#This is borderline incoherent

[thewildercat]

Such a feeling when something you like blows up and immediately garners a negative reputation because of the new fan base.

Normally I talk myself out of the whole “TikTok made this popular but I liked it slightly before that and I’m upset.” mentality. It is a legitimately annoying situation to feel like a trend hopper or have ‘your’ obscure media everywhere. In the end though it usually helps the creator and ‘the masses’ are still individuals who deserve to enjoy something new.

However, it’s a horse of a different color when things suddenly get turbulent. I wanted to make an animatic for a song but so much is going on I feel like I have to wait for the waters to calm.

[lil-miss-brainrot]

given that they’re rumored to finish filming sometime between december and february, and my estimated post production time is 8 or 9 months, i’m predicting a stranger things 5 release anywhere from august 2025 to november 2025

now, i think it’s likely that they push it out until november since it’d be a nice lil full circle moment… given the significance of 11/6

but my theory gets a bit more deranged when i point out that november 6th is a THURSDAY… and netflix shows usually drop on a friday… something something stranger things 5 coming out on november 7th…

which would not only have stranger things day be the day before the last season comes out, but also make the release day byler coded

[adamnsey]

rare adansey moodboard please understand my vision

[ocellatedpiculet]

i really wanted to like chasca but the way it was constantly hammered that she was adopted felt so alienating. it'd be fine if it was mentioned once as some background, but the fact it happens even when her sister is dying feels sooooo weird. i get the message they're trying to convey is "you may not be related to me but we're still sisters", but to constantly bring it up and even have a conflict over it last patch leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

it's only made worse because genshin has gotten this right before. kaeya and diluc work very well as adoptive siblings and kaeya's story is very believable AND resonates well with the adoptees i've spoken to (myself included).

i get they wanted to try something different. kaeya's character is more about choosing his bio family or his adoptive family (as well as the nations surrounding them), but it's rarely mentioned in character dialogue. as for chasca, it feels like her character revolves around the idea that she was "saved" by adoption and would've been a lost cause, but because she fights with her sister (which is normal sibling behavior), she's suddenly the Adopted one, not actually related, blah blah blah.

[deadbaguette]

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it here on tumblr, but I recently started listening to TMA! I’m like a little over a quarter of a way through the 200+ episodes of the podcast and I am THOROUGHLY enjoying it ☺️

[nightcolorz]

The title card at the beginning of ofmd s2 ep5, The Curse of the Seafaring life, where the title is written in blood that’s being scrubbed away by a disembodied hand, makes me soooooo crazy. It’s so perfect. It wonderfully captures the thematic core of the episode. Episode 5 is the washing the blood away episode. it’s the episode where our characters just kind of chill, reconcile, rebuild themselves after the kraken incident. So of course the title is blood being washed away. Ed’s arc in the episode is washing the metaphorical blood off his hands as he tries to reintegrate himself into the crew. Lucius is moving on, trying to quit picking his scabs for a change…washing the blood away. Izzy is whittling sharks. 10/10 no notes.

[nepenthean-sleep]

love how a year ago everyone (tltblr) including me was like the scientist patrick image about kiriona like "what's WRONG with her" "what is the CHEESEBURGER" "where is her HEART" "is there SOUL FRAGMENTATION going on" getting their phd in kirionaology and now we've since arrived at the general thesis of "yeah ok. she's fine. she can do what she wants." like yeah that is 100% gideon nav in her entirety just with 300% more trauma no doubt about it. case closed [gavel noise]

[harbingersecho]

he just wanted directions damn

[townofcrosshollow]

Got a new, extremely serious, life changing diagnosis yesterday and when I got home my dad was like "You know what that means? DISABILITY TAX CREDIT!" and y'know what he's right and he should say it

[skybristle]

i thinkkkkkkkkk moon should give sliver a big kiss. reblog if you agree

[mostlyghostlyy]

I REALLY liked Alien Romulus, i saw it twice opening night, but I've seen a lot of people complaining about every single part of it (aside from the practical effects and set design). So I'm just going to bitch about it really fast

Alien is my favorite movie/franchise ever, and I've seen the movies countless times. I think everyone is wayyyy too harsh on it. I agree it wasn't perfect, but it was FAR superior to what we had with Covenant. My main complaint was the inclusion of Ian Holm's character. I personally think they should have gone with another David8 model or another Andy model. (Another Andy to make a personal connection with our Andy character)

I think most people have a problem with elements "stolen" from other movies in the franchise. To which I say WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT. It's an Alien movie ofc it's going to have the laser mist, alien hive, PULSE RIFLES, SYNTHETICS, etc.. it's not "stolen" its just being used and repurposed and it makes it easier to believe the movies have continuity and take place in the same world if they have SIMILAR WORLD BUILDING. I don't even see this as a fucking argument.

