#There are exceptions. Which is where I have a character already and recycle them for a story

[tracle0]

Do you prefer to create general settings or craft specific characters?

o/ hi! Thank you for the ask :)! I suppose in my track record, I tend to create the settings and conflict first? Get a vibe for a story and find out who lives there, what they do, what they want!

[multi-level-shipper]

This shit was a fucking acid trip, like most of the game.

Anyway, something that poked my brain was the Infirmary. For all this game's insanity, there were actually some decent roots planted for worldbuilding/ character development.

It seems like the reason the cast ended up in Queen Bouncelia's domain is because they're treating the player as if they have 6 stars in GTA. Seline is no exception to this rule, and that seems to be her motivation for coming down to the lower floor, as she watched us leave in Chapter 3.

Toadster noted in his "Archives" that she was already hiding when brought in, and crying in her shell. She may have been antagonized by a bigger enemy- likely Kittysaurus or Tama/Chamataki (turtle chameleon thing), and she may have gone past the kingdom's walls for sanctuary. (That's just a loose theory, though.)

In any case, at some point she was frightened enough to shut down completely.

This could be some kind of anxiety attack, though there's no way to "diagnose" Seline at this point. Also interesting that Seline felt too afraid to even continue moving around on the lower floors. I think this is meant to speak to just how dangerous the lower floors are- if the giant ass snail is afraid, you should be, too.

Next, Jumbo Josh. Toadster categorizes him as a "Green Gorilla", which in hindsight, weirdly makes a lot of sense.

Firstly, an adult silverback gorilla can bench up to 4,000 lbs (or at least, that's what google told me.) Not that we needed an explanation of why he was able to throw Stinger Flynn, but I can only assume that if we adjusted that number for his size...it probably checks out.

Second, the fact that he walks like a chiropractor's worst nightmare. It took me a second, but I FINALLY realized that his posture is meant to IMITATE A GORILLA. Like, look at this:

DEFINITELY EXPLAINS WHY HE WALKS LIKE A HORSE IN GARRY'S MOD.

And thirdly, Josh's love for vegetables is also a gorilla trait. 85% of a gorilla's diet is leafy greens, with the remaining percentage basically amounting to termites and larvae.

Not too much to say about the Fucked Up Birds, but still! Nice to see them finally displaying a flamingo behavior (AKA their sleeping posture) because they seemed to lean more heavily on ostrich behaviors in previous chapters.

Toadster mentions in his archive for "The Teacher" that she keeps repeating the phrase "I can't be late" over and over to herself after being subdued.

He also notes that the bowling pins "calmed her down," which may not entirely be the case. In Chapter 3, in Banbaleena's "Classroom", each object had an assigned role like Cool Kid and Popular Kid. The bowling pins were meant to be the Bullies.

So Banbaleena is likely stuck in a prison of her own self-doubts right about now, which is doubly sad when considering her insistence in Chapter 3 that she was actually trying to be a good teacher. Either someone placed this idea in her head that she needs to strictly adhere to all these rules, or it's a stress she placed upon herself trying to fulfill her identity as a teacher.

Stinger Flynn gets better as the story progresses. He seems to have an ego to the point where he sees himself as a savior that can't see the faults in his own plans. His initial "safest procedures" plan seemed so obvious to him, but it seems as if he measures success by efficiency rather than the cost of human lives. While he's smart, he's not immune to being wrong, though he has yet to learn this.

He also seems to suffer from some form of depression, or at least intense sadness, and we see this as he talks to Banban in the latest hallucination sequence. Makes sense- his intelligence would make him much more privy to all the horrible things happening around him. It seems as if his high intelligence comes at a high price.

Last note- This might just be a case of recycling animations/rigs, but I think it's cute that Banban shares nearly the same emo pose as Banbaleena.

[feathersandblue]

Veilguard 1/?

So, the first couple of hours in and:

the gameplay mechanics are fucking me up. I'm the kind of player who starts pressing buttons randomly when stressed, I actually loved the good old-fashined turn-based RPGs, so the new DODGE-ATTACK-HEAVY ATTACK-DEFEND-DOGDE-DODGE-ATTACK actions required are really fucking me up, to the point where I'm considering turning down the diffculty to cakewalk - but, yes, I'm aware that this is a me problem

10/10 for egghead reappearance, I always loved him and he's hot as fuck and also wittier than ever. I really, really hope that he keeps being awesome, so far, the encounters my Rook had with him in the Fade were hilarious. Can't wait to see where it's going, I do so hope that his relationship with the Inky (platonic or otherwise) will actually make a difference.

however, what did they do to his eyebrows, they're distracting

people are complaining all over reddit that the dialogue is too flippant, too superficial, and it reminds them of a YA novel but to be fair, when I think of some of Origin's lines, they weren't the best, and Rook's humorous replies often remind me of renegade!Shepard or purple!Hawke, which I love

also, to be fair, Dragon Age was never very deep, so I'm not sure what people are expecting. But I do get the impression that it's simply not aiming to be controversial at all

yes, there is a switch in aesthetics and tone, they went from medieval dark to steampunk high fantasy. It's like playing D&D, and I do miss (and mourn) the drab and depressing atmosphere of Origins, but to be fair, Inquisition was already well on its way to flashy and colorful, whereas DA2 was recycling dungeons and led you through an empty city and everyone rightfully criticized it for that

