#bc that would that game's overall experience even worse

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Random thoughts about the new Tales of Symphonia remake from people’s reviews, but like... I fully admit this game is not my favorite and is not even remotely close to being so. In fact, when it comes to the franchise as a whole it’s down toward the bottom. Very solid game on its own, but I’ve found that I have significantly more enjoyment of almost every other Tales game.

Prefacing with that, seeing the reviews from the “remaster”, uhhhh... that game is not even my favorite and I’m offended to see how much they botched it.

Yikes.

They literally didn’t even edit aspects of the game that had a purpose for the original version but had no purpose in the remaster. Like, features they changed still have lingering features from the original and from the port. It’s clunky and... ugly.

Very ugly.

The way it transitions into battles removed the unique shattering screen feature along with other unique aspects of the original, and most of the backgrounds are pure black or white. Unfortunately this seems to be a Nintendo thing lately since Baten Kaitos suffered the same fate, having its unique backgrounds removed for a solid color background.

Also, the Switch can barely handle Symphonia apparently. I haven’t played it myself but lots of people are saying it’s crashing on them or that the loading times can be ridiculous. You’d think on a more new, improved console that the game would run better, but it seems like they just took the coding from the original and slapped it onto the Switch. When you port a game to another console, of course changes have to be made to create smooth gameplay and to avoid lag, freezing, framerate drops, and misplaced textures, but it seems like they didn’t do any of that.

If you’re a Symphonia fan who considered buying the port, my advice personally is just don’t waste your money. Either get it for the Gamecube or try a GC emulator, because even as someone who can say this is not my favorite game, this remaster really wiped out all the unique things about it that gave it its charm. It’s not just ugly, either - it just doesn’t play well. I never saw gameplay of the last port that was both Symphonia games in one, but I do recall that being the beginning of players’ aggravation with Symphonia remasters, because the fps was dropped to 30 and they reused that for this remaster because ???

Basically they took the original from the Gamecube, the game was a square, but they wanted to fit it into a triangle and had to cut a chunk of features off to fit it in... but the triangle was never a triangle in the first place. It was a square, so now the newly formed triangle is still trying to be a square in its new triangular form. It doesn’t work because it can never be a triangle, it’s just a square with its sides cut off.

I shit you not, you could buy an entire Gamecube and the GC version of Symphonia, both, for the same fucking price as the port for a significantly better experience.

Y i k e s.

Oh and they also cut entire dialogue lines out in the remaster.

Y I K E S.

I know that happened in the old port, but they just... left it like that.

[raguonmynieceandnephew]

I fucking love Shadowlands and I am tired of being silent

This is probably gonna be long. TL;DR at the end.

Look, Shadowlands is the second worst expansion this game has ever shipped, besides WoD. I know this is a WILD opening sentence for a defense argument, but I am a romantic, not fucking delusional. This is a fact. Point blank period. The content drought was absurd, the legendary system was completely fucked, the maw in general, the lore reduced Arthas and Garrosh quite literally to dust, The Jailer as the main villain and FUCKING THORGAST, the overall alt unfriendliness, borrowed power cranked to a million, and I have expressed how much of a fucking joke I think putting Pelagos as the new Arbriter was.

It was bad.

This has been stablished, not just by me, but by the entirety of the wow community.

But even though I agree, all these things made the game worse, I still enjoyed my experience, and I have a positive outlook on the expansion overall, which seems to be the greatest sin a World of Warcraft player can commit: I liked Shadowlands. I dare to say I liked it more than I did Dragonflight, if I think really hard about it.

You simply cannot say you liked Shadowlands in the any circle of the WoW community online, from what I have seen. I remember Kraken Latte put it in first place in a rank she made of all expansions and got shit on for days on twitter, with people failing to see what she saw in the game.

Now, I feel like I have pointlessly yapping till now, so without further ado, here are some of the Shadowlands features i like the most:

1 - THREADS OF FATE

I am a simple man, who likes to do 2 things in wow: Mythic+ and leveling. That is pretty much it. I don't PvP, I rarely raid and I occasionally indulge in RPing as a Tidesage on Moonguard. And let me tell you, this baby right here was lifechanging.

Threads of Fate is by far, the single best feature (before Warbands, lol) in my entire World of Warcraft experience. I loved it. I loved it dearly. I don't think I have ever had so much fun leveling 60-70 through Revendreth and Ardenweald with ToF. I still have the route I took memorized, it was SO good. So many bonus objectives back to back to back, world quests and that goddamn gorgeous blue forest had the FATTEST questing hubs in the game.

I was so excited to play this combined with Chromie Time, like IT WAS ON BETA, until it was ruthlessly taken away from me for no goddamn reason AT ALL. Like, what the actual fuck blizzard. Y'all don't understand how delightful it would have been to level like that in ardenweald in the mid thirty levels, right after clearing Loch Modan (or the Silverspine and Hillsbrad, for horde). I barely touched SL since it got removed.

BRING IT BACK BLIZZARD, I AM BEGGING YOU, JUST DO THIS ONE SOLID FOR ME.

2 - COVENANT CALLINGS

Speaking of features I thoroughly enjoyed that were pried from my hands, we have the best iteration of daily quests this game has ever had. They actually worked as good dailies that gave actual gold, was a good reliable source of reputation and was amazing for anima and cosmetics.

This + the recent nerfs to the Dragonracing WQs make me feel like blizzard doesn't like when players make their gold independently, like, jesus christ not all of us have time to be profession moguls.

3 - THE 4 ZONES

What inspired this post was the fact that SL raids are now on legacy loot (if you didn't know, now you do) and I had to go to Bastion to buy the weapons with the thingy that drops from Nathria and...look at this. Just look at this.

This place is one of the most beautiful things this game has to offer. Like, the entire zone is gorgeous byt seeing this for the first time since DF came out legit moved me bro, LOOK AT IT.

And while the covenants were kind of a shit show gameplay-wise, in EVERY SINGLE OTHER ASPECT, it was a 10/10 feature, argue with your mom. Aesthetics, themes, everything, simply gorgeous. Also, it got bonus points from me bcs i really do not like to use training dummies in current expansions because of the sheer amount of people blasting them at any given time, so each covenant having their own Dummy Room, was a ++++ for me.

4 - THE NECROLORDS OF MALDRAXXUS

The Necrolords were the best covenant, their campaign was the best and their characters were the best. Like, come on now.

Draka? Mother. Vashj? Mother. Emeni? Mother. Sin'dane? Mother Stradama? Grandmother. Like, are you kidding me? I know lore was one of the Weakest points of SL overall, but you are insane if you include anything involving these guys. Even the Korthia campaign was enjoyable when they had the spotlight. And I only listed the female characters lmao, don't forget The Primus, Krexus's meme death, the five houses, Morgraine, Grahmal, Marileth, like C'MON!

5 - THE DUNGEONS

Except for the Theater of Pain, and arguably the De Other Side (I personaly love it), Shadowlands has the best overall roster of dungeons in the entire game.

Sanguine Dephts is, in my opinion the second best dungeon in WoW, period, behind only Freehold, Tazavesh is the best Mega Dungeon they ever made. Mists is a banger, Plaguefall is a banger except for the tentacles, Halls of Atonement, Spires (controversial take, ik), Necrotic Wake is amazing, like, you can say whatever you want about SL, but you cannot talk shit about its dungeon design.

Except ToP.

Fuck ToP.

Now, it's getting late so imma speedrun the rest of the items:

6 - COSMETICS

SL changed the transmog game, and all cosmetics from it (all the mounts and sets from all sources) look phenomenal, and if you disagree you are simply lying to yourself.

7 - ZERETH MORTIS

The zone was good and had tons of stuff to do and collect, plus, the introduction to the Catalysts was a plus.

also, nothing will be funnier than Taelia fucking Fordragon being the talking quest bubble for WQs in THE REALM OF ULTRA DEATH

8 - RAIDS

CN: Vibes? Immaculate. SoD: Horrible systems, cool mechanics SoFO: Cool systems, mid mechanics overall a positive for me

9 - CHARACTERS

Already mentioned a lot of characters from Maldraxxus, here are my other faves: Lady Moonberry, the gay unicorm, Denathrius, Theothar, basically ever steward, The Accuser, Kael'thas, General Draven, Remornia and many more.

There are probably more reasons to list to justify my love for SL despite all the bad it has in it, but I simply do not have the mental fuel to keep going rn, i need sleep.

TL;DR: I like Shadowlands despite it being bad and would appreciate it if ppl didn't throw a fit everytime someone talks about it in any sort of positive light. I then listed Threads of Fate, Callings, the first 4 zones, dungeon design, the fuckton of collectibles, characters and the beginning of the shift in game philosophy as positive and valid reasons to be a SL enjoyer.

[wizardsix]

ok... so I have finally finished veilguard after about 90 painful hours (two playthroughs). im not gonna write an actual review about all of my detailed thoughts bc it'll actually take days, this is just to at least get my general thoughts out and see if anyone else feels the same or if ive actually lost it.

overall it is the weakest dragon age game story-wise, and I'd give it a nice lukewarm 4/10.

