#and it was honestly not optimistic at all

[grendel-menz]

(delusionally self absorbed) i do wonder if when certain middle/upper class communities read and enjoy something i wrote or follow my art and stuff more consistently than one off liking what ive made they know that im just like the million hicks and mean waitresses they hate on day after day... optimistically social media would show everyone how everyone's got an internal world and bad days and favorite foods and childhood crushes and at least a bit of worth, but still all this hatred and separation exists. spent my whole life being told as like. a mixed gay chick living on a farm the city was for me by the middle/upper class liberals and leftists there, and so for years i desperately worked to get there only to find it crueler than the place i came from. so many queer spaces i've found, including the more 'progressive' ones, are ignorant and self serving to the point of viciousness honestly its atrocious

[orangetintedglasses]

"You're helping right now..." Vash murmured, and gave the arm he was still clung onto a reassuring squeeze. With the Captain a good ways ahead of them (nearly around the corner already), he wouldn't overhear them easily, so Vash added, just for them-- "red ones first... m-might be able to save them, but... I can't do it all at once this time, th-there's way too much going on..."

He didn't mind the continued bracing though, honestly-- him and Wolfwood seemed to need the grounding, and the less he wobbled on his feet, the less unstable he'd look to outside perspectives, which was good. There was a stark difference between 'being sensitive to these things' and what was really going on; stabilizing quickly would lend a lot more gravity to the former over the latter...

... which... sort of begged the question: were they still pretending for the sake of their new pals? The Captain was one thing, but Ashton had probably seen... and heard... enough to know that they weren't exactly on the up and up. He hadn't set any security measures or anything on them yet, though... maybe that was a good sign.

Or maybe he just hadn't figured out how to do that, yet; Vash set his mind on the more optimistic of the routes and discarded the train of thought entirely.

"Oh, there are doors down here alright-- a whole extra way to both the lab and the rat room." called their raider friend, dedicated to being a most excellent third in their situation. Which was appreciated, but-- "do your thing, Plant boys. I got your six down this way."

Vash couldn't help but wonder the same thing. Any other raider would've turned tail and ran, like the rest of them... but he supposed that it wasn't just any other raider that claimed they 'knew what Eye runoff looked like'. He hadn't shot them yet, though-- quite the opposite, actually, having turned his weapon down when he'd realized it was just two people. A professional Eye assassin and one of the most wanted men on the planet, and this man was still treating them like normal people...

... maybe Vash would ask more questions, once they were out of there. For now, though, they needed to work. "C'mon... end's in sight... then we can go back up and hide from the storm again~..."

"You're really sensitive to these kinds of things, huh?" Wolfwood speaks in low tones, still trying to maintain some sort of professionalism (though that is not his priority). He wraps his arm around Vash's middle and lifts him slowly, being sure to brace him the whole way up. Reaching over and comforting Vash with a kiss is, unfortunately, not an option here. Giving away that he has something to lose is one of the biggest mistakes he could make, especially now.

He probably doesn't need to continue bracing Vash, but he does anyway. Comfort is a two-way street, and touching like this definitely helps to ground himself as well.

"I'm here, okay? Focus on that. What do we have to do? How can I help?"

The undertaker switches focus to the Captain currently fearlessly checking for danger. What does he want down here...?

"Is there anything else interesting? Any doors?" Wolfwood calls out to the Captain, curious of the layout of this room. There might be ways to offices or conference rooms or... prison cells...

No. No. They need to take care of the Plants, and get the hell out of here. This isn't the time to look more into the organization that employed him—they're all gone, there's no one here to do business as usual, whatever nefarious deed that might be.

[coralchoral]

honestly thinking about the sonadow twitter takeover and how the plummeting to earth thing very much affected Sonic a lot more than it affected Shadow. like in a previous takeover Shadow even made it a positive memory about Sonic trying to save him.

Meanwhile in Prime, Sonic has a moment of saving Shadow from falling into the void that's very reminiscent of that other fall (in the same way Prime has a lot of motivations and references that only make sense from a fandom insider perspective).

Sonic also gets repeatedly tilted, loud and anxious, (which I'm pinning more on RCS's/whatever writer's sense of humor, as is all the voice acting gags) and is coping badly any time Shadow comes out ahead. I think Sonic's insistence on his ability to grow chest fur is as big a Cope as floaties=fashion statement.