I'm ambigous about the open world vs. narrow corridors concept, on the one hand, I do like open world exploration, on the other hand, I often get lost. I'm not sure how high the replayability score will be though - then again, it's always a matter of whether decisions and character background actually make a difference that makes if worth your time to try something else

I appreciate the fact that you can pause during cut scenes. How often did I get interrupted and then missed some important tidbits? Also the "skip" option is pretty great

What I really miss is the lore and the worldbuilding, so far, it feels very generic. The DA universe had some pretty unique concepts (the Circles, the Fade, the chantry, the Blight) and it's all gone through a blender and come out bland. Maybe there will be a return to certain elements of it later on, but so far, I'm really missing the concepts that Gaider established (borrowing heavily on WoT)

I get why they found it easier not to include content of the earlier games (except for Inquisition because Solas), but it's also disappointing: for years and years they baited us with "your choices matter", and we're all attached to the Warden and Hawke and just having them disappear from the narrative is a bummer

all in all, I do like it, and I'm excited to see where the story goes, but I have the feeling that it won't be able to replace Origins in my heart.

[ratwavekayla]

Doing work on This is Your Lifepath season 2 has got me thinking about lists of inspirations again. So I rounded up some lists in upcoming projects.

(Ritual Magic for Besties isn't here as its bibliography is fairly short and more explanatory rather than list-y, also like it comes out later this month so you can just wait)

PSYCHODUNGEON

The games listed are primarily about mechanical influence (which is why they're mostly a very large slice of Belonging outside Belonging games). Big exceptions are Subway Runner and DD.TV which are both there for post-dungeon fantasy influence. ACWtM is there for the influence on the asymmetric roles, which are a divergence from how BoB setting elements tend to work, and so my own Fear the Taste of Blood is there because working on that is how I understood that element better.

Probably should clarify Moonstruck is the comic (as like loose setting influence) rather than the film (which bangs but doesn't relate much to PSYCHODUNGEON).

NHSmackdown is a wrestling/performance art show by a friend of mine which was focused on being a nurse. The influence is in how it got me reflecting on being trapped in job which is nominally doing good but isn't protecting you and is honestly actively harming you.

Nemesis Revealed

Nemesis Revealed is a storytelling game of great rivals, where you play someone's nemesis, their dark counterpart and follow their story. It has multiple playsets which frame a different hero to create your nemesis in opposition to.

So the game influences are either in mechanics or in the structure of a book basically. Whereas the other section primarily focuses on specific influences for different playsets (there's a sort of conventional street level superhero, a gender-twisty tokusatsu inspired story, as well as strange space knights and near-distant future mecha crews). It's a scattershot and probably reads very opaque without context (I think that's how all my bibliography lists look which is probably why I place them at the back, where a reader will find them already armed with context, rather than at the start as a taste setter).

Transgender Deathmatch Legend II: Grand Slam

TDL2 actually has two separate lists. There's a traditional bibliography. I referenced my own work I've drawn on because it seems honest. Fox in the Forest is there for influencing the original mechanic. Hieronymus influenced how i wanted the shape of the book to be. Stealing the Throne influenced some non-fighting mechanics.

The other references are more for how they influenced specific scenarios (like one is loosely Raid inspired but turned into smashing up a GIC, while another is a direct Warriors-riff).

I included the Party of One episode i did cause it helped clarify how i felt about the game. British lads hitting each other with chairs is there because it's a mood.

Sh!t Theatre Drink Rum with Expats was a fringe theatre show I did set up for and it ended up influenced the content of a work-in-progress show I did called Crossface (which was a wrestling inspired character comedy performance drama). Some of the content for Crossface has been recycled into some personal essays I have in the book. So paying tribute to that root felt important.

But before that section TDL also has a Recommended Reading list. It's mainly stuff that I think conveys what's enjoyable about wrestling. I wouldn't say everything was a direct inspiration, but if you read the book and played the game and wanted to know more about wrestling; there's a little roadmap in the book.

(Though being serious this appendix is obviously super subject to change before release if anything horrific comes out about anyone featured, obviously the danger in recommending any wrestling tbh)

[serendertothesquad]

Seren's Studies: Odd Squad UK -- "A Dish Served Odd" Episode Followup, Part 1

As opposed to cold, which, really, would just freeze your mouth and your brain.

We continue the followup train with one for "A Dish Served Odd". This one will also be split into multiple parts, though I don't think we'll amass a whole five pa- five parts?

Five parts...dear God.

Below the break, get Orli the tourist, a trifler who trifles trifingly, and Odd Squad: The Movie. (Okay, I'm sketchy on that last one, but no one's mentioned it yet besides me and I need my curiosity satisfied.)

And as usual, make sure you've watched the episode first before proceeding. There will be spoilers.

Let's start with the intro, which has, of course, Orli narrating it. Now that her character has been revealed in the flesh, we can have her take over narrating duties from Captain O.

Now, as for this thing...capital sin against Olive. Go to jail. No cards can get you out.

I see they have no qualms about dropping the spoiler of Opie being promoted to the Department of Help.

I also see Orla will have some competition in the violin-playing department.

