#and this like. drives the plot

[tediousmalcontentt]

my favorite scene in all of literature is when Neil Josten wakes up in Columbia after being drugged, hurls an alarm clock at Aaron, dumps his water on the floor and throws the cup at Aaron, stuff his clothes down the toilet and squeezes out through the window, has the foresight to call Matt from a pay phone to protect his shit, hitch hikes back to campus, eyes back to brown?? shows up on Wymack’s door like 😜 and reveals he could speak German the whole time?? CHARACTER OF ALL TIME, that is a protagonist who knows how MOVE THE MFING PLOT ALONG

[taraxippos]

I think people tend to assume that any criticism of worldbuilding is ultimately a demand for a story to grind itself to a halt and give the reader 20 paragraphs of exposition, and like. Most of the time good-faith criticism of this nature is coming from a core aspect of the story not being grounded in the setting in a way that outright detracts from the story's quality. You fix it not by Explaining but by Showing it passively in the makeup of the world.

Like the last instance I saw this critique in was like 'you can't expect an author to stop and exposit the nuances of gender roles/Queerness in a fictional society' and it's like yeah I don't, and in fact this is actually one of the easiest things to show in the text without exposition. If a society has gender norms to begin with you'll see aspects of these norms baked into EVERYTHING. You'll see it in its stories, its religion, its taboos, its etiquette, its clothing, its family structures, its language, its insults, its labor, its leadership, etc. It will have massive impacts on how characters interact with one another and how they perceive themselves. It will help Shape your characters.

If you do this legwork to begin with for the core facets of your story, you will find very natural places for these concepts to be demonstrated without derailing the plot and with little to no exposition. THAT sort of thing is what's being asked of you.

[goldenstorm0]

I want Yuri and Loid to team up because Yor gets a ticket. And they break into the police department to destroy the paperwork and essentially erase it from existence. Because how dare anyone try to give Yor a fine

[mustasekittens]

crackshipping spiderfist and i was genuinely tweaking out so bad i couldn't do my homework for like 7 hours. I've had rivals open doing NOTHING but staring at their models the entire time.

[cubbihue]

Uhm is Chimmy Changa doing well? Its seems he has started to divert from what changelings are supposed to do and act like is the static not staticing correctly is he become aware that something is wrong?

Diverting? Well we can’t have that!!!!

Don’t worry. I’ve increased the noise since our last interference. If it happens again, we will issue a good reset!! Thank you for your report.

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

[waitineedaname]

im still thinking about that post about bingge not actually enjoying sex all that much and now it's got me thinking about acespec binghe. I wonder how much of bingqiu's sex life is about actual sexual desire or just a desire for intimacy. as we've established, bingqiu both want a Crack Open Shizun's Ribs And Live Inside Him situation but they can't actually do that, so sex is the closest they can get to the intense kind of physical and emotional intimacy they want. we need to introduce luo binghe to concepts like steven universe style fusion or pacrim drifting, getting those two to mindmeld would potentially create the craziest dude in existence but I think it would make binghe incredibly happy

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girl found dead in a hidden room.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[perplexingly]

I hope in KCD3 devs will discover that women can have active roles outside of romances too 🙏

[wlwanakin]

a bit late to this bc rotsiversary is essentially over but having both gone to star wars celebration and generally having been plugged into what’s going on with the revenge of the sith re-release (bc it’s my favowite star war) i have seen a lot of promotional material and official artwork for this movie and a lot of discussion about that artwork and promo material and i keep coming back to how insane it is that padmé isn’t present in like most of it and how so many people dismiss her absence by being like “oh but she’s sidelined in the movie so it’s the movie’s fault.” bc like, the thing about that is i fully don’t care! her active role in the plot being reduced fully does not matter to me in terms of how it translates to artwork or promo bc she is the linchpin of the whole plot of the movie! she is at the very center of the story! regardless of how much we see of what she’s actually doing the threat of her death is literally thee main thing driving the main character’s journey and therefore the entire plot and not having her in any posters or artwork is just a bad representation of what this movie is about! she is fundamental to it even when she’s off-screen! so like regardless of how lacking you think her presence in the film is it’s still fundamental and blaming her being excluded from artwork on the film itself and not the people putting out the artwork is stupid as hell. “but she spends the whole movie just being sad in her apartment” well that is still an important part of the movie. put her beautiful weepy face on that fucking poster

[phantomcomet]

@proteinblue has a really fun demon summoning au and it got me thinking about modern paranormal investigator au.

