#but a story told well is worth it

[joshlifeheart]

I think this comes down to the divide between people who take their time and enjoy the game and people who just want to get through.

Especially with so many people excited to get shadow magic, a lot of us get frustrated with seemingly slow progress through the first half in particular because we are fighting the blue razors and fire leggers multiple times just because we went back to that village.

People that take the time to listen to the dialogue and understand the story are going to enjoy the world a lot more than people who are trying to rush to the next big thing like Darkmoor or Shadow Magic. At least for me, the issue is pacing over the areas given.

Khrysalis, Azteca and Empyrea all have different, but distinct pacing issues with moving through their worlds. Khrysalis and Empyrea are both particularly problematic because they were released over more than one update, meaning players were expected to take a while to progress through those worlds. Azteca just has a lot going on, and I won't get too far into it.

Anyways, I think people coming out of Azteca are hoping for a world that won't be too long (on their first playthrough) and Khrysalis comes in and says "Here's 2 years of content! Good luck!"

The other part of it is how we felt going into Khrysalis and Empyrea. Each time the wizard has just had a major failure. In Azteca, we can't stop Xibalba from crashing into the world and in Empyrea we just lost Mellori. In both cases, the player should be feeling down and that makes these long worlds even worse, at least to me.

I love Khrysalis's music design and the feel of different areas; truly one of the best places in the Spiral, I just also understand people who are frustrated by it.

the divide in the fanbase around Khrysalis is really funny to me. Half of the fanbase has it in their top 3 favorite worlds, the other half literally hates it and can’t stop talking about how much they hate it. (I love Khrysalis it’s my 3rd favorite world behind Karamelle and Novus)

There are very few people I’ve met who have played Khrysalis and were like “eh it’s okay”. It inspires strong feelings on both sides & I personally think that’s because the plot is really good but the gameplay is repetitive

[alchemania]

Finally got enough energy to talk about Furina's SQ and while I loved her and the troupe, MC and Paimon were .... Not Great. I talked about this with friends but in Paimon's case especially, the way they interact with Furina feels like people who just don't understand trauma and depression and then engage with someone suffering from both in all the wrong ways.

Talking about how much of a downgrade her house is from the opera house, making fun of how she can't cook, pushing her to act when she's set a very clear boundary and then guilt tripping her after she's stuck to her guns, shaming her for not being able to fight well (Paimon literally talks about how second hand embarrassment is overwhelming and I'm just like ?????), telling her she's "not acting like herself" when she attempts to open up and be vulnerable....it's just really rough. That and the MC asking "is something wrong" when Furina gets sad over Poission ..like bro people died and she couldn't save them and she's tearing herself apart over it. Those people are never coming back and you know it and you have the gall to ask her is something wrong??? Of COURSE there is!!

It just feels especially odd because we literally get to see all of Furina's suffering and Paimon in particular is. SO mean? Like she was more understanding with Wanderer and Ei and THEY'VE tried to kill us multiple times!! I don't get it, and honestly I'm very proud of Furina for refusing to waver. Let her rest!! She's tired and depressed and she needs time to heal; and honestly fuck Paimon for trying to make her feel bad. Furina's worked harder than she EVER will.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

So you have an interesting premise that doesn't immediately lend itself to a plot?

Looks like it's time for a road trip!

[spurgie-cousin]

Having Jill constantly repeat how Renee has “decided to be content with this season” (of being single) and acting like she’s committed to a spinster at the ripe old age of somewhere in her 20s, I genuinely hope that seeing/knowing Jana is getting married in her 30s gives Renee some peace that it isn’t the end of the world if she’s not married ASAP.

Same with the rest of the Rod daughters and every other fundie girl that’s been made to feel like an on the shelf spinster (or thornback, I know there’s an age range for spinster and thornback lol) for not getting married between 18-22

I know, she's s 22 for crying out loud!!! it's infinitely annoying to me that her mom acts like it's weird for her to be single. I was drinking vodka out of zip lock bags in public at that age

i feel for Renee and her sisters, unlearning all of that garbage is one of the hardest parts of deconstructing. and especially with her family, she literally has no other options beyond being some KJV nerd's wife, so she's gotta feel so much anxiety about it bc if it doesn't happen for her wtf is she going to do? Besides be Jill and David's maid/babysitter indefinitely? there's no plan B

it just gets really depressing when I think about it too much. even Jana, I've been dissecting my reaction to her marriage a little bit lol just to be like, I wonder how much of the public reaction is just people being happy that she's finally meeting the expectations they subconsciously have for her, myself included. it's just so ingrained in our culture as a whole, I sometimes wonder if I don't still have a bit of that unconscious bias that's like, of course it's a great thing she's married! that's what she's supposed to do, y'know

