#btw i started watching like end of march 2023

[sweet-potato-42]

I sometimes cant tell if streamer is joking or not and trying to build up the tubbo lore as a relatively new viewer is quite difficult

[kanmom51]

Smeraldo garden marching band - JM

Song and MV - My thoughts

Very long post ahead. Seeing that @andy-wm wrote such an amazing post already, I am sending whoever hasn't read it to go read and like it.

I agree with @andy-wm's thoughts and am going to use it as a base to mine, jot down a few points I would like to either add or emphasize. I could have reblogged, but I felt there was just too much I wanted to convey and better I do it in a separate post.

So let's get it.

Where where where do I start?

Maybe from the end, seeing that the song does seem to open and closes with the BTS reference.

I do agree the song is not JM singing his love to Army.

I've seen Army trying to twist and turn it around once again making it all about Army, JM telling us things he couldn't tell us before, the truth he couldn't before - that he loves army? Say what? Since when did he not tell Army he loved us? Since when was that a truth that had to be hidden? Nah. It's funny how people are getting the whole connection to the Smeraldo flower, the connection to The truth untold (will talk about that a little more later on), but are not willing to take that one extra step and see or admit what that thing JM telling us is.

There is a reason this song comes after Set me free Pt. 2!!

This is a different JM. One that decided to live his life as himself, flying away free like a butterfly.

And he connects the dots in the MV.

This is about something that was obviously hidden by him until now, something he is telling us now, a secret he is letting us in on, once he told "all the opps" to fuck off.

These lines here:

All the things we couldn't say before And your hidden feelings too I'll tell you everything now (Just for you) Don't you worry anymore Since we’re together now Let's be a little more honest (Let's go)

Clear as day.

This is about hidden feelings (and not necessarily hidden from the person he loves but from us, as we are the audience and it's time to tell us about it). Same btw with the honesty. Not that he hasn't been honest with that person he loves, but it's time to be honest with us, perhaps practice that same honesty that certain person has been trying to practice throughout 2023.

This is JM's time. JM's secret to tell.

So why, oh why the hell would it be about his love for Army and wanting to hold our flaming hands????? Please make it make sense.

Forget the fact that the lyrics are just not it. Nope. He might love army but he definitley doesn't want army, and spare me any reasoning, JM is a big boy and he KNOWS what it means when he says "I want you babe...", and it ain't him wanting Army. Nope. Nah. No way.

On top of that, by now we know that everything JM does is for a reason, and the 12 June in the lyrics is no different. This is about BTS, not Army, and the idea of the bookending, I love love love that one. This exactly:

That means the events happening in the song, happen within the context of Bangtan. Reading between the lines, the person he is singing to/about is within Bangtan.

Ah, and there is this too:

No special course in reading comprehension needed here.

Not a love song to army. If it wasn't clear from the lyrics then it's said here. A song JM wrote for army to help them express their feelings for a loved one when they are having issues doing so themselves (all part of the layering I will talk about later on).

I'll just say here that JM is the king of layering. One song and MV containing messages within messages.

One more thing about that ending frame from JM though.

When the curtains rise and the lights turn on Everyone is in their places Turn up the music I think we’re ready now Let's begin one, two Put your hands up

These lines.

As I was watching the MV for the first time reading those lines, this is what popped straight into mind (and speaking of popping, I will get to that too, that naughty cutie, sexy, lovely man of ours and his not so innocent innuendos - yes, I do think his mind was going there):

When do you feel your heart connected with another member ?

"...when my eyes naturally meet Jimin's and we high five..."

*Side note: not JK telling us his heart is connected with JM basically all the time...

I guess JK is talking about moments like that.

When I saw/heard those lines in JM's song it felt like the one JM was talking to in that moment wasn't all of the members, but that one person standing on that stage with him, that one person that he just said all his "I love you"s to.

Oh, and a little example of nothing being coincidental and fully thought out by JM:

Ok then.

Just as @andy-wm mentioned, JM gives us hints galore throughout the whole MV as to who that individual is he is speaking to, confessing his love to (again, all while also clearly talking to us letting us in on that secret that he was hiding until now).

We have him hinting to what it ain't.

That the person in question is not of the female variety. The potentially romantic moments are only with the male characters. That "yes sir" add-on.

Ooh, I love you babe I'll come closer to you I love you, babe (Yes, sir) Ooh, I want you, babe I wanna hold your hand I want you, babe

This is no mistake. This is not in the live version only. This is part of the actual lyrics. As is.

We have him giving us hints in the staging, the choreo, the set connecting with Serendipity.

The you are me I am you in the MV choreo

And prey tell, who took ownership of that one, eh?

We have the bubbles.

And specifically JM in a bubble.

Wait, what am I seeing there?

JM in a bubble with sunflowers?

Sun-flowers?

I guess we're in the business of recreating moments then.

Not quite enough, right?

So we have JM literally using Golden hour lighting in his MV. All while the sunflowers (you know, those that grow towards the sun, and usually don't tend to open up and flourish as the sun is going down) are blooming.

Oh, and who are they directed towards if not the recipient of JM's confession? You know, the sun part of the sun and moon duo. Get with it people. You should be reciting this off by heart by now.

Oh, @andy-wm you asked and I will reply. You are not crazy AT ALL. I will say it one more time and clearly:

The sunflowers, that represent the sun as in themselves, are blooming facing towards the camera, in the direction of JM's love confession, all while doing so when the sun is actually supposedly setting, it being Golden hour.

And if it's Golden hour we are talking about, how can we forget this?

