#and so they always kill him now in every playthrough and think his entire character is abusive

[pinacoladamatata]

Screaming

[eksvee15]

MORE PROOF THAT MEGALOVANIA IS THE PLAYER'S THEME

THANKS TO DELTARUNE AND SUSIE FOR PROVING US RIGHT ONCE AGAIN!

So we all have this constant argument of whether MEGALOVANIA is Sans' fight theme or the Player's (it's not Chara's. Stop) fight theme. Well, I believe Deltarune's use of the soundtracks solved that issue for us.

There is a firm belief that in Undertale, and by logic Deltarune, the theme heard is the theme of who initiates the battle. Undyne starts the battle against us, both times we hear her theme - Spears of Justice and Battle Against A True Hero. Flowey ALWAYS starts the battle, so we hear his themes - Your Best Nightmare and Finale, also counts for Hopes and Dreams given he and Asriel are one and the same. And it's pretty evident that whoever has the first turn DOES NOT ACTUALLY MATTER, it is misleading and is canonically not actually relevant - Undyne herself specifies she's letting us have the first turn, in any fight, she's fair, and ALLOWS US the first turn. Sans gets the first turn to catch us off guard, which is what he does during the ENTIRE fight, ATK 1 DEF 1 yet takes multiple attacks to be defeated and will obliterate your health bar, suddenly has laser weapons, dodges, can manipulate space and gravity, teleport, stops time, his entire character is "surprise bitch", no wonder he gets that first turn - heck on the third turn he won't even finish his "beautiful day" speech and start attacking MID SENTENCE

There is, aside from Sans, one other occasion where the Player initiates the battle - that being Monster Kid. Yet MEGALOVANIA doesn't play there, instead, we hear the OST "In My Way" which is ONLY played against Monster Kid and Flowey in No Mercy. But I believe it's intentional, think of your first Genocide playthrough - you still kind of feel iffy, like it's wrong. It's not much of a challenge as it is a chore at this point. You just killed Papyrus. You just killed Toriel. Two people that have shown love, care, and so much genuine friendship to you, it feels awful. You're a danger, but not yet, a megalomaniac. (Side note, I think Etika's playthrough of No Mercy shows us how LOVE affects the actual player, because killing Toriel is a pain, killing Papyrus feels absolutely awful, but then when you get through Undyne the Undying? Etika celebrated beating her, then stopped and said "Wait no, why am I celebrating, I just killed her". THIS. LV affects us and how we view the Undertale characters, from being friends and caring about them, to being a challenge to overcome in the end. And not a lot of people realise that fact)

Now that I've established all this, where does Deltarune come into play? Well, specifically in Chapter 1, we fight Lancer a number of times. And he has that memorable bouncy theme when you fight him, Vs. Lancer. We all know that theme. However there is ONE moment where we DON'T hear Vs. Lancer DESPITE facing Lancer in battle.

The Susie V Lancer battle in the Card Castle's prison.

There, Susie alone engages battle against Lancer. And we know she engages because Lancer doesn't want to fight her, heck he even avoids to attack her at some point. The battle engaged is ENTIRELY Susie's intentions to put Lancer in his place. And the theme that plays, is Vs. Susie. Because SHE engaged the battle. So it's not Susie against Lancer, it's Lancer against Susie, despite US controling Susie. Just like it's Sans against us, despite us being in control.

This is proof. Proof that we hear the theme of who engages in a battle. You could also take as back up proof the Spamton NEO fight in Snowgrave, because he has every reason to engage against Kris - they're threatening everything Spamton COULD have, so of COURSE Spamton engages, furthermore because Kris goes from puppeted to puppeteer in his eyes. Sans never engages in battle against us. We engage against him. Because we're trying to get it over with.

MEGALOVANIA is most definitely the player's theme in late No Mercy run, and we know this thanks to Susie evolving the opposite way in Ch1 that we do in No Mercy.

Thank you for reading!!

[murderenjoyer]

Getting all mad about AA discourse again. My husband just shooed me out of the room cuz he's tired of listening to me rant so I guess I gotta do some Astarion-posting on my blog instead 🤷‍♀️

So yeah I'm very very irritated by the people who insist that AA fans "don't respect Astarion as a character" and "only think about him in terms of sex."

First of all, there is nothing wrong or bad or immoral or anti-intellectual about sexual attraction. Let's get that bit out of the way right now. Being horny for him does not guarantee that someone doesn't respect him. Attraction is not synonymous with objectification. I'm sorry you people are drowning in puritanical Catholic anti-sex bullshit but you really need to disengage from it because it's making you insane.

So with that out of the way, on to my major point:

Choosing to let Astarion ascend is not indicative that the player doesn't care about his needs or wants. In fact, I would argue it's quite the opposite.

Where you see ascension as "giving in to immorality/evil/The Trauma," I see it as him making the best of what he's been given. He will always be what Cazador made him - a vampire. That is unchangeable. Unfixable. He will always carry that specific scar of Cazador's abuse.

So what can he do about it? He can either 1) suffer every aspect of that curse forever; The insatiable hunger, the sun sensitivity, the restrictions on running water and entering homes. He can creep around in the darkness for the rest of his unnatural life because it's what his s/o wants him to do, based on their personal moral framework. Not for himself. Not because it'll ease his suffering. Simply to please his partner. Simply to ease their personal sense of moral guilt.

Or he can 2) steal Cazador's life's work out of his hands and negate most of his vampiric affliction. He won't be hungry (I don't know if you have ever personally been food-insecure but true hunger isn't just a little bit annoying. It isn't a mild irritation. It is torment. It is a painful, nauseating hell. You feel physically sick and weak. Food is the only thing you can think about, it becomes an all-consuming obsession. It. Is. Hell.), he can go into the sun (something he talks about loving and missing and cherishing through the entire game), he can walk into any building whenever he wants, he can cross rivers and take a shower at will (I don't think faerun has running water plumbing yet but you get what I mean).

On my first playthrough, before I interacted much with the fandom, I never once thought ascension was a bad idea. He excitedly babbled on about how cool it was gonna be and I, wanting only for his happiness, hyped him up. HELL YEAH we were gonna kill Cazador. HELL YEAH we were gonna turn him into a super vampire. That's sick as fuck. Who wouldn't want that? I know I would.

When the moment came I immediately used my psychic eyes to show Astarion his scar pattern so he could carve it into Cazador. I didn't know of his famous "kneel" dommy daddy line. I didn't do it because I thought he'd raw me in return. I didn't expect him to become cool and powerful and deliciously evil.

I simply wanted to help him get what he wanted. I wanted him to realize his dreams. I wanted him to be happy.

I think that's the case for most Ascended enjoyers. We didn't hear of his post-ascention behavior first then make the choice to ascend him based on horny vibes. We heard his words, saw his behavior, and did what we thought would have made him the most happy.

I personally don't see keeping him a spawn as being objectively the better way for him to handle his trauma. I don't need him to be a soft, gentle, wilting flower "perfect victim." I don't mind if he came out the other end of his ordeal a little bit eviler, a little bit crueler, a little bit crazier. He doesn't need to be a super soft boy for me to love and care for him.

I don't appreciate being accused of not respecting him because anti-AAs associate the presence of a sexual component with dehumanization. I don't appreciate being accused of having no media literacy because my idea of an acceptable healing journey isn't in-line with a Hallmark movie.

[loquaciousquark]

quark plays bg3 again [11/?]

I always do the hag's quest first to get the rapier for Tav, though I didn't discover until run 5 that you can save Captain Grisly. I unironically think Aradin is really attractive, and this quest as a capstone to Rolan's development is one of my favorite NPC sequences in the game. The new Lorroakan entrance cutscene is great, and while this fight happens too early in Tav's canon, the post-fight conversation you can have with a dead-Cazador-Astarion regarding Aylin's dissatisfaction with her vengeance is wonderful.

Gale's relationship to Mystra is immensely fascinating, and while I think the in-game portrayal of Mystra is simplistic and unfair, I really enjoy delving into it outside of those limitations. I was likewise very frustrated on my first playthrough that a rogue Tav can't interact specially or have any interest or ties to the city's Thieves Guild. That led to my decision of Tav historically being too bad a thief to get in, which informed a great deal of her characterization. I do headcanon that she knew Lady Ague when they were children, and that they have a complicated friendship that I'll someday write about.

I love the (purposeful or not) implication that Astarion positioned himself between his siblings & Tav during the night attack. The conversation variant where he tells you about the year of horror is perfectly devastating. My Oskar quests have ranged from "easy as anything" to "I'd rather tear my teeth out than do this again," but luckily this run went pretty well. They also finally fixed it so that he gives you a portrait of the character speaking to him, and it's a repeatable dialogue, so Tav & Astarion both got portraits this run.

The Sarevok > Orin quest sequence is one of my favorites in the game, and I love Orin's breakdown/Bhaal's takeover when you reveal her father/grandfather tried to have her mother kill her. I don't really want to play BG1 or 2, but I would like to see playthroughs of them someday.

The House of Grief is tough tough tough, no matter how many times I play it. Tav always comes out with a Liar's Heart (boo), the Viconia fight is a nightmare, and watching Shadowheart be able to save her parents is very bittersweet for her. I do wish both Mystra and Selune had been able to have an in-game presence equal to the majesty and terror of Shar here; for as much as Selune is supposedly her opposite and equal, Shadowheart's turn to her is very minimized and even more rarely acknowledged. I don't think she even says one time that she's actively worshipping her now; the closest you get is a dialogue from her in the temple saying "In another life, I might be making an offering to Selune right now." I wish that turn had been made more explicit than a hair dye job when it came to the actual religious implications.

I love the Water Queen's temple singers and listen to them every time. I also rob their vault absolutely blind every time in devotion.

The entire Cazador sequence is an emotional landmine. I really love how well they convey Astarion's fear, lack of planning, and singleminded focus throughout all his ambient dialogues. Somehow I completely missed the dormitory wing on my first playthrough, but I've gotten it on the rest, as well as the many puzzles and hidden treasure rooms sprinkled throughout.

