#When all you want from the game is to create characters

[jovialsongdefendor]

"Sonamy is canon and sonic likes amy back! he is just shy!"

What. Uh. The claim that "Sonamy is canon and Sonic likes Amy back but is just shy" is a misconception because it lacks clear evidence in the games or official media that Sonic reciprocates Amy’s romantic feelings in a meaningful or consistent way.

Sonic’s interactions with Amy across the games show that he cares for her as a friend and ally, but there’s no solid indication that he sees her romantically. Sonic often dodges or avoids Amy when she expresses her romantic feelings. While this is played for comedic effect, it’s far from a sign of shyness. It suggests that Sonic may not share the same feelings or simply isn’t interested in pursuing romance. Sonic cares about Amy’s safety and well-being, but this aligns with his general heroic nature and how he treats his other friends (e.g., Tails, Knuckles, or even strangers). His protective attitude doesn’t necessarily imply romantic feelings. And that some fans doesnt understand.

The evidence that some fans showed is mostly mistranslations that sega of the wester side do it on purpose when in the japanese version, where sonic is originated created, the text is completly different. So yeah, the voice over where tails read the questions about sonic having feelings for amy in the sonic cd resume of amy being sonics love interest they are already spreading wrong information, so yeah. They are literrally spreading a lie the america sega when they dont have any power on it lol. (sonadow wiki next)

"If anyone uses this to claim that it is Sonic saying that he is calling Amy his girlfriend, that is misinformation/disinformation, they are lying and it shows that they don’t know how to read Japanese at all.

This sentence has nothing to do with Sonic calling anyone his girlfriend. And what is in the parentheses is not a part of the sentence, that is a personal interpretation of what the person thought of after mistranslating the sentence.

What the sentence says is this: “Sorry but, I find a girlfriend to be an inconvenience (burden or discomfort).” or “Unfortunately, a girlfriend is something that I don’t want to inconvenience myself with, you know.”

The sentence in Japanese: “あいにく, ガールフレンドには 不自由して いないもんでね”

If you take the sentence apart (which you can see on this website) you will see each word on it’s own to see the direct translation.

あいにく = Unfortunately or Sorry, but…

ガールフレンド = Girlfriend

不自由して = Doing Discomfort or Inconvenience

いない = (something along the lines of) Do not (when paired with 不自由して)

もん = Something/Person/Thing

でね = You know

Another thing to point out is that the sentence in Japanese does not have the word or meaning “have” in it. “Have” in Japanese would involve the character or particle “が.”

One more thing to point out is that with the incorrect translation, if Sonic was saying that, then it does not reflect in the game it is in, nor future medias where he runs away from Amy constantly (like in Sonic Battle) or considers her only a friend."

Even Ian sayed that amys love is one-sided and sonic considered her as a friend, nothing more. Everyone, including employess, are just lying to this point!

And even in the video down below sonic sayed that is nothing complicated, and she is just a important friend that can be difficult to handle sometimes.

"Oh, but sonic sounds like a boy with a crush"

NO. That doesnt mean necesarrily that he have a crush People claiming "he sounds like he has a crush" are basing their argument on subjective interpretation of Sonic’s tone of voice rather than the actual words he says. Tone can be influenced by many factors: Sonic might be playful, casual, or dismissive because he doesn’t see the topic as serious.

His tone might even reflect mild awkwardness—not because of romantic feelings, but because Amy’s affection can sometimes be overbearing or embarrassing for him. When Sonic curtly responds to questions about Amy (like saying she's "an important friend" or "nothing complicated"), some fans interpret his brevity as embarrassment or an attempt to hide his true feelings. However, this interpretation comes from the fan’s desire to see a romantic connection, not from what Sonic is actually communicating.

Without concrete actions to back up this tone, interpreting it as proof of a crush is a leap. So no, friends, not everything has to be romantic.

And even in the japanese sonic channel amy is still saying that she is a "self-proclamed" girlfriend so... yeah.

And about that some fans sayed that in sonic unleashed sonic gets sad because amy doesnt recognize him and walks away, more like sonic gets sad because with that form his friends couldnt even recognize him anymore and thinks he looks like a monster. that doesnt show that he likes her romantically. He is trying to adapt to his new form, so is understandable that he felts sad with his new form if a friend doesnt recognize him. And about sonic flirting with lady percival thing: bro, sonic is acting normal like he do with knuckles, tails and even shadow. what are you into bro.

[theresattrpgforthat]

THEME: Lesbian/Sapphic TTRPGS

I can't not contribute to this! Let me throw a bunch in the ring! I don't know if all of these are specifically toxic yuri or violent, but they are undeniably queer!

we burn together, by Shouting Crow.

WE BURN TOGETHER is a rules-lite tabletop roleplaying game that has swords, skeletons, and drama. What else do you want, really?

It is inspired by the Locked Tomb series written by the incredibly talented Tamsyn Muir. You don't need to know anything about the books to play, though. All you need to know is that it has necromancers and people swinging blades around and if a caster and a duelist work together, they might become something more (but they'll probably lose something profound in the process).

You'll need a twenty sided die and at least two people to enjoy this compact little game. The current version is text-dense because it was designed to fit on 20 A6 size pages. It's black and white and dead all over. 

I’m submitting this one as a Lesbian game even though it’s not necessarily specific about the gender of the characters, because so much of its source material is considered fairly iconic and queer. It’s about relationships that create something new while taking something away from both parties to it. If you want unhealthy attachments and metaphors all about forbidden relationships, you want this game. In the words of the creator: “Print it, play it, tell your friends about your big feelings and die terribly. They can wear your finger-bones on a little silver chain around their neck and think fondly of you or something.”

Toxic Sword Lesbians, by Carly Smallbird.

Toxic Sword Lesbians fight their shared enemies when they’re not fighting each other. They know they shouldn’t say something hurtful or give in to escape over responsibility, but they do. They lash out over disagreements on ideals and on expectations. They give in to their worst self-destructive impulses. And then they pick themselves up off the ground and go help their loved ones, because that’s the right thing to do.

Toxic Sword Lesbians is a game for telling stories about the most awful women you can make up to love, which is to say: it's a hack for telling spicier, more emotionally fraught stories in Thirsty Sword Lesbians. In it, you'll find tools for Making Her (Your Character) Worse!

Yeah, I know you said that you wanted to see what was out there other than Thirsty Sword Lesbians - well Toxic Sword Lesbians is a hack of TSL! It includes updated sex and intimacy moves, more evil Truths of Heart and Blade, and custom mechanics for body horror, monstrous hunger, and more. If you want to make your lesbians obsessed, over-thinking danger-addicts who jump to the worst conclusions and dig into their self-destructive habits all of the time, you want Toxic Sword Lesbians.

No Love’s Land, by Adira Slattery.

DESIGNED FOR WAR YOU ARE ON OPPOSITE SIDES YOU HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE You are a killer robot stationed on the moon of Ahava, covered in a dense radiation field. The only way you have to get a message to your secret girlfriend and fellow killer robot is to send them a message inscribed on a missile. Time to fire… LOVE CONQUERS ALL AND YOU WERE MADE TO CONQUER

No Love’s Land feels somewhat like a larp; you have to physically create a space that feels like a bunker, and then toss notes to each-other rather than speaking out loud. You can send messages, but as soon as the two of you embrace, the game ends.

I love how much this game just dives headfirst into tragedy. With each not, the two of you can get closer and closer together, symbolizing the way you are able to bypass subroutines and infiltrate your mech’s code. I think it would make such a fun date night with a loved one, a chance to create a big personal mess that culminates in a cathartic emotional moment.

Supernatural Sapphics, by Transcendent Tapir.

Supernatural Sapphics is a role playing game for 2 or more players, one player taking the role of the Top, who runs the game and plays the Dolls (important NPCS), Extras (unimportant NPCS), and Obstacles (nonsentient beings, environmental hazards, or any other non-person barrier preventing progress). The rest of the players take the role of Bottoms, which are characters in the game. This Distortion Dice game is about the messy queer relationships between beings of the veil (vampires, fae, ghosts, cryptids, etc) and the humans fascinated by them. To play this game you will need several sets of polyhedral dice and optionally tokens to represent Drive.

The designer is fairly up-front about the messy relationships that can show up in this game, including PvP rules for handling inter party conflict.Your characters are collections of vibes, skills, pet peeves and insecurities, constantly reevaluating their relationships every time they get overwhelmed. From what I can tell, the theme of being supernatural cryptids is more of a flavour than being something intrinsically baked-in, so you could likely replace that aspect with a different setting or flavour and still explore those messy relationships.