(i wrote this post right after I finished the game on the weekend so maybe I sound a bit harsh, I tried to edit it to be more reasonable lol but I didn't really want to delete this since I do still stand by a lot of this)

I really tried to go in with an open mind, bc I always want to experience media in full before making any kind of judgement, but about a few hours in I had this horrible feeling that once again this was another soulless, rushed game, and I still don't feel any different after finishing the game.

what stuck out to me was that there's no sense of urgency despite what the plot is, serious topics are not treated with care as the writing overall is shallow, and the gods as well as any other enemy you encounter are just cartoon villains (and apparently the lore retconning, but I'm not well-versed enough to dissect that so I won't).

I can't take this plot seriously when it feels so disjointed and forced and lazy. and I see no point in caring about anything when choices literally don't matter. no say in who you recruit, no say in the relationships with them and they have almost no awareness of rook, definitely doesn't matter if you have allies or not bc they show up anyway, and only four companions are locked into unavoidable decisions where one of them bites the dust no matter what (which is strange bc why are harding and davrin forced to die no matter if they're at hero status while bellara and neve can literally survive blight if they're at hero status), so it's impossible to try to strategize for better (or worse) outcomes with all the people you've gathered when there's only one right answer that the game pretty much tells you instead of letting you think for yourself (and side note this game does an incredible amount of hand holding). the game actively tries to trick you into thinking your choices matter with the onscreen notifications, but nothing matters bc the devs clearly had only one story in mind and for some reason lied that it had "complex choices".

also rook in general wasn't interesting as a protagonist bc they were written to be perfect. they always know what to say and are so supportive of everyone. they never struggle with anything. not even with leadership beyond "man leading a team is hard :/" but it doesn't actually show how hard it is by having actual volatile conflict between the companions* or showing how their plans sometimes fail. which, if we actually had choices that mattered, would have helped develop that struggle. also? what's with everyone being so friendly? I'm not gonna get into that but everyone is so eerily nice and it's been said a lot but yeah, the world is extremely sanitized and devoid of any real conflict aside from the gods I guess.

*(like off the top of my head cassandra fighting with varric and accusing him of not being on their side or how the inquisitor can literally punch dorian and solas if approval is low enough or fenris and anders bordering on killing each other is not the same as lucanis and davrin distrusting each other or people being uncomfortable with emmrich's necromancy. it just scratches the surface of conflict and never goes anywhere)

and let me say real quick again, there's nothing wrong if they wanted to make a more rigid story about being a hero. it's been done a million times and it can be executed well, but if you do that you need to make sure you 1) don't lie to people and 2) actually flesh out your (especially main) characters and plot to give people a reason to care. look at dragon age 2. hawke is a fixed protagonist with their own life front and center. they ultimately only have two choices (siding with mages or templars), but it works bc the game took time to build up the conflict straight from act 1 so by the time chaos happens in act 2 and 3 you understand why bc it's Been brewing the whole time. it just makes sense. the villains as well have sound reasons and feel real instead of being evil just bc. the story is more grounded, yet you have choices. you decide if hawke ends up alone or not. you decide how they approach situations with force or diplomacy. there's none of that in veilguard. a game that supposedly took 10 years to make. when dragon age 2 took almost 16 months (yes I know da2 also has problems like the fact that the templars are always proven right but this isn't the place to dissect that).

I want to be fair though and I do want to restate what I enjoyed about the game. the cc (though would it kill them to have more variety in face textures like age and body types beyond average.. also no colour wheel... especially since they claimed their cc was so good), the map progression/visuals/exploration (how certain places become more blighted overtime), the factions (though I feel there should have been more content for your faction, and helping them or not should have mattered more), the combat (did not feel like a slog, pretty fun and mindless), the companions (bellara, davrin, emmrich, harding, and lucanis had solid personalities and stories despite my complaints. neve was not memorable and I just feel sad for taash's bad writing), certain parts of the story were good, the intro and the point of no return sequences were solid, and the ending didn't feel rushed or boring compared to inquisition. and yes, I do appreciate that rook can be trans, I just think a little more subtly and care would've been nice.

another thing I did like and predicted was that varric died at the beginning of veilguard, and for a second I actually enjoyed that because i thought we were finally (a bit too late tho) getting some depth to rook and their own struggles of accepting his death and carrying this weight without him. and while I do think maybe they should've taken more time to establish the mentor/mentee relationship so we really feel rooks regret, I still think it was at least the right direction where in their grief they still see him, giving advice and narrating their journey.....but then it turned out to just be solas manipulating them the whole time, immediately destroying any emotional weight this reveal had.

whenever bioware has good ideas they shoot themselves in the foot and make it about solas. it's like nothing in the world exists without solas being involved somehow, and that is just incredibly boring and uninspired to me. not to mention solas just being an insufferable ass the whole time, which is fine, but it's not even in a compelling way like he used to be. he became so ugly by the end and the fact that the devs consider redeeming him the "good ending" and not giving him what he deserves is very telling and once again shows their own bias is king over good storytelling (solas' feelings should not come into play here, whether you/your companions live or die should determine good/bad ending since solas is trapped no matter what, only difference is who is trapped with him. idk but I personally think different endings actually means different outcomes). i will not go into the bs of the secret post credit scene, bc frankly I'm fed up with bioware's shitty writing and I won't be playing their next world ending space aliens game (unless they miraculously pull a good story out of their ass but lbr).

overall the bad outweighs the good for me. it's fun to play as a game, it's a decent fantasy game, but the story just doesn't do anything for me. sometimes I wonder if dreadwolf was a completely different game and was scrapped for veilguard last minute. maybe this was yet another inevitable industry fuck up and maybe there was a good story planned at one point. idk. all I know is bioware lied. respect and credit to the poor devs and writers who actually cared and to those who were kicked from the project, but in the end bioware promised too much and delivered too little.

[narwhalandchill]

Honestly. thinking back on it (am mega late yes) even though i like. ultimately enjoyed going thru fontaine AQ as an experience in terms of its emotional core and payoff with characters like navia neuvillette n furina having very strong writing and characterization i do think the overall AQ lore and worldbuilding is probably the messiest in the entire game and feels like all of its opportunities and potential was underutilized the most and thats just. Unfortunate

like yes its inazuma thats the most infamous for how shitty and rushed its execution was (and rightly so) and yes it Also had its share of issues with nothingburgers like the whole statue thing going nowhere or how shoddily constructed the entire it-was-all-the-fatui deal was

but i still think it has a stronger ground to stand on like. all aspects of the story if just slightly differently written and centered around better in-lore reasoning and logic. Are internally consistent with the world ya know. and would have produced a good story. like it could be fixed easily. no need for me to go Full Rewrite here but like just to make a point:

a shut-in deity paranoid and trauma-stricken is ignorant to her peoples wishes and enacts an eternal rule that stifles their hopes and dreams. discontentment in the nation (NOT just the vision holders it shouldve been ALL inazumans divided on this i s2g) has been on the rise but only outside forces stoking the flames push it into overdrive as they seek to exploit the unrest to get the gnosis. couldve brought the whole "peoples faith powers the archon" if they wanted to pop off bc then the fatui by sparking the civil war are Directly weakening eis power like Thats solid! less ei was innocent and only the fatui led to the bad stuff more. ei is flawed makes shit choices and leaves an opening for their operations etc etc etc.

foreshadow signoras past and distrust of the gods in like a tense encounter or two early on (ritou maybe?) where she hints at a deeper reason behind her actions. no need to trauma dump just have her like idk mock us for seeking the archons for "help" in finding our sibling slash truth of the world and coincidentally use wording that directly alludes to what we already heard from dainsleif earlier abt the cataclysm and archons sus so its like an Oh Shit. she can namedrop or allude to venti to imply its personal or sth to further recontextualize her actions in mondstadt as well.

and so on. like then fixing the rebellion (ppl join for other reasons than just the VHD so its a more common cause etc maybe some ppl dont care abt the decrees as much but the drafting of civilians into the ever expanding war effort goes too far) and stuff like that. inazuma had the ingredients for a consistent good story they just fumbled it completely

whereas fontaine tells like. a much stronger and more hype emotional core journey for its focal points as u go thru them but also it just. Genuinely falls apart if you poke at the setting and world for a bit too long its really just swiss cheese and that sucks

like as much as i Do love the narwhal in a very normal and sane way i still think story wise it absolutely goes into the signora tier of mishandled AQ boss fights except Even worse than hers bc. signora Fits inazuma even if she was handled poorly. but with the narwhal (and by extension childes entire presence as happy as i was to see him at all) its just... kinda random? and got pretty much brushed aside even during the AQ like we get the opera hall cutscene and then theres a THIRTY MINUTE cutscene with focalors before the actual fight happens like way to just. eliminate any urgency from the situation bruh. and then at the end both the narwhal and childe kinda just got plot deviced into hyping up skirk and surtalogis name drop. which rly fucking sucks. 99.7% of fandom never reads the AQ fight boss drop to consider the narwhals a sentient thinking feeling entity and not just a dumb big pet bc skirk called it that etc.

childe in general i dont think im necessarily like. as negative on the way he was handled as some ppl are (tho the general sentiments are 100% shared) but its still very much like. a disappointment w his lack of presence and voiced lines and in terms of how a lot of the intrigue set up in the AQ Especially the oratrice judgement just got shrugged off all "who knows 🤷‍♀️" like Are You Serious. and also p much using him as a neuvi hype device like . I saw it i knew ppl were going to be insufferable abt it & was right

i also saw a comment talking abt how childe Being the purple guy inside the narwhal just corrupted or sth wouldve given him a more heightened presence during the boss fight and while im a hater of that concept for other reasons (mostly the. narwhal must have malicious designs for ajax thing) i cant disagree with that take in terms of the story aspect. like if the narwhal ate him when he fell back in (which i kinda? assume mustve happened lmao like where did he Go 😭😭) it Wouldve been a much greater moment for sth like that to be there.

