the full context of what I will be discussing.

How a Diegetic Player Affects Undertale

Let's start off with the character that is affected the most by the Player's existence in Undertale.

- Frisk Critique -

When not under the assumption that Frisk is being controlled by the player, the Neutral routes characterizes them as a kindred spirit to Flowey; motivated by curiosity and the desire to alleviate boredom. These traits coupled with the mentality altering Determination & Level of Violence systems, serve as good explanations for the varied good and bad things Frisk is capable of doing in the game. However, the second the player is factored into that, everything else becomes irrelevant. The consistent theme of Frisk's Determination getting stronger and giving them the resolve and power to do what they seek to do becomes invalid, because in reality it's just the player pushing them to do almost everything. https://imgur.com/a/eXNhSk8

While it's fair to say that the constant Determination theme has some underlining motivational message for us players, that doesn't change the fact that in-universe it's a substance and mindset for the characters. And if the player is canon, Frisk's Determination doesn't get them anywhere without us, so it's a waste of time to act like it's what's driving them.

And how about that way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt? It's also largely a waste of time establishing that for Frisk, since their capacity to hurt is non-existent without us in the first place. Even with zero LV gained, the game still allows us to kill enemies through Frisk.

But wait, some of you might be saying. "Frisk isn't just our husk, because they show little snippets of personality with automatic actions and non-visible expressions/statements."

Frisk may not be an empty husk, but the faintest semblance of a personality we occasionally get from them is far too rare, disjointed and contradictory to define. For example, there's been arguments made for Frisk "resisting" against some of our commands, which has been used to characterize them. But if those arguments are true, all they do is show that Frisk's writing is incredibly inconsistent.

Here's some examples of those arguments and their issues.

Frisk stops us from attacking Undyne

Under this argument, Frisk prevents us from doing any real damage to Undyne in the post-date battle.

The issue with this is that if Frisk can resist our attack commands to such a massive degree, it doesn't make sense why this is the ONLY time they do it. Outside of this fight, Frisk lets us hurt and kill as many Monsters as we want.

Even from the perspective of the player being canon, this could just be a scripted moment where we aren't supposed to ever want Undyne to be hurt.

But if the intention was for Frisk to actually stop us from hurting Undyne as a showing of their own character, that would just be one of the many examples of their character being inconsistent when viewed from the diegetic player lens.

Frisk doesn't want to hit the Dummy

If we choose to beat up the Dummy in Waterfall without LV, Frisk only lightly taps it, and then immediately feels bad for even doing that.

In a vacuum, you would be able to use moments like this to characterize Frisk as a very sweet kid that hates any type of violence, no matter how light. But again that's only in a vacuum, since we already established that Frisk consistently lets us use their body to hurt and kill others. What makes this Dummy moment even more ridiculous (if seen as Frisk opposing our act of violence) is the fact that the VERY first opponent we come across is a Dummy, and yet Frisk lets us use them to demolish it without ANY resistance.

If Frisk is a natural pacifist, why didn't their pacifism stop us from destroying the first Dummy? Furthermore if Frisk is so inherently nice, why do they choose to say very hurtful things to Snowdrake without any LV?

Frisk refuses to TALK to Toriel & Asgore

If we select the TALK Act when fighting Toriel, Frisk doesn't say anything to her because they can't think of anything to say. They do the same with Asgore, but only if we've killed someone before trying to talk to him.

This stands in opposition to the previously talked about moments of them resisting us though, since in the other examples Frisk is only able to partially resist our commands. These showings give the impression that Frisk isn't even compelled to do what we want them to do, which not is obviously contradicted by the other moments we've talked about.

Despite the significant issues that stand in the way of Frisk having a consistent and definable personality, they are still usually portrayed as a very loving and innocent kid in fanon. This is somewhat understandable, since the Pacifist ending is basically called the true ending of the game in the files, (also treated that way in outside material) and the only route where Frisk's name is revealed.

The obvious problem with all of this is the fact that the player is STILL a factor on True Pacifist. We are the ones that get Frisk that far. We are the ones who make friends with everyone. We are the ones who give everyone their happily ever after. Even in the pre-credit final stretch of the game, Toby made the decision to have the player dictate where Frisk's life goes on the surface, yet Flowey tells us to "let Frisk live their life." https://imgur.com/a/fPNWiJd

If Toby's intention was to establish that Frisk had the capability to resist/refuse our choices, they shouldn't do what we tell them to do even AFTER we leave their body and "let them live."

Toby would know about the player's control more than anyone else in the fandom, so why is it that most of the route is written in a way where it focuses on Frisk as the only one that is in control? https://imgur.com/IuREwhw

If Toby didn't mean for Frisk to be seen as having full autonomy over their actions, his writing decisions are what allowed player-free interpretations of them to be created and thrive regardless. If Toby intended for the player to be canon, our presence should have been treated as THE most important lore element in Neutrals and Pacifist, and the effort should have been put in to make sure how we operated in the world made consistent sense. But instead of that, the "reveal" of the player being diegetic is treated as some tacked on post-credit scene (that has it's own issues) after all of the misplaced praise for Frisk is said and done.

The Genocide route has even more problems with Frisk and the player, but I'll talk about them in the Chara Critique.

- Frisk Critique Conclusion -

It's clear that Toby wanted Frisk to be an avatar for the player, but he also made the choice to have them be their own entity, and that was where he messed up. He wanted the best of both worlds, but he didn't put in the work to make sure that Frisk was competent in either side.

If Deltarune's player "Connection" intro is any indication, I believe that a current day Toby would have just made Frisk a "Vessel" if he created Undertale with the noticeably higher level of writing experience that he now has. But just in terms of what 2015 Toby gave us, Frisk leaves a lot to be desired on a basic character writing level.

- Chara Critique -

Hoo boy where do I start with this one?

Chara may be a "true character" compared to Frisk from the perspective of having a defined history & personality before we start the game, but they are significantly worse than Frisk beyond that. To give Toby the benefit of the doubt, I'll be using as many popular fan interpretations as possible in an attempt to explain the numerous inconsistencies, plotholes and other issues Chara's character is plagued with. And to ensure this isn't too overwhelming, I'm going to save the narrator Chara issues for last. For now let's just work under the logic that Chara is not the narrator.

- The Player & Chara -

We are supposed to play most of Undertale under the belief that we named Frisk at the start of the game, only for it to be revealed that the "Fallen Human" of the past was the one given the name. However, even after Frisk's true name is revealed to us, our name isn't replaced by Frisk's on our Stat and Save screens.

Going by Toby's Twitter statement and the the last thing Flowey says in the Pacifist ending, the name "Frisk" doesn't show up in our stat & save screens because Chara is actually meant to BE the Player to some degree.

But of course we run into several MAJOR issues with the game's diegetic-player narrative if Chara is the player. The most obvious one is that Chara already existed with their "True Name" and played an integral role in the game's story long before we came around.

The only way to make sense out of Chara being their own entity AND the player is for us to simply be playing as Chara in the game. If this is true, that would mean that our role really isn't diegetic at all, because our decisions are Chara's own decisions in canon. The "player" in this context just means we are Chara's spirit, which woke up and took command of Frisk's body, Soul, and Determination when they fell into the Underground. This also explains why Chara's name is on our Save screens.

This of course means that "naming" Chara is a non-canon action that only exists so players can feel personally attached to the world, just like in other games without a diegetic player. No matter what we type in, the one True Name that is actually being used in-universe is Chara.

The only portion of the game that stands in DIRECT opposition to the player and Chara being one and the same is the Genocide route.

- Player & Chara: Genocide Route -

Killing all the random encounters in the Ruins and checking the mirror in Toriel's house will present the message of "It's me, Chara." As long as we stay on the Genocide route, that same message shows up whenever we check an object that reflects Frisk's face. https://imgur.com/3H06fj1

In a strange reversal of the Pacifist route giving the impression that kind-hearted actions are of Frisk's own will, things like these direct statements from Chara imply that they are the one making Genocide happen. But if Chara is supposed to be puppeteering Frisk on every route, these messages can't be about Chara possessing the body only when Genocide is initiated. And yet, Chara only taking control in Genocide is something that's explicitly pushed in our faces throughout most of the route.

After every monster in the Ruins is killed, Flowey says that we aren't human, recognizes us as Chara, and asserts that our human soul is stolen.

Since Flowey does not say these things to us on any other route, this gives the impression that Chara is an entity that only has a presence on Genocide.

If Flowey was the only one that said we weren't human, perhaps his statement could be written off as just being about him relating to our actions. But Frisk not being human is something that is brought up by various other characters in the route as well.

Despite Asgore knowing that Frisk is a human in the other routes, he is unable to identify what they are on Genocide. This makes it clear that there's some type of visible transformation Frisk undergoes thanks to Chara's spirit possessing their body.

Beyond these statements, the Genocide route has an abundance of cutscenes, dialogue and other moments that consistently reaffirm and remind us that Chara is the one steering the Genocide wheel through their possession of Frisk's body.

Here's just a few examples:

Frisk ripping chunks out of the Snowman on Genocide https://imgur.com/hhNf66k

Frisk doesn't do this on any Neutral where we have higher LV than on the Genocide route. This shows that Chara possessing Frisk's body is the only factor that matters.

Frisk smiling when finding Monsters to kill.

The exclamation point that pops up when we normally get into a Battle is replaced with Frisk smiling once we get to Waterfall.

This also does not happen on any higher LV Neutral runs.

In Frisk's way

On Genocide a fight with Monster Kid is automatically initiated, and we get a first-person message saying that Monster Kid is in the way. Frisk never visibly speaks, so the only one who could have initiated the battle with MK and said this is Chara.