Tension, by Adira Slattery

Tension is a Tarot based roleplaying game for telling stories like Killing Eve and Hannibal, letting you explore queer experiences in the cat and mouse genre.

Play as an investigator and a killer as they get entangled in each other. You will pursue after another back and forth while everyone in your orbit drops like flies. But it’ll all be worth it, because you’ll be in love. Or dead. Or both maybe? How exciting!

Another game by Adira Slattery, I don’t know if Tension is explicitly lesbian, but it’s definitely queer. Rather than play a single character, you and up to two friends created a cast of characters, using the Major Arcana of a tarot deck. The bulk of the story, however, follows a killer and an investigator, both who know who the other is, but still experience an inexplicable attraction. The other characters are pawns, victims, and various other minor characters that help raise the stakes.The story is meant to weave a complicated web that likely implicates both of them - great for a high-stakes, intense game.

And They Were Dortermates, by unseeliejess.

From matins to compline, every day has been the same. Free from worldly concerns, your days have been spent in song and prayer, in needlework and gardening, in feeding the hungry and teaching the young. You have heard rumors of revolution from pius petitioners expressing fear for you and all the faithful. There are only a few months until your way of life is completely overturned. You may not survive the upcoming terror. You will never lose your faith, but you may lose…her.  

And They Were Dortermates is a GM-less game for one or more players. Players are cloistered nuns in a medieval convent in a time shortly before a dissolution or suppression of monasteries and convents. They are also secretly in love with the other character(s). 

A classic story of love that cannot be, And They Were Dortermates uses a block tower and a deck of playing cards. Similar to Dread & Star-Crossed, the block tower is used to represent a big event that will change your life permanently - and if it falls too early, you may not be able to confess your love. Each turn, you draw a card from the deck, follow the prompt, and pull a block from the table. A classic will-they-won’t they with a Catholic flavour!

Underlie Jess has a number of lesbian-themed games for you to check out out, including Just Gals Being Comrades, as well as the core We Love In Whispers System, a GM-less, diceless game of romance and politics.

Sapphic Slumber Party, by deecity.

Be brave. Be beautiful. Fall in love, just for a moment. And really just nail a beautiful girl with a pillow. 

Sapphic Slumber Party is a short zine game for 2-5 about a pillow fight at a slumber party, and all the joyful, melancholy, amorous, and vulnerable feelings that come out when you're playing in your PJs. Brief and lyrical, Sapphic Slumber Party is GMless and plays in 30-45 minutes. Rather than a sweeping epic or a high-stakes romance, Sapphic Slumber Party focuses on a single, rather mundane night. Over the course of a single pillow fight, your characters will attack each-other with pillows and attempt to pile Vulnerability upon each-other. It’s a subtle game of pushing your crushes closer and closer to something a bit more intimate, a bit more risky than a pillow fight, a chance to get closer and closer - until a button pops, a bra strap slips, or some other symbolic representation of getting more and more vulnerable with each-other.

What you do at the end of the pillow fight depends on how much Vulnerability you get, and who got vulnerable first.

Deecity also has a Locked Tomb hack for Ten Candles, this time called Tomb Candles!

I (and others) have also recommended…

Dungeon Bitches, by Dungeon Bitches.

The Girlfriend of my Girlfriend is My Friend, by stargazersasha.

Deadly Weapons, by Adira Slattery (honestly, a champion for lesbians).

The Rain Still Falls In My Heart, by Roz.

Breakup on Re-Entry, by Riverhouse Games.

Doll.Bod, by @ribstongrowback

Lesbians Built This Farm, by che.

Gay Crime, Sapphics Against Capital, by Evey Lockhart.

You can also give me a tip by donating to my Ko-fi!

i remember you writing a list of something in some fucking context (i remember nothing), and on that list there was a lesbian ttrpg that really stuck out to me that i didn't save. It was a real edgy one about being lesbian violent and mean (i think), which isn't really much to go off. Where i'm going to is, would you be interested in just listing every lesbain indie ttrpg you know of? Its fine if you dont wanna, of course.

You're probably thinking of this thread here, though you're quite correct that "mean violent lesbians" isn't sufficient to pick out a specific entry – several of the titles plugged in that thread would easily qualify!

As for "listing every lesbian indie ttrpg [i] know of", that's a trickier demarcation problem than you might imagine. What is a lesbian tabletop RPG? Is it one where the player characters are obligatorily lesbians? (If so, we end up excluding games which are explicitly about the lesbian experience, but feature some other type of character.) Is it one written, at least in part, by lesbians? (If so, we bump into the problem that not all indie tabletop RPGs are autobiographical, the maunderings of certain self-appointed critics notwithstanding.) Is it one where the game itself is a lesbian? (Not an impossible brief, but now we're catering exclusively to folks who are into meta bullshit.)

Ultimately I'm going to pass the problem down the line and just ask folks in the notes to name the first game that comes to mind when they think of the phrase "lesbian indie ttrpg". Let's see what sort of consensus evolves.

[justtheclippy]

Tips and FAQ for Asks

Hello beautiful humans, I want to do my best to get to everyone's asks so here are a few things you can do to help make that happen! (if you're looking for the cast stream master list, skip to the bottom)

Please don't spam the same question repeatedly. I will get to you eventually, I promise! But when you submit the exact same thing multiple times, it just slows me down. I've got one single brain cell, please have mercy.

No spoiler requests. I cannot tell you anything about future episodes, when they will come out, what will happen to certain characters, how the story ends etc. We're limited on what we can say in general until more episodes release. The entire cast has signed NDAs (non disclosure agreement) preventing us from revealing anything, but more than that, we wouldn't want to ruin your experience of watching and engaging with the show organically! Trust me, just enjoy the ride, it's better that way.

Don't take anything too seriously. Please keep in mind most of these answers will just be for fun. My thoughts and opinions on the character, both for silly things like favorite dessert and more serious things like character analysis, are not hard and fast canon. Same goes for any of the actors. We can speculate about our characters, we know and understand them well, but when in doubt, assume its allllllllllllll non-canonical haha

Read through previous asks. This will help prevent asking things I've already answered. I'm going to be tagging (i swear I'll do it fr) my answers with #amanda asks and #tadc asks so you can find them more easily. If you do ask a question I've already answered IT'S OK DON'T PANIC I won't be upset haha

Even though I'll be tagging my answers so you can easily find them, here are a few frequently asked questions just to get them out of the way. If you decide to ask me something I've already answered, or something that goes against the guidelines above, I'll probably skip it, you silly geese.

Q: I've seen people use several different pronouns for you, what are your preferred pronouns? A: They/them and I prefer masc leaning terms generally! I'm queer, NB and very open about my identity. But people will sometimes use she/her because they don't know. I will never get upset with someone for not knowing- it's ok. But now that you've read this, you know! So you can go forth educated. You're welcome to correct anyone who doesn't know, but please be kind to each other. We've all been the person who didn't know before.

Q: What do you think of X ship? A: I love and support all the ships! Ships are part of a healthy fandom, keep creating content that makes you feel seen and that YOU want to see, that's the foundation of creativity. And if anyone disagrees with you, remind them that a lot of classics are just fanfiction about the gods at the time. It's always been here.

Q: What is your favorite ship? A: Bunnydoll and Buttonblossom, because the dynamics are so much fun.

Q: Do you like X AU? A: Yes. It doesn't matter what it is, yes. I love the AUs and if it's a new one, you better include a link so I can find it. I want all of them, thank you so muuuuuuuuch~

Q: Have you seen or played X game/show/movie/meme etc.? A: Always happy to chat about other media! But if you wanna ask about something specific, please include a link or explanation because lets be just so very honest, half the time my brain is off in adhd land so there's a good chance I'll have no idea what you're talking about at first.

Q: Have you watched Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure? A: Not yet! But due to VERY POPULAR REQUEST I will be putting together a watch stream to watch it live with yall. Once that's happened, I'll put the link here.

Q: Have you seen Queen's second game and will you be playing it? A: Yes, we've all seen the trailer and we're very excited! We will be playing it as a full cast, just like last time, as soon as the game is finished. For now, please go enjoy the demo and support the team! Once it's out and we're ready to stream it, I'll post the link here.

Q: Can you come to X convention? A: I will come to any convention that yall want to see me at!

BUT

In order for that to happen, you have to request me directly with the convention. Most will have either a request form on their site or a specific email for requests. Just write in that you would like to see me at their event, and then they will get in touch with my agent to book me!

