#We're going to see how October goes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crescencestudio · 22 days

Text

๋࣭⭑ Devlog #44 | 8.29.24 ๋࣭⭑

why did august feel so long and so short at the same time

And hot girl summer finally comes to an end! Can you all believe we're already getting into September? That's..... crazy.

Before I get into the devlog this month, I want to make a small announcement! It's a bittersweet one, but overall, I do think it's more exciting than anything.

Crescence is FINALLY CLOSE TO GRADUATING!!!!

It's crazy to be able to say this. For anyone who's an OG fan of Alaris, you'll know I basically started game development at the same time I started my Ph.D. program. It's been a wild ride having to balance game development throughout this entire journey. Funnily enough, when I started Alaris, I saw many game developers say a game that was around the same length as Alaris would take about 4-5 years. So at the beginning of my program, I remember thinking, "Ahh... So even though it sounds so intimidating to work on something for 4-5 years, that basically means by the time I finish my Ph.D., I'll be done with Alaris, right? Might as well start then! If I'm going to spend those 4-5 years getting a degree, might as well also use that time to make a game :D"

*Graduates before I finish Alaris alosjdfliasdifj*

inserts a little fanart montage of recent fanart players have made to break up the text

Anyways, it's crazy that I've been on this journey for both parts of my life as long as I have. Both my dissertation and Alaris have equally tested my sanity, but words can't describe how rewarding it is to see the finish line finally in sight for both projects.

The thing is...

If I want to graduate this semester (which I so, so, so, so, SO desperately do), I have to write my entire dissertation (about 60k words) in about..... a 1-1.5 months, haha.....

On the bright side, it's feasible (Crescence says delusionally). On the not-so-bright side, it's going to test my sanity. And if there's a 5% chance I'll be able to make those deadlines and graduate this semester, that chance goes to 0% if I try to balance Alaris on top of that.

Which means...

I'll be taking a two month break from Alaris development, which is the first time in all of development that I'll be taking a break that long. For those who have followed me on this journey, you may know I've worked on my firstborn baby almost continuously since I first started this project. While I've balanced other games during development and sometimes taken short breaks where I don't make as much progress, I've never just Not Worked on Alaris. So it's a bit terrifying to imagine two months not working on Alaris at all.

But graduating this semester is important to me, and at the end of the day, as much as I love game development, it's very much my hobby. I don't talk about my IRL obligations on here too much, but I do have them, and finally getting my Ph.D. degree is one of my biggest IRL obligations and priorities.

So it's with tears in my eyes that I say Alaris will be on a break until the end of October. I'll still be around to answer questions (thank you to everyone who has been sending them in and showing sm curiosity and love for the cast!), and the Patreon will still be up for those who want to play Druk's beta. But aside from that, I'm taking a Full Break on Alaris so that I can buckle down and focus on the final stage of my degree :')

I know this may come as a disappointment to some of you, especially those who have followed me for a while and/or are eager to see the full game release. It pains me to have to step away from Alaris for such an extended time, especially since the weight of full game release does weigh on me with each day lmfao. I want this game out just as badly as the rest of you, and especially because so many of you have trusted me with your money, time, and support, please rest assured that this decision didn't come easy. It's my biggest hope that when I return to game development after finishing dissertation matters, it will be full steam ahead now that I'll no longer have degree obligations hanging over my head.

With that out of the way, let's go into this month's devlog! I'll try to make it as juicy as possible for you all as a thank you for your patience and support while I Get That Degree <3

Thankfully, this past month was much more focused in the writing department! While there was some small editing happening in Fenir and Druk's routes, it was minor changes compared to July. Most of my attention was on Kuna'a, and I'm very excited to say that the first draft of his route is OFFICIALLY FINISHED!!!

THAT MEANS ONLY ONE ROUTE IS LEFT FOR ALARIS TO BE WRITTEN!!!!!! It is so crazy to finally reach the last stretch of script writing. While I'm sure there's much editing to be done, the idea of having the base drafts finished is honestly hard to believe considering how endless script writing has felt.

A sneak peek of Kuna'a's route to celebrate

With how plot-centric the last three routes feel, it's also rewarding in a different way to officially write out a lot of the main plot details into the script, instead of just dropping bits and pieces here and there.

It makes me sad to pause Alaris development right when we're getting into the last meaty bits and pieces, but hopefully this just means when I return to development, I'll be hitting the ground running after missing working on the game ^^

Art has also been making lots of nice progress this month! I finished about half of Druk's CGs and our current CG counter is.... 25 out of 54! Which means we're just about reaching the halfway mark with CGs as well ^^

One of the CGs was so hot, it broke my iPad and almost lost ALL MY ALARIS ART ASSETS!! ha!! ha!! ha!! That was a fun part of this month!!!! Anyways, this isn't the CG in question (that one would be too spoilery to show, though it is on my Patreon for those who want to see it, heh), but this is a CG that I'm particularly fond of that I finished recently---Sneak Peek!

What lipgloss do you use, my man

CGs, aside from sprites, are the last main art assets that need to be done for the game. So knowing that they're just about at the halfway mark really shows that we're getting into the last stretch of the game's development!!

Finally, in extremely exciting news, we launched Druk's beta recently! WHICH MEANS..... HALF of the routes are beta coded for the game!!! WHAAAAT!!!!

Obviously, I'll be going in later to fix up some things, add in more sprite expressions, the CGs, etc. at a later time for these routes. But the fact half of the game is basically coded is so surreal...... I remember when these updates were just me telling you I was still writing and that was literally it LFJALSDJF.

Now, we're here on our third route to be beta tested!!!

everyone thank @minthe-drawings for drawing our beefy boy in all his beefy glory

Druk's beta will be up for a while since I'll be on break from development, but if you'd like to play his beta, sign up for Hydra on my Patreon!

This month, we've also started including drabbles to the Patreon for free members. So if you don't have funds to support through paid tiers but would still like some extra content, I've started writing drabbles that are free for anyone following my Patreon to read ^^

Finally, as one last thank you before I go on my break, we recently reached this milestone on itch.io!!! Y'all have downloaded Crescence games 100k times and played my games over 200k TIMES.... (we technically reached 200k plays a while ago, but I wanted to wait until the downloads number was a pretty 100k).

not to mention the other milestones we've hit. thank you all for your support ;_;

It's crazy to even see this kind of number on my page.... I remember I used to see other amazing devs post these kinds of numbers and I could only dream that one day I'd be able to experience that kind of engagement. And so seeing that number for myself.... it's just really humbling to know you've all supported me for this long and to know I've reached the amount of players that I have <3 Thank you as always for the support and love you've all given my games. One day I will reward you all in kind and release Alaris....LFMALSDIJF

For market research this month, I have been trying to play Fields of Mistria in the small pockets of free time that I have. March and Eiland my beloved. But what I really want to highlight this month is...

No one is surprised that I am, once again, telling you to support @ravenstargames

Lost in Limbo is a phenomenal dark fantasy VN that just released their demo and went live with their Kickstarter. The team is made up of some of the kindest, funniest, most hardworking, and talented people that I know, and I can't recommend the demo enough. The cast is diverse and has so much character (I literally love every character). The writing is beautiful, and the art is absolutely stunning. It's the team's first game, but you wouldn't know it from how polished, immersive, and breathtaking the demo is! Please consider supporting the team, whether it's playing the game or backing the Kickstarter. They deserve every ounce of success they get, and if you're a fan of fantasy and stunning storytelling, you will LOVE THIS GAME!!! Envy stans RISE!!!!

That's all for this month (and for the next two months.... wah.... don't forget about me everyone...)! Hope everyone stays well and warm as we enter fall, and I'll see you all in November <3 I'll miss you all dearly (I say this as if I won't still be around to answer asks), and hopefully when I return, I'll be making my debut as DR. CRESCENCE!!!! \o/

#alaris #devlog

87 notes · View notes

blueballsracing · 5 months

Note

Can u help me understand Lestappen please? I’m trying to get into it because it’s a popular ship and I don’t want to miss out on great fics and stuff.

But I see Tumblr posts of MV and CL that scream “HEART EYES” or “HUSBANDS” and…I don’t see it. I can’t suspend my disbelief. Like I get they’ve been competing for 20 years or whatever but I don’t get anything other than profesh respect. And when we regularly see how they are with other people, like MV with Daniel or Lando, or CL with Carlos, Lestappen looks even worse.

Can you please help me see the Lestappen light?

hi anon! lemme break it down for ya. the reason why lestappen is such a popular ship is bc not only of the mutual respect that they have for each other, but the history they have, and their interactions have been pretty cute and all.

even max and lando don't really interact that much, and lando goes as far as to say that "he's not my bff, don't ever say that again" when asked about him and max's relationship. and max with daniel–well, max has always loved daniel and had a crush on that man since his first days in f1 so... different dynamic for sure. charles with carlos interactions... they are cute and all but i think their racing dynamics are just so awkward? esp i think that the ferrari politics deffo affected their relationship and all. cross-team dynamics between charles and max have a nice dynamic, but i'll break down some of the key events

lestappen lore timeline!

2012 - when the inchident occurs - you just need to watch this video. it's just so funny. no words can explain this 😭

2014 - when max essentially recommends charles to race for his old f3 team, van amersfoort racing, a dutch team. and the team boss had a lot of positive things to say about the two <3

2019 - the singapore flag incident... mr. i know geography and i love flags SOMEHOW doesn't know the difference between the singapore flag and the monaco flag

2019 - when we get to austria 2019. essentially, charles is about to win his FIRST ever f1 gp with 3 laps to go, and max pushes charles off track, overtaking him and eventually winning. charles is FURIOUS on the podium. and then they have to share a plane back home but max is all like "oh yeah we're good! 😊 he's talented and he will have his first win this year for sure! we have at least 15-20 years of racing together still! 😊" and then on the plane charles unfollows max. max does the same 😭

2022 - jumping forward to austria 2022, when charles wins the race! and they have this GAY ASS PODIUM

austria is lestappen holy ground.

2020 - when we get this wonderful clip of sebastian asking whether or not charles thinks max is pretty.

seb: is he pretty? charles: *giggles and then silence* OH WAIT. i thought you said 'is he british?' i was like, that's not physical... *panicked leg shake* i don't know!!! *laughs again*

charles not wanting to answer if max is pretty... we should take that as a yes <3

2021 - the year of their baku love tree <3 according to an old turkish custom, when a couple get married, they plant a tree together, and they water it to symbolize their marriage and their hope for leading a happy and beautiful life!

and then jumping forward to 2023 in baku, they have the SAME IDENTICAL TIME during first runs in q3. only max is first bc he did his lap first.

2022 - cota! before the press conference they talk and max goes "fresh again?" and charles starts GIGGLING. like yeah we know u were drunk celebrating 🙄

2022 - secret santa! when charles has max for secret santa and this guy just. gives him f1 2022. with THREE OF HIS FACES. and has a card and writes "one edition for my BIGGEST FAN." not normal about this at ALL.

2023 - charles admits to drinking red bull after he couldn't say in an interview but then likes a tweet later 😭

2023 - paddelgate. max loses to charles in october

and then they're supposed to play together in december!

but then... Max stays up until 4 am the night before the match (doing a 24 hour charity stream) and sleeps in and misses the entire event. 🙁

ok i could literally go on and on about them but i'm going to end it here with a couple quotes:

"Of course I have a lot of respect for Max. He has done very well and I have a lot of respect for what he has achieved. When we drove in karts, we dreamed of Formula 1 together and here we are now! He has the title I won and I have a lot of respect for that."

"I always thought that, if I'd make it to F1, Charles would also make it."

#lestappen #max verstappen #charles leclerc #f1 #formula 1 #my posts #f1 fandom #f1blr #asks #lestappen lore

86 notes · View notes

gatzbright · 1 year

Text

[october] one year of togetherness.

@/dreamsecretclub: dteam Christmas won’t be happening unfortunately, thought I’d say before that way Christmas can still be great :) totally out of our control unfortunately, can’t wait for the future still :)) 2022 incoming ♥️♥️

Dream: I'm gonna expose George's feelings on his behalf ... He was just saying, he was like, 'I think I'm depressed', and we were like 'What do you mean?' and he was like, 'I don't know. I don't do anything, and no one's here, and I just wanna come to the US'. And Sapnap was like, 'Well, what if I came to the UK?' and George was like, 'You should'. And then Sapnap went and filed for his passport the next day.