Obi-Wan is part of a religious order of psychics that helps people dealing with possession/oppression/hauntings. Anakin doesn't believe in any of that stuff, despite having seen ghosts and other freaky shit as a kid. He's got two kids to raise and doesn't have time for ghosts. Except his kids start seeing and experiencing spooky shit and Anakin would do anything for them, including reaching out to a potential scam artist.

I only have a couple thoughts for this au: mostly Obi-Wan immediately being taken by Luke and Leia, who are sweet little gremlins. Anakin is skeptical, but Obi-Wan is kind and listens as they talk about the monsters they see at night. Anakin has been having terrible nightmares, but he's always had nightmares so it's nothing new.

Obi-Wan is deeply concerned. There's definitely something haunting the Skywalkers, something dark and dangerous. It hangs over the household and clings to each of them like a shadow. There's poltergeist activity, things being moved and thrown and going missing. Anakin has scratches all over him, Leia ends up with a handprint bruise on her leg, Luke gets pushed down the stairs and breaks his arm.

Obi-Wan pretty much moves into their home. Things seem to be quiet when he's around, whatever it is hiding from him. His colleagues are concerned because Obi-Wan is becoming overly invested in this case, to the point that he's all but gone AWOL on them.

Anyway mostly there's a scene where Anakin becomes possessed and tries to strangle Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan is fighting to protect himself and the kids, but he's terrified of hurting Anakin. He manages to wrestle Anakin to the ground, the kids are crying, and Anakin is out of his mind. Just super angsty and suspenseful.

They eventually manage to banish the demon and Obi-Wan just never leaves. Second dad has been acquired.

[slytherinsimping]

half convinced that Jegulus fans actually hate them bc why is every fic depressing as FUCK

[ashpkat]

i can’t believe octavian died like… that. of all things in a middle grade kids books series. and everyone was chill about it. literally no one gaf octavian died so horrifically even if it was ‘just’ —and as the readers… we were chill with it too

[902186]

"In the time we have traveled together, I have come to see how you are with one another. Closer than brothers. [...]" Minstrels, perhaps, see too clearly.

[jksnrabbit]

TWO SCOOPS [W.I.P]

so like i heard of this wip wednesday thing we were doing. have some francis from the latest episode i'm tryin my hand at perspective :]

i think being the most bullied kid in peachyville is having its repercussions

[tabiito]

thinking ab love hangover with rin... because contrary to popular opinion i think he'd be a GREAT ex (at least outwardly). breaks up pretty detached, behaves normal-ish (however normal rin is) with you on the street, lets u have all ur hangout spots, ur friends hate him, 10/10 ex behaviour. just when he thinks he's over u you come back to literally HAUNT him. clingy af making bad jokes intercepting him at training forcing him to have lunch with u his totally desperate ex that makes him realise he's not over you at all!!

[el-bellanaris]

Veilguard’s lack of identity as a game and Rook’s lack of an ownership over their own story is so interesting and insulting for the latter part.

With the lack of identity as a game it comes from the devs focusing more on giving all of that to the factions then to our actual faction that we spend the entire game working in which is the veilguard. They get symbols and unique armour and we get to spend the entire time getting lore drops about Solas. When back to Origins it was about your character becoming a grey warden and that united the games identity, 2 is about Kirkwall so the symbol of the city is meaningful and iconic representing your hawke’s journey and obviously the Inquisition has its own symbol for an organisation your character is the head of.