Just JK telling us JM is the love of his life during Golden Hour .

See full clip here:

And now we have JM doing just the same.

Who would have thought?

So, basically the flowers are blooming facing (because of) the individual that JM is confessing his love to - you know, the sun to his moon.

Same moon that was doing this:

Every night You spin me up high The moon with you in its arms Let me have a taste Give me a good ride (Oh, I'm fallin', I'm fallin', I'm fallin') It's gon' be a good night (Oh, I'm fallin') Forever you and I

And if we are already drawing the lines between SGMB and Like crazy, then how about this perhaps connecting line:

We know how personal Face was to JM. We know that every single song is him through and through. We know Like crazy is about him struggling during the pandemic.

We saw his breakdown during the MOTS ONE live streamed concert.

This was October 2020, around 6 months into the pandemic. The uncertainty. This is their first performance and from there until Muster another 9 months go by. We know from Festa 2022 that the pandemic screwed up all of their plans. the uncertainty, working on and releasing Be and then Butter and PTD everything leading up to the PTD online concert, a year after MOTS ON:E. For those that performing is their life, standing in front of an audience and giving it their all, it's a hard pill to swallow. The unknown, if they will ever get back to perform on stage in front of a live audience, when this is who they are, their essence, it can be unbearable. JM wasn't the only performer to go through this. It's just that he shared this with us.

And JK was there by his side.

And all he wanted was to make it better.

Just like he did during the concert itself.

So yeah, I do believe it's JK referenced in that song.

And Yeah, like everything JM does, this song too, and it's MV, are layered.

And SMF pt. 2 is him breaking free, flying away like a butterfly and moving on to SGMB. Now he can say what he feels out loud for EVERYONE TO HEAR. And he's telling that someone that was worried about him, that one that stood by JM's side and perhaps JM felt like he was trying to save him, that it's ok, there is nothing to worry about anymore. And unlike in Like crazy, where JM doesn't want to be woken up from that dream, and he is fighting that person that wants to save him, at this point he's eager to wake up and live each day a new with that person he loves blossoming by his side.

Same person he wrote the Letter to?

Yep. Same person.

I do believe that they are all one. Same person by his side in Like crazy, giving him a good ride, in his arms, trying to save JM. Same person he wrote his love letter to. And same person he's telling that he loves in SGMB.

And then there are these lines to consider:

All the things we couldn't say before And your hidden feelings too

Is JM confessing to that person, to us and for that person too? Telling us the feelings are mutual. Hidden until now, from us, and now out in the open.

And yes, although SGMB is JM confessing his love to that person (cough JK cough), he's already done that in a song, right? So what now?

Layering peeps.

JM is telling that person, but more so, I do believe, telling us.

Remember how Letter was hidden? Yes, we got to hear it, but it was hidden on JM's album. Like a secret that isn't to be shared with everyone. Like something that needs to be hidden. And here comes the layering again - it's hidden cause it's a private letter to the one he loves, but also hidden because it's something that cannot be revealed publicly, because he's an idol and 'not allowed' to have such a personal relationship and because the relationship itself is 'not allowed', being with another man.

And now we have SGMB. Not only is the song not hidden away, but it's out there in the open. Loud and proud. The first single released from Muse. How louder or more public can it get than that?

Ok, so feels like a good place to talk about the song's choice of name and its lyrics for a sec.

Much has been said already about the Smeraldo flower, it's meaning and The Truth Untold.

And now we have this:

"The longing to confess and find love on behalf of those unable to articulate their feelings..."

Let's talk about this sentence for a second.

One of the things we get from the MV is cupid or matchmaker JM. Not only is he telling his person how he feels, he is also helping those around him express their love. So, as usual we have a layered message, oh so like JM to do in his well thought out messages. JM 'confessing' to his love, but also to us about his love (first 2 layers) and another layer of JM helping us, his audience, to express our feelings to whomever we wish to and are struggling to do so. Oh and another layer to it all is the one surrounding all three, the one that connects to the Smeraldo flower and it's part in The Truth Untold - that part of allowing to show your true colours, your true feeling, and not be rejected for them, not necessarily by the person you love, but by those that surround you and will not accept your true self or your love for each other.

The connecting lines between the two songs.

And we know who this song meant so much to as well.

"But I still want you"...

So most definitley not a coincidence JM choosing the Smeraldo flower nor calling his band The Smeraldo Garden Marching Band, having them be the ones to deliver this oh so loud and proud message to us all.

One last thing before I leave you for now.

Let's talk for a sec about the new JM dance challenge?

We got cutie sexy lovely JM in this one.

And again, thanks @andy-wm for your lovely post.

Once again, if it wasn't clear already, the one he's paired up with is Loco, sitting there on the sofa, not even dancing with him, just there all googly eyed at JM, struggling to keep a straight face. And the end, omg, that end.

No Loco. That performance was not for you. And fyi, there is only one person JM is accepting flowers from ...

You know...

That one and the same person he was rushing home to pack for their trip to Japan the next day.

Same person he chose to enlist together with less than a month later.

[chaosbeetlefrontiers]

We need to talk about ghosttothefuture

cw/tw: stalking, racism, abuse

In the past I’ve talked about situations where I saw myself as a victim and blamed the people who rejected me because of my own behavior. In the present we’re doing something different.

This is a user named Ghost to the Future. Throughout the post I will be referring to him as Alex.