Q: Can I request a song for you to sing? A: Of course! I promise yall I'll do my best to put out more songs this year. If there's a cover you want me to consider doing, or an artist/composer you'd like to hear me work with, let me know!

Outside of that, if you just want a little clip, you can drop requests in the asks and if I know the song I might record a bit. This is COMPLETELY dependent on time, especially if I'm busy. Please understand ❤️

You can also make requests during stream signings, which is easier to accommodate in the moment. Just put the request in the order notes, and I'll sing a little bit for you while I sign IF I know the song. So choose wisely.

Q: Can I write an ask just to show you cool stuff or tell you you're awesome? A: Of course you can! You can also tag me in stuff, that's ok too. I appreciate all the love and support yall have shown for me, Ragatha and the show in general. Yall are truly incredible. ❤️

Q: Do you have a PO Box so we can send you stuff? A: I'm setting it up THIS WEEK. I will post it here when it's ready.

Q: Where can I find X stream that the cast did? A: Moving forward, I will keep a master list of our group streams in order of date aired, to the best of my ability. If I miss one, let me know and I'll get it on here!

Saberspark TADC Cast Interview

Streamily Signing #1 (Amanda, Michael, Alex, Marissa)

Streamily Signing #2 (Amanda and Michael)

Streamily Signing #3 (Amanda and Sean)

Streamily Signing #4 (Amanda, Sean, Alex, Michael, Marissa, Vera, Hamish)

TADC Fan Game Stream: Game 1

Streamily Signing #5 (Amanda, Alex, Ashley, Sean, Michael, Marissa, Vera, Hamish, Wiz)

Fast Food Simulator Charity Stream (Amanda, Lizzie, Marissa, Michael, Ashley)

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

MOST DATABLE DATABLE CHARACTER 2 THIRD PLACE

Claude propaganda:

"To say Claude has trust issues is an understatement—you have to spend half the game earning his. (Claude isn't even his real name!) Once you have it, though, he's absolutely ride or die for you until the stars go out. He is so full of heart and ambition: He wants both sides of his heritage to get along, he wants to open borders and eliminate xenophobia and promote equality between commonfolk, and deep down, I think he craves a partner to stand with him at that new dawn, or an equal who sees his vision for the future and will fight for it just as hard. Nobody believed in him when he was a kid, but if you put your faith in him, he'll return it tenfold. Some people don't like that he's calculating, or has to leave the player character at the end of the game to go back to his homeland, but both are necessary elements for his goals to change things. He will always come back, and everyone who bets against him and his love for his companions is wrong with a big fat W. #KhalidForMostDatablePrez"

"Claude is a fun little onion of facades. He calls himself the embodiment of distrust, he acts like he's carefree and without worries, an unscrupulous schemer--and so many in universe buy into that hook line and sinker. He's used to others viewing him with suspicion and uses it as armor to obscure his not-so-dark truth: that he cares immensely, that he values minimizing the loss of life, and that above all he has so much hope that people will fundamentally choose to do better given the choice.

His front guards a center that his conflict filled world would be happy to tear apart. As the child of people from two nations in constant conflict--one of which is explicitly isolationist and dehumanizes those outside its church's reach--he hasn't really had a place where he can be without his facade. As a child he thought he could run, but when confronted with the fact that this hatred existed no matter where he ran, he chose to instead try to create a more just and kind world.

His inability to let others in beyond his facade at first may lead to a sense of distance, but isn't it then all the more satisfying when you're allowed in? All he wants is a little trust, a little faith, and--like what he wants to give everyone--a chance to be better.

And like that you got a charming young lad with a fun personality that your grandma would be thrilled to have stay forever."

Elliott propaganda:

“Just look at him. Pure hunk energy.”

“I will punch anyone who dislikes him. He’s like a fire emblem character in the modern day. He’s so flamboyant and handsome, he can play the piano and he’s best friends with the old fishing man!”

“dramatic writer man with sexy hair”

"Since I like elliott. I will state some reasons why I like him

Imagine if Mr. Darcy didn’t insult your family first time you met him, that’s Elliott. The man who’s basically the hallmark romance love interest. He’s a writer who moves to the small town in the country side to find inspiration for his writing. Then he finds the farmer.

He has a crab living in his pocket

He can play the piano (hopefully it isn’t the river flows in you however)

His fans sometimes hc him as a merman and that’s just a major plus IMO

He genre of the book he writes is dependent on what genre you say you like.

He also sends letters to you if you marry him

Okay and also some things I dislike

His liked gifts, the easiest one is pomegranates, which cost like 6000g to grow a tree if you don’t pick the fruit cave. I AM NOT GETTING SQUID INK IN YEAR ONE FOR YOU.

he might be British /j

The fact he has no kitchen but still likes food like lobster, like he is just a mystery. Lives in a cabin, with no kitchen, no washroom (okay no character has a washroom), but still likes the most fancy food out there and has luscious hair worthy of a L’Oréal ad.

Gifting him on rainy days when you don’t have two hearts"

[andre-and-cal]

hiii!! this might be a stupid question, but do you have any headcanons on how andre + cal would act online? like would they have their own webpages, and how they would chat and stuff like that :p

also, i love your writing so much <3

Hii!! :3 That’s not a stupid question at all !! And TYSMM IM SO GLAD :D <33 These were fun to make, I hope you like these!

Andre and Cal Online Headcanons,,

Andre’s username on his favorite social/chatting websites is @ak47_0717, while Cal’s is @gunslinger83. The reasoning behind their usernames, first of all, is that Andre’s initials are AK. Because of his unsettling interest in firearms, he’s bound to be interested in one of the most popular guns in the world— the AK-47. He likes having his initials similar to the “AK” in AK-47. The four numbers at the end of his username are his birthday. Cal’s username is pretty self-explanatory; he calls himself a gunslinger, and the ‘83’ at the end of his username is the year he was born.

Andre and Cal talk to each other on AOL, which was one of the most popular online services for internet users at the time. They also chat on MSN Messenger, and they used to communicate on ISQ, which was more popular in their middle school years and early high school years— the late 90s.

With Blogger having been established in 1999, Andre and Calvin created accounts. They follow gun blogs and blogs dedicated to books, movies, and bands they like. Also, Andre follows— although he doesn’t really interact with— the Iroquois Track Team and Science Club blog pages. Cal follows the school band’s page. Despite following different blogs, they don’t really post much on Blogger; they like to stay relatively quiet and unnoticed. Andre does leave hate comments on posts from people he doesn’t like. Since anonymity wasn’t as robust as it would come to be in the mid 2000s— the years following Cal and Andre’s deaths— he made an alt account with a fake name for the sole purpose of hating on the Iroquois Wrestling Team blog page… for obvious reasons having to do with Brad Huff. He also leaves hate comments on Rachel’s posts. Cal mentions this mysterious user to Andre sometimes, mentioning how Rachel talks about how this unknown person on the internet criticizes her posts. Andre plays dumb and acts uninterested, yet he listens intently, replying with soft “Mhm”s, as well as a “Damn, that sucks”. He doesn’t want Cal growing suspicious.

They play girls’ flash games both for the hell of it and for the irony. They get relatively entertained from these online dress-up, salon, and cooking games, with Cal being aware these games are aimed at girls. He intentionally makes his character look ugly and goes into hysterical laughter over it— he absolutely laughs at the stupidest shit. However, Andre actually tries and is surprisingly concentrated on the game, face frozen with stoicism and focus. Andre would never admit it, but with his family having a cat, Mel, he finds pet care flash games to be genuinely fun.

Andre and Cal illegally download music and share it with each other by Napster or by email. They’ve sacrificed their computers for the sake of copying a System of a Down song onto their files for free, instead of physically buying the CD. In 1998, when Andre was still a freshman in high school, he ended up getting the CIH virus (Chernobyl virus) which practically wrecked his software and ruined his computer. Whole Calvin teased him for getting such a destructive virus on his computer, he ended up informing his parents. He’d told them that Andre needed a new computer, and he suggested that they pitch in to help Andre’s parents buy him a new computer for his 16th birthday in the summer. Because for the time being, Andre would have to use Cal’s.

Andre and Cal share similar humor in most areas. And since internet memes were beginning to rise in popularity, the two boys send or email each other dark humor memes and chuckle at them.

If they were alive in 2003, they would have used 4chan !!

Andre uses all types of different acronyms when chatting, such as but not limited to “ROFL”, “LOL”, “LMFAO”, “BRB”, “ILY”, “IDK”, and “BTW”. He often capitalizes the first letter of his messages and types faces like “:-)” and “>:(”.