Unlocking the Newhome chain

This is the cementing evidence for the impression that the ONLY entity using Frisk's body and making Genocide happen is Chara. But if Chara is supposed to be the player like Toby's statements and the other routes suggest, the game should always give us these type of explicit showings that they are directly controlling Frisk.

The portion of the Genocide route that we've discussed makes it seem as if Chara is only around when we start and stay on the route, but the ending of the route somehow manages to go against EVERYTHING established about the character up to this point. Let's get into it.

- Genocide/Chara Endings -

After Chara kills Flowey, they greet & thank the real player for awakening them from death. They tell us that they were very confused on why they were brought back to life, but from our guidance they learned that their purpose was to gain power by eliminating the enemy with us.

This already is a slap in the face to what most of the route presented. Genocide consistently pointed the finger at Chara as the killer, yet at the very end it's suddenly revealed that it was us? This is the exact same problem the Pacifist route has: the big reveal that the main character was being controlled by the player is unceremoniously slapped on at the tail end of the route, while leaving no explanations for the stuff that goes against it.

If the player is the one doing most of the work on Genocide, why is there so much focus on Frisk not being human because of Chara's spirit? It's not like there was any meta subtext for all the "you're not human" statements either, because unlike Chara, the real player IS a human.

Why have Chara say "In MY way" if killing all the monsters was a team effort?

Why have them say that they unlocked the chain when the player is the one to unlock it by pushing the button?

There's just so much wrong with the storytelling direction of the Genocide route if the player's direct actions are meant to be separate from Chara's in-universe. To say the writing is misleading is an understatement.

Chara acknowledging our existence makes us "naming" them problematic as well. Whether we use their True Name or our own, Chara doesn't say anything differently.

As I said before, our action of naming Chara isn't something that is treated as canon. This isn't a problem if the player is nondiegetic, but it's immersion and narrative breaking when you're trying to get across that the LITERAL player's actions hold weight in Undertale's world.

Chara tells us that they are the feeling when a stat increases, which is most commonly interpreted to be them saying that they are the concept of RPG player's desire to grind. https://imgur.com/4U1vmzw

If this interpretation is what Toby intended, it really means nothing. Chara couldn't have been this concept when they were a regular human child, and they couldn't have become it after death because we are the ones that have to awaken their spirit. RPG grinding also existed long before Chara did, so whatever Toby was going for with this doesn't work on any level.

Chara says that we reached the absolute, and that there's nothing left for us. They tell us to erase the pointless world and move on to the "next" one with them. If we agree with Chara's desire to erase the world, they say that we are a great partner that will be with them forever, and proceed to erase everything. https://imgur.com/1fz0Mg5

What's weird is that Chara doesn't take us to another world after they erase the timeline. We have to wait in the "abyss" for ten minutes before Chara starts speaking to us again, and when they do they find it "interesting" that we stuck around.

The most popular explanation for what Chara meant by "move on to the next" is that they wanted us players to move on to another game. What's really important about this is that by their own words, Chara would be going WITH us to those other games. This information combined with the "I'm the feeling of stats going up" statement, makes it clear that Chara is meant to be seen as a part of the game player. Even though we can't see Chara in other games.. the intention is for them to always be with us after we finish Undertale.

There's a lot of obvious problems with this, but the biggest one is still all the evidence that points to Chara being the player on Pacifist and every other route. Even the bulk of the Genocide route treats Chara and the player as one, so they can't just inexplicably not be us because the end of the route said so.

Even if we come up with alternate interpretations for everything that supports Chara being the player, Flowey calling us Chara is still the smoking gun. If Toby never intended for Chara to be the player in the other routes, him having Flowey say/believe that we are them is one of the most counterproductive things he could have done for his story.

There's even more issues with Flowey calling us Chara, but I'll save those for the Flowey Critique. For now let's continue breaking down the end of Genocide.

The next things Chara says and does cements them as a complete mess of a character. If we tell Chara that we don't want to erase the world, they say that we misunderstood, and ask us since when were we in control. They then jumpscare us while laughing, and erase the world anyway. https://imgur.com/OwRskMX

In an attempt to make sense out of this, many have interpreted this as Chara saying that they are only in control over us in the ending. While this interpretation is most likely what was intended, "since when" is still VERY poor wording, especially when the previous portion of the route did everything but say: "Chara is responsible for Genocide." What Chara says and how they act is really not a good look for the "YOU did this Player" narrative either way, and it brings the validity down on their claim that they are simply our partner. The super sophisticated and calm way they talk to us at the end of geno doesn't do them any favors either.

Toby making Chara come across as the Genocide mastermind in the same cutscene that establishes they were only guided by us is a big screw up, but at least he didn't choose to use Chara as a soapbox to scold and punish us for doing Genocide right??

..Oh.. yeah.. he did.

After Chara destroys the world they later tell us that WE did it, despite them being the one to come up with the idea and execute it no matter what we say. They say that our desire to return to the world means we think we are "above consequences." https://imgur.com/mdLMpnW

If we tell Chara that we don't think we are above consequences, they ask us what are we waiting for, (instead of playing another game) and make us wait another 10 minutes before speaking to us again.

Chara's wording and behavior makes them come off as a bit vindictive, which doesn't make any sense from the perspective of them being our self-proclaimed "partner" that's thankful for us giving them purpose in gaining power. From their perspective, everything we've done is good, and they WILLINGLY helped us do it without us even asking them to, so why are they giving these weird judgmental vibes now?

But okay maybe this type of conclusion is jumping the gun a bit right? Sure their wording might be a little too accusatory, but maybe that's just the way they talk, and them saying "consequence" has no negative connotations. Let's analyze what Chara says when they return.

When Chara starts speaking again, they say that maybe we can come to a compromise, and they'll bring the world back If we give them our soul. https://imgur.com/ap2XroD

If we refuse to give away our soul, Chara tells us to remain in the abyss for all of eternity. https://imgur.com/YhBlv7U

This establishes that Chara has the ability to bring the world back, but they are gatekeeping it from us as a consequence for our actions. If we want the world back, we have to give up something of ours in exchange. Once again, this is very contradictory to what their previous "partner" dialogue establishes, and it doesn't even make sense for Chara to behave this way after actively HELPING us kill people.

Chara's choice to wipe out the entire timeline/game is also FAR worse than anything we did in the first place. Despite some people thinking otherwise because of Chara's accusatory speech, (and the black backround) there's still Alyph's, the evacuees, and THOUSANDS of other Monsters left in the Underground before Chara destroys everything. Even if we assume that Undertale's world only has one planet, Chara destroying EVERYTHING in that world includes the innumerable humans on the surface as well.

With this in mind, there's absolutely N O reason the demented child should be giving us ANY lip as if they have the moral high ground. Get them out of here.

There's a lot more to be said about Toby's decision to have Chara say these things to us, but that'll have to wait until after we go over all the Chara endings.

- Second Genocide -

After being so judgmental, (and taking our Soul) you'd think that Chara wouldn't allow us to do another Genocide run again. But no, Chara brings the world back and lets us do whatever route we want with zero changes. After going through all the exact same motions, Chara greets us at the end of Geno again, but this time they claim to be a... demon. https://imgur.com/A00dtUf

Most people believe this to be metaphorical, (and for good reason) but Chara describes theirself as if they can be summoned by anyone no matter when or where they are.

Does this come out of nowhere? Yes.

Is Chara being an actual demon completely incompatible with their backstory and what the first Genocide ending established about them? Yes.

Is it impossible that an actual demon is one of the things Toby wanted Chara to be? No.

If there's one thing Toby did when writing Undertale, it's toss a ton of idea darts at the wall, regardless if they stuck. And there's no character that better exemplifies this practice than Chara.

Ironically enough, right after Chara tells us that they are a demon, they double down on shaming us for our actions. This time they say that we have a "perverted sentimentality" emanating from our soul, and they suggest that we do a different route.

Despite Chara being more condescending than ever, they still forcibly end all of existence even when we tell them not to, but not before giving us more unfitting chastisement. https://imgur.com/z6VEQG3

But what really makes Chara's second timeline erasure even worse than the first is how utterly pointless it is. Unlike the first Geno ending, Chara allows us to return to the world immediately after they destroy it the second time. This makes their act nothing but raw carnage that doesn't abide by their initial reasoning.

Of course, Chara still has our soul, so let's get to what they actually do with it.

- Soulless Pacifist -

If we choose to stay with Toriel at the end of a post-Geno Pacifist, Chara seemingly uses the power of our soul to transform Frisk's sleeping body into their own. https://imgur.com/s0GftVD

Chara's demonic laughter combined with the creepy Genocide theme playing in this last scene clearly insinuates that they kill people on the surface as our consequence. The alternative "I have places to be" ending seems to confirm this by showing Chara among our Monster friends with their faces crossed out. https://imgur.com/JGDvznT

The non-violent interpretation for this scene is that Chara canonically edited theirself into the picture with Frisk, and drew X marks on the faces of our friends as a reminder that we killed them all on Genocide. In other words Chara didn't take our Soul to kill anyone, but to scare us and ruin the good feeling of our happily ever after.

One of the problems with this interpretation is that we don't ever kill Alyphs, yet she also has an X mark on her face. Of course, Chara also puts the blame of their own choice of destroying the world onto us in the Genocide endings, so it's not out of the question that they would attempt to gaslight us on Alyphs's death as well.

One can argue that everything Chara does in these endings is meant to characterize them as a manipulative hypocrite, but that would require their hypocrisy to be pointed out and or challenged in the game, which isn't ever done. Because there's no counters to Chara's statements and actions, all their ending scenes come across as just Toby/the game using the worst character to teach us an incredibly flawed lesson. This is especially the case since Toby has even used Flowey to parrot his same publicly stated gripes with players killing enemies in other games.

