#and its suuuuch a great one and i love all the character exploration in it

[lottieurl]

Having pre-crash thoughts and strike me if Taissa ever noticed Shauna and Jackies relationship. I mean, you can see that she and Shauna sort of have this closeness that don't actually extend much further than agreeing with each other (by their similar perspectives?). And Taissa knowing herself as queer along with having a secret relationship with Van. I wonder if she ever thought about the other girls, if they could be queer too. And doing that, if she ever considered Shauna and Jackies personal behaviours.

Jackies oscillated relationship with Jeff and her resistance about having sex with him (this part I'm not gonna dare everybody would know. But HEY! It's high school, everybody knows about everybody, especially if the person stands out). So, i don't know, if WE noticed something, maybe Taissa could've too.

Shauna constantly gravitating towards everything that involved Jackie. The way she behaved. The looks!!!! That intense aura of resentment. Her never ending friction with Jackie. Taissa is a smart girl and although I wouldn't bet she would've been through something like that, because it's a new layer of repression, I could imagine she would definitely notice something was up about them.

About Shauna, I mean, that girl is so suspicious. The gloom aspect of her very nature, the stillness of her, that enormous element of sadness. Her eyes!!! And everything seams to react by Jackies presence.

I wonder if Taissa ever thought about doing something. She wouldn't reach out to Jackie, so maybe Shauna. Throwing hints at her, trying to talk. If she actually did something and we don't know.

If in the wilderness everything about their relationship highlighted and It was even more easier to notice. If she talked about this with someone else, probably Van. If they theorized together (that would be so fun to watch).

Anyway, I'm going insane and I'm trying really hard to bring people with me. So what do you think?

hmmm i think it's something people enjoy playing with? i didn't read much of what's on ao3 yet but i did almost finish (getting there!) "you stay with the earth" and that's very much a thing there. which i enjoy in it so much and i think it's done very believably and in character except yknow it's a jackie lives au so obviously there's that. but what do i think in terms of canon................ hmmm i think it's very possible tai did wonder especially when they came back and shauna married jeff and seemed to dedicate her entire life to jackie. like i think it's possible it Crossed Her Mind but i also don't really think that IN CANON after jackie's death she would wonder very much about jackie's sexuality lmao and before that she didn't know jackie well enough. IF shauna ever made some confession of the kind she made to jeff in the last ep TO taissa then i think tai would wonder but wouldn't say shit. i mean really what do you even say lmao realizing that if that's the case is not gonna Help her i'm afraid. but also tai was on a fucking soccer team i bet at some point she did wonder who else was gay cause frankly not enough of those girls ARE. it's a girls' soccer team let's be realistic here

[kaeyapilled]

hey! your kaeya takes are so real!!! I was wondering if you had any good fic recs?? I want to read something that has good kaeya characterization (+bonus if it's ragbros that isn't just them crying and hugging it out like you were talking about) and am tired of scrolling through tags

!! omg thank you im so honored to hear that people like my takes lol

fic recs huh!! i have some!! do you mind it if most of them are about child kaeya? (i hadnt realized how many of my bookmarks focused on his childhood until i went through them all lmao) hopefully it isnt all stuff youve already read before! here goes:

A Horse Makes for a Stable Life by FollowerofMercy – Wanting to test the boundaries of his host’s goodwill, Kaeya asks for a pony for his birthday. He didn’t expect Crepus to deliver. Or, the story in which things get uncomfortably real for young Kaeya.

do you like kaeya and crepus interactions!! because this fic explores their dynamic in suuuuch a nice way that felt very refreshing to see portrayed!! perfect ratio of hurt to comfort in my opinion. overall quite lighthearted compared to my other recs though lol. good exploration of kaeyas inner conflict since a young age. yeah i love it and recommend it

I'm gonna miss your love when it's gone by imaginarypasta – A selection of scenes from Kaeya's childhood related to his relationships with his fathers, and all they have led him to be.

this one is so good!!!! i feel like its rare to see kaeyas biological father portrayed as anything other than a heartless asshole, and this fic explored kaeyas relationship with him in such a nice manner that makes for a very melancholic and. i guess bittersweet story that takes into consideration the nuance of the situation in a way that i really dont see super often. the parts about kaeyas relationship w crepus are also really well done i love it. oh and the khaenri'ah lore the author takes some liberty with is really really interesting!!

not bad for a walk on death's doorstep by b_attery – Fear is a knife’s edge. Fear is a killer. Fear is how you know you’re still alive.

my bookmark of this work said "literally the best kaeya character study ive ever read" and honestly i still stand by that. the word flow is great and the exploration of fear as such an intrinsic part of kaeya's life and as the driving force for most of his actions and feelings and responses. it's so good!!! this one contemplates kaeyas childhood both before and after his arrival in mondstadt and goes until after diluc's return. absolutely recommend it!!