The conversation with Godey is awful. The conversations with Sebastian and the children are likewise awful in a different way, and the romance dialogue where you can point out that in another life, he'd have led you here instead of that pretty clearing in the forest made me literally clutch my chest the first time I saw it. His pain and resignation when you push him and he confirms, "I would have killed you," are deliciously agonizing. The emotion of the slaughter & the grief afterwards are painful and perfect every time.

The conversation line after where he mentions the sun being the price of freedom was my first clue that Larian was not going to let him keep the tadpole's protection, and it's still painful on replay. I understand the cost of it, and I know why it had to happen, but it grieves Tav (and me) that he has lost something in order to secure his freedom, even if he's willing to pay the price. That said, the graveyard scene remains vulnerable and sweet, even if I personally ick a little at the dirt, and his open happiness the next morning gets me right in the heart every time.

What a well-written, fulfilling, wonderful romance. I've romanced him five times out of six and would do it again in a heartbeat.

[coeluvr]

So I just read the demo for the first time and… are you okay? Like do you need to talk to someone? Cuz holy shit, that was depressing. Don’t get me wrong, it was great, but I am just mentally, emotionally, and physically drained now (don’t ask me about that last part). All in all, I really enjoyed it, but I do have some thoughts.

Firstly, I don’t understand how anyone from Rosea (except for Hunter, Fadiya and her mom, and maybe Helios) has any fans. Like did they just forget that everyone else (including Lancelot) contributed to the total destruction of our family? Everyone’s over here shipping Lancelot and Luceris, and to be fair, if this was a different story I would too, but like… they’re the enemy? Speaking of Luceris…

Dude is on some shit. Like I get it’s the point, but everything about our relationship with him just feels weird and wrong, and I’m counting the days til we can kill him. Until then, I guess I’ll have to make do with disrespecting the memory of his dead wife at every opportunity. Also side note, but as a Straight Male tm it does feel a little weird having to fake a romance with another guy, especially a guy that’s like fifty years older than me lol (Luceris really isn’t beating the Catholic Priest allegations)

The rest of the cast are a lot of fun, and I’m glad they all at least have sympathy towards MC. I think Hunter is the coolest character ever and I want to be them, and Fadiya can do no wrong in my eyes. Vincent sucks, but I haven’t really spent much time with him so maybe that’ll change. Helios I feel sorry for. He’s a nice guy and I do like him a lot, but he’s unfortunately collateral damage in my crusade against Father Luceris. I hate that we have to hurt him to get revenge, but it feels very realistic and gives your decisions a lot more weight.

On the flip side, Soarine is perfect and has never done anything wrong in her life ever. If Soarine has a million fans, then I am one of them. If Soarine has ten fans, then I am one of them. If Soarine has only one fan then that is me. If Soarine has no fans, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against Soarine, then I am against the world.

All in all, I love what you’re doing with this game, even if I do have to take a twenty minute break after each playthrough just to decompress lol. I can’t wait to see where this goes and am gonna stare at a wall until the next update drops. Thanks for making such an interesting story and give Soarine my love 💚

Lol hi, anon!

First of all, I'm fine 😭 I'm like that one happy guy that writes horror whose name I keep forgetting but I bet someone knows who I mean.

Regarding the characters from Rosea that are not all that great having fans, I don't know why that's unexpected to you if I am being honest lmao. In every fandom I've ever been in, there have always been people that like the antagonists. I enjoy Lancelot and Luceris' dynamic but I feel like that's to be expected since I literally created them. 💀 The day I write in all of the side couples you'll combust. /j

But also you don't have to fake a "romance" with Luceris? 😥💀 I can only think of the husband comments MC can make and those are entirely optional so...

I'm glad you like the other characters! Soarine is indeed everything. 🙇‍♀️

Thank you for your kind words! 💗

[silent-neutral]

About SH2 Pyramid Head symbolism and the remake PT.1

--mentions of sexual violence, suicidal themes and just overall mental illness-- please PLEASE DON'T READ BEYOND THE CUT IF YOU PLAN TO PLAY THIS GAME BUT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SILENT HILL 2!! There will be spoilers in this ''essay'' and I don't want to spoil such a great game for anyone starting fresh and blind, because that'd be the perfect way to start this game imho - your feeling toward this game will be heightened without knowing too much, plus forming your own view and having questions about it is also cool.

(***Had to cut this down into parts after watching 10+ hours of the remake and so much watching gave me a headache that felt like a literal hangover the next day ugh I felt like James lol otherwise it's too many topics and words in 1 post. This way it might be easier to organize them. )

------------------------------- My mind was blown recently. Ig I'm posting this to clarify more to myself than anything, but I had to search up Ito's recent comments about certain scenes with Pyramid Head. (ahem, the first cutscenes specifically). I've always had my own ideas and guesses about specific details playing as James, but after some clarifications on Ito's part about Pyramid Head.. it kind of jarred me, but at the same time explained other things and now my initial view of this game and its characters are validating my assumptions.. And if you knew about this already, well good on you.... Ito tweets so much sometimes, info like this gets buried and I had no idea until a week or so ago lol. So in light of SH2R releasing, I conveniently found out about some crucial details that would *also* inadvertently explain my (petty) gripes about SH2R. I watched the entire playthrough and my views have slightly altered (mostly positive, as this game was actually very faithful to the original imo). but for now I give you...a very wordy analysis on some themes of SH2. Excuse my rambly thought process though, it's very hard to organise them sometimes, I say to future self re-reading this later lol.

We know the monsters all carry symbolism relating to James. Specifically speaking, the series has a lot of sexual undertones present. Man.. Idk where it all started but I'm pretty sure we all assumed it was true when every Silent Hill source or fanpage over decades would bring up James' sexual repression. It made sense because of how things appeared, plus Angela's trauma and her demon....that James even fights... Well.. Ito hates fans saying James 'sexual repression' being symbolised in the monsters are canon. He doesn't mind people forming their own opinion, but he hates when fans say it's canon lol. At any rate, there was a lot of confusion from what I read at first (and the language barrier didn't help, but I think I got the gist of what he meant). --------------------------------------------------------------- Talking specifically about the mannequin scene, Ito says PH is *not* raping them. Ok sure, tbh it looks too vague to label it something extreme like that. But it became something of a meme and Ig it ended up being believed as true. Kinda wish this sentiment was quashed many years ago and not in 2020/2021 gah... So, what's happening in that scene is actually far more deeper than simply to traumatise James.... Pyramid Head is a manifestation of James' guilt AND unconscious desire to be punished for killing his terminally ill wife. James is called to Silent Hill via a delusional letter from Mary he created in his mind.(A made up one to ignore the real one). He's suffering from some kind of selective amnesia throughout the game, hence why everything is there to remind him of his pain. Obviously he's traumatised by what he did that his mind has blocked it out to the point it seems he has remembered a false timeline of events... but his soul is yearning for judgement. Ito says that, therefore, James is suffering from many delusions, that's what's creating and manifesting his inner demons (true for all that come to Silent Hill). Pyramid Head himself is manifested as the executioner, tasked with punishing James, and so.. He is actually attacking James' delusions, trying to remove them:

*o* And Ito goes further! Right after PH kills those mannequins, he stalks over toward the closet James hides in (also meaningful, lmao, but okok it's not about sexual orientation). Apparently, PH's appearance is shifting. Ito says he modelled and animated all the monsters in the original, so I trust him when he says that the front left panel in the corner of his helmet is peeling/flaking back and a tongue-like appendage protrudes from the hole. Although.. he admits it might be too dark to see in that scene, but it's there supposedly. I'm paraphrasing, but Ito implies that PH is impacted by James' delusions in that James *thinks* he sees a tentacle come out of the helmet and thus manifests that. And that's when James shoots at him - He shoots at his own desire to be judged when it attempts to remove his delusions that are keeping him from the truth of his reality!! James can't face reality at this point - those delusions are keeping him somewhat sane and distracted! It hurts too much this early on for PH to attack those delusions so he stops it...this is why he is 'in the closet'. James continues to keep those 'skeletons' there, for now. It makes PH look like the true good guy - an angel.. like Valtiel (interesting to note they have similar body design). Because of learning this, I very quickly noticed how throughout the Remake, you will find plenty already downed enemies.. and it was easy to think ''PH was here''. After James realises the truth from the tape, the Hotel reveals its true appearance (not sure when it burned down or if that has something to do with Alessa, er wait I remember in Origins it was in her house.. well anyway! this could explain James' sketchy memory of events, especially when confronted by Laura having only met Mary and received the letter a year ago in-game.) Anyway, the point is; if James is aware, then the delusions begin to fade. So after watching the Remake, I hoped that the monsters wouldn't appear/be weakened and lo and behold! Bloober was paying attention! The monsters after you watch the tape are weak and limping, can't attack or are already dead and I was delighted! It means Ito was consistent that the delusions the town creates makes up the core theme of Silent Hill. In the original, there are only 2 lying bodies before the PH fight. (I forget the meaning behind them but it has something to do with James' helplessness.) At any rate, Remake did the 'dying vision' symbolism much better here and the explanation is so so fascinating that it led me to rethink the concept behind PH. Side note though, about that hole in PH's helmet. I was always so damn confused about it for so many years!! I used to draw it as a rectangular hole (some art by Ito actually depicted it like that iirc), and then eventually to a gunshot hole since James, well, shot at him, so I assumed that's what it was from. and NOW it's actually a triangular shaped hole from the paneling being 'turned upward' due to how James' is perceiving him in the moment. What a revelation, I cry. Ah.. and note on other design aspects.. Apparently Ito never designed PH with a mass of flesh under the helmet (just a perpetual shadow and the neck bag thing at the back) and he doesn't even know who conceptualised that, but I think it's due to all the cameos and appearances PH has made in many games since SH2. And he looks slightly different each time so.. yeah, interesting that.