Cal, too, uses many acronyms online. He also types with no capital letters, and he often takes shortcuts when he’s chatting with Andre. He creates little faces with the keys on his keyboard and copies and pastes special symbols online. When he’s typing to Andre first, his first message is usually a simple, “hi” of some sort.

They both play Doom together, considering how 1993 Doom was multiplayer when it first came out.

GeoCities !! Cal and Andre created their own website for the Army of Two. They didn’t necessarily say much on the site, and they didn’t give the site name to anyone they knew. But they still specified who they were and their interests without giving away their last names.

In addition, Andre and Cal used GeoCities to make a screamer site, and they made different alt emails to troll Brad Huff by sending the link to him, without him finding out who they were.

Sometime during the final week before Zero Day, their last few days of being alive, they’d both typed up a short, lovesick letter in their notepads— two messages they’d always wanted to tell each other but never got the chance to. Cal had gone on a tangent about how much he enjoyed being Andre’s comrade, how much he enjoyed Andre being his. Also, he was saying his goodbyes before their final mission and how he loved Andre and hoped he’d see him on the flip side. Whereas Andre was saying how he was looking forward to escaping the school with Cal and how he hoped they’d have a better life together, even while they were wanted from the cops. He mentioned how he loved Cal, too, but with his own phrasing of that declaration. But that ended up being an unrealistic expectation on Andre’s end.

[kirkwallguy]

I agree so much with you that Solas is an active detriment to the Dragon age setting. I am replaying Origins, and my incredibly hot take is that Solas recycles a significant amount of Keeper Zathrian's character, in order to create a more "epic" scale narrative that imo is also much weaker and messier than the original Zathrian to the overall scope of the world and to player engagement.

They're both bald magic elves who have been alive for absurd lengths of time, and who are convinced of their own righteousness even when their actions cause or will cause great and unending harm to those around them. At least with Zathrian his "optimal" narrative path (whatever that may be to the player) isn't gated off behind playing a straight woman, my Tabris can butch out with Leliana all I want and still access all modes of narrative engagement with Zathrian, and the Dalish within the Zathrian quest are granted legitimacy and dignity in their beliefs.

I am not a fan of the reveal that the Dalish gods were functionally just powerful mages, it's so obviously a plot beat written by a certain type of atheist who don't see how anyone could have faith in a greater force, or have curiosity about that mode of moving through the world, which is made even sillier when the setting has dragons and ghosts and stuff. Its so similar to the type of story that takes greek/norse/egyptian gods and re-imagines them as regular guys, functionally wizards, in an urban fantasy setting, wanting the power and drama but shedding the belief systems that go along with the gods, and what those systems do and mean to people. There's so much awe and wonder and hope in the codex entries in the Origins Dalish camp - are these gods gone for good, can they ever return and can the Dalish ever go home either with or without their gods' presence? What do the gods mean to a people who have suffered so much and safeguard those pieces of divinity that remain in stories and song and crafts? What might these echoes of distant gods mean to the city elves, so far removed from what once was but still cherishing the traditions they do have? But no, the Dalish were fools for their tattoos and their beliefs, and all the history and remembrances Zathrian kept and passed on to his people was false. What an idiot. Who even remembers that guy?

Anyways, you don't have to post my anonymous tirade, I just am a huge fan of one (1) bald elf so deep in guilt and tragedy and the weight of history that he is either blind to the harm he may cause, or so secure in his pride and belief in his own righteousness that he chooses to close his eyes to that harm. And that elf is not Solas.

i always giggle when i get to zathrian because he's so obviously prototype solas.

and despite his situation, zathrian's goals feel mostly grounded, we see him amongst the clan and understand his dynamics with the people around him. it's kind of impossible to fully grasp solas' whole deal because it's so hypothetical, all these things happened offscreen to characters with incomprehensible power who may have just been spirits at the time anyway. who give a shit...

and i agree with the religion thing but i'd say i always read dai and dav's handling of religion more as being liberal christianism than overzealous atheism. i wrote this post about dai, and i think dav only made it more true:

there's so little exploration of religious practices in dalish culture, dai at least does a little bit with those few sidequests, but dalish clans in dav are something just distantly spoken about and never fully explained. and this is in a game ABOUT the dalish gods. how is bellara saying (over and over again) "our gods are back!!! D:" supposed to hit when we don't know what significance the gods actually have? 😑 they had something really interesting in origins and da2, but it just feels like any other contextless fantasy pantheon now

[emyluwinter]

Hey honey.

It's been a long time since I've thrown out some theories.

Before the new part is released at the end of January. I want to share a few ideas about what can happen in general in the arc of Dissomnia.

In Riddle's dream, we see that his subconscious (no, guys, Malleus doesn't create all these dreams, he just gives them sand and various shapes and throws them into the sandbox) made his childhood very…Happy? His loving mother, who doesn't treat him like she's cultivating some kind of experiment. On the contrary, she has a big heart with a tender love for his son. Maybe his parents will be one of those sweet romantic couples with a long and strong marriage. A quiet, serene life. The friends who had been with him for all those years that he was actually locked in the house. Lots of hobbies. Lots of fun, lots of childish curiosity, games and adventures. Yes, he is still respected. But he is loved. Love as a friend and an undergraduate who has earned a good reputation.

Well, it can also be as tall as a two-meter-high Epel. Ahahaha.

Or 1.1, as we saw in Leona's dream. For Riddle, the dream is a nightmare where he continued all his mother's instructions and ended up….broke down. When he realized that the world was completely different from the narrow, tiny world in which he was trapped.

Ace's dream is something wild. It haunts me that we didn't see Ace at the very beginning. You see, we met the characters exactly in the order in which we met them. For example. Epel-Rook-Vil, Floyd-Jade-Azul. Jack-Raggie-Leona and so on. The meaning is clear. But in the arch with the dreams of Hearts, everything went topsy-turvy. It's pretty funny if they just switched places for the sake of Alice's chaos theme.

Ace is definitely going to be a wild card in every sense. Maybe his dream is a simple school life? Or is it an endless amusement park?

But you know, I want to see one detail….

What if Ace's subconscious gave Yu and Grimm better conditions? A Loving Family? A house?

I had an idea what he could give to Yu's - parents. Yuu mother, for example, is a famous photographer and artist (Yu's love of photography and art), and Father is an inventor or craftsman (I will fight with anyone who says the opposite, that Yu does not understand repairs and all sorts of things, after so much has been done in their dormitory) Definitely a man who has golden hands, in short. And Yuu will be their favorite child, having inherited their passion for certain crafts. A modest but very very cozy house where you can exhale and leave all your sorrows at the door. Where there is always a smell of something delicious or pleasant.

Grimm is a part of this family unconditionally. Is he also loved, also slightly spoiled?

The reason, which has strong and deep roots in the form of family and home, is that neither Yu nor Grimm will leave college. Yuu doesn't have to go back to his world, Grimm doesn't have to get used to living alone without Yuu.

Maybe Yuu will even have magic in Ace's dream, who knows?

2.2 We turn the chessboard around again and his dream is all his hidden fears. The horrors and nightmares that haunt him.

Riddle remains the same Tyrant, the rules are becoming suffocating in every sense. There is no help from senpai, teachers, or the principal. Yuu either returned to their world, or were injured or died in one of the overblots. Or they were expelled when Grimm's behavior was no longer tolerated.

Consciousness and subconsciousness are very complex things. Therefore, it is difficult to say what can break out and turn into a dream.

The arc of the other characters' dreams will end. Finally, these filler series will end.

The plan of Idia and Styx. Discussing exactly HOW to wake everyone up and reason with Malleus. Most likely, this will again be a division into groups. 22 characters in one scene, it's a nightmare for a screenwriter!

After we wake up the "last one," Malleus decides to make a move. You know, I couldn't help but think that this Dragon, beautiful as a god, was just waiting for a very convenient moment to attack. And this guy, let's not forget, is also smart. VERY Let's say we woke up the whole "gang for a fight". What's not a great opportunity to sneak up and not destroy the entire pillar? My bet is that there will be a repeat of the sleeping beauty scene. Silver started it, so there will be an attack on him. He's the only one who can walk through other people's dreams without Draconia's knowledge. Permissions NOT too.

What is easier to deprive the only chance to wake up the others again than to fix the main problem? We put Silver to sleep, we throw everyone back into their dreams. Voila!

