#also if you don't progress the dialogue it never ends. he will continue to do this infinitely until you press the button

[goldiipond]

hello ruby, i don't know either!! peasley here makes a bet with the bros before pulling out his sword and repeatedly jabbing luigi with it, after which he blushes bright red. i cannot give further context for this scene because there is none. neither of them had any reason to do this

[pyromainiacc]

In Defense of Magnificus

A very very long rant by me. Originally from a rant I posted in a discord server in 2022, modified to be a little more concise. I have to apologize if some of this stuff is incredibly outdated, I haven't really bothered to catch up with newer stuff about the game outside of the game itself yknow... Like twitch streams from the dev and such.

I saw a theory that Magnificus was originally intended to be the villain of the original, in lore Inscryption, but through the rush of making the game as a coverup and developers like Kaycee not making much progress on the development because of said rush, he didn't get finished. And I think if you really analyze his character, everything about him FEELS unfinished.

His character design is super simple compared to the other scrybes. His deck is weak; there are not a lot of hard hitting cards aside from the Stim Mage, and the Magiks system itself feels wonky, as if they didn't have enough time to balance it out. His tower feels empty (Specially that damned bathroom. It haunts me.) His letter stops before its completed, he suddenly disappears mid-sentence... He's the only scrybe to not get a proper 3D version, as the game was mostly deleted by the time we got to him in Act 4, and he might've been the only scrybe that never became hegemon. We don't get to finish his battle, and he doesn't even get a handshake.

And going back to originally being a villain? Maybe that's why he was made to be so cruel to his pupils. P03 is also mean to his subordinates, but they're robots, they're not mean to gain as much sympathy from the player. Meanwhile, Magnificus is established to be mean and perhaps downright evil by the dialogue we get through Act 2. Rebecha speaks about him by saying he's mysterious, stating "Some say he wants... No, it's too terrible to say." But we never know what that refers to, and if it's coded dialogue or her own speech.

Outside of the CODED IN lore behind his pupils suffering, we don't see him being evil AT ALL. In Act 1 he is practically our savior; his throughout preparing was able to get us the film roll, and if we take too long he sends the player VISIONS to guide us in the right way. In Act 2 he attempts to warn the player about P03, his paint leads around to secrets to clue in about the OLD_DATA as well as perhaps serving as warnings for it. At the end of the game he is the only one who is distraught about everything being deleted; Grimora and Leshy accept their deaths, but Magnificus REFUSES to.

But wouldn't a villain rejoice about people dying? About, in his own words, an entire world being destroyed? It's like the original plan for his villainy was there, but he doesn't WANT to be one.

Now as to why he seems to continue to treat his pupils badly. I think it's just.. guilt. I believe he didn't have a choice in making them suffer, they were all just coded into what we know of Act 2. They were all created with the pupils being in torturous states and the game code telling them "It's Magnificus' fault". I think he himself believes this. I believe he could have tried to fix it before. But the thing is that, even if he ever did fix it, if he stopped their pain, it would all be for nothing... because the game resets. The only times it doesn't do this is when a scrybe takes over, which is something he has supposedly never been able to do. And if he were to help them outside of being hegemon they'd just go back to their original state once the new game card was used. I think he simply gave up upon realizing this and instead chose to bury his own grief that comes from it by playing into the character he was originally meant to be; the villain. That, and I think he just doesn't want to look at them... It hurts him to. I believe this is why he painted bleach over Goobert's painting.

I think him being originally an unfinished villain plays into him always being prepared. As I stated before, people often forget how helpful he is- it's due to his preparations that we are able to leave Act 1, he warns about The Great Transcendence in Act 2, warns Luke about the OLD_DATA, and warns him about the fate he'd encounter if he looked upon it. I think Magnificus wants to make up for his "villainy" by being the one the other scrybes and npcs can rely on in a time of need, so he spends every hour of everyday getting ready for the worst, and foreseeing what is gonna happen next.

Thing is that, he never stops anything from happening. He prepares a way out of Leshy's hegemony, but he can't stop it from happening in the first place. It's very probable that he was the one that planned how to stop P03 in Act 3, as we see he has been preparing since at least Act 2. But not only does the P03 hegemony happen, but he is ultimately unable to stop the Great Transcendence once it is in progress. Same thing for the game's deletion, which I believe it is at that point he truly panicked, because he couldn't foresee it or plan for it beforehand. It all feels like... An unfinished character arc. He never got to do anything he wanted.

I think he feels powerless.

Magnificus is often regarded as the worst scrybe. But in a sense, there's no real reason why that should be the case, at least not compared to the others. Like... Leshy took over the game and put the other scrybes into cards. He had good intentions, sure, but that doesn't mean his actions were good. Magnificus lost his eye, Grimora lost her memory, P03.... Was having a bad time...

Hell, the reason people hate Magnificus so much so often is because of the treatment of his pupils... But Leshy isn't all innocent there either. He puts Goobert in a bottle (At least, maybe he does. It's not clear whether it was him or Mags), which we know Goobert REALLY doesn't like, and he also put Goobert's description in the rulebook as "Failure". He also threw the bottle into the river as stated by himself in Kaycee's Mod.

P03... I don't gotta explain this one we know it is an asshole.

...And Grimora deleted the game, which basically killed everyone in it. While she had good intentions, it really only led to the discovery of the OLD_DATA and the subsequent assassination of Luke.

Now, what did Magnificus do? Nothing. Like... Really. He didn't GET to do anything. People dislike him because of his treatment of his pupils, but as I talked about before, I really don't think he can do anything about that, even if he wanted to.

So why do people so easily hate him? Circles back to the theory: Because he's unfinished. Everything about him is unfinished. The other scrybes are loved because we got to finish their arcs... We get to know why they each do what they did.

P03 not so much, but... P03 is a villain of sorts, people like villains and don't need them to be "good" to like them, which I agree with cuz villains are fun! P03 does have some sympathy points somewhere, though, which I'm not gonna go into here.

I'm gonna focus on Grimora and Leshy instead. Their farewells were perfect closure:

Grimora spoke about why she chose to delete the game, and we as the player come to understand her. It was right after her doing it in the first place, so we didn't even get to really build anger towards her. She talks about it being a necessary action- perhaps something we can agree with after knowing everything about the OLD_DATA. She laments not being able to play more with us, but she accepts her death and says goodbye.

Leshy talks about just.. wanting to play. That's all he wants, he just wanted to give us a good story. The original Inscryption is rushed and weird- Act 1, his hegemony, was his attempt to make it better and enjoyable (Which, considering it is the Act people love most, he succeeded.)

The player probably misses him by this point- playing cards with him feels somber, sad, and nostalgic. At this point we consider him a friend. And then he gets deleted after complementing our past deck, speaking about how much he enjoyed his time with us, and saying farewell. It's not something that leaves us with any possible anger towards him.

Magnificus though... He doesn't get that. We never get to talk to him properly, he never speaks about how he feels or why he does things. In Act 1 he spends most of the time in the clock, in Act 2 he gets cut off when trying to speak to us, Act 3 he only speaks a few sentences, and in Act 4..

His farewell is different than the other two. Leshy and Grimora accept their deaths... Magnificus doesn't. He doesn't talk about his feelings or justify his actions, because if you have been holding in your feelings, that is something you do when you can no longer do so. You let them go when you know you're going to die soon.

But he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to die, he can't accept it.

The game he played with us wasn't complete- the scales were gone, so we weren't even supposed to play against him. It was his opportunity to just say what he needed to say before he was gone, but he refused to accept his upcoming death. So instead he tried prolonging the process by using unrealistically high numbers instead of scales (The bigger the number, the longer the game will take, right..?). Even as he felt himself getting deleted he refused to end the game, or even talk to the player properly. For once, he couldn't prepare for the worst, and he was in denial- he was completely powerless and he didn't want to accept it. Instead, he speaks to us about the game deleting. He blames the player for it. He tries to guilt us; "You even allowed my goo mage to get deleted... I thought you two were becoming friends!"

And he doesn't get a handshake. He tried to push his deletion away for so long that he ended up not even being able to finish the match or get the same, proper farewell that Grimora and Leshy got.

I think by now I've said what I needed to say, but I wanna add that... Yeah, I think he's one of the most tragic characters in the game. I think he spends a lot of time being anxious- we don't get a clear answer on if he can see the future or if he is just able to predict it, but either way he lives with a lot of anxiety because of it.

I think the worst part is the deletion of the game and his farewell. He isn't able to let go because he's scared to, and because he has spent his whole life trying to prevent bad things from happening; trying to help his friends to get out of bad situations they caused themselves. But this time he's not able to, he can't do ANYTHING about it, and he's terrified because that means his whole existence and work is just... Gone. He spent all his days preparing for the worst scenarios, only for it all to be thrown away. He WASTED his life for nothing. And it hurts me that the fandom never saw that.

Or maybe I'm overthinking all of it. Maybe this has all already been directly disproven. But I still wanted to share this.

