#anyway i don’t necessarily mean this as a criticism of the game more that there are some relationships with the wol i just close my eyes to

[scionshtola]

most of the time i enjoy that xiv is the friendship and forgiveness game but sometimes the narrative will imply the wol’s forgiveness for a character that makes me go [banshees of inisherin padraic voice] some things there’s no moving on from

[genericpuff]

Why is the art so unappealing in lore Olympus now Persephone looks like a highlighter and maybe it’s just me but the proportions like the fingers in arms are soul over the place I don’t think they used to be this bad. Am I just looking at it with nostalgia or am I crazy ?

Honestly, nostalgia does play a huge part in it, even to this day there are times I look back on old S1 panels and go-

Actually here's a great example that literally just happened yesterday in the ULO Discord that nearly had me on the floor LOL This is from Episode 70:

Like I didn't even believe that that was real until I was told what episode it was from and I was just. Astounded and flabbergasted. The over-shading of the blanket that just makes it look like a really bad edit. Insane.

And yeah, there are a lot of old panels that hit different now that the rose-colored glasses have been removed, crushed, and thrown into the trash compactor.

I think that's why it makes it all the more amusing when people come into my inbox and ask me "wait, why did you like LO to begin with?? It's always been ugly as shit, I think you're just romanticizing it" because like... there's something to be said about art and subjectivity, even if something is ugly to one person doesn't mean it isn't beautiful to someone else. It's why I try not to be too mean towards the fans of this comic for still enjoying it, because while I definitely have strong opinions about how "LO has gotten worse" and what kind of following Rachel has cultivated (cough cough), there are also just as equally valid arguments that LO has never begin good to begin with that I can't necessarily disagree with now that I'm looking back on it with a more critical eye.

That said, there's tons of media that I enjoy that is objectively awful. Like y'all, you don't need to take my opinions about a dumb pink x blue fantasy romance comic seriously, I like Starfox Adventures-

Like yeah it's a badly made rushed piece of shit that was developed right on the ass end of Rare's glory days and was really an original IP (Dinosaur Planet) that got Frankenstein'd into a Starfox game so it could "sell better" for Nintendo, but I don't give a fuck, I love Starfox Adventures and some day I wanna be in the top 10 speedrunner leaderboards for it, which I know doesn't mean much because no one is speedrunning Starfox, but I do and no one can take that away from me dammit-

Anyways. Lore Olympus has, in many regards, always had "bad art". But "bad art" can and should still be enjoyed by those who find joy in it.

And in LO's case, the world it existed in when it launched was a lot smaller than it is now - more specifically, the world of Webtoons. We can look back and see how 'bad' LO looks and reads now because there are genuinely way better comics surrounding it. It was unique and refreshing and experimental back then... now it's just "that stupid blue and pink comic for horny teenagers".

In most cases I would consider that "cringing in hindsight" feeling a good thing because normally it means something has grown and that it seeming "bad" in hindsight would mean that it's outgrown itself and moved onto bigger things. But LO has the more unique problem of "its current stuff is shit and it's making us want the old stuff more, even if the old stuff wasn't good either". In that regard, LO is closer to being like Harry Potter. Remember when The Cursed Child came out at the height of Rowling being exposed for being a TERF and even people who liked Harry Potter didn't like The Cursed Child because it was just objectively worse overall (with or without Rowling's bullshit attached)? It made a lot of people go back and re-read / rewatch Harry Potter with a more objective lens and go "wait a minute guys, I think we only adored these books so much because we were 12 when we read them". Often times it's the good memories we have surrounding certain things that make us have the opinion about them that we do.

Of course, LO is definitely not as politically weaponized as Harry Potter is, so that's where that comparison ends. But my point is that LO is definitely in a situation where it's been riding off the same privileges it had back in 2018 - having an 'experimental' art style while also utilizing tropes and characters that were VERY popular at the time (remember that 2017-18 was when Tumblr was at its height of H x P "Hades was a chill accountant guy who wore socks and sandals and didn't cheat on his wife like Zeus did" fantasizing) - and thinks that those same tricks and tropes will still work today.

Because of this, the art in LO really, really hasn't aged well, even the stuff that we look back on fondly. But I think it's the panels that we specifically think of when remembering "old LO" - the ones that stuck in our memories the most - that are the ones that make us miss or just not care about the panels that don't look good (the panels that make people question why we ever liked it to begin with).

We liked it because of how it made us feel to look at panels like these-

Those genuinely wonderful panels that we think back on the most don't exist separately from the bad panels, they exist in spite of them. Even if we can look back on panels like these and pick out problems in the lineart or the proportions or the color travelling outside of the lines, that can't and shouldn't change how those panels made us feel at some point or another. And that's why when people ask me "why were you even into LO in the first place" I don't have any one answer, because I can't fully explain how something made me feel to justify why it's good to someone who can see from the outside - without rose-colored glasses - that it evidently isn't. It's very much a "you had to be there" type of thing.

Unfortunately, nowadays even the 'best' LO panels in S3 still don't come close to what the S1 panels accomplished - because for many of us, the rose-colored glasses are gone, we can't appreciate the good among the bad because we know now how bad it truly is and so the good just feels like wasted attempts at trying to recreate something it can no longer be. It "came back wrong" so to speak.

LO came back just regular. But our journey to resurrecting it changed us to such a degree that even its closest intimacies are now foreign to us. Sorry dude.

This is still probably one of my favorite panels out of the entirety of S3 for being as close to "old LO" as I've seen since S2, and even it feels like a mistake, an accident, how could a panel like this exist in S3 when so much of it is a dumpster fire? It's like a flower growing in the ruins of an apocalyptic wasteland.

But wasn't that always the case? Isn't that 'always' what LO has been, since the very beginning? A poorly cobbled together mess of writing and panels that, every now and then, manages to leave an impression that makes you feel something? Did we ever truly know LO? Or have we just been relying entirely on an idea of it that we've built up in our heads that when it does do exactly what it's evidently always done (even if not made apparent until looking back on it in hindsight) we think it "came back wrong"?

[moonshynecybin]

one thing that i think we should talk more about is marc & vale's different manipulation techniques. idk if manipulation is the right term, at least for marc it's mostly about how he approaches the media

I think when marc was really young in the beginning of his career he was very honest with the journalist as he was excited to be a rookie for example and didn't have any bad feelings to hide. but i think he learned a lot from 2015, he progressively started to alternate moments of real and brutal honesty and even vulnerability to moments of (fake)politeness so that he can act as angel to the media while still being a menace on track and still be seen as someone who's brutally honest. (I'm not criticizing him, this is a smart move and nobody is honest all the time) obviously this happens a lot more with non-spanish media where he tries to appear less threatening

and then there's vale...vale who established himself when he was REALLY young has a funny guy, a lovable leader who's not afraid of saying what he thinks because he's aware of his charisma. he always knew how to work the media for some reason and in 2015 but also with every other rivarly he had he knew he could be as mean or cunty or corny as he wanted cause he had all the italian journalists wrapped around his finger. true marvel supervillain shit, iconic

yeah i see what you mean it IS manipulation but they also live and work in such a ruthlessly public arena that i can’t ever blame them for it like it’s not necessarily a bad thing that they know how to play the game and protect themselves a lil…

it’s also interesting in relation to each other i think. like marc IS very careful never to say bad things that can be used as sound bites about valentino and vale (WITH NOTABLE EXCEPTIONS IN THE PAST LOL) makes an effort to do the same… they’re both always reframing and changing the subject and dodging the question… vale gets asked about marc on the ducati and says yeah he’s fast lets talk about BEZZ. marc gets asked to name valentino’s strengths and weaknesses and says well he’s charismatic and has no weaknesses. marc gets asked about vale’s retirement gives a loooong spiel about vale being a huge part of motogp then essentially says yeah he hates me but i don’t have any problems and wish him the best :) like he orients himself in such a way as to make the feud seemed one sided which hmmm i don’t know about that anymore lol… truly marc only furthers their beef under specific and controlled circumstances ie his documentary (almost NEVER to the press writ large that’s why that misano press scrum had me like 👀) and vale is the same (podcasts are the optimal time for a deranged monologue). BUT he also sometimes furthers it when he’s just the angriest little motorcycle racer the world has ever seen and his temper gets the best of him. they’re too media trained for anything else

anyways all this to say is that they would both make such excellent hunger games victors…

[gingersnapwolves]

Kouri’s year in review, a thing I’ve always done and definitely didn’t make up out of nowhere in an attempt to do an autopsy of how I watched so much fucking TV this year and didn’t end up with a new hyperfixation despite my best efforts.

All ratings are based solely on my personal opinion of these shows, I'm not a licensed critic and I don't even play one on TV. Shows listed in no particular order. Shows with an asterisk have a canon LGBT character, two asterisks indicate an onscreen, confirmed, reciprocal LGBT relationship. These are not shows that necessarily came out in 2024, only shows I watched (or tried to watch) in 2024.

tl;dr favorite show I watched this year: The Double, favorite BL pairing this year: Ruan Lanzhu/Ling Jiushu from The Spirealm, favorite character of the year: Ai Di from Kiseki: Dear to Me, shows I felt an urge to create fanfic for: somehow zero. Send help.

Reset - C-drama - a show I watched on a whim after seeing it referenced, like, once, somewhere on tumblr. Time loop bus explosion! Actually quite good. I’m not normally a huge fan of time loops but this one was very well done and more of a murder mystery that they were solving as the murders took place. Interesting characters (the cat apostle owns my whole heart even if I don’t remember his name) and fairly well paced. The leads were cute together. 8/10.

*Ready Set Love - Thai Drama - dystopian fic where there are hardly any men in the world and women compete to marry them on a live dating show. Really interesting concept but fell a little flat when it came to exploring the implications of said concept. Likable characters and fun to watch. 7/10.

**Love Sea - Thai Drama - two guys meet on an island and fuck about it. //sigh// I’m sorry but this show was just. Bad. FortPeat’s chemistry carried this whole thing and made it watchable but that doesn’t make up for the fact that it was poorly written, poorly paced, had inconsistent characterization, and the villain honestly made no sense. Is he a diabolical sociopath or is he just a fucking loser? He cannot be both. 4/10 and at least two of those points are awarded to Fort and Peat for just being so much fun to watch.

The Double - c-drama - this was hands down the best show I watched this year. Imperial era political intrigue thriller plus romance. Interesting characters and amazing chemistry from the two leads. Great villains. Probably my only complaint about this show (beyond the last 10 minutes pulling a weird ending out of nowhere) was how obsessed it was with facial close-ups. I mean, I get it, they were trying to do something there, but it felt so weird to me haha. Anyway 8.5/10.

*Dead Boy Detectives - American - exactly what it says on the label; dead boys are detectives. This was a fun little show. Great characters and interesting mysteries. I’m really sad it won’t get a season two even though I completely understand and support why. What the fuck was up with that guy in the whale? Was he God? 7.5/10.