This will most likely happen after Riddle wakes up. It would make sense because we started the game with Riddle (figuratively speaking), and Malleus closes the door back at the very end. They have some similar themes, which would be well reflected by some of their parallels. Both have a theme of roses and thorns. Both follow their own "rules", both have their own "reputational image", both don't know much about the "outside world".

Finally, let's bring Lilia back into the story. Yes, I miss the reunion of the Diasomnia family.

Yuu will see more dreams about "Sleeping Beauty" as a warning that Malleus has been watching them all this time and waiting for the moment to cut down this weed.

7.1. Yuu also sees all the horror, all the nightmare from the prologue.But not fleetingly in a moment like before…..and live every second of this desperate and hopeless situation. It's like they're being burned alive, torn to pieces, and they see each death in slow motion, like an endless torture.

Silver, because of his unique Magic, can see this nightmare too… and they both realize that this is not a dream at all, and not because of Malleus.

Lilia drinks blood. (maybe Yuu, maybe not) LISTEN, he ate frogs and mice, and another Bag knows what else. Technically, he's a flying mouse fairy. Sooo some species feed on blood. What's not a great solution to give Lilia the "opportunity" to regain her powers and magic before completing the entire arc of studies? It might work as some kind of move that just nobody knew about. Let's think that the Senate hated Lilia because his kind could feed on someone else's blood and become stronger? It's not the most pleasant thing, but we have something. It's a good and logical argument why they didn't want him in the capital so much.

So far, these are all the points that I can come up with in my tired head.

and also

Chapter 8!!

Each chapter has its own "theme" that is discussed one way or another throughout each arc. I may be wrong, but I only use the ones that I noticed myself during the passage. Chapter 1. tyranny and despotism, parental overprotection. Chapter 2 other people's hopes, a brick ceiling (I don't know how to say for sure that even if you give it your all, there is something that you can't go through in any way to achieve more) Chapter 3 - bullying, self-doubt. Chapter 7 the inevitability of loss, grief and loss, and so on.

For chapter 8, it could be Loneliness, isolation, and the outsider. Loneliness? It seems that this topic has not been raised in other chapters.

Yuu's loneliness, because they're not from here. Grimm's loneliness, because he doesn't belong to any part of society either. It's possible that the "puppeteer" is so distraught from loneliness and grief from the loss of something.

Hmm. Most likely, I'm wrong, and the topic of chapter 8 will be different.

They are both isolated from the world in one way or another. Remember how in the same novel, everyone kept them at arm's length and a mop, just to avoid dealing with them.

I understand that we still have a lot to see in Chapter 7, but frankly I have no idea what they have in store for Chapter 8!!

Oh, yeah. Most likely, on this anniversary, the 8th dormitory will be made official and they will be given a "badge", the one with the ribbon that students wear on their uniform jackets. In any case, it's very likely. If they also give you a uniform for Grimm, it will be very cool.

That's the end of my brain gum and I'm taking a break from work.

What do you think, dear?

[kcwriter-blog]

I finally started playing Baldur's Gate 3. I know I'm slow. Many people told me I wouldn't like it. The reasons why were varied - turn based combat, unvoiced protagonist, characters not as in depth as they are in Dragon Age. And I listened.

What changed? Frustration with Veilguard.

And I liked BG3. A lot. Enough to hyperfixate on it? No, but it is a game I want to play again. Something I don't want to do with Veilguard. I got the ending I wanted but it was kind of a slog to get there and I don't want to do it again.

Which brings me to why I created this post. BG3 reminds me of what I loved about the previous three DA games and what I found lacking in Veilguard. To start I will just say that Veilguard was not for me and that is fine. It works for others and I am happy for them.

BG3 has characters that feel like real people. They have likes and dislikes. They get along with other party members or they don't. They don't really like or trust your character at first. You have to get to know them but they also have to get to know and trust you. They don't always agree with you. They make their own decisions based on how you have helped change them. For example. I can tell Shadowheart what she should do about the Nightsong, but ultimately it is up to her. I can try to persuade her but its a pretty high check if she doesn't really like me.

You get to decide what kind of person your Tav/Durge is. And there are consequences for the kind of person you choose to be. The world reacts to your character and not always pleasantly. So I felt a sense of accomplishment when a character became friendly or made a choice based on what my character did.

DA games used to do that to one extent or another. Even in DAI some of your characters could leave you. Others just hated you. It was realistic.

The story was cohesive. It had themes and those themes were dealt with well.

I understand that DATV was a result of its development cycle and that we got a game at all, much less one that was polished and had a mostly satisfying ending is great so I'm not overly critical. It is what it is but it isn't for me.

So this Solavellan blog will be looking a little different going forward. There will be more posts about other games. I need to step away from DA for a bit.

I suspect it will still lean heavily toward Solas and Solavellan. That is my hyperfixation after all, but I want to post pictures of my other games and don't feel like creating another blog dedicated to those other games (yes, I'm lazy).

So everyone that follows me for Solavellan content be warned.

[imsosleepyofyourbull]

Trey Clover Playlist + Analysis

Okay, so first and foremost; this playlist is a WORK IN PROGRESS that I will be slowly adding to as I find more neat songs and further develop my understanding of Trey as a character. He’s a very neat little dude who has rather unexpectedly become my #1 favorite (skating right past Ruggie who had been my #1 since I first found the game) and I wish more people talked about him. This is me trying to get people to talk about him, and also me making up an excuse to yap some more.

Here’s the playlist on YouTube Music!

Here it is again on Spotify!

And if you listen to it while you read, you may notice that a lot of these songs have some vaguely conflicting themes. That’s because I’m insane and LOVE exploring the way Trey’s ingrained instinct to watch out for the people around him gets in the way of his personal desire to be perceived as an unremarkable person, and how that meshes with his unexpectedly sly nature. Many of the songs I included are clearly sung from the perspective of a caretaker trying to do their best to hold their loved one together. The Rockrose and The Thistle and Welly Boots are the most obvious examples of this, but it’s also in Achilles Come Down and Coraline (once you translate Coraline’s lyrics.)

This is a pretty obvious reference to the way that Trey plays the peace maker and reliable right hand within the structure of Heartslabyul, as well as his complex dynamic with Riddle as the result of his childhood guilt. At the same time, however, there are songs like The Harpy and the Hare and And the Hound, which create an image of a caretaker who is (unintentionally or deliberately) smothering their wards. This is in reference to the way that multiple characters call out how dangerous it can be for Trey to cover up for everyone’s mistakes and concerns, as it can lead to them being unable to take care of themselves and messing up really badly when Trey isn’t there. Further, there are songs like Over&Over or Timekeeper’s Heartbeat where I play with Trey’s exhaustion and burnout.

These pieces all contribute to the mystery of Trey’s character, and who he is as a person.

His care for the people around him is undeniably sincere, especially for Riddle, but it also seems to be a learned response from his position as both the oldest son in his family and vice housewarden of Heartslabyul. The reliable older brother to much more interesting and energetic younger siblings. The steady but unremarkable right hand to the rose red prodigy tyrant. And that’s just the image he wants to cultivate, isn’t it? That’s how he wants people to look at him, right? He’s repeatedly told everyone around him that he prefers to not draw any more attention than he has to, because he’s a perfectly normal guy who isn’t worth it.

But how much of that comes from a place of genuine wanting, and how much of it is the result of his experience as “the guardian?” When he says that his care for the people around him isn’t as kind as people believe it is, I wonder if that means he’s aware of the box he’s built around himself in an effort to keep being everyone else’s safety net. It even plays into his unique magic and how it’s revealed to us! He doesn’t go to any effort to hide what it does, and willingly uses it to change the flavor of their dessert when Cater asks him. As far as anyone else is aware, Doodle Suit is a harmless trick incapable of causing any real harm.

But then he uses it to overwrite the spells of one of the most prodigious and powerful mages that attends their school.

He clearly knew what it was capable of for quite a while before he used it like this too, given the ease with which he deploys it in action. He’s a total wolf in sheep’s clothing; but for whom he chooses to play the harmless woolen prey, the sharp-toothed predator under the moon, and the protector of the pack changes from moment to moment. It seems to depend on whether it’s his own personal desire or his built in response to put the people around him above himself that takes precedence. But the vast majority of people he interacts with don’t end up ever realizing this about him because of how his motivations manifest. He doesn’t want trouble, so he prevents trouble from being able to occur in the first place by getting in the way to solve it.

His image is his mask, and his cage.

[lcb-oil]

Limbus Company Wiki Style for AO3

Note: This post contains spoilers (... can I call it that?) for Glimpsing a Certain Mirror World.