Since August of 2023, Alex and I have been friends as we shared a lot of Intergang ideas and later I would eventually help him overcome his insecurities and irl issues… or so I thought. Since Valentine’s Day, I stuck by him and tried to help him on a journey of improvement as he confessed to me that he was jealous of me talking to people that I’ve known for 2 years now because he wanted me all to himself when he needed to vent. I’ve tried multiple things such as exercises where he couldn’t DM me, cracked down on limiting the venting and most of all, trying to get him a therapist. I even talked to my own therapist and school about how I can get him the help he needed. It wasn’t just “get him a therapist so he could stop venting to someone who wasn’t qualified to handle it,” he actively hurt and pushed away my friends when they tried to help him themselves. For the sake of their privacy I will be censoring the names of my friends.

But eventually he told me that he’d get a therapist and during those weeks he told me about talking to him and even shared me advice that the therapist gave him and I thought we were on the right track. Then on March 26th, 2024, he confessed that he lied about it.

He admitted to lying about it and told everyone that he was toxic and manipulative. Minutes after this I blocked him and told him that someday we’d be able to talk again. Hopefully we could move on.

Then the day after he started spamming my email after I refunded him for a commission I never got to. He told me that he was getting help but he also asked me to unblock him and told me that I was the only person he hurt. We’ll be getting back to that in a bit. Make of these what you will.

To add insult to injury, he started stalking my Tumblr yesterday when he commented on one of my posts after I blocked him on Discord.

We’ll get back to the stalker part at the end because it is truly fucked but for now let’s tear into how he’s hurt my friends! Not all of this will be complimented by screenshots but I’ve talked with people and can confirm that all of this has happened, if you want evidence of it I’ll see what I can do.

He has constantly pushed my friends away after they have tried helping him out.

He has lied about watching certain media multiple times, my friends managed to prove this has he lied about watching a show that didn’t even air yet. Most of the time he fails to elaborate on why he loves a piece of art if he hasn’t experienced it or he’ll just sheep other people.

Back in December he complained to me about two of my friends making fun of him only to find out that they were just joking with each other and Alex made a big deal out of nothing.

After trying to set boundaries Alex kept on using the excuse that “we’re equals.”

He harassed one of my friends in DMs for having a Hazbin Hotel pfp at the time.

He makes fun of other people and their interests yet infamously can’t take any jokes towards him at all.

He tried instigating hate in me against my friends when they watched MAWS and didn’t like it.

Has urged and pushed people to do sexual RPs in the past even when they were uncomfortable.

He said the N word in my friend group, he is white btw. And when one of my friends talked to him about this Alex only constantly apologized and made excuses for why he said it. I have the screenshot of this, I won’t be sharing it in this post so I won’t violate any policies.

He’s made racist and misogynistic remarks towards people in his friend groups.

Has sexualized people who are younger than him.

This is only scratching the surface of what he’s done to people online as apparently he has a history of changing his username after being rejected from fandoms, one of which included the Owl House and he used it as a crutch to excuse a lot of his behavior. Online, he’s dangerous and a chameleon but learning about his irl activity he’s even worse. I won’t go too in depth there but needless to say he insults his friends, is violent towards other kids in his school and has caused a lot of toxic relationships.

And ultimately we get to why I decided to make this post. I told Alex’s friend (who is one of the nicest people I’ve met btw) that if Alex contacted me again then I would call him out. And since yesterday, Alex has not contacted me again… but he tried to. How? By using his friend’s email to message me. The attempt failed but I was alerted of this and furious. Originally I said that I think Alex can improve but he’ll have to do it without me. Now he’s killed his chances. Everything I covered here only scratches the surface of what he’s pulled but in short: cut contact with him for your own safety. If he tries joining more fandoms under this name or a new name, use this post for reference and stop him before he can do more damage. Right now, Alex is a toxic and manipulative person and shouldn’t be in a lot of these public spaces especially when he’s admitted that he is DANGEROUS. Currently his main fandom is My Adventures with Superman so I will be tagging that to get the word out. Please reblog as much as you can to get the word out and let people know about this individual before he gets to them as well. If you’re reading this Alex, you’ve hurt me and too many people for me to just let this slide and if you try contacting me and my friends again, hope you enjoy whatever stupid prizes you get in the future.

Until next time, I wish you guys luck. Stay safe, people.

[christinaroseandrews]

So Gilded Age Season 2... Spoilers ahead.

I've been watching my pretty costumed crack and enjoying it, but one thing has been niggling at the back of my mind: How FUCKING Fast everything is happening this season. Like OMG so fucking fast. Or at least it feels fast, Julian Fellows (JFell) is not good on the specifics. But plots are simultaneously too slow and too fast (Poor Jack and his clock) or just so fast as to be OMG (Ada and Reverend Forte)

And because I can't let it lie I started looking shit up. Because we have two concrete dates for this season and dammit, I'm gonna use them. (As a note, I wanted to also use when Porter Hall at Tuskegee was dedicated, but all I could find (even on Tuskegee's website) was that it was built by students in 1883 and demolished in 1905. The first is when the season starts: Easter Sunday 1883. Which was March 25, 1883 just so everyone is on the same page.

The second is when the Brooklyn Bridge Opened - May 24, 1883.

So two months. Two bloody months.

Only two months for the following:

Ada to meet, be courted by, marry, have a honey moon, and be widowed by Reverend Luke Forte played by the chronically tragic ending actor Robert Sean Leonard.

Larry to have a grand affair with one of his clients enough so that he'd want to marry her and for it to be gossip.

Oscar to meet, court, and be conned by the lovely Maud Beaton.

Everything with the Duke. Like OMG...