[secretly-tword-obsessed]

Yes a tickle fic!! For anakin and Ahsoka :) I was thinking something like anakin training her, and then she ends up sneak tickle attacking him to which he falls or something and she immediately regrets it when he gets up because she can just tell he’s going to get her back… and he does!! I can just imagine this dialogue: “Do you regret it yet?” “I absolutely do not.” *proceeds to die of laughter*

Aww I was so blushy reading this! Hope you enjoy (:

Title - Disobedient

Ashoka had been Anakin's Padawan for quite a few months now, and she was steadily improving her control of the force, her ability to concentrate and execute lightsaber duels. She was also growing a vast knowledge base of Anakin himself.

For one, he was a hypocrite - never following protocol but relentlessly pestering his Padawan for doing the same.

"Improvisation is ineffective without experience", he would always say, "You need to learn the rules before you start breaking them".

Anakin nevertheless had an adventurous and overall dissobedient attitude. He had grown an attachment to R2 despite Obiwan's protests, and Ashoka often found her master playing or chatting with the droid when she was late for training. Anakin and Ashoka's stubborn and childish attitudes had caused them to clash with one another many times, having playful battles of snarky banter or mimic-lightsaber duels or back and fourth pranks. Today, Anakin was continuing to mentor Ashoka on using the force to lift objects. She had already mastered small things like little rocks and fruit, but she still struggled with heavier things. Today, Anakin was trying to get her to make R2D2 levitate.

"Focus", Anakin said, standing behind Ashoka.

"Shut up Skyguy, your just being condescending", Ashoka countered, her voice straining as her eyes remained tightly shut and she struggled to make the droid budge.

Anakin's tone hardened, "Come on Snips, this is no time to be argumentative. All of your mental effort should be concentrated on R2. You can do this, I know you can".

With that, R2 shifted slightly to the left.

"Well done Snips, your getting somewhere!"

Ashoka opened her eyes, admiring her progress.

"Okay, back to work", Anakin commanded, "Lift him".

Ashoka rolled her eyes. "I moved him! Isn't that enough for today!"

"But your so close Ashoka", Anakin said with a warm smile, "Your almost-"

He was interrupted by a defiant poke to his side. Ashoka smirked, wiggling her fingers just under her master's robe, causing the Jedi to squeal and collapse in jittery giggles.

"Nohoho!", he laughed, taking a step back as his Padawan followed him determinedly.

"You don't appreciate my efforts Skyguy", she said matter-of-factly, "I worked hard today, and I think I deserve a break at your expense".

Anakin's giggles became more high pitched as Ashoka switched from wiggling her fingers to gently squeezing, causing her to smile and admire her work of reducing such a powerful Jedi to a cackling mess. Finnally, in an attempt to evade Ashoka's ruthless fingers, Anakin lost his footing, falling to the floor with a thud.

There was silence for a few seconds as Anakin slowly sat up and rubbed his hair. Than, Ashoka burst into laughter.

"Skyhyguy!", she laughed, "You should have seeheen the loohook on your fahace!"

Anakin scowled and groaned.

"The great and powerful Anakin Skywalker", she continued, "Defeated by his own laughter".

Ashoka stopped laughing when her master stood up ominously. Than he smirked, his eyes glowing evilly, and Ahoka knew she doomed.

"That was a low move Ashoka", he said calmly, "Even for you".

Ashoka felt herself shaking. She knew that, if her master was planning what she thought he was, she had no hope of escape.

"Oh come on", she stuttered, her eyes darting everywhere but at Anakin, "You were being to pushy and I was just using reasonable means to put you in your place".

Anakin raised an eyebrow and chuckled, "Reasonable means?"

Ashoka started getting more defensive now as Anakin slowly neared her with his hands in front of him.

"W-well", she said, "I was just poking you. It's not my fault your so ticklish".

Anakin's eyes widened at his padawan's audacity.

"Okay, that's it".

Suddenly, he launched at her, lifting her up as she squirmed in his arms. He immediately dug his fingers under her arms - a particularly bad spot. Anakin tried to maintain his calm and stern demeanor as his padawan collapsed into laughter, pinning her arms desperately to her sides and kicking her legs in a futile attempt to get away.

"NOHOHOHO! ANIHIHIHI!"

"I'm just poking you Snips", Anakin responded, not being able to hold back his smile at the satisfaction of using Ashoka's line against her, "It's not my fault your devastatingly ticklish".

At the word, Ashoka squirmed even faster, and her orange cheeks went dark red.

Anakin lifted his hand, letting Ashoka catch her breath. Such a ruthless attack on her worst spot was a particularly brutal tactic.

"So", he said, watching as Ashoka bashfully recovered yet not letting her go, "Do you regret it yet?"

Ashoka, ever stubborn, crossed her arms. Anakin deserved what had come to him and he knew it.

"I absolutely do not"

Anakin tutted and shook his head, "I'm afraid that's the wrong answer my Padawan". He resumed his attack, going right back under her arms. She screamed in surprise, with her scream quickly transforming into laughter.

"You know Snips", Anakin commented, as if he wasn't tickling his padawan half to death, "The more you try to squash my hands with your arms, the harder it is for me to get them out. it's like I have no choice but to wiggle my fingers until my hands are free".

"HEHEHE! I CAHAHN'T HEHEHELP IHIHIT!"

"Sure thing Snips", Anakin teased, "Whatever you say".

Ashoka tried to channel that concentration Anakin had taught her into fighting her reflexes and lifting her arms. But the tickling sensations were just too much for her.

"NOHOHO! STAHAHAP!"

Anakin rolled his eyes with a smile, stopping. As she caught her breath once again, Ashoka glared at him.

"Oh come on Snips, why the long face?", Anakin teased, booping his Padawan's nose to aggravate her further.

"That was cruel", Ashoka said.

"Well, to be fair, you started it", Anakin responded. Just as Ashoka was about to reply, the door opened. Anakin immediately put his padawan down.

Obiwan smirked, "We could hear the ruckus you two were making from all the way down the hall. Remind me of how this has anything to do with training"

"Well...", Anakin blushed and scratched the back of his neck, "Ashoka attacked me and I needed to discipline her".

Obiwan just shook his head and chuckled, knowing exactly what had just happened, "You know, revenge isn''t the Jedi way".

"Yeah", Ashoka smirked, "It really isn't Anakin. Your not teaching me very well".

Anakin groaned as his Padawan and former master shared a conspiratorial grin.

"Okay you two, that's enough, everything's always my fault isn't it?"

Obiwan just smirked, as Anakin felt something pushing him toward the older Jedi. Anakin gulped when he found himself on the floor, with Obiwan smiling evilly down at him.

"What I'm about to do can't be considered revenge as I was not the one attacked", Obiwan stated matter of factly; "However, consider it rettribution for your foolishness.

Before Anakin could make an argument about Obiwan being a hypocrite, the room was filled with laughter once more.

I hope you enjoyed this! Sorry if my characterization isn't spot on.

Have a giggly day and happy holidays (:

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

"Nancy's in a healthy relationship with Jonathan" 🤨 Really?

Neither one of them are being honest with each other. Jonathan didn't want to see her and was grateful that she wasn't there. Nancy didn't want to see him and was grateful that he wasn't there. Jonathan assumed that Nancy was going to give up her dream for him, so he lied to her about where he was going to go for college. There are things that they both need to talk about but don't. One of them is how they got started in the first place, and the other thing is the camera incident. Nancy pushed it aside because there were other things going on, but she never really addressed how uncomfortable it made her feel or how it made her feel when he did that then took back his apology by calling her a slut and telling her she was going to end up like her parents. Jonathan really never felt remorseful about the whole thing until now, and I think that's a reason why he hadn't picked up a camera in season 4. There's some underlying resentment on both their parts. If neither of them are communicating properly, it's not a healthy relationship. It's been pointed out that they also hate each other a little bit. Yeah, that's not healthy. But just because they're not in a healthy relationship right now doesn't mean they can't be in one later. But to say they're in a healthy relationship right now, it's. . .*Nancy Wheeler voice* bullshit! There's one thing that they haven't talked about either, the one thing Nancy has in sort of in common with Steve. It's Barb. Jonathan Byers was the last person to see her alive, and instead of talking to her, he took her picture without her knowing about it while she was looking all sad and thought she was alone. Then she died. Now, Nancy doesn't blame him for it, but there's got to be a little resentment for just taking her picture like that, right? There's just so many things that they don't talk about and that they need to. Nancy needs to have a talk with Steve, too, but more than that with Jonathan. And Jonathan should have seen by now that Steve has changed grown and to continue to not see that for like three years. . .it's weird. It's fucking laughable to say their relationship is healthy because it has never been healthy. When they got together, Nancy had just gotten out of a serious relationship with Steve, and she was still quite vulnerable about Barb. She wasn't ready for any relationship then, and the fact that she listened to a complete stranger rather than herself should tell you Nancy wasn't ready. Yes, right now Nancy and Steve's, despite me thinking they're endgame, relationship isn't healthy either. They all still have a long way to go, but Nancy's putting some progress into finally accepting her feelings for Steve like she was unable to do so in the past. You don't have to come up with complete bullshit to put another ship down, it just makes you look catty. *scoffs* Healthy, whatever you say. Honestly, they have the same amount of problems that Nancy and Steve do which is why I think all three of them need to sit down together to talk. I really think it's going to be Steve who helps them get there, who opens up a dialogue, and if it's not, it should be. Nancy's severely traumatized. She's going to have a hard time forming a healthy relationship with anyone. Do I think she can do it? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Healthy?! Not a single damn one of them has a healthy relationship. It's not a bad thing to struggle or to admit that your favorite characters or your favorite ship is struggling or that they have flaws. Saying something is unhealthy is not always a bad thing.