But bc i personally dont like the Brainwashed Puppet Angle i think how id have done it is just. sure make the purple guy more reminiscent of ajax n his fight style maybe even FL . But. feature an actual fucking cutscene in the stomach of us realizing its Not Him. but instead its the Narwhal Emulating Him as a spectral summon thingy. bc it ate his dumb unconscious ass for safekeeping or w/e and is now copying his homework of "use a manifestation of the other as a combat technique" (v romantic btw. soulmates real). like DUDE we had childes earlier AQ appearance Actively Bring Up this EXACT thing! he uses a hydro construct mimicking the narwhal as a combat technique bc of how their encounter rewired his brain chemistry. and now the narwhal needs to improv a more humanoid angle to combat in its stomach after it ate us. so like pov ur the narwhal whats the closest point of reference to draw from at that moment?

Oh Right. the guy ur been fighting for 40+ days . Your guy (derogatory) 💀 like they have a telepathic link who knows if it could just straight up cross reference Our combat moves from the flashes its getting from childes memories of seeing us in action and utilizing that.

like it wouldve been so sick and still left the nature of their connection relatively open ended. like it ate him skirk would be separating them at the end and maybe comment on it a bit and his whereabouts during the entire thing wouldve been Way Less confusing. The knight dude being a mimic of ajax' battle technique would thematically connect to the golden house fight and his hydro whale technique and its just. the current electro dude is just so Huh. like its a good jumpscare and i love the OST obviously but it getting No Lore NOR cutscene sucks so bad

(And like if they wanted the combat design to be so that theres no cutscene interrupting the transition between being swallowed and entering the stomach phase just make it an AQ exclusive one. and if we cant have traveler talk and logistics of bringing paimon/neuvi to make the shocked observation of "is that.... him? no... its just an imitation???" or w/e . Just have us FLASH BACK to childes own fucking dialogue as the phantom him is summoned to face us where he mentions 1) traces of the narwhal on him and 2) the basis behind his hydro summon technique. so traveler can have a silent !!!!!! Realization that he got ate or whatever and now his narwhal is stealing his ideas jsjskdksirigkf)

Anyway i swear this wasnt just abt those two im so sorry . but like yeah its just a fucking shame and also the narwhal being just like . Means to an End in the prophecy feels kinda meh but like i dont have a solid idea on how that would even rly be fixed but yeah. underutilized my both beloveds

Back to fontaine general stuff tho i kinda do think that . hoyo almost missed the trees for the forest w it all if u will excuse the mid metaphor . like they told a very strong emotional story w neuvi and furina and navia But it came at the cost of a highly illogical lore and worldbuilding and its just An Issue if u dwell on it even a little bit and its rly a shame

like they were going for this justice theme of maybe AI justicebot is not The Way (TM) and people viewing court as a spectacle rather than a show of justice but then went never fucking where with it in terms of Maybe This Needs Changing . they made that entire champion duelists a thing despite it being So fucking stupid fundamentally like it just relies on nobody with enough raw power to just solo any duelist ever getting into the ring

(no credit for this tho this was a comment thread i ran into on leaks sub. there was also a point made abt how childe dueling and winning against clorinde when hes accused wouldve been such a great moment of like both showcasing clorindes role and linking to their earlier sparring and holding back thing and also that maybe the system sucks when this is possible and while i get the story needed him in jail so he can reunite w his narwhal . im now mad this didnt happen. give him a W in combat hoyo.)

like theres this entire thing about flawed justice in fontaine that is present in the 4.0 story but then it just...... Disappears. Bc AI justicebot was anti celestia archon deleter all along and it finished its job so its no longer a fundamental ethical issue for the legal system and fontaines ppl to grapple with and confront shit like childes sentencing. And furina wanted dramatic trials bc of what she was told by focalors but since she retires its now just neuvillette whos super fair so everything is fixed .

im not as big of a hater of act III as some but like thinking abt these things further makes me like it less and less like Yes they wanted this meropide vs regular fontaine dichotomy explored and all but thinking of it is just. i wonder how worthwhile the opportunity cost was in there (i have no correct answer btw)

bc . if you keep the childe jailed bc justice AI bot. they shouldve shown the people responding to it . bc that entire highly controversial judgement is Literally accompanied by the solving of the serial disappearances case AFTER multiple ""culprits"" had already been imprisoned for it which i actually forgot (thanks same reddit comment for reminding me) like Whats with those people then????? and just. Everything to do with the entire case including childes deal shouldve been a much bigger social upheaval anyway like ik stuff like furinas SQ shows ppl personally affected in the aftermath but i mean in bigger scale.

And Then if we like run a bit with this alternate hypothetical idea of childe no diffing the court system (clorinde im sure youre powerful but like i put more faith in those ruin guards that lasted 4s against FL than u girl) so hes simultaneously kind of a criminal let off scot free but also its so stupid to think a guy thats like 25 at most is involved in a 20yr old solved case it couldve been actual source of political discord. and like if you need to get him to the narwhal for plot reasons its Rly Not That Hard theyre obsessed with each other bro gets pinged a whale call once and its like yes honey we jailbreak for reunion tonight (hes going to throw hands Immediately bc hes the toxic battle maniac one). also yes ik they wrote it weird so technically ajax cant duel after the oratrice decides hes involved which is major intrigue point (that canon wasted but oh well) but like. they couldve written differently idc. he couldve even gone off investigating why AI bot considers him guilty on his own and then jeepers!! speedrun glitchless any% spawned into the primordial sea!! hes missing! but like this isnt a well articulated idea whatsoever lmao im just winging some shit

meropides existence in general was also just weird. again i enjoyed the character writing it enabled for wrio and the HotH trio and despite disliking childe just being MIA i do like how the storytelling around his escape expands on his social intelligence and street smarts still. but as an entity the fortress is just sorta there as a system that Obviously shouldnt be Like this when its literally the other side of the coin to fontaines Already dubious legal system but then they went the whole. its a gathering place for exiles (still a prison)!! a home for those alienated by the surface world after so long (so why KEEP them in there that long)!!!! protectors of egerias secret (okay Sure. but whats the need post prophecy then)!!!! And its like. okay im not about to uhh. overstep my understanding of the risk a chinese company limited by often nebulous and inconsistent censorship would take if they went for a full on prison reform/abolishing angle w the writing like i dont think that was in the cards. But it still means meropide as a system just falls apart if u think abt its existence critically At All and its hard to say whether fontaines writing omitting sth like it entirely wouldve ultimately been better for the overall focus of the story anyway. but yeah

and its just. im sure theres even more that i havent even noted here (logistics of nobody drowning in the flood & rest of teyvat being unaffected etc etc) bc this is just a rant ramble not a coherent analysis but my point in all of this is that the abundance of issues like these just kinda add up so that by the end its kinda like fontaines simultaneously the AQ that id say has the highest highs in terms of its best moments and strongest emotional beats and how much heart it carries . Like im not taking that away from it.

but its also the AQ with like genuinely the messiest fucking groundwork in lore and larger worldbuilding implications whose aftermath leaves the most plot threads barely explored or just discarded altogether by the end and its just?? Such a weird mess like i very much enjoyed it despite the problems and for me it still overtakes sumeru in many aspects but i cant pretend those problems arent there . like consistency of writing and lore accounted for sumeru is still the best AQ

(oh also. the fact that to my knowledge no fucking fontaine NPC Ever reacts to the events throughout the AQ is fucking insane. like other nations could get away w sth like that better but. THE ENTIRE NATION FLOODED. How the fuck arent they talking. ppl in meropide post act IV abt the close call. ppl who saw the narwhal in the opera house in V. Like . HUH???)

but yeah its . A weird situation w fontaines writing as a whole . & yes im giga late to the discussion HSJSJSKSI but oh well thats my brain for ya

[corals-corner]

Gimme your thoughts on how you think Spade King's gonna turn out by the end of Deltarune! For example:

Will Spade King have a redemption arc? Why or why not?

How will Spade King's relationships with other characters change? Will they get better or worse? Examples can include Lancer, Queen, Susie, etc.

Do you think any knowledge of Spade King's life before Deltarune will be given? If so, how much, and what?

What role do you think Spade King will have by the end of the game? Will he be a/the king again, a regular citizen, or something else?

What about personality/behavior? Will Spade King change in this regard? If he will, how would he change?

Those are just hypotheticals ofc lol, you can think of more questions if you want :)!