Jack and his clock. Sure he worked on the clock for weeks. But then he had to go to the patent office and get a response via the mail then have Bannister get someone from the horological institute come out. The waiting via mail and the government bureaucracy alone will take a month and it was addressed in a single episode.

ALL OF THE TRAVEL. Yes, the railroads helped with this, but it only shortened things from months and weeks to days and hours depending on distance. It'd still be a multiple day journey from NYC to Tuskegee, Alabama.

Like I get that JFell wanted to include certain things in his story, and sure some of the stuff that I listed can go faster. But all of it?

In particular things like the U.S. Mail system which had to go from NYC to DC, get checked, get rejected, a letter of rejection to be written, then sent back to NYC. Today, in the year of our Lord & Lady 2023, it takes a letter to travel between NYC & Washington DC approximately 3-5 days (1 day processing at DC, 1 day transit, 1 day processing, 1 day delivery (some of these can be faster depending on when drop off/delivery occur). (BTW I know mail, I worked for the post office doing tech support and my father worked for them for 25 years and set up the computer systems that tracked mail cross country.)

So all of this to say that things are moving fast this season. It isn't just me. And like a I get that things moved quickly, especially in regards to romance, but bureaucracy is never quick and this is a hill I will die on.

Still... even more than that. Poor Ada!!! I loved my gentle middle-aged romance with the woman being older than the man (or at least the actress being older than the actor). *Wails* She deserved more time!!!

[aromanticgarbage]

Hi!!! What do you honestly like about our boy Joji? What got you into him? Favorite song? Favorite quote from him?? Cool blog BTW. ❤️

Hiiiii <33333

Putting this under a read more because it got long af.

God i think part of the reason why im so obsessed with him is the duality of his character and artistic expression. He used to describe himself as conflicted a lot, especially in his earlier interviews and that pretty much hits the nail in the head i think. I love both his music and filthy frank a lot but I wouldn't be so fascinated with the person behind either of these things if they weren't made by the same guy. I just think he is a fascinating character.

What got me into him? I'm honestly pretty late to the party, i stumbled upon slow dancing in the dark on some random playlist at some point mid 2023. Slow dancing in the dark got famous for a reason: its so fucking good, i was playing it on a loop for weeks. Later i stumbled upon pretty boy, once again by pure chance. I was playing it on loop for a looong time as well. I hadn't even noticed that both of these songs were by the same artist at the time.

Fast forward a few months later, someone i follow here on tumblr dot com rebloged a post that expressed ops utter bafflement that filthy frank had turned his career around so dramatically and that he was a "sadboy musician now". The term slursona was thrown around. The ballads 1 album cover was included in the post and i recognised it imediatelly but i also recognised the name filthy frank.

You see, back in the day my older sister was a huge fan. She was really into this era of youtube bless her heart but ff was one of her faves. She had showed me human ramen AND hair cake back then but i was pretty young and I didn't really speak english well enough to fully understand what was going on. Nonetheless, i was morbidly fascinated but i never got into ff myself. Still i knew who he was.

Finding out that i was listening to his music a DECADE later from a random tumblr post gave me the whiplash of my fucking life. I genuinely got so scared i went and removed sditd from my character playlists and spotify liked songs lol. I let that revelation shimmer within me for a few months until one day i finally decided that i should do some research on the matter. I think i watched the slow dancing in the dark mv first and it completely blew me away. Then i watched the weeaboos video and it made me cry from laughter.

Somehow i ended up listening to his entire discography and watching Every Single filthy frank video ever made. At some point i discovered the notorious filthy frank exposes himself video and that once again blew my mind. I realised that he was the one who accidentally started the harlem shake trend back in 2013. Blew my mind. I listened to pink season ans i realised that the help song ive been seeing around since forever was a pink guy song. Blew my mind. I went home for the holidays and i talked to my other sister about my newfound obsession. Turns out she knew him from glimpses of us. Blew her mind too. Talked to my brother, he knew him from glimpses of us as well. We were all screaming about it for a few days.

This whole phase of mine started at some point in March and its only been getting worse. I don't know how we got here but im not complaining.

If i had to choose a favourite song.... sanctuary is my most listened to song of the year so far, so i probably have to go with that but also sditd, you suck Charlie, like you do, pretty boy, yukon, Mr Hollywood, no fun, demons, see you in 40, nightrider, modus (just to name a few)..... they all hold a very special place in my heart... I just love pretty much most of his songs a whole lot.

As for favourite quote im afraid I don't have a super serious answer to this question fjdksdks. "I just wanna make people sad and horny" is a strong one but also "sorry for being An Fag" and "fucking everyone smokes weed in central park...." fascinate me to no end.

Thank you so much for your questions !! <33 its always nice to have an excuse to ramble tehe.

[aplateoflasagna]

💙💙This is not a drill! TREASURE comeback is confirmed!!! 💙💙

I'm so happy!!! I missed our boys so much! 💎

The T5 release will be in July and the actual comeback is in August. That means there will have been 11 months between 2 album releases and that seems insane to me. But Treasure has worked so hard this past year, they literally didn't have time to comeback sooner. How do other groups do this? Straykids, Twice, NCT etc they go on tour but still have multiple comebacks per year. How?? Are they not severely overworked or is JYP, SM, HYBE etc just better at time management? (that might be it tbh lol)

It feels unfair to ask of artists to have a comeback during or immediately after a (world) tour, but fans see so little of a group during a tour that it feels as if they weren't doing anything (no new music or big promotions etc)

For example Blackpink has been on tour since oktober 2022 and it will last at least until August 2023. That's almost a full year of touring! Jisoo had her solo debut and they did Coachella and they will perform at Hyde Park.