But really, Sonic's repeat date suggestions and Shadow's own descriptions of Sonic's behavior (dragging out their races, etc "just to annoy me") reads, whether romantically or platonically, that Sonic just really wants to spend time with Shadow.

He feels he needs to justify it, though, insisting that he and Shadow have something other than occasionally getting in each other's way ("two sides of the same coin") (friendly competition being "why you keep me around-" seemed like odd wording to me).

Needing to make it meaningful, because that's what Shadow wants out of a relationship- Shadow /says/ he dislikes Sonic for being frivolous and inauthentic, that (for instance) his hugs don't mean anything, and that he doesn't want "(Sonic's) kind of hug."

Sonic really wants to spend time with Shadow because he's also intimately aware that that time is limited. Either Shadow's patience (and/or social battery) is limited and he's liable to make a batman exit if he doesn't want to be somewhere (not that we've ever seen Shadow do this in canon, he seems to awkwardly/quietly hang around as if he doesn't realize he can just hit the bricks (or he likes being there and has no idea how to express it re: smiling at Big the Cat) ), Or Sonic and Shadow will get caught up in their own lives again and not see each other until Fate Deigns to Allow Them to Cross Paths Once More.

And Sonic misses him.

(This ties in with my Sonic Frontiers is the Saddest Game Ever posting from a while back, too. Sonic is lonely AF and Needs Other People to Talk To or he'll start talking to the walls and robots, and Shadow will almost always either talk back or groan in exasperation, which is as good a reaction as any.)

All this, plus Sonic's opinion flip-flops (shopping with Amy vs shopping with Shadow, opinion on Orbot) could be either (Sonadow Optimist) Sonic is Down Bad and not even conscious of his mirroring Shadow/trying to appeal to Shadow, or (Sonadow/overall Pessimist) Sonic trying to appeal to the Most Popular Character Right Now and getting increasingly desperate as he is rebuffed.

A few of these Twitter Takeovers have had moments of Sonic in particular getting thrown off and not really able to recover. (which makes me question what the writing is like, if there's any at all and these VA's aren't just riffing on an outline. Considering they don't talk over each other constantly, there must be something like a script, but it also does occasionally feel like a bad roleplay (and I've been a bad roleplayer).) It leads to a Something Is Wrong feeling in the "We're doing this for fun" question-answering joke show. Sonic needs therapy. (We all need therapy.)

Meanwhile, Shadow really is pulling out all the grunts, groans, and whines with Sonic that, if scripted, would be egregious as hell to read or write. He doesn't make these noises in the games (or shows, really?) mostly because there's a sort of efficiency necessary to production that cuts out that interpersonal realism and partly because it's annoying? Shadow, you're the annoying one?

Unrelated, everybody latched on to Sonic's "Go off, King" but nobody even noticed Shadow's "Deal With It."(sunglasses drop) How soon we forget the sacred texts and/or the deep magic, I guess? (It's an old meme, but it checks out!)

[jazeswhbhaven]

So How We Feelin' About December's Updates?

First things first, I knew that Zagan was going to be a Nightmare Pass card, that was a given. Zagan as a model??? That's so cute tbh because it doesn't really require him to talk, he works out a lot, and has a nice butt. bongo booty

Anyway. There's some other updates I'll highlight though that stood out to me.

App optimization! Meaning they're going to fix that storage issue finally that folks have been complaining about. Right now that app takes up nearly 8GB of storage and that's honestly too damn high for what it is. (at the same time be prepared that this update very well may fuck up our apps in terms of storage/things looking funky so get those email fingers ready)

2. A two week Christmas event??? Look at my bby Beel in the back omg. Also Christmas Jjok in a box :3 I wonder what it is that Satan is reaching for?

3. Luci smoking. That's all. Though I did see something about MC is going to experience a whole new kind of "shame" in this card story and I'm just like? Watch MC loses their voice or something, Lucifer says the only way to heal it is to stick his dick all the way down their throat and his cum heals it or something idk.

I didn't really care for the plushies tbf, I think I'm all "merched" out because I'm running out of space in my home. There's literally no where to put this shit if I do get it so I'll be fine without.

ALSO most importantly the roll out for the 12+ version and the update for the main story has been pushed to January 8th. Again I expect another delay so when I see it, I see it. Been a year ya'll, so I'm being realistic and tired of being optimistic about concrete release dates at this point.