Wooo okay :DDD

1. Yes and no. I think a redemption arc will be started, but we won't see much of it. Since deltarune (likely) takes place over the course of at most 7 days, I feel like a week is too little time to really give him the development he deserves. I do really hope we see him slowly and subtlety begin to change though

2. Overall, I think it can get better over time with everyone. Once he learns about the roaring and how it affects darkners, I think it could help him change his view. Of course, if he listens to what's being told. I do want his relationship with Lancer to improve greatly and I really wanna see their father-son relationship. And I really wanna see his and Queen's relationship develop because I want to know more about them,how their relationship even was, and their past

3. I think the most we'll explicitly see will be either how he met the Knight, or some time right before the lightners left. I don't think we'll be given much story about him or even his childhood as much as i'd love to see it. He'll, we might not even see anything other than just memories told to us but not shown because he's such a disliked and minor sidecharacte, atleast at the moment. I do hope he gets a bigger role at the end and he either stands up to the Knight or we see him directly fighting with them as a sorta final boss battle thing

4. Something I think would fit is him working for Ralsei as a sort of advisor. Since he has experience ruling a kingdom, I think he could help Ralsei out a lot in ruling Castle Town. Of course only if they do talk it out at one point and if King no longer wants to kill him. I don't think the other darkners would want to see him as their king again, or that the lightners would give him the opportunity. But one of my personal thoughts that's probably unrealistic but makes me happy to think about is that he'd have a bakery or a kitchen bc I hc that he likes to cook and bake.

5. I want to imagine he'll stay the same for the most part. He'll still be grumpy and prideful and keep his high sense of justice. I do however think that he'll be calmer and more open to listening to others opinions. Doesn't mean he'll agree with them, but he won't be dismissive or aggressive towards the person. I feel like his personality he has rn is a key part of him so changing it would make him feel like he's a different character

Also, good to see you active again :D

[soulgathered-archived]

alright time for the opinion post . I wanna start with a few things that won't need to be spoilered :

I strongly dislike the changes the graphical update did to mae & knew that would potentially sour the way I feel about dt & I was right. there were some angles that got me all "oh u know what I totally am on board with this!" & then the angle would change & I'd, in reallife, make a lil offended gasp bcs "ohh no. hate this ! hate this ! I want my wol back" this isn't in regards to mods. I just legit miss vanilla mae from pre-dt. miss their old lips (which are the biggest issue to me) miss their old eye shape, their face shape etc.

if you cannot handle someone critiquing something you love ( mind you that I love 14 too ) then this post is not for you. the amount of disgusting hate i saw towards people with legit critics of the expac is... baffling. the devs won't be able to grow if we just coddle them.

I still think ew should have been 2 expacs, to finish the arr-ew storyline better & set up the new one.

I have played with JP voices since HW because this was an actual advice back in the day. HW + its patches were not big enough yet to warrant having to listen to what ARR delivered. I also always watch at least one streamer play 14 with english VAs to get both experiences ! because yeah actually english gives you the proper feeling of scale & distance by having characters with accents. as far as I can tell right now I think all the DT voices are amazing

& from here on spoiler territory !

...you were warned if you are still here this is on you .

but I wanna start with stuff I liked / adored .

wu.k lam.at & ko.ana's family bond. I will forever be weak for chosen family bonds & they are soso cute. I love their personalities. I wanna see more of them.

In general the environmental story telling & the details they put into telling the stories of region was soso much better, loved it. I loved exploring the zones & noticing stuff or just talking to NPCs.

the end reveal with the key showing the az.em symbol made me giggle. I am sure it won't lead to a "oh so az.em fucked up" thing but it still amuses me to think they did.

happy kr.ile got character development, she really does deserve it & she is a lovely addition to the team.

erenvil.le, ko.ana & wu.k la.mat are among my faves now without a doubt.

the third & lvl 95 dungeon music slapped. actually when the music is good it's SO good.

t.uli.yollal is stunning, feels so lived in. I like spending time there & just zooming around. srsly the graphic update looks so good in environments & the DT ones are soso stunning. also best inn / tavern room we ever had. who needs housing i am staying in there !!!!

however a good base does not make a great game & overall the story was just. mid. it exists I guess. it feels so weirdly cut off from past expacs? like you tell me they didn't hear shit about anything ever? other continent or not how do you miss the final days I don't care if it was "contained to some places" that kinda stuff goes around.

I don't need the people to know the wo.l's name or look but come on you have heard of them + the sci.ons. I know ppl say "we don't need to always be the mc stop demanding that" ...sorry that in a game that I pay money for I want my character to be important. all our character does is nod sagely to give WL some confidence & half the time she isn't even looking. if i can write my character out within seconds & end up at pretty much the same point at the end then there was no point for us being there.

this legit felt a bit like them looking at what ppl adored at previous expa.cs, copying it & copying it worse. zone 6 ? this might be my biased but like changing it as we did? that should have been an amau.rot or elpi.s thing. at least that had impact. I only cared for one character in there & yes her memories being shut down was sad but like. kay.

...can we stop with fantasy races who love money btw? I am sure it was not meant that way but man did that make me feel uncomfy as a Jewish person. especially the whole 'they used to be slaves now they are merchants adoring money' GUESS WHY SO MANY JEWS WERE MERCHANTS !! guess what was one of the few things they were allowed to do esp when romans took em along as slaves.

However in the same sense I did love the tradition of remembering the dead because that way nobody is really gone. Again I doubt SE planned that they accidentally nailed Jewish philosophy but that was fun.

....zor.aal j.a was boring. I kept waiting for some big twist but no he's just another daddy issue guy. only that the story really wants me to believe his dad is great !! so caring !! ....can't fcking see his son's own issues. the guy who DEFINITELY knew about how fcked bless.ed siblings were & he can't see the strain that being called a "miracle" put on his kid? this is why i waited for some plottwist of ZJ having other plans all along.

also I am sorry "we had war 80 years ago people are too comfy with peace" ...that. that is within living memory especially with 14 races ! that was the worst motivation. at least stretch the time!!

sph.ene was actually fine I like her, it's just.............we had her. several times. hello there moe-fied as.cian ! hello there not-amau.rot. totally not. this is not copied homework. at all. it was just a narrated last dungeon once more telling us about how great things used to be until they weren't. it totally wasn't "person who was loved by their people got twisted to save them" this is all...so...new...

this is a nitpick & an amusing one but ere.nvilles accent just makes no sense anymore. they really just wrote smth & were like "screw established stuff from before" ( i don't remember if it's a quest detail or one of the extra published stories but they had to go back & rewrite smth bcs it contradicted DT )

which maybe is my biggest gripe with the story. unless they HAD to acknowledge smth from previous stuff they just. copied it - in a worse way, for me at least - or just ignored it which at times felt so insulting.

the scene with the sick kid? eh hello? fairly sure we fixed stuff like that. we can just go grab ali.saie later & bring ange.lo along--? i feel like in previous expacs wo.l at least would have mentioned that to sphe.ne but then stuff with ZJ goes wrong so it gets pushed aside (but it's at least on our mind & not a surprise when the solution appears randomly bcs I fear that just might happen)

....most of the scio.ns felt like they were forcefully written in just so we had full parties for trials.

minor dumb stuff that is very me specific: i don't like sol.ution 9. i don't like the aesthetic, the vibe. just i don't like it. didn't like the ending song either. felt very shou.nen isek.ai-ish it's just not my type of song.

...wu.k lam.at i love you but you are among the worst trust characters i ever encountered I am sobbing i dunno if this is supposed to reflect her personality or she is programmed that badly. I never struggled with a trust so much.

I don't mind the trope of "love & friendship will safe the day" but....again it was just done better in the past ( end of ew, drk story, stb why we went with ly.se & stuck by her, arr raids...just. it has been done better )

as much as this probably sounds like just hating in truth it was. absolutely an okay expac.........just very mid. we had better, we deserve better but this wasn't "the end of 14" like how some ppl act. it served its purpose & i so hope that as the story goes on we look back at it more fondly for setting stuff up. a severable start to a new story. probably. depends what the future brings. a 6/10 for me.

[puppy-phum]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme!

(created by @fiercynn)

thank you for tagging me vi @disasterbabygirlnick and sorry i'm so late!

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

vish, 25, demi/bi, from finland. lately been thinking about going by she/they instead of she/her. maybe even more they/she if i can put it that way.