While I was writing this story, I wrote some in-game dialogue for an identity based on the text just to get into the spirit of what I was trying to capture.

Then I thought - what if I shared that in a bonus chapter, just for fun?

Then I thought even more that it kind of looked like an imaginary wiki page.

Then I had Carmen help me present a wiki page from another reality.

Seems like readers got as much of a kick out of it as I did writing it!

Now I'll show you how to style an AO3 page to look a little bit like the wonderful Limbus Company Wiki, too!

If a CSS and HTML snippet demonstration is all you need, grab them here:

🔗HTML (Inside your story)

��CSS (Inside a Work Skin, made on your dashboard)

Next, I'll go over everything step by step from the beginning.

Jump into the cut for the tutorial!

(Then show me your fan identity stories when you make some, okay?)

Step 1: Create a Work Skin

After logging in, go to your Dashboard.

Then click Skins

Then go to My Work Skins

Click Create Work Skin

Give it any name and description you like

Paste the following into the CSS text area:

🔗Pastebin Link for easy copy / paste

#workskin td, #workskin th { padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #810000; } #workskin td { color: white; background-color: #1e1e1e; vertical-align: middle; } #workskin td.title-column { width: 20%; text-align: center; } #workskin div.affiliation { font-size: small; } #workskin .userstuff p.carmen { color: red; }

I will explain what this means when we get to the next step so that you can tweak it if you wish. Think of this as your starter style.

Click Submit to save your skin

Step 2: Apply the Skin to Your Work

When creating or editing a work, you can set the work skin in the Associations section.

Click the dropdown, and you'll see whatever name you gave your work skin in the first step mixed in with the default ones provided by AO3.

Step 3: Format Your Story

You'll need to add HTML to your story to see any of the new styles applied.

I'll show you a few examples of how this is done.

Change the color of text

I used red text to indicate Carmen speaking through the author's note.

Here is the HTML I used in the Chapter Notes section to do this:

<p class="carmen">Could it be that you, too, wish to glimpse the mirror world these two envisioned?</p>

This creates a paragraph (p) with the carmen class applied.

If we look at the CSS from up above:

#workskin .userstuff p.carmen { color: red; }

The p.carmen section is called the selector. This tells the CSS that if there's a paragraph with the class of carmen, make it red!

You can copy this line to create classes with any name you wish for paragraphs so that you can have as many colors and effects at your disposal as you want.

Of course you can change the color from red to any other color you need, too.

Wiki Tables

This next part is a little bit more involved. I'm not sure if there's a better way to make a table on AO3 or not, but here's a snippet to get you started:

🔗Pastebin Link for easy copy / paste

<table> <tbody> <tr> <td class="title-column"> </td> <td> The child looked immensely frustrated, standing in the lobby of a most unique Fixer Office. </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="title-column"> <img src="your image URL here" alt="Sancho Story Portrait"> <div class="affiliation">Manchegan Office</div> <b>Sancho</b> </td> <td> We went over this just <em>yesterday</em> -- </td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

This creates a table (<table>) with two table rows (<tr>).

Each table row has two table cells (<td>).

The first cell in each row has the character image, affiliation, and name.

The class "affiliation" is defined in the style sheet to make that section of text just a bit smaller, like on the wiki:

#workskin div.affiliation { font-size: small; }

In the first example table row (<tr>) above, you can see that you can even leave it blank to allow for the narration portions of the story.

You'll need to copy the section between the <tr> and </tr> tags to create new rows for your table. Copy it once per line in your identity story and change the text and images inside as needed.

I highly suggest that you do this in a text editor on your own computer rather than on AO3, because it can quickly get overwhelming.

Just looking at this in AO3 is making me nervous ���

(Fun side note, I originally spelled "Manchegan" incorrectly in my first draft all over that huge table... thank goodness for find and replace...)

Hosting Images

You'll see I left a section on the table template for "your image URL here".

You'll have to find a place to host your images on your own, because AO3 doesn't provide any image hosting...

I saw someone suggested https://imgbb.com/, so that's what I used. It seems to have held up so far.

Keep in mind if you link an image from Discord or Imgur, they could remove your image sometime in the future and then it will no longer appear properly in your story.

(Be sure to include an alt text in the image as shown - if the image can't be loaded some day in the future users will see that text instead so that they can understand what they're missing!)

Step 4: Adjust Away!

Once your work skin is applied and you have the right HTML classes in place, you can edit your Work Skin and see your story change, even if it is in your drafts.

You can use this to adjust other things in my CSS example, like colors and the padding in the table.

---

Have fun, and let me know if you have any questions!

“Would you care for some tea?” Yi Sang offered. The evening’s chill was somehow present, even inside his closed room. “Nay,” Don Quixote took in a sharp breath, “I was hoping that you might… assist me, with a look into thy mirror. For there is something that I have need to see.” Yi Sang creased his eyebrows. Unfortunately, this was exactly what he worried would occur. ——— In the aftermath of La Manchaland, Don Quixote asks Yi Sang for a favor. Yi Sang guides her through the process of glimpsing a certain mirror world.

Limbus Company leaves so much unsaid by not showing us what happens immediately after the end of a canto. But, that's a lot of opportunity space to play with in a story.

I've been working on this one for quite some time as I've always wanted to explore the dynamic between Don Quixote and Yi Sang, even though I find Yi Sang really tough to write for.

If you like mirror worlds and AUs, you might especially enjoy this one. I hope you like it! 🎠🪶

---

... Also, hmm, something strange seems to have happened with my upload?

This is a one shot story, but for some reason there's a second chapter? That's odd.

Well, if you check it out, I should note that it might look better on a PC or tablet than on a mobile phone -- though it will probably look ok either way.

[wistfulpoltergeist]

I opened Baldur's Gate 3. Created my Sims 4 characters. Closed Baldur's Gate 3.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy one year anniversary to In Stars and Time!

[optiwashere]

Huh, I didn't even realize it'd been a year since BG3 came out until I opened tumblr this morning. Kinda wild. I didn't think much of the game's release: I like Larian's games, and I like the BG series. I wasn't ever going to skip the game, but I didn't think I'd play it at launch because I was busy working on a novel in 2023 and not doing well financially.

Thankfully, circumstances left me with a little bit of extra money last year just before launch and it meant I could spend on a video game. I needed a pick-me-up after said 2023 novel failed to go anywhere, and BG3 was right there. Like most CRPGs, I played it in basically every moment of free time that I had and did as much as I possibly could in one playthrough.

It's so odd how these small happenstances can snowball into coming back to fandom, finding some friends I might've never met otherwise, and writing a lot of fanfiction along the way. I'll probably have something more interesting to say/share when it's the 14th, AKA when I sat down and wrote my first fic for this fandom.

Anyways, it's been a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to more years to come 💜

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF SHENKO 1/?

The end of the world has a way of reminding you of all the things you forgot to say do. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021)

[crossbackpoke-check]

find a blorbo (nhl tag game)

RULES: Go through the roster of each NHL team and find at least one player that you can root for.

tagged by @bondedpairs!! when i say too many teams to count and here for the narrative um. i may not have lied. this is not an extensive list of my blorbos but in order to make it not ten thousand years long i made up the rule that i had to do it straight from memory :)

anaheim ducks: as evidenced by recent events i DO like mason mctavish and trevor zegras but i have to honor laura and mention troy terry and beloved goalie gibbie*

boston bruins: oh for sure brad marchand… can i say patrice? one of the charlies got traded but i think mcavoy is still there because gryz is gone, brandon carlo is there still i think

buffalo sabres: cozens & thompson, owen power, rasmus dahlin, ukko pekka luukkonen

calgary flames: is chris tanev still here? is markstrom still here?? noah hanifin?? as a last resort i’ll say blasty

carolina hurricanes: aho & jarvy & teuvo teravainen & brent burns is still playing maybe? i know sepe got traded

chicago hockey: the bedsy narrative is compelling but ANDREAS ATHANASIOU MY BELOVED reunited with tyler bertuzzi… that’s the real story. also i like foligno

colorado avalanche: gabe landeskog, whatever ross colton & miles wood have going on, natemac + jo, mikko

columbus blue jackets: have long been on the merzlikins train, have been swayed to the darkside of umich boys (brindley, kent johnson, fantilli, blankenburg who is now on nsh)

dallas stars: seggy! mush! roope + miro and otter and robo and wyjo (rip ty dellandrea) and harls! etc.

