#but also...sometimes...player actions end up going in a different direction

[eelslippers]

That moment when you begin planning for a tabletop session and it can either be a wholesome chill session or a session that ends in someone dying and you have no idea which way it will go

[notomys-mordax-blog]

I've let my thoughts marinate for a while after finishing up Dragon Age Veilguard. In the spirit of contributing to a fandom that I love, I'm going to be shouting my general thoughts about the game into the void instead of having the decency to keep them in my head.

TLDR: it's complicated. Better than expected, but still pretty flawed.

Things I liked:

I was initially pretty meh on the toonier direction they took the character art in. It felt like ... knock-off overwatch. However the style really grew on me as I played the game and I found that the character models were really expressive in a fun way.

The environment design was really colorful and fun! One of my biggest critiques of DA:O was how ... brown and ugly the game was. While I think it was probably the right artistic choice to remove the hilariously over the top post-combat blood splatter effects, I do miss it. This game had some really interesting visual design.

Watching Solas's worst memories like episodes of Real Housewives with the crew.

The combat was also more fun than expected. I definitely prefer tactical combat in games, and don't generally enjoy action games, but I had fun with it and felt like it struck (for me) the right balance between difficulty and frustration.

There were some really interesting and subtle things in some of the writing (especially when combined with character expressions). There were little characterization details that I thought were really well done (for example: the fact that Lucanis was obviously the most rattled at weisshaupt) . The prison of regret was a high point in the series.

I really liked a lot of the big lore reveals.

It was fun seeing some of the environments that we've only heard about. in the previous games.

I actually really enjoyed how direct Taash's gender adventure was. There was no room for "well actually, they aren't non-binary, they are this unique fantasy term that isn't actually queer". I also enjoyed how it acted as a vehicle for the other gnc characters in the story to have their moments. Bonus points for also having non-binary characters doing something other than gender with their lives.

The game was functional, complete and ran well on launch! I had to put down BG3 for like two months because it was unplayably buggy when I picked it up, and the ending of DA:I really doesn't have any impact without Tresspasser, which came out much later.

Things I didn't like:

The writing was very uneven and pretty awkward at times. The number of times the phrases "Gods, Rituals and Artifacts" were uttered by different characters, often without any further explanation, really made me itchy. It was really weird to me why the characters kept calling the Evanuris Gods (especially with a non-elven Rook). I also wanted to grab Neve by the shoulders and shake her whenever she talked about the venatori doing a ritual. WHAT KIND OF RITUAL? GIVE ME SOME JUICY LORE TIDBITS BEFORE I CHEW MY ARM OFF.

The venatori and the antaam were straight out of Saturday cartoon villains. Their motivation also made absolutely no sense from a world-building point of view (maybe if they leaned more into the fact that the elven gods were also the Tevinter old gods ...?). This whole conflict really felt ... underbaked.

I can respect the game design choice to want the player to be completely heroic, and frankly -- given that most people don't pick the "evil" path, it makes sense to devote more effort in creating permutations of the good path ... but I do feel like they really could have pushed the themes of "as a leader, sometimes you won't have any good choices" a little bit harder (idk -- I think it would have been interesting if instead of the blight dragon, you would have to chose whether or not you'd ally yourself with the venatori and leave Treviso to the Antaam or vice versa).

DA:I does a good job convincing me that Inky is creating complicated alliances between different powerful factions. DA:V falls flat in this regard. I think they were aiming for the different factions to feel small and scrappy, but with the exception of the Shadow Dragons (and maybe the Lords) ... the Wardens, the Mourn Watch, and the Crows are major political forces ... which feel weirdly small.

All of the companions were pretty ... unobjectionable and straightforward heroes. As someone who personally loved the dynamic between Anders and Fenris in DA:2, I was pretty disappointed by the lack of inter-party conflict. Serious cultural conflicts between characters such as Emmrich and Tassh were resolved .... without much fuss. I didn't feel like any of the conversations about the fact that Lucanis kills people for money had any teeth.

In that vein, I felt like the worldbuilding was also pretty defanged. Topics of racism and religious oppression were very prominent in earlier games. I think it's pretty obvious why having an oppressed racial minorities gods being the main villain would be a bad look. Heck, I can also understand and respect these themes being less fun for the writers to explore in the hellhole that is 2025, but I think this could have been handled in a more elegant way. Instead it felt weird and hand-wavy.