The difference here, of course, is that we will get no lesbian French brides. Instead we have gay triangle villain, and that is enough for me.

(I do want more, though. But PBS has always been minefield-walking on this stuff.)

Only a few new bits in the intro; otherwise everything else is recycled.

Except for this shot, which the fandom has analyzed to hell and back. I don't really feel like throwing in my two cents just yet; still weighing on doing a Seren's Study where I put in my "once and for all" opinions on the season/series.

And your writer for this episode. I...can't say much about him, because 1) I haven't done the research on him yet and 2) I need to get over the Lightning McQueen brainrot first before I do so.

Also 3) WE GOT COLD OPENS AGAIN PEOPLE. AFTER SEASON 3 KICKED THEM TO THE MOON AND STOLE THEIR KIDNEYS. GOD MOTHERFUCKIN'.

Your producer credit, which is...pretty much the same. Methinks she'll be producing throughout all of this season, so I'm not going to point it out every time.

Bold of this announcer to assume she's not going to eat an egg and a few wings. She can do that. She's an adult.

An adult with...braces, which I'm pretty sure was 100% intentional casting for representing every parent in existence who has braces. How we went from a child with Down syndrome to an adult with braces, and how we'll later go to gay triangle villain, is beyond me.

If you're not going to hire fans to work for you, at least hire some disabled people, huh? (And maybe they do hire them...but I dunno, you'd think we'd actually hear about it in an interview, y'know?)

Wow, that tomato really just up and yoted itself.

Lettuce observe this very important lesson- *bonk*

So with this, we get a first look at Ozzie's and Orli's new desks. Quite a vast difference from the desks in the original series/S1 and S2 -- we have fancy new chairs, Microsoft computers over Apple ones, and desks that actually have a lil' shelf underneath them but, as far as I can see, no drawers. I dig it!

Orli up and snatchin' the paper out of Ozzie's hands is funny, too.

"Done? What done?"

"Everything done."

"...Orli, it's only been a minute and 40 seconds."

"Hey, this episode is about me going out on the town. It's not about us sitting at our desks all day. Get with the program, partner."

SHE TAKES MORNING A N D AFTERNOON NAPS?!?!?!?!?!

I'm sorry, this does make sense considering where she was before, but the fact that the girl requires a morning nap and then an afternoon one already makes my fucking day.

How she's able to even sleep within THE FUCKING NIAGARA FALLS is beyond me, though and I can only assume the answer is "I put small animal tranq in my juice, twice a day."

(Look, in the Oddverse, tranq is Fancy NyQuil. Everyone loves Fancy NyQuil. It's like liquid opioids, for kids, safe to take!)

Ozzie outright commenting on said naps being twice a day was something I was not expecting, and now I'm laughing way too loudly for 2 in the morning.

In Ozzie's absolute lack of defense...partners solving cases without each other is fairly common. If he were familiar with Olive and Otto, and Olympia and Otis, he'd, y'know...probably know that shit.

"Don't you think we should do this on our day off?" the idiot asks, knowing that Orli being there does not solve the oddness crisis despite what "Odd Ones In" wants people to believe and that "a day off" does not exist as a concept.

Assholery and stupidity all within the first two episodes. Sweet Jesus.

A sightseeing tour happening once every decade is not exactly something you wanna put in a "Come to Britain" ad.

Five years, I can look over. Ten years, not a chance in hell.

HA!!! IT'S THE SCENE FROM THE TRAILER I CALLED IT YA HACKS. GOD I'M GOOD AT MY UNPAID JOB.

*silly giggle and another mark on the bingo card*

"And all the world shall know my name!" this idiot says, unaware that the Villain Network was a thing a good four years prior to this episode.

"Terrible..."

"DELICIOUS...and if you say otherwise then I really will call that toe-eating, finger-eating boogeyman."

This fuckass argument about desserts within an 11-minute episode...I'm not even mad it's eating up runtime. I'm living for the absolute sass Captain O is laying on her subordinate right now.

SHE HAS TO BRING IN SOMEONE WHO WORKED ON HER SHIP TO SETTLE A GODDAMN TRIFLE DEBATE. WHERE IS MY SPARE LUNG. WHERE IS MY S P A R E L U-

If you had asked me a few months back what I thought Captain O's ringtone would be, I'd have laughed and said, "You fuckin' nuts? Same ringtone as nearly everybody else."

If you had asked me today what I thought Captain O's ringtone would be, I'd have shivered and said, "Not a horrifying mix of a tuba and a fucking foghorn, that's for sure..."

"Ahoy ahoy."

...Close enough, marking it off on the bingo card.

This is the live-action reenactment of a real-time Facebook post.

And I may not be on Facebook anymore, but I don't think the way people post has changed. Much. Not...in...y'know, with the boomers...y-you should get what I mean, surely.

Gotta say, she's a hell of a lot more enthusiastic than creepy Oceana, ambiguously-gay Octavius...no, wait, he was enthusiastic too, I take that back.

And Mr. Fonts. Definitely more enthusiastic than Mr. Fonts.

"And one person is more than enough, don't you think?"

Someone better get the woman a shushing stick.

No, not for shushing. For bopping over the head with. Get her a box of Gushers and really make her day, huh?