Dream: Because George hasn't got his visa yet, Sapnap's going to the UK. Sapnap: Fine. I'll go. [Dream Team laughs] Dream: So, unfortunately, Sapnap's getting the first George hug. [George Laughs] Sapnap: I'm getting the first George hug.

Dream: I feel like if George isn't here by, like—I wanna be like, 'Well, next month'. I feel like if George isn't here by September, my like, mental health will take a dive. Massively. And that sounds like, fucked, but it's one-hundred percent true.

Dream: You will see the fact that George, um—George's reaction to seeing me ... We said when he got his visa he could FaceTime me, so, stuck to the plan. Not saying anymore because you have to wait for the meetup video.

Dream: You sure you don't want to wait to see me in person? George: I'm ready. I've got my camera set up—I'm all ready to go! Dream: I guess I just, I wasn't expecting this. I'm gonna go look in a mirror and make sure I don't look like trash. I'll be right back! George: [laughs] Okay ... Oh my god.

George: After years of waiting, I was finally going to America.

Sapnap: Dream? Dream: Yeah? Sapnap: Clay? Dream: Oh god. Sapnap: I brought him. He's here. You excited? Dream: I am ... very nervous. Sapnap: Nervous but excited. Dream: I'm nervous, but I'm excited! I'm doing excited hops. Sapnap: It's a big day—an exciting day! ... Take your time. This is big stuff. He's going to be living here forever.

@/GeorgeNotFound: Just met Dream!! :)

“This doesn’t even feel real,” George says in the video — a sentiment he reiterates to Variety when asked about how he felt in the moment. “The sun was directly behind him, and it was blinding me, and he had an aura about him.”

George: It's so bright, I can't even see you. You're like a—you're like a god with the sun behind you!

George: I guess I gotta go get my bags in, and time to live in the Dream House. Dream: The Dream Team House!

@/GeorgeNotFound: why didnt you post the one where you actually kissed me?

dream @/dreamwastaken: just felt better leaving things up for larger interpretation

George: Look it's Dream, and Sapnap. It's all of us!

Dream: [softly to George] Rise and shine. We're home.

Hypnotised, Delta Goodrem | Dream's secret George photos in smile hoodie, Deleted @/dreamwastaken Tweet | Dream Priv Tweet,@/dreamsecretclub | The Collector, John Fowles | Dream Team Minecraft Skins | Dream Discord Podcast, Dream Merch Server | Our first selfie :], @/GeorgeNotFound Tweet | Sapnap Tiktok with George, @/Sapnapvids | Fortnite w/Dream and George, SapnapAlt VOD | Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett [Used Many Times] | You Laugh You Lose With George, Sapnap VOD | Dream Discord Podcast, Dream Merch Server | The Trial, Franz Kafka | George Visa Tweet, @/GeorgeNotFound | Dream Twitter Space, @/dreamwastaken | October Passed Me By, girl in red | George Visa Selfie, @/GeorgeNotFound | I Met Dream In Real Life, GeorgeNotFound [Used Many Times] | There It Goes, Maisie Peters | Dandelion Wine, Gregory Alan Isakov | Electric Touch (feat. Fall Out Boy) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault), Taylor Swift | Coastline, Hollow Coves | George Tweet, @/GeorgeNotFound | Dream and George Interview, Rachel Seo, Variety | Dream Deleted Tweet Photos, @/Dream | George Tweet Reply,@/GeorgeNotFound | Dreamland, Glass Animals | Photograph of Dream and George during the Foodbeast's Panel at Twitchcon San Diego, @/itsjusttai_ | Dream Team Christmas – Baking Cookies, Sapnap VOD | fallingforyou, The 1975 | Dream Team Christmas – Gingerbread Houses, GeorgeNotFound VOD | Dream Tweet Reply, @/dreamwastaken | It's Not Living (If It's Not With You), The 1975 | just got back from hospital..., GeorgeNotFound VOD | Home, Gabrielle Aplin | Dream and George on set: Everest – Dream & Yung Gravy BEHIND THE SCENES, Dream Music | Dream Snapchat Video, @/Dream | Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

#WAAAAAAAH HAPPY ANNIVERSARY OF MEET UP AND FACE REVEAL GEORGE IN FLORIDA DREAM TURNS ONE YEAR OLD DAY !!!!!!!!!#ijust spent four hours on this holyfuckdbdhf my brain rn #I WANNA FINSIH A FIC FOR TOMROROW/TODAY TOO. it is 3:30am i thinki should Sleep thoand sdothat tomorrow #mygod #this iss o satisfying to look at now #the references are always so god damn long but i LOVE DOING THEM no matter how much of a pain they are bc its like hey. h ey look dnf real #dnf is R eal bc LOOK. LOOK LOOOOOK. (also we're gonna ignore the formatting of the referencing bc it fucked up Many times IM NOT FIXINGAGA #ok thanksfor ur attention enjoy goonight mwah <3333333 #dnf #dreamnotfound #web weaving #compilations #my webs

175 notes · View notes

togachakoweekoffical · 1 year

Text

Official post time lovelies!

Togachako Week Themes:

Day 1, October 1st: Role Reversal. What if Toga was a hero and Uraraka was a villian? Or if Uraraka was the one with an obsession? Or even simply reverse their quirks or economic backgrounds! Or something else!

Day 2, October 2nd: Fantasy AU. Could be the classic MHA fantasy au or one of your own. Fantasy could be the dnd like setting, magical like witches, mythical creatures like mermaids or dragons or fairies, possibilities are far and wide!

Day 3, October 3rd: Enemies to Lovers. Our girls going from enemies to lovers. Explore this theme as you wish!

Day 4, October 4th: Vampire. Of course we're including vampire as a theme. Blood drinking is a part of their relationship! Vampire AUs, vampire like actions, vampire imagery, or whatever involving vampires or vampire as a concept!

Day 5, October 5th: Post Canon/Time Skip. What happens after the war? What happens in the future for our girls? You decide!

Day 6, October 6th: Meeting Class A/LoV. Toga meeting Class A or Uraraka meeting the League of Villains. How does that go? Could also be Toga meeting the 'dekusquad'.

Day 7, October 7th: Free Day. Basically anything goes. Any aus, prompts, themes, memes, random, whatever. Great if you missed a day!

Tag this blog and use the tag togachakoweek2023 so I can find your posts!

Now. Some rules...

1. No not safe for work or smut, basically keep it pg 17 becasue Toga and Uraraka are 17 and 16 currently in canon. Even with the post canon/time skip day no smut. (Mentions of mature activities is allowed but remember PG17.)

2. No background minor x adult ships. No background in cest. No making togachako fit either of those in an AU. I won't reblog it and will just block you.

3. Don't be an ass on other people's posts. I'll block you if I see it.

4. Have fun! Seriously this is to be a fun little thing so please have fun! Don't worry about posting everyday or even if you don't post at all! I'll probably do this again next year if it turns out good!

5. Not really a rule but any further questions can be sent to my ask box!!

146 notes · View notes

papakhan · 4 months

Text

Episode 1

Fuck it, I'm gonna do it anyway. Here's all the notes I took when watching episode 1 of the godawful fallout tv show. enjoy. I'm gonna run through this with notes I made while I watched the show so formatting might be kinda weird, I haven't done anything like this before so bare with me. I will try to explain things as if you the reader have not seen the show. This is gonna be very long and heavy on the hate and the spoilers.

Content warnings:

rape

incest

gif of the fight scene violence

self harming

Things I liked:

Vault Dwellers reusing the same wedding dress and everyone who'd worn it writing their names on the inside. that's sweet

"don't lose your head" vault poster during a firefight

Johnny Cash

I like Brotherhood Clerics but they totally fucked up the ranking system

The vault dwellers just painting over the blood on the walls

Horses are canon now

Goofy wasteland urban legends like "a feral ghoul does not abide a chicken"

That's literally it. Now it's time for everything else. I'll break it down into character bits since that's what the show does

Cooper

So Cooper Cowboy ghoul man is divorced and he's at this birthday party in I'm guessing Hollywood overlooking LA. It's a beautiful sunny day :) Bare in mind that in this scene the nukes drop so Bethesda has already fucked their own lore of the nukes dropping at 9:40am in Boston would mean that it should be 6:40am in California. Sunrise in California in October is 7am, btw. So already we're fucked. Real "design documents are a waste of time" behaviour on display here.

Anyway, nuke goes off. Now let me ask you something. What's one of the most infamous things about nuclear bombs? The flash, right? A nuclear explosion is bright enough to blind a person. Fallout 4 understood this, at least a little, where the flash of light from the bomb would fill your screen even if you weren't facing it, which is how nukes work. Closing your eyes in the face of a nuke would be pointless because the light would pass through your eyelids. There's even reports of people who held up their hands to shield the light and could see THEIR BONES THROUGH THEIR HANDS. That's how bright they are. They are horrifying weapons of mass destruction.

The nuke that hits LA is not a nuke, the flash of light on Janey's face (cooper's kid and the ONE SINGLE PERSON who notices a NUCLEAR FUCKING BOMB) is more akin to a camera flash. again. she is the only fucking person who notices a nuclear bomb go off, everyone else at the party is distracted by a TV of all things.

In the time between the ""flash"" of the bomb here's everything that happens before Cooper and co feel the shockwave

Janey notices the pathetic flash and looks up.

She holds up her thumb in the "vault boy" way

Cooper comes out of the house and walks over to Janey

He crouches down beside her and says some bullshit along the lines of "i got some cake for my favourite cowgirl"

Janey says "was it your thumb or my thumb?"

Cooper looks towards the source of the nuke and slowly stands up, watching it for a moment

He says "that's just a fire janey" as the smoke unfurls into a very obvious mushroom cloud

He realises that it was not. just a fire

then they get hit by a shockwave

This takes almost a full minute and none of the segments is supposed to be slow motion. Listen I know that light moves faster than sound and heat but come on. It's way too slow and also. dead fucking silent. also the shockwave comes before the mushroom cloud but who cares.

Anyway cooper gets on a horse with the girl and rides off down the road in the direction of LA. good job dude.

I've already read up about yknow who it was who wanted the nukes fired and I know that it was Barb who wanted the nukes dropped on America for?? vault tec profit??? so uh. why did she let Janey go to a birthday party with Cooper?

Lucy

x3 Incest jokes may not seem like a lot but it was 3 too many for me. I hate the "good karma" noise that played when Lucy got arranged married. I said I liked the vault poster of "don't lose your head" but I hate the way Lucy keeps getting her inspiration from Vault Boy I'm sorry but its annoying and dumb to me. Interconnected vaults in LA is also. dumb. you're telling me The Master didn't notice these fucking things? you're kidding. Look at it, it's not even hidden in a cave or anything its just out in the open.

Way to retroactively make the Master look like a moron, though I know they do this to Mr House later on. ugh.

Her intro makes it sound like she's supposed to have Tagged Skills in repair, speech and science but she displays none of this in the later episodes I have seen, in fact her speech seems like utter dogshit so what was the point in introducing her in a "game protag" way if none of that was gonna get used later?

Anyway, lets get onto the raiders. If you know me, you know I love raiders. They're a cool and interesting critique of individualism and "might makes right" and also aesthetically just kind of fuck.

Now, knowing what I know about Moldaver and her being the current ?leader of the NCR remnants, that implies that the people she has led into Vault 33 are former NCR citizens or soldiers, right? right?