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

i started watching the series and joined the fandom after ep 7 had aired. it all begun on my christmas break at my parents’ place where binged all the available episodes in a couple of days. my christmas was spent thinking about the rooftop kiss and how that absolutely ruined me. BB was never on my radar bc the title didn’t really intrigue me (i have bad experiences with BLs with silly titles) and i wasn’t really thinking about watching a series with ohm again, but i am so happy that tumblr dragged me in. changed my life and my perspective on BLs. and now i’m way too deep in this shit hehe

favorite ship(s)

patpran and waikorn. i adore inkpha too but mainly as a GL couple that has made me feel comfortable and seen. they never stuck with me as much. patpran are my comfort and waikorn give me extreme brainworms.

favorite character(s)

my two architecture losers aka pran and wai. pran is me, i am him. he gets it, to put it simply. wai, then again, is very my brand of blorbo, my bastard son, my horrible wet rat boy, my hissy kitten. the maker of chaos and absolutely horrible with feelings. i could fix him, i could make him worse, and i’d enjoy every moment of it.

favorite episode(s)

ep 11 for the overall bittersweet feeling. the whole episode just feels like the calm before a storm. it’s their sweet goodbye to each other despite nothing ever truly ending between them. also ep 5 for the ending part but also for pat’s journey to self-discovery.

favorite scene(s) 

from ep 5 the whole ending part: the three-way fight, the rooftop kiss, and even pran going through it at the beginning of ep 6. ep 11 shirt scene and pat thanking pran, pat in music store discovering himself, wai protecting hurt pran in the rugby game (the brainworms are real with this one), ep 12 reveal where pran comes to pat's door, hotpot double date, bar scene at the end. oh, and absolutely the fiasco that is wai trying to flirt with pha in the park while ink is there. that one's golden.

one thing you would change about the show if you could

i agree on the wai apology with you vi. it should happen as a nod towards the fact that his behavior was not ok. even if things got sorted out for patpran and even if in their world wai’s actions didn’t have as dire consequences as they could have in the real world (where homophobia is very real), the viewers should get shown that he acknowledges his wrongdoings and that patpran deserve a proper apology from someone like him. ALSO PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD LET WAIKORN BE TOGETHER P’AOF AM UNDER YOUR BED

what are some of your favorite fanworks made by other people

tried to gather some type of list and probably missed so many but at least these:

[x] bad buddy rewatch episode edits by @baifengxis ♥ [x] all this type of random bb gifs (the coloring in all of them is stunning!) [x] this patpran in ep 11 edit [x] patpran + rooftop edit + many other edits bc the style is just stunning, all by @pranink ♥ [x] patpran spiderman au [x] gifted buddy set for my bday both by the amazing @dimpledpran ♥ love you! [x] this lovely just friend? -edit by @/coldties ♥ [x] patpranmusic series by @bevioletskies ♥ [x] this inkpha edit by @akingyouniverse ♥ [x] pran as favourite character [x] favorite patpran moments both made by @nanons who always nails the colors ♥ [x] this super cool just friend? mv edit by @prany ♥ [x] how to get the girl guide by @weiwuxian ♥ [x] this celestial patpran set [x] favorite episode: episode 7 set made with pure magic by @raypakorn ♥ [x] favorite scene: main six at the bar by @dramaism ♥ [x] architecture gang by @mantrisanu ♥ [x] the most amazing bb photobooth art by @/thatgothsamurai ♥ [x] this stunning yet heartbreaking patpran set by @guntapon ♥ [x] inkpha + taylor swift's mastermind [x] best dynamic: person a + person b [x] patpran + distance [x] patpran and the fleeting happiness in ep 11 [x] bb study in film noir [x] bb/patpran ft. the old guard all by my forever inspiration and muse @oswlld ♥ i miss you!

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

oh yes i managed to make a ton of edits for this show (and still sometimes do), so here are a couple of personal favorites:

[x] patpran + the desire for reassurance [x] patpran + sea of strangers [x] patpran + i had you (what if it all was just a dream) [x] this patpran soulmates edit [x] patpran as sun & moon [x] patpran's love through the season (my peak imo) [x] patpran + signposts (another peak but for different style) [x] my otp: patpran [x] fighter pran [x] the real five love languages [x] pran's life anthem: i won't say (i'm in love)

i've spent so much time and effort making all of my edits for bb and i don't regret any of it. i've had so much fun and met so many amazing ppl through them ♥ thank you!

a song that makes you think of bbs (the ones in the show don’t count lol)

i didn’t have a much of a playlist for BB outside of the songs in the show but maybe: if god had a boat by anyma, are you with me by nilu, and my oasis by sam smith. (i was very focused on not me during this period when it comes to music, so i associate most songs with that instead.)

idk anything else you want us to know?

i think the next edit I need to make for bb is a wai text post meme bc for some reason i haven't made one yet??? so see you there!!

tagging: idk who has done this already bc i'm so late but @dimpledpran @mantrisanu @oswlld @nanons @machikeita @milkpansa @icouldhyperfixatehim @thanawins @seanwhites @i-got-the-feels @patspran @nongnaos ♥

[canyonroads]

Advice: If you find yourself suddenly experiencing new Symptoms, it's important to do some experimenting with your environment to see if there's an external cause before you go assuming there's an internal one.

Related Story: So, recently I've been experiencing really bad neuropathy. It began several weeks ago when my hands started falling asleep while I was sleeping. At first, it wasn't a huge deal bc this is something that has happened to me on and off for years- Im a side sleeper. But then it started getting BAD. Like, I'd wake up multiple times a night to my hand painfully dead, have to shake feeling back in the it and deal with the Tingles for several minutes, roll over to my other side, rinse, repeat.

It has made sleeping very challenging, and then to make matters worse, the neuropathy started happening in the day, too. Drawing, playing video games, even just typing too much on my phone would make my hands start zapping and tingling and falling asleep. I couldn't hold shit. It's very painful, if you've never experienced neuropathy BTW.

I started hitting Google but overall wasn't happy with what I was seeing. All the reasons to develop neuropathy are pretty ugly- I started convincing myself I was diabetic and accept that this might be my quality of life now.

Then I started talking to the people in my life. Upon some chatting with my mom, I discovered that she was also briefly dealing with some neuropathy recently- a few weeks ago, even also convincing herself that she was diabetic until it went away. A little baffled, I asked her what changed and she offered a few possible reasons it stopped.

One of which was that she stopped sleeping with her wedge pillow. The wedge pillow that I recommended to her because I have the same one at home.

I stopped sleeping with the damn thing 3 nights ago and I haven't had a moment of neuropathy since. In fact, I had a "normal" hand falling asleep moment earlier that really put in perspective how painful the repeated nerve damage was. I even reached out to the friend who got me the wedge pillow and he's ALSO started experiencing some neuropathy while he sleeps with his.

So if you're using a wedge pillow and youre a side sleeper or a tossy turner; hey. Keep a careful eye on your body IG

[hotcocoabombb]

archiving my thoughts on sonic 06 with some light revisions since I'm hoping to abandon twitter now :)

Sonic's campaign:

I finally beat Sonic's campaign. Did I enjo- no. Not at all. This was absolute ass. It felt like torture. I forced myself to do this out of curiosity. The last cutscene was nice but Jason is so bleh as Sonic he took me out of it. Elise and Sonic had a good relationship but the rest of the story was dumb, the gameplay was either boring or frustrating, and honestly the only redeeming qualities were the music and the story being laughably bad. So I give Sonic's campaign a 1.5/10, although that could change depending on the other campaigns

Shadow's story:

Just beat shadows campaign. I think past me summed it up well. This was better than Sonics campaign, but in the same way where I'd rather get punched in the face instead of getting punched in the balls. There's no mach speed and no level quite hits the low of Sonic's Kingdom Valley, but overall this just wasn't fun. It was less frustrating and more boring, which honestly I'd take in a heartbeat. Also I don't see why people rave about his characterization in this game so much. Like yeah that sure was how shadow the hedgehog would react in this moment. Nothing groundbreaking, idk why people lose their shit over it all the time. The story is still weak as fuck, mephiles is an awful villian with no presence, and the voice acting is very meh. I'd give it a 2.5/10 overall. Better than Sonic's but not by much.

Silver's Campaign:

I just beat silvers campaign and holy shit he is the best one by FARRRRRR. Sure, silver is slower in a speed platformer, but because 06 controls so awfully the slower speed actually helps the game feel, plus his hover helps how bad mid-air movement feels. And his levels are all fun! The ball puzzle genuinely didn't give me any issues somehow so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ it's fine lmao. This is still sonic 06, so it's not amazing, but I actually had some fun. 5/10. I might play some of these levels again one day. Onto Last Story!

Last Story/Final Thoughts:

Unfortunately the energy from Silvers campaign didn't carry over. End of the World is rage inducing making you use all of the broken characters that aren't fun to control, and the final boss is boring, but functional at the very least. On its own that gets a 3/10. As for the game itself, Sonic 06 is like the kid who fails every exam. Like you can tell he's trying but it's just disappointing yet expected at a certain point. Everything good in this game would be SO much better if you experienced it in any other Sonic game. The only thing this game has going for it is Silver's Campaign, which isn't even that good, it's just relatively better than the rest imo. All of this leads to me just feeling like I wanted to play any other game in this franchise, and it just made me feel like i was slowly decending into madness. I'm glad I played it, even if just to give myself the experience, but outside of a few levels from Silver's campaign I never wanna touch this game again. This is the 2nd biggest exercise in frustration I've ever had, and I'm not exactly chomping at the bit to play it. Onto the story. It's terrible. Aside from Silver, who may just be my favorite Sonic character now, this whole game just has awful writing. When they try to pull emotional moments at the end, they didn't land bc I didn't care. Sonic dying is actually the dumbest fucking part of this game. His death scene literally made me cackle the first time I saw it. Frontiers ending pre-update 3 handles this better, and that was rushed beyond belief. Every part of this story thats "good" is, once again, better in any other sonic game. People rave about Shadows writing but honestly it's only slightly above sonics, and way worse than silvers. It may sound like I'm trying to be contrarin but this is seriously how I feel. But TLDR, Sonic 06 is one of the most dreadful experiences I've ever had. I was begging it to end by the time I reached the end of sonics campaign, but instead it dragged itself out for 2 more tedious campaigns, an ending that underwhelmed more than frontiers, a shitty final boss, and made me never wanna touch my 360 again. 3.5/10. The only reason it's not lower is because of Silvers campaign, and the music. Never again