The crows really must've hired a PR team after that whole incident with Zev. My headcanons really had to do some heavy lifting.

We finally get to see Minrathous, the biggest magical city in Thedas ... and the area we explore is just a generic fantasy fishing town? We see the cool floating canons in the intro sequence! Give us more of those.

The game was inconsistent about incorporating bits of Rook's origins into the dialog. For example, the seer in Rivain explaining their relationship with spirits felt really weird with a Lord of Fortune Rook. Another (minor) example, Mourn Watch Rook eats the fish, it would have been neat to have the option for him to be vegetarian (given that this is common in Nevarra).

Romance is my favorite part of dragon age, and I felt like all of the romances were very ... paint by numbers.

Dreadwolf would have been a much better name.

Some of the comments from people involved in the game (specifically the AMA -- but also the whole "this is the most romantic dragon age game ever") had a weird vibe.

Where are Solas's agents? What happened to them?!

We were not betrayed by any of our apostate companions, 0/10 this is an important aspect of any dragon age game.

Rook felt like the boss that nobody wanted to invite to do anything fun. The companions seemed like they had a lot of dynamic with each other, but they never really directly spoke with Rook. It was weird how you couldn't talk to them. You had to awkwardly listen in on their conversations. Pretty much all of the companions have more chemistry with each other than Rook.

I have more thoughts about specific characters and plot points that I may share later, but I needed to expunge this from my mind like an exorcism.

[crowvert-bird]

quick warning: i dont support the creators of dandys world and their actions (roxs (allegedly) EXTREMELY questionable actions towards minors, the (alleged) censorship of people talking about roxs actions in their discord server, and their (alleged) constant downplaying of the controversy just to name a few), i just like the game, thats it

also third batch!!! i think im gonna make fully rendered art of them eventually or 3d models if im bored enough, i kinda miss the 50 hours id spend making the lineart and shading ngl

first batch , second batch

o yea and i gave some of them new abilities cuz i felt like it and sometimes their design was fundamentally different enough from the original that itd be better to have new abilities than try to figure out how the redesign would use their canon ability (like redesigned toodles), if i dont mention an ability thats kept in the redesign its probably been replaced with another one, and im calling canon twisteds by CT!(name) and the redesigned twisteds by RT!(name)

twisted toodles: third worst jumpscare

- Can now see as far as CT!Pebble can. As slow as CT!Finn when roaming, but rolls REALLY fast like a bowling ball when chasing. The rest of her stats are the same.

- A little bit before her roll starts, she splashes some ichor on the ground near the player (to basically tell them the direction of her roll). It's close enough that they'll be able to see it even in a blackout without light upgrades, but far enough that you'd have to pay a bit of attention to notice it.

- When she's chasing a player but ends up going out of a specific range from them (the range is a VERY big circle), she stops, repositions herself really fast and rolls again to run over the player. If she hits a player, she keeps rolling until she hits a wall. Then, when she hits a wall she immediately loses aggro, gets blinded and can't move for like 2 seconds before getting back up to roam again. If she doesn't hit a wall while she's chasing a player, she keeps rolling.

twisted tisha: figure from doors real

- She's slower than average now. She still cleans floors, but now she cleans ceilings too!! The rest of her stats are the same.

- Can extend her legs really far, to the point where she can touch the ceiling with her hands. Leading to her being able to look above walls and down at you.

- She can now feel the vibrations your footsteps make as long as you're near her, even when you're walking and she's really high up. She won't attack you immediately, she'll just pause her cleaning for a bit and look in the direction of the vibrations (there's a short delay between her noticing the vibrations and her looking). If she sees you, she'll start chasing you like a normal twisted while retracting her legs to be at her normal height.

twisted teagan: more dangerous than twisted shelly (oops)

im splitting this into 3 parts for each character in the tea set

disurf

- Is as fast as CT!Toodles but is always hiding in a corner.

- Runs away from players when RT!Teagan starts attacking, bringing RT!Teagan with her to hide in another corner. Disurf actively dodges players as much as she can while still keeping her speed, so she sometimes ends up running into players making them lose a heart. Disurf keeps running away until her attention span runs out, at that point she's gonna start looking for the nearest corner to hide in.

teagan

- Her line of sight defaults to where Disurf's line of sight is. When Disurf sees a player, RT!Teagan looks in the same direction as her for like 1 second. If RT!Teagan doesn't see anyone, she goes back to her default line of sight.