But the same people complaining about "ip theft" (From the same franchise lmfao) are the ones complaining that Rain isn't a fuckin Ripley clone. I love Ripley, she's my wife and always will be, she's the og girl boss. But I really liked Rain, which was a surprise for me. Sure, she's not tall like Ripley or have the same physique, but since when do the final girls need to be clones of each other? She had a whole different mindset than Ripley, and she was more emotional, she is younger than her so thats something i would expect. I liked how her and Andy worked together. Their dynamic was insane and I enjoyed it. It was a refreshing take on a synthetic/human bond and one that Ripley doesn't have. I was so happy Rain wasn't a Ripley replacement, I think that would have backfired. Im glad she got to be an actual character.

I know everyone is pressed about the Xeno elevator scene. And if you don't get it, then you're just that fuckin stupid. If you didn't see the facehugger hiding in the shaft with them, or even remember that Xenos take alive and healthy people all the time for incubation, then I really don't want to have to explain anything to you. You're just stupid. Their main objective is to breed as many Xenomorphs as they can. They are smart little bastards, and that's what makes them so scary. So no the Xeno didn't "save her uwu" it had a much worse fate in mind for her.

I agree that the crew wasn't fleshed out the best. I wish we did get more scenes of character interaction. But I don't think this was a problem with a "younger crew." Doing a younger crew is an interesting way to go, and I think it would be almost more suspenseful. I think people just like bitching about younger people in movies as if they don't exist or they didn't have movies with younger casts before. Again, I think this would have worked better if there was more character development.

[sproutingliliums]

How did you get into Zutara anyway?

so i watched atla when it was airing on TV. (i have vivid memories of recording the zuko alone ep to watch later lol.) and i also distinctly remember when the finale aired. all of that is to say that ever since the series originally aired on nick, i’ve probably rewatched it maybe 3-4 times since then, and i have never been satisfied with the way it ended.

i didn’t ship zutara any of the times i watched the show before, but i didn’t ship kataang either. i always found the romance in atla to be very lackluster in general and even sukka isn’t spared from my disappointment, but i will say that when i was a kid, i thought zutara was going to be end game, so when katara and aang kissed on that balcony i was thoroughly confused.

anyway, i feel like with each rewatch, i find more things to nitpick, but the most consistent problem for me (outside of it being an orientalist fantasy) was always katara’s ending. i’m in the “she shouldn’t have ended up with anyone at the end of book 3” camp. however, i recently rewatched the series and decided to pay more attention to all the different character arcs and subplots and how they weave together to form the Greater Narrative™️ and came to the conclusion that i: like zutara. a lot.

it honestly hit me like a train out of nowhere, but it’s like: “if he’s your man, why am i his narrative foil” etc. realizing that zuko sacrificing his life (and by extension throwing away his destiny, his throne) for katara and her risking her life and saving him, bringing him back from the brink of death, was the conclusion of both of their character arcs rewired my brain. basically, i spiraled and now i’m here. shipping zutara and feeling crazy enough about it to write fic.

[yea-baiyi]

just reread the tgcf extras. tldr hualian’s married life is just, chilling, hanging out, having great sex. they are so free and comfortable, they spend so much time laughing together. which is exactly what marriage should be tbh (silently wipes away tears)

[genderpunk]

hi yes I would like to know about ur ocs please

Because of your user, I'm choosing to talk about Ephai. He's from my main passion project, the main antagonist. He is in his early twenties throughout the story, but is in the protagonist's life since birth.

(Last drawing I did of her. Entertaining the idea of giving him a huge floor-length fur coat.)

He comes from a family of extreme high class, royalty, and his character allows themes of social corruption, morality and alienation to be discussed. Highly inspired by the goth, both in appearance, symbolism and story. He is driven by the fear of not meeting expectation, growing up in a family where what you have is everything you are, extreme trauma of fetishization and incest.

His gender and sexuality are of plot relevance, simultaneously the antagonist and love interest with a pained relationship with gender, sex and love.

(A few months old wip that I will never finish, concept sketch of high detail and patterned dress. Mostly an excuse to make him look weird and play with his hair.)

He's a considerably recent character I have, made specifically for this project in early-2023. This story is in the second draft and he's far from done, specially because I have some considerate favoritism towards him.

(Here's one of the first drawings I made of him, interacting with the protagonist of the story, Cohnal. Both of them have changed considerably in design and writing, but I still feel like the early concepts of their looks and dynamic speaks a lot for who he is currently.)

He's one of my favorite characters and I hold him quite dearly in my heart. Please feel free to ask more questions about him, other characters or the project Handmade God itself. It's probably a good idea to mention the setting is dark fantasy and he is a lunar elf.

[devsgames]

Hey, do you have any resources on game design you can recommend? It's easy to find stuff on art, programming, writing, etc., but when it comes to game design it's all a bit blurry. Maybe I'm not looking where I should though.

I'm not 100% sure which type of resource you're referring to so I'm operating under the assumption that you mean more sort of learning resources for game design (as opposed to like, references or whatnot).

Firstly, one of the major problems with game design as 'discipline' is that "Game Design" is a very big and intensely vague blanket term. It's not truly a concrete discipline itself, so it's difficult to teach about the basics of all of game design. Game Designers rarely do one specific thing every time, and a lot of what is done skill-wise is often very abstract ideas like 'problem solving' and 'logical thinking'.