Hundred-Watt Light by pepperjuice – A story about ten years of contingency plans and holding your own hand. (Because how else are you supposed to live with a weight too big to hold all alone?)

this. this rewired my brain forever. this holds the title of best kaeya character study ever along with the previous one i talked about. definitely mind the tags because it primarily deals with suicidal ideation and thoughts so, if that's a trigger then it's best to not read this one lol but still it is SO good and it explores kaeya's inner conflicts and awful coping mechanisms after having such a heavy burden thrusted upon him at an extremely early age with no good support of any kind. i absolutely love this fic it's very dear to me and i think about it sooo often it truly altered my brain chemistry

things fall apart by kernsing – Happy eighteenth, Diluc.

finally some ragbros content! sadly it isnt the reconciliation you asked for it's about when things fell apart. this is one of my favorite ever renditions of how it all went down on That Day - it reshaped some of my own headcanons, actually. this one is more from diluc's pov than kaeya's, and it's written really really well, and explores diluc's grief over his father's death in SUCH an amazing and interesting way!! and the way it parallels kaeya's own emotions and that is exactly what causes them to fight is extremely tasty i loved it. read it it's good

okay i can probably find some more but this is enough for one post i think. deeply sorry for not delivering the good ragbros reconciliation content.. i tbh haven't gathered a lot.. but i hope you and whoever else reads this enjoys these! thank you for the ask <3

[spohkh]

i finished annihilation and it wasn't what i expected it to be but i really enjoyed it regardless! this got really long so lmfao rest under the cut.... didnt realize i had this much to say abt it but it rly gave me Thoughts! mostly abt its narration/storytelling style

i thought it was going to be a 3rd person exploration of area x so i was surprised by its being a 1st person account, but ultimately i think that was a GREAT decision to start off this series. i LOOOOVED how much of a strange and unreliable narrator the biologist was, how everything was framed thru her specific biology-oriented understanding of the world, as well as colored by her own character quirk of being like...sort of inherently disconnected, even before area x's influence on her. although i guess that's kind of hard to really say given what was revealed in the story...and that's another reason i really liked it. like definitely an ending that makes u want to read the whole thing over from the beginning with whats been revealed in mind.

vandermeer really built out a veerrryyy creepy and sort of looming atmosphere thru the biologist's perspective like it was soooo spooky. i just think the narrational style overall was very well done. with that being said... about ~50 or so pages from the end i was like....wow i hope the next stories are from a different characters perspective. not necessarily bc i was tired of listening to the biologist but just bc this is the kind of story that i felt NECESSITATED other perspectives to help move it along? so i was VERY happy to see authority is indeed introducing new characters and a new pov! and i was even more interested to see that this time it IS a 3rd person narration. i dont think ive ever seen a narrational perspective change from one book to the next in a series like this, and i REALLY like that vandermeer did that. i think a lot of authors are afraid of taking that kind of chance and instead try to force their story to stay in a certain style, which result in staunching the flow of the story and making the overall narration fail.

i'm about 2 chapters into authority and i already know im gonna love this one even more than i enjoyed annihilation just bc first of all...control seems like suuuuch an interesting character. i like his view of things and seeing his thought process like, hes got a lot going on. and second of all, getting a deeper exploration into area x, from the view of someone who isnt invested/influenced in the way the biologist was, will def add some more layers....!! ya!!!!

[neokad]

The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker! (HD Turbo Championship Edition)

Hi everybody!

As I plan to revisit many Zelda games I haven't played in years (or at all!) in the upcoming months, I finished what used to be one of the most controversial titles in the series for the second time, and the first in four years! And to my shock considering what I've heard about this adventure over time, I fell in love with it all over again 💗

I'd actually like to start this humble review with this analogy: What surprised me the most while replaying this game, is how its overall structure and world are. I feel like the best way to describe this game is like this: A perfectly balanced mix - as all things should be - between a classic Zelda quest, and the much more revolutionary Breath of the Wild. Now, I gotta say, it may be strange to some people to compare an older title to a newer one to describe it, but I promise it'll at least somewhat make sense at the end of this review... I hope O_O