Oh No! Here Comes Trouble - Taiwanese drama - teenager with survivor’s guilt gets supernatural powers and wishes they would leave him alone. A fun romp. I really liked the fact that he wasn’t dealing with ‘ghosts’ but with supernatural manifestations of people’s obsessive emotions. It put an interesting spin on the genre. Would love a season two of this one. 8/10.

The Spirealm - c-drama - Video game that kills people who play it! Very gay even though it’s not allowed to be explicitly gay. Loved the first half. Each world was interesting, the characters were super fun. It started to lose me when main characters started dying off and then really unraveled at the end. I still literally have no idea what happened in the last episode LOL. First 26 episodes get 8.5/10, remainder gets 5/10. Make of that what you will.

**Kiseki: Dear to Me - Taiwanese drama - You know what, I’m not sure how to summarize this show because it couldn’t decide if it wanted to be a rom-com or a drama/thriller and so in the end, did not do a great job being either. Good characters but what even was happening? And by ‘good characters’ I mainly mean ‘Ai Di, a terrible little feral gremlin, is hilariously awesome, and everyone else was just kind of there’. 6/10 plus a point just for Ai Di comes out to 7/10.

**Only Friends - Thai drama - a group of college friends are messy bitches for 12 episodes. If you enjoy characters being messy bitches, you will like this show! I have to be honest, I watched it for FirstKhao and disliked both the other major pairings (and honestly, only Khao could have made Ray a tolerable character, in a lesser actor’s hands I would have hated him too). The abridged version which is basically just their characters gets about a 7/10 from me. Everything else is 3/10.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook - c-drama - unhinged trio wanders the jianghu solving crimes. Oh man, I really wanted to love this show. I wanted it to be my new hyperfixation. And I did enjoy it very much, particularly Fang Duobing, who’s my blorbo. But I couldn’t make heads or tails out of a lot of the mysteries, and most of them were ‘solved’ just by Li Lianhua explaining a bunch of stuff the audience couldn’t have known. It was a well-put-together show but for some reason it just didn’t grab me. 8/10.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians - American - I forgot that I had watched this so uhhhhh make of that what you will. To be fair, I’m probably not the target audience. It was cute but I don’t have much else to say about it. 6/10 but again, not the target audience.

Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead - Anime - man with terrible job wakes up in the zombie apocalypse and decides to live life to the fullest until he gets zombified. Cute and surprisingly emotional at points despite being kind of silly on the face of it. Will definitely watch season 2. 8/10

SHOWS I DID NOT FINISH

The Good Detective - K-drama - I was enjoying it but realized it was going to piss me off if [spoiler] happened so I spoiled myself and stopped watching. Sorry but I don’t vibe with shows that revolve around preventing a certain unjust event but then have that unjust event happen. Major bummer.

**Meet You at the Blossom - Thai/Chinese drama - couldn’t get past episode 4. The two main characters were just really obnoxious in my personal opinion. I love a himbo but found JXB to be less ‘himbo’ and more ‘purposefully oblivious because that let him get what he wanted’ which typically made life difficult for everyone around him. The other character whose name I don’t remember was like, what if tsundere managed to be uninteresting.

**PitBabe - Thai drama - Affectionately, what the fuck was this show. I can handle weirdness, but this show was just . . . kind of fucking stupid lmao. Could not finish and from what I’ve seen about the show since, I’m glad I quit when I did.

[maplethedarkshine]

Sonic movie 3 review (Spoilers free)

Just my opinion, please let’s be civil about disagreements 😭😭😭

Ok, soooo… It was exactly what I was expecting, like, precisely, and I was expecting a great movie so I ain’t complaining, but it- idk, it felt predictable?

I don’t mean it in a bad way, I loved the movie, but I feel like if you know about Sonic and are decent at theorizing you can almost 100% tell what will happen, I think that only like 4 things genuinely took me by surprise

Which- like, it’s not necessarily bad, but it felt a little less hype, it’s like you could already see the movie just from the trailers.

I don’t think that’s a fault of the movie itself though, after all it’s a SA2 adaptation, so of course it was going to follow almost the same story

For example, Sonic 2 the movie adapted Sonic 3, but Sonic 3 is such a lose story that they could stir away from the original material a lot and still keep the general premise, while SA2 is a much more lore and story heavy game, so they couldn’t do a lot of changes without loosing the main substance- and I’m not saying that they didn’t changed anything. They were lots of changes, and one particularly big one, but not enough to feel THAT far from SA2

Which, again, it is a good thing, but that makes it so (at least in my opinion) Sonic movie 2 ended up being more exciting that the third, even if I think Sonic 3 was overall the better one

As for characters, Sonic locks the fuck in after a certain thing happens and stays like that the entire movie, and it’s glorious. The fandom owes an apology to movie Sonic he was A BEAST.

I feel like he grew a lot in this movie and I’m so happy about it. Like, in the post credits scene he was such a cocky bastard and I love that. I love him he was so cool I hope he stays like this for Sonic 4

Tails was done SO god in this movie, the directors took the ���he’s barely in the movie” criticism from sonic 2 TOO personal and made him the most useful mf on the movie.

He’s the one doing the plans, he saves everyone’s ass multiple times. He’s great, dare I say the best character? Tails’ fans won with this one

Knuckles doesn’t stay far behind either. I was worried that he’d be nerfed from the trailers but no, he also saved everyone’s ass multiple times, he wasn’t watered down, he was still glorious. Also what a surprise the flames or disaster weren’t used, which, good, I fucking hate the knuckles show let’s pretend it doesn’t exist.

Shadow… was ok. Don’t get me wrong, I loved him, but like… He felt underutilized? He wasn’t ACTUALLY underutilized, he appears a lot, but like- he barely feels like he has a presence in scene until the last minute?

This didn’t felt like Shadow’s movie, it felt like Sonic’s movie- which, duh, or course, he’s the main character. But like, Sonic 2 was knuckles’ movie, he was the main guy, and it FELT like it, while that wasn’t the case with Shadow here

And I get why they did this, I mean Sonic 2 was Knuckles’ movie SO MUCH that Tails was barely a character. In this one everyone got their spotlight in exchange of making it less about just Shadow and more about everyone… Which is objectively good, ok? But I WANTED it to be Shadow’s movie, you know? Hell, I brought my Shadow plushie to the function, so, while it was the objectively best decision to make, I am personally the ever so slightly disappointed. Shadow was still great, but I wanted more of him, most of Shadow’s character is what’s already in the trailers, that’s what I’m saying

And I feel that the fact that there’s gonna be a Shadow spinoff confirmed held his character back. His backstory was barely explained, and I’m suspecting that they’re holding it for the Shadow series, which… Good, but that sacrificed a bit of his character in the movie, since they barely tell the audience shit about his lore

Anyways, human characters great, I’m not going in detail about them, but I liked them- the commander specifically, such a great guy. And agent stone was spectacular as always. I just wished that Jim carrey’s characters were more serious, which is a bizarre thing to say about Jim Carrey, but I felt like they overdid the comedy with him a but TOO much. Specifically with Gerald, he should’ve been more of a serious character but eh, it is what it is…

From the few flashbacks she had I loved Maria, she had so much personality in so little time. I get you Shadow, I’d also try to destroy humanity over that little girl.

THE POST CREDITS SCENE THOUGH. I’m not saying anything, but that elevated the movie for me a 100%. It was such a hype moment, I was more hyped with it than with Shadow at the end of Sonic 2, because with this I don’t know what the hell are they planning for Sonic 4 and I LOVE THAT

I want the post credits scene tattooed. No, I want to BANG the post credits scene, that shit is going to my hear me out cake

It’s also just such a gorgeous movie? Visually stunning? Such an upgrade from Sonic 2. It’s a visual pleasure oh my god.

Surpisingly it’s not a musical disappointment. There’s was only like 1-2 game songs but the soundtrack was good (except the credits song I still don’t like it but whatever)

Anyways, I’m giving the movie a 25/30. Sonic 2 gets a 24/30 and Sonic 1 a 19/30. Even though I enjoyed Sonic 2 the ever so slightly more I think Sonic 3 is objectively the better one

Anyways go watch the movie already

[inkykeiji]

once again, thank you all so much for all of your feedback on chatplots thus far!!! it truly does help us a ton and we love to hear all of your thoughts, suggestions, and criticisms. we really appreciate anyone who has taken a moment to send in their opinions and ideas <3 hearing all of your suggestions for future chats is getting me even more excited than i already was!!! and to everyone who has sent in such beautiful comments and compliments: i cannot thank you enough. your words mean the world to us and we’re just so happy to hear that people are enjoying the beta and are as excited about the game as we are <3

anyway, i’ll be responding to some feedback from the form below the cut & updating this post (via reblogs!) as new feedback comes in c:

bugs:

AH okay so we’ve thankfully only had two of you report this so far, and we’re still looking into it on our end to see what might be causing this issue, buuut boyfriend thinks it might be a sensitivity issue. the way the responses are set up is basically as if they’re in an invisible box; we have it set up so it can be scrolled through if there are several options (which, in the future, there will be). however, because of this, if your finger moves even the tiniest bit when you press on an option, it won’t fully register. as such, at this current moment you have to press whichever option you’re picking with precision and intention (lmao). we’re going to keep investigating the issue over here on our end and tinkering with settings etc to see if we can find a happy, perfect medium. we might introduce a sensitivity control in the future where you as the player can set it to your liking in your own settings!

suggestions:

i will definitely take this into consideration, but there’s a delicate balance here. we don’t want it to drag too much, become too tedious or boring or repetitive, or make it feel like your choices have absolutely no impact at all. every single choice should have a consequence, no matter how tiny (otherwise it feels meaningless! everything needs a purpose). the other thing is that his texts are structured in a very particular way on purpose, for dramatic styling and rhythm. the way they send is more to evoke particular feelings in you, the player, almost as if you can hear him saying them (his tone etc), rather than to feel necessarily realistic. hopefully that makes sense! if something feels unnecessarily long or i can fit in something to break it up a lil more that feels natural and still somehow adds to the story i definitely will. thank you for sending in your feedback!! it means so much to me that you took a moment to let me know your thoughts, and i’ll keep this in mind when writing future chats <3

ah okay so incredible news for you: these are all things on our list!!! my boyfriend is especially excited about emojis, but what i really want is themes. the goal is to have the base game be quite customizable, like being able to change the colour scheme, your actual pfp to any photo you’d like to, etc.. i also think it would be super cool to have limited edition themes that you can somehow earn or purchase (for like fifty cents lmao nothing wild; or maybe they come with a specific chat) but that requires me to commission an artist, so that’s much more down the line.