If Chara in Genocide was meant to be in the wrong to some degree, Toby utterly failed to convey that. And considering Toby has gone on record saying that Chara carried a "message," what they do and tell us in these endings is definitely supposed to be his "moral of the story" lesson.

But if consequences are such an important theme for Undertale, Chara should ALSO be held accountable for the atrocious acts that they support and commit. They explicitly show that they know what they do is wrong after all. Chara getting off scot-free, AND treated like some kind of judge of our actions is a backwards and narrative flop of a writing decision. It seems like two wrongs don't make a right, and mutual accountability are two concepts that completely flew over Toby's head when writing Undertale.

If Toby wanted to teach a lesson to Genocide players so badly, he should have used a different character to get his point across. Why not have the manifestation of consequences just be a faceless entity that talks to us like Chara does after they destroy the world? Someone disapprovingly shaking their finger to us at the end of the Genocide routes isn't even necessary because of the actual judge character Toby created: Sans.

Beyond Sans literally judging us on every route, his ridiculously difficult fight and dialogue in Genocide very effectively gets the message/lesson across to every Genocide player, and unlike with Chara, it works without issues because Sans isn't our "partner" IN the Genocide. Imagine if Sans helped us kill people on Genocide, but randomly became judgmental and went Megalovania Mode on us by the end. The righteous impact of him fighting us just wouldn't be there at all, and yet the equivalent of that is what Chara does to us.

- Chara Critique Conclusion -

And with that, we've gone through most of the issues of Chara's character while excluding the possibility of them being the narrator. Is there a chance that viewing Chara as the narrator can fix the issues we went over?

- Narrator Chara Critique -

In my old Narrachara debunk post, I brought up the problems and nonsensical nature of Chara being the narrator, but that was just from the perspective of the player being nondiegetic. One of the things I failed to notice at the time was that the idea of Chara being the narrator automatically dictates that we are canon and that Chara knows about us. Player theory can exist without Narrachara, but not vice versa because the narrator blatantly acknowledges Undertale's world as a game in the Asriel fight.

When we factor in that Chara knows about us game players, them narrating Frisk's actions, thoughts and feelings makes a lot more sense. Chara knows that we are limited to viewing Undertale's world from our screens, so their narration serves as a way of relaying what Frisk is experiencing to us, as well as a method of guiding us in the game.

However, this still leaves the important question of why would Chara choose to be our video game narrator. There's nothing they gain out of being our narrator, and there's no need for them to take that role when there's already a narrator present at the start of the game.

There's nothing within Chara's backstory that we can link to a desire to be a narrator either, and they don't even bring up their choice to narrate for us when we see them at the end of Genocide. In fact, what Chara tells us face to face actively goes against the idea that they are our narrator. Chara says that they were confused and led by our "guidance," but as the narrator they are the one that confidently guides US without any sign of confusion.

If Chara is meant to be our narrator, their Genocide ending dialogue is unnecessarily misleading and contradictory to their most prominent role in the game.

- Chara's knowledge as the narrator -

There are moments within Undertale that some argue establishes that the narrator is not omniscient, and people have used those moments as evidence for Narrachara.

There are two problems with this line of thinking.

Standard narrators don't HAVE to be omniscient.

There's actually more in support of Chara being all knowing about things in Undertale than anything else.

Here's some examples:

Chara knows that Asriel is the one who calls us before he even speaks

Chara knows that going through the Pacifist exit ends the game

Chara knows exactly how many killable monsters are in the areas we go to

Another example of Chara's knowledge of how many Monsters there are to kill comes at the end of Genocide. As previously mentioned, we don't directly kill every monster in the Underground by the time Chara shows up, yet Chara says "there's nothing left for us here" after Asgore and Flowey are killed. Chara can't be saying that because we gained maximum LV either, since we already hit the cap after killing Sans, yet Chara doesn't show up the the Judgment Hall. Using Narrchara as a precedent, the ONLY reason Chara appears is because they know that Asgore is the last person that the game allows us to find and kill.

All of these examples make it clear that Chara is not only linked with us, but the entire GAME itself.

If Toby's intention wasn't for Chara to know everything about the game, he did an awful job at giving them the limitations that a non-omniscient character would have to abide by.

Another problem of Chara having such vast knowledge of the game is that it botches the story point of them being influenced by our actions. As many have pointed out, Chara's narration changes depending on the kills/LV we've accumulated. But Chara being the narrator effectively makes them an ungrounded deity that shouldn't be affected by the things they already know would/could happen in the game.

To make matters worse, the most significant shift Chara's narration undergoes (Genocide) isn't even consistent or permanent.

- Narrator Chara: Genocide -

Despite supposedly being jaded and darkened because of our Genocide, Chara still gives us a lot of the exact same jokey and easy going narrations that are on the other routes.

These types of narrations completely clash with the much darker "I just wanna kill" narration in the same route.

The lack of consistency is even worse in Monster encounters. Most encounters aren't changed at all on Genocide, which means we get the same quirky and excited narrator personality in most of the route's fights.

I understand that changing every single narration to account for Genocide would have been a big task, but if Toby didn't have the drive to come up with narration to replace all the unfitting ones, all he had to do was have Chara use the "silent" ellipses narration in their places. What's even worse is how as soon as the Genocide route is aborted, ALL the signs of Chara being negatively influenced by it vanishes. This wouldn't be a problem for a regular narrator, but it doesn't make sense for a character's narration to not have any traces of negative growth from our Genocide "guidance."

Even when we complete a Genocide run and do other routes, Chara's "corrupted" narration is nowhere to be seen. Their behavior is completely reset as if they never learned anything from us in the first place. But we know their behavior isn't reset post Genocide, since they show up at the end of a Pacifist run to devilishly dish out our consequences.

It has been argued that Chara's post geno narration isn't any different because the game wants to lure us into a false sense of security. But this still falls into the same problems of Toby not being consistent on what Chara is. Are they the game itself, or are they just a child that's easily influenced? A character that went through major development can't just reset back to their original behavior without any type of change at the drop of a hat.

Something else that doesn't make any sense about Chara's Genocide narration, is why they go back and forth between first person narration and second person narration. When not viewing Chara as the narrator, their first person Geno messages works as the GAME occasionally giving us Chara's thoughts or nondiegetic commentary on things. 

Here's some examples from two other games.

Outside of examples like these, there's no in-world reason for Chara to physically tell the PLAYER "I unlocked the chain," after saying things like "You got the Locket." They don't fit together.

- Chara & Frisk's Relationship -

As we went over, Chara's narration is meant for the real player, not Frisk. But this runs in contrary to one of the main things people enjoy about the Narrachara concept, which is the idea of Frisk and Chara developing a "dynamic"/friendship that's conveyed through Chara's narration. Practically all fanon portrayals of Narrachara have Chara exclusively narrating/talking to Frisk, and even living with them after Frisk leaves the Underground.

In terms of the canon however, Chara doesn't seem to think Frisk is anything more than an extension of us in-world. Chara only uses Frisk's name in one line, and it's meant to be a direct follow up to them narrating for the player.

When not accounting for Chara being the narrator, "Still just you, Frisk" seems like it's the game treating Frisk as if they are player-free. But if we factor in Chara being the narrator, this tells us the exact opposite. Chara seems to (somehow) believe that the real player's name is actually Frisk, and the ending of the Genocide route further proves this.

Chara claims that Frisk's physical SOUL and Determination is the players, and they don't give the faintest acknowledgment to Frisk once in any of their speeches. https://imgur.com/lkH62yV

For all intents and purposes, Frisk is treated like they just don't exist on Genocide; the only factors are the player and Chara. With this in mind, all of Chara's narration that has been interpreted as them developing a bond with Frisk, is really just about the player.

Even the idea that Chara permanently stays with Frisk after they leave the Underground isn't true. By Chara's own words, when all is said and done in the game, they go with the player to other worlds (games) and stay with us "forever."

Another reason why people like Narrachara is because they believe Chara helping us in the Pacifist route gives them a positive character arc and rids them of their hatred for humanity. But the crux of that belief still comes from the misconception that Chara forms a bond with a Human and stays with them.

The best thing you can argue Narrachara does for the overall story is allow Chara to "atone" for getting Asriel killed, by helping us save him in the final battle. But the lack of an apology to Asriel on Chara's end really makes that supposed atonement incomplete. We don't know if Chara is actually sorry since they don't say that they are.

As the narrator, Chara seems to intentionally hide who they are in Neutral and Pacifist routes, but if there was ever a moment where their true identity should have been revealed, it's when Asriel was opening up them.

It's been argued that the silent nature of the narrator in moments like this is supportive evidence that it's Chara, but it's actually the opposite since there's no reason for Chara to have nothing to say when Asriel is pouring his heart out to them. The complete lack of personal things to say on the narrator's end just makes it seem as if they don't have any connection to Asriel, and they only help us save him because it's their job as the narrator.

At the very least Chara should have made it known that they weren't gone like Asriel later believes, but we don't even get that.

Chara not being open on who they are in the entire Pacifist run goes against the idea that they had a character arc, and is one of the many things make it seem as if they aren't the narrator in all routes. All this combined with Chara not even sticking around in their world after the game is over REALLY makes their revival a rather pointless addition that does nothing but drag down the game's writing.

Speaking of the writing being dragged down, Frisk's own writing suffers even more thanks to Narrachara. Let's briefly go over how before we wrap up this critique of Narrachara.