[loveofdetail]

@sigilmint oh friend this comment made me so 😍

Short version: As far as in-game actions, really all you need to do is initiate his romance, betray the grove, roll to convince him to stay in the party, then continue his romance, roleplaying the situation however you want from there.

Long Version beneath the cut—this has a lot more to do with how my own out-of-game decisionmaking got me here, and how I interpret the macro-arc of my party/character.

My first bg3 campaign is a co-op game where we are mostly trying to do Good Route Things. Gale has been stuck in camp permanently because I was dead set on playing a wizard myself.

So I started my solo campaign with the vague notion of doing a Full On Evil Run. My character, Vuei, is a disillusioned and broken oathbreaker paladin. I was planning to romance Minthara because if she's only available in the evil route, might as well go all the way.

But I recruited Gale and immediately had a category 5 "Ohhh I can't not fuck him" moment.

Now, at the time I thought that betraying the grove would straight-up lock you out of his romance. Tbh I'm not sure why I thought this? But somehow that was the impression I'd gotten, so, I promptly jettisoned all my Evil Plans in favor under Get Under Gale's Robe ASAP.

I got all the way into Act 2 like this. Defeated and looted the whole goblin camp, made it to Last Light, all that.

Then one night I wanted to play but I was feeling too mentally wiped to make real progress and real decisions, so instead I loaded a save from right before saving the grove. I figured I would see what it was like, get to hear some Minthara dialogue, that would be that.

Instead I got one of the most immersive emotional rollercoasters a video game has ever given me.

I failed some rolls to deceive Minthara and started spinning a narrative where Vuei, who has recently lost everything and everyone they thought they valued, just... panics. Doesn't see a way out other than bending to Minthara's demands. Goes reflexively numb and nihilistic because apparently this is just the way the world works.

From there, the entire sequence from the combat itself, to Karlach (who was in my party) leaving me, to the reactions of various people at the party... it was just Moment after Heartwrenching Moment. I'm leaving some details out here because they really deserve to be experienced first-hand but at the end I was like. Staring at my ceiling processing all the implications for the characters.

Gale specifically delivers one of the Verbal Smackdowns of All Time to you afterward. You have to persuade him to stay.

But he does stay.

This was the point when I started getting the feeling that maybe his romance flag was still active? And the implications of THAT... my mind just ran wild with them. Who was this guy who would bitterly, righteously tell you that you're making him worse, then give you a second chance, secretly thinking maybe he's Not Actually So Different, then fall in love—ACTUAL love, not just 'I don't deserve better' resignation—with you despite it all?

I never reloaded my original save.

The game doesn't actually let you have any additional decompress-and-discuss dialogue after persuading him to stay, but in my imagination what I filled in was: a really painful heart to heart where Gale and Vuei agree Never Again. Where they are both at a loss as to how they can even go on from this. But they have to. So they will. At least they know the other feels just as guilty and ashamed as themself, and that counts for something.

It also made me think, why the pure black and white Evil Run/Good Run dichotomy? I really, REALLY latched on to the story structure of a party that makes One Huge Ruinous Fuckup at the very beginning that colors all their further attempts to Do Better, and that's how I RP'd going into act 2.

For instance: we couldn't rescue the tieflings but maybe we can extend the same grace to Minthara that we hope might be extended to ourselves.

In terms of game mechanics I actually took quite a hit here. Karlach took a bunch of great gear with her when she left (this may not happen in the current patch? unsure) and I decided my characters would not have it in them to go back to the goblin camp just to completionistly gobble up loot.

It felt like penance. The very beginning of the tangible consequences of the thing my character will regret most, for the rest of her life.

I felt closer to my remaining companions. Bound by atrocity. The last ones standing. By the gods it shouldn't have happened this way but after that we will NEVER doubt that we have each other's backs. I put Astarion in my party for the first time ever and this is when I began warming up to him as a character. Eventually when Shadowheart killed the Nightsong, it was like Vuei (and Gale) deeply disapproved but couldn't bear to cast judgement. The only thing to do is be there for her and hope she does better next time. We are all just hoping we'll do better next time.

The morning after our lowest point, we trudged resignedly to Rosymorn monastery. The stark, sublime grandeur of the landscape was a slap in the face. It was wrong that such beauty could still exist as though the world was indifferent to what we'd just done. It was wrong that we could literally climb above the ruins we made and in the distance they're just... another part of a breathtaking view. But here we are, standing on this cliff, somehow still able to feel wonder.

The new dawn imagery was both a lash and balm.

We carry on. We find a way.

OH ALSO I gave Gale Volo's eye and continued making Alterations to him as things progressed. Being vague because that's quite a bit further in but yeah, Gale Undergoing Changes is another big part of my vision here. It's All Connected.

[something-pithy]

Heyo, glittercats and kittens! So chapters 6 and 7 of an echo, a stain are up! And starting this week, I'm going to start including story notes along with the link.

I'm a note writer lol. Part of how I even begin to keep track of all the wildness of writing something longer than a grocery list is to write about it before I start writing it, if that makes sense lol. Character sketches, ideas about why certain things are happening, backstory, setting details, etc.

I'm pretty verbal about my writing process because -- well,  I like writing about writing a lot, and also, I think it improves both the work and how I get there. Anything might end up here -- character sketches, ideas about why certain things are happening, backstory, setting details, etc. I don't really wanna be leaving like eighteen thousand words of notes on every chapter, so here we are!

Sometimes I think they might add some interesting context for readers, sometimes it's information that I think is important but it's too much for the notes section on the story itself, and sometimes it's just so I have a document of my progress for this story. So here are my notes for chapter 7! ---

Chapter 7's title is from "Come to Me" by Bjork, which is definitely one of my Astarion / Tav falling in love themes for when I'm up in these flashbacks, back before Astarion Ascended (and he still had a soul loool).

The notes from previous chapters had promised a Shadowheart & Tav conversation in this chapter. This is not the Shadowheart & Tav chapter I promised, but it is the one that continued to demand to be written until I capitulated. 

And also, honestly, the one that's going to benefit that other chapter that was supposed to be 7 and the story as a whole in the long run, so I hope you like it! 

I was getting really stuck with my original plan, and so I just started writing -- well, this. And the chapter after this. And possibly the one after that. Loooool there is a LOT going on at this point in these kids' lives.

The original plan is still 100% happening, but I think I needed to 

1. explore the foundations of who these people have become (by these people of course I mean Tav and Astarion, but also friendship is magic, so our beautiful OG friendgroup babies) 

2. what the relationships between them look like and 

3. some clues, at least, as to how they got there. 

(tl;dr we're purposefully time-jumping, and I'm having fun with it, so I hope you will, too!)

But never fear, Shadowheart and Tav will of course be chatting when we return to the story's present. And it won't be in just one chapter.

OR

hey y'all, we're gonna be doing some purposeful (and hopefully at least coherently executed) flashing back and jumping forward (or up! or laterally! OR WHATEVER) in/on/around this story's timeline!

Final note, but an important one, on Tav's identity: 

I tried to keep Tav ambiguous for the first few chapters because I know that sometimes a really detailed and specific-looking or backstoried Tav can make people disengage from the story because they don't relate to the identifying details provided. (also, it's me, I'm people, or at least one of the people lol)

But at the end of the day, as soon as I started even thinking about writing a BG3 fic, I started really digging into and developing this Tav, who does reflect the dialogue, action, and relationship choices I've made in my current playthrough of the game with her, yes. But in having spent / continuing to spend some time thinking and writing about who this Tav is.  I'm not going to lay them all out here, but I think when you want to play in a sandbox as fucking ginormous and intricately, infinitesimally detailed as Faerun / The Forgotten Realms / DnD,  a little story/character-relevant contextual frontloading can help readers have as much fun with it as the writer does. 

Also, and I'm just going to say it, Tav is a queer, first-generation Baldurian child of two immigrants. She's the Faerun / Baldur's Gate equivalent of a BIPOC, with parents who were born in places very different both from Baldur's Gate and each other's home cities / kingdoms. Also, she's mixed-heritage elf (sun, moon, sea -- yeah, I'm that guy, come at me bro loooool). All this context is key to who Tav is as a person, as a creator, as an adventurer, and just in general.

I want anyone to be able to read Tav and be able to understand who she is, if not be able to relate to some small part of her -- but in my mind, people like Tav are essential to the story of a place like Baldur's Gate, and I really enjoy exploring what that looks like.

I'm having fun with it, so I hope you will, too!