other things we are for sure implementing: group chats!!!!!!!!!! this is the thing i am MOST excited for and can’t wait to start writing. imagine all the chats you could have between you, bmb tomura, and bmb dabi? or you, touya-nii, and natsuo? or you and the twins? or you, tag dabi, and tag keigo? OR my PERSONAL favourite, you, sugar daddy natsuo, his touya-nii, and his shouto??????? the possibilities are literally endless. other things we’ll be implementing: a ‘friends’ page, where you’ll be able to access either all of the chats you’ve purchased or all of the chats period if you’ve subscribed. this is currently what we are working on. on our dream list: phone calls.

anyway as you can probably tell we have an endlessly growing list of things we’d like to add hehe. but as it is only the two of us working on this, it’s going to take a bit of time to get it all out. our main priority right now is the friends page (and shop obv), and a few more tiny free to play chats (not nearly as long as this touya-nii chat) just to let u guys test it out a lil more c:

okay, now a question for you. when you say multiple messages at the same time, do you mean selecting one option from the dialogue options and having that one option then send several texts at once? because we technically already do have the ability to send two messages one after another.

i can definitely look into the first option, but the reason why we didn’t initially go with this is because we wanted you guys to see exactly what you’d be saying to him (i hate those games with branching dialogue where the option just gives you a vague summary of your response but not exactly what the dialogue is; ie when the option just says ‘disagree’ and then when you select it the text that sends is ‘i don’t think that’s a good idea’). my biggest concern with one option sending multiple texts once selected (if that’s what you meant!!!) is how to tell the player what each text would say without the dialogue box being this massive chunk of text.

all in all, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind words!!!!! i am so beyond happy that you’re enjoying the beta so far and have such lovely things to say about it <333 and so many ideas!!! i LOVED your feedback in the future suggestions box omfg that got me really really really excited and i’ll definitely be taking what you suggested and turning it into a chat 100%

[portmantaur]

Veilguard spoilers, general critical/negativity about BioWare, u kno how it is

I know some ppl are upset about the Major Story Beats and I am too for various reasons, but I don’t agree that this wasn’t where the story was headed — particularly, I see people complaining about the mythal/solas dynamic and im like?? Did y’all never drink of that fuckin pool of knowledge as the inquisitor? The way solas opines, “you are mythal’s creature, now” — baby that was foreshadowing that wasn’t even subtle!!! I don’t LIKE where the story has gone necessarily, especially given how the elves/dalish have been framed throughout the games, but this is DEFINITELY the story outline that was laid out by the time inquisition was over. The writing and pacing are just really bad, so these beats feel even LESS fulfilling than they otherwise would have.

Its interesting bc I’m having fun being back in the dragon age setting, but the writing/structure/pacing is such a distinct falloff, even from DAI — which I still liked, a lot even, with my main Dalish-based caveats still withstanding.

But Gaider and Weekes were ALWAYS like this re: marginalization/oppression. They ALWAYS have been. And I see some ppl being like “this wouldn’t have gone this way if daddy Gaider was here” and I’m like??? Y’all remember the Dalish origin from DAO? Remember how that ENTIRE origin revolves around the blighted eluvian that kills your best friend with the actual literal blight??? This was the plan from jump!! The writing teams were still invested and not unskilled or untalented, so it was a little less opaquely shitty, but not by much. It was ALWAYS going to be a story by white people trying to make analogous statements about real-world oppression, particularly racial oppression, that was ALWAYS going to hit with the twist of “but what if they deserved it/come from Bad People” — because, again, Weekes and Gaider are cut from the same cloth. And they’ve been very transparent about that with their behavior towards fans.

like sorry but this was always going to be the “endgame” so to speak, and my gut feeling/reading of the situation is that mostly what we got with Veilguard is a game that was originally intended to be a live-service game, and the story structure and writing and pacing were never revamped from that intention even after supposedly “rebuilding” the game from the ground up after that decision was nixed (like twice or something, no?). I mean that’s also obviously why the stylistic redesign choice is so obviously Fortnite-y — there were clear clashes with higher ups/execs on what the game was materially supposed to be (fully fledged franchise installment vs eternal cash cow), and BW has been hemorrhaging employees for a while now likely at least in part as a result of that.

Veilguard was always going to be this re: major story beats, but because of the particular development hell it went through, we’ve got a much more obvious case of enshittification across the board. as a live service game, the story structure got incredibly flattened, and no one bothered to make the decision to redo -that- aspect of the game, so we’re getting a peek behind the curtain that hasn’t been as accessible before. But I mean look at it even in comparison to Andromeda — BW has come out and said, afaik, that there are no plans for DLC or expansions at all. They’ve fully thrown in the towel on the franchise, and it would have gone this way regardless of who was in charge of writing, because the story outline, IMO, has very obviously NOT changed that much in many years. The biggest changes came at the executive level of decision making, and someone up top seems to have come to the conclusion that DA isn’t a money-making franchise anymore. Which, yeah, that’s stupid for sure, but that decision is borne of the same frame of mind that thought structuring Veilguard as a live service game in the first place was a good idea.

anyway, I do believe we’re at a crossroads where we are either witnessing BW’s uncomfortable swan song, OR there is going to be a changing of the (executive) guard again in an attempt to revitalize the company. But to revitalize DA as a franchise — while I see it as perfectly doable, even after this mess — would require such dedication and humility on the part of BW that I just don’t see it as likely.

I think the next ME is going to be what really allows us to call it, but I’m putting my bet in now that it’s the nail in the coffin. RIP BioWare, you were a beautiful and awful mess while you lasted.

[talenlee]

Does Your World Have A Pride Parade?

Pride is a great event for corporations, people who pay artists to produce branding material that enables the transaction of currency for their products that just so happens to also include sick as hell fantastic and speculative art, to put Pride into the universes of their games. It’s been in my mind since Magic: The Gathering, a product line of the Wizards of the Coast corporation, an outcropping of the Hasbro Entity, released the truly sick art of Chandra Nalaar attending her Pride Parade, on her home world of Kaladesh.

And that prompted the immediate thought of: Did Kaladesh have Stonewall?

It’s a silly thought, of course. After all, Australia has Pride parades, in the vein of Mardi Gras, which are exactly what you think they are. We didn’t have Stonewall here and we have Mardi Gras here anyway. Of course, the question of ‘where did Mardi Gras come from’ and ‘who started it’ is uh, well, you might not be surprised to learn that yea, Mardi Gras was a protest. It was a peaceful protest against cops who were unjustly imprisoning then beating and abusing queer people. You know, normal cop stuff. Now cops insist they should be allowed to march in Mardi Gras, because they contribute to its history and have queer cops, which I think is crucially missing the point about their role in the start of the event.

Arseholes.

Anyway it’s not like events in different places that look similar have to be the result of the same events. But —

Hold up.

Here’s where one of the boundaries of my own experience as a person infringe on what I can create. See, I’m from a society that is shaped by attitudes that I think are kind of just bad. That informs the way I write about things like world building, and leads to me writing sentences like this that came up in the first draft and took some time to critically unpack: Celebrations are always the result of something awful.

That’s not necessarily true? It’s just every celebration in my society, every Pride parade is a stubborn refusal to die. Pride was a riot that started in response to police crackdowns. Just as every regulation under capitalism is written in blood – because nothing is being made and maintained to actually consider the best of humans but instead to maximise the value of efficiency of systems for the enabling in capital – every societal celebration I can think of is somehow a byproduct of something sad and tragic. Easter and Christmas, religious ceremonies are themselves only in their position in my community because of their value opposing diversity, asserting the dominance of the cultural hegemony.

That isn’t what things have to be, I don’t imagine.

They don’t have to be.

Right?

It’s just what I’m used to.

That meant I approached this article at first thinking that a Pride parade, in a setting respresented yes, a celebration, but to be Pride, to be a celebration of queer culture, then that queer culture had to have some kind of reason to form, which means that there’s a reason for that queer culture to be formed outside of the general structure of all the rest of what we call culture, and then there needs to be some reason to engage in a big celebration which, in the case of Pride, is a reflection of a retaliation against an attempt to extinguish that culture. Basically, Pride is defiance, and to be defiant, you need some kind of sign of what the defiance is against.

Which is funny in the case of the Magic: The Gathering art showing Nissa and Chandra at a pride parade, because, one, the reason the fans have feelings about that is after the botched handling of the War of the Spark plotline that represented Chandra in a way that feels like it needed a bit more attention from better queer writers. During this time, Wizards’ policy was restated and reinforced that in the context of their universes, there’s no homophobia: that is to say, villain or hero, there’s nobody calling anyone a fag or a dyke, there’s no distrust or legal reason to see queer people as different from nonqueer people. As a policy, this is fine, this is good work because it means the writers don’t have that option to represent oppression and won’t use a children’s card game as a platform to represent that kind of edgy stuff in a way that can be readily mishandled. I don’t mind that policy. The policy problem that follows with that is that then you show us Pride, in universe…

And I am asking: What’s that Pride in response to?

Why is there a parade?

Thing is you want Pride Parades for the same reason you want characters to have access to cups of coffee. Because we signify behaviours with common reference frames; a fantasy version of a Pride Parade is a cool thing to have so you can show characters doing stuff in a Pride way. You don’t need the lines of oppression from our world to replicate Pride.

Why then, do we celebrate?

What can your Pride be a celebration of?

I think one idea, which is still a little bit of a loss, is in memorial of a great person. If a great artist or creative passed away they might have asked a celebration to be done after they died, and then that tradition endured based on how good they are. Maybe even a party that doesn’t have to necessarily connect to the person – a lord or liege who constructed the event to satisfy their own ego, and then were erased from the story of the event because they were found posthumously to be awful and suck, that’s a similar way that kind of event could form.

Another option is celebrating a foundation, an event of endurance? When a community realises they’ve a sudden influx of resources, like the conclusion of some other event? Maybe a rich person celebrates their birthday and the result is a street in the town has a big pile of money to spend based on that rich person’s largesse, and they wind up throwing a party with the results? Then that event gets enough attention that the event takes on a life of its own? Maybe? Is that interesting, is that a story people will relate to?

I don’t know!

You may notice I’m still thinking in terms of loss, or sadness, or things that just generally suck butts. That, I think, is telling you more about me than it tells you about world building. I do think it’s a thing that informs you about how I approach world building problems at least.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[freyayuki]

Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia Kadaj Banner

The Mother Fixation event just started in the Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia (DFFOO) mobile game. This event came with 1 banner.

Mother Fixation Event Banner

This banner features the following chars and their weapons:

Kadaj from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (#ad) - 15cp, 35cp, Ex, and LD

Alisaie Leveilleur from Final Fantasy XIV - 15cp, 35cp, and Ex

Maria from Final Fantasy II - 15cp, 35cp, and Ex

Golbez from Final Fantasy IV - Burst or BT only

My Alisaie and Golbez are fully MLB and Purple. I have Golbez’s LD but I’m missing his Burst.