So the ""fall of shady sands"" according to the show is 2277 and yeah sure okay that's during new vegas' time and sure okay right todd howard promised that this didn't de-canonise fallout new vegas. however. it's 2296 meaning it's been 19 years since Shady Sand's.......decline. and 15 years since New Vegas where we last saw the NCR. And i know that the NCR aren't exactly the good guys To suggest that in less than 20 years the citizens of shady sands have been reduced to Bethesda-style raiders who:

Are unable to use utensils such as knives and forks

Can't grow crops

Don't know how to use cups

Will rape a woman, wipe his dick on a curtain, and then try to murder said woman

Shoveling fistfuls of cake into their mouth during a firefight

Threatening a pregnant woman

In another episode one of these guys is interrogated/interviews and shows their asshole to the guy talking to him.

is fucking ludicrous

Anyway Monty looks like Jerma

RIP

Anywayyyy how come only Lucy's pipboy picked up on the radiation from these outsiders huh? everyone else was wearing a pipboy during the wedding, they sat next to each other, those geigar counters would have been going off. what? they had them on silent out of respect of a good Christian wedding? if you try to convince me that's the explanation I will eat your liver. Bethesda raider style

anyway no.2 girlypop (lucy) straight up pulls a knife out of her wound which is medical petpeeve no.9394328 for me but then its immediately resolved by a stimpak. I hate how stimpaks in the show are used exactly how they are in the game. I was under the impression that it was a video game mechanic and not how it actually worked in the narrative. What's next? Jet gives me extra action points or some shit? I'm so tired

the fight scene sucked. the choreography of the raider guy shooting a vault dweller through the head of another vault dweller just kind of looked like shit and seemed impractical, clearly just there to be like WOAH THATS COOL it wasn't cool it looked clunky and weird. do not fucking tell me that fallout is supposed to be clunky and weird I will kill you.

the doors cutting the raider in half was also dumb since its been routinely established that the dull and ominous "thunk. thunk. thunk" heard deep in the bowels of a vault is a door that's trying to close but there's something stuck under it, if they could just slice a whole man in half then they could cut through a table or skeleton in game. Also irl I'm a health and safety officer and that moment made my toes curl. lol

It jumps from Lucy to Max and then back to lucy but I'm just gonna continue talking about her shit here. quick fire round because I've been yapping too long already

Her little brother looks way too old to be acting like a teenager this much.

Chet (Lucy's cousin and ex boyfriend. gross) wants to come with her thank god he doesn't

why doesn't she give a shit about the sky

Why doesn't she give a shit about the ocean

Maximus

"stupid blimp is back" is at the very top of my notes, lol. anyway I still don't understand where they got this thing from

Latrines made out of stacks of tires is so dumb. like I cant even explain how dumb that is. surely rubber has better use for that. surely. just shit in a hole in the ground like everyone else please for the love of god

I know the twist with Daine and let it be said, having your first on screen transgender character cut themselves with razors to get out of the military is not, in fact, Bethesda trying to be on the side of transgender people, it is in fact them making fun of us, okay? do we understand?

hiding baby max is a fridge made me so angry I blacked out. do not remind me of "kid in a fridge" ever again.

Anyway Bethesda finds it so difficult to keep the BOS consistent to the point that they are all so different from each other with little to no explanation as to why they've changed so much. In fact it feels like to me that at some point between fallout 3 and fallout 4 Bethesda has totally mixed up the BOS and the Enclave, since now the BOS hate ghouls for no reason and want to colonise the wasteland. This is just that again. Once more, no design doc behaviour.

Quotes from the BOS i think suck ass

"Duty of the Brotherhood of Steel is to secure the wasteland"

"Flesh is weak by steel endures"

"Violence is a tool we use it to bring order to the wasteland"

When Max is getting interrogated for being a suspect for cutting Daine with razors, mentions "send me to Eden or wherever" and it confused me so much. The only Eden I knew about was John Henry Eden from Fallout 3. Turns out I think what they're trying to reference is New Eden a BOS base from. Fallout Brotherhood of Steel 2?? of all fucking things?? really strange I can't imagine what else he could possibly be referencing though. This is literally just thrown in for the loreheads and I hate it.

Anyway after being a suspect for cutting Daine with razors and also failing his classes Max gets a promotion! this is not explained. They also brand him which people a lot smarter than me have discussed at length about why branding a black guy on screen in your fallout show is a bad idea. Read it here.

I don't really understand why the BOS all do shit in latin now, I know some of them had latin names in fo1 but IIRC Frank Horrigan of the Enclave was the only person in the og games who spoke latin. it feels like Bethesda wanting to capture the interest of people who liked the Legion. maybe that's a reach but given how much right wing propaganda is in the coming episodes I wouldn't put it past them.

Cooper again

I am not calling this idiot The Ghoul that's fucking dumb. what like he's the only one? ever? dumb. whats up with him being buried huh? did Todd not want to tell Nolan that ghouls arent actually zombies and arent actually undead? that just wanted him to jump out a coffin because oooh spooky zombie. honestly just kill me.

My notes: "Don't tell me the ghoul is in that grave I can't take it"

this guy gets dug up once a year and gets pieces of him cut off and put back?? why? for what purpose? how is he down there without eating or drinking? is it a kid in a fridge moment where ghouls don't need to eat or drink, well he drinks a whole lot of water in episode 3 so that's afucking lie. get real. the glowing IV? what is that??

the yodelling is really gonna piss me off, isn't it.

Not him ending the episode on the same quote he said to his daughter. whatever.

Rating: 3/10

#txt #ask to tag #i wont dare to tag this the show fans will have me crucified #took a break from drawing for this shit. hell on earth #i should probably make a tag for this #long post

48 notes · View notes

air--so--sweet · 1 month

Text

TUA Season 4 Spoilers

Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist but it feels like some of Klaus' story was cut or changed in post or else rewritten and reshot. And I think that plot was was about Dave or at least his dog tags.

At Sy's dry cleaners, when he presents the box of alternative timeline objects Diego goes through it and hands items to Viktor and Ben. No one else grabs any items except Klaus who runs over the box excitedly and goes straight for one item - dog tags.

I wasn't able to read these (which feels like a mistake, wouldn't you want them legible in close up to hammer the point home?), but I think it's safe to assume these are Dave's dog tags, especially considering how Klaus interacts with them the rest of the scene (did my best to crop these so you can see him a bit better without totally murdering the quality).

Which really confused me because Klaus was wearing his dog tags at the end of season 3 right? And then I went back and looked at the scene and realised Klaus is wearing something on a chain but at no point do we see what it is because whatever is on the end of the chain is tucked into his shirt. And yes his dog tags are tucked into his shirt at other points in the season but it always just looks like they slipped into the shirt as he moved around, as they're often off to the side or at an angle...

...and even at times switching between inside his shirt, outside of his shirt and then inside it again within one scene (which is not a criticism, it's just the nature of having multiple takes and multiple angles, it can lead to inconsistencies)...

...whereas in the final scene of season 3 they're perfectly placed, hanging straight down and remain inside his shirt the entire time, even when he bends down.

So then I thought oh, it must be intentional. What he's wearing isn't his dog tags, Reginald rebooting the universe clearly erased what happened with Dave. We're going to get a scene something like the scene below from Ain't No Place (To Call Home) by Hara_Kiri.

(Sidenote: Very much recommend this fic, don't love how it ends, but don't still love the majority of the fic and it's a better ending then what we officially got tbh, also dont know if the author has a tumblr but happy to tag them if they do)

But then that never happens and the dog tags are just never seen or mentioned again. But then why have the scene of him finding them in the box? When he should have already had them? And then he still doesn't wear them?

But what really makes me think part of Klaus' story was cut, was the birthday promo video we got on October 1st last year. The cast are all in costume and it says 'previously recorded' because it was released during the SAG strikes, so it was likely filmed on set either between takes or at the end of a day, with the cast just in whatever costume they were in that day. And Klaus is in clothes we see him wear in the season....with all of his tattoos, except the Umbrella, clearly visible.

But then we never see him get his tattoos back in the show??? And this can't just be an error, there's no way a make up artist would accidentally apply four whole tattoos, and then Robert Sheehan wouldn't question it, and no one else on cast or crew would pick it up as a mistake. Like even if this was for some reason actually filmed separately to the show, he starts the season without his tattoos, there's no reason for them to forget that when they come to post the promo. Which suggests there was more to his plot with him somehow regaining his pre reboot body, but it didn't make it into the show.

#the umbrella academy #tua #the umbrella academy season 4 speculation #the umbrella academy season 4 spoilers

19 notes · View notes

thisisnotthenerd · 3 months

Text

detailed level progressions

it's been a while since i did one of these; welcome back to thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats. this time, we're taking a deeper dive into level progressions.

i went into this a bit back in october, but the chart has been updated to reflect fantasy high junior year's level progression, as seen below.

we're going to focus on the seasons with level changes primarily, but a note on the non progression seasons--they tend to reflect a short timetable: events occurring over the course of a day/week. the non leveled seasons are not run in dnd and don't really have stat changes in that way, though they sometimes reflect changes in attributes, e.g. the wand evolution in misfits & magic or dan fucks getting the wealthy attribute in mentopolis.

before we get into the level progression, let's talk adventure level. this just describes the scale of adventure; tier 1 is levels 1-4, tier 2 is levels 5-10, tier 3 is levels 11-16, and tier 4 is levels 17-20.

the majority of d20 seasons fall into tier 1 or 2, with more in the latter category. this makes sense--it's easy to create interesting/potentially deadly encounters without risking character death every time. you may notice repetition of the major progression seasons (fantasy high, the unsleeping city, a crown of candy, a starstruck odyssey, neverafter)—this is because of their general progression, with leveling after battle episodes. they cannot be fully classified as one or the other, and are thus counted in both. the scale of combat significantly changes.

with the lower levels, they run the risk of pc death, as we saw in both fantasy high and neverafter, where the parties started at level 1. in starstruck the characters go down in combat often; with the exception of the ship combats and the finale, someone goes down in every starstruck battle; sometimes multiple characters. acoc was intentionally deadly, but once the party got a primary caster they were pretty much set. the point of all of this is to say that at a certain point dnd characters get hard to kill and you have to get creative to get them to feel the stakes.

as of now, dimension 20 does not have any tier 4 adventures. it's easy to understand why; the scale of adventure, once the party gets to that point, becomes difficult to balance and make interesting over time. the high levels can be fun for oneshots and potentially a mini campaign, but without previous emotional investment, they can be difficult to make interesting--if the party is level with gods, how can you effectively challenge them? the nature of the medium is that the storytelling arcs are tied to mechanical growth; the short-form structure of dimension 20 means that they don't have the time to get characters from 1 to 20, except in the case of sequel seasons.

fantasy high senior year might potentially be a tier 4 adventure because we've had time to see the bad kids grow and change and progress through the previous levels; any tier 4 adventure would be a simple escalation of the threats the party already faced.

anyway. let's take a look at some specifics of level progressions.

check them out in spreadsheet form here

--------

major level progressions

the organization will be slightly different here, to account for continual progressions in sequel seasons, so keep that in mind. this will also include individual commentary in some cases. fair warning: if you're looking for a specific character/season it's better to ctrl+F.

the intrepid heroes seasons are major progression of varying degrees. initially this meant the characters went up one level after each combat encounter. as the formats for seasons varied, this changed. for example, there is only one level jump in fantasy high sophomore year, and only two in chapter 2 of the unsleeping city. these season are included as part of their greater series such that we can track the characters' growth.

---------

fantasy high

the bad kids have had some major growth from their first appearance until now--they began with milestone growth, briefly switched to xp leveling (shh!) and then returned to milestone growth with their return to battlemaps.

in freshman year, they all went through linear milestone leveling, taking subclasses at third level. in sophomore year, some of them leaned into multiclassing and chose to switch subclasses for the sake of narrative growth. in junior year, we saw a continuation of the multiclassing and subclass switches.

fig faeth

freshman year: fig leveled exclusively in bard from levels 1 to 8, taking whispers bard as her subclass at level 3.

sophomore year: fig altered her build partially, to begin the season with 6 levels of whispers bard and 2 levels of hexblade warlock. at the mid-season level up, fig swapped to the bard college of lore and dropped one level of hexblade warlock in order to end the season with 8 levels of lore bard and 1 level of hexblade warlock.

junior year: fig started the season with 8 levels of lore bard and 2 levels of hexblade warlock that she affirmed with an ancestral pact in the first battle. after taking an additional level of bard, she made the decision to take on paladin levels, exchanging one of her hexblade warlock levels to take two levels of paladin at once. for the rest of the season she alternated between leveling in lore bard and devotion paladin, thus ending with 10 levels of lore bard, 3 levels of devotion paladin, and 1 level hexblade warlock.

overall level change:

initial level: bard 1

final level: lore bard 10 | devotion paladin 3 | hexblade warlock 1

gorgug thistlespring

freshman year: gorgug leveled exclusively in barbarian from levels 1 to 8, taking berserker barbarian as his subclass at level 3.

sophomore year: gorgug started the season as a level 8 berserker barbarian. at the mid-season level up, gorgug took his first level of artificer to end the season with 8 levels of berserker barbarian and 1 level of artificer.

junior year: gorgug started the season having redistributed his levels somewhat: 7 levels of berserker barbarian and 3 levels of artificer (subclass unconfirmed but expected to be alchemist). with each subsequent level up, he removed barbarian levels to replace them with higher artificer levels; he went from 7 | 3 -> 6 | 5 -> 6 | 6 -> 6 | 7 -> 5 | 9. furthermore, he swapped from the battlesmith subclass (declared at first level up) to the barbificer subclass (homebrew) to reflect his narrative growth. he ended the season with 5 levels of berserker barbarian and 9 levels of barbificer artificer.