Right now everyone is saying that they deserve a break, Jennie performed 3 songs with an IV drip today, but had to leave the stage because she felt so sick, Jisoo had covid last week, the girls have all been seen with injuries. Only now will fans be sympathetic. The tour will be over, October 2023 will come and go and people will complain and riot that Blackpink should have had a comeback by now, only a month after their world tour ended.

And like, I'm not pointing fingers here, I've also been impatiently waiting for Treasure to make a comeback. I've had to remind myself how hard they've worked since last october.

They did so much promotion on youtube for Hello era which gets overlooked a lot because they did less in-person promotion in Korea.

Immediately after the comeback promotions, they did 'Hello concert in Seoul' + The exhausting Japan tour from November until January while also rehearsing and attending award shows. I remember being so worried for the members because that schedule was inhumane, it was way too much. Half the members had gotten sick, Junkyu lost his voice for three concerts, Jihoon was severely sleep deprived etc + they had to film content for Treasure World Map (which all Teumes should watch btw! it really doesn't get enough appreciation. Every episode makes me cry tears because they truly act like family 😭)

January and february they were seen filming Tmap + that's when they probably filmed a lot of the new episodes of T-talk, 3 minute treasure, fact check and tmi-logs + they shot the welcoming collection

March was the start of their Asia tour where they kept shooting for TWM + multiple members have said that at the same time they were working on the comeback.

My point is, they have had back to back schedules for the past year, they couldn't fit a comeback anywhere until now. Ideally, Treasure would take a well deserved break now, the tour ended, maybe they could visit their families (I was shocked when Jihoon said he only sees his family 3 times a year because of their busy schedule) or travel or maybe just rest for a few weeks and take a break from their Idol life... But they can't... Because it's been almost a year since their last comeback and fans are getting anxious. Just this week they have barely uploaded on social media or communicated with Teume (probably because they've been so busy preparing for the comeback) and already fans were having a hard time (me included btw and I feel bad because I still have a lot of Treasure content to catch up on, but it's not new content you know? So it's just not the same 😶)

All of this to say that I'm so happy Treasure is having a comeback but seeing Jennie so sick during Blackpinks concert and getting the Treasure announcement on the same day... It just made me think about how much fans ask of Idols... fans keep asking for more until their favs are sick or injured because they are overworked and suddenly fans change their mind (They should rest!, the tour should be cancelled! etc) but they will have forgotten about that by the next day, because it's always more fun to get content and it fucking sucks to wait.

[thetrueshan-blog]

My long winded thoughts on BOTW before TOTK

So TOTK (The legend of Zelda: Tears of the kingdom) comes out next friday. I am 100% going to get it. It’s a zelda game after all. In fact a rare time nintendo ever does a direct sequel in the zelda franchise. I believe Majora’s Mask was the only ever direct sequel to a game (I mean at least in the sense of continuing pretty close to the previous game anyways). There is also Spirit Tracks.

Full spoilers for BOTW btw.

So, I’ve been thinking about BOTW a lot these last few weeks. I’ve enjoyed the game for the most part when it first came out but I slowly grew to resent certain parts of it. This culminated until I could only remember the parts I hated, versus the parts that I liked.

So, to see if my feeling of hate for BOTW were true or just false memories, over the last 2 weeks I played through BOTW again. Not a 100% playthrough (I’m not that insane) but just enough to finish the 4 guardians, get the master sword, and beat gannon. It took me around 28 hours. And overall I would say I enjoyed my time with the game. Though I will say at the end of my playtime I was starting to feel done with the game again. I was ready for it to be over. My first play through took around 80 or so hours. And I recall being even more sick and tired of BOTW back then, then I do now.

I’ll be honest here. I have a lot of gripes with BOTW. It feels like a tech demo to me in a lot of ways. But still I come out of the experience having enjoyed it for the most part. I don’t like to give numbered reviews, but I would say it’s a solid game. Game play is great but story was a bit lacking. Though there were some parts that could have been better refined.

That was the short summary. What follows is some of my more in depth ramblings(?) of BOTW.

0. My background with the game

BOTW came out as the first nintendo switch game in march of 2017. If you were getting a switch on launch, you were basically getting it to play BOTW. In fact I can even tell you the exact time I picked up my copy of BOTW since I still have my receipt. March 3rd, 2017 at 12:08 pm from a cashier named Joseph apparently. Thanks Joseph. March of 2017 was an interesting time for me. I was a senior in high school. Wrapping on my high school studies while also taking some college classes at the nearby community college. It was a transition period for me. For that I will always remember BOTW as a part of that transition period. It was the time for my hopes for college after high school and hopes for better stuff from nintendo after the WiiU era (Though I was a little more focused on the college part). Since then it’s actually been just over 6 years. I now have finished college and work full time. So it’s been interesting watching the switch transition from the “BOTW console” to the switch we now know in early 2023. For better or worse. There’s been rumors for years now about the switch Pro. But I doubt that will happen anytime time soon.

Anyways enough about my self. Back to my gripes about BOTW.

1. The English Voice Acting

The very first thing you hear in this game is Zelda telling link to “Open your eyes”. This is one of the few if ever zelda games to incorporate voice acting into a Zelda game. And boy do I wish they hadn’t. Oh geez the voice acting in this game. It’s not necessarily bad. But I just can’t get behind it. The english voice acting varies wildly. It’s either really forced or actually pretty good. Unfortunately most of the voice acting sounds so forced and rigid. The main issue I have is with Zelda’s voiced lines. She sounds like she’s forcing herself to be British so badly. I wouldn’t mind this except Zelda’s voice is the one you will most likely hear for the majority of the game. I know others have issues with the voice acting as well so I won’t linger on this point too much, but the voice acting being as jarring for me as it is might explain a bit for my disdain for Zelda’s character.