[ireallyneedaintrestinglife]

Security Breach Ruin Theory

I've thought about it for a bit longer and I'm not 100% convinced that who we are hearing at the end (with the elevator) is Gregory.

We never get straight up confirmation that Gregory is real in fact they make it a point to specially call out the fact that this might not actually be Gregory.

Cassie says "How do I know this is you for real" to which Gregory responds, "Is there another option" which I mean...fair.

I also wouldn't spend unnecessary time trying to get someone to listen to me in that situation but after watching multiple other playthroughs things just don't add up 100% for me.

But you might be thinking...so what about it maybe they just needed some kind of filler dialogue and who wouldn't ask about the validity of something after they literally just shut down an entire pizza-plexs worth of security for someone who wasn't there at all.

Well I just find it curious that once the 'real' Gregory gets in contact with us it becomes super duper staticky. Just like mimic does right before he, they, it?? reveals itself to us.

Which ok could just be that Gregory is trying to get in contact with us through A LITERAL WALKIE-TALKIE while presumably very far away from the pizza place but again its the little things that add up to make the big picture. And I mean are we even certain that a walkie talkie would be able to connect from that far away. I mean even if he's at the entrance of the pizza-plex that sinkhole is a good ways down right??

Next why lead us all the way to the elevator just to leave us trapped down there anyway. It doesn't really make much sense to me. Also how was he able to connect to the elevator intercom.

The ending speech once we get to the elevator is heard over the intercom speaker we hear a classic speaker sound and they even have Cassie look directly at the intercom. So how did he manage to do that??

It's one thing to connect to the walkie talkie which again is a little weird. It's not something Cassie and Greg already had that was hijacked by the mimic (Cassie finds the walkie talkie in the pizza-plex she didn't have it with her to begin with) so how did 'real Gregory' manage to get in contact with us over it. But it's something else completely to switch from walkie-talkie to intercom for quite literally no reason at all dude could have continued on the walkie-talkie.

I don't know much about electronics so maybe it's really easy to do something like that idk I just find it a bit weird. I also know that in the books it's also confirmed that Gregory or at least GGY is described as like an 'ultimate hacker' and we all pretty much agreed that GGY is more than likely a stand-in for Gregory. I guess some of the weird tech stuff can be explained away with that line of thinking but I digress.

This last piece is what really sealed the deal for me because while you are running away from the mimic every once and a while Gregory will say, "it's right behind you!!" and "almost there!!" And like how??? How would he know how close the mimic is and how close we are to the elevator. We never respond back to him like "yep got it" or "oh I see it" so how??

I don't know maybe I'm just in a state of denial or... maybe the mimic knew we wouldn't die from that height. Maybe it needed us to be mad at Gregory so that we would have a legitimate reason to stop him from presumably ending or hindering the mimics progress. Maybe the mimic needed an ally and instead of gaining one it made one.

Especially when he needs someone elses help to guide you through this last bit. He specifically says, "my friend has access to the building maps" not 'I have access to the building maps.' He also says the direction we need to go in at exactly the right time which I mean I am much more willing to take that as a gameplay feature than a lore one though.

[kirchefuchs]

HELLO CERES!! I hope you're doing well!! I have come to rant about the Skip Button Ending <3

Tis I, your local overthinker, who takes everything seriously <33

distant, confused cheering

ANYWHOO SO

Did you know? If you listen closely, you can take notice of The Narrator going through the stages of grief as he and Stanley progress through the Steam Pressured Gas reviews:

Denial: "Surely, these reviews were glowing as well; weren't they?"

Anger: "UNFUNNY!?"

Bargaining: "Preachy? Stanley, I'm not preachy, am I? You could tell me if I'm preachy, honestly, you can–! ..Oh goodness.. Honestly, this is quite shocking for me.. I– I always–..

Depression: [continuation] ..well, to be honest, I had always thought of the game's dialogue as being rather terse to begin with. You can't know how much fluff I cut from the game to make it feel as light and airy as it– well... I always thought it did.. but maybe it wasn't.." || "I feel.. like a failure. Like I had let these people down.

and Acceptance: [continuation] ..perhaps The Stanley Parable isn't quite as sterling as I always remembered." || "...A Skip Button?.. ..Well.. Well, yes! Yes, I think we can do that! If I'm truly too preachy, then.. then maybe letting you skip ahead for just a moment surely, it couldn't hurt.." [can also be seen as bargaining]

Take this information however you want lol, this is just a little thing I noticed as I listened to The Skip Button Ending like a podcast while falling asleep last night (may or may not have gotten a Stanley Parable-themed dream shshshhdhd)

— 🅰️non || 05/01/2023 [I decided to add this just because lol. once again, hope ur doing okay, bud!! rest well <3 /p]

Mans really do be mourning the death of The Stanley Parable 2013, poor guy.

It always hurts to see him fall into accepting the game wasn't good enough just because of those handful of bad reviews. I don't know much about how the original did on Steam overall back then, but while obviously the game couldn't have been perfect for everyone, it still found its way to the people who did care, who did think it was perfect, who took it and thought to themselves "it's almost like this game was made for me".

Because that's the truth isn't it? The game was never made to be for everyone, it was made for the people who would love it and cherish it for what it is and what it will grow into being. I think that's where the Narrator really went wrong, as much as it hurts to say. He got so wrapped up in the positive feedback he fell into this delusion that the game was perfect and it was that way for everyone, when that is quite an impossibility. Then when he found the bad reviews instead of shifting his view to the reality that "while it was never perfect, it touched the hearts and connected with those who are important. Its good to take advice from the negativity, but you shouldnt dwell on it." He instead fell into another delusion of negativity where the bad reviews were right and the game could never have held up to any sort of praise. One extreme to another.

The truth is, while the Narrator always talks about catering to the player and capturing the hearts of the people, he fails to realize he already did that by just being himself. That you can never perfectly replicate a feeling from so long ago since people change and grow. He failed to understand that its okay that things change. It's okay for the game to do a little worse. It's okay for him to keep going and keep trying to make something new. Because we are here for the wid-eyed wonderment that comes with exploring a new story and a new path. Meeting new characters and greeting old ones. We loved the 2013 Stanley Parable yes, but we are old and wise enough to understand that it cannot feasibly be remade to perfection, and that new and different isn't always a bad thing. It's okay to keep growing. Better to grow and change than to stay where you are to be left behind and forgotten.

I think the Narrator needs a hug. For someone to tell him it's okay that what he made isn't perfect. It's okay it wasn't perfect because it was good. And that's the best anyone can hope to do.

[saberamane]

Now that I'm home from work, here's my thoughts on Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.

Overall, loved the game. I love the fact that you literally start off where you ended in AC2, and that you get to see the grand escape from the Vatican. I wish there was a bit more story before Cesare's attack, allow you to really feel the victory, you know? Mainly because the fact the Cesare attacks you literally the day after you beat up his dad and took the apple seems a bit...fast? Like how did he not only get informed of the incident, but he was able to rally his army at Monteriggioni with siege towers and everything? I don't think he'd actually be able to mobilize that fast.

I do love that when Ezio wakes up in Rome he immediately begins to fuck with the Borgia. The day he wakes up he kills an executioner and burns a Borgia tower?? He certainly works fast.

I do love the 'recruits' part of this, how you can find people to become assassin's, send them on missions that help you get money and items, I only wish that you could continue to personalize their outfit after they become Assassin's. And maybe give us a selection of weapons they can use? Instead of them basically being copy and paste.

Story wise, I think they could have given us a bit more background on some of the other 'big' assassinations, like Juan Borgia. He's related to Cesare and the pope, but we only know him as having a risque party and being a banker? Give us more reasons to hate this guy and want him dead! Overall, he didn't seem like an 'evil' guy.

The Romulus lairs were fun, but overall kind of pointless? You never ran into any of these guys actually harassing citizens or anything, so they didn't really have a plot point that we could see. They could have made them random encounters in the more ruin-like area's, like the hundred eyes thieves who would randomly attack you.

Fuck the checkpoint system. The whole point is to save your progress so if you die you can 'reload' to that point in time. Meaning if you fail a 100% synch requirement after a checkpoint, reloading should make it that you still have that progress and not make you REDO THE WHOLE FUCKING THING. I'm looking at you flying machine. If I'm at 100% synch so far, get a checkpoint, fail the 100% synch and then die, I should be reloading at my checkpoint with the same status as when I got the checkpoint. Meaning health, weapons, notoriety, and SYNCHRONIZATION!

The Copernicus Conspiracy was kind of pointless. It was just a bunch of assassinations of 'important' npc's.

The Da Vinci Disappearance, however, was great. Lots of story and purpose behind it, and the missions were fun and interesting. 10/10.

I also liked the modern bits. Leaving the Animus and walking around as Desmond, seeing the modern differences in Monteriggioni, was great. And also added subtle characterization. Shaun and Becca were friendly and joking with each other through email, Lucy was a bit more 'mission oriented' trying to stay serious. And poor Desmond often got ignored. He basically just got the schedule and emails that were sent to everyone. And I get that they had limited dialogue options, but after you spoke to everyone about 3 times they began to just brush Desmond off. I would say arguably Desmond is doing the hardest work, putting his very mental state on the line for these people (with little to no actual, genuine, consent from Desmond) and they can't even have meaningful conversations with him? I don't think anyone really ever asked if he was alright??