I will say, with all these new editing tricks and transitions and such, it's an incredibly jarring jump from Season 3. I mean, Odd Squad UK is a spinoff, so it being so distinct from Odd Squad and Odd Squad Mobile Unit it barely feels like either at first makes sense...

But in 12 episodes? No fuckin' way am I gonna get used to that.

Y- lady. LADY. This is why America has online library catalogs. FOR THIS EXACT REASON.

Name of the book, author, boom, photo. You don't even have to use the catalog -- Amazon or any bookstore chain will do!

How in the everloving fuck they managed to clean all the trifle off of the photo and brighten it so the toolbox shows up as red instead of dark-chocolate brown is so beyond me it's outta the Milky Way.

(On to Part 2!)

[toastling]

A treatise on Mary Sues, edgy characters, and killing an OC

Sometimes, as you grow as a creator, you'll kill off an OC because they just aren't working for you anymore. And to clarify what I mean, killing an OC is, to me, different from killing a character. Killing a character is a narrative choice, whereas killing an OC is like memoryholing them. You've outgrown them or feel they are completely untenable in some fashion, so you pull the plug on the idea in its entirety. Writers do it all the time, and it's a valid and important part of the creative process and growing up as a young creator.

Except... I've found that I never really do that as a creator, despite that being what I'm purportedly "supposed" to do as I grow. Instead, I'm economical, I'm recycling, constantly. I try to kill off OCs, but they always come back eventually in some updated and retooled form. Sometimes they're only an echo of the original idea, while other times, I realize that what I thought was childish actually hits and has purpose, and I can use my honed talents as a more mature creator to bring them up to snuff.

That's how I ended up with two of my very first proper OCs I ever actually did anything substantive with, made when I was only 12 and 13 years old respectively, remaining characters in the selfsame story I am now intending to publish and launch a career off of. Characters who were every inch all the things people would typically criticize as 'edgy', 'silly', 'immature', or 'derivative', but have become more than the sum of their parts.

One started off as a character named XIII. Three guesses what sort of hooded cloak he may of worn and what series inspired him. Except he also had a demon inside of him called The Beast which was evil and violent and he was constantly at war with but often saved him and gave him great power. Again, three guesses where that came from. It didn't take long for The Beast to branch off, break out, and become his own character, either. And when he did, the cloak came off and XIII became Crimson, the Bloodstained Angel.

Yeah. Crimson. The Bloodstained Angel. And The Beast. That's about as simple and "I'm 12 years old" as it gets, right? And as I got older, I saw that and thought that too. It was what I was supposed to do. But... they never truly died, in spite of all my attempts to kill them. They'd disappear for a few months at a time, sure, and I'd say "Yeah, they were cute experiments, but they don't exist anymore". But there was still a piece of me in them that resonated with the rest of me. They kept coming back, changing, evolving, without me ever realizing until it was too late and I'd already involved them in some new project.

Now, they are two gods in a pantheon. The Beast became Aheperael, a false god of destruction made from the blood of a true god through dark magic and the hubris of not-man to protect themselves. A real "war waged for the sake of peace" situation that blew up in everybody's faces. Meanwhile, Crimson became Esaniel, the unwilling donor for the blood that became Aheperael.

Now, the fallen angel with bloody red wings has transitioned into a god locked into a self-imposed exile in order to atone for a sin that he had no part in committing, keeping watch over his at once bastard child and malformed twin's vacant shell for all eternity so that none might ever try and revive it.

It keeps a lot of the same core beats, but has evolved into something a lot more mature, but not in the sense of "edgy = immature", but in the sense of "my skills as a storyteller have matured", because it is still very much a character and a story you could broadly call "edgy". And that's okay! These characters have an audience, a function, they exist for a reason, and they resonate for a reason.

He is at once a warped reflection of the Jesus Figure and the Self-Blaming Victim, a Literal God and a Depressed and Resentful Teenager. He is all these things and more.

The other character meanwhile started off as a guy simply called "Bishop". His whole thing was that he was a demon... who was also a Catholic priest. Scandalous! Then, over time, he became a half-demon, half-angel who was a priest instead. Shocking! So what is he now? Well. He's still a half-demon half-mortal priest. But he's not called Bishop anymore, because that's silly, though he very much is still one of those. No. Now he has the much more subtle name of Daemon.

And that's okay! Because there's nothing wrong with those broader strokes and there never actually was to begin with. Esaniel mutated and evolved his core idea over time into something more developed and reminiscent, but not quite the same. But Daemon never truly changed, because the issue was never with that background to begin with. The issue was with my inexperience in character writing at the time of his creation, and in not having a cohesive theme or point to what I'd created aside from "I'm 14 and this is cool as shit". And that's just something that comes with age and experience.

Now, he is an examination of the concept of Redemption and what it means to redeem oneself and what role others do or don't play in that redemption, up to and including God Almighty Himself. He's a gentle giant, a great big teddy bear with an emphasis on the bear. What kind of bear? Yes. But, the idea of someone who would by his very nature be considered irredeemable in our world, not just for being what he is but for what, specifically, he's done, is actually one that can tell a helluva good story! It can be challenging and affirming all at once for all sorts of different audiences. He's become one of my most complex and compelling characters to write for despite his entire premise being as stereotypically edgy and dumb as can be.