Speaking of -

2. Zelda and her one character trait (Aka the story of BOTW)

I never really go into a Zelda game expecting the best story. There are games with some highlights of course. Majora’s Mask and dealing with the impossible, Skyward Sword’s hints of Romance, Wind Waker’s story of old grudges and Twighlight Princess with Midna to name a few. But I wouldn’t put BOTW’s story in that list.

BOTW’s story is fine. It’s serviceable really. However it could be told instantly in 20 minutes. For those that haven’t played BOTW. The main way to get story in BOTW is through flashback sequences. What’s bad about this kind of story telling is the fact that the player has to hunt these out themselves. But the player could find these in any order. Which means the flashbacks have to have a constant retelling of events from other flashbacks. This leads to a lot of the flashbacks feeling boring or just overall disjointed. I remember watching so many of them and thinking “Didn’t I already see something like this?” Only to see that it’s something just slightly different but with all the same story beats.

The main crux of the story in BOTW is how Zelda fails to live up to her legendary purpose. She’s supposed to be a decedent from the goddess Hylia and have the power to seal “the calamity” away. But Zelda never really understood how to control or even feel these powers. As the one and only mentor she had, her mother, died when she was young. So as Zelda feels she can’t rely on these powers she seeks other methods to potentially help prevent the calamity in the forms of the guardians and shiekah technology dating back 10,000 years ago (BTW keep an eye on this fact of 10,000 years ago, I think TOTK is going to be about this, maybe with some time travel shenanigans). Ultimately this backfires on everyone though when the calamity takes over all the shiekah technology and wreaks havoc on everything. Including killing all 4 of the guardians, nearly killing Link, and damages the master sword greatly. This is a tragic tale about how a girl couldn’t live up to the literal god like expectation thrown onto her.

But... as I mentioned before, you get all that info I just gave in a paragraph over something like 15-16 flashbacks that are scattered throughout the game. If this was given out as a main linear story I don’t think I would be as harsh on it. But it’s so hard to relate to a character’s tragedy when I 1) can’t stand the voice acting, 2) can’t tell when events were supposed to happen and 3) grow sick and tired about hearing how Zelda couldn’t fulfill her end of the legend. I get that’s the point of the game. Zelda finally has her powers and has been holding gannon back for like 100 years just in time for Link to be resurrected again. (Which BTW I kinda hate the fact that Zelda is still alive. I would have much preferred if she was a ghost like the other guardians.) But the end resolve of the story is the fact that Zelda now has her powers and seals gannon away (to the sacred realm?) at the end of the game. However you don’t even get that as a satisfying conclusion because -

3. The worst timing for an ending

The game just ends after you beat the final boss. You do not get to enjoy the world in peace. You do not get to hear people being thankful to you. You do not get to pass Go. You do not get to collect $200.

I understand that most Zelda games don’t have a post-game. Heck I can’t even think of one that does. Most of the time, Zelda games end when there is no more evil to conquer over. Makes sense in a lot of ways. However, the end beat to what little of a story we get in BOTW is the fact that Zelda now can use her powers and stops Gannon with Link. And we get that for like a minnute or two? It just didn’t feel satisfying to me. Like imagine there’s an post game content where Link guides Zelda to kakoriko village and Zelda then sleeps till TOTK because she must be exhausted and never really slept for like 100 years. Bam! Now you have the rest of the game to still explore as post-game content. Instead the game just reverts you back to your last save before going into the final boss arena but gives you a little star sticker on your save file for doing your best. What?! That’s it?!

With BOTW being a giant open world game I think Nintendo dropped the ball a bit by having no post game. Which now seeing that TOTK is going to be a direct sequel I can kinda understand why BOTW has no post game content. But I wonder if TOTK is just going to make BOTW feel like a prelude story. Like something that can be skipped with a quick summary on a fan wiki page or something.

But I’m getting side tracked. See, this is the pure reason I wanted to write this before TOTK came out. My opinion is already changing on BOTW because I know TOTK might *MIGHT* fix some of the story issues I had with BOTW.

4. Quick List of complaints I had in some way of the Game Play

Alright now with most of the complaints I had with the story out of the way I will now quick fire my complaints I had with the game play I noted while replaying:

Durability system is wack. I get what they were going for, but it does seem weird that weapons can break so easily and fast.

Rain stops all exploring if you need to climb. It’s just not fun.

Combat feels slow and clunky. Never really got a hang of it.

No passive upgrades to anything except to health and stamina.

Dungeons are neat. But way too small and I wish the guardians didn’t speak during them. Just let me bask in a cool place nintendo. Stop talking my ear off.

Shrines all feel the same. Also randomly the walls aren’t climbable in shrines? Just put barriers to stop link from climbing on them.

No themes in shrines or dungeons. They all look the same. At least the music is different in the dungeons at least.

There is no way to see the durability of weapons until it is about to break.

You cannot get a full set of hearts and stamina. You will always be missing one. (this might have been fixed in the DLC?)

If an enemy can guard your attack then you can’t damage it until you break their stance. Even if they are facing away from you.

Koroks... so many koroks... but eh kind of a pro/con situation. Don’t need to worry about getting them all, but at the same time feels so boring getting them.