- Narrachara overshadowing Frisk -

The part of the fandom that is defensive of Chara often act as if they are the singular character we control in Undertale.  Jump into any discussion about Chara's morals, and you're bound to see someone saying that we "force" Chara to kill monsters.

From Judgment Boy's "The Truth about Chara" Video. Notice the complete erasure of Frisk

And given everything I've went over in this post, it's really not at all hard to see why people think this way when everything that revolves around Chara (especially Genocide) overshadows Frisk.  And when viewing Chara as the narrator, Frisk even loses what would normally be seen as their "voice."

In any other game, these narrations would just be seen as the narrator relaying the visually silent protagonist's own feelings/thoughts, but the focus wouldn't be on the narrator because the narrator wouldn't be their own character. But for Undertale, this type of thing becomes: "Look at how Chara is feeling. Look at what you're doing to them by feeding them LV," while Frisk is rarely brought up.

Chara feeling what Frisk feels is redundant, and it shifts the focus off of the main character because they aren't the one who is visually speaking.

When you're constantly seeing the narrator as a character, even the simple act of the narrator saying what FRISK does can get taken as a "Chara character moment."

From Nochoco's Chara Analysis

----- Narrachara Critique Conclusion -----

The Narrachara concept has all of the issues that Chara brings to the (already deeply flawed) diegetic player execution, and it adds it's own gigantic layer of problematic elements.

Even when not factoring in Narrachara, Chara is without a doubt the worst character in Undertale.

Toby wanted Chara to represent way too many things that didn't fit together, but he felt that by combining all of them he could pass it off as his character being complex and up to interpretation, when in reality he just made a very poorly written mess. He threw that mess of a character into the final game and expected people to come up with their own headcanons to do his job of filling in the flaws like a puzzle. But the puzzle is so fundamentally broken that no headcanon peices can completely fill/fix it. Toby's subpar writing for Chara is also why the Chara Defense Squad and Chara Offense Squad came about, and why there will always be heated debates about the character.

While Chara's role in the story pre-revival is very much needed, the fandom, Frisk, and Undertale as a whole would have been much better off without the rest of Chara's baggage.

- Flowey Critique -

Now this will be a much shorter one than the others.

Unlike Frisk and Chara, Flowey's character doesn't run into an identity crisis if the Player is diegetic. Flowey's only notable character problems are the inconsistencies in his knowledge of the player's existence and Chara's revival.

The thing most people immediately point to show that Flowey knows about the player is of course, the ending of the Pacifist run. But as we talked about before, going by Flowey's own words, he believes that the "player" is Chara. Even though preponderance of evidence points to Flowey's statement being blatantly incorrect, if he really felt that Chara was the one controlling Frisk and the Save power, the timing of his revelation comes off as character regression. Flowey (as Asriel) had already come to the conclusion that Chara had been "gone for a long time," so it makes no sense for him to randomly think that it was Chara all along after that.

But since most people feel that Flowey knows he's talking to the player, let's use some of their arguments to make sense out of why he says Chara.

The common explanation for why Flowey calls us Chara is because they are supposed to have our own name. But as we all know, "Chara" is established to be the character's "True Name." Their name is not ours in-universe, nor is it treated like that by anyone in the game prior to the Flowey ending.

If Flowey was truly meant to be talking to us, we should have only gotten the ending if we didn't give Chara their original name. Or better yet, Flowey should have just..not used Chara's name at the end of his speech.

The only other argument that can be made is that Toby's intention was for Flowey to sarcastically call us Chara. But even if we assume this is how the ending was meant to be seen, that's still some misleading and convoluted storytelling.

The next issue is the matter of when and how did Flowey discover the player's existence. Going by the super fourth wall breaking Omega Flowey fight, you'd assume that Flowey knew about us by that point at least right?

Well it's very important to note that despite Flowey shattering our save file with Chara's name on it, he doesn't think that Chara is around until the end of a Pacifist run or in a Genocide run.

If Flowey was able to see the name he would have said something

This means that just like most fourth wall breaking moments, the meta stuff Omega Flowey does can't be taken too literally. It also wouldn't make any form of sense for Flowey to be able to manipulate the entire game and sense our presence within Frisk, but not Chara's.

But given the complete lack of polish with everything in the diegetic player execution, it's not impossible that Toby truly felt there was no issue with Flowey being able to sense a higher dimensional being, but not the character that lives in his world. After all, Flowey seemingly references let's-play viewers that may be watching Genocide right?

If Flowey knows about people watching the game, that means he knows his world is a game, which in turn means he must know about the player.

The problem is.. the entire context of Flowey's Geno conversations are about Chara. He believes Chara is the one that took over Frisk soul and decided to kill everyone. If Flowey really knew about the player at this point, he wouldn't tell Chara to stop chasing him (for example) when we are the ones making the movement happen. This means that at most, Flowey referencing viewers is a non-canon fourth wall break.

Okay so how about we just say that Flowey discovered us after he became the God of Hyperdeath. He gained higher dimensional entity level knowledge and perception from his newfound power. Does that work? Nope. Asriel makes it clear that in his delusion he felt Chara was the only one he was fighting against.

This means the only point in time Flowey would have discovered the player is.. off screen. He found out that we were the biggest driver of the story and even how to contact us without any rhyme or reason.. off screen.

Needless to say this is a pretty big plothole, and it's why I prefer the lesser of two evils interpretation that Flowey just regressed and believed Chara was the player. With that interpretation, at the very least you can argue that Asriel transforming back into a flower altered his mindset and made him go back to his old projection habits.

But hey, we're going with the most agreed on diegetic player interpretation, and under that interpretation, Toby just wanted to have one of his characters reveal that we existed in-game on Pacifist, and he chose Flowey for the job. It didn't matter to him if Flowey being the vessel for that revelation made sense.

- Flowey Critique Conclusion -

And just like that, we're done with Flowey. Like I said, the only notable issues of his character revolve around the Player/Narrachara concepts. Outside of them, Flowey is great.

- Sans Critique -

While Sans is theorized to be aware of the player's existence, the consensus is that the evidence pointing to him knowing about us isn't as solid as it is with Flowey and Chara.

Sans even refers to us as "kid" when we fight him, which shows that he doesn't *have* to know about us just because he believes Frisk to be a timeline "anomaly."

As usual, Sans is perfect. This ends his critique. 😎👍

- Fixing Undertale -

I have a ton of notes on how to fix most of Undertale's Player & Narrachara problems, (assuming they are canon) but this post has gone on long enough, so I'll just quickly run through the corrections for the two most important characters, and save the rest for another discussion.

- Fixing Chara -

Right off the bat, the prompt to "name the Fallen Human" needs to be removed, not only because giving Chara a different name is completely irrelevant in canon, but because I'm not including Chara in our journey. Nothing of any real value is lost if Chara isn't revived, and I already have a Chara-free fix for their most popular role in Genocide. What Chara does in the story before we start playing the game is important, but it also works perfectly fine as their only role in the game.

On the opposite end, the present day Chara is too many half-baked things at once, and everything that is established about them barely has any similarities with the past Chara. Aside from them dryly claiming possession over New Home items in Genocide, as the narrator they are treated like a completely separate character with no inherent life values.

Even the two most definable character traits about the past Chara (hating humanity and wanting to free monsterkind) are completely erased/treated as irrelevant to the present Chara. The revived Chara doesn't make a single comment that shows they hate humans, and they don't even raise any objection or discomfort when we MURDER the monsters they supposedly loved and sacrificed their LIFE for in the past.

Now you might be saying: "But Chara being around in the present as our narrator brings a lot of colorful commentary!"

That's Toby's humor/personality actually. A lot of the jokes made by "Chara" in Undertale are also made by Deltarune's narrator.

Aside from the first person Genocide narration, ALL of Undertale's narration can stay exactly the same even without Chara being present. Some of Chara's narration even fits perfectly as Frisk's own "voice," just as it would if the games narrator was a standard one.

On a more subjective note, I believe that Chara should also have a more unique character design. Chara leeching off of Frisk's character moments is bad enough, and their design being a lazy recolor of Frisk's gives many the initial impression that they are just the "evil side" of Frisk. It's not even necessary for Chara to look completely different. They could still have the same color scheme, but just a different hairstyle instead of Frisk's copied and pasted onto them.

Even though Chara would not be directly involved in our adventure, the ripple effects of who they were and their past actions would still be strongly felt in the present with Asriel. Asriel's arc of letting Chara and the past go would also work WAY better when Chara is actually..in the past.

Obviously this means that the "see you later Chara" Flowey ending must be scrapped too. Even if you interpret that ending as what establishes Flowey's awareness of the player, it's too confusing and open to interpretation to keep around. Flowey knowing about us is detrimental to the story anyway.

Overall, Chara being taken out of the main story significantly improves the game on every level. With Chara gone, the focus would be on the person it always should have been on: Frisk the main character.

- Fixing Frisk -

Using the groundwork Toby made, (but didn't finish) Frisk's default nature should be a very kind kid that hates violence. But for their character to work with the player being able to make Frisk do bad things, there needs to be explicit and consistent showings of Frisk resisting against our unfriendly commands from the start. For example, the narrator could point out that Frisk reluctantly attacks the monsters when we make them do it with low or zero LV. But Frisk's resistance and behavior should weaken and get more malicious the more LV we forcibly make them acquire. This works perfectly with what LV is supposed to do in the first place, but this time it actually matters for Frisk. Frisk also shouldn't be able to say cruel and rude things to monsters unless we fill them up on LV.

All of this works to subtly let the player know that they are canon in Undertale's story.

I would prefer for there to be an explanation on why we take control of Frisk, but Toby didn't establish one in-game, and I want this fixing to be as faithful as possible. Games with a diegetic player usually don't provide reasons for why we possess the main character anyway, so I can't criticize Toby too harshly on that front.