It's why there's studio roles like "combat designer", "AI designer", "systems designer", "level designer" and more all under the "game design" umbrella, and even then these roles might not even be doing the same thing depending on what project they're involved with. A "combat designer" at a studio working on a FPS might be specifically designing player movement while a "combat designer" at a studio working on an RPG might be focusing on something like character skill trees or condition damage types. With so much variation it becomes hard to single out specific resources as universally applicable while still being relevant for learning.

If you're looking to learn something specific about designing games, I find it's usually more effective to seek out first-hand resources based around these specializations that exist within game design and learn how the designers approached their designs, as opposed to learning about 'game design' as an all-encompassing blanket. Seeking out "combat design" or "systems design" to start edging in the right direction - this is an excellent post with an overview of key design roles.

Some of my first places I usually turn to for design stuff are those more tailored towards a wider range of specializations; the GDC vault has free archives with design talks on various Game Design subjects which can help learn more on the process of various game designers operating in their disciplines, and GameDeveloper.com has a Design section for user-submitted blogs and deep dives where you can find similar. If books are your thing, Boss Fight Books often publishes deep dives into specific games, their cultural impacts and design choices around them (the Splunky one was pretty good from my memory). Mileage may vary however as I've heard some are more 'fan appreciation' styled than actual analysis.

I'm sure smarter people than me might have textbook recommendations - unfortunately I have a tiny brain and don't like reading books much. 😔 I also find Game Design a hard subject to read about due to its abstract nature, but that's just me!

Honestly though, I think one of the best ways to learn game design is training your brain by playing lots of games and learn to think critically about the design in them - it helps stretch the design part of your brain and teach you to more actively 'think in design', which will naturally help you learn. This was pretty crucial for my understanding of design when I was struggling to learn how game design worked.

Try this: Sit down and play a game incredibly slowly and just think about everything, especially things you often look past or take for granted (after all, good design is often design you barely notice).

In the game you're playing: How does a player move? Like really how? How far do you push the stick to move? How do objects affect their movement? What alternative movement can they perform? Why? When would they use it? How does it affect them/the world? Why do you think the designer made the movement this way?

In the game you're playing: How does the player's ability work? How long does it last? Why does it work that way/last that long? How do they equip it? What feedback is there for its use? How does it affect the world? Why do you think the designer made that ability this way?

Basically try to reverse engineer the experience and repeat it over and over as you play the game - don't play it for fun, play it for research and you'll likely find a lot of subtlety you never noticed before. Virtually every choice in every game was informed by a conscious design decision (or a conscious production one). You might start to notice patterns and be able to put yourself in the shoes of the designer and understand the decision making process better.

I'd also say - if you make a game, you'll be practising game design, and that's huge. Most designers often learn what they do through doing it on the job or by practising the craft, and it's the easiest way to turn theory and abstract thinking into concrete work. You need to break a few eggs to make an omelette! I think there's a lot of fans who posture as 'critics' because they play games and pick up on some design things, but ultimately have never made a game and don't understand how choices are informed by each other or how these pieces all fall together. There's a huge difference in experience and understanding between critique/theory and practical application, and I think breaking past that barrier always provides a huge wealth of knowledge as a baseline.

Sorry I got rambley, I hope this sorta helps 😆

[vesselreborn]

something something, Miyako not being able to exist without Datatsushi, Datatsushi not being able to be resurrected without Miyako, something.

Both of them foiling each other's plans and both just trying to survive. Both never truly leaving the village in their life. Both being so committed to killing each other for their goal, that their allies end up suffering/dying for it in the end.

Does Miyako even know that killing Datatsushi would kill her too? Probably not! Would that stop her? Probably not! To her, Datatsushi is the source of all her pain. Miyako believes that she can't live or truly be free with Datatsushi remaining alive, so she'll do everything in order to make sure he's dead. This drive is what helps keeps them at a standstill, neither of them are winning nor willing to back down. One's end is another's beginning, and they'll both be sitting here for eternity before giving up a chance at freedom.

Seeing and knowing that Datatsushi is also trapped, and seeing him die (momentarily, but still) and the end of each loop sends something to her brain. There's just something about seeing a being, who you've been told your whole life that you're meant to serve, who's the ultimate being, reduced to a critical status. All because you resisted your 'fate'. Sure, Miyako isn't getting anywhere, but neither is he. Datatsushi is the one who decided that her life was nothing more than a curse and to be used as a thing, a tool. So yeah, she doesn't mind suffering if it means he suffers too.

She just can't wait to kill him, for this loop to finally be over with. For her to be free and have something resembling 'Normal'.

Yet here they are, stuck together as the only beings who feel real in a sea of ghost. As much as she wants to believe that they're real, it feels more like reliving the same nightmare again and again. You know what's going to happen, you've been through all of this before, and yet it still plays out with the same outcome. Sure, sometimes something changes a bit, but it all leads to the same loop.

She's so tired, but so angry. She just wants things to be normal, but she doesn't even know what Normal is!