Even the figma has that fleshy mass (and gunshot hole!) but I'd say it is accurate on nearly everything else:

It is a very nice figure though. I can't blame all these figures ever released that *weren't* supervised by Masahiro Ito himself, because lmao, Ito just admitted that PH is subjected to changes depending on how James views him, and that explains why details are vague and hard to determine let alone see bc the game is so dark. Take this little gacha figure of PH for example, from a cute baseball game called, I think, Konami Dream Stars (Pal Pro kun?) Yeah, I got Snake as well lol:

...and yes, shameless little peek at my nerdiness on display, all the Capcom stuff is directly below it lolll

------------------------------------------------------------------ So! Having learned what I did, I ofc had to question the next obvious thing; the cutscene just before the first boss fight. PH was without a doubt molesting the Lying Figure/Body which was moaning suggestively the entire fucking time - no one is about to gaslight me into thinking THAT wasn't sexual! And yes, Ito admits that scene was intentionally made to appear sexual (as opposed to the mannequins) and yet he says it has no sexual meaning....wtf does that even mean?! Well, I think I got it. Again, language barrier is most likely to blame, but... To apply the last explanation for the mannequins; James' delusions are making him *think* he is seeing something intimate to the point it manifests right then and there which is so disturbing he recoils and tries to go back through the now-locked door. And so.. it would seem that to PH, he is just trying to destroy the delusions and he can't help how James perceives that; it's just going to manifest accordingly. And while Ito hates 'sexual repression' as somehow being canon to some fans (the majority actually), well, bruh... can you really blame people for coming to that conclusion? The flesh lips, nurses too, are on the risque side. Now, idk how it doesn't indicate something sexual if it's not meaning to be but I am aware of Ito's art style tending to be quite sexual and suggestive, featuring a lot of bdsm themes in his artwork and he is quite obviously inspired by at least HR Giger's work. So making the nurses, for example, look the way they do may be a stylistic choice, but I highly doubt it doesn't also have a symbolic purpose other than referencing Lisa's image or something (This is Silent Hill though ffs, everything is symbolic, it HAS to be). I'll reassess the meaning of those for myself, but specifically I'm addressing PH (and soon in another post, the other elephant in the room: Abstract Daddy.) Initially, I always saw PH as trying to remind James of his sins, jolt his memory, to wake him up to reality. (Which is interesting considering it's not clear if Silent Hill itself is even rooted in reality, the alter dimensions I mean. Another topic I want to address soon.) I also noticed the mirroring effect PH/Maria were doing in relation to their human counterparts; PH is James, and Maria is Mary; James killed Mary, and so PH kills Maria. But.. If PH is actually also trying to destroy the delusions, (which also appears to reflect the fact James is trying to overcome his guilt, his mental blockages that are causing his selective amnesia)that inadvertently means PH will need to destroy himself in the end as well, and that is exactly what happens..

Coincidentally, this would also reflect James' suiciding.

But first, PH attacks the monsters that are manifested and represent different aspects of James' trauma/psyche. Then he is constantly confronting James by killing Maria, or James having to return to a dead Maria. I thought he was basically tormenting James by showing him what he'd essentially done to Mary. "This is what you're guilty about, this is what you need to accept'' I think that idea still holds water (pun very intentional), but now I feel it adds another layer because Maria is the ultimate delusion... and thus, PH must destroy her. Now when she says 'I'm not your Mary, but I can if you want me to be' makes more sense to me what she is. She too is subjected to James' delusions because she keeps shifting the perspective she talks or thinks in, Mary's or Maria's? But she knows she is not Mary, just a manifestation of an idea. And James deep down knows she is holding him back (like all the other delusions) and that feeling calls PH to thus kill her. When James can't escape the reality of his past, he finally accepts the truth, the memories revived by the tape, and confronts PH after stabbing Maria a final time. 'Stop denying/ignoring your guilt, and stop trying to cover it up with distractions like Maria'. James finally doesn't need to be told anymore, he has punished himself (fitting, seeing as PH is an extension of James anyway) and thus PH, the final delusion/illusion kill themselves and disappear.

-------------------------------------

OK so that's PH! Now to compare that with the remake

My main gripe was that the game is way too saturated in colour and too bright in certain parts, but it improves that as you delve deeper in the game thankfully. Kudos to Bloober for changing James' face to something more 'unaware' and disassociative. Gripe number 2: I do wish they cut out the 'hand rubbing' in the opening scene or at least tone it down bc that kind of foreshadowing is too damn obvious, sorry. Not needed. Especially not right at the start. Not even for old fans playing it, we know what happens, but cmon...It makes James too aware of *something* and his selective amnesia is what gives rise to his own customised demons...if he is even slightly aware of what he did, then what is the point to seeing the monsters, let alone PH attacking them, now that we know what Ito had intended? Wouldnt that change their appearance, or rather, remove them altogether? sigh, anyway. I find PH a bit too bright, not dirty enough and consequently, not as disturbing. Partly for that was how they clearly removed the lying body scene from the boss fight. I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, but now with much needed context, this now makes sense...

HOWEVER....If my guess about James' assuming something sexual was taking place in that scene is what manifested it to begin with, then what is there to say about the remake?... So the simple act of hand-rubbing (awareness) really DOES make a difference, huh?! >:O it took away our favourite PH scene! 😂💔..

We can talk about DEI and stuff like that affecting certain themes in this game.... but Ito saying 'it doesn't mean it's sexual' would explain why it's taken out of the remake. Ito has supervised the Bloober design team on this, so they would have so much more context and info from the man himself... Still, it appears to conflict with James' psyche, bc it is through his very perspective that we are perceiving the town and how it presents itself to James so ofc if James sees something explicit, so are we the player. We are seeing the town and monsters through his eyes. And there is much to say about whether or not the other characters are even seeing the same town, but I'll get to that too. There is also the possibility that it's just 'creative freedom' on Bloober's part. It sucks, but overall... the game's pros outweigh the cons. Symbolism for Silent Hill is a very strong trait though, so I'm a bit conflicted about those changes. In the end, PH being a punisher and attacking the delusions of James' traumatised state of mind is fundamental, so as long as that is present, then I can't really say it's so inaccurate ig. It does imho, take away from PH's menacing persona and tones the disturbing factor down which consequently, in my humble opinion, makes him less scary. Intimidating, perhaps.. but less so. He looks very cool though lol. Especially how he breaks the walls during the chase and the final PH battle, I was super impressed with it! I didn't really like how PH was animated in the cutscene in the first fight (the way he turns around, idk..) but I love how they both throw the spears at you! This fight definitely improved upon the og version. Ah, and the sound of his heavy footsteps are wonderful as well! There was another creative thing Bloober did with PH's knife where you have to pick it up to advance through the tentacle wall thing. I realised this was a manifestation of James mental blocks since he starts holding his head in pain. But I thought "oh cool! James is gonna use the Great Knife to cut them!" But sadly, no.. but.. those tentacles would peel back, afraid of the presence of PH's knife... they are delusions after all~

Oh btw.. I didn't realize this before, but as soon as you attain Angela's knife, PH appears with the Great Knife - before this, he is unarmed. In Remake, right after you get her knife, you can hear PH's infamous screeching coming from dragging the Great Knife, reiterating that he is James. Subtle but very cool! I can't believe I didn't make that connection myself lol bah.

A bit more gripes to mention though: his strange janky movements that were imitated in remake made it look like a sad parody of the original scene, which was much more disturbing. I think it would have been better had they not added that part, it was random to see when he was moving as normal as one does trying to apprehend the mannequins, then calmly and slowly assessing the room only to suddenly flail about and strike random poses barely reminiscent of what he does in the original...and then just stand there as if James never shot him 🤨 not to mention, James looks so unbothered in this scene, he doesnt look at all anxious like in the original..the whole 'interaction' looked awkward. The original scene was paced better giving PH a kind of build up to those strange movements. I also dislike the lack of reaction and bad pacing with several of Remake's cutscenes as it toned down much of the intensity in crucial moments of the game, like in this one with PH. Yet... improved on others that I think were made better than the original's by elaborating on them.

Anyway I will touch on this and add more criticisms on remake in another post, this one is long enough lol; i just tried to get my thoughts on PH in one post but if I missed something I'll just add it in the PT.2.

If you actually read this, you must be as obsessed as I am (thank you)! Feel free to add your thoughts if you want, I love talking about silent hill symbolism or the ideologies behind The Order.

[stillhavetodothat]

Replaying Nancy Drew without Cheating - Part 10: Curse of Blackmoor Manor

Bruuuhhhh. This is the best project I have ever embarked on and I will tell you why. Never have I ever appreciated the gameplay and storytelling of Nancy Drew games this much before now, which is saying something, since I have always been a massive fan. Constantly switching between the game and Gameboomers ruins the immersion, and if there is ever a game you want to be immersed in, it’s this one. Still to this day, I think this is my number 1 Nancy game of all time. There are still over 20 more to go, including some I’ve never played before, so there is always time for me to change my mind. But goddamn, this is good.

The Curse of Blackmoor Manor is a MASTERPIECE. The backstory is rich and nicely tied together, and the gameplay is complex. The fact that Her made this entire family tree and a (more often than not, tragic) backstory for each person in it was awesome. And of course, the setting is super spooky. I got goosebumps multiple times even when I knew a scare was coming. I also love that the game relied less on dialogue than most other games, and really emphasized puzzles and exploring. Never even realized how much I enjoyed this aspect of the game - I like being shown and not told.

Surprisingly, I was NOT tempted to cheat in this game, despite it being one of the hardest games of the series, at least in my memory. I got frustrated at Alan’s ghost game, because there was one I kept missing in the hallway by the kitchen (which I believe was also the same one I missed every single time in prior plays before ultimately looking up the solution). Other than that, it is a very satisfying game and I had a very smooth playthrough, and it will have me humming “Brigitte” nonstop for likely the next month, much to my fiance’s chagrin.

Here are some of my thoughts:

1. I totally forgot how many random scenes there are in this game that aren’t triggered every time you play. I was waiting and waiting to see the lady in black floating down the hallway in the middle of the night, or to see Mrs. Drake putting a pendant over Linda’s doorframe, but instead I got the dream where the crests were flashing and a disembodied voice says, with a little too much cheer, “How bout we just shake this stuff off and go to the mall?” That was so wildly unsettling, and I had never seen it before with any playthrough. The dream with all the distorted portraits above Nancy’s bed with the sinister chuckling in the background is SO creepy and felt too much like a fever dream I would have if I came down with the flu on the moor.

2. I thought this before and I still think it now - how is a weak ass glowstick seriously the best source of portable light in the entire wretched mansion?? 