And finally, the ending. Honestly, from the climb of the castello to find the apple to the literal end of the game, was very rushed. A 'point of no return' if you will, that is not even hinted at really. And literal years pass from one mission to the next. It's all very quick and leaves little to no emotional connection to what's happening. One scene Cesare is being arrested, and the next he's leading an attack? When did he get out of jail? Did he get out himself or did he have help? And how, exactly, did Ezio know just from the apple? I don't believe the apple would have straight up said 'yo, Cesare is out of jail and attacking Viana'. That part didn't really make sense. And getting the idea to 'ask' the apple because Cesare said something along the lines of 'no chains will hold me' or whatever? Why did that make Ezio believe there was cause for concern of Cesare being freed? I'm sure a lot of people say that when being arrested.

To end this, I just want to say that I know it's an older game, and bound to have issues. I'm not saying it's a bad game, but I am saying that some of the issues could have been patched by now if Ubisoft cared to. And those patches might make it a better experience. But overall, it's a great game with 1 great DLC. (I just wish there was more Leonardo interaction! <3)

[obey-me-headquarters]

Thank you so much for replying to my silly thoughts!! Beware, this will be so long...:(🤡

Satan is my favourite so I'm definitely biased because I strongly sympathize with him, but yeah, his writing is pretty much a failure, especially after Solmare decided to revise the earlier lessons and eradicate certain character traits. You can still see it in his dialogues (home screen+interactions+unedited Devilgrams) - he's extremely snarky, playful and something is deeply wrong with him because he seems lonely (he says "You're late. I was about to go out looking for you." when returning to the home screen and "How bold of you. Are you sure you want to be stuck with me?" is his reaction to being gifted the limited item [handcuffs] on Valentine's Day, for example). He secretly gets a kick out of people being angry and is implicitly interested in having Simeon, who is a high-ranking angel, indulge in his sin ("Wouldn't you be curious to see what Simeon's like when he's angry?"). Plus, I think he's also deeply ashamed of his "circumstances" ("Do you ever sometimes wonder if Mammon is the most decent of all of us?") and thus very much eager to prove himself at every given chance (the incident with being transformed into a Little D, admitting that he's never beaten Diavolo at chess [and yet still trying] and he confesses that he think that he hasn't found a talent or passion so far [Devilgram: Be You] . Nowadays, he's just a cat-loving bookworm whose said to be smart but...never actually utilises it :( Everything is about cats and he's being treated like comic relief and cats are just his punchline.

I think the Nightbringer writing is pretty well-done, too, especially because they know what kind of success they'll reap (the original storyline was pretty obviously supposed to be done after lesson 20 with maybe individual routes beginning, but the game became too big too fast imo). I just hope that Nightbringer will introduce Lilith's alternative storyline to us, because logically, she should be alive in the human world since she "lived a fulfilling life as a human" after Diavolo saved her because Lucifer pledged his eternal loyalty to him. That's all I want tbh!! 🥹 I'm just so bitter that they're discontinuing support for the original game (meaning that there won't be any new lessons coming out and that the anticipated adjustments of difficulty in later lessons would be cancelled) but the pay2win aspect of gacha games will still be a vital mechanic, somehow??? They're not stopping VIP memberships or implementing some kind of progress transfer, but expect players to put up with the same micromanagement again...just in a game that is supposed to be "a continuation" but so far mirrors the first game too much to be truly innovative. I'm a 100% free to play player, I don't care about predatory gambling mechanics in the end because I'm not responsive to them in any way (I have other problems 💀🪦), but I know that many people just get sucked into these things without a way out. They're whale players and that's how these companies make money (and honestly... I fear that Solmare is slowly morphing into EA Sports or something 🤡). Plus, (this is just anecdotal and the devs aren't personally preying on people like that) the people most at risk of running into a »non-gambling« gambling addiction are cluster b disordered peolple who are already isolated... the comorbidity rates are abnormally high in those cases (I recommend Parmar's 2018 study [Indian Journal of Psychological medicine], they look at all personality disorders across the board and break them down by type of addiction, then rank them by rates of risk)

I don't blame them either and indulgence in food it's less of a red flag than depicting uncontrollable, chronic and incurable alcoholism but sigh you put it into words! Beel lacks secondary characteristics and there's no clear way of defining him. Most of the time, he doesn't even converse all that much because he's pretty quiet among the entire cast. And I agree, I loved Beel's character arc and just how devoted he is to his family. He's blooming with love and care for his brothers 🥺 and I think that's so sweet, plus the insight given when Solmare explored just how guilt-ridden he is was beautiful (and so painful rip). His vices seem to hold a death grip on him and that's just never given another thought.

If I could change a thing, I would have intentionally given each of the brothers a redeeming quality from the get-go and having it clash with their sin - Maybe divide the corresponding Seven Heavenly Virtues among them and have them struggle with it (Mammon seems to be written that way??? He practices charity and sacrifices himself but doesn't want others to know it [see the Devilgram in which he reveals why the witches abuse and exploit him, I sadly forgot the name rip]), but I agree that Beel's particular kindness should have stood out way more. He shines so brightly compared to the others when it comes to sincerity and I think you'd be spot-on with your take on the brothers' jealousy! Canon Asmo still wants to preserve the image of the Jewel of the Heavens and tries to be angelic and beautiful all the time. Satan is the only pureblooded demon in the house, I think that's what already gives him identity issues - an angelic Beel is just the cherry on top. And, ironically, the opposite of Belphie, who looks sweet and harmless but is so bitter and manipulative.

I think Lucifer's in an awkward spot with everybody, kind of. They are all aware that they love each other, but everyone thinks that Lucifer is the scariest person in the world. They're terrified of him 💀 when facing their respective fears (I can't remember which lesson or event maybe (??) :((( sorry), Mammon sees an enraged Lucifer and Satan sees Angel Lucifer... that's telling 🤡

Tbh Nightbringer Lucifer should exude Icarus energy - I've never thought about it but you're absolutely right.

Sorry I didn't comment on everything, but you've given me so much to bounce off of its incredible. Your ramblings>>>>>>

And, again, sorry for the spam and for this long long long long ask omg I'm so sorry (especially the Satan bit but I'm passionate about my boy)

!!! No problem! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me! :D I really like talking about my guys, and potential stories!!

Ah, Satan, I love him but I can definitely see the flaws in his writing.

I'm kinda..... weird well it comes to stories. If given the choice between consuming a well written perfect story, and a story that has so much potential but didn't stick the landing, I will always choose the story that didn't stick the landing.

Which is crazy! I know! But I noticed that stories that have potential stick with me a lotttttt longer than ones I have nothing to change. I think it's because people are creative, they like thinking about what they want in a story, and so when you give them potential they want to mend that potential into a story they like.

All this to say, I'm surprisingly not salty about the bad writing decisions in Obey Me lol. Solmare is giving little hints of characterization they wouldn't follow through on, and I take those crumbs and make my own story with it lol.

I completely forgot about Lilith's alternative storyline! Omg, yeah Lilith is still alive!!! Gosh, I really really hope they do something with that.

I'm kinda torn on whether I want Lilith to become apart of the family again, since I liked the acceptance of grief that took place in the original game. I don't think Solmare should undo that by having her reunite with her brothers and everything being fine. But I do hope that Solmare does something with that storyline.

I'm upset that there isn't going to be a continuing story in the original game too 😔 though I do wonder if that's going to remain the case. I mean, I don't think Solmare is going to discontinue the game, seeing as players kinda need to play it to get Nightbringer. I'm crossing my fingers here, but I hope that Solmare eventually does something with the original game. They say there are still going to be events, so I hope that the events are longer. I know a lot of people liked a lot of the events, the pirate one, for example. So it'll be interesting if the original game focused on those, expanding the worlds they already created.

Having the difficulty adjusted for these longer events would fall in line with their plans to change the difficulty for the main game. Plus, it could still be paid to win since events still make quite a lot of money, with new cards and everything.

They could even, fingers crossed they don't but they COULD is the scary part, introduce a new currency for these longer events that open up an alternative route. Kinda like what they already have with the event keys but more predatory.... (A lot of gacha games already do this, the Arcana comes to mind)

!!! I've been meaning to talk about the Seven Heavenly Virtues!! I know that if I would ever do something with the 7 Sins, having the 7 Virtues be an aspect was always the plan lol.

Though, in my mind, it'll be interesting if these Virtues are their own characters, and each Sin and Virtue has their own unique relationship. Do they absolutely hate each other? Do they have a weird friendship? Do they want to murder each other? A dredging respect for the other? Madly in love?

Giving each brother a redeeming quality relating to a virtue sounds really interesting! And I didn't even notice that they kinda already did that with Mammon!