overall level change:

initial level: barbarian 1

final level: berserker barbarian 5 | barbificer artificer 9

adaine abernant

freshman year: adaine leveled exclusively in wizard from levels 1 to 8, taking divination wizard as her subclass at level 3.

sophomore year: adaine started the season as a level 8 divination wizard. at the mid-season level up, she took another level of divination wizard.

junior year: adaine started the season with 10 levels of divination wizard; she continued leveling in it throughout the season to end with 14 levels of divination wizard. she was the only one of the bad kids to not change her subclass or multiclass in any season.

overall level change:

initial level: wizard 1

final level: divination wizard 14

fabian aramais seacaster

freshman year: fabian leveled exclusively in fighter from levels 1 to 8, taking champion fighter as his subclass at level 3.

sophomore year: fabian started the season as a level 8 champion fighter. after his catastrophic fall in leviathan, fabian lost the use of his class/subclass features. at the mid-season level up, he redistributed his build: he took 6 levels of battlemaster fighter and 3 levels of swords bard.

junior year: fabian started the season with 6 levels of battlemaster fighter and 4 levels of swords bard; he exclusively leveled in swords bard for the rest of the season to end with 6 levels of battlemaster fighter and 8 levels of swords bard.

overall level change:

initial level: fighter 1

final level: battlemaster fighter 6 | swords bard 8

kristen applebees

freshman year: kristen leveled exclusively in life cleric from levels 1 to 8.

sophomore year: kristen started the season as a level 8 life cleric. at the mid-season level up, she took another level of life cleric. after her death and council of the gods, she swapped her subclass to twilight cleric to reflect her new deity.

junior year: kristen started the season with 10 levels of twilight cleric; she continued leveling in it throughout the season to end with 14 levels of twlight cleric.

overall level change:

initial level: life cleric 1

final level: twilight cleric 14

riz gukgak

freshman year: riz leveled exclusively in rogue from levels 1 to 8, taking inquisitive rogue as his subclass at level 3.

sophomore year: riz started the season as a level 8 inquisitive rogue. at the mid-season level up, he took another level of inquisitive rogue.

junior year: riz started the season with 10 levels of arcane trickster rogue, having switched his subclass to improve efficiency and reflect his work as an angelic agent; he continued leveling in it throughout the season to end with 14 levels of arcane trickster rogue.

overall level change:

initial level: rogue 1

final level: arcane trickster rogue 14

--------

the unsleeping city

the dream team also experienced major growth, though they swapped from single battle-milestone to a more spread out approach from chapter i to chapter ii. there were notably fewer multiclasses and subclass swaps, though they were still present. given that the setting required engagement with the magical side of new york, all of the party members had some kind of magic and the party overall had a higher than average number of full casters (chapter i: 4, chapter 2: 4)

this is our first sequel season where new characters come in to play; the descriptions will reflect this change.

ricky matsui

chapter i: ricky leveled exclusively in devotion paladin from level 3 to level 10.

chapter ii: ricky started the season with a subclass change to redemption paladin, then continually leveled in it to finish the season at level 12.

overall level change:

initial level: devotion paladin 3

final level: redemption paladin 12

sofia lee

chapter i: sofia started the season as a level 3 drunken master monk--she leveled in it until mid-way through the season, when she made a pact with la gran gata and picked up two levels of hexblade warlock. she finished the season with 8 levels of drunken master monk and 2 levels of hexblade warlock.

chapter ii: sofia started the season with a subclass change to shadow monk, to symbolize her journey away from alcoholism, and then exclusively leveled in it to end the season with 10 levels of shadow monk and 2 levels of hexblade warlock. she utilized downtime addiction mechanics (progressive rolls on each die in the suite to symbolize her state; the highest roll on each given die would trigger a move to the next, e.g. a 4 on the d4 means she'd move to the d6, so on and so forth).

overall level change:

initial level: drunken master monk 3

final level: shadow monk 10 | hexblade warlock 2

kingston brown

chapter i: kingston leveled exclusively in city cleric from level 3 to level 10.

chapter ii: kingston leveled exclusively in city cleric from level 10 to level 12.

overall level change:

initial level: city cleric 3

final level: city cleric 12

misty moore/rowan berry

chapter i: misty leveled exclusively in lore bard from level 3 to level 10.

chapter ii: rowan presumably leveled up off-screen; we meet her with 12 levels of lore bard in chapter ii.

overall level change:

initial level: lore bard 3

final level: lore bard 12

iga lisowski

chapter i: iga was not present in chapter i; presumably she progressively leveled up throughout her lifetime.

chapter ii: iga started the season with 10 levels of genie warlock; after unlocking the secret of her ancestral chest, she took 2 levels of draconic sorcerer to finish the season.

overall level change:

initial level: genie warlock 10

final level: genie warlock 10 | draconic sorcerer 2

kugrash

chapter i: kugrash leveled exclusively in shepherd druid from level 3 to level 10.

chapter ii: kugrash was not present as a PC in chapter ii, but as an omnipotent spirit of the city of new york.

overall level change:

initial level: shepherd druid 3

final level: shepherd druid 10

cody walsh

chapter i: cody was not present in chapter i; presumably he leveled up throughout his lifetime.

chapter ii: cody leveled exclusively in oathbreaker paladin from level 10 to level 12.

overall level change:

initial level: oathbreaker paladin 10

final level: oathbreaker paladin 12

pete conlan

chapter i: pete leveled exclusively in wild magic sorcerer from level 3 to level 10. pete utilized a modified build to reflect his role as the vox phantasma and his background as an addict; instead of triggering wild magic surges solely on nat 1s, his magic increased the dc with each spell he used, thus increasing the probability of surges. he also received the 14th level subclass feature controlled chaos (advantage on d100 roll for wild magic) midway through the season.

chapter ii: pete leveled exclusively in wild magic sorcerer from level 10 to level 12. he retained his altered build features and utilized the addiction mechanics that he shared with sofia.

overall level change:

initial level: wild magic sorcerer 3

final level: wild magic sorcerer 12

--------

a crown of candy

the taste buds also saw major growth, though some saw different progressions; the pcs started the season at staggered levels. multiclassing and subclass switches were common in this season perhaps more than any other. maximization of the builds was a focus due to the deadly nature of the season.

liam wilhelmina

liam started the season with 2 levels of ranger and selected the beastmaster subclass after the ambush on sucrosi road. he continued to level in ranger, but after the death of his companion, he 'became a war guy' and took on the gloomstalker subclass. after the death of his cousin, liam restructured his build to include 5 levels of gloomstalker ranger and 2 levels of rogue. from there, he alternated between adding levels of rogue and levels of ranger. he finished the season with 6 levels of gloomstalker ranger and 4 levels of assassin rogue.

overall level change:

initial level: ranger 2

final level: gloomstalker ranger 6 | assassin rogue 4

theobald gumbar

theo leveled exclusively in eldritch knight fighter from level 3 to level 10.

overall level change:

initial level: eldritch knight fighter 3

final level: eldritch knight fighter 10

jet rocks

jet started the season with 1 level of rogue; she took 3 levels of battlemaster fighter in preparation for the grand tournament. jet continued to increase her fighter levels--she dropped her rogue level to prioritize her fighter levels just before her death, ending with 7 levels of battlemaster fighter.

overall level change:

initial level: rogue 1

final level: battlemaster fighter 7

saccharina frostwhip

saccharina joined the party with 6 levels of storm sorcerer and 2 levels of tempest cleric; she prioritized her sorcerer levels and ended the season with 8 levels of storm sorcerer and 2 levels of tempest cleric. she was the party's only full caster and her build was optimized to reflect that.

overall level change:

initial level: storm sorcerer 6 | tempest cleric 2

final level: storm sorcerer 8 | tempest cleric 2

ruby rocks

ruby started the season with 1 level of rogue; she continued to level it, taking arcane trickster as her subclass in preparation for the grand tournament. she took 1 level of shadow sorcerer after communing with her aunt lazuli and the sugar plum fairy, but continued to level in rogue for the rest of the season, ending with 9 levels of arcane trickster rogue and 1 level of shadow sorcerer

overall level change:

initial level: rogue 1

final level: arcane trickster rogue 9 | shadow sorcerer 1

amethar rocks

amethar started the season with 3 levels of storm herald barbarian; he tok two further levels in it until the ambush at st. arugula's, when he started to level in fighter, selecting battlemaster as his subclass to match his daughter. he ended the season with 5 levels of storm herald barbarian and 5 levels of battlemaster fighter.

overall level change:

initial level: storm herald barbarian 3

final level: storm herald barbarian 5 | battlemaster fighter 5

lapin cadbury

lapin leveled exclusively in celestial warlock from level 3 to level 5. he passed away early in the campaign, thus precluding further level changes.

overall level change:

initial level: celestial warlock 3

final level: celestial warlock 5

cumulous rocks

cumulous leveled exclusively in long death monk from level 6 to level 10. he joined the party midway through the campaign as they returned to candia.

overall level change:

initial level: long death monk 6

final level: long death monk 10

--------

a starstruck odyssey

starstruck runs a little differently than previous seasons of dimension 20 by virtue of using sw5e--a dnd-influenced game system that utilizes aspects of the world of star wars to bring a sci-fi galaxy to life. you can check out sw5e here; i highly recommend it.

the major change is the inclusion of ship deployments as additional customization; this allows the characters to level up their proficiencies on the ship and provides additional abilities for use on space craft. ship deployment levels do not necessarily correlate to character class levels; characters technically start at level 0 and level up as they prove their mastery in ship combat. the gunner channel is technically a little overleveled in their ship deployment levels with respect to their character classes, if we assume the 5 levels of ship deployment are evenly spaced among the 20 character class levels.

this serves to balance the season, because the gunner channel ends the season at level 6 after fighting some enemies that were seriously above their weight class, though they had fewer battles in general. we saw some staggered starts again, though no subclass swaps or multiclassing. they leveled up after combats with battle boards; there were a few encounters that did not qualify (e.g. flee from fantanimalland).

gunnie miggles-rashbax

character class: gunnie leveled exclusively in engineer from level 1 to level 6, taking 3 levels and the gadgeteer subclass at the party's first level up. this class is comparable to artificer, with the full casting progression and inspiration from bard.

ship deployment: gunnie leveled exclusively in mechanic from level 1 to level 3.

overall level change:

initial level: engineer 1 [mechanic 1]

final level: gadgeteer engineer 6 [mechanic 3]

riva

character class: riva leveled exclusively in suggestion consular from level 3 to level 6. this class combines features of the cleric, wizard, and sorcerer, and utilizes metamagic as an additional feature.

ship deployment: riva leveled exclusively in coordinator from level 1 to level 3.

overall level change:

initial level: suggestion consular 3 [coordinator 1]

final level: suggestion consular 6 [coordinator 3]

norman 'skip' takamori

character class: skip leveled exclusively in operative from level 2 to level 6, taking 2 levels and the lethality subclass at the party's first level up. this class is primarily based on the rogue, but provides different uses of sneak attack and additional maneuvers.

ship deployment: skip leveled exclusively in pilot from level 1 to level 3

overall level change:

initial level: operative 2 [pilot 1]

final level: lethality operative 6 [pilot 3]

margaret encino

character class: margaret leveled exclusively in scholar from level 2 to level 6, taking 2 levels and the politician subclass at the party's first level up. this is a brand new class which incorporates maneuvers from the battlemaster fighter and new features knows as discoveries that serve to support the party in battle and provide expertise out of combat.

ship deployment: margaret leveled exclusively in operator from level 1 to level 3.

overall level change:

initial level: scholar 2 [operator 1]

final level: politician scholar 6 [operator 3]

sundry sidney

character class: sidney leveled exclusively in corsair sentinel from level 3 to level 6. this class uses a 2/3rds progression that supports combat support casting from the bard and an additional level of customization known as ideals

ship deployment: sidney leveled exclusively in gunner from level 1 to level 3

overall level change:

initial level: corsair sentinel 3 [gunner 1]

final level: corsair sentinel 6 [gunner 3]

big barry syx

character class: barry leveled exclusively in ballistic berserker from level 3 to level 6. this class is based on the barbarian, with the addition of instincts that provide unique abilities aside from subclass.