- Only attacks when she has direct line of sight with a player. She attacks by throwing twisted Cupbits at you. You can dodge them by hiding behind walls, or, if she's far enough, by stepping aside so that the Cupbit flies past you.

cupbits

- They're average speed, never break when thrown, and have a shorter than average attention span. They have no special abilities, only a regular attack.

- They die after 7 seconds by falling apart and turning into pure ichor, then that ichor gets smaller and smaller and disappears. There's no limit on how many twisted Cupbits can be spawned at once.

AND:

- They're a hivemind, if one of them sees you, all of them do. When you get seen by one of them:

All twisted Cupbits have their attention spans refreshed, but only if the player that was seen is the same player they're chasing.

- Disurf will avoid running in your direction and will instead do a full 180 and run the other way (even if there's players in that direction).

EVEN LONGER RANT UNDER CUT but i explain my twisted designs, the actual reasons to y i dont like the canon designs, and other shit i guess idk (in that order)

my twisted design process (for all twisteds):

i realllly didnt like the way i handled the twisted designs in literally every single one of my redesigns (except for poppy, box and lamp i guess??) so i made some rules for how to make them so its not just "make them big and sharp and splash them with ichor", its canon divergent yes but its really cool i think so its staying:

the twisted versions of every character are mutated versions of themselves that lean so very hard into their main personality trait or role in a very negative way, to the point that theyre almost like mean-spirited parodies of themselves (carries over to how their special twisted abilities work too), theyre waay more likely to get violent too (u kno, so that theyre twisted versions of themselves)

patches of ichor appear at spots that changed from the original design (the ichor comes first, then the mutations), or their clothes absorbed it cuz the ichor kinda acts like water that makes worse stains, or they got filled up by ichor in some way

i headcanon that these versions of the twisteds would sometimes reenact episodes from the tv show or some of the routines theyd go through while the place was still running, but waaaaay more tense and sometimes depressing cuz of their mutations and very big personality shift

most likely reasons to y i rlly dont like the canon designs:

i looked at some more fanart and i legit cant tell if i actually dont like the character designs or if i just dont like the games artstyle wat the hell ;-; LIKE THEY LEGIT LOOK PRETTY GOOD WHEN OTHER PEOPLE DRAW THEM!!

BUT I FINALLY FOUDN THE WORDS TO PROPERLY EXPLAIN Y I AHTE THE CANON DESIGNS SO MUCH!!! its cuz a lot of them feel very lazy and generic, like the only thing making them stand out is the fact that theyre a dandys world character and not just a character, like theyre simple yes thats cool and that works really well for a character like pebble and sprout, but most of them are TOO simple cuz they usually have like only 1 range of color in their design (tisha is blue to white, brightney is dark red to white, shelly is brown to cream, while sprout is red to white and green, and rodger is black to brown and purple)

but some of them have things in their design that just dont work (finn, poppy, brightney), maybe its cuz stuff are in bad places (poppys bow on her head) or they just dont look good (finn), wat makes this even worse is that some characters like tisha and brightney and shrimpo have patterns to try and make their design more interesting i gues?? but it just doesnt work and genuinely makes it feel more generic :(

so i think the real problem with dandys worlds designs is a few things:

1. that theres not enough diversity in their colors if u get wat i mean, like seriously most of the skins do this (having different colors to make sure not everything is visually samey)!!!

imo the biggest example of "not enough color diversity" is vee and astro and their skins, like they look SO MUCH BETTER when theyre not just "green, black" and "purple to cyan, black, white" (i wouldve put teagans skin in here too if there was just slightly more yellow), it doesnt even have to be colors that are on the opposite sides of the color wheel, just visually pleasing color combos!!!