My Maria’s 15cp and 35cp are fully MLB. She used to be at Ex+ 0/3 only but I Purpled her recently.

Mother Fixation is the event that introduced Kadaj as a playable char in this game so this is the first appearance of all of his weapons.

Many say that Kadaj isn’t that good and that he’s skippable. His potencies are kinda low. He’s a debuffer and DPS. His main gimmick is being able to gold frame the debuffs that he inflicts. This means that those debuffs can’t be dispelled no matter what unlike silver-framed or regular debuffs.

Kinda like Kadaj though. Plus he’s a char from Final Fantasy VII. So was interested in pulling for him even if he isn’t meta or anything.

Mother Fixation Banner Multi-Draws Results

Yeah, that’s right. Decided to use gems on this banner. Didn’t want to use tickets and risk failing to get Kadaj then having to use gems anyway. So went straight to the multi-draw. Too bad we don’t get a free pull on this banner.

All I really want here is Kadaj’s LD. His Ex would be nice to have but I have enough Ex tokens to be able to buy it so it’s fine even if it doesn’t drop.

Admittedly, I’d rather not spend the tokens if it can be avoided since they’re pretty scarce so I might keep pulling until I get Kadaj’s Ex. Also have enough Power Tokens to be able to buy both of his 15cp and 35cp. I’ve rarely used these tokens so I don’t mind having to spend them now.

Golbez’s Burst would be nice to have too since that’s the only weapon that I need to complete his kit. Maria and Alisaie have very good Spheres so I wouldn’t mind getting dupes of their Ex weapons.

Maria has a C Sphere called HP Heal Base Attack All Shorter:

After recovering HP: • Raises party’s INT BRV, ATK by 5% for 3 turns

Alisaie has an A Sphere called Critical Magic Attack Up Longer:

Raises MAG ATK by 15% for 6 turns when dealing critical hit *Does not stack with same sphere

Currently, have 543,120 gems on hand. Here’s to hoping I can get Kadaj’s weapons ASAP, preferably before my gem count has to go below 500k.

The first pull gave me a gold orb. Got pretty hyped when I saw it. Unfortunately, no Kadaj LD. Got a dupe of Alisaie’s Ex and 35cp and my very first copy of Kadaj’s 15cp.

I know I said that I wouldn’t mind a dupe of Alisaie’s Ex, but still. Would have preferred to get Kadaj’s Ex and LD already.

Getting my first weapon for Kadaj also automatically recruited him to my party. Yeah, decided to pull first before playing through his event.

4 golds - 2 Kadaj 15cp, Alisaie 15cp, and  Alisaie 35cp

It’s nice to see so many golds in one draw but, man, quantity clearly doesn’t necessarily mean quality. At least I can use the 2 dupe Kadaj 15cp to limit break the one that I already have.

Kadaj 15cp

Ugh, what a horrible pull. Not only was it mostly bronze trash, the single gold that I got was nothing more than a dupe. It wasn’t even an Ex dupe which would have been preferable to this.

Now Kadaj’s 15cp is fully MLB. It’s nice that I didn’t have to use Power Stones, but it’s not like I’m in dire need of them anyway.

My fourth multi-draw seemed promising since I just got a gold orb. Ended up with Maria’s 15cp, Alisaie’s 15cp, and my very first copy of Kadaj’s Ex.

Yay! Super pleased to see this. At least I don’t have to spend my Ex tokens anymore.

Now I just need his LD then I can be done with this banner. Here’s to hoping that it comes home soon.

Maria 15cp and Kadaj 15cp

Ugh, what’s with all the Kadaj 15cp dupes? At the very least, couldn’t I get his 35cp? Just noticed that said weapon has yet to show up.

Alisaie Ex

Oh, come on. Again? Seriously? I don’t think that I’ll need a lot of dupes of this. I mean, the Sphere’s good but to get another copy of it, I’ll have to Purple another copy of her Ex.

That requires lots of resources that are better off being used on a new Ex instead of a dupe. At the moment, I’ve yet to Purple a dupe Ex. But I keep all the dupes that I get just in case. I guess I’d have to really, really, really like a char to actually Purple a dupe Ex for them though.

Kadaj 15cp and Alisaie 35cp

Welp, why couldn’t this be the other way around so that I can at least get my first copy of Kadaj’s 35cp already? Also, Kadaj LD, doko da?

2 golds, came from a gold orb - Maria 35cp and Kadaj Ex

Aww, why couldn’t this have been Kadaj’s LD instead? I could just use Power Stones to MLB his Ex. His Sphere isn’t that good either. It’s an A Sphere called Debuff Attack Boost Up:

While debuffed enemy present: • Raises own MAX BRV, ATK by 5%

Okay, it’s actually pretty bad. I mean, raising ATK and MAX BRV is always a good thing but 5% is way too low.

For A Spheres, the usual percentage is 10%. So, yeah, I don’t see myself using these 5%-only Spheres unless I’m going for some sort of joke theme or something, like having a char with 3 5% Spheres.

Argh, Kadaj LD, when are you gonna show up? Am I gonna have to go for the pity? I’ll do it if I have to, but I’d really rather not.

Also, I was really hoping that his LD would show up before I have to go down to below 500k gems. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. My next multi-draw will bring me down to 498,120 gems.

Was pretty miffed about that but the results of this multi-pull more than made up for that. Got 3 golds - Alisaie’s 15cp, Maria Ex’s, and my very first copy of Kadaj’s LD.

Hell, yes! So freaking pleased to see this. He’s finally home. Yay! Wasn’t expecting to see his LD yet though. Was afraid that I was gonna have to pity it. Heck, this draw didn’t even give me a gold orb so I was all set to get trash again which was why I missed the congratulations screen that showed his LD.

I now have 180 G-Tokens on this banner. Exchanging for an Ex or LD costs 300 while Bursts cost 500. Debated doing another multi-draw to get to 200 G-Tokens which would get me a Book. In the end, decided against it since it wasn’t like I was in dire need of Books either.

Besides, Tifa Lockhart’s (from Final Fantasy VII) LD is coming soon. This is another must-have for me so am definitely using gems to pull for this. In short, need to save as much as possible.

Kinda sad about missing Golbez’s BT but I don’t really need it, and I don’t think it’s worth it to pity it so, yeah, am done with this banner. Exchanged the 100 G-Tokens for a Power Stone. Can’t do anything with the leftover 80 G-Tokens but it’s fine.

Kadaj from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

As aforementioned, was able to fully MLB Kadaj’s 15cp without having to use a single Power Stone.

Since Kadaj’s Sphere is bad and I don’t see myself ever Purpling his Ex twice, I readily fused the 2 copies of his Ex that I got. Then I spent the 8 Power Stones needed to MLB it. Afterwards, used a Book to get his Ex to Ex+ 0/3 then 3 Ingots to Purple it or get it to Ex+ 3/3.

Spent 12 Power Stones to fully MLB Kadaj’s LD then used 25 Power Tokens to buy his 35cp from the shop. I then spent the 12 Power Stones needed to MLB said weapon.

Spent the resources needed to get Kadaj from Level 1 to Level 80 and Crystal Level 1 to Crystal Level 80. Completed all of his Character Enhancement Boards. Bought his Bloom Stone. Bought his High Armor.

Started working on his Summon Boards. Wanted to try him out so instead of using Wild Points to automatically max out all of his Boards or just using auto+ to quickly grind out his Boards, I decided to play them all manually.

Really enjoying him so far. His Ex animation’s pretty awesome too. Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII appears whenever Kadaj casts it.

Since I was grinding his Summon Boards manually, it took a while before I finished all of them, but I didn’t mind. It really wasn’t that bad at all since these quests have been powercrept by now.

Spheres for Kadaj from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Kadaj’s Sphere Slots are A, A, and E. Equipped him with the following Spheres:

Garland’s (from Final Fantasy I) Break Hit Raging Attack Up A Sphere

Raises ATK by 2% when inflicting Break or attacking target afflicted with Break up to 5 times, once per turn

Oerba Yun Fang’s (from Final Fantasy XIII) Break Hit Attack Up Longer A Sphere

Raises ATK by 10% for 6 turns when inflicting Break or attacking target afflicted with Break

The Emperor’s (from Final Fantasy II) Debuff Success Attack Up Longer E Sphere

Raises own ATK by 10% for 6 turns when inflicting debuff on target

No regrets so far. Super pleased to see all of Kadaj’s Spheres activating basically every time he moves.

Artifacts for Kadaj from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

My Kadaj is basically complete now. Just missing his blue armor but that requires scarce resources so I’m holding off on giving him that for now. Heck, I don’t even have a single char yet with blue armor. Besides, at the moment, it doesn’t seem necessary anyway.

The only other thing that I’m missing for Kadaj are his perfect Artifacts. He needs 3 ATK 108 with Remnant Up★★ (While Latent Thoughts active: Raises own MAX BRV, ATK by 5%).

Getting these was easier said than done though since I don’t have even the basic Moogle Pass that guarantees double red Arts currently active. So I had to deal with seeing lots of trashy and useless Artifacts.

Spent multiple Tomes to triple my Eidoja drops and even resorted to spending 100 gems to continuously refresh my Bells whenever I run out. It’s been forever since I last did this.

Nowadays, I just use Tomes and then wait for my Bells to refresh before farming again. And I settle for just getting triple of a char’s preferred Artifact.

But I already gave Kadaj everything. He has all of his Boards completed. He has all of his weapons maxed. He even has Spheres. Even spent for his High Armor. So I don’t want to leave him incomplete like this. It feels wrong.

Maybe I should have farmed for his Artifacts first before giving him Spheres and buying his High Armor, but I was all set to max him (except his blue armor but I’d say that doesn’t count right now since I don’t think that I’m getting anyone blue armor anytime soon) and I didn’t think it’d be this hard to get his perfect Arts.

After spending what feels like forever farming already, all I managed to get so far was triple ATK 108 with Remnant Up★.

Ah, if only I had the Mog Pass active, I’d be done farming by now. Sigh. I was able to get Kadaj double orange Arts though.

As you can see in the screenshot below, managed to get him triple ATK 108 with MAX BRV 330. Too bad these aren’t his perfect Artifacts.

In the Mother Fixation co-op, Kadaj’s Eidojas dropped alongside Maria’s, Alisaie’s, Nine’s (from Final Fantasy Type-0), and Fujin’s (from Final Fantasy VIII) so I farmed for their Artifacts as well. Sort-of anyway.

To be more precise, I already have triple ATK 108 with MAX BRV 330 for Maria so she ended up as fodder though later on, I ended up fusing some of her Eidojas to try and get perfect Arts for her at a lower CP cost.

The same could be said for Nine although his perfect Arts are triple ATK 108 with Reckless Lancer Up★★ (With at least 2 levels of Wild Roar active on self: Raises MAX BRV, ATK by 5%).