ship deployment: barry leveled exclusively in gunner from level 1 to level 3

overall level change:

initial level: ballistic berserker 3 [gunner 1]

final level: ballistic berserker 6 [gunner 3]

--------

neverafter

neverafter has the most traditional high fantasy dnd setting--the leveling of the party is relatively normal, with a couple of subclass swaps and multiclasses, but generally standard progression.

we saw a couple of narrative moments that signaled different level shifts: destiny's children had a notable level jump after their first battle because they committed to a darker universe after death. the party had symbolic changes after their encounter with the baba yaga as well, with a second level jump going into the finale.

rosamund du prix

rosamund started the season as a level 1 ranger. at the first major jump, she continued on the ranger track and took the swarmkeeper subclass. she maintained this progression until the second major jump, when she restructured her build to incorporate 5 levels of swarmkeeper ranger, 2 levels of stars druid, and 1 level of fighter, where she ended the season.

overall level change:

initial level: ranger 1

final level: swarmkeeper ranger 5 | stars druid 2 | fighter 1

mother timothy goose

timothy started the season as a level 1 bard. at the first major jump, he continued on the bard track and took the lore subclass. he maintained this progression through the second major jump, and ended the season with 8 levels of lore bard.

overall level change:

initial level: bard 1

final level: lore bard 8

pinocchio

pinocchio started the season as a level 1 archfey warlock. at the first major jump, he continued on this track. after breaking his ties with the stepmother, he changed his subclass to destiny, a homebrew that allowed him to affect elements of fate relating to his own story. he maintained this progression through the second major jump, and ended the season with 8 levels of destiny warlock.

overall level change:

initial level: archfey warlock 1

final level: destiny warlock 8

puss in boots | pib

pib started the season as a level 1 rogue. at the first major jump, he continued on the rogue track and took the mastermind subclass. he maintained this progression through the second major jump, and ended the season with 8 levels of mastermind rogue.

overall level change:

initial level: rogue 1

final level: mastermind rogue 8

gerard of greenleigh

gerard started the season as a level 1 fighter. at the first major jump, he continued on the fighter track and took the battlemaster subclass. he maintained this progression through the second major jump, and ended the season with 8 levels of battlemaster fighter.

overall level change:

initial level: fighter 1

final level: battlemaster fighter 8

ylfa snorgelsson

ylfa started the season as a level 1 barbarian. at the first major jump, she paused her barbarian progression for 2 levels of moon druid. she then returned to the barbarian progression, taking the bear totem subclass, and ended the season with 6 levels of bear totem barbarian and 2 levels of moon druid.

overall level change:

initial level: barbarian 1

final level: bear totem barbarian 6 | moon druid 2

--------

the ravening war

unlike the other seasons we've discussed so far, the ravening war has a time skip over wartime that constitutes a major level jump--almost doubling the previous builds. much like a crown of candy, this season involved lots of multiclasses and subclass swaps, with min-maxing for political intrigue as opposed to pure combat.

delissandro katzon

delissandro started the season with 5 levels of champion fighter. at the time skip he swapped his fighter subclass out and took a level of barbarian, to end the season with 8 levels of battlemaster fighter and 1 level of barbarian.

overall level change:

initial level: champion fighter 5

final level: battlemaster fighter 8 | barbarian 1

raphaniel charlock

raphaniel started the season with 4 levels of eloquence bard and 1 level of rogue. at the time skip he took two levels of each and the inquisitive rogue subclass, to end the season with 6 levels of eloquence bard and 3 levels of inquisitive rogue. his build included feats that allowed him the use of metamagic and telepathy, which heightened his use of magic and secretive nature.

overall level change:

initial level: eloquence bard 4 | rogue 1

final level: eloquence bard 6 | inquisitive rogue 3

karna solara

karna started the season with 3 levels of whispers bard and 2 levels of great old one warlock. at the time skip she took 4 levels of phantom rogue, to end the season with 4 levels of phantom rogue, 3 levels of whispers bard, and 2 levels of great old one warlock.

overall level change:

initial level: whispers bard 3 | great old one warlock 2

final level: phantom rogue 4 | whispers bard 3 | great old one warlock 2

colin provolone

colin started the season with 3 levels of battlemaster fighter and 2 levels of rogue. at the time skip he took 3 fighter levels and 1 rogue level, to end the season with 6 levels of battlemaster fighter and 3 levels of swashbuckler rogue.

overall level change:

initial level: battlemaster fighter 3 | rogue 2

final level: battlemaster fighter 6 | swashbuckler rogue 3

lady amangeaux epiceé du peche

amangeaux started the season with 4 levels of arcane trickster rogue, comparatively lower level than the rest of the party. at the time skip, she continued in the progression to end the season with 9 levels of arcane trickster rogue.

overall level change:

initial level: arcane trickster rogue 4

final level: arcane trickster rogue 9

--------

burrow's end

burrow's end is the first true major progression sidequest, despite occurring on a compressed timespan. each level up is a double jump, signifying the party's exposure to the blue and the society of last bast. multiclassing, subclass swaps, and restructured builds were common in this season; all of the characters multiclass at least once.

tula

tula started the season with 4 levels of redemption paladin. at the first level jump she continued the progression with two additional levels. at the second level jump she continued the progression with two additional levels. at the final level jump she restructured her build to finish the season with 7 levels of redemption paladin and 3 levels of life cleric.

overall level change:

initial level: redemption paladin 4

final level: redemption paladin 7 | life cleric 3

jaysohn

jaysohn started the season with 4 levels of astral self monk. at the first level jump he took 1 additional level as well as 1 level of rogue. at the second level jump he continued the rogue progression with two additional levels, taking the swashbuckler subclass. at the final level jump he took two additional levels of rogue to finish the season with 5 levels of astral self monk and 5 levels of swashbuckler rogue.

overall level change:

initial level: astral self monk 4

final level: astral self monk 5 | swashbuckler rogue 5

viola

viola started the season with 4 levels of devotion paladin. at the first level jump she continued the progression with two additional levels. at the second level jump she continued the progression with two additional levels. at the final level jump she restructured her build to finish the season with 7 levels of devotion paladin and 3 levels of champion fighter.

overall level change:

initial level: devotion paladin 4

final level: devotion paladin 7 | champion fighter 3

thorn vale

thorn started the season with 4 levels of fey wanderer ranger. at the first level jump he continued the progression with two additional levels. at the second level jump he took 1 additional level as well as 1 level of tempest cleric. at the final level jump he restructured his build to finish the season with 5 levels of fey wanderer ranger and 5 levels of tempest cleric.

overall level change:

initial level: fey wanderer ranger 4

final level: fey wanderer ranger 5 | tempest cleric 5

ava

ava started the season with 3 levels of ancestral guardians barbarian and 1 level of fighter. at the first level jump she continued the barbarian progression with two additional levels. at the second level jump she continued the fighter progression with two additional levels, taking the battlemaster subclass. at the final level jump she added two grave cleric levels to finish the season with 5 levels of ancestral guardians barbarian, 3 levels of battlemaster fighter, and 2 levels of grave cleric.

overall level change:

initial level: ancestral guardians barbarian 3 | fighter 1

final level: ancestral guardians barbarian 5 | battlemaster fighter 3 | life cleric 2

lila

lila started the season with 4 levels of inquisitive rogue. at the first level jump she continued the rogue progression with two additional levels, and swapped her subclass to arcane trickster. at the second level jump she took two levels of wizard. at the final level jump she restructured her build to finish the season with 4 levels of arcane trickster rogue and 6 levels of bladesinger wizard.

overall level change:

initial level: inquisitive rogue 4

final level: arcane trickster rogue 4 | bladesinger wizard 6

--------

minor level progressions

these are the seasons with only one level jump--this reflects having narrative growth on a compressed timeline. if we include fhsy for the sake of argument, all of these seasons fall into tier 2--it makes sense that there's only a minor level change because the characters don't need to be significantly scaled up to face more powerful foes. it's also notable that these are 10 episode seasons, and the other 10-eps either have no level change or major level changes--the length has room for variance.

this section kind of restates the obvious, but it's interesting to see the difference in how much each season prioritizes optimization; for example, brennan gets got by a feat (alert) that antiope takes with her level up.

--------

the seven

not too many crazy changes, though we do see a few multiclasses/multiclass extensions. the notable changes really fall into the nitty-gritty, with class features, subclass features, and feats.

antiope jones

antiope started the season with 6 levels of arcane archer fighter and 3 levels of monster slayer ranger. at the mid-season level up, she took another ranger level and the alert feat.

overall level change:

initial level: arcane archer fighter 6 | monster slayer ranger 3

final level: arcane archer fighter 6 | monster slayer ranger 4

katja cleaver

katja started the season with 9 levels of battlemaster fighter. at the mid-season level up, she took 1 level of barbarian.

overall level change:

initial level: battlemaster fighter 9

final level: battlemaster fighter 9 | barbarian 1

penny luckstone

penny started the season with 9 levels of arcane trickster rogue. at the mid-season level up, she took another rogue level.

overall level change:

initial level: arcane trickster rogue 9

final level: arcane trickster rogue 10

danielle barkstock

danielle started the season with 9 levels of shepherd druid. at the mid-season level up, she took another druid level.

overall level change:

initial level: shepherd druid 9

final level: shepherd druid 10

ostentatia wallace

ostentatia started the season with 9 levels of forge cleric. at the mid-season level up, she took another cleric level.

overall level change:

initial level: forge cleric 9

final level: forge cleric 10

sam nightingale

sam started the season with 6 levels of storm sorcerer and 3 levels of glamour bard. at the mid-season level up, she took another bard level, as well as a magic initiate: warlock to reflect her pact with talura.

overall level change:

initial level: storm sorcerer 6 | glamour bard 3

final level: storm sorcerer 6 | glamour bard 4

zelda donovan

zelda started the season with 8 levels of eagle totem barbarian and 1 level of fighter. at the mid-season level up, she took another fighter level.

overall level change:

initial level: eagle totem barbarian 8 | fighter 1

final level: eagle totem barbarian 8 | fighter 2

--------

a court of fey and flowers

another season without crazy changes--all of the characters continue their standard progression, no subclass changes or multiclasses, though hob continues a multiclass progression.

andhera

andhera started the season with 8 levels of devotion paladin. at the mid-season level up, he took another paladin level.

overall level change:

initial level: devotion paladin 8

final level: devotion paladin 9

k.p. hob

hob started the season with 6 levels of battlemaster fighter, 1 level of rogue, and 1 level of barbarian. at the mid-season level up, he took another rogue level to get cunning action.

overall level change:

initial level: battlemaster fighter 6 | rogue 1 | barbarian 1

final level: battlemaster fighter 6 | rogue 2 | barbarian 1

chirp featherfowl

chirp started the season with 8 levels of bladesinger wizard. at the mid-season level up, she took another wizard level.

overall level change:

initial level: bladesinger wizard 8

final level: bladesinger wizard 9

squak airavis

squak started the season with 8 levels of lore bard. at the mid-season level up, he took another bard level.

overall level change:

initial level: lore bard 8

final level: lore bard 9

delloso de la rue

rue started the season with 8 levels of bard, subclass unknown. at the mid-season level up, they took another bard level.

overall level change:

initial level: bard 8

final level: bard 9

binx choppley

binx started the season with 8 levels of arcane trickster rogue. at the mid-season level up, they took another rogue level.

overall level change:

initial level: arcane trickster rogue 8

final level: arcane trickster rogue 9

--------

nonprogression seasons

i really don't feel like writing all of these out individually, so reference the images for specifics of leveling. i do have some commentary on the tiering of these seasons and what it means for the scale of the adventure.

--------

escape from the bloodkeep

the vile villains are still tied for highest level party at level 14, though they have fewer multiclasses--thus the characters are running around with roughly the same amount in each of their toolkits. they're sturdy enough that battles can be in precarious environments and include multiple objectives, while leaving room for shenanigans. honestly, given the lava shenanigans in bloodkeep, you'd think brennan would have learned for fhjy.

--------

tiny heist

given the genre, it makes sense that the tiny thieves would be capped at level 4. getting them up into tier 2 would lead to shenanigans that would stretch the bounds of a heist movie. they tend to run low magic, and the few spells in use are explained by the presence of fairies, technology, or monastic tradition. that doesn't stop them from doing things like rolling on a roll of quarters like a circus bear, crushing a man in a transforming car, or blowing up a bomb with a flamethrower.