3. We should have been able to go into Mrs. Drake’s room. Robbed.

4. Kudos to the developers for including elements of cults, astronomy, and alchemy all in one game. The vibes were ~immaculate~.

5. Nigel Mookerjee had the most punchable face I’ve seen in a while. Almost as much as Shorty. I was so excited to terrorize him by moving the statue in the library that I ended up doing it WAY before I found the forge and even knew what I needed to do with that puzzle. I got it through a lot of trial and error. I just couldn’t wait to hear his screams.

6. I loathe Jane. It’s surprising I love this game so much, because I hate every single one of the characters (with the exception, of course, of LouLou, and Tommy at the pub). As the eldest child in my entire family, on both sides, I found her incessant need to latch onto me and have me constantly entertaining her completely triggering. As a kid, when the cage falls on top of her in the forge at the very end, I remember being disappointed that I actually had to help her out and couldn’t just let her suffocate in there. I also wish Nancy would have told Jane that Brady “Total Hottie” Armstrong effectively tried to kill Maya and is a terrible, terrible person, just to ruin that crush for her.

7. You probably think I’m a bad person based on 5 and 6. I’m sorry to tell you that you are right.

8. I want to live in a world where a few weeks of a hair growth product yields THESE sorts of results. No one would ever go bald! Everyone would have a lucious head of hair! Hairlines would be all the way down to eyebrows!

9. The fact that this game was chock-full of puzzles and we had to do almost NO chores is so amazingly rare. After all the vegetable picking, horse and chicken feeding, chicken coop fixing, and egg collecting of SHA, it was nice to have a little break from being everyone’s bitch. I can forgive Mrs. Drake for making us organize her stupid succulents in a box. The alchemy puzzle was super fun, playing against Betty was super fun, finding the secret slide was fun as HECK, even figuring out the moving rooms (like, REALLY trying to figure it out rather than panicking and looking up the walkthrough) was fun(ish) too.

9a. If I could change one thing puzzle-wise, it would be the fact that we had to re-do the dragon hands/goblin swivels every time we wanted to get into a secret passageway. Very repetitive, which is never my cup of tea. Who would have thought, though, that the combinations would be so burned into my mind from childhood that I’d be able to open both just from muscle memory each time?

10. I want to know whose idea it was to print out these portraits (and spend good money to have them framed) of Hugh looking like a sweet puppy dog and Linda looking like the most unpleasant person in the world? Are these really the moments we want to remember?

11. Finally, I think this is the first game where I found an Easter egg (the teeth!!). Is it the first one with an Easter egg at all? No, but for some reason it is the first one I have gotten throughout this playthrough. For some reason, when I think of Easter eggs in videogames, I always think of this particular Easter egg. The Easter egg of Easter eggs, if you will.

I kind of feel that moving on to the Secret of the Old Clock is going to feel like a major downgrade after this, just like playing most other games would feel like a downgrade. However, I will perservere, even when I am inevitably pulling my hair out trying to get par on Josiah’s golf course! 1930, Nancy saying “horsefeathers,�� and never getting tipped on a telegram, here I come!

[kimmimaru]

Played some Baldur's Gate 3 last night. I've infiltrated moonrise tower, which was easy enough, aparently brain worms makes these characters stupid lol. I am honestly surprised I've only died twice during my entire playthrough, I'm not very good at this game.

Anyway, my romance with Gale is progressing, he's a sweetheart but I have a horrible feeling he's going to get some horribly tragic end and I will cry. I will be honest, I don't play D&D so I'm running around blindly here, no idea what I'm doing. I'm impressed by other players because they have such well thought out back stories for their characters and I'm just here with my wood elf like: He shoot the arrows. Lol. But my wood elf is relateable, he wears a perpetual look of confusion, same, mr Rowan, same. Very relatable. The game is a lot of fun but very frustrating, I get pretty good perception checks but then you have to just spend hours trying to work out how to work the magic bookcase to make it open. Can't decide if my game is buggy or if I'm doing something wrong, hopefully I'm just missing something. I have a pretty good party set up right now, well...it works for me anyway. I have my charater Rowan, Gale (obviously), Shadowheart and Karlach (adore her so much). I'm also struggling with the combat style, its not the kind of turn-based I'm used to (FF7 OG style) so I do have some difficulty there. The characters can move around, hem you in and block off free areas and stuff which can kind of be frustrating. That's why I like Gale, his magic is very powerful, but I have to keep him back a bit or he dies really fast lol (LEAVE MY SWEET WIZARD ALONE lol). And I think I'm missing quite a lot of side quests, but I'm the kind of person who likes to explore as much of an area as possible, getting lost in FF7 OG was always a lot of fun as it is in BG but, I still feel like I'm missing stuff. Its also good to know that I have shitty luck with the dice, jesus christ I roll so low every damn time. I think I killed a creature that might have been useful, oops. Felt bad afterwards because my characters started saying how he didn't look angry, just lonely and I'm sat there like...No! Why tell me NOW of all times? I also accidentially killed the owl bear's mother, I gained a cute pet but at what cost??? Anyways, just some random thoughts about BG3. Overall I'm enjoying it, despite my struggles. Maybe one day I'll get better at the combat though. :/

[go-go-devil]

for the characters, give me.... siegmeyer of catarina and somsnosa!!

Quite the duo to choose here! Let's go!!

(Also I'm not going to include the "Idea for a Story" bits with them since I'm either currently writing one or have already written several for both characters)

Siegmeyer of Catarina

First impression: Right off the bat I loved him, largely due to his voice acting and the fact that his "Hmmmmmm, Mmmmmm's" instantly became a new vocal stim of mine.

Impression now: I love him even more! One of things I like about the Dark Souls npcs is how several of them are meant to relate to the player themself; Siegmeyer here being the newbie who comes in thinking they'll go on an easygoing adventure, only to realize how unprepared they actually were and end up hitting a wall at portions of the journey. He's the living embodiment of that feeling where you're stuck in one area of a video game and need to look up a guide on how to proceed, or even when your dad plays a video game that isn't the original Super Mario Bros for the 1st time in his life and you watch him constantly running into walls and dying at stuff that seems extremely basic to you before you realize just how new and out-of-his-element this whole experience actually is to him.

(Okay maybe that last parallel was a bit personal, lol)

Favorite moment: Every moment I have with him is a favorite of mine, though one I sadly haven't experienced in any of my playthroughs yet is when he finally gains the initiative to help us out by diving headfirst and screaming into a pit of Chaos Eaters and absolutely destroying them (though still with our help since there's too many for him to take on alone). Even though his quest always ends in tragedy, I like this ending since he at least gets one last hurrah and proves himself to us. The ending I got where I killed all the Chaos Eaters before finding him and he morosely reflects on how useless he is feels worse for me, since as far as I'm concerned it probably caused him to hollow before even seeing his daughter one last time...

Unpopular opinion: Not entirely sure how "unpopular" this take is per say, but I really hate it when people come to the conclusion that Siegmeyer is unintelligent due to how often he struggles throughout his quest, or even that he's somehow being manipulative in the process???

This largely came from a lore video I decided to watch one time from a popular DS Lore Ytuber. It was all just a series of very negative takes on Siegmeyer, but some of the shit he "speculates" about him was honestly quite disgusting; like how he thought the reason he falls asleep is "because he can't muster the brainpower to keep thinking" or something along those lines which is a WHOLE fucking can of ableist worms I don't feel like getting into here. Now I'm not one to rag on someone who's just speculating on the story of these games and their open-ended narratives, but I truly hope nobody takes that video too seriously because holy shit... -_-

Favorite relationship: Siegmeyer/Domhnall

Favorite headcanon: Besides the one's I've discussed with you before, I have this very self-indulgent headcanon that Siegmeyer's wife was a Carimian immigrant, and that he's one of the few outsiders who has any knowledge of (or respect for) their culture. I say it's self-indulgent because there is literally no in-game evidence of this and I'm using it for some fun character bonding moments in To The Accursed. Personally I always found the connection between the tearstone rings of Catarina and Carim to be intriguing; two rings that are opposites yet counterparts to each other. Maybe both countries aren't so different after all, and are even allied. Who knows!

Somsnosa

First impression: Immediate attraction. I mean what's not to love? She looks like the main character from Ico AND has dominion over the insects. It's like the perfect character for me!

Impression now: One of my favorite female characters of all time, even despite how light on story and characterization these games are. Really though, it seems to me that Somsnosa gets the most when it comes to a personality out of all the other characters, even Wayne. Between both games she goes through an arc of suffering from depression, then overcoming it with the help of her friends, then succeeding in running her own business (there's even more to it in Absent Moon, but I won't spoil that for you here). I also find it refreshing and hilarious how out of all the playable characters in Hylics 2, her redesign is the only one whom everyone can agree wasn't fruitified and/or sexualized in any way XD

Favorite moment: Her introduction in Hylics 1 is probably her most memorable moment for me, largely due to the absurd but sweet way we cure her depression and how cool her house is.

Unpopular opinion: Declining because "unpopular opinions" largely don't exist in this fandom.

Favorite relationship: 100% in a polycule with Wayne, Dedusmuln, and Pongorma! I will never back down on the Crescent Crew polycule, these four are soooo much more than just band mates ;-)

Favorite headcanon: Hmmmm, that's a tough one... I suppose one that I've had for the longest time was that SHE'S actually the one who kickstarted Moonage Lobotomy back when it was just her and Wayne. They found a microphone and guitar while scavenging through some trash cans and she realized right away that the two of them could totally start a band together! As far as I'm concerned she writes nearly all of the lyrics for their songs, with Wayne contributing only rarely as he's more of an instrumental being, and was also the one to suggest that Dedusmuln try their hand at percussion after their theremin was stolen/devoured due to a luggage mishap while on tour.

[theeeveetamer]

I just wanna talk about the new Story of Seasons/Harvest Moon game for a second because honestly like

A(nother) Wonderful Life (the OG for the GameCube) was always such a fascinating entry to me because it’s quite literally one of the most barebones and easiest entries in the entire series. Like, there’s only four festivals, only a handful of random events, probably the smallest farm of any entry, it’s super easy to build friendship and villagers don’t have that much dialogue… yet if you ask any fan of the series they’ll probably still rate it highly. And I’m the same! I absolutely love the game!