[thedreadvampy]

ok so not to sound like a bitter fuck but the way people are reblogging this like YEAH I HAVE THESE EXACT EXPERIENCES #RELATABLE is really kind of how I got in this situation

it isn't that I don't recognise that the traumatic things that have happened to me are traumatic things. it's that:

a) in my experience we tend to cluster together and pick up on shared experiences, like SAME HAT style, bc it immediately pings when you're taking to someone like OH, YOU GET IT. YOU KNOW THE HORRORS. so like we're way more likely to talk about this stuff to other people who've had similar experiences. which is good but also

b) we tend not to really have a baseline for how common difficult or stigmatised experiences are. The categories are kind of "no," "maybe but they wouldn't tell you," "one specific incident" or "more than once".

what that means is my whole life I have been hanging out with people and having conversations with people who largely have experienced X thing as a fact of life.

so first that makes you assume that X is something most people have experienced, which is a whole process to unlearn bc you normalise your own experiences very easily.

but even once you recognise that actually, for example, not everyone HAS had many, or any, experiences of rape, there can be another stage to recognising how common your experiences aren't. which is like. uhhhh what do each of us mean when we say "many"?

because with rape as an example, I have had some conversations with people I've known for years, who I've met through survivor activism, where we're both like, VERY repeat survivors of similar types of assault. and in most cases it doesn't matter whether "this has happened a lot" means 5 people or 30 people because the point is that it's normalised complex trauma which affects you in similar ways once it ceases to be a shocking aberration and becomes part of the normal state of play. so what MATTERS is that it's 'a lot', especially bc raw numbers can be hard to define and bc also there isn't a direct comparability - more incidents doesn't necessarily correlate to a more traumatic overall experience, and anyway formative experience isn't a numbers game, it's a question of whether it's happened enough to be normalised into your models of the world.

and that's what I was reflecting on here, not 'oh I've just realised these are traumatic experiences not everyone has' (and not 'i have it Worse Than Anyone Else' bc see above re trauma not being a numbers game) but the way that I sometimes am like oh lol that's wild because I am confronted with the idea that even when people are like 'oh I have experienced this lots' and I'm like 'oh I have experienced this lots', they're thinking 5 or 6 times and I'm thinking like 30+.

this is difficult to talk about btw because it SOUNDS a lot like dickswinging 'I have the Most Trauma' and I don't think I do, but I do think it's sometimes funny how off my baselines are because like the things I listed above are limited to things that have been major parts of a majority of my relationships (/relevant experiences)

so I only listed stuff that I would say has been relevant in 15+ discrete relationships (except the work thing cause I've only had like 6 jobs and 5 of them went through management collapse, and the A&E thing cause I don't drive so that's limited to the 3 years I was in walking distance of a hospital so it's only like like 8 people) and which I have at some point been talking to someone ELSE who has had that be a recurrent experience, in the context of 'isn't it wild how normal this experience is in our lives', and has the realisation that even in those contexts those things have happened kind of a lot in my life.

and I suspect we all have some stuff like this. because baselining what 'this happens a lot' means is HARD. but I also keep being told by people around me (who are all also People Of X Experiences) that I am still not registering how much of X experience I seem to have had relative to the people around me. which is an ongoing process.

'your experiences are not universal' here means 'that was a fucked up experience you've normalised that isn't actually as common as you think it is'

'your experiences are EXTREMELY ATYPICAL' here means 'even considering that this is a not-normal experience, you have a pretty weird relationship to it compared to other people with similar experiences'

and that's what this is about. and I am being a shitty little bitch about this but given that that's what I'm trying and failing to say here I'm not enjoying people reblogging it like 'YEAH ME TOO I HAVE THOSE EXACT EXPERIENCES' like yeah I know! loads of people do! I'm trying to disambiguate for myself where I stand in relation to a much more specific cohort!

(also honestly I just don't like when people rb my posts about my experiences with 'THIS ME' bc no it isn't it's me. I'm taking about my experiences. I'm me! You're you! These posts are shorthand for some specifics about my experience and even if yours is a very similar experience and set of feelings this isn't about you! It's about me! I'm trying very hard to be more about me!)

sometimes I forget that my experience has been. um. not 'your experiences are not universal' vibes but more like 'your experiences are EXTREMELY atypical'

[dontbethatguy20]

throwaway bc I'm too embarrassed to do this on my main

Saw you were taking Apex and Ow match requests and I'd like both

I'm a 5'11 - 6" dude (can't remember which one) skinny (125lbs) shaggy blonde hair that's really soft. Bright blue eyes, tan-ish skin. Love soulsborne and TES games, could go on for hours abou the lore and game mechanics. Love Thrash/heavy metal. Im a Front man in an armature thrash band. I'm bi with an inkling towards women because of bad experiences with men. I'm loud and childish but i can be serious if I need to be. I cry a lot and need constant reassurance because I have really bad anxiety about people liking me.

In overwatch I match you with D.va

She also loves to play video games, I feel like her favorite soulsborne game would be dark souls 3, she would absolutely get wrecked when invaded but totally valid, but she would end up being ok at invasions in the long run after playing for so long.

She thinks it's cool that your in a band, even if the music is not entirely her style.

She loves that you could be childish, because so is she. You two can do childish things together. Also, with her she can't be serious even in a serious situation.

You won't need to worry about her leaving you, because she is always so lovable towards you.

_________________________________________

Your apex match up is octane

He's also also plays video games, he's more into shooting games but he could also get into the soulsborne games and other games your into.

You also have the same interest in music, witch is not surprising, that type of music hypes him up.

He loves that you are in a band, he will ask you questions about it, like, a lot of questions. Like, what's it's like, and what do you do, or even how it feels to be in a band.

He is also loud and childish and it shows so you guys can match each other's energy.

He's honestly ok at reassuring people though he's not the worse at it. But if you need reassuring then he'll try.

Overall, you too are way to similar.

[residentfurry]

I mean, is it ever said that she aided in kidnapping? As far as I'm aware, Evie was raised in the lab, which is ultimately what leads to her wanting a family so badly (as well as being conditioned and 'designed' to do so). Also, I think Mia was just paid to aid in transporting Evie and looking after her, I don't think she had any part of doing experiments on her, besides administering medication that kept Evie stable (which led to the boat incident, poor Evie 😭 can u rlly blame a girl off her meds?)

And, personally, I disagree with the notion that Mia isn't a victim. Of course, it's not Eveline's fault that she is a bioweapon, but she does end up having devastating and horrible effects on those around her, meaning to or not. I think to say that what Mia went through is because her 'involvement' in torturing Evie is a bit overboard. Was what she was doing illegal?

Yes. Was what she was doing morally wrong? Yeah LOL. But it's a difficult situation, depending on whether or not you view Evie more as a bioweapon or a child, and then how you think bioweapons should be treated within the story. I think people try to chose one or the other, but that's just not realistic within the story. As much as I would like (and lemme tell you, I do) for Evie to have a happy ending, Evie is a bioweapon, and this is resident evil. As far as Mia knows, or believes, is that Evie is a bioweapon that is designed to act like a child, and therefore she doesn't treat like a normal kid/treats Evie like a weapon (bc she is one, sadly). Its a sad situation and a tragic story for everyone involved, and sometimes there's just no heros.

It's not wrong that Evie wants a family, but it also isn't wrong that Mia doesn't want to provide that for her. Apart of the horror aspect of that game (at least from my point of view) is the feeling of being forced to do something, whether that is eat people or have a family. It's valid that Mia doesn't or didn't want to have a child at that moment.

Overall, and despite what I said above, I think what OP was trying to emphasize was more on how Mia gets treated by fandom compared to other characters, specifically male characters. They weren't saying you can't hate her, or even be disgusted with her actions, but the point is that many other characters do much worse without as much hate, and it ends up feeling undeserved. A lot of female characters get treated like this, and it feels like Mia gets demonized alot by the fandom, which is exhausting.

Ethan didn't want to have Evie as a kid either, remember? Is he not a victim too?

thank you for defending mia! its so exhausting being a fan of her in this fandom. so many people completely disregard her three years of trauma because ethan's one night is more important (and it is! its still trauma! but its totally reasonable for mia not to wanna talk about it imo?) and ignoring that she was being controlled (or that ethan killed her with an axe and then shot her, even if it was self defence). ive seen people say she deserves what happened because she made evie when...evie was made years before mia even joined the company and is a special agent not a researcher/scientist, or that she abuses ethan when the arguments are actually miranda and the flashback seems to imply her frustration is with ethans refusal to move on and let the two of them move forward with their lives or family. and of course ignoring mia sacrificed herself on the ship for ethan! they both need therapy but they love each other, the two arent mutually exclusive. any excuse to hate a woman i guess!