detroit red wings: MOST players. dilly larks, moritz seider, jv, raymond, rasmussen, kitty, lyon, etc except for k*ne

edmonton oilers: mcdrai, ofc. nugent-hopkins, nursey, rip vinny & skinny

florida panthers: tkachuk, reinhardt, sasha barkov, verhaeghe (is there still?)

los angeles kings: adrian kempe… kevin fiala… danault… quinton byfield & alex turcotte

minnesota wild: kirill, marat, fleury, brodes, fabes, boldy, moose, middsy, spurge… god’s perfect idiots

montreal canadiens: going out on a limb here to say martin st. louis but also xhekaj (both), slafkovský, suzuki, my austrian reinbacher, yes fine cole caufield

nashville predators: MOST BEAUTIFUL D PAIR IN THE WORLD GRADY SKJEI AND ROMAN JOSI!! juuse, evangelista, isn’t stamkos there and also someone else who absolutely should not be

new jersey devils: nico… tuna (tatar), dawson mercer, siegenthaler, dougie hamilton, yes the hugheses whatever

new york islanders: barzy, zeeker & marty, anders lee, noah dobson lol

new york rangers: mika & chris, lafrenière & k’andre, shesterkin

philadelphia flyers: frosty & beezer and tk and sanny and the new baby michkov and coots and scooty loots and foerster etc etc. you know the Guys

pittsburgh penguins: the two headed monster but also compelled by rutger mcgroarty, and kevin hayes was there!!!

ottawa senators: timmy stü & brady! josh norris! the evolution of shane pinto! ullmark now and brännström and claude giroux and chabot

san jose sharks: ekky, thrun, mario, borde, logan couture, shakir, that other vaguely blond rookie

seattle kraken: brandon tanev, andre burakovsky! grubauer & d’accord also

st. louis blues: jordan kyrou, nathan walker (is still there?), rob thomas? is parayako still there?

tampa bay lightning: hedman, point, they dumped so many guys after the cup run… is kucherov still there or is he in nashville?? anthony cirelli (notable for being made out with by pat maroon)

toronto maple leafs: mitch, jt, willy, alex nylander, kniesy, dewar, et

utah hockey: crouse, keller, tuba

vancouver canucks: quinn, brock, petey, jt, garly, höggy, i want to say dakota johnson, elias lindholm?

vegas golden knights: brandon montour is here now… alex pietrangelo, so sorry to one i can’t remember who loves the lions it will come back to me

washington capitals: full of love and stupidity. oshie, nicke/ovi, pierre-luc dubois, dowd, vrána, milano

winnipeg jets: adam lowry!! josh morissey and kc and morgan barron, also vladdy my beloved

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[goldentigerfestival]

Since I'd been talking a lot about JP Vesperia (primarily Yuri and Flynn and the heavy changes that surround them, and because I'm highly passionate about them in their original context), I wanted to compile some more jarring if not outright glaring mistakes in the localization (or what were likely intentional changes, because I can't look at some of these and just call them "mistakes"). I'm not going to mention every little change throughout the game, so smaller things I'll mostly be leaving out (namely things that don't really affect characters or context). I primarily just wanted to give some insight on some of the bigger parts.

Some of the changes seem to have been mistakes in translation itself (not just localization, but misunderstanding what was being said in general; such as, there's an instance I mention of that between Patty and Don), so I've got some mentions hanging around for clarity purposes as some scenes didn't make much sense, likely because of this.

Vocal tone with Yuri was the most prominent issue that got me making this, and the context that was changed being right after if not equally next to that (most often also with Yuri but also Flynn).

This is something that has been bothering me for a while and I've been wanting to share this stuff with people interested in seeing the game with its original context. Generally speaking, the plot and story themselves are on point. The majority of the differences surround Yuri and Flynn respectively, so there's going to be a lot of mention of them throughout.

I've also posted video clips of my favorite scenes and the heavy changes, so consider those a supplement to this and vice versa.

Part 2.

Part 3.

Part 4.

(Other) GTF Favorites.

I'd like to preface this by mentioning the chief director and producer of the game itself has also spoken about localization inaccuracy issues, so that's something to keep in mind (it's in Japanese, but you should be able to use the offered post translator).

I'd also like to preface this by mentioning that in the original, Yuri is more playful and relaxed/casual (generally but including with Flynn, which the dub pretty much entirely changed until arc 3), but also gentler and softer. He has a very large variety of tonal behaviors/tonal "moods" that were pretty much nuked from the dub.

Basically, to get the full experience for Yuri, I can only really recommend playing the game in JP audio. Obviously you won't get the actual context because all you'll have is the dub context, but that's also partly why I'm making these posts - to cover the contextual changes while the video clips cover some of the tonal changes (because lbh I don't expect anyone to actually go watch the entire game in JP with subtitles unless you're as insanely dedicated as I am, and I'm largely doing it out of my love for the original Yuri and Flynn and my disdain for how the localization treated them).

As a heads up, there won't be many skits in here because I'm going through a specific YT playthrough for these screenshots. Specific skits won't always come up in the playthrough in question, and I can't find a whole list of skits in JP anywhere online. I don't have all skits unlocked in my own save either yet (you can unlock all skits with Grade which I have yet to do in the DE), so I can't use that to compare all skits right now.

There are plenty of small changes here and there that I won't be including in these posts because there are some sentence changes that aren't impactful but do exist. I just don't want to be here for a year covering the random changes that don't matter much. I'm also not going to include details of a lot of honorifics because I'd be here all day, but there is one one major instance that I mention later on.

For reference if anything wants to actually watch the game in JP with the subs (it goes until just after Hypionia), most of the references come from here. Since in some cases the subber just reused localized text even when the context wasn't the same, I did bring some of those up in these posts too. These were subbed before the DE version came out. I used screenshots with subs where possible to make it easier to follow along.

I have a lot of passion for JP Yuri and I hope I can pass on some of that passion to others. 🙏

Apologies in advance if some of these sound cranky. If I sound cranky about some specific changes, it's probably because I am.

---

Since I talked about the whole, Raven being shady and Yuri therefore not being grateful to him incident that the localization for some reason butchered and made Yuri sound like a generally ungrateful or just outright dumb person who doesn't understand gratitude, I'll summarize that one again here:

Yuri has a skit with Estelle originally talking about how he can't find himself being grateful to someone like Raven for showing him how to sneak out of the castle. Basically, Raven is shady and he's not sure he should be grateful to someone like that, and is confused as to why Estelle would be so grateful when she doesn't even know him (because in his mind, he isn't sure he wants to trust a guy with those vibes). The dub just kinda... makes him sound like an ungrateful jerk and not so much because he's not sure he wants to trust Raven. It doesn't really sound like it's an issue of his with Raven specifically but more that he just generally doesn't feel grateful for the aid (and that in general one shouldn't feel grateful for aid like this), which gives off a really wrong impression of him that doesn't hold up throughout the game. Yuri wasn't wholly ungrateful for the gesture itself, but because of who it came from (and I imagine a weird peppy guy in jail is good cause to be skeptical).

We start off we a classic "Yuri, you idiot!" that was changed to "come on already!".

Yuri's response to Estelle mentioning he'd been in the knights doesn't actually give a time frame for how long he'd been there (the dub made up three months, but there was never originally even a time frame given).

Here when Yuri asks Estelle why she can't just leave, her response indicates she actually does know why. The dub made it more ambiguous, which could be easily misinterpreted as she really doesn't know, so I'm dropping this one here.

For some reason the localization seemed to have Estelle responding to Karol directly about the ace always performing their attack last ("I don't think so"). What she was referring to was the tiny monster that walked by, asking for confirmation that that monster was not the eggbear they were looking for (I wasn't gonna fight with the video to get a better screenshot without the annoying YT red bar in the way so the monster is in the corner mid-movement lol). Not sure if that was a genuine mistake, but it was an odd one.

(Also, side note and not putting an image here because it's more general, but Yuri refers to Karol as "Karol-sensei" which was translated in the localization to "Captain Karol". Basically, Yuri calls him "sensei" because that's a teacher/professor, and he's making a play on Karol's knowledge and being their "teacher" about monsters/maps/etc.)

I'd say this is more along the lines of overexaggerating and not overreacting, but this line was literally changed to "haha" in the dub. The whole point wasn't that Yuri just brushed her comment off or found it funny. At this point he still literally thinks she's exaggerating about her lack of knowledge out in the world, her excitement, etc.

Not the only instance you'll find of the dub just changing entire sentences to something meaningless as if they ??? didn't know what it meant (they actually changed Patty saying an entire sentence to "aye"). In some cases they added entire sentences that weren't even there...