What are ya'll excited about the most? Personally, for me it's Zagan and the Christmas event story. I would be excited for Luci's x-mas story but now I'm wanting a Morax L-card because I forgot how built he is despite looking small framed in his sprite. Mans is large.

[jariten]

Roundup-Catch up: August 2024!!

Let's catch up! Looking back at my list of August reads my head spins a bit. Most of this year I got way too eager picking up series from my shelf or the library and was juggling maybe 5 series at once. Which did a huge disservice to the reading experience for some of those series as I wasn't giving them my full attention. It wasn't until August I managed to wrap up most of them and enter the more focused way of following or reading through a series that I had previously. But in the frenzy I still had some great reads.

I had always heard whispers of No Longer Heroine by Momoko Koda but I'd never crossed paths with it. But when the english run of My Love Mix-up ended I had a huge contemporary High School Romance shaped hole in my heart and this is one of the titles that's filled it (I will get to the rest). I love mess, I love stories of teenagers learning to navigate the minefield that is human relationships so I can be the opposite of nostalgic for a time that, praise be, I will never have to relive. But I also read titles like this wondering how a constructive conversation around it could be had among young readers who from my experience can come off very frustrated and unsympathetic to the type of drama it depicts where the heroine and hero's feelings and decisions are extremely irrational and reckless. I really like the Yen Press, but as a license acquisition it feels kinda random? And in my honest opinion if you're 10 years late to a title you kinda have to make it an omnibus or collectors edition because waiting for individual volumes for, again, an over 10 year old series is pretty frustrating. But I will stick around to the end.

Yumiko Ōshima's Sava series was one of my favorites of 2022. The way she captures me with stories where honestly "nothing" really "happens" just floored me and made me optimistic for Goo Goo Datte Neko de Aru. A diary comic that begins with the passing of the cat Sava and her purchase of the cat Goo Goo (Short for Good Good). But Goo Goo isn't the only cat that enters her life. In rather rapid succession stray kittens begin entering her life. We follow for over a decade her journey rescuing, rehoming, and caretaking of countless stray cats (the latter to the dismay of her neighbours). Reading it today it highlights the challenges of clashing attitudes over stray cats and how these populations should be taken care of if at all. Famously it is also a chronicle of her cancer survival journey but its a rather short part of the whole but nonetheless maintains the Ōshima charm.

I want to make a gift recommendation for the upcoming holiday season: Your Letter by Hyeon A Cho. While I've had some really really good encounters with Korean Manhwa, Webtoons is still a world unknown to me. I think the Ize Press initiative bringing Webtoons to print in english is extremely cool, but the lineup just hasn't had any titles that caught my eye. Until Your Letter. A 10 chapter single volume story that I liked so much for its artistic presentation and the story it was telling about bullying and finding your place in a new environment that I immediately was overcome with the need to pass it along, which I did. Really think it would make a great gift for anyone 5th grade and up who are interested in comics. OR it can be read for free in its entirety on Webtoon!

Satou Gashi no Ie by Kyoko Fumizuki was a title picked up a bit at random. I'd gotten a taste of her work in the Suki Desu, Kono Shoujo Manga anthology and was one of the more memorable entries in an already extremely well curated collection. Satou Gashi no Ie is a 5 story one-shot collection with to meeee back to back hits. The titular story centres on a teenage boy named Richard who suddenly appears at his childhood's friend Elsie's school with a baby in his arms, that he claims to be his, and that he's a widower. But there are too many holes in his story. Who exactly is the baby's mother and how did he come to care for her at the end of her life? And how does this change Richard and Elsie's relationship? There's a warmth to Fumizuki's artistry in this era and the way that she hits all the story beats that really drew me in and augh I honestly have no words for it. This collection really stood out and among her peers I've yet to read anyone who could compose manga exactly like this. And you know what's cool? You can (In Japanese) read this and a handful of her other work from the same era for FREE on Manga Library Z!! (JP only) NOTE: crazy enough, on this very day (Nov 26) Manga Library Z suspended services but diligent users of nyaa have made sure that the works available there live on

[vashti-lives]

If you’re looking for sweater quantities and you’re willing to be patient and flexible littleknits.com has absolutely amazing “full” bag sales that are either five or ten skeins of discontinued yarn, usually at 60-75% discount, but sometimes more. Obviously colors are limited and you can’t be looking for anything really specific (or you can but like all closeout and clearance shopping you have to be very very patient and lucky) but it’s worth checking out and signing up for their mailing list.