Rook doesn’t get some uniting motif to attach to their story because they don’t really get to connect to their world. Now a big reason that is because the game is all visuals and cool moments and no world building that requires depth or complexity. Another reason is that the game was born out of the ashes of another so the world doesn’t actually belong to what the actual game we got is about. As a result there’s no actual world for Rook to connect to except the factions but again the factions aren’t Rook’s story they’re their past and the story of their companions. I find this interesting because it's a pretty basic concept that you want your game to have an identity. And all three other games focused on creating one so Veilguard not having this strong identity makes it feel like its very actively missing something.

Rooks journey then is also both disconnected from the actual game that is happening and also actively written to discredit Rook’s ownership over the game. This intentional feature is what makes it feel insulting at times.

There has to be some reason the main character of a game is you and not someone else and with a game this uniqueness needs to carry your whole gameplay. In Origins it lies in your character being a grey warden, you and Alistair are the last available wardens to fight the current blight and fix the political issues using the blight as a scapegoat cos it serves to help your cause continue its operations. Now you or Alistair could be the leader of your group however Alistair by design takes a backseat he doesn’t want to be a leader which is something that ties deeply into his character and character growth. It’s a very deliberate choice that both makes Alistair pretty interesting and makes sure your character doesn’t get undermined. This choice is a narrative choice that allows your character to feel important through out the choices you make and in the finale as without you or Alistair no one else can actually end the blight and having both people allows for a variety of endings.

Rook’s uniqueness in the narrative plot lies in your little blurb at the beginning of the game but it’s not particularly powerful or holds its weight over the game. Getting plucked out by Varric for having a good heart doesn’t really correlate to having the ability to kill a god and any of this stops mattering once the opening of the game is over. This is another miss by just selecting different plot points from previous games to make up Veilguard without considering how it actually correlates to actual game you’re making. Like Varric loving Hawke and defending them to Cassandra works as a narrative point because the stakes aren’t high. But when the stakes are literally fighting gods being good pals with a guy doesn’t really cut it.

The other side of video game main characters being unique and standing out is not always but often a power only they can wield. Other characters can have similar powers but theirs must be unique and is what you’ll use in fights. Inquisition did it really well having the anchor, no one else can use it as it’s literally implanted into the Inquisitor’s body and it ties directly into the overall narrative and used often when exploring. The inquisitor also gets to claim ownership over this power through having it the entire game and only finding out its source right at the end since it was belonging to someone in their inner circle. Again by design your companions weren’t written to overshadow your Inquisitor with what made them unique as a main character.

But Rook gets a dagger that belonged to Solas and is introduced by showing him using it to begin the plot of the game. Now this dagger is a regular dagger, Rook keeps it attached to their body and goes about their days and it doesn’t necessarily need to be wielded by them. The real crime here is that all we get from it is to summon our companions powers to help ur character jump up onto rocks. Both overshadowing our character and ruining the daggers ownership to Rook. It’s no longer something only Rook can wield rather it’s just a reason to call over someone more helpful. We as the main character have to literally take a back seat regularly cos the game couldn’t even give us a unique power in a game where everyone else gets nonsensical abilities. Intentionally designing the game the insult your character for considering themselves as important.

And if that doesn’t help Rook feel less important another aspect of the game is it literally saying the squad needs to work through their personal issues before fighting the gods cos their problems are causing infighting. But Rook doesn’t get to have any personal issues, so once again they take the backseat for some epic moments that belong to their companions and they get a thanks for the help sticker. Several aspects of the game are intentionally made to feel like your character is just a camera to watch other people do stuff because Rook wasn’t written to actually fit into the game they exist in.

Which is so baffling, I don’t think I’ve ever played a narrative game where this happens. Where I’ve spent 60 hours playing just for my own character to feel like the odd one out and for the game to actively make me feel like I should feel grateful I’m even here just to be pitied with a dagger that calls better people to my rescue. The contempt BioWare has for its own title, the devs who made dragon age exist and for people who spend money on it for them to have profits is crazy.