Since the Pacifist route fits like a glove with Frisk's inherently kind heart, there should be more things Frisk does without our input on the route. For example, Frisk should automatically hug Asriel and choose to live with Toriel. There shouldn't be an option not to do the most caring things when locked on the Pacifist route, because Frisk's own will/Determination to do good would be reinforced and strengthened. Because of this, the "you are filled with Determination" messages would be exclusively shown to us on the Pacifist route as a way of letting us know Frisk is steadily gaining more control over theirself.

In replacement of Flowey talking to the player after the Pacifist route is finished, the game presents to us a single question:

"Will you let them live their lives?"

- Genocide Fixing -

The higher freedom Frisk gains on the Pacifist route should be more restricted than ever in most of the Genocide run. For example, instead of Frisk's body automatically moving towards Papyrus while he's monologuing, the player is allowed to move in these cutscenes. This would be similar to how Deltarune allows us to interrupt Noelle's last cutscene in Snowgrave by making Kris move towards her.

Flowey believing Frisk to be Chara can stay as is, but all the "you're not human" lines that several of the characters have in the route needs to go.

As for the narrator's lines, the undeniably Chara related ones need to be replaced by standard narration. Standard narration in the Genocide route's case can even still have the same grim nature as a reflection Frisk's mindset, and the overall tone of the route.

Now here are the BIGGEST changes to the route:

Killing Sans will not automatically give us maximum LV.Instead the player must kill Asgore to reach LV 20. The game doesn't give us any option other than to press the  "FIGHT" button to kill him, and after we do, Flowey shows up to get brutally slaughtered by multiple automatic slashes from Frisk.

After Flowey is turned to ash, we transition out of Battle Mode and back to Asgore's Garden. The tint of the area is significantly much darker now though, and Frisk automictically turns around to face the Player.

For the first time, we see a smile on Frisk's face and their eyes.

In another first, we witness Frisk's words as they speak to us. They tell us that they were somehow freed from our control after the power boost their body gained from killing Asgore. This is a result of their body hitting their physical peak, (Max LV) becoming far too powerful for us to manipulate.

They tell us that at first they were terrified when we took control of them, and they suffered from the mental and physical pain we put them through. They tell us that despite their anguish, they eventually understood why we did what we did, which was to make them stronger.

They thank us for guiding them and showing them their true purpose in life, but they also tell us that they have a feeling that they can't get stronger anymore..and that..makes them sad.

They tell us that they know there's only one thing left to do, and that's what we taught and gave them the power to do: Annihilate.

With a deranged grin, Frisk makes a mighty slash, destroying everything in existence, including theirself.

All that's left is a perpetual blackness, and our feelings.

There's no one around to say anything else to us. We forcibly turned a loving child that wouldn't harm a fly into an insane mass murderer and got them killed. And knowing that, is the worst consequence of all.

After ten minutes, the True Reset option is presented to us. We are given the chance to make things right. Will we take it, or will we put Frisk (and the timeline) through that hell all over again? The choice is entirely up to us.

There is no Soulless Pacifist, since there is no character holding a grudge against us after Genocide.

- Post Conclusion -

And that wraps up the most important changes that fixes a lot of Undertale's problems. Given everything discussed in this post, I think it's self-explanatory how these alterations would improve the narrative and enjoyment factor of the game overall.

What do you guys think? Like my ideas? Do my solutions get the job done, or do you think they can be tweaked? I'm open to criticism on this, so let me know know in the comments or ask me questions if more details are needed.

Even though there's a high chance that the player being diegetic is what Toby intended, as of now it's still just a theory. But if Toby ever does reveal that the player was always canon in UT... well I believe I've shown why that is not a good thing at all.

And if Toby also happens to reveal Narrachara as canon, (hopefully not) that would be incredibly detrimental for the game's overall quality.

While far from flawless, (some of my criticisms apply to the game no matter what) I do love Undertale. I love the music, the characters, (Sans is God) the humor, etc. But if the Player and Narrachara theories are canon, they significantly soil what is otherwise, a great game.

[cardboard-aliens]

KEN RECEIPTS POST

Collection of articles and interviews regarding Ken Levine. I originally had these on a different post, but it was an addition on someone else's post and I felt bad giving them a notification every time I updated it LOL

(Click the source post for updated links, because gamers will not stop interviewing Ken so I always have more to add.)

Interviews and News Articles:

A look inside BioShock Infinite’s troubled development: talks about constant cuts, shifts, and reboots, how due to poor management there was no playable version of BioShock Infinite a year out from launch, how the team had to pull a year of crunch to finish the game with some people pulling 12 hour shifts (and then they try to make the crunch sound cute by saying married couples that worked there could have lunch and dinner together)

The final years of Irrational Games, according to those who were there: Article that mentions how belligerent Ken was in the work place, to the point 2K had to mandate sensitivity training, and that external firms were brought in to address the issue.

GDC '08: Ken Levine on BioShock's 'stupid story': article where Ken talks about BioShock's development and needing to cut down and rewrite the game's story a year out from launch, very much like how Infinite's development went.

Ken Levine: scripting Elizabeth "is the most complicated thing" in Bioshock Infinite: where they admit the e3 demo was mostly scripted and cutscenes and that there was a lot of ambitious stuff they wanted to do dynamically, but as we can see in the final product, got cut due to the reasons above

BioShock Infinite artist almost resigned over game's depiction of religion: an artist having to threaten to quit to get Ken to rewrite offensive parts of the game, along with the fact it doesn't sound like Ken knows how to write characters lol

Ken Levine and the Infinite Idaho: LONG article about a fanboy busting a nut over Ken, but if you scroll down to the section called "Breaking the arm off" or ctrl + F "Nate Wells" there's a section about how a lot of people quit during Infinite's development, including the Art Director for Infinite (and BioShock, along with being Jack's VA) Nate Wells, after Ken cut hundreds of hours of work on Shantytown because it was "ugly"

Ken Levine Defends BioShock Infinite’s Most Controversial Scene: (this website hates my VPN LOL) Interview where Ken defend's Daisy's death, by comparing her, the black slave, to Andrew Ryan, a white capitalist, while plugging his oppression creates oppressors and saying Elizabeth is the only character in the franchise to break the cycle of abuse

Faith In Rapture – Ken Levine Shares Thoughts On Creating Authentic Diversity: first half of an interview where Ken talks about Tenenbaum's autism saying "Because of her autism, it never cracked through" in regards to her empathy towards the little sisters

Conflict In Utopia - How Relationships Are At The Heart Of Ken Levine's New Game: second half of the interview, where he goes back to abuse is an inescapable cycle and that Elizabeth is the only one to over come the cycle of abuse--and she's the heart of the BioShock franchise which is 🤡💀🤡

We are Ken Levine (@iglevine) and Andres Gonzalez from Irrational Games. Ask Us Anything: AMA to promote BaS- I linked to the exact part where Ken tells people not to make Elizabeth porn because she's his daughter- despite the fact he's advertising a DLC where her boobs are even bigger and she moans over music.

TheBioshockHub Interviews Ken Levine! | Ken Talks Bioshock, His Inspirations & More (2020/2021): Interview with Ken where he say's he didn't know Ayn Rand was politically relevant and that he didn't read Atlas Shrugged until after BioShock was out, forgetting Daisy and her VA's name, and continues to reiterate how the BioShock franchise is supposed to be about how abuse is an inescapable cycle--unless you're his favorite character Elizabeth, and admitting he knew this would be his last part of the franchise and that he wanted to neatly tie the story up (🙄we know how neatly that went)

BioShock Remastered - Director's Commentary: another reference of Ken saying the BioShock franchise is Elizabeth's story, and BaS was about making her the heart of BioShock.

The Next Video Game From BioShock’s Creator Is in Development Hell: Talks about Ken's bad management as he sinks his new game exactly like how he did Infinite, but this time he pushed away everyone who kept that game afloat

Why everyone’s laughing at BioShock’s Ken Levine: Article where Ken said he figured out "how to write good characters" but it was just the basic way everyone writes characters.

Bioshock Infinite's Elizabeth shaped by Ken Levine's experiences: BONKERS article where Ken compares Elizabeth, a fictional character, to a REAL WOMAN he dated who was being abused and then said "but my OC is a better than her."

Thegamebriel Interviews Ken Levine the creator of bioshock: Interview with Ken where he notably compares BioShock 2 to someone "dating your ex girlfriend" and says he didn't want to play the game.

BioShock Infinite: 10 Years Later (ft. Ken Levine): An interview Ken did where he says he was "Upset" about BioShock 2 because he didn't see any games happening in the future of Rapture.

Ken Levine on BioShock: The Spoiler Interview: Interivew where Ken mentions a story idea where the main character was a cult deprogrammer, and talked about the kidnapping those guys would do; referencing "deprograming a lesbian" as an example of that work. He back tracks saying that was not something you would do in the game, but it makes my skin break into hives out that he mentioned it at all.

Looking Back On BioShock With Its Creator, Ken Levine: Another source of Ken only reading The Fountainhead and not Atlas Shrugged, and that he only discovered Rand's work mid development of BioShock. He also states that BioShock is not meant to be a criticism of Objectivism.

BioShock Creator Moved Away From the Franchise Because He Felt ‘Trapped’: Interview where Ken says it was his idea for BioShock to become a "Call of Duty blockbuster" and then immediately jumped ship on the franchise to make Judas. Which just looks like a bootleg BioShock game.

SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS:

Tweet where, when gay marriage was legalized in America, Ken said "but what about the Lutece twins?".

Ken retweeted an edit of Elizabeth holding a Ken body pillow.