I really do think the game’s simplicity is what makes it stand out in the grand scheme of things. It’s just a chill lil game that doesn’t require much from you and you can kind of take it at your own pace. And it has less of the like… massive farming empire vibes? of other entries or a game like Stardew Valley. More like a little homestead.

I think the remake really captures that essence too, but with improvements. I wanna talk about what I think they improved on a bit, more under the cut cuz it’s gonna get long.

I haven’t timed it, but the days feel MUCH quicker in the remake. In the OG it felt like you could get absolutely everything done (farming, running around and gifting + collecting all the flowers and such) by about 2 pm. I thiiiiink that was to give you time to do the archaeology and fishing and whatnot, but IMO the days in the original still moved way too slowly (also didn’t the game time pause while fishing and stuff? It doesn’t anymore)

Tool upgrades! The tools now have copper, silver, and gold variants that can be bought from Van assuming certain criteria are met, which means you can easily upgrade your stuff without having to know obscure triggers (e.g. befriending Romana and coming to her room at a certain time to get the watering can that can water 9 squares at a time). This makes it actually worthwhile to use all of your farmland AND water it twice a day, since it’s no longer going to take you hours of button mashing just to water everything.

Obvious but all the glitches are fixed now too. So Van no longer comes every day of the week, selling a calf doesn’t permanently lock a barn slot (what killed my first playthrough), etc.

The bulletin board is a nice way to help players gain friendship/pass the time but in a slightly different way. Plus it will notify you of important items, like the alarm clock!

The festivals are MUCH harder to miss now

I believe they added more little cutscenes (or at least possibly made them easier to trigger)

You can marry anyone! You can also pick your character’s pronouns so you can officially play a non-binary character. They do only let you pick between he/him, she/her, and they/them tho.

Adding onto that, they let you have a daughter finally, without any bullshit.

There’s kind of an inbuilt achievement system, which I think actually does wonders for helping give you direction while playing. Stuff like fish up so many types of fish, have so many animals born on your farm, etc. I don’t know if it’s possible to get all of them in a single playthrough but I am actually trying

The UI is MUCH clearer and more informative with stuff like showing you your exact stamina and energy levels

The cows no longer have to be bred to continue giving milk. I know some people probably won’t like this much since it added a bit of realism to the game, but I prefer it this way tbh. Because of the way breeding worked in the old game you basically always had a cow that wasn’t giving you milk, cutting into your profit margins

The goat. iykyk

Downgrades

They Bishiefied Cody (Gordy now) :( I wish the SoS games allowed their bachelor(ette)s to have more body diversity in general. Woulda married that man in a heartbeat with his OG design lemme tell you

The fucking territory mini game is still here. And you have to win ten games to earn a music record. Help.

[abyssmarked]

i thought it might be fun to write out my headcanon dynamics for neph and the companions in her party ( this is solely based on my playthrough and doesn’t necessarily reflect how neph feels about any of these muses in threads i might have with anyone, and neph’s feelings about companions also don’t reflect MY personal feelings of said characters, i promise i actually really like gale. ).

astarion ; nepharia started manipulating him from the beginning, very quickly picking up on the fact that he was doing the exact same thing to her. after each of them realized that the other was being disingenuous, and only using the other, desperately seeking someone they could trust in these stressful and dire times— an actual bond began to form. a trauma bond, mostly, opening up about their time as slaves to people more powerful than them. nepharia encouraged his hunger for power, just as he did her — they were partners, but ultimately realized they needed a friend more than a lover in the other. eventually, she helps him ascend.

shadowheart ; the cleric’s secrecy and incredibly reserved demeanor bothered nepharia none, because she didn’t want to talk about herself either. she didn’t want to reveal to anyone the true nature of what she was, lest they not trust her, or worse, leave her alone to deal with everything by herself. she respected shadowheart’s privacy, and never pushed for information that wasn’t willingly given. now with shadowheart, though— nepharia convinces her not kill the nightsong, not because she didn’t want to see shadowheart get the things she wanted, but because she knew that their next battles would be far more difficult without a powerful demigod on their side. neph even helped save her parents. :’) i like to think these two are close.

lae’zel ; the way lae’zel would compliment neph’s brutality in battle is what made this demon really like lae’zel. having lae’zel in combat was always such great motivation. and scary devil though neph may be, she knew better than to get on lae’zel’s bad side. did she think she stood a chance in a fight against her? honestly, it’s a 50 / 50 in the succubus’ mind, but only if she was in her true form. out of it, she stood less of a chance.

minthara ; as much as nepharia loves dabbling in her fair share of vicious and brutal bloodshed, releasing those atrocities on innocent refugees certainly wasn’t the succubus’ idea of a fun time. but it was the safer choice, better than going up against the entire goblin camp and risk blowing her cover as an unsuspecting tiefling, or worse, dying. she doesn’t reciprocate minthara’s advances at camp that evening, and not because she didn’t find minthara— intriguing, something about her immediately made nepharia curious. what was a woman who wields so much power and authority in the sound of her voice alone doing with a charge of… goblins? and why attack meaningless, minuscule tieflings, when she seemed so very capable of so much more than that? nothing about it seemed right, but nevertheless, the image of dead tiefling children etched into her mind was enough to kill any sensual mood, even for a succubus. it’s not until they meet again at moonrise towers, when nepharia smells the sheer terror and helplessness coming from the drow, that the devil for the first time empathizes with minthara. she’s known that fear, that helplessness. minthara becomes neph’s biggest motivator in every sense of the word, and encourages her to take control of her life again— she gives neph that fire back, that absolutely unhinged, feral drive that she lost long ago.

gale ; neph honestly almost didn’t pull him out of that portal as soon as she heard his voice, and then when she did, and he didn’t. stop. talking. she wanted to shove him back in. she resisted the urge for a very long time in the beginning to seduce and kill this man, the only thing really stopping her was the orb in his chest, not knowing whether or not it would kill them all off if she did. she found him unbearably sad and pathetic, but eventually— he does grow on her, as much as she’s annoyed by it, and she might not ever admit it. but he hated her guts for a while as well, especially after the grove raid…

karlach & wyll left the party. :’)))))

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3 playthrough - Baldur’s Gate is ENORMOUS

I didn’t think I could be more overwhelmed but somehow this game just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Which is fine, but… my pathetic little mac can’t deal with it. The deeper I get into the city, the worse the gameplay gets, and it’s so bad now, so bad. I wish there was an even more basic barebones graphics level below low.

Spoilers:

The dark urge flavour in the tabernacle was neat. My character left a big donation for the seldarine goddess not out of religious devotion but as a spiteful fuck-you to daddy. I like that Bhaal answers back. Very fun. And Astarion continues in his theme of being grumpy about anything religious. I don’t know, buddy. After he mentioned being thankful that it was my plot that freed him, I can’t help but look at the whole coincidence of it all and wonder if that was the answer to his prayers, even though it took a long time to play out.

I got to Sorcerous Sundries. The thing that upset me the most about Rolan wasn’t his face, it wasn’t the shitty situation he described, no, somehow the thing that upset me the most was that he wasn’t even bothering to be arrogant and rude anymore. It was that little detail that made me feel the worst and made me understand how bad things were. Poor buddy. It’s ok, Aylin broke Lorroakan over her fucking knee. God I love her.

What an irritating fight though. I accidentally brought all squishy spellcasters with me when maybe a good fighter would have been more efficient. (sigh, Lae’zel, I will find you soon, I promise) My tav freshly leveled up to 11 and I finally, FINALLY got OTTO’S IRRESISTABLE DANCE. Ooooooh I’ve been waiting forever for that. I cast it on Lorroakan right at the start and it was great, kept him quiet the entire fight while we chipped away at all his goddamned elementals until we were ready to kick his ass. Oh my god oh my GOD was it ever funny watching him boogie the whole time in the corner, getting angry every turn and threatening us as he did his little shuffle. I laughed and laughed and laughed. BEST SPELL EVER. Can’t wait to use it on Gortash and Orin. Rolan ended up getting the final killing hit in, which made me pleased. I’ve had Shovel summoned and following Astarion ever since I read the scroll mid-act-1, and sadly she got zapped in the fight and I didn’t notice until a few hours later. I could reload and redo the fight to keep her alive, but myeh I dunno, maybe it’s her time. Gale still knows how to summon her if we want her back.

I don’t have patch 6 yet - mac users always have to wait longer - so I don’t get to see the new fight cinematics yet. I assume that once the patch comes out, I’ll be able to load old save slots up and watch it then?...

After that, I was just dicking around and found the whole lower level of the tower and all the stuff that goes with that totally by accident.

I did the whole newspaper quest thingie, and managed to do it mostly by just sneaking really good, only ended up using one single invisibility potion… but I don’t know if my game is bugged or what, I was a bit disappointed, the next morning the quest had succeeded and NPCs talk to me like I’m a celebrity now, but the newspaper wasn’t about me. If I succeed or if I fail, the paper is always just random unrelated headlines. I was wanting a funny and relevant story! :( Ah well. Sneaking through there around the guards was a pain in the ass and a half but I’m low on invisibility potions :( Until I get some more I need to be careful.

The only thing more fun than exploring and finding all the neat little details is doublechecking with my daughter who is also playing, and seeing how much she has MISSED because she just speeds through with no patience for the exploring. Lmao. She’s currently stuck at Shadowheart’s big fight in the House of Grief. I popped down there myself to take a look and shee-it, that is definitely a nasty stupid fight.

Dang there’s so much stuff here in the city though. I honestly can’t even remember all of what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m kind of in the mood to hurry up and get to the Cazador fight, but there’s so much city to explore between here and there. And my computer lags and lags and lags.

[punklorde-hunter]

Well, since i finished the main story Penacony's first half (still need to do the Companion Mission + finding all those chests), and I took a few screenshots, and I thought I'd show them while also having commentary on the main quest's story beats.

**SPOILERS and a LOTS of words Under the Cut

While I am kinda sad Dan Heng didn't get to join us for Penacony, at least this means he gets a rest. Man was going through it on the Luofu let him have a chance to breathe and relax for once in his life.