Honestly I know we all get way too much junk e-mail but it’s worth signing up for adverts from any high end yarn companies you’re interested in. Rowan is currently having a 60% off sale and free shipping. If you have a LYS (local yarn store) I wouldn’t write that off either. Obviously a brick and mortar store will be more expensive than an online place when it comes to regular prices but they too will have sales a few times a year. I’ve gotten berocco and cascade yarn from my LYS at 75% off. OP may not have one since they were asking about online stuff but also I think new knitters show up to them and get sticker shock and just assume it’s always out of their price range.

Also if you’re a new knitter and you have a LYS it’s a really helpful resource for getting familiar with what fibers you’re likely to enjoy, particularly fibers Joann is less likely to have. Things like alpaca, superwash merino, and linen all have enough commonalities that if you feel a few types in a store it’ll give you a starting point and help you judge if you’ll like a yarn online. It’s not perfect of course but it’s helpful.

This is not exactly related to where to buy yarn but I do think it’s also helpful to remember that your highest cost to nearly any knitting project is always going to be your own labor. When you’re budgeting for a project remember to start by considering how long that project is going to take. If you’re just looking at yarn prices the difference between $20 and $60 is huge but if your project will take 40-50 hours to complete then your base cost is *at least* $400-500 of labor time and the difference between $520 and $560 isn’t nearly so big, particularly when the the extra $40 will get you a huge bump in quality. Obviously if you don’t have the extra $40 you don’t have it but it might be worth saving a little and waiting for sales.

My last advice for buying yarn online is to familiarize yourself with what yardage is standard for each weight of yarn. This isn’t always the case but certain yarn companies can be extremely… optimistic… about what gage is reasonable to use with a yarn. It’s pretty common for yarn to be listed under one weight catagory and then you look at the yardage and the yardage is more consistent with a lower/thinner weight yarn. Most of the time yardage tells you more about a yarn’s weight than the listed category if the two don’t seem to match. Unless it’s a chainette yarn or a fiber that you KNOW will “bloom” a lot in a wet block aways go with the weight class that matches the yardage.

What's a good place online to get decent-quality yarn at a reasonable price?

--

Knitpicks.

Assuming you want wool and that kind of thing, your idea of reasonable is box store prices, and you're in the US. They regularly have amazing sales too, on top of the already-low prices.

The snobbier you are, the more you'll need to look for other people's destashes. I was just at a reuse place today and they happened to just have gotten in some nicer-than-usual yarn with the labels still on.

The ideal is to find someone's grandma who is drowning in her stash or, better yet, someone with a dead grandma and no interest in knitting who needs to dump a bunch of yarn fast. But, of course, it depends if you're the kind of knitter who finds that inspiring or if you just want the correct yarn to use on a project you've already picked out.

I got some Wool of the Andes worsted early in my current phase of knitting, and it's quite nice, especially for the price. I'm currently trying out some of the sport weight because I have a specific Christmas sweater that needs it. I'm finding it scratchier and less nice, but I haven't blocked it yet, so we'll see. The whole Wool of the Andes line is beloved by thrifty knitters.

If you're willing to do some work and you like an adventure, unraveling a thrift store sweater is by far the most cost effective way to get a big lot of yarn. You can check the tag for fiber content. Some of these yarns will be rather thin, so you might hold them double or even triple for hand knitting.

For me personally, it usually makes more sense to chase super deep discounts on ultra premium stuff and then see what I can figure out with the yardage I end up with. It's really going to depend on you and your priorities. If you're longing for cashmere, it makes way more sense to try the thrift store approach. If you have a very specific Christmas colorwork pattern, Knitpicks or the like is probably a better bet. I got a big lot from fabulousyarn.com once when I needed that exact yarn. They seem fine. I don't know a lot about these big online stores, but there are a few of them, and they tend to have good deals.

You also have to consider whether you're going to be able to get continental US shipping (probably free from a US store) or not.

Anyone have thoughts on this?

[yourbitchystudentartist]

I haven't seen season 2 yet but I'm kind of prematurely disappointed in arcane season 2 cause from what I've seen about the Fandom response to the black characters either a) racism and yall don't care enough about them to accidentally spoile the character arcs or b) they remained undeserved and sidelined in the narrative, or c) their narratives are 100 percent about their white friends/counterparts/love interests or D) all of the above.