I have triple ATK 108 with Sturm und Drang Boost★★ (Raises INT BRV, MAX BRV by 5% in Wind mode) for Fujin but since her perfect Arts were apparently triple ATK 108 with MAX BRV 330, I fused her Eidojas instead of using them as fodder.

For Alisaie, I have triple ATK 108 with MAX BRV 330 and triple ATK 108 with INT BRV 170 and 1 ATK 108 with Acceleration Boost★★ (Raises MAX BRV, ATK by 5% for 3 turns upon using Veraero, Verthunder).

Yeah, she and the others were some of the chars who I ended up farming for way back when my free premium Moogle Pass was active.

This is Kadaj’s intro event so he wasn’t around back then yet, otherwise I’d have farmed for him then too.

Anyway, Alisaie was fodder at first too. And then I managed to get triple ATK 108 with MAX BRV 330 for Fujin already so I decided to farm 2 more ATK 108 with Acceleration Boost★★ for Alisaie since they seemed better for her than 108/330.

After I ended up getting them, I decided that I’d try farming for lower CP cost of her Arts. The same could be said for the other chars and I just ended up switching whichever one of their Eidojas I’d fuse.

Because it didn’t really matter anymore. They all had perfect Arts already. The lower CP cost was nice to have but wasn’t necessary. Much later, I wouldn’t even bother fusing for their Arts anymore and they all just became fodder for fusing Kadaj’s Eidojas.

That’s the vexing thing though. Managed to finish farming for everyone else already, all except for Kadaj. Frustrating and annoying doesn’t begin to cover it. Was getting really mad that Kadaj’s perfect Artifacts refused to show up no matter how much I kept on farming.

Then, finally, after what felt like forever, I got my very first ATK 108 with Remnant Up★★ for Kadaj. Hell, yes! So freaking pleased to see this. Readily replaced one of the 1-star Remnant Up Arts.

It’s not over yet though. Need 2 more before I can finally be done with this co-op. By now, I’m so freaking sick and tired of this co-op. Heck, like I said, I’m already done farming everyone else’s Arts.

I’ve also already finished clearing out the shop. So I’m only really here now for Kadaj. And I really wish that he’d give me his perfect Arts already so I can be done with this.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see another 108/Remnant Up★★, not for a long while anyway. Instead, aside from the usual trash, I kept getting 108/330. Some cost 15 CP while some had much lower cost so I just made sure to keep the low cost ones even if I’m not gonna be using them anyway.

Ah, if only these 108/330 were 108/Remnant Up★★ instead. Why do I keep getting 108/330 anyway?

It also feels like Remnant Up★★ itself showed up very rarely even when accompanied by crappy passives. I was like, come on, how could it be this hard to get Kadaj’s perfect Artifacts? He isn’t even one of those with cursed Arts. Argh!

Very frustrating. Needless to say, was really super pleased when I finally got my second 108/Remnant Up★★.

By now, I’ve lost track of how much time, not to mention gems, I’ve spent farming for these Arts. It’s too late to turn back now though. Already spent a lot of resources on this so need to see it through to the end.

At least I just need 1 more now to finally be done with this. Of course, the game has no intention of making this easy, huh?

Yet again, had to spend lots of time and gems to keep on fusing Kadaj’s Eidojas. Was beyond relieved when the third and last 108/Remnant Up★★ finally appeared. Hell, yes! Finally, this ordeal’s over.

Man, I never want to do this again. Well, I say that, but I’m likely gonna do this again for a char who I like and that I decide to max out.

Everyone else can just get triple of their preferred stat. Heck, Arts aren’t even that necessary anymore. Still, for chars who I have fully built, especially those with Spheres, I want to give them perfect Artifacts too.

Can’t exactly say I regret this. I mean, I wish that I didn’t have to spend all those gems refreshing my Bells just to keep farming. Also went through a lot of Tomes so am gonna need to stock up on those now which means spending more gems.

So maybe there’s a bit of regret there but I am really pleased to finally have perfect Arts for Kadaj. I think I’d have regretted it more if I failed to get his perfect Arts.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on the Mother Fixation banner? What do you think about Kadaj, Maria, and all the other chars featured on these banners? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging or replying to this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Dissidia Final Fantasy: Opera Omnia game account

[weird-dere-fics]

💖💖💖 also love you baby

I love you too Meru 💗💗💗. U r so special to me :3. Welcome to the game, my love uwu.

I hope you and Stella are doing well btw!! Kisses for the both of u 😘💋💋💋.

I think I would assign u filmmaking, and specifically directing.

I wouldn’t necessarily say you keep to yourself on here, but more that you take up your own space. You choose to speak when necessary and about what you see fit. And I feel like most people probably mistake that as you not having a lot to say. They seem to see or perceive you as blunt. Not necessarily mean, but maybe more so indifferent?

Thing is though, that couldn’t be further from the truth. You hold so many emotions inside you, Meru. And though you may not express it, you feel very strongly. There are always so many things on your mind. Thoughts that you can’t seem to convey that people around you wish you would. Some will chalk it up to you being shy. It’s not that you don’t want to tell them what you feel or how you feel, or that you’re scared to. It’s that you don’t know how. Not with words, anyway.

It might be easier to show than tell. And with film you have that power. You can communicate your stories through this medium, and have them stare at a creation of your thoughts rather than directly into your eyes. Here is your sandbox, your realm where you control the narrative and how it unfolds. They can make their judgements once the show is over, rather than in the middle of it. I hope this study helps you find your power, your voice, and the understanding you deserve <3.

Each time Bakugou watches one of your films, he feels like he hears you. To him, each of your creations is a conversation. Each part of a film asks him a question, and in each review he gives it an answer. It’s not often that he finds series that are so clear in what they’re asking without asking. As an experienced critic it astounds him, impresses him. He only hopes his commentary strikes as much interest to you as your work does to him. The day he meets you is the day he longs for. The day when he can strike up a real, in person conversation with you. He’s sure he’ll find you even more enthralling then.

😘

.

.

Send in an emoji and I’ll tell you what study vibes you give me :3

[outivv]

— Toxic Traits —

Synopsis: toxic traits they have (in my opinion)

Warnings: controlling, manipulative behavior, along with that it’s not proofread.

Game/ fandom: twisted wonderland

Characters: riddle, trey, cater, ace, deuce, leona, ruggie, Jack, azul, jade, and Floyd

Pronouns for reader: gender neutral/ not mentioned

Disclaimer: this is all purely my headcanons of the characters and their behavior, nothing more. These are not meant to change your opinion on a character in any way. Some of these are inaccurate, but I still felt they would bring the character some more… realistic attributes, which is something I enjoy. If you do not that is completely fine of course, but then this isn’t really the post for you.

A/n: hello! Sorry for the long disclaimer, I genuinely just wanted to say it since I have had bad interactions in the past with people simply not reading what I say, and going straight ti the replies. So it’s something that’s good to have you know what I mean? Anyways, hope you enjoy! <3

— Riddle —

Fallows after his mom, in which everything has to be perfect, and orderly. Yet, at the same time he fears rejection, or criticism, so he holds you to such high standards. He loves you, he really does, but it’s like he’s trying to change you into someone subconsciously. If you ever told him you felt like this he’d instantly start reflecting but he’s so… stubborn sometimes you can’t even say it. So the loop continues.

— Trey —

He’s always trying to help everyone. It’s not that he’s a people pleaser, but it is that he’s so nice to everyone, to the point he’ll be late to dates on many occasions because he was helping deuce with homework. That and his constant nagging. He treats you like you’re helpless sometimes, and like you don’t remember to brush your teeth before you go to bed, it’s annoying. He treats you as a child, yet fears the thought of you thinking of his as your older brother. He’s confusing, and while many parts of the relationships are great it just… feels frustrating.

— Cater —

Doesn’t act like himself. He puts on a front of you he thinks you want him to be, when in reality he’s not like that at all. He’s a great guy, but you don’t care about what people think of you two, what people expect from you, you just want him to be… him. Which he is… technically, yet even after a long time of reassuring him he can’t help but keep up the mindset of “they won’t like you if you act yourself.” So he continues.

— Ace —

Overly picky. Too clingy? Mm ghosting you. Not smart enough? Time to break up. He has expectations for his ideal partner, to the point where he can barely keep a partner when he gets one. It’s so frustrating because he’s so nitpicky when he’s not the best either. He has his flaws, and yet you still love him. Even if he makes you feel awful about yourself.

— Deuce —

Very dependent. This isn’t necessarily a toxic trait but he very much relies on you, and sometimes it’s a bit too much, but when you get mad at him he gets mad cause you’re mad at him and he thinks he did nothing wrong. It’s a obnoxious cycle that always ends the same way. With you back helping him again.

— Leona —

Where do I start. Let’s see, you don’t do things, or even interact unless he wants to. He always is asking things of you, but doenst give much in return. He’s entitled. And finally, he’s so insecure about himself to the point that he relies on you while also telling you to fuck off. All of these things he is willing to change but he has to be committed. Like he has to know, that you’re for real, and are going to stay together for a long, long time. He genuinely needs.. help, for lack of a better term, and he wants to push all of that on you because he trusts you, he’s comfortable around you, but you are not qualified to handle all of his issues.

— ruggie —

Very… manipulative… in his own way. He has a way with what he says sometimes that just makes you think “are you gaslighting me right now?” He does it unintentionally, but that makes it worse honestly. Cause then you tell him “you’re literally trying to manipulate me, I don’t want to speak to you” and in his mind he wasn’t doing anything wrong. It’s frustrating getting it through his head that he was in fact, being manipulative, and even then he still believes you’re just imagining things, to the point you even start to believe it…

— Jack —

Ties you, and himself down with his morals. He literally pushes them into you, and you can’t even say no. He’s a great guy so… he must have good intentions right? Yeah his intention are for you to be like him, and to fit into this mold of morals that’s so unrealistic it makes you want to hide in a hole to avoid him sometimes. It’s obnoxious, it’s sad, it’s something you can’t avoid. Even if you could, Jack would still find a way to make his morals clear.

— Azul —

Much like Leona he is so insecure that he pushes his problems onto you and says “fix it”. Azul for years was downright scamming people to get what he wanted, and he had to let that go cause… well it’s gotta be illegal. At least a little bit. And it’s wildly unhealthy for his mental health. He tries his best not to push his struggles into you, but he does once and then takes advantage of your sweet “it’s okay. You can talk to me anytime.” now, he comes to you whenever it feels. You know you can’t help him, and that’s what really hurts. But you just gotta sit there… and watch him suffer.

— Jade —

Controlling. Controlling to the point of he forces you to depend on him. Jade is someone who can manipulate the situation however he damn well pleases, and he can very well do that with you. He wants to to himself, because you’re one of the few people who has surprised him, and amused him. He can’t let that go. He has to have control of almost every situation, including every argument. He enjoys the thrill of having control over something, and you just… sit there, a meekly obliging his every word. What else can you do?