Having an angelic Beel with a strong sense of right and wrong is angsty, but it can also be played for comedy. Satan coming up with a scheme to hurt some demons and Beel is like ":( but that's wrong tho." And Satan is like "you're absolutely right, little brother, I don't know what I was thinking." And gently pushing him outside of the room. Once gone Satan turns back to everyone and is like "so they we get a buzz saw and-"

Morally upstanding Beel could also have a really interesting relationship with Simeon. I kinda feel like Lucifer is the only one allowed to have interesting relationships with the other characters outside of his family. His loyalty to Diavolo, his dislike of Solomon and his constant asking for a pact, and his complicated relationship with Simeon. He and Simeon could butt heads a lot, with Simeon believing that Beel can still be saved, and thinking that the only reason Beel is stuck in the Devildom is because of his loyalty to Lucifer. Luke could also believe this, and try to help Beel overcome his sin (while also accidentally causing Beel to hurt himself by starving himself) to try and make Beel into an angel again.

Idk, there's nothing in game to suggest this, but I just think it'll be interesting for Simeon and Beel to have a more strained relationship. It adds layers to Simeon's relationship with Lucifer, and Beel's relationship with Lucifer.

Maybe in the Celestial realm, the two of them were always butting heads on how to handle things. Simeon could be passive-aggressive toward Beel, believing that he was always meant to fall because of his bad decisions in the Celestial Realm, while still seeing that he's the most angelic of all the brothers, and thus can still possibly be "saved".

Give me Beel getting mad at Simeon for choosing goodness over his family. Give him loyal Beel who has a golden heart, but will walk with his family into Hell because he will never abandon them! Give me the two of them arguing over what's more important, morality, or family?

Lucifer giving Icarus energy is such a good idea! Give me Lucifer trying his best and still failing. Give me my fail husband Luci <3

Don't worry about not commenting on anything! I'm pretty sure tumblr has a word limit on how long a comment can be anyway, and all you can tell, we both like to ramble lol.

Don't apologize for long ramblings!! I love to hear them and bounce off of them!

I'm happy with getting new asks, if you want we can dm and ramble about this? It just might be quicker than asks lol. If you have a Tumblr account, that is, no sweat if if you don't! Like I said, i like getting your asks!

[semi-imaginary-place]

5.0 rambling and 5.x adventures

when was it established that summoned being return on death of the summoner. also if you're tearing into the rift shouldn't bringing and sending be equaally as easy/difficult

elidibus seeing zenos walk up sword drawn and running away is so funny. he just noped out of that situation. not sure why they cut the scene at gaius attacking zenos, zenos has way too much plot armor to die by gaius.

oh hey amurot and all it's people are still hanging around. would have thought with emy's death they would have all dissipated and the city returned to ruin. i think it has something to do with how the game is coded. just like how the garleans didn't disappear after 2.0. if anything making amurot an instanced area might have been a better idea would have really hit home the transcience of everything that this place was like a liminal space. but unlike other areas after msq progression dialogue does not change here although this effect is lessened since in like 2.0 and 3.0 they didn't change much either.

Ok time to look things up. Right 7 calamities, 6 elemental, bahamut, and the doom timeline #8. G'raha awoke then went to the first 100 first years ago just in time for the Flood. I wonder how many source years that was would be would be. The wods went back tot he first in patch 3.4. actually they were on the source for a while since 3.1 at least. How much time passed on the first. Ironworks timetravel might have actually been pretty accurate in their rewind. G'raha was sent 100 years ago into the First's past but that might have only been a few months ago source time.

Looking at everything i think the devs just wanted g'raha back and then wrote a timetravel plot point to bring him back into the story. And there were so many ways to kill him off in 5.0 like if emy hadnt shot him and he'd actually died on gulg or the timeline dissolving thing (could also mean the 8th rejoining could still happen but let's be real, it's because g'raha is the dev's favorite i mean i got spoiled he's now a scion and is in dawntrail. The devs just want him to continue being a part of the main plot.

Sundering happened to break up zodiark and seal him

Wonder what the advertisements for ascians was like we heard varis about a true glorious humanity. Wonder how lahabrea, elidibus, and emet-selch got the others onboard because the ascians in general (thanks arr) seem pretty bwahaha kick puppies evil.

So the 13th was never rejoined so um real calamity of darkness. So 7 calamities + the first + the failed 13th + the source. Only 3 other intact shards.

arr and sb were both about geopolitics, war, military power, and garlemald. hw and shb meanwhile were more sentimental narratives that had less to do with the mainplot. good thing i like both. idk what dt is about seems like a beach episode.

Another plot point lost is that the devs could have made the crystal exarch the g'raha tia of another shard instead of doing timetravel. Yes yes the game game would have to be remade im not talking about that, im talking about when the devs storyboarded abd outlines shb they could have done this differently. Now with multiple timelines any character that dies (hades) can also timetravel back into the story. Narratively it means no one ever ends. And between this and zenos im never going to believe a character is gone for good. The wall has been broken.

Was thinking about Ardbert and emy again. Ardbert was 1/14, death, and so faded he'd sort of hlf forgetting himself by the time we meed him in the story. In addition whenever he's with wol-chan it's like the sun covering up the sky no was you are going to see some faint star. No way Emet-Selch saw him around the wol. And he'd have no reason to notice Ardbert outside of that context. And even if he did I don't think emy would care.

Azem is the title. Sidenote let's be real because the devs cycle names like lahabrea (and maybe even emet-selch) were likely originally intended to be names. The writers for shb likely retconned them to be titles. Like what do lahabrea, and emet selch even mean is there an ancient language and these are just untranslated? And then you can tell azem was conceptualized later with its connections to azemya and azim. I did get ew spoiled just bit as bad as shb for ew it's like i have to deliberately not put the pieces together because im very good at putting the pieces together. Anyways ancient names seem to be greek inspired like hylotheu...s the talking shade or hades is straight up mythology. Venat is an import character from ffxii where she seems to do the exact same thing and play the same role? (I'll get to ew eventually... probably...). So if azem with their sun connections follows the pattern then they'd be something related to apollo or helios. The devs are never going to confirm an azem personal name because this fandom runs on wol ocs and people would riot over their special little baby.

i saw a pixie die. maybe

ok actual moral dilemma in the qitari we don't have enough information to tell what is the truth what actually happened. instead the game is asking the player what story should be told. if this was irl the father's story would be more likely but this is a videogame and ffxiv loves it's historical twists (im looking at you ivallice raids) so who knows what is actually true the devs probably never decided. so the question is of what effect each story will have on the future if the ronkan emperor is framed as a subjugator would this act as a cautionary tale about power? if the son's interpretation is enshrined would this be about the benefits of encountering different cultures? im probably overthinking this.

for some reason the player is given the choice on which interpretation of history will be recorded. not enough info is given to be able to tell which interpretation is better supported by evidence. so it becomes a moral question of what history should be remembered. that's the qitari's first contact with the ronkas was conquest and slavery, or as saviors and and protectors of the weaker

oof this is the hardest decision in the game. because I'm on the side of truth what I would do is not restore the stela and leave it as be open to interpretation and then like write competing academic analyses. but there is no truth here only the story we want to tell. i keep going back and forth. the ronkan empire seems to generally have a favorable reputation, the vii are still loyal to them but we don't know about it's formation or relationship with the qitari. also i dont like empires the inherent nature of conquest and satellite states.

the twinning: ah back to the crystal tower trapped in there for 76 years in alliance raids. DOOMED TIMELIME IRONWORKS MADE A MINI ALEXANDER that's how they did the timetravel! i just connected 2 dots. and we learn why g'raha is crystalized, he was merged with the tower to survive the "infinite chaos" of the rift and this was done somehow by studying how omega could?? does that mean omega's world and the omega raids were in the rift???

i think it could have been cool to play in a rejoined world. obviously this wouldn't work because of player customization and what not but i personally like the idea since i have little attachment to my player characters.