2. just better structuring (if thats wat u call it) i guess??

like finn, yes his character design fits the having enough color diversity problem, but it just doesnt work, i think its cuz of how saturated the cyan and orange are, making them not mesh well together, like if the orange was a darker less saturated color then maybe the colors could work, but it could also just be his clothes, like switch out his life vest for anything else thats related to marine stuff (maybe a swimsuit with flipper feet??) and his pants for something darker

3. not following their theme very well, or theyre pretty lacking in roles so their theming is very vague

i think shelly is the biggest example of this, like why is she a shell, i get that shells can be fossils too but honestly just make her a skeletal dinosaur at that point or one of the many modern descendants of dinosaurs (like birds and crocodiles and turtles), her twisted design is rlly good tho!!! its my favorite design in the entire game and its honestly the coolest one too

and now for 3 characters that i think have problems in most of these (that i havent already mentioned):

glisten is an example of another color problem that i didnt mention cuz i felt like this was a problem that only glisten had, the colors not being the right color (idk how else to name it ;-;), he looks SO GOOD in fanart but hes just meh in the official game even when compared to his original picture as a dhmis oc, and im pretty sure its cuz the pink parts of his design arent saturated or dark enough, leading to the yellow parts of his design blending in more easily with the bow (look at the black and white version as a reference on that, the brightness of the pink and yellow are very close to each other meaning ud have a harder time trying to tell them apart, its easier to tell when colored yes but their brightness still carries over leading to some color blending (idk another word for it srry), not as much blending as in the black and white version but still a subtle detail u could pick up on), and his blush, im gonna be honest with u i just think it looks bad and i dont even know y, just eyeshadow would look waay better

boxten oh god, they do kinda follow the color diversity thing but the way hes designed is just not it, he doesnt come off as shy in his design or the dialogues i saw or even animation, hes more of a softie than anything, i only knew that he was shy when i read his info card

poppy follows the color diversity thing the most imo, pink cyan and yellow are colors that i think work really well together, but the structure of her design and how well her design fits her role doesnt work either, actually im pretty sure i fixed her design structure in my second redesign (second batch) of her, all i did was move the bow from being weirdly placed on her head to being tied around her waist like glisten and mess around with the colors, now with her design fitting her role, i think the bubble is a good choice!! it fits playful way better than energetic i think but it still works, my only problem is with her clothes, it does not give off energetic vibes, i honestly think shed have a better design if she wore the clothes professional tag players and maaaybe mountain bikers wear

other shit idk:

honestly i wanted to include all the mains here too (as of writing, shelly has a complete redesign (more changed than the lamp) and vee and astro are just light redesigns, im not done with sprout and im never redesigning pebble hes already perfect) but the release date for the new update dropped as soon as i was gonna start digitizing the twisted tea sets design, actually i think i went overboard on like ALL of the redesigns to the point where i should prob start calling them rewrites or very loosely inspired instead, oops i did NOT mean to do that

also i just recounted the total characters, theres only 21 of them how the fuck did i get 22 last time???

[whoblewboobear]

I was kinda dreading the “Brennan railroading or being a bad DM” posts bc I had a feeling they were coming. At the end of the day, If the table is having fun literally who cares.

This is a table full of comedians that can and will commit so hard to the bit that it becomes an entire 2 hours where nothing gets accomplished. With this being a show, you can’t do that.

For everything with Fig/Emily she’s a phenomenal player that will go above and beyond, she thinks outside of the box and she’s the player I aspire to be BUT that’s also a DMs nightmare sometimes because you have to decide what you do and don’t take seriously. Like.. I genuinely think if Emily could’ve avoided picking exactly what she wanted Fig to multi class in, she absolutely would’ve for as long as possible because that’s exactly what fig /would/ do. But because there’s a narrative to tell, Brennan has to do some reigning in. There’s probably a ton of behind the scenes conversations from DM to player to decide what direction their characters should go in.

The stakes are high for the party especially when Fig and Kristen potentially failing could lead to the entire group becoming pass/fail. Fig not committing to a class could’ve fucked a lot up and sent the entire season in a completely different direction. Which, in a home game wouldn’t be too detrimental if you’re doing theater of the mind but yall, they have sets and different plot threads and beats the HAVE TO be hit.