— Floyd —

When he is in a bad mood he can not do anything. He doesn’t want to work, do school, and will even take his anger out on you. Of course he’s crying, and apologizing profusely when he’s over his little tantrum, but does that even make it better? The answer is no. No it doesn’t. When Floyd is in a bad mood he refuses to talk to pretty much anyone. You love how carefree and wild he is but that’s the thing. He is a living wild card, who could turn around and yell at you for simply wrapping your arm around his own while walking. Something that he typically enjoys. He has very little limits to what he’ll do if he’s in a good mods too. He doesn’t understand the word “consequences” yet forces them into you when you do something simple. Something that he typically enjoys. It’s like walking around eggshells with him.

[keyleth-clay]

I genuinely love Callopea and I hope that it goes fully canon.

Not because a ship has to go “fully canon” to be legitimate, or to be enjoyed by the fandom, but because I think the dynamic between Fearne and Chetney is so different from the vast majority of ships that we’ve seen on Critical Role so far.

Because the thing is, I feel like a lot of the fandom kind of sees Callopea as a joke? And not just goofy or lighthearted, but kind of mean-spirited. Like, the idea that this could ever be a “legitimate” ship or that it has any meaning to it is laughable. (This is also kind of reflected in fanworks, since there’s basically no art of them, and there’s like... two people making gifs. In comparison to pairings like Imodna or Dorym which, while I do also ship, there is arguably less concrete evidence of in canon at this point in time).

Which I don’t think is true! I think there’s a lot of depth to both Chetney and Fearne, despite being largely comedic characters, and I think there’s also a lot of potential depth to their relationship, despite it being largely played for laughs.

Take Chetney, for example. I think the depth of his character is best summed up with this quote from The Night Before Critmas (and yes, I know that was Chutney, but he was the basis for the character):

“He told me to make Voltron out of wood. No one wanted it. He told me to make a Game Boy. I can't do circuits. He told me to make the little trolls, but the hair didn't move.”

Again, yes it’s comedic, but the core idea of the character was here – because Chetney/Chutney isn’t just talking about toys. He’s talking about himself. A huge part of this character is dealing with the feeling of obsolescence, of the world moving on without you and you not being needed anymore. That same idea also shows up with Bertrand at the beginning of the campaign, and I don’t think that’s an accident, and I don’t think Travis is doing that just for the joke.

Growing older can be scary. Feeling like you’re out of touch with the world, or that you aren’t needed anymore, or that you just don’t understand things anymore – that’s scary. In a way, it feels like parts of the fandom treat a character being old as a punchline – it sometimes feels like the very idea of a character being elderly, and an elderly character wanting some form of intimate relationship in particular, is worthy of mockery.

I’m sure we’ve all seen commercials or interviews or something that contain some variation on “as we age, our need for intimacy does not diminish”. Yes, Chetney has flyaway white hair and wrinkles and a squeaky old voice and a hat he’s almost laughably attached to and goofy curly toed boots, and he is still deserving of love, and that isn’t a joke. Not that that love needs to be romantic love, necessarily, but love nonetheless.

And I think that it makes perfect sense that Fearne would be the one to recognize that! For one thing, she’s the only one in Bell’s Hells that is anywhere near his age (though there is still a noticeable gap, but who knows how the fuck time works in the Feywild anyways). For another, with her wildshaping and his werewolf transformation, the two of them are the only ones in the group that understand that idea of letting animalistic instinct take over, of the freedom of being wild, and also the occasional lack of control or fear that can come with it. Not to mention both of their… impulsive morals.

But there’s two more ways I feel that these two connect, which are even deeper than what I previously mentioned – one of which I only realized after this most recent episode.

The first is related to this wonderful bit of meta from @captainofthetidesbreath, which I’m not going to reiterate here because a) you should go give them some love, and b) because this is long enough as it is. But to sum it up, Chetney is a toymaker, and takes great pride in that. He takes great joy in seeing other people, especially children, finding joy in what he’s crafted. Out of everyone in Bell’s Hells, I feel that Fearne is the only one who would truly appreciate that. Just look at what he’s made for everybody else – a box, which isn’t a toy. A skyship, which was immediately left behind for a child who would actually play with it and appreciate it. A wooden hand? And a house for Pâté and Sashimi, which is kind of a toy and kind of being played with, but also kind of not.

Fearne, on the other hand, has always had a certain whimsy about her. She enjoys the frivolous, she appreciates the silly, and she makes it a point to collect and steal and have things, simply because they make her happy. That, to me, is closest to the heart of why Chetney is a toymaker in the first place.

The second was something that Fearne said in episode 25. When Dusk showed her the locket that contained the portraits of her parents and that whole conversation started up, Fearne said”

“I don’t know where they are, and I’ve been looking for them, but maybe they just forgot? ‘Cause it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen them.”

I’m very curious as to whether this is a thought that she’s had before during her search for her parents – or if this will continue to weigh on her now that she has thought of it, at least until she’s able to reunite with them.

Because I feel like this ties in with the idea I mentioned above of Chetney feeling obsolete now that he’s gotten older. I could see a real and genuine heart-to-heart happening between them over this. I also wonder – Chetney’s never mentioned any family; no parents, no siblings, and most importantly for this Callopea ship manifesto (apparently), no spouse(s) or children. I get the sense from both of them of just… getting used to being alone and being lonely. That they are genuinely lighthearted and humorous individuals, but that humour does still help to hide some heavier feelings.

CHANGING TOPICS ENTIRELY, I also want to touch on something else that might seem completely counter to everything I’ve written here so far, and that is that this ship doesn’t need to be deep! They don’t need to have a “You know I’m in love with you, right?” or a “My heart belongs to someone else” or a “You were not born with venom in your veins”,  etc etc etc.

A ship doesn’t need to be deep and intense and Romantic-with-a-capital-R to be real and genuine and enjoyable! It can be as simple and light and fun as just two people being attracted to each other and having fun exploring that attraction. Hell, their relationship doesn’t even need to be romantic! I’ve seen people headcanon Fearne as arospec, and I love the idea of a non-romantic but still sexual relationship being explored, and not being treated as lesser because of that.

Hell, they could still end up as a romantic relationship, but start out here, with heavy-handed flirting and overt sexual overtones, and see their relationship as fun but ultimately not particularly meaningful, but then *intense and emotionally-heavy moment later in the campaign happens, especially if one of them nearly dies or does die and is brought back*, and then they realize Oh shit, this isn’t just for funsies, I’ve got real actual romantic feelings for them and I’d be miserable if they were gone. Oh fuck.

And that’s not even touching on the wolf/deer theme they’ve got going on, or the sun/moon vibes that they’re rocking, etc.

Basically there’s just… SO much potential for Callopea, guys. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

[everlastingremorse-blog]

We are officially in spoiler zone. From this point, spoilers for In Sound Mind.

So, before we get into the good (and it is really good), I want to get into the bad. Now, this criticism is coming from a place of love. This game was amazing! It’s just in my instinct that when I love something I want to rip it to shreds so I can look at all the little parts.

Now, before we begin, I want to say I played this game on the hardest mode except for a little bit at the ending. It’s possible that some of the problems I faced could have not been an issue in an easier game mode. That being said, I don’t think Harder should mean more frustrating. And I know that’s absolutely easier said than done, but still. I wanted something that was more of a challenge, not something that was more of a headache. How to do that, Im not entirely sure, but still.

Let’s start with Alan Shore. He’s the second patient you investigate, but his tape wasn’t as good as it could have been.

Unlike the other characters, when he’s chasing you, he auto locks onto you. Unlike the other bosses, you cannot stealth away from him. He knows where you are and will try to get to you, and you just wait in a light for him to leave. I think this is to add some variety to the game play, because like I said, he’s the only character that works like that.

Unfortunately, it’s not fun. It’s really annoying and tedious and kinda just annoying to deal with. You can get him off of you by either shining your light on him (and getting hurt no matter what) or shoot him with a gun or flare gun (and waste ammo). The thing is that I didn’t want to hurt Allen, but it just makes sense to hurt him from a gameplay perspective.

This is called Ludonarrative dissonance, where there is a clear divide between how the game is played and the narrative of the game. (Think yu-gi-oh/shadowverse. You’re trying to save the world by playing a card game. Maybe just punch each other. It’s different in shadowverse, but that’s not what this post is about.)

Anyways, there’s a lot of ludonarrative dissonance in Allen Shore’s chapter. He is very socially awkward person who tends to isolate himself… so why is he the one that’s always attacking you? Like his whole thing is that he feels like he’s stuck in the bottom of a pit. That he’s isolating himself, so why is he attacking me?

And there’s absolutely something there! Sometimes a mental illness makes you destructive to the people around you. I don’t think he wants to hurt you, but he’s doing it accidentally (kinda). There’s something there, I just don’t necessarily agree with how it’s done.

Furthermore, you get a flare gun in his chapter. This let’s you burn up darkness, an obstacle you can’t deal with before. It also gets Allen to leave you alone… and that’s it. The flare gun isn’t a useful weapon against anyone else and can only be used to get weird trick shots on explode barrels. Sometimes later in the game, they’ll just have random pools of darkness that kinda give justification for the flare gun, but they could just remove those and the game wouldn’t necessarily change.

And this is really annoying because you literally face a “bull” in the next level. You know what would have been great, if the bull chased the red flare. I think I read somewhere that you can use it to stun him, but I would vastly prefer if he saw the flare and chased after it. This would give more use to the item, and add a new layer to your inventory management. You can only carry five flares at a time, so do you lose a flare, or do you try to outrun it? I would have preferred that option, especially because you get an automatic stun later in that level!

The next enemy could have also been stunned this way. When I hit him with it, he just shrugged it off basically immediately. It would make sense that causing a ton of light would cause a lens flare that helps you escape, but no, he just shrugs it off.

Now one part that also annoyed me was with the bull I mentioned before. There’s this one part where he has to charge you, and you quickly run out of the way so that he breaks through the wall. This would have been fun to use the flare gun, but I digress. No my problem with this section is that it’s impossible to do without getting hurt, which is very frustrating. It’s ESPECIALLY frustrating when the bull stops in front of you to do a different attack from the charge. Which he does A TON. It was super frustrating.

The next enemy, “The Flash,” just sticks onto you way too hard. Like if he’s on you, it’s basically impossible to get away from him. That’s hyperbole, but it is really really annoying to deal with.

Those were the major things (excluding what I’m about to get to). There were some minor things like sometimes aiming/parkour is hard to do on switch, but I blame the switch more than I do the game.

But none of those were awful. Like, even though Allen was annoying, he wasn’t game breaking. The flare gun not used, annoying, but like, so what. No, the one thing that I think was absolutely wrong was the final boss fight. It was absolutely garbage. And it’s so sad because it didn’t even ruin the game. I still fucking love it, but I don’t EVER want to play that ending again. I kinda have an urge to play the other parts, but that ending? Absolutely not.