This is more of a nitpick for me but I missed the easter egg at the beginning where you could've seen Silver Wolf & Sam chatting and I'm sad i missed it! I can go back in someone's playthrough to see it but man :(

Gotta love not at all ominous red text with Acheron. I'm sure this has nothing to do with anything in the foreseeable future.

That being said, I am kinda intrigued on what's the relationship between the Trailblazer & Acheron. I didn't get to play Honkai Impact 3rd, but I have read the comics Hoyoverse have online. And as the Star Rail's Raiden Mei of course they're going to give her an important role. It's also nice (and depressing) that she sees what I assume is the HSR Kiana of this universe, or someone else entirely. Plus she just seems like a character with a lot of regret. Hard to tell right now, but I also saw the red text does change depending on who you chose & the choices you make when talking to her so cool details!

Also Penacony is HUGE. I spent so much time getting lost in the Golden Hour area alone and i still haven't found every chest & puzzle. they really wanted this area to feel like the Roaring 20's and it shows

Aventurine is a grade-A asshat and good for him. He's very punch-able in a positivity way. Man's scheming something and i don't trust him one bit, but I am intrigued by him. Also his banter with Dr. Ratio was defiantly charged with something. Whether that was sexual tension or them wanting to kill each other, it's anyone's guess. He's also a really good contrast to Topaz as an IPC official whose not above using shady methods to win so I'm intrigued. Still wanna punch him tho.

I hope Misha & Gallagher get more time to shine in later patches, their appearances were so brief I NEED MORE! I do have a working theory on Misha but that's for a later time :)

Despite not being a character I would usually like, I kinda enjoy Sparkle in a "i would hate you irl but i find you fascinating in game' way. Masked Fools always struck me as an cool faction since their Aeon is a trickster god in a way. SO it makes sense of of their most notable Fool being a shapeshifting trickster who loves pushing people's buttons for fun. I'm pulling for her for having more DHIL ultity but man is she a piece of work.

I also really enjoyed Firefly as a character. Even tho I feel we didn't get to explore more of her character before you know what, I liked what we got. She was very cryptic about why she was a stowaway, and a lot of dialogue during her heart-to-heart definitely means something. Even what Clockie said about people being able to see him by being pure of heart probably holds more weight, but i guess will have to wait to see where that goes in future patches.

Nothing much, I just really liked this shot in the Dream's Edge area, and I think generally I enjoy Dream Edge the most out of all the Penacony 2.0 maps. The shooting stars are a nice touch too!

What a cute pic, surely this means only good things for them :)

On that matter, I can't believe Star Rail introduced a sweet cute young girl, had us bond the majority of the quest-line with, ONLY to rip her from us in the most GRAPHIC WAY POSSIBLE!? ALL WHILE PLAYING "If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking" AFTERWARDS?! WHAT THE HELL

what a way to show Penacony isn't playing games, and that the writers being from Honkai Impact 3rd show they aren't afraid to show that things in Penacony are taking LIVES!!

I also like Acheron in this scene after Firefly passed on and giving some funerary rites. A nice quiet moment after we got are hearts crushed by the Something onto Death entity. I also like how Black Swan has beein a patient guide after all this, trying to get the Trailblazer to a goal but because she can foresee events through Arcana and can see memories, shes been the most helpful on Penacony as of right now despite being an enigma

I also loved Sam's first introduction as he's always been mentioned by the other Stellaron Hunters as 'not picky' with his prey, doesn't play mind games and goes straight for the kill type. And man did he make an impression in the short amount of time he got.

And the end scene with Aventurine, there's a lot going on. While i don't completely agree with him on Acheron, he does have a point on her being suspicious. Especially if she killed Duke Inferno ALONE (rip Ifrit mains) and her Emanator powers truly do come from one of the destructive Aeons. Most likely Finality since KiaMei is as consistant as with BronSeele/lh

Also on a side not I hope Sunday gets to go apeshit soon, dude deserves it since his dear sister is dead too. Otherwise yeah I'm VERY invested in what Penacony has in store later on.

And with that, I leave this post with the MOST EVIL ACHIEVEMENT PT 1 (there's more of them dw)

[midnightcatharsis]

Different usually dishonest claims with my commentary Lies exhibit 3. -Lying about canon game dialogue and Astarion's good hero epilogue

Do you guys remember that line? You probably don't because it's not there. Tav is not the one who calls him a hero, he is describing what he's doing himself using the words "adventurer and hero". He doesn't scoff at his own words. And he doesn't say "I only help people who can help me".

Yes, in another dialogue option, he says that he likes getting a reward. But then it's how most heroes live... Even playing a good playthrough you do quests to get money, potions, info and items... (a lot of good characters even steal) But suddenly when Astarion is helping and gets a reward it's bad. Insane double standards. They also say that Astarion saying that he "embraces" the darkness and shadows in the good epilogue is not literal and it means he embraces being evil... This is clearly maliciously taken out of context and misrepresented because he explicitly says that in every version of the dialogue about him dealing with not being able to walk in the sun anymore as it was a huge deal for him. It's also ironic that they have chosen this lie because a good ending contrasts with his bad one. AA doesn't embrace darkness. He rejects it and is willing to do anything to not be forced to live in the prison of darkness... By the same logic, it means that AA is clearly good and has never done anything bad in his life.

Astarion has a lot of dialogue in his good epilogue, so I won't post every screenshot, but I always give my sources so if you don't remember you can check it here In every single version embracing darkness is clearly about the sun and him being cursed not to see it by the choices others made for him.., They also try to paint them bragging about murdering and hurting Astarion and saying he deserves it as a "joke" but it clearly wasn't one considering the screens I've added in the main post. Neither lying nor bragging about like they do is a joke.

Exhibit 4. lying about his spawn ruler ending and again taking things out of context

So the first part is a lie in both good epilogues. There is simply not a line where he admits to having "only evil, baser instincts". I think this person is once again talking about "Astarion embracing the shadows" :P in the hero ones, he explicitly states that he "has been really well behaved" and that "it has made for a nice change, though inspiring hope in people instead of terror" and yet this person is claiming he has only baser evil instincts... As for the ruler ending he says "for the first time I've been thinking about people other than myself", he says he wants to give the spawn a place to be safe

Yup, only evil, baser instincts. Of course, they try to also say that his implementing law as a ruler is evil. He should just let 7000 inexperienced, hungry vampires with weak control do whatever they want and kill whoever they want. It's not like rulers in medieval times or in fantasy had to implement law. And a society of spawn vampires needs it more than any other. All this proves is that Astarion as their ruler stops them from attacking each other and most humans, therefore he is doing something good.

They stated he talks about "enjoying power" - it comes as no surprise if you've seen a source that there's not a single line like that. Astarion only says that "it's going surprisingly well" - guess that makes him evil now. Another thing that is "proof" is supposedly that he kills the right people and gets rewarded therefore he's evil - as if the entire good playthrough is not about the main character killing "right" people - Orin, Gortash, Ketheric etc. and getting a reward XD

As for the argument that Astarion is evil because he doesn't admit to being good which that person also has been saying: a) ruler Astarion - says he doesn't consider himself good JUST YET

b) hero Astarion says: "Let's not get carried away, I'm still me. Perhaps more me than I've ever been" - which has practically the same meaning understandably as both are good endings obtained through similar stories. Later if asked "what's (...) next question he explains that he doesn't consider himself good because "good people don't spend so much time lurking in the dark as I do..." there's a pause and he starts talking about being cursed with having to leave in the dark and be defined by choices of others. So he doesn't consider himself good in a hero ending mostly because of his vampiric nature but it tells us what he thinks and considers not that it is an objective statement especially since other lines "not yet" would contradict it. He never admits to being evil and having only "baser, evil instincts". Btw he doesn't have to consider himself good to do good things, for someone who constantly talks about alignment they should have known (and I'm sure they know, they're just lying) that you don't have to even be good to not be evil.

Exhibit 5. Alignments and lying.

So they think alignments are implemented in the game without an exception and special people were there to help create the alignment?? Hmnn I have not seen any alignment in my game. I also thought that bg3 is about change and growth that characters like Astarion, Shadowheart, Lae'zel or Gale can experience (I don't think the rest experience changes). Deciding that one character with one of the biggest and most impactful stories can't change because he's inherently evil as the result of his nature would be rather counterproductive... It would also go directly against his story and a good ending. The game shows that Amanita wasn't evil (at least at the beginning despite being a vampire) and that Cazador's prisoners are not evil either (well.. not all). The game treats killing them as evil and Astarion's most important development in a good ending is learning the life of a vampire spawn (including himself) is also valuable. If they were just evil monsters the "good" choice would be to kill them so they won't endanger the city. Even other companions recognize that all vampires are not evil by nature. Jaheira who was in the previous instalments of the game even says that perhaps the belief that are evil was just a result of ignorance. Very interesting choice to give this line to a companion that was in the games with alignment.

Ok, I'm analyzing way too much. There is no alignment mechanic in the game. When you search for bg3 alignment all you get are threads theorizing what alignment party members have and articles about BG 3 having no alignment system at all.

Idk, his wiki doesn't show any alignment either. But what does Astarion's official character sheet say? If he is inherently evil there should be no problems finding that info right?

His official character sheet doesn't mention alignment

Idk did larian implement the alignment system implemented in bg3? Did they specifically hire people to implement the alignment system in the game as that person thinks and then just forget to add it anywhere? Even on the official character sheets??

Btw: This person says that all vampires are evil because of "Monster's Manual" which says they have evil alignment in DnD. That being said, there's also something else that the SAME manual says. I don't know whether that person just heard from somewhere that "all vampires always have to be evil in DnD" and are mindlessly repeating it or they know the sources and are lying (All things considered I think it's possible), but here you are:

And here's the source

Long story short, as you can see, even according to the official alignment rules the alignment specified in the book is not obligatory for every single individual. It's just a default option. According to that, there is also nothing that suggests an alignment can't be changed during the story or as a result of it. No, the "all vampire/vampires spawn are obligatory and inherently evil and can't ever change" is not true.

Exhibit 6 - Not lying but hypocrisy?