This is why I don't like Jinx/Ekko, not because I'm against the ship sort of in a vacuum but because making Ekko have a crush with a white character is going to become the main crux of his actions and characters and even relationships with the people of Zaun when he is SUCH AND INTERESTING CHARACTER. Because the writers and the Fandom seem incapable of appreciating abnlavk character unmatched from a white person. You know? Like I felt like the jinx and Ekko dynamic and complicated relationship was honestly more compelling where they were just coded as close childhood friends. They didn't need to add the romance part.

And god Forbid MEL does anything EVER without everyone JUDGING her.

I will have more eloquent thoughts when I'm actually done watching season 2 but I am not optimistic

[autobahnmp3]

back from the cinema i really liked the documentary!

[cubbihue]

* how would the others react if dev got to chance to become a pixie? (If that makes any sense, very sorry if it doesn’t)

They'd be horrified and won't know how to process the information.

In this grim timeline, CosWan would have to come to terms that their youngest son is a walking death flag, while also embracing their new grandchild as much as they had embraced Timmy. It's a whole new terrifying life to navigate, but they'll do their best to navigate it together as family.

Bitties Series: [Start] > [Previous] > [Next]

[balkanradfem]

Do you think that low birth-rates are a problem?

I think they're the opposite of a problem :)

[anghraine]

Speaking of Sauron, I've been amusing myself by thinking about how a disproportionate number of people who super ruined his day are descendants of Melian:

Lúthien, obviously, kicked his ass.

Elwing retaining Lúthien's Silmaril and giving it to Eärendil led to the utter defeat of Morgoth's forces including Sauron.

Tar-Telperiën and her nephew Tar-Minastir, descendants of Elwing's son Elros, were responsible for the vast Númen��rean fleet that crushed Sauron's attempts to seize Eregion in the Second Age.

Tar-Minastir's descendant Pharazôn (a usurper and terrible person, but nevertheless) led a massive force against Sauron that intimidated Sauron's armies into giving up. Sauron tricked Pharazôn and managed to take out Númenor, only to end up drowning with it, and was significantly damaged and limited by the event.

Meanwhile, a different descendant of Elros, Elendil, survived! He led Númenórean dissenters away just in time to establish sprawling Númenórean-controlled kingdoms in Middle-earth.

Elendil and the Elvish king Gil-galad proceeded to defeat Sauron in single combat after a long siege. The effort killed them but also took out Sauron himself for a very, very long time. Elendil's son Isildur cut the Ring away from Sauron's body as repayment for the deaths of Elendil and Isildur's younger brother Anárion.

Anárion's children produced various lines of descent that would go on to include the Stewards of Gondor, resolute enemies of Mordor who recruited the Rohirrim into Team We Hate Sauron.

Isildur's and Anárion's descendant Aragorn spent decades criss-crossing the map to spike various evil plans, like when he torched the Corsair fleet as Thorongil and disappeared into the night only to turn up decades later to threaten Sauron with Elendil's reforged sword.

The Ring ended up in the hands of Frodo, who would be only too happy to turn it over to Aragorn as Isildur's heir. Aragorn promptly rejected the idea, crucially leading to Frodo remaining as Ringbearer while Sauron came to mistakenly believe Aragorn had the Ring and meant to use it.

The only time Frodo was ever truly captured by Men (the people easily assumed to be the greatest danger to the quest) was by Anárion's descendant Faramir. Faramir could have taken the Ring with disastrous results for everyone but Sauron, but instead shrugged off the temptation and laughed at it before helping Frodo on his way.

Sauron understandably panicked about the Aragorn situation and sent his forces to Gondor earlier than planned, despite knowing at that point that the Steward Denethor was much better prepared than he'd hoped. Faramir used his abilities to lead a retreat across favorable ground that inflicted large casualties on Sauron's armies, as planned. This tactic functionally sacrificed Faramir and Denethor but bought enough time for the Rohirrim and Aragorn's mainly southern Gondorian armies to arrive and turn the tide of the battle of the Pelennor Fields. Sauron's forces in that battle were defeated. Again.