Years later he retweeted edit of the same image but with Austin Wintory editing his face onto Elizabeth's.

Tweet were Ken defended transphobe and anti vaxxer Gina Carano when she got fired from the Mandalorian.

Tweet where Ken defended Elon Musk.

Tweet where Ken says BioShock: Rapture isn't canon because he hasn't read it.

Facebook post where Ken share a photo of a kid flipping him of so his friends would defend him.

Ken Seeing this Verge article that criticized Elizabeth saying:

and then saying on his facebook:

(which is. entirely missing the point. because he made elizabeth brutalized eye candy. her character is entirely defined by men.)

An old post, that I believe is from the scrubbed Irrational games forum (Furthest back I can trace it is to this post), where he explains Elizabeth's fragility and stealth gameplay was not stereotypical and sexist.

Photo of Ken from a print PC Gamer feature called "The New Game Gods" with a PRETTY questionable quote.

Youtube video of Ken and Troy Baker yelling at Courtnee Draper to get "authentic" acting. She's egging them on but it feels SUPER uncomfortable.

[spinningbuster98]

Castlevania Symphony of the Night Part 1: Die Monster!.....in Japanese!!

We’re here folks

We’re finally here

And I’m playing the Japanese version! Why? Well let’s just say that there’s some content that was originally exclusive to the original japanese release which was cut from the international one. Said content was restored in the PSP version....but I decided against playing that. It’s a playable version, but it’s minor yet noticeable graphical downgrades compared to the original just bug me the wrong way

You can already spot a difference in the intro: the actual narrated text is english even in the Jpn version, and no it’s not due to me playing a translated rom, even untranslated it’s in english, just with a japanese voice over

What intrigues me is how the text itself was still largely rewritten in the international versions, yet even the japanese one calls Dracula’s Castle “Castlevania”, which I had always thought was just a quirk of the english localization and not something that was ever truly recognized by the japanese side of things, at least not until the mid 2000s when even the japanese versions started using that name as the series’ title for a time

However, while I can’t understand japanese, I can’t hear the narrator actually pronouncing the name “Castlevania” anywhere, so I’m going to guess that he’s reading from a different script?

Anyway there’s going to be...LOTS to talk about with this game, though luckily we’ll have plenty of parts to do so :)

Just to start off with something that everybody knows by now: this might just be the most beautiful sprite based game of its generation, probably of the whole decade of the 90s

Yeah sure there are a couple of weird imperfections here and there, namely Richter’s sprite still being from RoD instead of reflecting his redesign, except for one cutscene where he IS given an updated sprite (I guess that’s one point in favor of the Saturn version). This is pretty much the game that started the tradition of reusing old enemy sprites, especially guys from Rondo and a couple from Castlevania IV

But honestly? This stuff is barely even a blip on the radar here. Every sprite, every background is so detailed, so well animated, oozing with so much charm! Every enemy has their own unique death animation, there are a billion different animations for the various spells and secret moves, I could list stuff all night!

Alucard’s sprite and animations have entered into the realm of videogame legends now, which is funny because when you think about it his animations are just way too smooth compared to everything else he kinda sticks out, not to mention that the actual running animation looks silly with the way he moves his arms (not that the Belmonts in the previous games weren’t guilty of a similar running animation quirk with their ultra-manly walk cycles), but it’s just so mesmerizing to look at! He truly feels weightless, like some sort of wraith drifting through the night, with that cape, that hair, the after images etc

The funny part is that the game does implement a bunch of more typical PS1 3D effects, which you’d think would clash hard with the sprites and age the game badly but they actually end up giving it even MORE charm, because they’re usually relegated to 3D backgrounds, but the actual renders not only look pretty damn good usually, they actually help make some environments look more memorable and larger than life! The cathedral, the moving clouds, the houses in Olrox’s Quarters. The Magic Tomes that attack you in the Library technically clash so hard with the rest of the place, but the renders themsleves are nice and I fucking love watching them explode into a burst of flames as their letters just spill out from the pages!

I even love the SOUND EFFECTS in this game! I’m pretty sure that most of them are just stock effects, especially the ones for the transformations and whenever you use a potion....but I dunno they’re goofy in a good, charming way to me

And we haven’t even talked about the music! Oh God! I’ll save THAT for the next part!

[misscammiedawn]

Penlight - Spoiler Analysis/Review Post 1 (Nozomi Route)

Download Penlight (Pay what you like) from Itch.io here

My other Penlight reviews: Quick Review - Sayori (Part 1 - Doll) - Sayori (Part 2 - Alter)

Turq's reviews: Hiroko Robot - Hiroko Tickling - Nozomi Zombie

So I had reviewed the game Penlight before and wanted to give some more praise on its narrative choices and themes. I felt the best way to do that was to break down the routes I enjoyed and what I learned from them.

Before I begin I wanted to say much of the discussion here breeds in from @spiralturquoise and I going back and forth on this game for weeks. Turq is writing a post as well and though we share many viewpoints we come from different angles. We are also aware that we have our own biases and headcanons which we may present as fact, Nozomi being AroAce for example. This post represents a read of the game and we actively encourage people to have their own reads and share them so we may read them.

My posts are going to be plot overviews with analysis. Turq had a fantastic bit of commentary on my first post and I wanted to keep the conversation running.

This post is from the perspective of someone who either has already played and enjoyed the game or someone who isn't going to be convinced to play without having been spoiled first.

If you're on the fence, play the game, come back. It's a few hours commitment and so worth your time.

The post will be here when you get back <3

So as of the latest public release this is the route map:

It sort of looks like the map of Dracula's Castle.

Also this post and any future posts will only feature content from the public release. Nozomi Reversal route is actually polished as of writing for Patreon members with a better script and CG for the ending. This is using version 0.1602.1.

As you can see the game is pretty broad. The map is color-coded between the Brown (Nozomi), Blue (Sayori), Pink (Hiroko), Purple (Consequences) and Salmon (Villain) routes.

Ignore the green, those are just to highlight the latest changes to the map from prior versions.

So I thought I'd handle my Spoiler posts the same way. Brown, Blue, Pink, Purple and then... I think I'll skip Salmon. I have no real desire to play the villain routes.

Though I was happy to see this in the Q&A segment of the Discord:

I am glad this game continues to deny any attempt at vindicating unethical choices.

Anyway. With that preamble. Let's get started with Nozomi's paths...

To begin the Nozomi route Kyou will mention that he has been studying hypnosis and this will trigger Nozomi meeting with him at a cafe after school to ask about his experiences.

She admits that she has been into hypnosis for several years, fluctuating between shame and pride in her interest, admitting that she had not intended to practice in real life until she found herself volunteering for the hypnosis show during the previous cultural festival, an impulsive action that was driven by her repressed desires, she notes that she did not plan on volunteering until her hand was already in the air.

Nozomi regrets that she did not get a chance to bond with the senior who ran last year's show and is now admitting it to Kyou.

From the offset the power dynamics are skewed. Nozomi views Kyou as a stalker and knows he has no friends to practice with. But she is also quick to keep things even by admitting her fetish, overtly admitting she "gets off" on the topic, noting how giving this information to Kyou is a risk.

In showing too much of her hand, Kyou, who does not himself have a hypnosis fetish, despite his study, gets a window into her fantasies.

Nozomi enjoys hypnosis and is excited by it.

Nozomi fantasizes about giving up complete control.

But she is aware that such scenarios only exist within the realm of fantasy and she understands hypnosis enough to know that such a thing could never happen and because she knows this. Because she has found someone who knows how hypnosis works. Because she regrets not being able to make a connection with the last person she could connect about hypnosis with, she tells him she wants him to hypnotize him.

What comes next is the first hypnosis scene, which takes place in Kyou's home.

Every route of the game follows the same timeline for the most part. Most of them keep to a week or two time frame where some others stretch out over months. But the facts of the timeline are always true. Many of these facts will come into play later on but it's important to note them because the writing around these "canon events" is tight.

Kyou's father works until late and will always have a business trip to excuse his absence for weekends. I believe I have only seen him show up one time in the entire visual novel, referenced in text as Kyou speaks about his previous night.

So with an empty home Nozomi comes over and sets down the ground rules.

Sessions are to be discussed in full before approaching hypnosis. All sessions are to be recorded. All suggestions are going to be tidied up at the end.

Kyou performs a quick down-up with a simple number amnesia suggestion (albeit there is a blank choice for a future route where you break her consent at this time) before Nozomi realizes that she needs to go home for dinner and heads out leaving Kyou feeling that the scene had no adequate deescalation and he's left to feel things were left off without a conclusion or understanding with where he and Nozomi stand in their freshly ignited entanglement.

I want to get into the canon events a little more later on, but there is a level of beautiful dramatic irony that DeMille tends to take when it comes to how she approaches similarities in the routes and consistency of the characters or timeline, particularly in how Kyou's choices impact the characters. Hiroko is the most notable example as her tennis scholarship can be at risk even if the surrounding events of the week cause her to worry. Her emotional state mingles in with how she plays tennis, after all.

I explain this as each character is well written on their timelines and depending on how early or late you play Nozomi's route in your exploration, you may find that Nozomi's evening actions are more flexible than the other girls. With Hiro and Sayori there are external factors at play with their tennis, study club and cram school commitments. With Nozomi the amount of time she gives or refuses to give, with very few exceptions, is her choice alone. She also denies Kyou justifications, though they tend to mostly be around her not wanting to explain herself to friends and family. Sometimes we know from other routes why she is unavailable, sometimes we do not. It helps put the player in Kyou's perspective. Not knowing if they can trust if Nozomi is getting her fill and abandoning Kyou or if the pair are doing a poor job of planning their scenes to include deescalation, debrief and aftercare.