Even though I can kind of see where they went with the dub here, the point was supposed to be that Flynn actively thought he would be happy for Yuri to go outside the barrier and see the world.

The dub changed this to Flynn saying that he, in the now, is happy that Yuri is outside the barrier, but then says he got a little less happy when he saw the wanted poster, indicating he was previously happy but got less happy, yet says in that moment that he is happy.

It's a weird case of (past/present) tense usage for the most part, but they also removed the fact that Flynn is literally saying "I thought I would be happy" (thus expressing he'd been wanting Yuri to see the world outside the barrier and would've been happy to find out he did). The reason he's not finding himself happy is because of the wanted poster and the crimes listed on it, following up that his honest happiness for Yuri (ultimately because of the poster) was a lie.

This also means they removed Flynn expressing the honesty of his happiness for a positive concept for Yuri, which, given all the changes toward Flynn in the dub, already now takes away from the fact that he'd been actively hoping for good things for someone and we're left with this more sarcastic take on him being "happy".

Obviously his happiness wasn't really a lie because most of the crimes were falsified (primarily the ones that would make him actually mad, because Flynn has had to have been aware this whole time that Yuri has committed small time crimes for the past few years now), but at the time, the focus on this conversation is that Flynn thought he'd be happy at a time that Yuri left the barrier; meaning he'd been hoping for it prior to it happening.

I'm also mentioning it because it's the very first in a whole line of changes the dub made to their relationship (and it's their first in game interaction ffs) and to Flynn himself as he's perceived as a character. The original is much more expressive of how important they are to each other in a lot of various ways.

Inserting the JP audio version of the following scene with Flynn here.

And... the following one from there.

This was changed to "damn, we if lose our balance...". I know they did it because Yuri had just fallen over, but I'm including this one because the context isn't... really the same thing?

This dub change is a bit odd to me. They had him saying something along the lines of "she is a princess after all" in the dub, regarding the council backing her.

The original context is more like, the council is backing her and he's hearing it directly from Ioder and he probably doubts Ioder would lie like that or about that, cementing that yes, she truly is, like he suspected, a princess, but it's almost still a bit odd to know. It's sort of like, he knew/had suspicions but hearing it directly from Ioder just confirms it for certain.

The dub just made it sound like well yeah, it's obvious they'd want to back her, she's a princess... but Ioder is a prince, so that doesn't explain why they're not backing him. She is a princess after all, so of course they'd back her... but what's stopping them from backing the prince?

Another weird one for me. In the dub Yuri says that "even the Commandant was a little in over his head", when he actually... really wasn't? All he did was step in. Things got bad enough that he had to, but he wasn't in over his head. Not sure how or why the dub ended up with that.

An example of the dub having a habit of just adding in random lines that didn't actually exist (and in this case the one added didn't even contextually make sense. This was no thank you from him, this was literally him making Yuri do something for him because he was going to ask Flynn for a favor and ended up with Yuri in the cell instead).

Another super weird one in the dub. They had Yuri saying Flynn was "too" late, implying he hadn't made it in time, but he did. He made it just before the battle started, but the original context only says he's late, not too late (which makes sense given that they were ready to fight but hadn't started yet).

This was changed to Yuri just mentioning there was one way they could get out of there without actually saying what it was, and Judith saying if he thinks it might work what's the harm in trying it out. Not sure why they changed Yuri literally telling her his plan, so... again, a super weird change that I don't get why they didn't just keep the context the way it was.

Third image was changed to "someone get me away from this psycho", which... I also don't get why they put that there unless they just wanted so much flavor text that they wanted to change the whole "they're in a fight and he's telling her not to come over here because he's pissed at her because they're fighting" part of the fake fight they had going on.

Not one I have a huge problem with, but definitely good examples of them going out of their way to change just... perfectly normal stuff that literally has no reason to be changed? Some of it is flavor text and some of it feels over the top for me. Stuff that makes me like... why would you change that when there was no reason to? Could be more of a personal pet peeve of mine, but I just don't like unnecessary changes when there was nothing wrong or odd about the original text and doesn't at all come off odd in English. Unfortunately Vesperia got littered with those.

I didn't feel like getting a whole video for this, but basically Judith gives a little laugh instead of just the more upset/distressed(?) sound she made in the dub. Feels more fitting imo to keep up the "lie" Yuri started for her. The dub makes it seem more like she feels guilty, versus here she's giving a little forced giggle to go along with it. Again, a change I'm not sure why they put in.

Ngl I get completely different vibes from these. The JP comes across more as concern, rather than... treating them like they're some mob on the loose...?

Once again, this gives off negative vibes toward Flynn as a character imo.

Here Judith gives more of a reason for coming with them, which they changed in the dub to "with the circumstances being what they are, this is just how things turned out". Reasonably, she didn't have to stick around after they ran from Dahngrest, but here she gives a quick "reason".

The dub changed this to "I'll bet he is". They were just told he's the current magistrate in Heliord, and all Yuri says here expresses he's letting it sink in and realizing exactly why all this is happening here. It's not a huge story beat or anything that gets changed, but it's an example of changing things that don't need to be changed as if trying to play things up in a way that... doesn't feel necessary to me? In this case the situation is kind of dawning on Yuri as he realizes how bad this situation could be/why it's like it is, but in the dub it comes across as more just unimpressed and "of course he'd do that".

An unfortunate, classic moment of them changing how much Yuri believes in and trusts Flynn. They changed this to "gotta run, Flynn!" and he just... leaves. I'm sorry but in what universe does "leave the rest to you" equal "gotta run"???

This one is one of those cases where the localization text was super awkward and wonky, and worse, they actually voiced it that way (like "we have guild's job to deal with". Yes, they actually voiced it that way too on top of everything else grammatically wonky with the entire conversation that they didn't bother fixing when the DE came out).

Also here, they changed what Yuri says about Cumore and Flynn. "I don't know how I could explain this to Flynn" doesn't, at least to me, carry the same weight as Yuri actually feeling ashamed (in the dub he says "what a shame", but does not express shame, versus him saying "how pathetic" and expressing shame in feeling pathetic) and saying he can't even face Flynn because Cumore got away. The thing is, Yuri does tend to posture, so when he fails at something, it hits him pretty hard.

And let's be honest, this just hits way harder than "he will get what he deserves".

Interestingly, Yuri could also fall into the category of viewing himself as sinful later on, which I talk about in my favorites post and the usage of "crime" and "sin" within the JP context.

Not particularly important, but just another (more mild) case and example of how the dub just randomly changed tone/mood/wording for no reason.

Another case of Yuri being more aggressive in the dub than he actually was. Here, all he says is just a plain statement. In the dub, he has an attitude about it and says it in a tone that's more insulting that Ioder didn't know about Heracles.

This isn't the only case of dub Yuri acting aggressively toward Ioder when he wasn't supposed to be and we'll get to that, but Ioder is another similar case of the dub making Yuri unnecessarily vocally rude (despite that Ioder is very polite toward Yuri).

(I left out the subtitles because all they did was copy the dub's localization, which kinda defeats the point of this post LOL. This will be the case going forward for any same circumstances.)

This one's a more interesting tidbit to me and less of a harmful change (i.e. I find that a lot of if not most changes relative to Flynn do more harm than good when compared with the original context). Basically it's saying "sweet mask and sharp eyes", implying Flynn's sweet face is a mask and saying it contrasts with his sharp eyes. I could get into a whole rant about why I love that in relation to some side material, but even in the game itself, there's the knight Flynn with his sweet, polite side and his real side that only shows when he's around Yuri (basically, who Flynn has to be for his job and who he actually is as a person, which he only gets to be around someone who knows the real him).

I'd guess this got changed in the dub because they weren't sure how to word it, though there's no mention of "heartthrob" here at all and instead actually says "sweet mask" as if, again, to say his sweetness is just a mask. It's actually a very interestingly accurate representation of his character - how he tends to not be himself when he's being "knight Flynn", and how that sweet face is contrasted by the look in his eyes (which they say, you know, eyes are the windows to the soul, so this would imply the sweet face is the mask and the eyes are the real Flynn. And of course, this Flynn is implied to show himself in his sparring with Yuri in Aurnion, where sword fighting is the best way to express himself. This isn't to say Flynn being a nice person in and of itself is a lie, but that his overly polite, respectful, kind knight side is a sweet mask contrasted to the man who loves to fight and has a sharp look in his eyes)

For now, we'll be back at Mantaic in the next post (due to image per post limit).