--------

pirates of leviathan

at level 5, the buccaneer buddies are securely beyond the abilities of the average person, and that's clear in their roles on leviathan. it means that the threats feel real and present and that the characters inhabit the world as protectors of their home. the entire party has some degree of magic/supernatural aid, which tracks for the people that end up facing a magical threat to leviathan.

--------

mice & murder

much like the tiny thieves, if the sylvan sleuths got too high level it would stretch the bounds of credulity for the mystery genre. the party is low magic; the vicar's magic is explained by blessings from the lord, though he is actually pretty bad at it. to even out the need for high rolls with the need for low leveling, all of the characters have a feat granting them skill expertise in one of the key skills of the mystery: history, insight, investigation, perception, and athletics for lars. this lets them work with the 15-20-25-nat 20 system for ability checks; all of them could theoretically find clues, but realistically they have different skillsets and would look for different things, which balances the info they find.

--------

coffin run

the fang gang has a mix of levels that reflects the amount of time each character has spent with dracula--may at level 6, aleksandr and wetzel at level 7, and squing at level 8. it affects their strategy in unusual ways: squing is the tank, wetzel and aleksandr fight on the front/midlines while running support, and may does crowd control. the party is fairly magic by nature, but leans more toward partial than full progressions.

--------

dungeons and drag queens

the questing queens are in much the same situation as the buccaneer buddies; powerful enough to start venturing out, but still low enough that the threats feel real and present. tier 2 is the bread and butter of 5e--fun abilities for the characters, enough that you have to think about what you're doing, but not too much for new players. this party leans a little bit harder to the martial side of things--with two long-ranged specialists they tend to space their fights out and take people out from afar, while staging princess as a shield and gertrude present for dps.

--------

and that's all for this time! i hope you enjoyed this installment--it's a long one (6.3k words!). kudos to you for making it this far.

obligatory spreadsheet link: thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats

22 notes · View notes

trgdaily · 5 months

Text

INTRODUCING - TRIGGER DOUBLE-CROSS!

A four-month-long digital TRIGGER fan event made to celebrate 9th anniversary of IDOLiSH7 and the four new TRIGGER songs we're getting across July to October!

This event will feature:

An open creative period for all things TRIGGER, be it art, writing, cosplay, anything!!

Tons of fan events and prompts to allow even those who can't find the time to create (or don't see themselves as creators) to join in from questionnaires, Rabbichat Book Clubs, and more!

A lengthy, flexible period designed to show all the love possible for TRIGGER, be it specific members on their birth months, or all three (or four, if you want to include Kaoru!) for four months straight!

Further information can be found under the read more!

WHAT IS TRIGGER DOUBLE-CROSS?

TRIGGER Double-Cross is a fan event designed to show all the love fans have for TRG! Its goal is to pay tribute to TRIGGER throughout the four months in which duets and their anniversary song are released, using the combined efforts of any contributions fans can offer to keep the celebration going from July to October! The name "TRIGGER Double-Cross" represents how this event is held digitally, just like TRIGGER Live Cross VALIANT was. It's meant to represent us striking back - giving all of the strength they gave us during VALIANT right back at them!

HOW DOES TRIGGER DOUBLE-CROSS WORK?

Because it's a digital event, all you guys need to do is tag your work with #TRIGGERDOUBLECROSS or #TRGDOUBLECROSS (Or just @ the TRGDaily account, really) to have your contributions get featured/shared! Super simple and easy!

You can also join in by chatting with your fellow TRG fans through the discussion posts and questionnaires! Anything goes! That said, THERE ARE RULES as to what will lead you to not be shared by TRGDaily itself, and therefore not counted in the event at large, but they're rather straightforward.

RESPECT OTHER FANS AND THEIR OPINIONS. We all love TRIGGER at the end of the day no matter what our opinions may be!

THE ABOVE RULE DOES NOT APPLY TO TRANSPHOBIA, RACISM, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF DISCRIMINATION, THOUGH. If discrimination is seen on your account when we check out your involvement in TRIGGER Double-Cross, your work WILL NOT be shared.

Ships are allowed (I mean, we're getting duets, I'm certainly not stopping anyone in enjoying those lol.) but they need to be kept within TRIGGER itself. For example: GakuTenn and RyuTenn content will be shared, but GakuTsumu won't. Please keep in mind though, that this IS a GENERAL TRIGGER event first and foremost, and please do NOT take the amount of shipping content TRGDaily retweets as a sign of favoritism between ships.

If you feel as if TRGDaily has failed to recognize your contribution, please note that the moderator is only human, and while he has help, things are bound to slip between the cracks. You can notify the account in this case, but please don't spam or delete your posts sharing said creations/contributions.

One last note is please stick to #TRIGGERDOUBLECROSS or #TRGDOUBLECROSS as using the dash (-) will break the tag.

Apart from that, the event will start on July 1st with a VALIANT memorial event soon after!

Let's give off INFINITE LIGHT!! ✨ 🤍🩷💙

#trgdoublecross #triggerdoublecross #trigger #idolish7 #tenn kujo #gaku yaotome #ryunosuke tsunashi

22 notes · View notes

max-praise-archive · 6 months

Text

youtube

Q: Let's talk about this season just as a whole, because some of the records that Max and the team have broken this year are insane. 10 wins in a row for for Max this season. 14 wins in a row for the team. You've won 26 of the last 28 races. That is just utter domination. I saw that you put up a Instagram post that said, I've never seen anything closer to perfection than what Max Verstappen has achieved this year. Tell me about that perfection that Max has achieved. Calum Nicholas: It seems to be his nature that he will just chase every last bit. He will leave nothing on the table. It's great to have. It puts the pressure on us to make sure that we deliver, which is great. The nature of the people in the garage: we thrive on that pressure. It's what drives us. We want to be the best every single week. Watching what Max has done, week in, week out and having the sort of knowledge that as long as we do our job and the car is reliable and it does what he needs it to do, I know he's gonna deliver. It's just one of those things. You go into a race weekend and it's nice because... I've always said this, it doesn't matter where you are in the pit lane. It doesn't matter what garage you are in, you are doing the same hours. Everybody's working such long hours, Saturday or Sunday can be 16 hour days easily. So it's nice to know that you've got everything in place, that you've put yourself in the best position to get a result from that work. Q: And what's Max like to work with? Million dollar question. I'm sure you get asked it a lot. But what's he like? Calum Nicholas: I've always thought this is odd to me that people can't see sometimes how brilliant he is. For me, when he's in the garage, when he's not in a race car, he's one of us. And he really is. He engages with us, just as you want any of your other colleagues to engage with you. He's kind. He cares about the people around him. And it's brilliant, and I like the fact that he can get into the car and close his lid and then he should be ruthless. You're a sports person. We're here to win. He's here to win. And I think it's great that he's able to switch between the both. And he really does. Q: You've worked with quite a few drivers in your time. You've been at Red Bull since 2015. So you've worked with a few other drivers. What attributes does Max have? You've worked with Ricardo, you've worked Kyvat, you've worked with Gasly, Albon. What are their traits, what what do they all share? And maybe what are the differences between between some of them? Calum Nicholas: Where I think Max is probably different to most of the others is that Max over the years has managed to encompass so many of the great attributes of the drivers that we've seen before. Max, when he arrived in F1, it was clear that he had this raw, unbridled talent, this raw speed. Over the years, he's just grown and grown and he's added everything to his arsenal. His race management, his way of seeing the holistic picture, his determination. All of these things are what's put him in the position that he's in now. It's a way that he's been able to encompass so many things that so many great drivers have had, and bring them all together to make them work. When you see an athlete in their prime, in their absolute prime, you look at them and you say that's a package that right now no one can beat. That's what it is. When you're an athlete in that position, it's your job to try and stretch that out for as long as you can, and stay in that zone. That little window of perfection. That's what Max is able to do right now. He's just able to just extract everything from himself. It's amazing to see up close. It really is. Q: I'm jealous that you get to see behind the scenes. Obviously we only see the stuff on the on the television, but I'm sure a lot goes on behind the scenes that we don't see and it must be amazing. To be up close.

Sky Sports F1 Podcast (7:06 - 10:45) October 12, 2023 Archive Link | Original Link

#max verstappen #Matthew Baker #Calum Nicholas #sky sports f1 podcast #podcast #2023 #October 2023 #original source #Youtube #video

23 notes · View notes

deke-rivers-1957 · 5 months

Text

It Happened at the World's Fair Review

It Happened at the World's Fair expands on what was introduced in Girls! Girls! Girls! (which came out after World's Fair filming started). Taking inspiration from Blue Hawaii, this set of movies are music heavy, have colorful scenery and involve Elvis having to work with child actors. The scenery in this case is the real life world's fair. The 1962 World's Fair in Seattle opened in April and closed in October. With a very limited timeline, it was very important that the movie comes out before the novelty of the fair is gone.

Because this is an actively operating fair, there were many issues involving crowd control. It's a major reason why filming didn't even start in September when most children started school. Naturally, this posed a problem because this meant despite making the movie as fast as possible, it still came out in April 1963 (6 months after the fair closed). Despite the logistical issues, does this movie capture the beauty of the World's Fair while balancing its plot, or does it take a complete nose dive because of the rushed production? Let's find out.

To start with, I'm not a big fan of the title. I get you need to highlight the World's Fair but it's a bit clunky. Might I suggest "World's Fair Wonders"? This opening song is forgettable. "Beyond the Bend" sounds like a rejected version of "Ridin' the Rainbow" from Kid Galahad. Since those two songs have the same songwriters, I get the idea that they repeat melodies to make up for the extra songs. After all Kid Galahad (at the time the last movie the songwriters worked on) only had 6 songs while this movie now has 10.

Elvis singing while flying a crop duster feels dangerous since it's obvious he's distracted. He looks goofy wearing those goggles and just seems out of place. We immediately get jokes with Elvis being a pilot claiming he can't see the barn. It's a joke as old as the Three Stooges. Elvis is so irresponsible that he flies the plane practically next to the road just to flirt with some girls. They almost crash into some telephone wires and I wonder if Paradise, Hawaiian Style was inspired by this scene when they did the helicopter scene with the dogs.

Surprisingly for a cliche womanizer, Mike is financially responsible. It isn't much but it does give him some depth. Given how he almost crashed the plane because he was distracted by women, it's impressive that he that it's not his entire character. As to why he doesn't take the money with him, I have no idea. I guess you have to assume that Mike doesn't know Danny had access to his hiding place.

So he goes to meet one of his girlfriends, Dorothy, who we never see again. They're making out on the couch while Dorothy wants to push away to get some iced tea. But Mike insists on keeping the action going. I know out of context "Relax" is a steamy song, but I wonder if it was intentional to make Mike so pushy. Because he's always touching Dorothy while she pushes him away and does everything she can to get away from him. He pulls stuff out of her hands and it's just creepy.

Her parents come back and I'm very confused on why Dorothy's dad is so upset. Unless we're assuming that they have never met Mike in their entire lives, it's very strange to react like that. At least seeing Mike run for the hills gives us a little chuckle as if to say "yeah he had it coming". The whole scene is just random as we didn't need to emphasize that Mike's a womanizer. The opening scene already tells us that he's a flirt. Since Dorothy doesn't even come back, it just feels like a scene where you go "ok that happened" as it came and went without adding anything.

Mike somehow catches up with a now broke Danny. After multiple bad hands, Danny can't pay his losses to some guys including a Red West cameo. A fight breaks out in the office and I don't think I've ever seen such an ugly scene. That gives it a bit more realism. You don't expect regular guys to have the punch of death. It's supposed to be ugly and brutal and it's not completely unrealistic that Mike and Danny win long enough to get away in their plane, Bessie.

The duo lands in Sherrington where they find out that because of the many debts they have, the sheriff "boots" their plane. He takes away their keys and gives them the ultimatum: pay the $1200 debt in 2 weeks or their plane goes up for auction to recoup the money. That's a pretty good set up for a conflict. It doesn't involve Elvis having bad luck, but instead relies on his friend having a realistic character flaw in the form of a gambling addiction.

Penniless and stranded, the duo tries to get a free ride into town. For how expensive his suits were, I'm amazed they had Elvis walking down the road in it. At first a car with a couple women stop but they only wanted Mike's lighter. I'm not sure if it was meant to be a joke or a narrative device meant to make the audience feel bad for them. Personally I don't think it does any of that. I didn't think it was funny and the "pain" they endure from the bad luck doesn't last long as they immediately get a ride. It makes me wonder why it was even added since there was no indication that a long period of time passed.