Do I hate that on paper fig is a barbarian now purely because it was a call that Porter made to spite Fig & Gorgug? YES. But if Fig had the choice to keep doing fuck all, it would’ve been bad for everyone in game especially when downtime and stress tokens are in the mix. Having Emily roll with a high chance of failing with like.. 4 different academic tracks would be just as scary if not more than it already is with Zac’s rolls for Gorgug. Some thing has to give and if it makes at least one person’s life easier then I think it was the right call to get that MCAT signed. She fully had the chance to have the bard teacher sign and didn’t. That’s a consequence of actions

[jojoqin]

Why the remake cabin kicks the OG’s ass -an analysis 🔎

Basically it has to do with a lot of elements. Sound, cinematic framing, how well written the entire segment is in general. All that sweet jazz. Also sorry in advance, I had to gifmaker some shitty gifs because I needed examples 😭💀

So I read up on a lot of filmmaking for this post about what makes a good set piece. At the start, the game already sets it up by subconsciously familiarizing the player with the cabin; making it one of the first areas we pass by. There’s something about how you see it in its position; in between the trees, sort of in the same center as the bridge, very by itself. Clearly it’s important. Later, the Saddler mindfuck scene at the church actually shows us why the villagers are on the chase. And it's all tied to how well realized the cult theme is in the entire story. It puts a slightly more sinister spin on the villagers' motivation compared to the og where it sometimes feels like they're purely used as obstacles.

And yes there’s actually PAYOFF this time. No more "vamanos" and the villagers just leave. Or for Luis to ask "so what now?". This time the villagers' condition gets woven into new exposition and a new goal; the Plaga ordeal inside the characters. And the end scene defines Luis role. A great set piece should have a well written purpose to advance the plot forward. And we actually experience first hand the whole hive mind thing instead of getting a 5 min Saddler monologue about it.

Talking about the technical stuff in scenes too. Like listen to the music and audio during the run up towards and after Luis closes the door, the music become this muffled droning as soon as the door is shut. It indicates that you've entered a different space that's more confined and sheltered from the outside w/o immediately breaking the ambient tension. Not necessarily an upgrade from the og but in the og, the escalating music stops because the payoff is seeing Luis. Whilst the remake still likes to remind you that you're still in a weird situation.

I also talked before how the camera loves to follow characters. In this shot you follow Leon forward and then you’re backing up behind Luis in this continuous camera movement. And see how tight the camera sticks behind Leon’s shoulder? He takes up like 75% of the frame at one point, with the camera subtly zooming in even though Luis is the focus. There’s a visceral feel in the confrontation, how its putting pressure on Luis just by how the scene is directed.

And the sound during that is like auditory storytelling. I know my audio doesn’t quite do it justice because it’s been compressed to shit so y’all might want to seek out the actual scene. But when Luis hits the wall here, the strings fade out and the sound of the rain is brought forward. Audio-wise, it’s like it’s bringing our focus to the presence of Luis and Ashley. It's also just ASMR af.

Another example of the fluid camera transition from earlier is when Ashley hides. The camera leads away from her and it follows that same “leading away” movement when it transition cuts to the window with Leon going into frame. Like look how seamless it tells action w/o having to do a lot of harsh cuts unlike the gif of the og below. The remake tends to show multiple activities either within the same shot or following a visual style so that it's easy to digest.

And holy shit, the way the music just disappears when our dudes take position here is so FUCKING GOOD. Because all you hear is the echo of the cult chanting and the ASMR patter of rain. I think of the silence as equivalent to taking a deep breath. And it’s funny because the sound effect when the scene transitions to the player is just this very intense and layered sound of exhaling. The way the camera also pulls back in the cutscene so that there’s no break from scene to gameplay just makes it so immersive.

Also those two shots we get from Leon and Luis’ perspectives before the gameplay is kinda interesting too. Very “Main Character POV” angle because the camera is positioned at the guys’ eye level, as if we the audience are directly in front of them. At that moment we sort of take the place of the characters as the player. The “it’s game time” line is so hype because it actually does feel like it’s being said to us.

I think the writing for the fight itself is way better than in the og. There's a real rhythm to how the conflict happens; a somewhat story structure. The setup, the moment things go to shit, the resolution. The setup happens in the cutscenes and as you're battling the early wave of villagers. The Plaga baddies I see as the first climax, because they only start conveniently popping up around the time you're scrambling to get the new boards. You get them up and there's your sort of downtime, the 'falling action' before things ramp up again.

There’s a clear transition to "the moment things go to shit" phase; it's all the elements working together in the entire segment. You get a visual cue which is the ladder, an auditory cue of the noise upstairs, and then you get the in-game cue from Luis. And the musical cue is particularly what the remake does best. Like often when it wants to change up the pace during a certain part, they'll simplify the track but make it a bit deeper to build up this new adrenaline.