That's so unfair to Shadowheart and Astarion. Lae'zel gets a pass because "she's just a product of her brainwashed culture". Shadowheart was also brainwashed since childhood and she's also the product of indoctrination, and Astarion doesn't remember anything but being a slave. His views can also be attributed to the circumstances that taught him that either you're weak and abused or heartless.

Exhibit 7

Ok, so several things to say about that. First of all, killing a character while role-playing and playing a game is ok. The problem is when you as yourself - a real-life person who knows the entire story holds and share a belief that somebody - especially a traumatized person who was just freed from slavery and hasn't been given any chance to heal- deserves to suffer, be murdered and tortured not for actively doing anything evil themselves but for talking and disapproving of your choices. The problem starts when you purposefully go under the content of a character to spread lies and brag about murdering them or enjoying playing the slave-owner simulator the way that person did. That's not on your fictional Tav or Durge but on you. Even if what they said was true those had been true those people clearly did it playing their characters not to get emotional gratification out of it or because after knowing the entire story they believed Astarion deserved to be murdered. That being said.: 1. I've checked one of Neil's latest videos on yt. Gale is alive 2. I've checked Theo's latest video. He's in act 3. Astarion is alive. 3. I couldn't find Tim's playthrough but those who enjoy bloodweave know Tim likes the ship too. I believe there's a clip of him saying that. So no I don't think he loves murdering Astarion or playing a slave owner simulator with him. I also don't think Tim knowing Astarion's story thinks he deserves to die. 4. I've checked Devora's video with the bite and gandrel. She didn't stake him or sell him to gandrel. In act 3 she decided to have a girls-only party and killed all the guys XD She's role-playing and having fun from what I've seen. I haven't checked the rest but you get the idea. Even if they did it would be ok.

Exhibit 9 -soul coins

They said that according to DnD it's almost impossible to free a soul. That's not true. There are many ways to free them such as simply using the coin normally. So immediately they switched to "oh that's exactly what Karlach is doing" except it's not. Using coins as fuel for infernal engines such as Karlach's destroys the soul permanently.

That's not true. Being used as a fuel for an infernal engine is not "expending all the charges". If used in infernal engines the soul ceases to exist.

Exhibit 10 They said a 15 years old human is an adult woman in bg3... don't have the original screen but after I told them how creepy that sounded since humans develop the same way as in the real world and even if they're developed physically they're still children they once again said the same thing stating it's the case for dnd...

Except no, it is not. The official dnd manual says explicitly:

Source

I really wanted to post some more screens of their lies but while I was writing and documenting that part about them being one twisted person to make many hate posts I received a message from them accusing me that I've reported their video. I have not. I didn't though a comment could be reported for simply lies but it seems like either they've recognized they were trashed and deleted it themselves and are lying or somebody else recognized them as toxic and deleted their comment before I was able to take more screens. So that particular piece of lies exists no more.

Liars- the worst kind of Astarion haters and fandom

I really didn't want to make my blog about Astarion haters and didn't want to make 3 long posts about them. Yet I've recently found such a contemptible individual I simply can't stay silent. I need to vent and paint a bigger picture. Especially since I can't properly do it in replies on yt as it's impossible to add images in yt replies and comments with links are usually either deleted or hidden. If you have read my 2 posts - yes this is the same person but I've obtained more pieces of information that create an alarming image of how this person thinks, operates and lies on purpose and blatant confirmation of my previous suspicions. I've also decided to share it because I believe we should be more aware of this new more malicious and vile type of haters. We all know how "normal" haters and stakebros continue to post hate, we mostly know their motivation. But I tell you this person is much more evil and sinister than them. I want to establish and confirm certain facts first because the singular comments of that person may seem innocent at first glance. It's only the bigger picture that shows how bad it is. If you prefer more chronological order that shows how they escalate: part 1 - Example of a lie. That individual claiming Astarion doesn't approve of saving the gnomes and me debunking it. part 2 - That individual admitting to liking torturing, murdering and using mods that make Astarion into a slave, yet claiming Astarion's fans are toxic ones

For those who haven't read it, I will try to make a brief summary in this paragraph (sorry, I've tried) : The story goes like that, for quite some time under various Astarion-related videos and threads I've been seeing one and the same username very often accompanied by the second one. Their modus operandi and comments were pretty similar - they've been saying things like "I'm not an Astarion hater but..." insert here a blatant lie made to paint Astarion as evil, that can be easily debunked by playing, looking at clips, videos or Wiki with Astarion approval... The fact that they were lying was confusing because... like Astarion's not an angel, you really don't have to lie about him... Besides why even lie about a fictional character? Why with such vitriol and obsession under so many videos about him 1 year after the release? Why target neutral fans (of course to make them hate this fictional character :( )? Why lie that "you're not an Astarion hater"? Not a hater wouldn't have reasons to lie... Under different videos, I've also seen the same user celebrating hurting Astarion... What was the most frustrating is that often normal people were being deceived only since they assumed that individual didn't have ill intentions and because they believed they weren't being lied to. After seeing one comment from that person under yet another Astarion video from several months back, about how Astarion deserved to be brutally abused and murdered because "he only ever approves of bad things" and also listed some things that weren't really even true (like the gnome at moonrise, or ascending), I finally decided to answer and correct them citing some of the good things he approves of (saving an abused hyena, saving the gnomes, saving Vanra etc. ) I also added that while sometimes Astarion talks shit he doesn't actually DO anything evil on his own free will until the ritual unlike some other companions that they consider "good" and that holding a belief that an escaped slave or basically a victim of human trafficking who doesn't remember any other life but constant torture deserves to be tortured and murdered only for talking and being angry is evil. And that is when the insanity started. They kept lying, saying that Astarion's canon approval is not real, that he doesn't approve of those things (gnomes, vanra etc) and made even more lies and taking things out of context. Maybe I shouldn't have engaged. I probably shouldn't have, but hey, I don't like the idea of them deceiving anyone... I tried to debunk their lies, but of course, they doubled down on it and made new ones, blatantly refusing to check the sources, saying that the abuse options are there because the devs too think Astarion should be abused, and even going as far as trying to vilify not only Astarion but also Neil. Of course, the same account that almost always keeps backing them up almost immediately after their post appeared again and started spewing similar bs with the same arguments. They even decided to harass me on my own channel for correcting them...

At least I managed to get indisputable proof that: 1. those two accounts belong to the same person. (Establishing this fact is important so I started with those screens) 2. they lie (it was obvious before (in part 2) but here's another proof, 3. They use those multiple accounts to create false narratives by talking to "each other" and trying to create an illusion that someone who disagrees with them is "outnumbered" and toxic.

Re: So I don't have any video or content on my channel on yt. Literally nothing. And somehow still got 2 subscribers, I made a post 2 weeks ago asking my subscribers why even subscribe? Not relevant? Yeah totally, but after I corrected some lies of that Astarion hater, they went on my channel for no reason to try to vilify Neil under that post... At that point, I was 100% sure those 2 were the same person so I called them out (btw I may seem a little harsh at first glance but this person: 1. keeps going under many Astarion videos-comment to shamelessly lie, 2. was insulting all astarion fans, 3. was bragging about playing slave-owner simulator by putting a collar on Astarion and murdering him which I find repulsive, 4. went under my post to harass me under an unrelated post, while despite everything I have NOT gone on their channel.) and they exposed how pathetic they are:

This paragraph is basically the same thing as what I wrote to them. *btw they assumed I was a he, but whatever, I don't really care that's not the most important thing for me I've only 2 subscribers and I had them before interacting with that individual which meant they were not one of them. They were using one account to harass me but when I said I knew they were the same person who was behind the first account then even though I had not tagged the second account and even misspelt the username of the second account, despite getting no notification, it replied to a small channel with 2 subscribers barely 1 hour later, under the same post? That is NOT a coincidence. That's clearly one hater. Though they claim.

Nice try, except that was my channel and the only comment under the post belonged to their second account so no notification for kiririkiri account. Besides as shown (part2) those "two" accounts keep commenting almost back-to-back, both are under the same comment/video that is ofter several months old and with barely 1 hour of break. They also share all opinions and have the same habit of sending the same message several times.

As you can see they also started talking with themselves to "outnumber me" again. They even left themselves a like because it definitely wasn't my subscriber. I have 2 and I bet they don't spend 24/7 waiting for me - somebody with no content to post or comment.

Since I think I have already established this is the same obsessed person. Let me go back a little and once again gives you some evidence and perspective why I called them evil twisted and pathetic.

2. Well for once as I stated before they frequently lie. Exhibit I And I have given some examples in part 2 (astarion is evil because he says he embraced the darkness in the epilogue when talking about missing the sun, canon in-game lines from the narrator that describe how companions are feeling in different situations are not canon because their hc should be believed instead, Astarion wants to kill not help Vanra despite giving approval for saving her and despite having a line " "be careful, if we kill the hag the girl might die", the nightmare doesn't happen and a vivid dreaming about being enslaved again by your abuser can't be a clear sign of ptsd, Astarion wants to murder PC even though in his origin canon lines say "you try to wrench your head but your jaw refuses to obey" and that the fact that he has to do checks for not killing the companion proves his story - that he just lost control and other lies). But for the purpose of this comment let me remind you of that specific one from part 1 the gnome one

I've already debunked it, but as that person refused to check it and acknowledge it, and since they decided to come to my account to harass me I decided to use this opportunity and I posted the same screens from my part 1 to make that person see it and comment so that I can get further screens of them lying and denying canon. They did. They still said that the screens from the game and wiki are not canon.

I got the screens :D. Also jokes on you hater, cause I already got more than 20 likes under the same post on tumblr (part1) Exhibit 2

They are doing the same things with ascension...

Meanwhile reality:

This guy is so confused and complicated he doesn't even know if he truly wants to ascend and his approval of you trying to persuade him depends on a roll. One thing is clear. He does NOT approve of ascending.

Toxicity.

This is also in a way not true. This comment itself is mild, next ones are worse still... before the crash, he was mind-controlled and even refers to it as being a puppet whose body is controlled by his master and after the nautiloid he immediately joins the players and follows his lead till the end of his quest. He doesn't actively DO anything of his own free will to "torment innocents" he just observes, talks and approves/disapproves. A belief that a victim of human trafficking or slavery who doesn't remember not being abused and who has been enslaved and tortured for decades (or centuries) deserves to be murdered, tortured and humiliated because they are not well-adjusted 1 day after being freed because they say things that you don't like, are angry at the world and disapproves of your actions is fundamentally evil. He has never even been given any chance to heal. But hey if you've read part 2 you know that this comment is very mild because they in fact love playing the slave-owner simulator, murdering Astarion and helping Cazador.