We get introduced Mr. Walter Ling and his niece Sue-Lin. I love this family. It's obvious that this is an Asian immigrant family which is very realistic for this part of the country and the time period. Despite Mr. Ling's actor being Chinese and Sue-Lin's actress being born in Manila (which is in the Philippines), it's actually not that bizarre. The Philippines does have a Chinese population so you can easily assume that Sue-Lin has some Chinese ancestry. For the time period, I'm so glad that this family is depicted as real people as opposed to stereotypes.

They drive to the World's Fair and I love the real backgrounds we get because of it. Mr. Ling being a delivery driver makes perfect sense since there are plenty of farms around the Seattle area. He can make extra money to be able to afford going to the fair. Sue-Lin has Mike try to explain what she might see and we get a decent song as "Take Me to the Fair" is a whimsical tune. I love Sue-Lin as a character. She isn't a generic cutesy girl character. We get genuine depth by showing that she's able to understand Chinese when her uncle is talking on the phone. When she finds out that uncle Walter has an important job and can't take her to the fair, she's naturally upset. It's not done in an over the top way where she has a complete tantrum. She understands that uncle Walter needs to take the job, but she's of course disappointed. Her realistic reaction only makes you appreciate Mike when he at first begrudgingly agrees to take her.

Mike's distracted by woman and we get it he's a womanizer. They could've just had him be absentminded because he's worried about finding a way to get money. But I do love how we see Mike and Sue-Lin interact with the real exhibitions such as the monorail. It gives you a special perspective that goes beyond a soundstage and shows just how big this fair is.

We get a Joe cameo as the man who gives Sue-Lin her red dog. I love the montage of them going around the fair. It's a wonderful showcase of what was there in case the viewer never had a chance to go and for younger generations who might not even know about the fair. Plus we get to see Mike warm up to Sue-Lin like he's taking his own daughter or niece to the fair. I can believe a change like that can happen in a short period of time. Unlike a romantic relationship, you don't need to have a lot happen to get along with a child. And it's not like Mike hated Sue-Lin as they got along on the truck ride.

It's really incredible to see just how much you can do at the fair for what doesn't seem like a lot of money. If only this was made earlier as it would've been a great way to promote the movie. After one too many treats, Mike takes Sue-Lin to the fair's nurse station. While Sue-Lin's being treated, Mike starts talking to himself and looks distractingly tan. When the nurse comes in and sees this he naturally can't help but flirt with her.

He pretends to have something in his eye and it's shocking how unapologetically pushy he is. I love how Nurse Warren rightfully calls him out on this. You really feel uncomfortable for her since it's relatable to have a man flirt unwarranted. Sue-Lin feels better so the two of them leave. Mike looks smitten and I have no idea what's meant to be so special about Nurse Warren. Because unless he thinks she's just playing hard to get, they have literally no chemistry.

I love this song. "They Remind Me Too Much of You" is such a beautiful ballad that if it wasn't for the fact that his first interaction with Nurse Warren went horribly, it would be the perfect ballad. We never see a quiet moment like this in any Elvis movie. In fact this is the first time outside of the opening song where Elvis isn't even singing out loud. He's only thinking about it as Sue-Lin sleeps. Not a single word is spoken as we take in this moment of Mike reflecting about his feelings. It's easily the best scene in the movie as it shows that Mike is so much more than a womanizer.

Mr. Ling returns to pick up Sue-Lin and you really get the idea that Mike loved "chaperoning" her. Sure he does say out loud to Danny that he was more happy about meeting Nurse Warren, but I honestly think the movie should've skipped the romance altogether. Mike had more chemistry with Sue-Lin in that one montage than he ever had with any other woman. The scenes with Dorothy and Nurse Warren only shows how shallow he is with women. With Sue-Lin we see a different side of Mike where he grows to care for Sue-Lin like she's his own family member.

Danny manages to swing the duo a temporary home that was set up for people attending the fair. We get introduced to Barney "yoo hoo" Thatcher who Danny uses as his pigeon to get money. Mike talks about how to get with Nurse Warren and again all I can think of is just how shallow he is. Even if he does succeed, it doesn't feel satisfying here because it doesn't feel like he'll change.

"One Broken Heart for Sale" is such an unnecessary song. We don't need to be bashed over the head with the obvious fact that Mike is horny for the nurse. Mike doesn't even deserve to say his heart is broken. You can't say your heart is broken just because someone you just met didn't reciprocate your pushy behavior. It doesn't add anything and just feels so out of place since you also have the other old men magically know what he's singing. Just shows how even the best songwriters can have duds if they're not in the right context. It's a shame because Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott have had great successes with Elvis.

We cut to the next day as Mike has a ploy to get Nurse Warren's attention. He pays a boy, played by an uncredited Kurt Russell, a quarter to kick him in the shin. I love how as Elvis screams in pain, you can see people in the background turn to see what happened. That's a sign that this was a genuine crowd and only makes the setting feel real. Given the extent of the actual injury I'm more amazed that the nurses didn't immediately call for an ambulance. If Mike supposedly can't walk properly that could possibly be a sign of a broken leg. Mike says he blacked out which if you're a nurse is a red flag. The head nurse even has him walk on it and you just have to wonder why they're doing this. They don't know Mike is exaggerating so they're doing a horrible job of insuring his safety when the head nurse suggests Nurse Warren escorts him home.

As Nurse Warren shows no sense of urgency we get pretty obvious rear screen projections as the two talk. Why are we doing this? Nurse Warren doesn't know that Mike's faking so why is she taking her sweet time getting him home? In fact, when Mike again lies about blacking out, instead of calling for an ambulance she instead helps him up to the real rotating restaurant. Why? A professional would've immediately called for an ambulance. You would never risk moving someone who feels that dizzy as you would risk causing them further injury.

His ploy seems to work though since Nurse Warren is in no rush to leave the restaurant. In fact based on the passage of time they've been in that restaurant for hours. Mike even sings a ballad about how he's in love with Nurse Warren. "I'm Falling in Love Tonight" is such a generic ballad that I have no idea why I'm supposed to support this budding romance. Nurse Warren falling for Mike is something I don't buy at all. If anything it's showing that so long as you get the girl, you can be as pushy and manipulative as you want. That's a terrible moral to have for what's supposed to be a family film. It'd make more sense if she's just going along with this until it all blows up in his face, but that isn't at all how it's presented

I do love how the extras have their own charm to the movie. These were legit patrons that had no idea of what's happening. Them clapping after Mike's song was real and I love it because it shows just how weird it is to have someone burst into song in a restaurant. Mike's ploy immediately falls apart as the boy from earlier comes back. He kicks Mike in the shin and I love the old man who's just like "oh my God what's happening". He looks realistically concerned.

As Mike tries to apologize to Nurse Warren, Sue-Lin rushes up to him. She tearfully tells him that her uncle didn't come back from a job. Given how she waited from 9 am to 3 pm for Mr. Ling to return, I'd say Sue-Lin handled the situation very well for a child. You always allow for some delay if someone's traveling because you never know what would happen. When it became obvious that something had to have happened, it's natural for her to be very concerned.

This is the most realistic acting from a child I've ever seen. A 7 year old girl possibly losing her only guardian is terrifying situation to be in. It really says a lot that she didn't go one of her neighbors since they were living in one of those temporary homes as well. In fact, I'm amazed that not a single adult noticed her wandering the fair alone and most likely in distress. It's like the movie wants us to believe Mike's the only adult in this movie who Sue-Lin can even trust.

He takes Sue-Lin home and the movie immediately got better again. Mike explains that he took every measure to make sure people know he has Sue-Lin. I love this as he could've easily been the buffoon that has no idea how to tell anyone that he's watching a child who would otherwise have no one. It seems like it's relatively late at night, so while you can question if Mike's doing the right thing, it's at least better to have Sue-Lin be in a safe space than drive around trying to find the authorities.

We get a sweet scene where Sue-Lin dresses in her traditionally Chinese pajamas. Mike even sings "Cotton Candy Land" as a lullaby. In the context that it's in, I know the lullaby is meant to be sweet, but I only get a creepy vibe to it. I'm not sure why but to me Mike singing it in a quiet voice and the music just makes me feel more scared than soothed. The sandman doesn't feel like this whimsical creature but more like a monster. I'm sure that was unintentional as I don't think it's a common opinion to feel that way.

After pretending to be sick so Mike can make up with Nurse Warren, she arrives to check out Sue-Lin. It's a bit distracting how the studio light casts a big shadow. You know that little night lamp isn't doing that. Sue-Lin tells Nurse Warren the truth and I'm amazed Nurse Warren didn't immediately raise an eyebrow. Then again this is the same woman who took what she believed to be an injured Mike up to a rotating restaurant when he said he was about to blackout. I can't take any expertise or authority a character like her should have seriously.

The movie clearly has no idea on how to handle their relationship as Nurse Warren starts to fall for Mike again when he serenades her. "A World of Our Own" is so unnecessary. Mike being nice to Sue-Lin and taking care of her doesn't eliminate the fact that he was pushy and manipulated her. The whole relationship just feels forced as I don't think this couple has any chemistry. Again there's nothing about Nurse Warren that makes her different since there's a clear difference between playing hard to get and having no interest. While the movie wants to tell you that she's the former, you really know that it's the latter.

Danny comes back from his card games completely drunk. You would think this would tell Nurse Warren that Sue-Lin living with Mike is a bad idea. But no. It's not even a thought that was uttered as she just drives home. How? She has the authority to report this to the authorities since Danny being drunk can lead to terrible consequences. Especially when you have a child in the home.

Danny meanwhile meets up with a guy named Vince who offers Danny a deal to fly up to Canada. Oh yeah they had a debt to repay. I almost forgot about that since that plot took a back seat to the conflict of Mike caring for Sue-Lin and the conflict of Mike getting with Nurse Warren. Vince outright agrees to pay them the whole amount that would allow the duo to get their plane back. So naturally you assume he's going to be the villain which can't possibly be a good thing since he's been introduced way too late in the movie to really do anything important.

Mike comes back from asking about Sue-Lin's uncle. We get a sweet moment where he watches her color before playing "How Would You Like to Be?" with the windup clowns. I love the song as it does serve a purpose. Mike is trying to cheer up Sue-Lin and it of course makes sense that Sue-Lin only sings along once she feels better. These aren't complicated lyrics to try to have a young girl learn so it feels realistic for her to join in. Her dancing along with Mike is sweet but the smirk he has does feel out of place. I would've used a different shot as out of context you don't think he's looking at a 7 year old girl.

A woman from Child Services arrive to take Sue-Lin away. Because after a couple days, now it's a problem for Sue-Lin to be here. The woman says "an abandoned child is automatically a ward of the state" which is a lie. Sue-Lin wasn't immediately taken by the police who had to have known she was with Mike. This whole plot point is terrible as it doesn't properly set up why now all of a sudden is it a problem. The woman claims that it was Nurse Warren who made the complaint which you immediately know isn't true. If Nurse Warren genuinely believed that Sue-Lin wasn't safe, that would've been conveyed in the previous scene. This is just terrible drama meant to turn Mike off of her. Also there's no way that woman from Child Services would straight up tell Mike who made the complaint. That would put the person who made the complaint at risk of retaliation.

This whole situation is gets even worse as for someone who's supposed to be in Child Services, she can't even keep track of one child. I understand that Child Services has a very legitimate job, but this movie doesn't paint them in a good light at all. Instead of taking this seriously, I just see Child Services as a joke in this movie. They're only now making a stink about custody of a child when not even the police mentioned it. Instead of making it a forced situation from the start, it was only "suggested" so I have no reason to buy this organization as legitimate. I can only think of the much later film Lilo & Stitch as it does a better job of setting up why Lilo could be taken out of the home.

So we have Mike now desperately trying to find Sue-Lin as he's the only one who would know where she could be. As irrational as it is that he wouldn't tell authorities where she would be, I 100% get it in this situation. The authorities have done nothing to prove that they are reliable. In fact, if Mike didn't find her, you already know Sue-Lin would just runaway again. It's really sad that a child feels more safe with Mike than the authorities meant to protect abandoned children. It's also frustrating that because of the situation, Mike's now being painted as if he's abducting her.