But an expert at throwing stones will outperform a novice at throwing knives any day of the week. It's never really about what the idea is necessarily, it's about how you present it. It's about the technique. The motivation, the theme, the purpose it all serves. You gotta have a purpose for it going in, even if it's simply to further some other, separate character's arc and nothing more.

All this to say, or rather ask, how many OCs have you killed in your time? None? One? Twenty? Well, let this longwinded post be my suggestion - and your permission - to dig them from their graves and reexamine them without prejudice for what they are.

You felt strongly enough to make them at some point in your life for a reason. So, ask yourself, do they still have meaning to you now? If so, how can you best reflect that now, with your current skill as a creator today?

You might just be surprised with what sort of hidden gems you end up with.

[ambersock]

tagged by @adihildilid <3 to make a supernatural seasons tier list

The primary driver for my rankings is largely Sam arcs and memorable Sam moments. Sorry this is really long-winded, I'll put the tags first and my rant below the cut.

(trying to not repeat those who have already been tagged): @ruinedsam @small-scale-majestic @sounknownvoid @supernaturalconvert @acesammy @adaav @supamerchant @glowingsamulet

S2 is my all-time favorite with Sam's powers, the Special Children, episode after episode with writing and acting that just knocked it out of the park, and one of the very few seasons where Dean is actually likeable. S4 would be up there for When the Levee Breaks alone, plus we get multiple BAMF!Powers!Sam episodes. S6 gives us more awesome Jared acting with Soulless!Sam plus gems like 6x09, 6x15, 6x20, and finally Sam's wall breaking in 6x22. And it's got my favorite Dean-worried-about-Sam moment at the end of 6x13.

The next tier down, most of them have a mix of hits and misses. S1 got me hooked but was still finding its footing, S3 had some clunkers but also a few of my favorites, S7 had Sam's hell trauma and (unpopular opinion) the Leviathan which I actually enjoyed (especially long-suffering George the Leviathan from 7x16), plus 7x17 which was my second all-time favorite episode. S11 I loved for the Sam and Lucifer arc, Baby, the fact that the Big Bad wasn't actually evil, the briliant performance by Curtis Armstrong in 11x20, and finally the end of the insufferable MoC arc. Oh yeah, and there's Red Meat, which is the ultimate combination of my two favorite things: BAMF!Sam and Hurt!Sam. The only thing that drags S11 down is the cringeworthy, forced, and completely purposeless thing between Dean and Amara.

Not much to say about seasons 9, 12, 13, and 15. There are a few decent arcs (Sam + Gadreel and Crowley in s9, Mary coming back, Sam and Lucifer again) but also some snoozers (MoC, BMoL which had potential until they were turned into mustachio twirling villains, Dean once again being a complete asshole and his cringe man-pain in s13). With the exception of the series finale, S15 was just meh. And they somehow managed to screw up Sam's magnificent hair.

Oh, and regarding S13 having the worst wire work ever put to film: I view it as pure karma for them not letting Sam be the one to kill Lucifer.

Most of S10 was almost unwatchable to me for the laughable attempt at forcing Dean into "dark" role but then chickening out and turning him into a slobbering drunk frat boy instead (MoC), the bratty and arrogant Claire, and the one-dimensional writing for Rowena (that goodness they added depth to the character later). The only things that save this season are the two attempted fratricides and the episodes that focused on Sam's attempts to save Dean. S14 only has a few memorable scenes, let alone episodes: Sam declaring that there will be no new King of Hell in 14x1, Sam talking Dean off the ledge in 14x12, and Sam shooting Chuck. The rest of the season is nothing but poorly redone recycled Sam arcs handed out to other characters. And no offense to Jack, I think the character was extremely well-acted, but he just didn't add anything to the story once they took Sam's role of being his Dad away.

Finally for S8: I have a love-hate relationship with that one. The front half of S8 has Dean being a complete asshole and the narrative focuses only his POV, leaving us with several missing months from Sam's POV. They just skip right over showing us Sam's utter devastation at losing everyone he loves in an obvious attempt to force the sympathy all towards Dean, but the more thoughtful viewers didn't buy into it. Fortunately, the Trials!Sam arc counters the hideous PoOr dEan bias from earlier on. Plus I'm an angst junkie, and we get angst galore and an attempted fratricide to boot. The back half of the season does finally show Dean being appropriately appreciative of Sam's capabilities, even if he can't express that to Sam's face, and we get yet another outstanding Jared performance in the finale. Unfortunately, what we don't get is any growth whatsoever from Dean who, even as he's watching his brother die, is still in complete denial of his shitty treatment of Sam being the cause of his breakdown. I desperately needed Dean to understand just how much of an impact his constant criticism and mistrust of Sam had, and for him to go through that epiphany and change for the better. Instead, what we get is yet another flippant denial ("Hell, I know I've said some junk that set you back on your heels. But, Sammy…come on.") as if it's Sam's fault for "misinterpreting" the deliberate emotional abuse Dean heaped on him earlier in the season (and really, for much of Sam's life before that).

[mdhwrites]

How would you write Amity, Hunter and Lilith to be good while still having their edge?

Shoot Hunter in the face, give Lilith the anger she needed, and let Amity be bad at being a girlfriend.

...