Blood moons. Freaking blood moons. They appear at the worst times.

Thunder blight fight. I have no idea why this one fight is so hard compared to the rest. Each blight and including the final boss I beat all on the first try. With thunder blight I died like 15-20 times on. It’s just tough as nails. You need to dodge instantly otherwise you get hit so badly. Like here’s a link to me beating it: click here. It’s by far the hardest boss in the game for me.

If something needs to re-charge (master sword, or guardian powers) it needs to fully deplete before re-charging. Which is a bit annoying.

It’s the tiny things that bug me about BOTW’s gameplay. Overall I love it. It has some great moments to it. When you get in the zone and just start wandering around is the best time in BOTW. Until it starts raining anyways lol.

5. Cartoony Nature (no not the artstyle)

Yeah not the artstyle. I actually really like the art style in BOTW. What I don’t like are the random bits of cartoony or goofy bits, practically everywhere in the game. Of course I don’t mean literally everywhere, but it starts to become such an issue that I start expecting there to be a non-serious moment or gag everywhere I go. Like the biggest example I can recall of this is the Yiga clan leader. When you're doing the guerdo divine beast quests. You have to steal back the thunder helm from the yiga clan. Which is a decent stealth mission where if you are caught and hit you die instantly no matter your stats. But it turns out the yiga clan is crazy for bananas. So you can use those to lure guards in certain directions. A bit goofy but also works mechanically. So you're going through through all of it. And finally get to the end. Where you have to face against the yiga clan leader. Are they a huge brute that leads with power? Or are they a smart quiet like assassin? Nope. He's just a dude with a big pot belly and goofy antics. You don't even do the final blow on him. He summons a giant metal ball that pushes him into a pit and kills him.

Like that's a memorable interaction. And is pretty funny. But it's also like a giant let down? Like what was the joke? The leader is so incompetent that he ends up ending the fight by himself, even though his followers are so good that they stole the thunder helm without the geurdo guards noticing? I think I would have preferred if the fight was a legit serious one but you could still distract him with throwing bananas around. And then eventually ending the fight by something weird like accidentally blowing a hole in a wall revealing a giant horde of bananas that you can then trap him in forever or something.

Again this is fine mostly. It's just most of the game's tone is like this. Unless it's talking about the calamity. Everything else is some weird goofy thing that happens. It's not bad just gets dull after putting in a lot of hours into the game. I'd prefer if the goofier moments were more sparse.

6. The Unneeded DLC

I know some will disagree with me on this but I thought the DLC was neat. But really felt like something that should've been included with the base game and not extra dlc. The rewards weren't that great as well. Just lower times on the champion's powers and the mastercycle (which controls really badly. The turn radius is so bad and slow). But what really didn't help was at the end of the dlc zelda still yaps to link about how he's the only one who can defeat the calamity and has shown that he can. And it's not like I already did that or anything.

So overall the dlc was neat and a bit challenging, but yeah not really something I would say people need to do or finish. All it does is give some flashbacks of the champions. But not even like new developments but scenes you can pretty much guess that happened from knowing other stuff.

7. The Romance I Don’t See And Memories Forgotten

I see a lot of people talk about the romance between Zelda and Link in this game... and I just don’t see it. And yes, before you ask I have read the entries in Zelda’s Diary. But I don’t see that as a sign of them having feelings for each other. I see that as a sign that Zelda had feelings for Link. Whether Link had feelings for Zelda or not is not something I can tell. The main factor for me is Mipha. I always saw that Mipha and Link shared a bond together. I would agree that Zelda has feelings for Link, but I always thought Link had feelings for Mipha not Zelda.

But beyond that lies a question of whether or not the Link we play as in BOTW could be considered the return of the Link that Zelda and Mipha knew. He lost his memories after all. He does recall a good amount. But even if he recalls events happening it could be argued that Link is a different person now. Which might be possible to get a good answer from it if Link wasn’t mute the whole game. Wait... he does speak. Just not to us the player. Hell we even choose some dialogue options for him. What the heck Link? Just tell us what’s on your mind man.

Eh, whatever. I sure in TOTK we will get a definitive answer to if Link X Zelda in BOTW is real or not. I’m sure the game is just going to go that way anyways. To my dismay. Also the real ship is Paya X Link. Since the feesh is now dead I guess >:(. Thanks Nintendo. Always removing the fish love from the Zelda games.

8. Conclusion

So there’s my long winded thoughts. Some of these might look familiar to my friends as some I took some of the text directly from my discussions with them.

I might have had a lot of negative stuff to say about BOTW. But I still had fun with it. The biggest gripes I had were with the story and some unrefined moments in the game play. Hopefully TOTK will improve on this a bit. But I’m still expecting pretty much the same. An overall fun time, but with some gripes.

[writingtomyfutureself]

Dear Diary,

Tuesday, 18th June 2024

6:64 PM

32°C 

______________________________________________________________

I am at work. It has been almost a year that I heavn't written to you.

I am 26 years old right now and after 11 days I'll be 27. This year was the most happening year. I haven't had the moment to catch a breath.

I met someone online on 5th December 2023 we started talking. He sent me a song, I heard it and it felt nice. We spoke a lot online. It felt like I was doing something out of my boundaries. I had never tried getting very serious with a guy ever. We were just was just talking but still.

We met after 3 months of talking on 03 March 2024. We were supposed to meet at a place for dinner that evenning but ended up bumping into each other at the mall 2 hours before we were supposed to meet. He was there to buy a black shirt that he promised me he would wear. It was coincidence. We eneded up not going for dinner and just stayed back in his room, watched a movie and ate ice cream.