But hey, we might as well review the plot early as usual! Well, there honestly isn't a lot to this story as usual for most Zelda games, but it is pretty solid regardless. Basically, as the ambient intro of the game teaches you, the ancient land of Hyrule got flooded by the gods, as Ganondorf tried to conquer the land with no Hero opposing him. And ever since that event, the world has been flooded with the Great Sea, only leaving many small islands and some people behind to rebuild the world. And so, many years after this happened, we find this game’s Link on his 12th birthday, wearing the “Hero of Time’’s clothes for the occasion as a longheld tradition. BUT, as this supposed happy day happens, his sister Aryll gets kidnapped by a giant flying bird to the Forsaken Fortress - as many other young girls. Naturally, Link tries to go save her with the help of Tetra - another young girl that escaped captivity thanks to her crew of pirates. With the help of her companions and their ship, Link sets out for the fortress, but as he is clearly underpowered, he gets demolished there by none other than Ganondorf, and washes up ashore, unconscious on Windfall Island, greeted by... a talking red boat! And this same boat tells him he must collect the Three Pearls of the Gods in order to gain access to the Master Sword, to finally save the kidnapped girls! This is not the whole plot of course, as I’m hiding some actual plot twists from you, the reader, buuuut I will say that while it’s not the most developed tale out there, it’s well done! But I feel like what drives this the most is certainly the art style and the characters themselves. See, I firmly believe this game has the best Link in the ENTIRE SERIES, no questions asked! He’s expressive, funny, endearing and he just looks so dang adorable! Part of his charm is definitively thanks to the situations he’s put in, but I think it’s mostly because of the game’s artstyle. IT’S BEAUTIFUL

Yes, granted, it’s not nearly as detailed as many games you’ve probably played, but the cartoony style they chose for Wind Waker really makes the locales pop out, and made the slapstick in the game that much more endearing! Plus, some of those shots just look, well, breathtaking really.

Speaking of character expressions and slapstick, I also believe Wind Waker possesses a very memorable set of NPCs as well! Be it the employee in the battleship game with his twofaced personality, or anyone involved in the many sidequests all over the islands, I’ve built lots of memories just traveling all around the sea, reading and delivering letters, just to get to know those people more! And it turned out that a good chunk of them gave me a good time!

Well, let’s talk about those travels, shall we? Wind Waker got (in?)famous over the years for having sailing. Lots of it. And especially in the original Gamecube version, it made travelling slow and boring to some as a result. Basically, you needed to constantly change the direction of the wind in order to travel as quickly as you could. Suffice to say, switching the wind’s directions this often got irksome pretty quickly : P Thankfully, the HD port on the Wii U does give you an optional Fast Sail in a side quest! As early as the second island in the game! Which means that those who found the sailing unbearable in the original will have a better experience ^^ But regardless, there’s a lot of sailing in this game, which is what replaces running/rolling around on the overworld. And instead of having different regions, they’re all replaced by 49 islands of different sizes and importance! And this is where my BOTW comparison will shine~ I think this game is pretty close in spirit to Breath of the Wild in some ways. Sure, unlike in that game, you’re locked to a certain sequence of items/dungeon/progression, just like a classic Zelda experience! BUT!  Wind Waker also allows you to explore 40+ non-important islands, and sailing between them in anticipation of what you might find there is suuuuch a good feeling! Plus, there’s many treasure chests to loot (both major and minor) while you’re travelling on the big blue. Due to how much you can find in your way off the main quest - while being far away from the suggested path the game wants you to do at the moment - gives this game a very open feeling despite still having a linear quest to it! And I think this element of discovery and exploration in a linear format - coupled with the great visuals and ambience the sailing offered - made this game so, so, so much fun to play <3

But what about the gameplay and dungeons themselves? Well thankfully, they’re both quite good as well! What I like most is how much of an improvement swordplay got compared to Ocarina of Time. Not only are the enemies generally more diversified in strategies and design, Link also received many new moves to his arsenal, and those made combat so much more intense and exciting! Though it did make the game very easy overall thanks to having so many options... alongside you not taking very much damage for most of the game :P Still, the dungeons made up for this! They’re quite fun and pretty well paced, and each offer some quite nice ambience as well!  Although I will say that the late part of the game has two dungeons with pretty similar concept, which while fun in their own right, did feel a little uninspired despite them having clever puzzles :/ On a semi unrelated note, the intro sequence at the Forsaken Fortress has you playing a stealth sequence, and you coming back to it later while able to defend yourself was a high point for me!