If you're expecting me to apologize for being harsh, don't. Even the writers to some extent recognized the case for Amity and Lilith but instead time and focus was diverted to Hunter and Amity was decided to be the ULTIMATE GIRLFRIEND who never makes mistakes except that she cares too much which is something you say during a job interview so you don't claim to have no faults but don't actually seem like trouble. Meanwhile, Stranger Tides admits that Lilith's ambition and inner rage wouldn't go away after losing her magic. At least then she's trying to help the house but you get the idea that unlike Eda, who submitted to her life long ago, she isn't going to sit there and take it.

And then... She sits there and takes it. And Amity, despite only knowing transactional and manipulative love up until now, who overthinks and worries about everything, only doubts herself during Eclipse Lake and then doesn't even decide "Wait, what has Luz upset might be me and her phone might tell me what I've been doing wrong" and open it up. It would be a different angle on the same problem that would be absolutely in line with her character, especially if Willow is going to decide to be OOC in order to let Amity make the decision all by herself when there is NO reason she should make the right one.

But for Lilith to actually strike back at Belos, or at the Isles in general, to prove that even without her magic she deserves respect, going back to those initial motives that led to her cursing her sister but now with supposedly 'noble' goals, would have taken time. To have Lumity have a push and pull in their relationship where they both make mistakes and both learn from it, something Luz explicitly NEVER DOES because she never stops lying, would have taken time. Where do you get that back?

Kill Hunter. Just remove him from the story. He is absolutely redundant as just a second Amity who is filling in the obvious narrative role that Lilith should have had. After all, he is meant to eventually rebel against the EC. Lilith also clearly had that potential in S1 and was primed for it in S2. He is our connection to Belos as someone who was by his side for years. Lilith was the EC COVEN HEAD. He is meant to have a rivalry with Kikimora. Lilith also had a rivalry with Kikimora. He is meant to be disempowered due to a lack of his own magic and must embrace wild magic and the Isles in order to get stronger when he is without the support of the EC. LILITH. LOST. HER. MAGIC. And befriended a demon. And needed to find other ways to deal with problems.

When I say TOH REFUSES to actually start using the elements it has setup and instead introduce new, worse, redundant ones, Hunter is THE example while Lilith breathes. Worse yet, Lilith then takes King's spot as a dedicated comic relief character in a series with already too many comic relief characters, too few jokes, and VERY few good jokes, especially when they're losing one of their only straight men by Lilith's change in attitude.

And what do we gain with Hunter? An allusion to a backstory that doesn't matter? The one straight ship in the show allowed to be alive? A sad emo boy for the Hot Topic crowd? A lot of this stuff doesn't add to the story and while Eda was a compelling way of redeeming Lilith without discrediting the EC, Hunter CONSTANTLY discredits the EC, Kikimora, and pretty much every threat in the show, including Belos to some extent for the sake of his half assed redemption that comes down to the moment he's told Belos lied to him... AND LILITH DID IT ALREADY AND BETTER.

The show reveals all its concepts in S1. Almost everything is shallow recycling and frankly that goes to the edges of characters. Keeping those edges means exploring their redeemed selves. Removing them? Means you can make a joke and then wave them into the cameo cast as you move on to make a new character who is going to do them worse.

And Hunter's greatest sin, above anything else, is being the embodiment of this. I am curious though: Who would have been the replacement for Hunter in S3 if we'd gotten a full one? Food for thought.

Edit: Btw, being a troublesome girlfriend, needing to learn, is a concession to time. If theoretically I only had like two half episodes to explore her edge more and keep it there, stuff with Lumity, and real stuff unlike the B plot in Sport in a Storm, is your main option. Her relationship to her old desires, her parents, the coven system, etc. like that in a way that would have been in keeping with her desire to be the best and what not, the effect her parents had on her and more, would simply take too much time and Lumity was the most important thing to the show when it comes to Amity so making Amity an interesting love interest, one that makes mistakes and could maybe call out Luz during her mistakes, like ALL THE LYING, is the main reasonable way to have kept her edge, just like 3-4 episodes/half episodes dedicated to Lilith's rage at Belos and about her magic beyond just Stranger Tides and KIND OF Affearances. That is also about as many storylines/episodes (though most of Hunter's plots are full episodes or 75%) as Hunter got. I try to keep this stuff in mind with these blogs so as to try to be reasonable to a show's schedule.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[thoughts-of-bear-undercovers]

Idk I personally disliked it a whole lot. For me the general feel of the movie was "we have the rights to this big franchise and the kids these days like anime so now let's merge the two so we can make even more money". Like, at some point I was wondering if anyone in the making of this film even bothered to go deeper into the source material. Obviously there's spoilers in my review:

First thing I noticed was that they had spyglasses. Which didn't make sense and already killed part of the immersion for me. I mean, LOTR is based on a somewhat medieval Europe inspired world and a 17th century invention did not fit in that world. The whole point of "Legolas, what do your elf-eyes see?" is kind of that they did not have spyglasses (otherwise Aragorn would've had one as a pro ranger).

Second, there's some logical errors that just made the whole story crumble in my eyes.