[riddlerosehearts]

more thoughts on my baldur's gate 3 playthrough! still running around exploring this giant city and trying to make my way through act 3. in this post, i continue gale's companion quest.

all right, so i explored the city a bit more. found carm's garms and uhh, also found naaber. i'm dying at him trying to be a cleric, praying really really badly and when you ask what god he's praying to he goes "there's more than one?!" like HOW do you get to be a grown adult in this world and not know that skjdafg 😭

anyway, i exhausted all of his dialogue. thought it was kind of funny but was surprised at how bizarre and out of place he felt and especially by the fact that he talks kind of like spongebob. looked him up to see if there was anything more to his entire deal and found out that apparently he's a running gag from previous baldur's gate games! so that's neat, but i seem to have turned the poor guy into an oathbreaker paladin. oops!

also found the harper hideout, did the battle there and learned about minsc! i know he's from a previous game like jaheira is, and i also know he's recruitable later. not sure i'll end up using him any, especially since i already thought halsin and jaheira became recruitable a little too late, but maybe once i meet him i'll change my mind.

then i continued the murder investigation, and on my way to progress through the quest we got invited to gortash's coronation! made sure to bring karlach along with me for that and damn, she was immediately SO ready to kill him. he says a single sentence and she says she can taste his blood. and then she yells at him and stops just short of saying she's going to shove her boot up his ass LMAO. i also had wyll with me and there was a bit of extra dialogue about his father!

i'm actually a bit annoyed about how the whole deal with mizora plays out because like, there's this whole theme of the companions reclaiming their agency and i believe letting shadowheart make the choice to spare the nightsong on her own is actually the "correct" option over trying to persuade her. so... why do you have to choose whether wyll should break his pact or save his father? why can't you tell wyll to make the choice for himself? and tbh i also feel like there's basically zero chance that wyll as a character would ever not choose his father anyway, whereas with shadowheart there's this tension and ambiguity where right up until that moment you can't be sure what she'll do, so that's another flaw in how wyll is written imo. oh well.

walked into a church in the city and there is a statue of mystra here. elenion made small offerings to tyr and helm and a larger offering to selune, but for mystra? he kissed gale in front of her statue and then left <3

lakrissa and alfira are so cute 🥺 i found them on the roof of the tavern and alfira was looking out at the city and said she'd never get tired of this view, while lakrissa who was looking at alfira said "same here"... god i'm so weak for that sort of thing.

honestly i've wished alfira had been recruitable ever since i first encountered her in the game, and i guess if she was then we would lose this sweet wlw couple, which would also be a shame AKLJGHDF but idk i like her a lot and i think having her around and getting to know more about her would've been fun!! especially since i think it's a huge shame that there isn't a bard companion.

hey, i finally figured out where sorcerous sundries is! the lorroakan fight was a little annoying with all his myrmidons running around, but i did manage to cast tasha's hideous laughter on him for a few turns, which was hilarious. god i can't wait to get elenion up to level 11 so he can learn otto's irresistible dance.

the vault frustrated me in a way that i don't think it was supposed to, because wyll got downed from a trap without me realizing and i got kind of lost trying to get back to where he got downed at and then i forgot how to get back to the beginning of the vault so i could leave omg. i'm probably the only person in the world to have that kind of trouble with it. but oh well, we got gale his super dangerous-sounding book!!

and then i got to see the gorgeous boat scene that i've seen so many gifs of. and i love gale so much askdjghfdsgjhdf i'm 😭😭 first of all i will never understand how anyone could hate a man who says things like "with you, i forget my goddess" and "you put the stars to shame". that second quote especially is killing me because it feels so tailor-made for my tav! and then the fact that he is so surprised and relieved that they love him just the way he is!! aaaaaaaaaa i'm going to explode. hate when people say gale fumbled a goddess because she's the one who fumbled him!

going to end this post here, now that i've seen gale's talk with mystra, so i can take a look at my quest log and decide which of the 93475384 sidequests i've picked up should be handled next!

[runimanio]

2024 Game Clear #18 Ranma ½: Treasure of the Red Cat Gang

I've been really getting into Ranma½ lately, and after learning that there was a RPG with an English fan translation I knew I had to play through it as it is my god given duty to play through every turn based RPG licensed after a property I like and .... it's just okay

The fan translation has two versions one for fans of the anime and one for the manga, I chose the anime version because at this time that is the version of Ranma I'm more familiar with, I'm don't know what all the changes are in the manga patch as their doesn't seem to be a place online that documents all the differences. The translation seems pretty good especially for a early 2000s fan translation, there's perhaps one grip I have with it and it that they chose to name an equippable armor for the girls as just "bitch" which I feel is unnecessary and unprofessional (and frankly a bit confusing like what exactly am I equipping here?) I do lack the knowledge to properly criticizes the translation here but the guide I was using did choose to translate it to "Angry Dress" instead so I felt it was worth bringing up.

Now for the actual game itself. The Jusenkyo guide accidently broke a seal releasing The Ghost King Cat Nekomaou upon the world who seeks strong men to rebuild his Red Cat Gang and wishes acquire the three sacred treasures that can grant any wish when brought together. The Red Cat Gang kidnaps Ranma father Genma, Mousse and the students of Furinkan High to use as muscle. Ranma, Akane & Shampoo (Ryoga too but of course he immediately gets lost and separated from the party) sets off to save everyone and to acquire the three treasures in hopes of using the wish to cure Ranma of his curse.

I think it's a pretty strong set up for a Ranma RPG honestly, but in practice alot of the writting feels like a reheated version of what you know, if you watched even a couple of episodes of Ranma, you've seen all the jokes before just now it's in a pretty static form which doesn't really lend much strength to all the running gags, even the ghost cat stuff isn't really that special since Maomolin exists but weirdly unless I missed something they never actually point that out.

The party also doesn't banter among themselves as much as you'd hope, only really speaking up when it's time to do their running gag. Akane suffers the most from this I think, as perhaps 95% of her dialogue is getting angry at Ranma which very little moments (if any) that explore her more tender side. It's a Akane completely removed of nuance and I think that's lame

That said there was gags that I did think translated well into the RPG format, Having a party member like Ryoga who will just... keep walking unaware that he's leaving the party is pretty funny joke for a RPG, Genma continues to be the world worst dad, and Cat Fu gets to be a mechanic in a boss fight (though Ranma fear of cats isn't really brought up as much as you might think it would be considering the plot)

On the the actual gameplay side...I like a fair bit about it! It's pretty simple but I appreciate that it doesn't waste your time, a lot of other licensed rpgs that i've played try to hide the fact that they likely made the game in 8 months by forcing a brutal grind or by splitting up the party to hid a lack of meaningful progression.(looking at you Sailor Moon Another Story) I only really had to grind once at the end and it was a pretty light grind, the party does split up a bunch but it never feels like a tactic to artificially increase difficulty and therefore extend the game length then more the product of the Ranma cast being chaotic, it's a miracle that a party of these characters can hold together for 5 minutes.

That said I do wonder if they purposely made your movement speed in the overworld slow to compensate, it not that bad and you get used to it but it's pretty noticeably slow when you first start playing but even with that it's a very short rpg, I got through half the game in like 4 hours unquestionable the shortest tradition rpg i've ever beaten but I actually think it's to the game strength that it doesn't overstay it's welcome.

I general I don't look the look of this game but I do like how battles look, the special moves are flashy and I love that characters fly out of the arena when K.O, battle are pretty easy though you can pretty much get through everything by just spamming attacks, start doing basic rpg stratagems like using stat boosting abilities and your pretty much invincible, being too easy might seem like a detriment but i vastly prefer that to the likely alternate of a grindfest so it's fine

Last note on the gameplay is the UI isn't the best, visually it looks fine but it lacks a lot of information that would be useful to know, items & abilities don't have descriptions which can makes it hard to parse what something actually does even after using it if the effect isn't visually obvious which is why I kept a guide open to reference. you can also only see your ki amount in battles which isn't a big deal but a little annoying when you want to check if your ready before a boss fight

Ultimately though I think a RPG is just kinda a weird choice for a Ranma game, turning the chaotic gender swapping martial arts romance gag manga™ into a slow turn based rpg isn't the most natural match, there's probably way to make it work really well but It probably would take a longer timetable then the dev team probably had. There are Ranma fighting games and visual novels which seem like a better fit but i'm surprised out of all the IP in the 90's that got beat em ups Ranma wasn't one of them, somewhere out there there's a world with a banging Konami or River City style Ranma beat em up and im sad I don't live in that world lol.

With all that said and all my criticism aside... I do still recommend it for Ranma fans, it more time in this world and with these characters and it's a short painless experience so it's not a huge time sink, it's just whenever you merge a property I like with this genre I'm always gonna come in with higher expectations then I probably should have lol

[x-pair-o-dice-x]

halloooooo!!! i'll send the second ask game in another ask but for now i'm doing the emoji one !! :D

🌞,🦅, 👐, 🤯,💔

— brick

🌞 — Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

nnnnnot really? i tend to write late at night, but i wouldn't say i prefer writing then,,, dkdmkdks. (granted, i haven't been doing much writing lately, but uhh. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

🦅 — Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

okay, it's a mix of both? at first, i never really wrote outlines? but lately,, i've been experimenting with doing so for some of my fics.... mostly ones on my main, but there's a couple(or, like. one, i guess) outlines i wrote for fics on this account!

🤲 — Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

for crafty creations! bit stuck on now to continue it,, so i haven't made too much progress on it yet, h.

🤯 — What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

uhhhh,, i tend to have a hard time with action,, kdjdksjsk. i tend to write a lot of inner monologues, or dialogue, that i tend to forget that i also should be actioning stuff,,, odmdkdmmd. romance can also be hard, cuz uhhh. [glances at the aro flag hovering ominously above me]. yeah.

💔 — Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

mmmmmm.... by nature(soft vore warning), i guess? or prepare for the horrors(soft vore warning). i don't really tend to write super sad fics, though,, cuz that's not really the stuff i like to read, personally. i like happy endings and hugs and comfort,, ksjwosis. i guess prepare for the horrors is the closest one would get to that, though? 'cause while ranboo does end up okay in the end, it's not exactly like he got comforted at any point of the story,, dkdnsksjs. might change that if i ever get the motivation to continue writing a sequel, tho!