I do want to leave a quick note about the music, and honestly? It’s pretty great as well! Like I pointed out earlier, the dungeons create some very fitting atmosphere, but as soon as you’re outside them, many of the main islands have some very pretty, energetic music that is PERFECT for a Zelda game (especially Dragon Roost Island), and the Great Sea theme is very adventurous and grandiose, which motivates you even more to set out and explore! Though it’s somewhat strange that many smaller locations have no music at all, which makes sense to be fair, since those islands are usually pretty small from the outside ^^

Overall? I expected to only like this game, but I ended up adoring it! The Wind Waker is a marvelous journey that leaves a lot open to the player about how they approach the game, while still giving you enough of a compass to never be lost! And a competent story with charming characters and great music certainly help to make that adventure all the more memorable! Though I suggest you all should play the HD version if you can, since it has the fast sail and better looks. BUT, it also heavily tones down the infamous lategame Triforce fetch quest. (While it did not make much sense story-wise since you could just do spoiler without it before, I didn’t find it all that bad in the HD version since you can do some of it before having completed all other dungeons in the game ^^ But yes, HD or not, this is a grand adventure! Play it! 9/10

[raivaryn]

Rai and the PoF preview

I jotted down some things on this demo because a lot of it struck me-- and for once, in a good way. Figured I’d post them, since this blog has been slacking in its original purpose. And maybe it’s still the anesthetics wearing off, but I actually have a lot of positive things to say about it!

-Raptor animations are lovely. Very natural, fun, and without being too cumbersome. That’s a hard balance to make but they did a good job. Some clunkiness in navigating certain terrain, but nothing egregious. I imagine these might be tightened up before the full release.

-COLOR. We've finally gotten a desert with bloody color to it, and varied lighting. The shadows, dark textures in and around buildings, even the dark fur on the brown dolyaks all have depth and are generally pleasant to look at. The areas all feel alive, from the sandy dunes to the farmlands and settlements. And seriously, the lighting is suuuuch a welcome improvement.

-Another big help to the liveliness and natural feel to the map is the varied terrain. I want to hope we'll see core maps take on some of the lessons learned here and be revamped, because this is such a stark difference. A good one, but still stark. The rest of the game deserves these updates imo.

-Dialogue.. still needs some work, but it's not as cringy as I’m used to. The events and some of the demo's story actually feel alright, too, and I appreciate some of the encounters having exchanges with the PC and other NPCs that sound more natural than I'm used to seeing.

-I really like riding the raptor in general, and the speed boon seems just about right for a mount. Wish we could PoV it, and not have to dismount when interacting with something though. Also might be cool if we could dismount without it returning to its pokeball, and we could call it over if we’re in range, or conjure when out of range. Maybe something we’ll see later?

-I honestly didn't expect so much aid from the devs with enjoying and experimenting in the demo. Those loot packs are an unexpected and welcome gesture, as is the ability to color our raptors. These kinds of little touches are technically unnecessary, and not the kinda thing we’re usually treated to before. But they imply a promising focus on QoL, and I'm pleased to see it.

-New staff seem willing and, possibly, able to improve a lot of the QoL and general gameplay. The demo feels like PoF will offer another layer GW2 needs to become a full, polished game. We're definitely seeing a continuation of running contrary to the "Manifesto", but unlike before, we really seem to mean business about it now. I'm hopeful this is a prelude to more improvements, with the new staff free to color outside the dated lines.

-Mob spawns seem more reasonable. You don't look across the map and see an endless, awkwardly uniform spawn of identical mobs. The creatures present feel like they are actually part of the world, and not just copy pasted over and over again to fill empty space and add “interest”.

-Related, less dense spawns makes this area so much less hostile to RP compared to most other maps. GW2 is not too RP-friendly when you roam outside instances and cities. I want to believe this is something they've had in mind, and if I were a more optimistic type, I'd hope they plan for more RPability in the world. Like, even just chairs. Anything, honestly. RPable maps that aren't hubs is definitely a welcome change.

-Mob motifs are coherent and interesting. They even have neat designs, and the shark's breach attack is maybe my favorite.

Demo feels like a breath of fresh air, without the hamfisted demand of investment from the player. I feel like a good part of this is the lack of familiar NPCs force feeding you exposition, while assuming (demanding) your investment. This lets us explore and experience things personally, and build our own attachments and interest as the story moves along.

The world is lively and colorful, with lots of room to run and play. Mobs encountered are often by player choice, and I appreciate that several aren't preemptively hostile. NPCs are going about their business in a way that feels more like world-building than just "here's a quest to do".

I'm looking forward to quests and puzzles based on mounts. Herding animals would be so fun, I think. I also want fire breath for my Buttercup. That's her name. She's my child.

It’s weird to feel positive about this game, after years of inane nonsense. My first “wow” moment wasn’t even in the demo-- it was in the character creator. The new human faces are CORE. That is an excellent show of good faith, even if it’s tough to forgive their absence to begin with. I’m definitely thinking the new staff is accountable for this welcome addition. They look great, and same with the new hair. It’s really something the game has needed, and I’m glad for the diversity.