#I'm not in the horse riding circle on tumblr so I have no idea how to tag this lol

[arthursfuckinghat]

Real talk do you guys ever see those terrible horse riders on social media and think "goddamn, a fictional cowboy from 1899 is literally a better rider than you"

[centeris2]

but seriously what was going on with Secret of Pine Hill Mansion? The other three games have some semblance of sense with the same end goal: removing part of the soul riders and or prevent them from awakening their powers. First one steal Starshine, third one remove Concorde and try to control Anne, fourth one get Alex to trade Tin Can away.

But the second game?? The whole plan is to blow up a dam and destroy the town but WHY. That doesn't help them free Garnok, and it kills most or all of Dark Core's employees. Based on the map in game it wouldn't even damage Jorvik Stables or be anywhere near the Secret Stone Circle, it'd just be wiping out the town. If they were trying to get rid of the soul riders it'd be more effective to just, idk, burn down the stables, or rig one of the machines to explode, or somehow sabotage one of the numerous riding events. The in game dialogue from Sands is just "stupid riding competition" like ??? You're going to blow up a dam because you don't like jumping competitions and it wouldn't even be flooded???

The stables is that red and yellow building on the far left, the secret stone circle is above it. It's quite safe from a flood if the dam broke. That stretch of harbor and Dark Core buildings might be in trouble though.

That doesn't even get into how Pine Hill Mansion is also pointless. Lisa and Linda investigate it because Herman says not to and it's an evil place, and Linda is curious about it because Sands was there (worked as a chauffeur?) decades or maybe 100 years previously. But the actual mansion is seemingly abandoned and decorated with a boatload of Soul Rider art, and for no particular reason Sands and some Goons drive up, get out, have a conversation about attacking or killing Herman (??? why?? are they gonna steal horses once he is dead?), and then drive away. Why wasn't that conversation held at a Dark Core location or in the van they all drove in. Yeah in later games Pine Hill Mansion is Mr. Sands' house but before that ??? Why would Mr Sands have multiple giant paintings of his enemies.

just

what

tumblr I wish you had a better gif search so I could use gifs to fully illustrate my confusion. Hilariously, I'm so confused by Dark Core's logic I haven't the faintest idea how I'd fix it in a fic, unless it was all somehow a ruse to get Linda focused on something else, but that still doesn't explain the Pine Hill Mansion stuff.

Oh also that game is the one that says "Who is the government person who jus arrived in town," which. Does not happen in game. Unless Derek was supposed to arrive a game earlier?