How on earth did the Haradrim get into Rohan? Did they use submarines to swim up the Anduin in order not to be detected by the whole of fucking Gondor? Did they bribe Gondor to let them through? Did the whole ass oliphaunts-and-mercenaries-procession climb the White Mountains? Or did they put the oliphaunts on boats and drove up the Isen? How did they get into Rohan?? How?

I understand that this is how it's described in the appendix but if you're not super familiar with that (which I assume most of the audience isn't, including me even though I've read the books several times, which is more than what the average viewer has regarding lore knowledge) then that seems pretty unreasonable. Not talking about the "you don't want to marry me and your dad killed my dad in a fair fight after my dad provoked him which is totally unforgivable" motivation of the main character, which is kind of ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculous: the siege tower of Wulf, a masterpiece in physics-defying engineering and a testament to the superhuman skill the people of Dunland and their mercenaries have. They built this thing in like a day? In the freezing winter? In a valley that does not have trees in it (at least not usually; looking at you Fangorn)?

What even is that???

Oh and another thing:

Girl who has lived her whole life in a grassland where the hill on which her house stands is like the highest mountain is suddenly a climbing expert and can do that without breaking a sweat and guess who she goes to see? the extra special white Eagle who she is friends with because she fed it one (1) time.

I mean I like having a female lead that doesn't concern herself with love and marriage and the likes but Hera was not really much more besides "strong badass woman". At least her body proportions were realistic, I'll give the movie that.

Another thing that bothered me is that they essentially recycled the great epic scenes of the original movies for the audience to go "ah, this, i recognise this" but by doing that removed the unique emotions that accompanied these scenes. Most memorable example for me was the war cry of the people of Rohan, where in the original films you have this 5 minute scene with epic music and Theoden riding along the line of his soldiers and leading them to their (most likely) death and in "War of the Rohirrim" it is reduced to this 10 second clip with less epic music and just general idk irrelevance. Same thing with the Watcher in the Water, that was randomly there too, no reason except for showing the audience something familiar without much effort.

Which reminds me of another weird design choice the movie made. The oliphaunt in that scene had slit-pupils? An elephant and generally animals of that size and build are not predators. The do not have slit pupils because they don't stalk their prey? whyyyy???

And last among the more major things that bothered me about this film (not last in what smaller things bothered me):

I do not understand much regarding Anime as a genre, I've never been very interested in it and won't likely be but even I noticed that sometimes the frame rate was just too low. Like sometimes the animation looked more like some cheap stop motion than a smoothly animated film. I noticed that the first time Hera saddled her horse, I think. My friend (who knows like every anime in the world [at least it feels like that]) said it was probably the detailed backgrounds that caused this, because they put more effort in them instead of drawing more frames for a scene but while i do appreaciate the backgrounds (the style was good imo) I do think for a franchise like Lord of the Rings you can expect both detailed backgrounds and smooth animation.

And my friend in question also disliked the anime even though she doesn't know much about LotR, she said by anime standards it was not very good either. I don't know enough about anime to question her judgement in that regard.

So anyway, that was my rent and I don't recommend wasting money on watching that in the cinema.

Some of the reviews for War of the Rohirrim, mentioning that "it doesn't justify its existence" makes me remember how absolutely soulless professional "critics" can be. It's a good movie, it respects the source material, it stands on its own. What more do you want?

Yeah we can point out the problems with the film, cause they do exist, but saying "This was only made to extend the IP" shows a lack of knowing what you're talking about, because there are so many other softball methods of doing that. Specifically choosing the story of Helm Hammerhand, expanding it in a way that does feel rather Tolkien-esque, and having it be an anime does not feel like a safe move, even if it is attached to one of the most recognizable fantasy franchises. If it was just an IP thing and nothing else, it would have been much safer.

Not to mention how a certain other Middle Earth adaptation has so thoroughly poisoned the well for adaptations. This movie is how interpretation and expansion of Tolkien's works, or any source material really, should be done.

As a fan of Tolkien, fantasy in general, and anime, I definitely recommend going to see War of the Rohirrim in theaters.

[little-elf-wanders]

It's interesting when you recycle characters you have for games because they can change so drastically.

For instance, Marsh is originally a merman character I write in roleplay - a supernatural urban fantasy type deal, he's a barracuda merman who's whole schtick is that he can find people things and has a whole business surrounding it but he's also sort of a conman on the side. He's got ties in both the deep ocean cities and the land cities. And barracuda's are exceptional ambushers, they're the type of fish to steal fish right off human's catches so I tried to find a suitable... build. To me a warrior reaper sounds about on brand. (he'd be a reaver if we had them but I think reaper might be close to reaver? Who knows! but he's a warrior anyway because Lucanis is a rogue and I'm wanting the synergy to match in game since you can combo abilities) The fortune faction also lines up incredibly perfect for that.

The appearance is where I found the most issue. I looked over all the dragon age universe races and had to try to link Marsh to one of them. Elf was out because I already have an idea set in stone for Effie (another completely different recycled character), human would suit him due to his human alter ego but I find humans pretty boring in fantasy games, dwarf just wouldn't fit him, and the only one that made any sense was Qunari. (which I haven't fully committed to ever playing before so this should be a fun step out my comfort zone. I've never been able to be happy with designing one anyway) But he isn't super bulky so it had me scratching my head. The news on the character creation really saved my ass because I thought I'd need to make another elf, but since the sliders are pretty in depth, I'm hoping I can make a twinky Qunari. I doubt I'll get to add his nose bridge piercings, though, but height is also adjustable so I can make him more in line with his merman alter ego. His greyish/silverish skin will also work because he has two forms as a merman; human disguise, where he's definitely more on the tan side, then his medium dark grey and silver scales as a merman, the shades for qunari typically line up with silver and grey so I can match that up. I'm keeping the sharp teef. Even if we can't make teeth like that, canonically, he'll have them in my heart.