Mike and Sue-Lin manage to make it to the airport just as Nurse Warren arrives trying to find them. She tries to explain what happened but he naturally doesn't want to hear it. Mike is just so done with everyone as he immediately finds out about the smuggling scheme. I know that Vince being a criminal was going to be this twist but wow they really just dropped that fur smuggling scheme that quickly. It doesn't even give that much importance or tension as Sue-Lin actually does something by biting Vince's finger when he's holding them at gunpoint. A fight breaks out and again it's ugly. Just like a real fight between non-professionals. Mike at this point is running on pure adrenaline so it makes perfect sense for him to win. But it's just so anti-climatic because really? This is what you've been building Danny's subplot up to? This plot element of Danny being involved in a fur smuggling scheme is introduced and resolved so quickly that there's no point in it even existing.

They get caught by the police and it turns out Danny was the one who contacted Child Services. This is a stupid twist as there's no way he could've fooled the woman from Child Services into thinking he's a woman. Also why's he now deciding that Sue-Lin was a problem when he didn't want her being there in the first place? It's not like he cared about Mike's feelings for her.We then find out that Mr Ling was only 20 miles south of the town and was in an emergency hospital. 20 miles is not that far so I have no idea why it took them all these days to figure this out. If Sue-Lin knew where he was going that she knew he should be back by certain point, what's the mystery here? It isn't like uncle Walter got kidnapped and no one knows where he could've been taken. Again a very anti-climatic ending for something that took up a big chunk of the movie.

We time skip to Mike applying to NASA as he walks with Nurse Warren through the fairgrounds. He sings about how this is a happy ending with a very fitting title "Happy Ending". Danny and Sue-Lin with her uncle Walter are nowhere to be seen to share this moment and absolutely nothing was earned. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just don't think this couple is likable and Mike was better off forgetting about her. It isn't unrealistic to realize "hey my priorities have changed. Getting the girl doesn't matter to me anymore. All that matters is that Sue-Lin is safe." That's character growth.

But no this is an Elvis movie and regardless of whether it makes sense for them to be together, he has to get the girl. It just makes you wonder why we spent all this time on something only for it to be completely hand waved like it was nothing. Almost like they completely ran out of time with writing the script and just had to say "everything is magically resolved no matter how ridiculous it is".

This movie clearly tried to do too much and it shows. You have the conflict of Mike and Danny being broke and needing to get the money for their plane; Mike wanting to get with Nurse Warren and having to deal with her being mad at him because he lied; Sue-Lin's uncle going missing and people thinking she needs to go to Child Services; and a last minute fur smuggling scheme. None of these plots were resolved in a way that feels like thought was put into it. They were only resolved because it's an Elvis movie that has to have a happy ending as opposed to naturally fixing them. As a result, the whole film is messy and is a case of wasted potential. It seriously needs a rewrite to smooth out everything that doesn't connect together well.

That being said, I give this film a 7/10. I can respect the attempt at giving an Elvis character depth, but I still think more work needed to be done. I do recommend watching it simply because the fairground scenes act as a time capsule of what life was like back then. It's just unfortunate that the movie was rushed because it was a great concept. No matter how you look at it, you wouldn't have been able to get this movie out in time to promote the fair. You can't film before the fair opens because then you have nothing to serve as a background since it's being built. You definitely can't film it in April because then you have to worry about the massive crowds since it's a total novelty and you can't do what the directors chose to do and film near the fair's ending because then you won't be able to get it out in time to promote it. It's a lose-lose situation which is a horrible shame but I at least respect the fact that they tried doing something like this.

AN: Thank you to my discord bestie snaileyinsheff for suggesting this movie and providing input. Also shout out to @hooked-on-elvis for providing the link that I used to watch the movie.

Tagging: @eapep, @i-r-i-n-a-a, @atleastpleasetelephone, @huhhhhsthings, @jhoneybees,

@eptodaytommorowforever, @thetaoofzoe, @smokeymountainboy, @dragonkingsdaughter, @myradiaz,

@dnnenenens, @wildhorseinkansas, @lett-them-eatt-cake, @vintagepresley, @mercsandmonsters,

@velvetelvis, @arrolyn1114, @alienelvisobsession, @xanatenshi, @peskybedtime,

@peaceloveelvis, and @tacozebra051.

#elvis film #it happened at the world's fair #mike edwards #elvis film review #sue-lin #1963 #1962 world's fair

18 notes · View notes

aeithalian · 3 months

Note

……you MUST know I want your director’s cut thoughts on a shard or two lol xoxo MJ/kiwiana-writes (my kingdom for asks from sideblogs)

OOOOH hehe hello MJ i keep seeing you pop up reccing a shard or two and just know that every time i see it, i send up a little prayer that your pillows are cold on both sides.

ANYWAYS (most of my followers on this blog aren't RWRB fans but who cares) a shard or two is definitely a weird fever dream of a fic. I read the entire book in like 24 hours (this was just before the movie came out, so less than a year ago) and I, having a strange interest in politics, was like 'hmm, you know what? not enough politics'. So now we have a shard or two. I've always had a interest in politics and I always felt weird about being that person who has a strange in-depth knowledge about the US government, but I think writing the fic helped me think about politics in less of a pessimistic way, like 'here's what I would want to see in modern-day politics'. It also kind of raises the philosophical question of how good people function in a corrupt system without being corrupted themselves, and Alex is such an interesting character to play with on that front because I view him as so idealistic that he refuses to be corrupted purely out of spite and stubbornness.

So, that's how it got started, I think. I told myself I wasn't going to start another WIP while I have one going for a different fandom, but here we are. I originally intended for it to be way shorter than it was (here I was thinking last October that 20k was an insane length for chapter 1, and then chapter 3 ended up being 100k all put together), but it's been such a fun passion project and a real stress-reliever for some reason, and a great way to develop my writing. Somebody in the comments asked me if I write professionally (I do not, and I likely never will, but I appreciate the sentiment).

As for director's commentary, I'm just spitballing here but I have so much fun stuff to share so here ya go.

I know there's this whole debate in the fandom about whether or not Alex goes into politics post-canon, like either go into local politics or start his own firm or whatever, and I generally don't see a lot of people saying that he would go into upper-level politics like he does in the fic. Very rarely do I see any post-canon fics that delve into what Alex's future career might look like if he ran for any office, so I kind of just did it myself, as one does. I do remember seeing CMQ say on their Instagram that Alex wouldn't run for president, but he might run for governor of Texas, but I kind of pulled a Harry Potter fandom and ignored the author (sorry not sorry), but I did make a reference to it early on in chapter 3 for anybody who's looking for any easter eggs). Regardless, it's very fun writing a Gen Z politician who gives no fucks (Alex is Gen Z, I'm taking no critiques on this). I'm so excited for people my age to start running for office. We're going to kill it, I feel it in my bones (you won't catch me up there, but maybe in some health policy behind-the-scenes work, who knows).

The names for the characters were a ton of fun to come up with, and I tweaked them all the time, but here are some tidbits behind some of them:

Edward McKinney's (opposed the amendment in chapter 2 and was Alex's opponent for the Democratic nomination in chapter 3) last name is a play on William McKinley (the 25th US president) to kind of bring this mindset to the table that McKinney is exactly who your stereotypical politician is who would run for president.

Pinkley's name is also a reference to Charles Pinckney, who ran for president in 1804 and 1808 as a Federalist. For no particular reason. I was just having fun with it.

Treacher's name actually comes from the word 'treacherous' because I originally intended for him to be way more of a villain than he ended up being, because I thought it would be interesting to have a political opponent who isn't necessarily an enemy.

Aksel Wolter's (the guy who overthrew my man Onderburg for the Baltonian presidency) name was originally going to be Signe Wolter, but then I saw a cool TikTok that compared some enemies throughout history and saw how similar their names were (George Washington & King George, Jesus & Judas, Obama & Osama, etc.) so I thought it would be cool to have an Alex and an Axel, but the spelling was too similar so that's how we ended up with Aksel because that's also a way it's spelled in northern Europe.

Erik Onderburg's (you know who he is, RIP 😈) original name was Henrik, and that got all the way into the published version of chapter 2 (he's mentioned towards the end), and then when I was writing the first scene of chapter 3 and realized that Henrik and Henry were way too similar, I had to change it.

Ellie (full name Elena) is named after Ellen, with a bit of a Hispanic twist. I think Alex and Henry's deal was if they had a girl, they'd name her after Ellen, and if they had a boy, they'd name him after Arthur. I like to think the middle name would have been Orion either way.

Hunter Weaver (the in-universe replacement of Anderson Cooper) has nothing to do with WASPY Hunter. That was a total coincidence and completely unintentional. But, hey, if you want to believe they're the same person, go for it.

All the research in there is legit! Wikipedia has been a fucking godsend for election results and facts about government structures outside of the US, but it kind of sucks trying to relay stuff into two decades in the future. You never know what kinds of issues are going to be important in 20 years, so I actually kind of avoided that problem by just relating it to some of our current issues today: queer rights, specifically in trans communities, election fraud, 3rd party candidates, human rights issues (ikyk) and so on. And the makeup of NATO, the UN, G20, etc. haven't changed because I can't see into the future.

I also had to do a surprising amount of math? Trying to figure out dates and stuff was way more difficult than I anticipated, especially for election results and percentages, but I realized I really don't need to pull out my TI-84 calculator for a fucking fanfic, but I'm also terrified of the prospect that somebody will correct me on any of my math or research so the calculator stays. It makes for some funny moments, though, like when I realized that if Alex actually ran in the 2040, he would really have Teddy Roosevelt beat for the post of 'youngest president' by, no joke, 3 weeks. So that's kind of fun (and how I firmly decided to have that be the timeline of things).

I write most of the speeches the characters give myself, but I use chat gpt to get me started sometimes (the product is always pretty bland, so it's really just a reference for structure), but I use real-life speeches for reference too. For example (and a bit of a sneak peek), in chapter 4, Alex is giving a speech to the UN General Assembly, and I lifted a couple phrases directly from one of Obama's speeches.

Writing this fic on google docs was a terrible decision. When i was writing chapter 3, the entire word count was well over 160k and the software was getting so laggy every time I needed to control f something for reference. So chapter 4 and beyond is currently being written in a new google doc. Speaking of which, having to switch all my formatting over onto ao3 with chapters this long is a pain in the ass. 0/10 do not recommend having to go through each chapter and fix the formatting every time just because I wanted to have fun little article inserts.

I was going to make it smutty and then i chickened out. i deeply apologize for my cowardice (i've never done smut before).

I guess if you want a couple sneak peeks for chapter 4, I can do that too 😜

If this next chapter had a motto, it would be "every president has their tragedy". Yes, that should probably scare you. (honestly, I'm a little nervous to write it too, just because I know it's pretty dark but hey, if Disney can show Mulan killing 2,000 Huns in an animated children's movie, then I can tag this as mature and not be worried about traumatizing people, okay?)

If it had a theme song, it might be 'Fourth of July' by Sufjan Stevens or 'Abstract (Psychopomp)' by Hozier. (Don't be scared, you'll be fine, because if the chapter after that had a theme song, it would be 'Dog Days are Over' by Florence and the Machine)

So, all the chapters are titled with 5 stages of career development (completely arbitrary, I worked off Indeed's for a while and then I said 'fuck it'). Stage 1 was Establishment, stage 2 was Maintenance, stage 3 (spanning ch. 3 and 4 on ao3) was Advancement. So stage 4 (ch. 5 on ao3) will be Obstruction, so take that how you will. But stage 5 (ch. 6 on ao3) will be Resolution, so that should make you feel better. They're sister chapters, so although the conflict itself is resolved in chapter 4, the lasting changes and long-term effects of that conflict will be mostly featured in chapter 5 (which, honestly, is the one I'm most excited to write because I feel like it's that moment when Alex really grows into himself).

And a little fun knowledge just for you: there's actually going to be a stage 6 (ch. 7, on ao3). I was going to surprise readers by adding on a chapter after I publish stage 5 with a 'psych! you thought this was over, suckers'. Stage 6 is titled 'Reflection', so I'm planning for it to be about how Alex leaves office dealing with the idea of his own legacy and accomplishments (but as I teased in Stage 3, he won't actually be 'done').

I think that's all I've got in me. Chapter 4 is in the works, but it's taking way longer than I'd like (I've only just started part 1 😬) since I started a new job that's kind of sucking the life out of me. I'm very excited to share it, though! I'll be sad when it's over (maybe I'll do a missing moments oneshot series after, who knows).

director's cut ask game

#directors cut ask #ask #ask meme response #a shard or two

14 notes · View notes