The ending constantly has barrels that explode coming for you. It’s not too bad except that they all basically one shot you no matter what difficulty you’re on. Literally, sometimes they’ll take you down 5 health, other times they’ll take 70 health. And I switched to easy because I though “oh, it’s because I’m on hard.” No, it’s fucking office. And it’s not TOO hard to dodge… except when you’re dealing with all the little enemies chasing after you. Which is basically always. And further on the fight, you have to let them hit you, so you basically have the same problem as the bull from before. This was absolutely intentional, but god damn you could have done it better.

Also, I’m the second to final section, the boss will have these huge aoe attacks that are impossible to dodge and aren’t telegraphed well. Like, it’ll make the ground turn read before it happens, but it’s not for a lot of time, and sometimes you have absolutely NO CHANCE to dodge it. And those hits are sometimes 1 hit KOs. Which is fucking awful and I hated it.

You beat the boss by using the previous tapes/levels to defeat it, because you’ve been able to learn from your patients, and that’s made you stronger. It has multiple sections, each reminiscent of a previous tape.

Except it didn’t do a good job of thematically tying itself into those tapes. You just use them when you get from point A to B because that’s what the fight tells you to do. You got a specific item in every tape/level of the game, but the only time you need to use them is for the last tape and at least ONCE for the flare gun.

The first item you get is a mirror that reveals the truth and can be used to cut tape… and in the first section of the final boss, you use it to cut tape. I would have absolutely preferred to use it in a cool way for something, using the mirror to find the truth. Maybe there were a bunch of tape recorders, and Virginia is pointing out the real one. That would have been cool, but didn’t happen.

The flare gun was only used to get rid of darkness in front of the tape (and maybe a few darknesses before). Imagine instead if you used the flare gun to call for help, like a flare gun usually does, and then boom, Allen Shore shows up and you can use the second tape recorder.

The third faze is the one reminiscent of the bull where you have to let the exploding stuff flying at you hit them. It would have been amazing if you had to use the lure pills (the item you get during the third tape) to get past the doors, but no, nothing cool like that.

And it’s not like the entire tape was bad, it had some AMAZING moments. Between the first and second phase, you can high five a mannequin that helped you along the way. I missed it the first time, so I went back and redid it. AND IT WAS SO FUCKING COOL M. I LITERALLY WAS INSTANTLY REENERGIZED TO KEEP GOING. But that’s the ONLY time they did it. They could have done something like that between each phase, but once again no. Between the second and third phase maybe a whale helps you get between them (it makes sense if you’ve played it.) I can’t think of something for the third and fourth phase (maybe a car taking out a bunch of enemies for you), but in between the fourth and final phase, Rosemary can come and help you. There was room to make the boss fight much more enjoyable, but it’s just kinda sad that it wasn’t.

But your character beats Agent Rainbow with a cool one liner and I literally jumped up in joy it was so fucking cool I literally said “Fuck yeah,” the ending of the story was amazing, the final gameplay was not.

So now that we got the bad out of the way, let’s get to the good.

OH! Also Allen gets associated with Icarus for some reason. It doesn’t make sense in any way and it just weird. But now onto the good stuff really.

Edit: one last thing I wanted to add (seriously this time) is something I said in the good post. The game ends with Agent rainbow coming back and basically telling you he’s still out there in the hearts of other. I think it would make sense if he survived in Desmond as a representation that overcoming trauma is a process that continues even after you think you finished.

Ok, so, In Sound Mind is an amazing game and you should definitely play it if you think you’d like it. So I’m gonna be posting a lot about it because I finished it and it’s super good.

So let’s start with what it is.

It’s a psychological survival horror indie game with a soundtrack by The Living Tombstone (‘you should’ve picked Mercy’ guy). If you’ve played any persona game, then it’s like if that was survival horror. It has some really cool ‘monster designs,’ that are like symbolic and stuff.

Anyways, you play Desmond Wales, a therapist who wakes up in the basement of your building. As you start to explore, you realize that the world isn’t quite what it seems, and you begin investigating the situations of your patients (one died, one is in a coma, and two are missing). While they at first seem unrelated, a large narrative and conspiracy starts to unravel.

Quick note, Tlt didn’t do the sound design, he just made 6 incredible songs for the game.

It’s made by this small indie company called We Create Stuff. It seems to be their first foray into an original IP that is a full game with a narrative and stuff. They have other games, but they’re not necessarily “games.” That mean. If you check out their website, you’ll see what I mean. They have other games, but In Sound Mind is their first game game.

Anyways, I’ll get more in depth in later posts, but we’ll end here rn because no spoilers.

[soren-apologist]

enough edelgard discourse, time for ashnard discussion

it’s really too bad that people don’t talk about ashnard very much, considering he’s actually a really fascinating character. he starts off as generic evil king, but as the story develops, it shows how he’s sociopathic and macchiavellian, yet he still has cohesive thought behind his actions that parallel the mercenaries in a really interesting way.

ok, i’m not gonna sit here and attempt to argue that assnards is a good person— he’s an absolutely massive douche. part of what separates discussion of him from ones about edelgard, despite them having similar “the ends justify the means” plans, is that a. the game never tries to convince you he’s a good person, and b. ashnard doesn’t try to convince you he’s a good person. one of the things he says to ike is essentially, “i’m going to let history decide whether or not i’m justified.” i find that really interesting, considering that, despite the fact he’s attempting to conquer tellius for what he believes is a good reason, he has enough self-awareness to realize that this doesn’t inherently protect him from criticism. in contrast, one of the major themes behind edelgard is that she’s deluded to the point where she thinks she’s completely in the right with what she’s doing, despite, y’know, the fact she’s sacrificing countless lives of her countrymen and the rest of fódlan for her own ambitions. but this is about ashnard, so i digress. the fact that he doesn’t view himself as some “hero of the people” despite his actions potentially helping in the long run (giving the poor an opportunity to rise in the ranks by becoming knights, attempting to change the world so that the strong are the ones in control, etc.) is just something you tend not to see that frequently. i’m not saying his plans are necessarily foolproof— historically, meritocracies don’t do very sexily due to how they basically just end up being a situation of “the rich succeed, the poor fail.” that’s actually what i find beautifully ironic about the ending to cf, edelgard believes that she has found a way to fix fódlan but just puts them back at square one (instead of crests determining power, it will ultimately lead to the wealthy becoming powerful, since they can, y’know, afford shit). i bring this up because it’s pretty similar to how daein was run, though instead of it being run by nobles that would eventually become corrupt, it was run by soldiers who, more often than not, were bloodthirsty, cruel bastards willing to sacrifice their men if it meant a chance at more power to them. i really like how the two situations relate to each other, as in their leader’s well-intentioned quest to improve the lives of the people, they end up not really doing a whole lot.

for the record, i actually happen to like edelgard as a character, this isn’t a bash session that’s thinly-veiled as a character analysis. the difference between me and most of her fans, though, is that i like her because she’s kind of an ass, which is more or less the same reason i like ashnard. despite what i may have implied earlier, ashnard is a really, really horrible person. as some examples, he:

•forces powerful soldiers to fight to the death for his entertainment

•abandoned his infant son when he didn’t have any wacky and uncharacteristic dragon powers

•used said son to bait rajaion and drive him insane to use as a mount

•fully supported the use of feral drugs on laguz

•made no attempt to end the widespread laguz hatred of daein despite him boning one

and so on. but you know what? i like the fact that he’s such an unabashed asshole, and he doesn’t pretend like he’s the good guy in the situation, which is why i prefer him to edelgard, who always has to try and justify her actions. he’s absolutely relishing in just how terrible of a person he is, and it makes him really entertaining to watch. it makes for a really interesting contrast with the greil mercenaries, who also have a main purpose behind fighting and warfare, but have completely different intentions behind it. the mercs are good at heart, at times taking hard jobs for lackluster pay simply because it’s the right thing to do. ashnard does what he does because he thinks it’s the right thing, but in the process cares little for just how much bloodshed and destruction he causes. i just think the parallels are neat.

anyway, to sum up the point of this discussion, i think we should embrace the shitty behavior of morally gray characters like this instead of trying to find ways to justify them.

reject justification, embrace assholery

[tommybaholland]

Hey, I love your work 🥰 Could you do a headcanon where the bnha boys have a s/o who has a very friendly personality but is unable to hide their stoic face when they dislike someone? Like, s/o during all day 😊, then Mineta been creepy like always and s/o is like 😐

Could be Todoroki, Bakugo, Kirishima, Midoria and Dabi pls? You can do others if you feel like it tho

(Sorry if got confused, I'm terrible at describing my ideas haha)

friendly s/o who has an expressive face

featuring: todoroki, bakugo, kirishima, midoriya, and dabi

your request makes complete sense but i don’t know if the title does.. hopefully i conveyed the idea well! thank you and enjoy :)

todoroki

he normally has a very stoic expression that doesn’t change much unless he’s angry 

and you’ll know when he’s angry 

seeing your friendly face was somewhat refreshing for him 

you kind of reminded him of people who are also very approachable like his sister or even midoriya

you could always brighten his day with your smile

he’s also not opposed to your other expressions either

he can even find them amusing in a way

you don’t hold anything back and that’s very admirable to him 

he’s willing to fight for what he believes in and you have a similar mindset

you can be blunt and candid with your expressions though and it’s hard to hold them back 

sometimes you feel like you can be a little too expressive in a way that offends others

some have referred to you as ‘rude’ with how you can look 

and you know you’re not rude but it can get to you sometimes 

you don’t hide your hurt feelings well either so he knows when something isn’t right with you 

you asked him if he thought you looked rude to him and then proceeded to tell him what you others had said to you

“you know that’s anything but true, my love. they probably just don’t know you well enough that you’re actually so wonderful. at least, that’s what i think.”

you like when he gives you that cute little grin of his because that’s all you need to be reassured 

even in your lowest of times, he can be your sunshine  

bakugo

obviously, he’s never been the friendliest person ever 

it was the fact that you remained kind even when he would yell or call you insulting names 

nothing seemed to shake you which was really attractive to him 

unless you really didn’t like someone or something

and he’d admit that you’re ten times more attractive when you’re not impressed or unamused

however, he cannot help to chime in when he feels he needs to even if you’ve got it under control

like if mineta is being his pervy self with some of the girls or anyone else for that matter, you will call him out on it

“jeez, y/n. you’re way hotter when you’re smiling.”

“WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU MORONIC GRAPE?! I WILL BLAST YOU ALL THE WAY TO HELL IF YOU SAY THAT TO THEM AGAIN.”

he thinks you look beautiful whether you’re smiling or looking intimidating but he prefers when you smile 

it’s disgustingly contagious to him 

but he gets a kick out of your more serious expressions and never feels that you’re being too forward about it 

some people just need to know when they sound like an idiot, you know?

he likes to tease you sometimes when you’re being too cute and friendly

“you think you’re tough, dumbass? show me your mean face.”

he absolutely loves that you humor him and can transition so well

the duality of you makes him fall in love with you all over again

kirishima

he’s also a very friendly person so naturally, he’s drawn to how sweet and kind you are 

but you two differ with how you handle uncomfortable situations 

he’ll try to continue to be polite but you, on the other hand, cannot hide your expression when someone says something you don’t like

he understands that you just want to be taken seriously when things aren’t all fun and games 

he likes to reaffirm that for you but never intends to offend

“you’re very tough, pebble! and i’m not trying to patronize you when i say that.”

he does enjoy that you can stand up for yourself and others 

it’s almost like you’re the rock instead of him 

you can let things get to you pretty easily though 

and for him, that’s not necessarily a bad thing 

it means that you think critically about certain things and it’s okay if it upsets you sometimes and you can’t help but let it show 

that’s what makes you human and he admires that you’re not afraid to show that

plus it gives him an excuse to hold you tight and tell you how much he loves you 

“it’s okay to be sad about something, babe. you’re still such a wonderful and amazing person to me!” 

soon enough, you go back to being your bright and happy self and you have him to thank for it 

he literally is the rock in your relationship, no matter how much he denies it

midoriya

he’s also very approachable and affable 

but he has a different way of dealing with certain situations or a person that he doesn’t like 

if he’s intimidated, he’ll get really nervous 

but if he’s not scared at all, you don’t want to mess with him

he will detroit smash any threat with no problem

you were pretty much the same way 

cute and bubbly with your smiling face but people should know that you don’t always look like that 

you can get serious when need be 

however, he’s usually pretty nervous in everyday situations whereas you would not hold back your stank eye 

it was something he had to learn to accept with you because you could look pretty rude 

your reasoning was usually founded and valid though so he couldn’t disagree 

other people, sometimes other girls, seemed really drawn towards him and it’s not unlike you to get a little jealous 

he only stays polite because it’s what you should do if someone else is being nice to you 

it’s only when they actually pose a threat to your relationship and say something uncalled for about you 

your mood completely changes and you can’t hide it 

he’s grateful to have you though because he’s not great at handling those types of situations 

you never hold a grudge though and switch back easily to the sweet, kind cutie that he loves

dabi

he’s used to people avoiding him just because of how he looks 

it doesn’t bother him that much as he doesn’t want anyone approaching him anyway

being with you could be kinda difficult because you were the exact opposite of him

he couldn’t blame others because you were so cute and enticing with your friendly self 

but you could be just as cold as him as well 

in fact, you used to not like him because of how he would treat you

he’d fully admit that he’d patronize you when he called you cute or adorable, especially when you look mean

you are actually so much more to him though and provide him with the hope that maybe he could build a better future for himself 

anyway, the places that he stayed were usually pretty sketchy and the people that skulked around were equally suspicious 

he used to be wary of creeps trying to come onto you or take you away from him 

not that he couldn’t scare them off himself 

but he didn’t have to because you could go from :D to >:( real quick and have it taken care of no problem 

people learned not to bother you like they learned with him

it’s almost like you didn’t need him to protect you or didn’t need him at all and realistically, you didn’t

but that didn’t stop you from being with him, even if you probably didn’t belong together 

he was prepared to condemn all the naysayers as he admired how pretty the blue glow from his fire looked against your ethereal face

and he was grateful to get a kiss from an absolute angel like you 

woohoo, bnha night! get those requests in..

[rosequart]

i compiled a bunch of direct quotes about pink diamond/rose quartz from the newest artbook, end of an era. some of these quotes are taken from charts and scribbled notes, so the sentence structure might be weird.

let me know if there are any typos/missing information you think i could add!

quotes from rebecca sugar: on pink diamond/rose quartz

Pink Diamond is so sure that she’s powerless, but she’s actually profoundly powerful, so much so that she devastates people’s lives without understanding it because she thinks that she has no real power or sway.

The thing that she really lacks is balance, any ability to temper her extremes. This is part of her character throughout her forms: she’s always very extreme. 

Pink fits into those older tropes, too: the restless princess, the little Winsor McCay clown.

Pink is pure want. Impulse, desire—she’s infectious. She is the flip side of White; she can bring out a Gem’s hidden personality—their deepest wants. This isn’t necessarily a Diamond power (she has a handful of Diamond powers both destructive and constructive), but she has this power in a very human sense. She is an enabler and very manipulative when it comes to getting what she wants, so when what she wants is to get closer to someone, her intensity, and her sincerity, opens them up and draws them in.

White and Pink were always clashing. The Diamond body repressed Pink’s wants, as directed by White, the self-critical conscience. Pink’s shield made it impossible for White to override Pink’s identity, so she had to find other ways to repress her.

Episodes like Bismuth make much more sense when you know that Rose is Pink, and even more sense when you understand how poorly Pink treated friends who became inconvenient.

Rose is tracked carefully through the entire show. She makes sense once you know she is her own worst enemy. She dreams, achingly, that she could become compassionate, because she’s sure she’s incapable of compassion. Her lack of respect for herself makes it impossible for her to respect everyone closest to her. She reveres them instead, because they are better than she could ever be, and that reverence is so honest and intoxicating that it draws everyone closer to her, without them understanding the deep self-hatred that pull is coming from.

She couldn’t stand herself; self-destruction is a huge theme throughout the show—the struggle of the feeling that you shouldn’t exist, and what that can do to a person. A lot of the themes of the show exist within Rose, like her inability to be honest with other people or herself about what she’s done. She’s so deeply ashamed of herself and her past, with very good reason. The truth is that the people in her life would be so much more understanding than she believes they will be. The contempt that she has for herself gets turned outward as contempt for other people when she can’t trust them. When she can’t trust herself, she can’t trust other people, and it makes it impossible for her to be close with anyone. It makes life extremely difficult for her. It makes living difficult for her.

Rose wants [honesty and trust and being able to grow and change] so badly, but she can’t really accomplish any of that until she accepts herself—and she never does.

quotes from rebecca sugar: on rose and greg

Rose and Greg have a very specific relationship. They parallel each other: Greg left his unsupportive family to follow his dreams. He changes his name and begins living as his stage persona...He invents himself.

Rose is instantly interested in Greg; he’s so human, sweet and funny and pliable. But as they get a little deeper into their relationship, Greg starts to realize how alien she actually is. She objectifies him, she laughs at him...she can’t seem to relate to him or pick up on how he’s feeling. They have a physical relationship, but they’ve never had a meaningful conversation. He starts to feel used. So he challenges her in a way she’s never been challenged before: he asks her to treat him like an equal. This is huge for her. She’s always been less than the other Diamonds and more than everyone else. She opens up to him in a real way, and over time she’s ready to confess everything to him. But he understands what it is to run away from home and reinvent yourself. He doesn’t need her old name and he’s not going to drag her through whatever it was she ran from; as far as he’s concerned, her old self isn’t the real her anyway. The real her is her in the present, the person she decided to be. [...] This is an incredible relief for her! With him, she can live authentically in the moment...They both can, but on the flip side, they enable each other. She never unpacks what scares her about her past, and neither does he.

They really wanted to have a child [...] It’s something they are genuinely excited about. And that’s something that’s left a little open-ended—just how selfish it was for Rose to do this knowing that she would disappear. What Rose is doing is outrageously selfless and outrageously selfish at the same time, and you can really read it both ways and neither is untrue.

chart notes: on pink diamond/rose quartz

Pink learns to keep secrets. She tells her new Pearl to keep them too. (She puts on an act. Behaves better.) She doesn’t trust herself...keeps asking her Pearl what to do...

The Game: Rose plays Batman on the ground. (Pearl is Robin and Alfred.) Pink tries to use Rose as an excuse to call off the invasion. This backfires when Blue and Yellow send in reinforcements.

Rose finds herself the head of a family. Determined to be everything White was not—she is close with everyone, flexible in everything. Love & fun are the rule—and there are no rules—and everyone is the most special!

chart notes: on rose and the crystal gems

Pink keeps asking Pearl what she thinks. Pearl understands she should have no opinions, and should follow orders. She is caught in a paradox. Her head swims. She laughs—feels scared—what is this?

Pearl is falling in love. Pink, as Rose, is intoxicating. She’s free somehow. They both are, when they’re on Earth.

Rose falls in love with Pearl’s surprising boldness that comes out of left field—!

Pearl and Rose start fusing a lot.

Pearl and Rose—the dust clears, revealing an endless honeymoon. Pink is gone and Pearl is free—free to love Rose.

Garnet trusts Rose, respects her secrets. She sees in Rose a self-made gem, a quartz that transcended her station out of sheer will and the power of self-love. Garnet loves Rose and her mystery, the way she learns to love & embrace the mystery of herself. Rose is her rock and inspiration.

Rose teaches Amethyst: you can be anything you want to be! Huge advocate of shapeshifting, self-expression, anarchy—however, Amethyst can sense shame from Rose and Pearl over the Kindergarten.

chart notes: on rose and the crystal gems, post-pink diamond reveal

Amethyst finally understands Rose: wanting her to shapeshift, not feel obligated to be a quartz, suddenly feels sympathy...kinship. It wasn’t Amethyst being inspired by Rose—Rose was inspired by them!

Garnet shocked: Rose taught her to love herself. If that was a lie—if Pink Diamond was self-hating, and wanted to disappear—than what does that mean for Garnet? No—it wasn’t Garnet being inspired by Rose—Rose was inspired by them!

Pearl is finally released—but, a rift—! Garnet feels betrayed! But, Pink did change! Pink did grow! Rose was different! That’s why Pearl was inspired by Rose—or, wait—Rose was inspired by them!

chart notes: on pink and the other diamonds

Pink, the littlest diamond, is largely ignored by Yellow, Blue, and White. Her silly impulses and eccentricities are not particularly helpful to the other diamonds in their endeavors. No one wants to play with her. Pink desperately wants White’s attention and approval (she will never get it).

Pink’s [original] Pearl is the only one who sees how much this upsets Pink. Pink is bright in front of Yellow, Blue, White—but when they don’t have time for her, she privately takes it hard.

Noticing Pink’s behavior, Yellow and Blue think she should have her own colony. White insists—she hasn’t really changed. She’ll never change. She gives Pink a colony—if only to prove Pink will fail.

White knows Pink is out there. This expensive, embarrassing tantrum is not worth her attention. Pink will come groveling back when she’s done running away from home.

Yellow and Blue are relieved to have Pink back—but White is vindicated. I knew you’d be back, your silly game is over—get back in place.

Steven gets Yellow and Blue to understand who he is now. But White won’t have it [...] In an ultimate act of self love, Steven fuses with himself, as White realizes—she can be wrong, and she’s truly lost her ‘daughter’.