And every big set piece needs constrasty elements to show different perspectives. I believe just the simple imagery of seeing the mob outside as you're constantly having to kick the ladder is so effective because it shows scale. It makes us actually feel that the problem is as big as it is. It's a smart show of perspective especially after starting the fight in a confined area. This part of it was kind of weird in the og. Even though there's a mob, you could always stare out some window and it'll just be a void there (probably due to the graphical limitations).

But before you even trigger the Bull Head dude's cutscene, like again, you already hear an auditory cue of him. Also his addition makes the scene a true "everything is going to shit" moment. You kinda need that enemy as a standout variety. Like the og is iconic but it's very straightforward with the ambience and the enemy encounter. In the remake, everything is an escalating bombardment to the senses. Especially on the first playthrough, at this point you're on your last leg, no heal, no shotgun/rifle ammo left, the cult chanting is overwhelmingly loud now. It's funny but also apt that when Ashley saves the guys, she's enveloped in this holy light. Even the camera angle that's positioned lower looking up visually puts her in a higher position than the audience.

[satoshi-mochida]

Some thoughts and details on my last Gamefly rental, Maglam Lord(Switch Version).

The Bladelord Killrizark(whose gender can be chosen at the start) is attacked and severely weakened by a union of Gods and Demons uniting together against them, branding them a Hazardes, a threat to the whole world. They aren’t killed, however, and are saved and eventually revived by Balga, the Demon Lord of Iron, and his grandkid Satyus. They’ve been out of commission for some time, however, and their power has been greatly weakened, as well as losing their memory.

Soon after, a member of the Administration, Mamie, arrives, and informs Killrizark that they’re the last of the Demon Lords, and considered an Endangered Species. 

Going into town, Killrizark meets a young girl named Lryica who isn’t scared of them at all, and is excited to meet the last Demon Lord, even giving them some food. Soon after, however, monsters called Mutabeasts attack the town, Killrizark deciding to fight them off after seeing Lryica is in danger. They find that they gain some of their power back from absorbing the defeated Mutabeasts.

Killrizark finds out however that using their own power also drains what they have left, so Satyus gets the idea to hire people from the Administration to wield them as a Maglam weapon. The ones sent, however, are two Heroes, Charme and her brother Darius, instigating conflict in the group(mostly from Darius), though they eventually reach a truce.

Satyus’ home serves as the group’s base of sorts. Here, you select everything there is to do in the game, though not everything is available right away.

Each character has Skills they can learn. Some are attack Skills used with X, and others are passive. I think you get Skill Points from leveling up.

You can equip 3 ‘Maglam’ weapons at once, which are all Swords, Axes and Spears, and are made from using materials to forge them at the Maglam Forge. You can also put decorations on them to raise stats and give them effects such as causing status effects and doing or doing more/taking less damage. Sometimes when forging a Maglam, a Partner will jump in and help, which raises the Rank of it. Higher Affection is what probably affects this.

The game’s shop is mostly like other RPGs, but a unique part of it is the ‘Happiness Tax’ section, where you trade in materials for items/equipment. Getting items this way makes Mamie’s like you more. I think I get why the name is what it is, but that may be a spoiler.

Requests are the main way of getting money, materials and progressing the story. Most can be repeated for grinding/farming, though story ones and ones related to events with other characters aren’t. With a couple later exceptions, they are all either ‘Collect X amount of Y’ or ‘Defeat X amount of Y’, which can get repetitive/monotonous, though some have an optional bonus condition of beating a stronger enemy somewhere for an extra reward(usually a lot of money).

The fields are in 3D, with enemies wandering around and items to be picked up(shown as a white sparkle), with exits to new sections indicated by green markers. Some sections will have a red Safe Zone portal that you can heal, save, change Partners, use the Maglam Forge and shop at.

Battles are done in 2D(think like the much older Tales of or the Summon Night: Swordcraft Story games), with the player able to move left and right until hitting the end of the screen(running against the corners will let you run away). Items dropped by enemies are automatically picked up.

Actions on the field/in battle are:

Attacks are done with Y. Attacking repeatedly and using different directions does combos/different attacks, respectively, both on ground and in the air, and you can hold then release Y for a charged attack. You can attack enemies on the field before fights as well, and hitting them in the back gives you an advantage(possibly; it seems a bit finicky). Your strike range is very short, though.