Aragorn exploited Sauron's understandable fixation on him by making a flashy frontal assault as (unofficial) king of the Dúnedain to distract Sauron's attention from the real threat (three hobbits making their way to Mount Doom). This was 100% successful. Through a series of good and bad choices on the part of the hobbits, the Ring was destroyed and Sauron with it.

Bad day all around for Sauron! Aragorn, meanwhile, married Elrond's daughter and became overlord of Sauron's allies with Faramir as his prime minister.

[makotonaegiunderstander]

something I’ve been thinking abt is how many people think Makoto is immune to despair. I don’t think he is. I think becoming the ultimate Hope was BECAUSE he felt despair. He wouldn’t have fully reached that point without Junko. Makoto becoming such a beacon was his last attempt to avoid completely falling and it wasn’t because he didn’t feel despair, it was because he was too damn stubborn to allow everything to go to waste and he refused to sacrifice his beliefs for someone else’s. His inner monologue tells me he DID experience the same new low the other suvivors did in the final trial, but at the point where he had the choice to give up and die, he looked at the others and he looked at Junko and he couldn’t allow it to happen, not out of self preservation, but because the idea that Junko would have control over their lives made him FURIOUS. and that utter refusal to die kicked in, wether luck or otherwise, and he made the concious effort for one last push while something in him was breaking. He had to be broken in order for the Ultimate Hope to come through so aggressively, bc it could only exist in the face of the Ultimate Despair. He snapped the same way she did, but in the other direction. In what could have been his final moments he chose to embody everything Junko wasn’t, and every single optimistic and luck fueled ideal in him suddenly charged forward and pushed him. It was a combination of the final straw and a choice. Makoto isn’t immune to feeling despair, he’s just too stubborn to fall into it of his own volition. I think that’s why I like that scene in DR3 so much. People were SO SHOCKED Makoto actually fell for the tape, that he actually became despair for a moment. I saw people getting mad or disappointed, saying it was pathetic and Makoto seemed to fall from some sort of pedestal for them. Honestly part of me wonders if that sort of mentality, which clearly people had in universe, affected Makoto a bit. Like he started to see himself as less of a person, subconsciously. Prompting him to take more risks, less self preservation, act way more bold. It seems he has to be reminded a lot not to put himself in danger by his friends, to not do something too reckless. All over the place I would see in regards to that scene either this frivolous ‘oh this was just angst drama with no meaning behind it’ or ‘he can do better than that. he’s so weak’ or ‘come on, there’s no way he’d fall into despair, he’s the Ultimate Hope!’ This kind of mentality, which was kind of ironic considering Ryota was there the entire time saying the same thing and treating Makoto the same way. Like Makoto was superhuman. Like Makoto didn’t feel despair the same way ‘normal people’ did. In a way that was also how Munakata saw Makoto. Makoto stopped being a PERSON to the world when he became Ultimate Hope, he became a concept, a belief system, much the same way Junko ascended beyond herself. But the difference is that treating Makoto that way is the opposite of the reason Makoto became such a representative for hope. He wasn’t doing something no one else could. He was doing something everyone had the chance to, he just… was a little more optimistic, a little more stubborn, a little more ‘gung-ho’ about things. He just took the lead where no one else did, where no one else knew they even COULD in the face of Junko’s unstoppable force. She had overcome the biggest threats and obstacles in the world, what could one person do? And the answer Makoto found was, anything. Everything. It doesn’t all rest on Makoto, he’s just the one that was inspired to try to do what seemed like the impossible. But as evidenced by the change in his friends after that trial, it’s clearly not something only Makoto is capable of. The others pulled out of despair thanks to Makoto, but it was their choice to do so.

“But… this world is so huge, and we’re so small. What can we do…? No, we can probably do anything. Yeah! We can do anything!”

[knockknockitsnickels]

Thoughts about Prison3r bc she's making me go insane

Spoilers under the cut (also minor spoilers - chapter name & brief discussion of other routes - in the tags, so don't read those lol)

I have a feeling the Cage is going to get overshadowed by Sp3ctre & Happily Ever After, but I was really surprised by the direction they took her in, and I think she makes Pris all the more tragic as a character.

IMO, the Prisoner route kind of functions as a giant trust fall. You've established in the previous chapter that you're skeptical of this whole setup (hence voice of the skeptic, lmao) and willing to help the Princess, and this route puts that to the test. Can you focus on what's important without getting caught up in questioning irrelevant details (the empty shackle)? Can you trust the Princess enough to give her your weapon? And on the other side of that, can she trust you to understand her plan?