[aflawedfashion]

I groaned at the writing of the 19 year old with too many ideals and not enough life experience, but there's a perspective shift in episode 3, so when we see her again, she's not a cringy character anymore

[tanicus-caesareth]

guarana drama, damage control

[silkjade]

Hope you're doing okay. Idk what prompted you to private stuff but please ignore the anon who called you dramatic. In the end it's your blog and you're free to do what you want and be as dramatic as you feel

oh ! thank you for writing this, i promise i am okay ^^;; that anon ask didn't affect me at all, because i really did find it funny to be called out like that lolz, so no need to worry >< and you are so right this is my blog i can do whatever i want !! so thank you sm for looking out for me and sending this in regardless, i really appreciate it <3

[ofcowardiceandkings]

the sinus headaches are already not great but Extra Shit has been added to the pile and im just sat on that right now trying to figure out what the fuck to do

[onewomancitadel]

I think I would actually lose my fucking mind if we got anything remotely near to Ozlem redemption/restoration in RWBY and full on romantic Knightfall/Cinder's redemption. It'd be too much. Just the dream of it drives me crazy.

[amber-tortoiseshell]

Well, it looks like karpati will lose this round, but before we say goodbye to it I have to make one more post: this weekend i visited a cat show where the first transylvanian cattery in Hungary brought one of their karpati cat.

He's a solid blue karpati (so he actually features the other losing semifinalist: dilute, too), his name is Count Catula's Hophead, and he lives in the Grey Heart cattery. I loved him so much 💙

This was the first time i saw a karpati cat in real life, and he was so beautiful, i love this coloration

[strangerays]

it's gonna take me another fucking year to finish this book

[thetorturedbolter]

watching the lord of the rings (the extended editions ofc) is literally a spiritual experience

[4giorno]

yeah rhinedottir sucks and thats why shes so sexy

[musashi]

i want more nuance to be entered into the discussion of the green girl sorority and how differently cynthia plays elphaba in comparison to those who came before her because while a lot of people are rightfully like "why was elphaba not black from the beginning" and celebrating that she is now being played by a black woman, i think we need to be careful in just writing off all the elphabas of the past as Random White Girls when the role was championed (and often followed/succeeded) by a jewish woman

the pop culture archetype of the Wicked Witch has deep roots in antisemitism stretching faaaar far back. there is a level of reclamation happening in casting idina menzel, a jewish woman, to play the Misunderstood and Maligned young girl who is branded as exactly that. and stage!Elphaba is also written and acted with jewish stereotypes in mind--she is loud, aggressive, no-nonsense, blunt. she is quick to advocate for herself and shut down the discrimination she faces. all of this is very intentional! her personality is abrasive from years of abuse, and that makes propagandizing her easy. this is literally the thesis statement of the musical--it's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed.

cynthia's performance of elphaba is fucking INSPIRED despite going in a completely different direction. she's much more reserved, analytical, one of her key character traits is how well she can read people (see her calling out Galinda as insecure/putting on airs in their first scene together, clocking that Fiyero is using his party guy persona as a shield for his own depression) elphaba's attempts to blend in and make herself smaller all fail simply because of her existence, if not that then because she feels empathy so strongly she often struggles to hold back from acting, protecting.

personality wise, though, cynthia's elphaba is very quiet and closed-off, not at all the bullet-to-the-face that she is in the stage show, and... she still gets propagandized and maligned. though this seems to contradict the other interpretation, it tells of the other end of the spectrum of propaganda, one that black women watching (and many, MANY other marginalized folks) are sure to identify with--it does not matter how "nice," how reserved, how small a black woman makes herself. a racist society will still scrutinize her every action for a way to parse ill intent from it, brand her as an angry black woman who is dangerous and wicked, and write off any humanity she has in the process.

these two very different interpretations tell of the lie of assimilation. the fact of the matter is, when you are marginalized, there is no way to sand down your edges enough to make the people oppressing you "accept" you. that is why wicked is a tragedy at its core. whether loud and aggressive or quiet and unimposing, there is nothing elphaba could have done to make the people of Oz see her as anything other than a scapegoat to blame all their problems on.

so while i definitely appreciate that people are excited for black girl era elphaba, i would encourage us all to still show appreciation for what came before--that was not white girl era elphaba. that was jewish girl era elphaba. two houses, both alike in dignity, two stories both worth being told.

[aamitmorthos]

:)

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.