Trying to actually design him as a qunari is a nightmare only when I think about the adjustments I need to make, because he has brown hair in human form, and tealish/blue in merman form. So I think settling on the ability to change it a lot will be better, I can also just let him experiment in game with colours to see what might fight better. I have the basic concept in my head but finalising it might need to wait until I see what I can toy with in character creator. The image I do have in my head? I love him, he's a disaster.

So! Basically, what I have so far is;

Qunari

Grey skin - light or dark, as long is it's more grey I'm not picky

Sharp teef

Any piercings the game will allow (facial and ears) Ideally nose bridge spikes or something for the lip or eyebrow

Broken horn

POSSIBLE chipped ear or one being a cauliflower ear - just evidence he's been scrappy

Not a beefcake, he's supposed to be still barracudaish and have a hidden lethality

Short for a Qunari but realistically he'd be about 6'' or 5'10

Tattoo's

Hair can be brown or teal (dyed regularly is also fun) Unsure what his natural hair would have been - white is the typical colour so maybe that. Hairstyle wise I'm picky and stuck. Either something with an undercut or he's got long hair he ties back.

Eyes were supposed to be green but research shows they have more vivid tones, soooo, likely the final concept of him will be yellow or silver eyes, red only if it fits better

Scars - I envision him with an eye scar and a cheek scar in this world

I won't know fully until cc but hey, it's a start!

[zydrateacademy]

Current Activities in Gaming #230

Since my last Starfield post I discovered a handful of mods that really "make" a character. I believe I had already spiked Contraband prices. That 13k might look good but once you get it to a vendor that quickly turns into 3k which isn't much more than guns and spacesuits you can sell without having to avoid ship scans.

But there's two mods that allow you to harvest organs. One is called "Recycle Scum", wherein based on your Medicine/Zoology skills you can harvest corpses for the "Harvested Organs" contraband. Pretty dark, but another one came along that made it even darker. Called "chopshop". Every npc you kill comes with a 40 pound "corpse" item which themselves can be converted into contraband. I then made the above character, nicknamed "The Bloody Butcher". I also downgraded my contraband prices from 5x to 3x, because I was just drowning in organs after a certain point.

As dark as it is I'm enjoying playing the game in an entirely different way. Often having to balance my greed with my carry weight. Once you go over encumbrance, the slightest little jog will completely tank your oxygen and you'll be unable to sprint and start losing health. The Personal Atmosphere ability cancels this out... except for the fact that I am sometimes full of corpses before entering an enemy base. So I'm constantly juggling Personal Atmosphere with Reactive Shield to reduce incoming damage. I basically have to time my engagements with one or the other, and it's pretty awesome.

This is very likely the reason I haven't entered a 'cooldown' period with Starfield yet. Every time I consider taking a break a mod comes along that makes me think "Oh I need to hit Unity and start a playthrough to utilize this".

I've also spent a bit more time with ship building and I've become a bit more savvy with it. I've learned I can CTRL+Click things to target multiple items, which even works with the duplication hotkey and coloring. I've figured out cockpits have a different "entry" point so you can't just slap them all on the top of the ship, you need to figure out where its backdoor is. I've also learned why I have so much trouble with docker modules, basically no other item can go past it, even a weapon mount. I guess because it would clip with the ship you're docking with. That was always the problem I ran into with that, and figured out that the extra weapon mounts I was placing was interrupting my ship's ability to dock.

I still have more plans for ship building as well which certainly keeps me playing, because I don't just want to look at it and go "ah, pretty"... I want to put it to use.

I forget if I've mentioned this within my last couple of posts but I really like space combat and traversal... except with how shallow it is. Once you're done with an encounter it's done. Major space battles only happen a couple of times. The end of the Crimson Fleet is one, and there's a side quest helping a cabal of farmers fight off various teams of spacers though even that one is just a 3v1. Most space combat fights only take a few seconds and I'm REALLY holding out for the Creation Kit to let modders beef up enemy health values, or have enemy ships level alongside me. There's already mods like that for on-foot enemies, but not for ships. I think it's because people can't really edit any vanilla ship modules right now, just add onto what's there. I also wouldn't mind some level of damage scaling. I run around with a 4,000 shield module and rarely lose half of it.

Space combat was intense and exciting at first. You got the Frontier, worst ship in the game, and it sort of teaches you like "Okay, what are you lacking, upgrade that, add a new cannon here..." But like me if you've played for a couple hundred hours you can pretty much go to a ship technician right out the gate and just throw a few things on it to make half the game's space combats trivial. (Combination of a better shield and those Vanguard autocannons).

I'm enjoying the game but I am also slowly running out of content. A lot of what I'm doing is prepwork for my eventual "alright let's do all the side quests" run. Not quite there yet.