As can be seen on the screens from the very beginning when they came to harass me after I've corrected them but accidentally exposed themselves for having 2 accounts they also made a special point to tell me how they'll enjoy hurting him and will "do their worst" specially for me in multiple messages.... It made me think about the comments they made under a different video

Last time I cut only the part about the streamer, how they called Astarion fans toxic because some people disliked how he put him in a collar and made him crawl... I did this to show how implausible that is that it was done by accident and to show their hypocrisy because as you can see that person's 2 accounts were bragging about downloading the mod specifically for Astarion, knowing his history and were both proud of playing a slave-owner simulator. But it was point 1. However, there were also points 2 and 3:

Interestingly: when said more was compared to male Aylin or whitewashing Wyll mod. That person failed to address Aylin at all and despite admitting that Wyll's is racist also said it's ok to play with this mod... But for the purpose of the post I think it's more important how they stated that "they're not an astarion hater" and that they never killed him and yet previous screens clearly show that they are a hater and LOVE to murder and torture him. They also were crying that a mystery streamer was "bullied" without showing any proof other than "trust me bro" but when I corrected some of their lies and told them their behaviour and reasoning is evil they immediately started to harass a channel with 2 subscribes... with 2 of their accounts, because they're so insecure they thought one account will not be enough... Yes, playing slave owner is ok, but being corrected is not. Them responding to an Astarion fan calling all Astarion fans toxic is ok, but somebody else telling them that their mod and ideas of "you disapprove therefore you deserve to die" is evil is not ok. etc.

I don't usually think that age should be brought up but this person is not young at all.

One of their accounts is almost 19 years old. I created my yt account when I was a teen but that person has videos from 12+ years ago... All things considered. I think they're probably at least in their 30s. For such a person to behave like that is not normal. 30+ years person individual lying online about a fictional character, bragging about hurting them, thinking it's ok to murder for talking, and harassing people for correcting you is deeply concerning.

Also considering that several years ago that person was posting some videos with game fragments makes me think that the probability of them being a "mysterious streamer" who got backlash for doing exactly what they were bragging about doing is even higher.

I'm ending this post because it's already quite long and summarizes the most important points well.

P.S. It has been brought to my attention in a wise comment under part 2 that this individual seems to have some problems and that's not normal behaviour. Upon reflection, I still think that certain behaviours and opinions should be openly called out as twisted and evil regardless so they won't be normalized in society. That being said I agree from an objective point of view that I probably shouldn't have engaged in the conversation or insulted them by calling them "pathetic" or "a loser" to their faces despite them being that things (I still by an evil and twisted). Then again it's very frustrating seeing accounts of the same person under so many Astarion comments or videos celebrating hurting him, attacking the fans or trying to make people hate a fictional character by lying especially because their initial comments/replies under some threads sometimes seem innocent and because they state "they're not an Astarion hater" some people believe them (unless those are fake accounts too:/) It's even more frustrating that when corrected they double down, spam with more lies and go under your own channel to harass you. Despite that, I don't think they should be harassed themselves. I've decided to just erase all their comments on my page, ban them and stop engaging. But I'm not sure what should be done if I ever see them lying or trying to portray Astarion as toxic in public discourse under anything related to him :/ They spiral after being called out and things get nasty but the alternative is allowing them to deceive people... No matter what I still wanted to share this story as I think we should be aware there's a new kind of haters. If you ever see or encounter this person, their second account or somebody else who says "I'm not an Astarion hater" and then proceeds to say something insulting or suspicious be wary and check the sources instead of believing blindly because there are strong chances it's an obsessive hater. I'm going to reblog and add some new screens of their lies... Check the first reblog if you want to see them.

[ravenadottir]

Hreyooo, Which route do you think is the most fun? I don't know which one to play and I'm afraid to leave my boy Lucas in the hands of fate, I admit it. 🤠

heyooo! ooh, i love to do this route because of the responses we can get and my favorite is not about an LI but about a conduct (like i mentioned in this post a while ago)

((also if you're interested in which playthrough is the best for each li, IN MY OPINION, i wrote it down here))

hear me out: BURN THE VILLA.

i always start with rocco but kiss and flirt with the others every opportunity i get. after so many playthroughs i felt i deserved a little treat, and this one route i did was honestly the best!

so, let 's begin!

day 1 i choose rocco. truth and dare: noah. kiss rocco after if he's into it. pay the 5 gems to meet the second boy that's gonna chase you. i really don't pick anyone specific and sometimes will close my eyes when tapping the order of the boys on the first pick. i enjoy the surprise lol

every time one of the boys flirt or ask for reassurance, i'm openly flirting. i like hurting rocco and earning his side thing with marisol. besides, my mc doesn't care about it and even calls lottie out when she's angry about it.

slime challenge: i go bananas on everyone, catch every color, really go for it! and when being called out i always shrug and give the "i don't care" type of response.

whenever gary wants a kiss i give it to him. because my mc is living her best life in this one! besides, i side with priya to make lottie mad, mostly because she's being a hypocrite before casa amor.

when lucas and henrik enter the villa i flirt with both. it's simply too fun to not do it! when we go to the firepit i sit in between them and do my best to make them feel welcome. at the date i give everything to both, because there's going to be some angst once one of them leaves. it's just that little *spark* of extra flavor.

the tweet challenge is the perfect opportunity to spite everyone and call them out, especially lottie and hope. no one escapes this route, not even the girls.

when rocco leaves i share the bed with lucas/henrik. usually i let lucas stay in the villa because he's so prone to drama himself.

every time there's an opportunity i call the girls out. it's the pot calling the kettle black and it's fun to see them squirm when they're on their high horse. again, at the beginning, every girl has something going on for them on the side. lottie wants gary, priya wants noah, hope wants lucas and marisol wants rocco, so it's fun to just air the dirty laundry every time i can.

when choosing someone i go for gary. especially after telling lottie i wouldn't. it's her and lucas being extremely disappointed but this is not the time for pity.

operation nope is the apex of the first two weeks and of course i go for it. blatantly flirting with noah before my mc kisses him. again, this is my reward for taking everyone's shit in other playthroughs.

now, because i go for noah, he's gonna choose my mc and i'll definitely kiss him and say this is what i wanted, only to play around and flirt with ALMOST everyone in casa amor. carl is my main guy but i flirt with kassam as well! i just want lottie to regret herself on every gary playthrough *shrugs*

when coming down to the choice i bring carl. not that it matters who comes from casa amor, they all turn into the same person except for a couple of answers on challenges, so... not much loss there.

BUT, when hope asks me who i want to choose me, i say it's bobby. he goes for it because the decision is ours and that's great. we have elisa and jo coming in and i only throw gasoline in the fire when the altercation between shannon and jo happens.

after all that, i continue to give everyone else the time of day. on day 24, when henrik and hannah come back, i tell henrik i'm into him. i don't cheat on bobby though and here's why: if you do you have no other alternative but to stay with henrik, and what i really want is to kill jo's spirit. so i go for ibrahim at the last recoupling, after ending things with bobby after the challenge.

and yes, i do go for both chats on the roofterrace with noah and end up hooking up with him on day 29. it just makes sense ya know? why stopping?

because it doesn't matter what you do you always win, i choose to steal the money but i also don't go for noah either. my mc is alone by the pool at the end of the night, but she was the most popular character in the entire season, cause a stir every time she could and i honestly think she would live her best during those 30 days!

[freuleinanna]

Hi I just found your blog so I was wondering In your playthrough were you able to keep everyone alive? Do have any fav scenes? Who are ur fav characters/and leave fav?

Hiii welcome!

In my first playthrough, I think I only killed Abi accidentally, because I got both her and Emma bitten and whaddayaknow, turns out, Emma still kills Abi :D Even though Emma was bit later than Abi, she turned and killed poor Abs anyway. I thought I was a genius for having two wolves in the same room, I thought they'd just be like okay, two werewolves hanging out, no killings. Big nope on that :)

My fav scene, for reasons that are between me and God, is when Laura bites Ryan. It just plays on every werewolf string I have in my whole entire body :D I also love the Travis-Laura-Ryan fighting were!Chris scene, and I LOVE the one where Dylan pushes Kaitlyn out of the way when they find were!Emma. My sweet boyyyy!

And if I have to list the fac characters... Here we go!

Travis - because family drama is my everything, and he's an immensely interesting character to think about.

Laura - because my girl pulled a Sarah Connor and turned herself from a typical genre character into a fighter with her will, her wits, and her eye patch.

Dylan - he's the best most wholesome protective dude ever, I just love him!

Kaitlyn - the game doesn't show her a lot which is a crime, but I love her spirit and her no-nonsense attitude. Plus she really kicks ass!

Max - he's just a bit puppy and I adore what they have with Laura! He has that sidekick-but-also-an-anchor-to-the-main-character thing going on, and I respect that.

Emma - because she's a multi-faceted character and I admire her street-smart vibe when it counts. She holds herself like a pro. Also, taking a werewolf pic? Best girl.

Jacob - when it comes to him, I'm that Office meme: - You don't have all the facts! - Which are? - I love him. 'Nuff said.

Ryan - I didn't particularly like him, although his dry sense of humour was really cool sometime.

Nick - LISTEN I hated that shit but then I made myself feel sorry for him and now I don't hate him as much. Still, me no dig. I saw a post somewhere and the person said that Nick's story never changes no matter how you play the game, he's always there, then he gets bitten, then he fucks off. Couldn't agree more. (also if the author sees it lmk I'll tag you or reblog your post!)

Abi - I'm sorry, she was just bland and boring. I'm nagging at this game for not giving the characters any particular development, but and Abi here is the worst case. On that note, I'm watching Modern Family now and I didn't recognize Ariel Winter right away, but then I did and I have to say, she's a much better actress than I could have thought of her from the game.

Feel free to leave more asks! Those are fun!