I went back home in the morning and mom was furious. She slapped, harassed me and even dug out where my friends lived and went to their houses to harrass them. My sister was not far behind, she too took the opportunity to enjoy the fun while it lasted.

It was too much for me to handle. I saw the worst side of my mom and my sister was not far behind. I didn't talk to my friends for 3 months. I thought that they didn't want anything to do with me. Afterall, who would want to be friends with a girl whose mom comes to their houses and harassed them.

Sid was still in contact with me. Oh! His name is Sid btw.

I had the burning zeal to move out. Sid too pointed out that I should probably move out. I felt like I was being watched like an animal. It's funny I talk about moving out because when I wrote to you about a year ago I kept talking about the same thing that time too. With or without Sid living at home feels like a cage.

Finally, my friends got in touch with me after a 3 month gap. I met them and they, in detail spoke about how my mom and sister harrsed them, asked them to call me and pretend that she was not there in the room and talk to me and get out information from me. They also said that even though my mom was visibly angry my sister would use her anger and kept pushing things harder rather than descalating things. Both my friends met mom and sis on different days and they had the same thing to say that my sister could've calmed my mom down but she seemed to enjoy the drama and also was probably jealous of me. I have literally nothing to be jealous of.

It has been unbearable to live at home. Things have calmed down but after my friends spoke about how my mom and sister [especially my sister] acted and behaved I just can't get myself to like them. My mom calls it concern.

Sid keeps asking me to move out. I think I finaly will.

I am 26, shouldn'nt I be getting more freedom? My mom says I am being unreasonable.

Your friend,

Crit.

[piecesofsansan]

saturday, march 4, 2023 thursday, march 9, 2023

i am such a lazy and bad in doing stuff in a routine. i totally forgot to post the entry i made on saturday .. so here is the entry from march 4:

yes, there was no entry yesterday .. why? because i got lazy and so tired after my allergy vaccination. i thought i will be finish with this therapy this september but no. i need to go through this till january 2024 - fighting. i didn't do much yesterday tho. after vaccination i went to library and tried to studied a lil bit korean but god i was so tired and couldn't concentrate, so i gave up and picked up my lil bro from school - he is staying with my over the weekend with me. so yeah. later i fell asleep while watching youtube. i literally felt the medicine working out in my body and the my arm hurt so much .. i kinda had a dejavu of the covid vaccine. btw there was so such a cute guy in the hospital. i saw him last time as well but i am too shy to say hi or something (like always). eventho we all had a mask on, i am still sure he looks cute.

today i also didn't do much: cooked, did laundry, baked banana bread and that's it. it's a typical saturday for me. for tonight i just want to sketch something on my ipad and maybe read few chapters.

and this is what i am thinking rn and what my plans for today are:

i am at work rn and took a tiny bit of my time to write this. currently i do have some urgent projects at work but most of them are working in the backaground and i am waiting for response. my mind during the past few days and also now is somewhere else. i keep thinking about the book series "shatter me". i just ended the second book at midnight and started the first chapter of "ingnite me" and a i am dying to know what happens next. and this is how i will spend my day after work. before that i need to stop by the library to give the korean study books back .. after that i will cook a nice dinner and immerse myself into the book.

and also can we pleas talk about how the pretty the sky is today? i love it when it's cloudy but bright. it was raining the whole night and also morning's sky was grey and dark. and now it's so bright again .. i love it.

[kanmom51]

Bringing back Only then

I've been missing Jikook so very much and watching song edits, cause why not, right?

And Only then, that is one that is on repeat for me.

JK's cover of this song is so damn good.

And I'm sitting there eating my breakfast (tmi of the day?) and watching the edit and reading the lyrics again and it just clicks in my brain.

Obviously those lyrics and JK's choice to cover the song and his unbelievably emotional singing that just draws you in is not something new. This song meant something to him, way back in 2018. Let's not forget that he released his cover for White day 2018, surprise surprise. Yeah, White day. We know what he was doing on White day 2023...

March 2018, following Jikook's Tokyo trip. March 2018, when members were rethinking if, what, where and how to continue as BTS, as artists.

This one wasn't written by him, but it sure meant A LOT to him!!!

Those lyrics.

They meant everything back then in 2018.

But now. In 2024. Looking back at the two of them, and even more so at the last 3 years, these words, they hit me like a freight train.

The lyrics.

Their past.

Their present.

Their future.

The way to love me isn’t hard Just hold me tight like you are now

We don’t know what will happen to us later But I like that nothing’s decided

Who cares what others say? We can’t live without each other, so what’s the problem? We can be more in love together

I can't...

These lines hit even harder now that we know what they went through in 2023 (well, part of what they went through, but we did see on live just how affected JK was), and to what lengths they went to not be separated during their military service.

But this isn't the end of it.

Because the next lines repeat that sentiment.

If you start to like someone else If I get used to not being with you When that time comes, when it’s that time Only then we can break up

And obviously, that ain't happening any time soon.

Nope, not happening...

Not at all.

Oh, and back to this again...

This song, it's lyrics, they just hit so hard.

The way to love you isn’t hard If I smile once more and care for you more

Clip credit to @ nuri  நூரி

The way we love isn’t hard If we look at each other like it’s the first time every time

Whether you want it or not, I’m going to hold onto you When I get too tired that I can’t even walk When that time comes, when it’s that time Only then we can break up Only then we can break up

Now I am definitley ugly crying. Bawling my eyes out.

I miss them so much.

😭😭