Kyou's confusion grows the next day when Nozomi refuses to associate with him at school the next day. A theme which grows larger in two of the routes. Feeling like he is a shameful secret, much like Nozomi's interest in hypnosis, Kyou is forced to wait until Nozomi returns for more sessions, completely in the dark as to where he stands.

When he asks for clarification on this topic Nozomi makes it very clear.

She has no intention of dating anyone.

From here you are given the option of either respecting her boundaries or pretending to. Pretending to locks you in to a bad ending from the Delusion route.

Agreeing will begin the divergence in the tree to chose from 3 options. From here on I'll be focused less on plot outlines and more on plot analysis as it is at this point the themes of the game begin paying off.

Trance: Kyou introduces a reinduction trigger and the pair explore the kink with increasing levels of thrill seeking. We get to see the risks of abandoning safe framework, the hurt that comes from compartmentalizing your kink and social lives.

Reversal: Nozomi is offered the penlight and becomes the dominant. We get to see how the girls must have felt under the penlight's sway and experience Kyou being unambiguously mistreated without the fallback of "it was his own fault"

Zombie: A massive abreaction happens and the focus of the story falls upon safety and mitigating damage in hypnosis scenes.

So let's do them one at a time.

Trance:

One of the biggest themes of this game is that hypnosis is a collaborative action that takes place with communication, trust and caution. As I had mentioned in the initial review post any of the endings which are considered "good" involve the penlight being broken as it represents a "one way" process of hypnosis, whether it be overriding agency, skipping communication/feedback or removing safety.

It's my personal view that the penlight represents the toxic elements of a hypnotic relationship and compress the timeline of damage from years into a single week. It's one of the few things that Turq and I diverge in from our reads. It's also why I think Turq's review of the Nozo-Trance route is going to be the definitive one, in the same way I intend my analysis on the Sayori-Alter route to be definitive when I get around to writing it. My history with the toxic elements of hypnosis all revolve around a lack of safety in hypnosis itself, after all and that is the lens I approach things from.

The reason I say that is because the Trance route is firmly based in the relationship aspects of hypnosis and how trust, communication and collaboration need to be established.

Nozomi continues to treat Kyou as a trance dispenser in this route, disappearing when their scenes are concluded. She also intends for hypnosis to only work when they are in Kyou's home as a way to ensure it is secret from the world and no one can know the things that she is interested in.

This leads to the route being divided between scenes at Kyou's home where the pair slowly erode their safeties to introduce more and more exciting ideas into their mix and school scenes where Kyou is ignored by an increasingly standoffish Nozomi who refuses to acknowledge Kyou's existence outside of sceneplay.

Kyou even says it himself in narrative "I might be the one hypnotizing her, but it's really me following her suggestions around here."

When Kyou stands up for himself and says that he didn't even know if he needed to prepare for Nozomi's arrival her reply is nonchalant.

At the start of the route Nozomi was eager to be fully communicative of all things and yet as her comfort with this arrangement has continued she has assumed more and more that Kyou would be willing to go along with anything she wanted. The divide between them grows more as Kyou finds that his day-to-day life hasn't really shifted as much as he would hope.

So... if "good communication and mundane hypnosis" is part of the condition for a good ending, what is a condition for a bad ending?

Outside of the obvious outcomes such as being expelled or punished, a decent number of endings have Kyou given the responsibility of caring for another human being who no longer has agency.

The game is always clear that when collaboration breaks down but the hypnotic relationship remains then one party is having to do all of the work and it is not a good thing. There is no ending in the game where Kyou is willing to or enjoys having a mindless and controlled partner.

That's important to note because with the understanding of Kyou's comfort there we know that collaboration and a relationship (not dating, just a relationship) is what he desires and in this route he is not receiving that because Nozomi stonewalls him.

What's worse is that she's not even put any thought into the fact Kyou may feel this way.

But hey. It's not like he's a mind reader or anything...

Oh by the way the suggestions have subtext to them. We'll get to that a bit more with the Nozo-Reversal route.

From here Nozomi has Kyou say her trigger phrase (and almost crashes into the floor because there's no safety in place for how she flops) and Kyou has her come clean.

Nozomi is finding it increasingly more arousing how little control she feels she has when she is in Kyou's home and much of her fantasies involving hypnosis revolve around a complete helplessness.

The fact that the penlight is overriding her caution, repression and agency is something that she finds actively enticing and even the act of being forced to confess her "shameful" kink is alluring to her.

This squicks Kyou out enough that you are forced to make a decision on if you even wish to pursue a relationship with her. A sign that even the person enabling her fetish isn't fully accepting of it. A bad ending will occur if Kyou decides not to continue, but to continue he now finds himself on the slope and catering to her desires.

The problem is, they're not communicating.

Nozomi told him all of this under hypnotic compulsion. She is no closer to reconciling the shame from her sexuality but now she has revealed the depths of it to Kyou and he has taken it as instructions. In exchange Nozomi will try to include Kyou in her life more.

Kyou then goes online and begins reading ReadOnlyMind stories and learning what he thinks a hypnofetishist would enjoy and has come away from the encounter believing that Nozomi actively desires having her agency removed. The lack of communication allowed him to know what Nozomi desires and he has mistaken it for what she wants.

Further up the slope and with some dangerous new ideas of what their fun and games should be, Kyou visits Nozomi's home on Saturday and discovers that his post hypnotic suggestions still work on her outside of Kyou's home.

In every route Kyou is a believer of the "essential lie" of hypnosis. "No one can do anything under hypnosis that they didn't want to do."

That will come up a lot. The Delusion path is a thorough takedown of the idea in general.

Here it informs Kyou that Nozomi is eager to surrender her agency and removes another layer of safety. The rule that the suggestions only impacted at Kyou's home has eroded.

The pair commit to some kinky shenanigans and Nozomi's mother almost catches them doing some hypnotic rope play that is well handled in CG art and I shall not deprive you the enjoyment of seeking it yourself (the game is "pay what you want" on itch) but stands to show two things.

Kyou is having more fun like this and Nozomi is becoming increasingly comfortable with her desires and allowing for more risk taking.

Also there's a choice between spanking and tickling and I firmly believe that this is the most overtly erotic scene in the entire game. Kyou keeps testing her limits and whether it be via the penlight or Nozomi being free to explore her kink without any shame, she keeps on matching his challenge at every turn, seemingly enjoying every second of it, even when they court the danger of discovery.

Kyou even notes a few times that she never breaks scene at any point for her own comfort or security.

...I will save my personal commentary on hypnotee agency until Sayori's review... But I have thoughts.

At the end of the day in which Nozomi insists Kyou needs to head home, Kyou suspects he is being brushed off again because Nozomi had her fill from the scene and no longer wishes to be around him. She says that she has no more time for the weekend and will see him on Monday.

Kyou decides to press back and hypnotically forces her to come to him the next morning. They even stay up online to discuss their next scene.

Unfortunately Sunday is, in every single route of the game, Hiroko's tennis tournament and Nozomi must dedicate her day to being with her bestie and throwing her a karaoke party afterwards.

But her compulsion commands her to go to Kyou and so she does, abandoning her friend.

The next morning they have a roleplay scene that is increasingly high stakes and Kyou continues to press his advantages, unaware of the sheer power of the penlight. She even gets Nozomi to her underwear with very little effort.

Though the scene requires a little bit of management afterwards, Nozomi forgetting that her clothes are her own, it was an enjoyable experience for them both.

But then her phone pings and she is informed that she is missing Hiroko's game. She insists she has to leave and Kyou, not understanding the importance of this event, pushes back and assumes that she is once again ditching him because the scene is over and she does not want to deal with Kyou outside of their play.

There will eventually be a route where you get to hypnotically command her to stay but for now Kyou accepts that she has to leave.

Having let down her best friend, Nozomi withdraws and goes back to the former arrangement, scolding Kyou via text message for attempting to pester her during school and says that she needs to take some time to focus on study, leaving Kyou feeling abandoned again.

Something they both fail to do as they fail their mock exams hard and this leaves Nozomi feeling yet more shaken and wanting to retreat from kink.

However she believes that if they just "get it out of their systems" they'll be free from their obsessions. Leaning further into the slope that the pair are on.

The safety and sanity have long since vanished off of the horizon in their risk profile and consent has been on a broken foundation since the start.

What follows is a scene where they bring their kink into school hours. Creating an open trigger (with no safeties) that will reenact the tickling/spanking trigger from the weekend.

It goes poorly. Regardless of the effect Nozomi will feel it continuously for the full lunch hour and it gets worse with every iteration of the trigger.

That night the pair attempt to mitigate the damage and once again the thrill of the high is placed above the detriments it is having on their social lives.

So Kyou decides to escalate instead of deescalate.

This is not a good idea.

The scene escalates until Nozomi is on her knees wearing nothing but her underwear and unable to speak above a whisper, exclusively referring to Kyou as "Sir". The further into the scene the pair get the more Kyou shapes himself to become the type of hypnotist he believes Nozomi dreams of.

At this point you are given your final options for the endings:

Make me a cheese omelet - Become my girlfriend - Become mindless for me.

Nozomi actively resists the penlight and tries to physically restrain Kyou to prevent him snapping his finger or pressing her forehead to force her to be his girlfriend. This is the one boundary that you had to accept at the start of the route to allow things to get to this point. You literally cannot reach this moment without Kyou agreeing to respect that boundary and breaking it is a guaranteed bad ending. Either Kyou steals Nozomi away from her friendgroup and the pair will sink into their kink exploration with no allowances for their school, career prospects or external friends to interfere or Nozomi will succeed in stopping Kyou from robbing her of her agency and leave him for breaking her one rule.