[alligatorjesie]

Hey there.

First off, if you dislike reylo then you kinda dislike the entire sequel trilogy, which is your right God fucking knows there is not a single Star Wars fan alive who enjoys every single Star Wars movie from start to finish myself included, but you're right fucked in the head if you honestly think reylo was not end goal of the MAIN PROTAGONIST and MAIN ANTAGONIST from the start.

This is like really hating the prequel trilogies because for some reason you went in not knowing Anakin and Padame hooked up and you personally felt like Padame and Obi Wan had better chemistry and can't process the fact Anakin and Padame being a thing is literally why the next 6 movies even fucking occur so now you take it out on the Anakin/Padame shippers since the characters they ship dominated the screen time in the movies about them.

The shippers are not the reason the prequel movies sucked balls or didn't suck balls.

The Ship Is The Point Of The Movie.

You say the reylo undid what was set up in the first movie? YOU MEAN THE REYLO THAT WAS SET UP IN THE FIRST MOVIE?

It's really not that weird how the fans were able to sus this one out by actually watching these movies start to finish without letting our focus deviate a single time then proceeding to do that a bunch more because we actually enjoyed the movies.

Also by how all of the most interesting scenes are between the main STARS of the movies, Daisy and Adam.

Like the bridal carry scene.

Or the scene where he ' interrogates ' Rey which is laughable when people call this a rape/torture scene. I don't know too many rape/tortures that end with the offender being bested then running off to his master to cry about it.

We saw what Kylo Actually Torturing someone looks like a few short minutes earlier with Poe and I hate to fucking tell you all this but this scene is not the same as that last scene with Poe and we know because at no point does Rey SCREAM IN AGONY.

Or it was that scene towards the end where instead of just yeeting Rey off the side of a fucking cliff Kylo calmly waits for her to decide after he offers to be her teacher.

I went back and counted by the way, he lets her sit there and think it over for

27 Seconds

Nearly a full fucking minute.

And don't get me started on The Last Jedi.

That movie is basically Star Wars: Episode 8: The Reylo Movie

I enjoy Finn as much as the next guy but Finn is not a MAIN character in these movies, so it's very fucking bold of you to assume the reason his character got shafted was because a small group of fans shipped 2 of the MAIN CHARACTERS together who kept SELFISHLY taking all the spotlight IN THEIR OWN MOVIE and not the fact JJ Assbrams can't write a black character without making him a joke that:

Exists in the narrative almost solely as a 'GOTCHA' marketing ploy because JJ wanted his fucking mystery boxes and trying to figure out who the main character was going to be was one of those mysteries, unfortunately for Finn.

Is forced to drink out of a filthy water bowl with an animal, for the laughs.

Is a janitor, which is also just played out for laughs because why not?

Making him go toe to toe with the big baddy in the first movie only to injure him almost instantly to the point he's out of the game the rest of the movie.

Never progresses past the stage of yelling the main characters name for reasons of, and I'm assuming here but I feel like I might be correct ever since EP9 was released and this trend weirdly continued, just not fucking know what else dialogue to give him.

... Bold.

Super bold when you consider Finn gets more screen time than Kylo in every single movie so his character development being dogshit sure as fuck ain't got dick to do with him not getting enough screen time.

Anywhoots. The reylos are not the reason Finn got a bad character arc. That's the daffiest fucking shit I've ever fucking read.

Bitch, you think the reylos wrote the new Star Wars movies?

I fucking wish. They would have ended a lot fuckin' better than how they did.

Reylo The Ship is also not the reason these movies are 'bad', the quality of a movie being such a subjective thing as it is but thinking The Ship is the reason they're bad means you didn't understand these movies From The Fucking Start.

The ship is the POINT of these movies, why the fuck else would they make the main villain blood related to every single goddamn OG character in this 9 movie epic if they had zero fucking intention of redeeming him, in this movie series about REDEEMING EVIL CHARACTERS?

YOU didn't like them because YOU obviously didn't understand them or care about the characters in them, which is fine whatever you do you boo.

There are plenty of people who did like them and understood them perfectly.

So get off our dicks about it.

I can't believe we live in the timeline where the Reylos won.

[beepboop358]

I have a genuine question, as a person who studies film, don't you think that if mileven isn't the end of the game, it will be a hole in the script? because a casual viewer who doesn't analyze subtexts or even know about the shipp's existence, it would be very unexpected

This is something I've actually been thinking about for awhile so genuinely thank you so much for asking!

I hope I don't sound too blunt here, but no I don't think it will be seem like a hole in the script, or a flaw, or anything like that. I see it more as a viewer's error to absorb the material. As someone who does go to film school, I think everything fits into place and makes sense. I really appreciate the narrative of Byler and how much development we are getting between them, because it's so rare to have a relationship that is SO developed on-screen with SO much detail, but I am analyzing the subtext. All of the Mileven moments we have seen are incredibly awkward and seem forced, which is all due to the incredible writing, which helps to emphasize a clear difference with how Byler has tender and intimate moments, therefore I think it's obvious mileven will not end up as endgame. Without even looking into the subtext, all the proof is there in the writing, in the pure dialogue. It's just about whether or not people are willing to accept it.

To answer your question, I think we will get a SUBSTANTIAL amount of byler development in s4 (and also s5) that will clue even the casual viewers more into what's happening, and get more people on board with the idea of byler and help them to realize where the story is headed; that byler is endgame, and mileven is not. I also don't think mileven being a past relationship (which it is now Because they broke up in ep.2 of s3) is a flaw because most first couples do not end up together. The future development of byler is what's really going to solidify things for the casual viewer. In all honesty, the show has already done this, but most people just don't pick up on it because they just aren't looking at it like that, or they just don't want to.

Sadly, I think a lot of casual viewers don't pick up on Byler because it is two boys.

Although we have made a lot of progress, there is still so much more to do. I've heard too many times that "they are just really good friends", and it is so frustrating because people who are just friends don't act like that with each other, and nobody would say that if it was a boy and a girl. (I am absolutely NOT saying that I think everyone who doesn't ship byler or doesn't pick up on it is a homophobe or anything like that, because that's simply not true) But I do think a good majority of casual viewers brush off whatever happens between Mike and Will and don't acknowledge it as romantic solely because they are two boys. It pains me to say this but, if Mike had told El he would go "crazy together" with her, no one would have doubted it was a romantic, intimate gesture. Let's forget the subtext of the word "crazy" for a minute, the dialogue/interaction of that scene alone between a boy and a girl, or the "we won't let him" hand hold moment, or the "it was the best thing I've ever done" moment, or the constant lip glances/checking each other out, would never ever be questioned if it wasn't a queer couple. Going off that, it annoys me that any interaction between a boy and girl is automatically considered to be romantic. Just no.

That being said, Stranger Things is basically the Duffer brothers homage to the movies that inspired them when they were younger and what continues to inspire them now. It's a show created by people who are cinephiles, so of course it would be complex. They built the show off of the movies they loved and what inspired them, and they still do evident by the "video store Fridays". I watch a lot of movies because I love too, but it's also part of my 'education' LOL, and in almost every 80's movie I watch and some newer ones too, I have a moment where I go "ah, stranger things", because I just found a reference that was used in the show.(maybe i'll do a big post on this later?) Everything from the sci-fi, kids in a small town on bikes trope (IT, E.T., etc.), to the little detail of the white flakes in the upside down (Alien, Super 8), is from other movies and it's meant to be that way. All that is to say, it's an incredibly complex show to begin with, but then on top of that they create their own plethora of subtext and inter-show parallels, comparisons, and references and it becomes even more complex with even more to look into, which totally flies over the casual viewers heads. Which is sort of sad because it's amazing how much effort and attention to detail goes into the show!

It's kind of set-up for people to analyze and look into it. Stranger Things wasn’t meant for casual viewing.

I think sometimes we consume media too passively, and don't analyze or look into things as much when they are really much deeper than the surface. But most people view media as pure entertainment, especially TV. There is kind of a reputation that TV is "trashy" and film is "classy" in the industry, when that's not really the case at all. There are some amazing TV shows out there, ST included!! But traditionally TV is not usually appreciated the same way film is, so people aren't as in tune to even thinking that there could be something to analyze, which could be part of why people don't pick up on Byler.

I think depending on how s4 (and s5) goes, some casual viewers will still say that byler was "out of the blue" or that it "doesn't make sense". I call bs on that, it does make sense, you just have to pay attention and keep an open mind to see it. Eventually I think they will come around, but I guess we will have to wait and see. Some people might just be incredibly stubborn refuse to acknowledge byler even after it's confirmed and will say that the writers "ruined the show". Bracing myself for the anti-byler hate that may be coming as byler's relationship progresses.

Again, thank you for asking, I had fun writing this! Sorry this is so long, I hope I was able to answer your question tho!

I've had friends/family, who aren't as into the show as me, not pick up on byler until I pointed it out to them so it's a very interesting question. That's kinda why I made the byler proof master slides LMAO.