SO SO REAL anon I am kissing your forehead, YES. Also like in the flashback when we see Mia actually trying to talk about it by expressing her care for Ethan and how their and Rose's health matters and when she finally starts to say what she means,,,, Ethan gets a phone call and chooses to take the phone call over listening to Mia :/// "I wish Mia would talk about what happened with me" *ignores her when she does* Like I'm sorry I love Ethan too but c'mon😭😭Fr they both need hella therapy but people forget that Mia's brain was fucked with for an entire three years. That's a shit load worse than anything I could ever imagine, and while Ethan experienced the Bakers for a night, at least he was never mind controlled. Like Mia went through hell and back to keep him safe and people still hate her. It's heartbreaking. And it IS exhausting having to constantly repeat myself in defending her but it's worth it, she's a great character

[darktimesdarkvibes]

Yandere!Taecyeon (2PM) Headcanons

July 11, 2021 | 1,561 words

Series masterlist

Assumes reader is an adult, but includes for if you have an age gap

Taec's is the darkest post in this series (but there's still far darker yandere posts out there, so just take the tws into account)

Gender-neutral reader I think

tw: age gap, toxic behavior, mention of non-con kiss, short depiction of non-con cuddling, intimidation, restraint, manhandling, gaslighting mention, manipulation, kidnapping, murder, yandere (which is basically thinking you are "in love" with someone but actually you should see a psychiatrist and that's really not a joke. This character trope can become very sick and violent and abusive at their worst, though I tend to go for the softer variety. They are often possessive, over-protective, delusional, etc.)

I don’t believe Taecyeon is actually like this nor do I condone the unhealthy behaviour in this post

Taecyeon is a pretty traditional yandere

Doesn't care a whole lot about an age gap. He likes who he likes at the end of the day

It will give him pause if you are around ten years apart but he gets over it quickly

Protective but also very possessive in certain situations

Gaslighter and manipulator as well

Feels like he's the only one who really "gets" you and vice-versa, and tells you so repeatedly

He’d like you see his strength as something he’ll use to protect you, and he doesn’t want to hurt you

But in a pinch he’ll use it to intimidate you if necessary

Overall he just wants you to remain aware that he’s just a much larger and stronger individual than average, especially as odds are you are not built like him

(Although on the off-chance you are, my reader, that’ll just make him try even harder with you to achieve a similar effect)

He likes that you remember his strength and size, because he hopes it will make you realize that you are safer with him than without him

It gives him a bit of a thrill that you know he's bigger than you

And even if he denies to himself that part of the reason he wants you to recognize it is it might intimidate you, and therefore make you “stay in line”, that is a potential benefit and he knows it

However whenever you acknowledge it he loves it

Especially if you mention how he could probably beat another guy in a fight or protect you, he gets feels warm in his chest and gets excited all at once

He knows he's hot and uses it from day one

Going off of that point and the points about safety and intimidation and all that from above, he’s going to make sure you see him shirtless. Like, live and in-person

He’s going to try to make it happen when you are alone together as well

This is both to amplify the effects mentioned above, and to push more intimacy into your relationship, even if you are not officially romantically involved yet

He won't limit it to one time either

He wants you to see him

Overall tries really hard to make you laugh though too

Acts very sweet/cute until he's not (more on that later)

A very touchy boyfriend, he always wants to be holding hands or standing/sitting as close to you as possible

Actually he automatically puts an arm around you, unless you demote him to hand-holding for some reason

Even if it seems like a situation where that would be inappropriate

He especially does this in public, so even though he’s confident he’s not immune to territoriality

Even if you do have an age gap, he doesn't have that "parental" vibe that Minjun and Nickhun sometimes have

It feels more like you two are on a similar level bc he's so goofy

But if he just so happens to have helpful experience then he will offer some guidance, so if you have an age gap it may happen occasionally

It just has a less parental vibe and more of the typical “senior-in-life” or “friend’s older brother” kind of vibe

Flirts quite physically even before dating, and comes off as kind of cocky

Quite forward and persistent, and likes to fluster you a bit if possible

Which is another reason why he'll make sure you see him shirtless

But he also wants you to happily reciprocate his attention

He also just touchy with you in general though, even before you are dating and when he’s not really flirting

Doesn’t stalk you so much, but when you are in the same room (which he makes sure happens as often as possible) he is always watching you, to the extent that you might well pick up on it

He will stalk you though if he has gone a long time without seeing you (it's got to be a couple times a week at the very very least)

He also will if he is having a rough day and you're firm that you can't hang out with him (otherwise he's been known to tag along while you are just running errands because he is so attached to you)

If he hasn't seen you for a while he gets sulky

Gets visibly angry and more impulsive if someone messes with you

If they intend to harm you or if they actually do harm you then they’re totally fucked

He’s going to kill them, but first he’ll scare them and make them suffer

But because he’s pissed he ends up killing them pretty quickly

He just can't stand the sight of them and he wants them gone

He won't go that far with just anyone, because he's pretty confident that he should be your first choice in a mate, but when he's pushed he'll do it

Like if someone just flirts with you a little then he’ll just step in and get rid of them, then he’ll forget about them

But if they make you actually uncomfortable or worse, then they’re dead

Overall his thinking regarding you can get kind of primal

Hence why I used the word "mate" before

It’s his own word choice

That’s really another core reason he wants you to see his strength

He wants to show off that he should be your first pick

He’s also more likely to kidnap you

Will use force to restrain you if necessary and possible, and again it’s not a bad deal for him if he can be physically very close to you while simultaneously reminding you that he’s stronger than you

It's not even so much overpowering you itself that he likes, because he wants you to be happy

He's just got a weird fixation

He's also a weird kidnapper though because he’ll be trying to keep the atmosphere really light and fun as if you aren’t being held captive

He’ll make jokes and suggest games to play

He also doesn’t feel super guilty about it because he probably feels justified

Perhaps you found out he killed one or more people for you, so he didn't see another option

Or you were going to leave him

Even if he's not very guilty, he’ll still be upset that you’re upset though, and will be wanting Stockholm Syndrome or something to kick in, both for his benefit and so you're happier

He’s a bit impatient and frustrated by the wait, but he doesn’t really take it out on you

Might force a kiss or two over the course of your early relationship, but no more than that

Especially if you clearly don't want it, he'll back off on that and may switch to forehead kisses

He may also force some cuddles. For example, some spooning as you’re tied to a bed

He’s totally calm and blissfully asleep with his arm around you, and all you can hear is his even breathing and perhaps some light snoring

Meanwhile you are in a fight-flight-freeze response, until you are finally so exhausted that you fall asleep

But then you wake up and he really hasn't done anything to you

He really did just want to cuddle

So it is pretty confusing for you, which will probably work in his favor

If you are off your guard and confused, then it’s easier for him to manipulate you

He may also put on a movie and cuddle with you while you are restrained, and act like nothing is amiss. He'll be all laughter and smiles and will act very innocent and soft with you in his arms

Which is again confusing

If you give him attitude or struggle, then he'll either try to soothe you or he'll be firm with you to restrain you

"Hey! Hey... It's okay, I won't hurt you..."

Or,

"Stop that. You know it won't get you anywhere."

He forces cuddles because first of all, he wants to. But also because he thinks it might help you get used to him and your new situation

Because there’s no way he’s just letting you out of it

When you express that you want to leave, he may well belittle you a bit by treating what you want as a joke

Because really in his point of view it's laughable that you would leave

"Come on, you know you're not allowed!" he says with a smile

But if you keep it up he'll get firmer

"You know that's not gonna happen."

So he’s a little bit delusional and unstable

First time together:

For your first time together he's gentle but he's firm

So somehow you simultaneously feel safe, but it goes without saying that he's the one in control

He's leading you where you need to go, and he may well even place your hands for you on his body

Or pin them down

He will never do anything you don't want, but he likes to take the lead and show some physical power and have his weight over you

Pretty much anything wild you wanna do in the future he's probably up for

Very open to suggestions

But he wants to remain in-control

That’s non-negotiable

Good dirty talk

“Yeah just like that baby”

“I make you feel good, right?”

Overall the man is fucked up but in a hot way

[vonkarma2]

either breaking bad or revolutionary girl utena whichever you’d prefer

I wanted to do both but that would take a long time so I decided to do some for rgu and some for breaking bad and some for both of them. Enjoy this confusing and disorienting experience

favorite male character: There’s really not that many to choose from in rgu most of them suck. Miki wins by doing nothing. For real though I am sympathetic to him and I think he’s interesting (even though his English va sounds weirdly old and also like the voice of tintin from the tintin tv show) + he’s just a guy yk he’s just a kid like the rest of the student council members so I do feel bad for him + want him to leave Ohtori and all. Also honorable mention to that little boy whose name I forget, some people hated his episode and I get why but I didn’t dislike it. In breaking bad I have to say ummmmmm saul for being funny 

favorite female character: Skyler by default since she got the most focus out of any female character, but genuinely I like a lot of scenes with her even though occasionally I have some problems with how she’s written overall it’s not even that bad it’s so frustrating how hated she is I feel like at worst people should be largely indifferent but they’re literally insane. But yeah that one argument she had with Walter about waiting for him to die late in the game was really good that was like the most intense scene in the show for me. With rgu it’s close between Utena Anthy and Nanami (although I like the other female characters too especially Juri). All of those 3 have been my favorite and it changes from time to time, but currently it’s Utena her design and personality + really charming and I think she’s very sympathetic, + I also like how they made her flawed in a lot of ways which are shown very subtly. Also I like her pink hair it’s so cute goated character design

least favorite character: The answer to this isn’t going to be interesting it’s Akio he’s like……. I mean if you’ve seen the show you know he’s so manipulative towards these children and is just a disgusting person on every level, not in like a funny way either it’s just really sad to watch. In breaking bad Hank highkey sucks like he gets away with a lot of shit that fans like NEVER talk about, I won’t mention it here bc moderate spoilers but like :| Walter is ofc worse though