The "mindless" ending is... dark. I'd rather not go over it as it doesn't make additional points other than having Kyou finally understand his penlight robs people of agency, which he does not learn in this route until the very end.

The omelet ending is a sweet and tender scene between the pair which has an ethical jumping off point.

The next day Nozomi slips and refers to Kyou as "Sir" during school hours and her friends instantly get on her case about it.

I should note here that Sayori knows Nozomi's fetish in every route. These little bits of characterization that remain constant through all of the routes really add flavor to certain interactions.

The true growth comes when Nozomi, seeing Sayori interrogating Kyou and thinking the worst of him, comes in and offers to invite her friends to Kyou's house to tell them everything.

Once there she discovers all the programming tied to being at Kyou's home kicks back in to both party's surprise. Kyou agrees to remove all suggestions so they can talk.

The subject of the penlight is raised and they finally realize that it is a bit special...

Kyou puts it eloquently here:

The penlight is destroyed leading to the golden ending of the route. Nozomi, realizing how much damage the pair had done in their chase of thrills, cuts off from hypnokink to focus on her studies.

After a timeskip she meets up with Kyou after exams and says she has been watching hypnosis videos again recently and asks if they can start exploring again without the penlight.

She accepts that she still does not want to date but she may end up treating Kyou as a trance dispenser again if she approaches without an arrangement and Kyou says he doesn't want to push her. The pair communicate and agree that they just want to explore out of friendship and interest.

Nozomi kisses Kyou on the cheek and it is clear an establishment of trust has been made and the pair will find something more healthy this time.

Now... I'm the type of person who enjoys watching "analysis" videos that just tell the plot beat for beat and I would need so many more hours to even attempt that for the entire game so I'll be more swift with the other two, especially as a lot of similar ground is covered. I'll likely do a more full breakdown of Alter route for Sayori but let's get through the other two a bit faster...

Reversal:

One of the main reasons I wanted to do Trance route in full and show off how the entirety of a route plays out is that the knowledge of how other routes play out help so very much with the retelling and expanding on the themes.

If Nozomi takes possession of the penlight then Kyou will become her plaything for the duration of the route. Her behavior is not altered, however. Her risk profile is, however.

In the Trance route Nozomi wants to put strict safety and restrictions on early play because she is afraid of being discovered and does not fully trust Kyou to play with her mind. She does not hold the same reservations in reverse, however. So what happens when someone who ditches scenes without deescalation is running the scene?

A constant "Bad" condition on any route is an open trigger/suggestion that bleeds outside of play spaces. We say a lot of that with the restrictions of Kyou's hypnosis only supposed to work within Kyou's home in the trance route and how things get worse when that restriction is tested and broken. In other routes one of the absolute worst situations is the impact of a suggestion exiting the scene and stretching out into the world.

God I should have started with Sayori...

As a sidenote, Hiroko's route actually has some mildly positive impact (at least not inherently BAD) of play stretching out beyond scenes. But Hiroko's routes are a little more light hearted than the serious lectures on communication, safety and abreactions that Sayori and Nozomi's routes deal with.

So Nozomi's first command is to perceive her as invisible and she runs off to her evening plans without closing out the suggestion.

As I said earlier, the suggestions are symbolic at times.

One of the most interesting things about this route is that we get to see what the girls experience with their time going under for the penlight. Most of the inductions involve Kyou starring at the penlight for a few text boxes and then waking up with no clue as to what happened.

Kyou also likes asking his hypnotee their opinion on topics and finds that they're always accommodating and accepting of his playstyle. Nozomi was remarkably good about all of the events that transpired in the Trance route after all...

Sorry, Kyou...

The penlight makes it so enjoyable to go into hypnosis that you cannot really advocate for yourself. Hypnotee Agency is not a thing in most of these routes and the Reversal route makes this clear. There is only one actual choice you can make in the entire route and it's only there because Nozomi tells Kyou to make it.

Incidentally the bad ending of the route (newly added as of this update) is unlocked by making the insignificant choice of "pat head" or "striptease".

Turq and I have a mild disagreement on this moment. I believe that when Nozomi sees that Kyou is willing to and incapable of stopping himself from getting naked for her she is so turned on (sexually or otherwise) by her level of control that she is pushed over the edge of morality. Turq's read is that she dehumanizes Kyou in that moment and loses empathy for him that leads to the good ending.

Odd that the sex-repulsed asexual has the read that she was turned on.

Anyway...

Nozomi continues to ignore Kyou at school and come to his house at night to brainwash him and selfishly steals him away for Hiroko's tennis match, asserting that she is going to take him with her for the celebration.

Funny. In Trance route Kyou subvert's Nozomi's agency to have her skip the tennis match, in Reversal route Nozomi subvert's Kyou's to force him to attend.

In this route she doesn't mind associating with Kyou with her friend group because she is in control and doesn't feel like the association will out her or be a mark of shame for her being a "freak" (her word, not mine).

She puts Kyou through a mortifying scene and bullies her friends around to get her way with making it happen, the power of the penlight having brought up some bullyish tendancies within her. She wants to check in that Kyou is okay but as before he is only allowed to agree.

During school she continues her unempathetic behavior and starts a big fight with her friends when they attempt to talk to Kyou and she continuously talks over him and at one point she even commands him not to say a word.

Nozomi's behavior is fairly toxic at the end of the fight, going as far as to pull a guilt tripping "I'm horrible" as a way to distance Sayori.

The controlling behavior and lack of communication, trust and safety bleeds out once again as she commands Kyou to tell her the truth about if she is a horrible controlling monster and he does.

He tells her she has not been fair. That she stopped cleaning up her suggestions the moment she took over. She took Kyou's stated limit (not wanting to sing karaoke) and instantly overrode it. She forces Kyou to hang out with her friends but does not extend him empathy or kindness. She just treats him as a toy.

Like. Literally. He tells her outright.

This causes Nozomi to get defensive and demand that if Kyou was so upset then why did he chose to continue obeying. We are then lead to the good end or bad depending on the earlier scene.

In the good end Nozomi breaks the penlight realizing what she has done and in the bad she becomes Miss Akemi and makes full use of the penlight.

The deprogramming scene that follows is actually remarkably tender and sweet with all the tenderness of someone's first hypnosis scene, checking back and forth if the other is okay, Nozomi knows she has gone too far and is so careful in this sequence.

To add in to how tender and connected the hypnosis scene is, this time there is no brutal cut between penlight and waking. We are in Kyou's perspective the whole time as his eyes slip closed and he follows Nozomi's voice through the experience. We get to see Kyou reacting to Nozomi's words and experiencing the delightful relaxation and trust he has in Nozomi during these moments. He wonders if he is actually hypnotized while agreeing in thought to go with it.

Eyes open and close for fractionation and each time the artwork fades in and out, Nozomi's expression becoming more serious and/or concerned as it continues.

Questions of if it's working become certainty and Kyou even notes "I can't resist" not because his agency is overridden but because he tests his eyes and knows he cannot open them and that's okay.

"I just want to listen."

This is by far the longest hypnosis sequence in the game and it is essential that this be the case as it is the thesis statement of the game being played out. We are not witnessing the trust and tenderness of a well communicated and safe hypnosis scene, we are experiencing it.

The ending even has Nozomi accept the consequences of her behavior and make-up with her friends, admit her fetish which is one of the hardest things to achieve in any given run and Kyou is earnestly and honestly part of their friendgroup. Nozomi notes that she may wish to buy a pocketwatch in the future.

In terms of "good end" this is one of my favorite because Kyou gets to be friends with everyone, Nozomi comes to terms with her repressed desires and we get one of the most pure displays of hypnosis in the entire experience.

I am curious about other people's feelings on this one.

I'm running on fumes for the remainder so maybe I'll cover "Zombie" route later.

All I will say is that it is a route that is begun by Kyou having Nozomi imagine herself as a zombie, likely thinking of the Chinese Zombie trope of arms stretched outright and looking dehumanized. Nozomi takes it literally and tries to bite Kyou's flesh off.

This entire route is punctuated by abreactions and hypnotic safety. We are reminded of our fuck-up throughout the route by a giant bruise on Nozomi's character model (and lack of glasses for much of it) and it is the only route where all three of the main girls get involved with the experimentation around hypnosis right from the get-go.

With everyone clearly communicating and trying to accommodate for safety we still, in the mock stage hypnosis scene, get an abreaction despite every suggestion being very well laid out. It's almost weird how well packaged they are in this route and highlights how sloppy the suggestions are in the rest of the game.

The idea being that no amount of safety is going to cover everything. When we play with hypnosis we cannot possibly know every single thing about every single person we play with and mistakes can and will happen and we have to both own that and minimize the amount of harm we do by being tidy but also by talking out suggestions first and not springing them on people.

No matter how careful we are there will always be mistakes and it is better to deal with those mistakes before the scene than during it.

It's actually a remarkably good fable and makes a stunning point. I think that erasing all the barriers (Nozomi's shame of being discovered, Hiroko assuming the worst of Kyou, Sayori being involved enough to be the sane one in the room who has researched enough to know what is true and not attached like Kyou and Nozomi enough to not let things slide) and showing Kyou make sensible suggestions is the best way to approach this.

Even in the best possible timeline where there are no external factors and everyone is on their best behavior you can still mess up.

...and boy howdy we are going to mess up a lot in the rest of the game.

Next time I'm going to trauma dump on you all and type more than is necessary about Sayori's routes and reveal why my Penlight tag is "Sayori is best girl".

But for now... I have typed a lot and I do not wish to type any longer.

Eagerly awaiting Turq's post.