Part of what makes the Prisoner compelling to me is the unspoken trust she has in the player (part of why I've never understood the take that she doesn't actually care about you? Maybe we've got some Autism2Autism telepathy going on though). Her lines in the Shifting Mound fight (if you free her) talks about how "shared skepticism blossomed into trust", and the Drowned Grey further implies that she put a lot of trust and hope in the player which they ended up betraying.

I was expecting Prison3r to play with that betrayal of trust - she showed we could trust her, but her trust in us was misplaced. It doesn't really matter if you leaving the head was an honest mistake or not, we still let her down. I was expecting a scenario where we'd be stuck apologizing to a Princess who couldn't bring herself to trust us again, no matter how sincere we were being. I was expecting her to be angry. I didn't expect her to just... give up.

If the Drowned Grey is meant to represent the Prisoner (metaphorically) letting go of the tight control she has of her emotions, (literally) drowning you in her (metaphorical) grief and rage, then the Cage is the opposite, locking her emotions even deeper away. Shifty describes her as (paraphrasing here, emphasis mine) "someone who wishes she could be just a set of eyes and ears." The Cage isn't angry with you for leaving her behind. Why should she be? It was her mistake, after all. She shouldn't have been so stupid to think she could break the cycle and actually be freed.

The route also plays with the contrast between the Princess and the Player (via the voices) in fun ways. While the Cage is already resigned to repeating the cycle, skeptic (and paranoid, if you get him) are panicking for the whole route, trying desperately to find a way out of it while unintentionally forcing you to into the same patterns as before (by forcing us to take the knife. Thanks guys, very cool).

It honestly feels like the perfect response to the common fan complaint of "Why is the Prisoner mad at you for leaving her head behind? It was an accident!". Well, here you go. She's not mad at you. It would honestly feel better if she was.

[north-wilkesboro-moonshine-cave]

congratulations to Mme. Pascale Leclerc, who has surely just experienced both the funniest and most unhinged weekend a mother could ever have. Dear fucking christ, I hope your middlest son brought you a bottle of champagne for yourself, ma'am.

[ssaalexblake]

it’s also baffling to me that tumblr, home of the ‘why are white men Still being cast as the doctor’ for So many years now (For you know, like over a decade.) is somehow not appalled that they hired a white dude to be the next Doctor because look okay it’s okay if it’s This white man. 

I mean, I do not consent to acknowledge that they’ve shoved him in there under any circumstance, but my Only need for the casting of the next person was that it was Not a white man, otherwise i didn’t care who it was, so when they “announced” Gatwa I was satisfied (i am hesitant to say they announced it bc it was more like a tiny footnote than an announcement, oh the disrespect) and it took a whole seven days (it was literally seven days. Yes i counted. it was easy since it was only seven days) it was ‘actually sorry no it’s this white dude we’ve already had before did we forget to mention that???’ and it’s steadily gotten worse and worse. 

That This site of all places is not up in arms about both the situation and how it specifically played out is depressing, but also massively and darkly hilarious.  

Especially since i Also remember nobody on this site thought casting Whittaker was good enough but literally going backward to a previous white man is?? This is not even a metaphor about diversity getting worse, they literally looked backwards. 

But, yeah,  tenn/ant with the ‘what the future looks like’ headline is uh... Good???? Not super worrying and ominous? 

I feel like i’ve been dumped in some weird parallel universe by reactions to all of this on here like??? the whole way this was done was appalling, the situation is appalling, but i guess the bbc/disney should get a rousing round of applause for accurately judging that nobody would care about their poor actions if the specific white guy they cast was popular enough that next to nobody would care. 

( and to the ‘it’s an anniversary ep’ thing, they legit could have just set a couple of eps in the past. i don’t mean they travel to the past. i mean just say ‘hey this ep is set during s4!’ and nobody would care. this show does weirder stuff than this every second episode. and it would still be bad, but how they did it is so much Worse.)

[meownotgood]

did you see that they’re reworking viktor in league to make him more like his arcane version?

I did..... it's been leaked / discussed for months now that he's going to get a vgu, I hoped they wouldn't change much because I'm already a fan of his design and gameplay in league. it's been leaked that his gameplay won't change much (which is good) but uh.... yeah I've seen his model and it's pretty. interesting