prettiest character: Jane <3 

funniest character: Walter White is literally hilarious like throughout the entire show, from the beginning where he’s yelling at Jesse for whatever the fuck, to the time he asked Jesse which one he was when he told him one of his friends was killed, to the time he shut down meth lab production to swat a fly, to the time he crawled through broken glass, to the time he [spoiler] Jesse and somehow was still mad enough at him to tell him about how he [spoiler]. Truly out of touch with reality, and comically incompetent and foolish, until the very end. In rgu it’s nanami

favorite season: for breaking bad s4, it has a very exciting overall narrative and many of my favorite moments were in this season as well. It’s not the very end but it’s far enough in to have a lot going on yk. For Utena it doesn’t have seasons but it does have arcs and I like many other fans love the black rose arc, I really like all the individual episodes and the premise and the visuals, cannot be beat in my opinion 

favorite episode: I actually really liked the episode with one of Nanami’s sidekick girls during the black rose arc I know some people don’t care abt it but for whatever reason it really resonated with me, maybe because she’s stuck even further in the background than Wakaba? Idk I just felt really bad for her + so I really enjoyed her episode. I also liked the episode where Utena fights Mikage, the one where Nanami has to go to India, and the egg episode. Dw I like the actually good popular acclaimed episodes too 

favorite romantic ship: I don’t really have much interest in any of the romantic relationships on either of these shows except Anthy and Utena ofc so them, I like how their relationship ends up actually helping Anthy a lot and legitimately changing her worldview when that hadn’t happened before yk. And then I’ve heard it’s developed more in the movie, but I haven’t seen that, so I wouldn’t know. But I do like them a lot together 

favorite family ship: All the family relationships in both of these shows are pretty bad in one way or another LMAO I wouldn’t really say any of them. I guess Skyler and Walt Jr but even then I just felt bad for her (and also secondhand embarrassment) most of the time.   If we’re counting better call saul (we’re not it’s a different show) then Chuck and Jimmy’s relationship is ofc very interesting and a huge focus of the show. And Miki and Kozue I believe el have some development I think it’s nice to see them kind of fix their relationship ship later on. 

favorite friend ship: Anthy and Chu Chu bitch!!! Chu Chi the only light in the darkness for Anthy for years and they are true friends. I also really like the idea of Juri becoming friends with Utena and Anthy but that’s not really shown very much in the show. In breaking bad I think Badger and Skinny Pete are funny so them I love their Star trek scene that’s like the last funny thing in the show

worst ship: all the bad ones I guess the only like non creepy ship that people have that theres like somewhat indication of in the show is Touga/Saionji which I do kind of dislike considering how toxic both of them are as people and how their relationship is as well, especially with how manipulative Touga is. Some people think of it as post-character development or whatever but even so I don’t really like it. Wait I guess there’s also Juri/Shiori. Yeah that’s not that bad Im sticking with my original answer

[bobzora]

GUESS WHO BEAT PEE3 TODAY (fes, the journey at least)

(lengthy) final thoughts:

ryoji is kind of. um. "that was my name for a while. i didnt mind it." hes kind of trans. is the thing. also bro 100% drew the shortest stick in this game lmao

obviously ryo/mina isnt quite the same as some of the other insane peesona gay people (2,5. 4 is gay but not rlly insane) bc like. in that form at least we only know him for like...two months?or so? but. u know what. they r t4t and both (kind of) dead. good for them.?

jumpscared by "the arcana is the means by which all is revealed." ive been seeing that shit in like. youtube comments since the day i was born. insane

nyx was like. pathetically easy. to the point where i felt kinda bad about it lol. at least its funny. this is what happens when u have level 99 protag + black viper lucifer (+ messiah for salvation for ailment healing. i could just use me patra gems but its more stylish this way). nobody ever got below half health and most phases (minus last bc of the halved non-almighty damage + gown) were a 1/2/3 hit kill. guys who overlevel because they just love the velvet room so so much (and im prolly not gonna do ng+, especially with portable port on its way (femc!). so trying to experience most that i can)

i did cheese the reaper a while back. used thunder reign strat. was actually harder bc new moon rebalance nerfed the shock rate so its not 100% lol. but took advantage of its ai to get it stuck in a break skill loop (akihiko dekunda sweep) the money was nice, and i spent soooo much time in monad levelling personas. wont be able to do liz fight bc not doing ng+. (slightly related: ive played pee5 so many times and ive never actually tried the twins/lvnza/jose fights. vanilla 1 time, royal 1 time, royal again for a friends playthrough but its not ng+, ng+ for 100% royal but only up to exams...royal for another friend's playthru. lol)

yuka/mitsu is real. to me. theyre even the colors of the lesbian flag

i maxed most social links besides magician (bc hes annoying. surt wouldve been nice tho), mitsuru (got up to like 8 then ran out of time), fuuka (trapped at rank 1. dont like her enough, not enough time. sorry. i played with english voices u know how it is), yuko (accidentally reversed her), justice (i know. who would have thought. started her wayyy too late.), keisuke (hes soooo cute like. i wanna look like that tbh. but fortune isnt useful enough and i ran out of time)

speaking of social links i literally hate how they work in this game so so so so much. i dont want to date all these girls! let me hang out with other girls please... this is the biggest example of romance making all these games so much worse. like. what the hell. (aigis is like. the only good female social link (that i finished) (maybe bc she isnt very much a girl))

another mechanic i hate: NOT BEING ABLE TO PICK INHERITED SKILLS. is every ps2 era megaten game like this? i love love love 'sona/demon fusion but it is so much harder to make stupid crazy builds when u have to reroll over and over again. literally just a timewaster. what could have been...i cant believe my lucifer is still weak to ice. WHO USES PEESONAS WITH WEAKNESSES. IN THIS DAY AND AGE????

the extremely strange continuity with 1&2 is fucked up to like. nickelodean sitcom cinematic universe levels. u know.

im still fixated on 5.i make that very obvious. and i do like 5's overall story better (royal being a very big portion of that). but GOD i love love love the theming of this game.

those strega guys r definitely fucking. i literally do not care about them but thats kind of just a fact.

the concept of artificial personas (that kill you) (that u have to take meds for which eventually kill you) REALLYYYY fucks me up what a BANGER CONCEPT. JESUS! JESUS. gg kirijo group.

chidori...(wretched)

akinari... (very wretched)

i dont think i have a favorite. tbh. like i like mitsuru because i like women and shes hot but character wise shes not actually super my type. i like ken because hes the most fucked up ten year old in the world (justice bias). aigis is crazycrazy theres stuff to be said abt her (characters who give metatron bias). yukari is a mean girl and i like that about her (lovers bias). ryoji doesnt have that much screentime for obv reasons but thematically hes cool (guys who beg u to kill them bias). i like the protag a lot (protag bias). yeah

OBVIOUSLY i knew we were gonna die. and when. and where. and how. but :( head in aigis's lap, brushing away her robo-tears... didnt cry but wow this game.

joshua peefee christ figure moment

kimi no kioku is the best 'sona song. period. nyx (avatar)&nyx (nyx) songs go hard too. but man!!!! kimi no kioku!! LOVE how its kind of a motif in so many other parts of the soundtrack, especially near the end...a unifying melody, an overarching theme.

forever from now ill prolly watch the movies just so i can make an amv. this game needs an amv. and unlike pee5 the animovies should cover most of what id want to say in one!

after the answer, ill finally be able to finish eternalpun. im so sorry ive neglected you guys, my friends...my pee2s....

kimi wo i will never leave you <3

[galaxywhale-moved]

I wish I could help your overall mood crappiness. It sucks when others are going through tough times and you can't fix it. I will say that hyperventilating and panic attacks can definitely cause chest pain/tightness. It doesn't help that having chest pains can contribute to the worry, making them even worse.

It also doesn't help when some random internet person gives advice like "just exercise! It fixes everything!" It doesn't plus when you're already super exhausted, that sort of "advice" is out of the question.

I will say as a lifelong panic sufferer what works for me: puzzles. Not like jigsaw type; I mean like sudoku or crosswords. I go out to the grocery store and buy one of those puzzle books from the magazine rack and do some before bed. Making my brain focus on something other than whatever it is stressing out about helps me relax. Plus if you complete one, you get those good brain chemicals. If you get stuck, I give myself full permission to look up an answer guilt-free.

I don't know if it would work for you, too. Everyone is different, but I know I get frustrated when randos give the same trite advice when I'm stressed or depressed.

I hope things get better for you. I hope you find a method that works for you to help control the worry and exhaustion. I also hope you have a human or pet to hug it out when things are tough.

Sending you positive vibes from me and my two fur-kids. 💕

thank you so much for taking the time to write this ;-;

normally when I’ve had experience hyperventilating it is anxiety related and last night may have been related but didn’t feel like it so idk. Wild that I can sleep for 6 hours and still feel it hours later tho. I’ll have to give sudoku etc puzzles a try 💗 I can be pretty good at distracting my brain but then it turns into a choice between distracting my brain and not sleeping bc my brain is active vs removing distractions for sleep and risking my brain being able to focus on things.

and also as a fun fact, when I arrived at my dnd game tonight, the dm was discussing a game he’d played in the past where he and the two others all played kobolds so they could be three kobolds in a trenchcoat, which feels like a fun coincidence :’)