Pressing the Right Stick when the meter is full has Killrizark take control in a powered up form until the meter runs back out.

Switch Maglam weapons with Left/Right on the D-Pad

Jumping is B(in battles, you can double jump)

Guard is L(battle only)

Dashing is R(ground only; hold to run faster outside of battle)

X is a character’s Skills. Holding X stops the action and brings up a list of the available Skills you can set and use.

ZL is a Skill unique to each Partner. Using this button on the Field will bring up a prompt asking if you want to abandon the current Request(if possible)

A is to use Items. Holding A stops the action and brings up a list of the useable items you can set to use. If you stand idle for a few seconds, Killrizark will pop out and you can use A to talk to them.

Interact with items on the field with Y(make sure to remember that and not assume it’s A, aside from the one situation above, making you waste a bunch of items by accident like I did). 

- Button brings up the map and + Button brings up the menu/pauses the game(out and in battle, respectively).

A bit into the game, Killrizark meets ‘Love Guru ‘G.G.’ who tells him about love and dating. Once Partners start joining, Killrizark will decide to try and date one of them(plus Mamie) since they need an heir as the last Demon Lord. How this system works is that each Partner has an Affection meter that can be seen when visiting the Love Guru, shown by the amount of Hearts next to their name(any Partner can be dated by Killrizark regardless of gender),and once it gets high enough, you can go on dates with them. The Date events have Killrizark and whoever you pick going to, or rather being teleported to, various date locations for them, and having you pick dialogue choices. 

A good number of these are full events with voice acting, but some in-between those are very short events that are just ‘pick location->they liked or didn’t like it->certain amount of Affection is gained’. You’ll be able to pick all of those locations if you keep raising Affection and doing the Dates, though.

There are six characters to date, though only 5 are playable:

Darius

Charme

M.O.A.V.

Julette

Acklao

Mamie(not playable)

The ways to raise Affection aside from the Dates are:

Take your Partners into battle

Use certain healing food items that show a character’s face on them while out on a Request(each character has their own favorite foods, even KIllizark, who likes sweet stuff)

Pick dialogue options that favor them/show their face next to it.

Buy Items from the ‘Happiness Tax’ part of the shop(only way to raise Mamie’s aside from Dates with her)

The deciding moment on who KIllizark will get an ending with is near the very end of the game at the Request ‘The Big Date’. Also, if you want, during this, you can pick to just ‘have a strong bond’ with whoever you selected instead of it being romantic. Or pick no one at all. The character’s ending will be shown after the credits. For Mamie’s ending, though, there’ll be a choice before the final boss that only appears if you did all of her Dates and maxed out her Affection, which will also override whoever you picked previously.

Though you can’t get an ending with them, there seems to be an event with Satyus you can miss easily. I think you need to pick choices that favor them to see it, though I’m not 100% sure, myself; their event might have been the last of the CGs I missed.

Also like in the Tales of games, the playable characters can earn Titles. They’ll have different effects such as raising stats, doing more damage to specific enemy types, and more.

There are other Endangered Species you can find in the Field stages(seems they can’t be missed, so they can be found while repeating Requests). Finding them gives you more items you can buy or new Requests. They’re indicated by a flashing red light on the Fields, but they’re still hidden pretty well, so I had to use a guide to find them. The main characters, aside from Mamie, are considered Endangered Species, too, for different reasons, so they’re listed there, too.

Of the characters, I liked pretty much everyone, with them all getting some nice development, though Julette’s voice could unfortunately get crating at times. 

The game is, in a way, a spiritual successor to the Summon Night games, with the Dating and weapon crafting aspects, as well as staff from them, and the battle gameplay done similarly to the same style as the Swordcraft Story spinoff games.

If you want to see more background lore for the game’s world, you can look at Satyus’ Notes under ‘Teach Me, Satyus!’ in the base menu. There’s a lot here, and more gets added as the game goes on. The best time to read through it would be before the final battle.

While there is a NG+, sort of, nothing actually carries over, unfortunately. You do get some bonuses, such as more starting money and Affection rising faster, but that’s about it. Not even already seen CGs.

The game’s character artist, lack, is on here, if you want to check out their work.

An amusing text error I saw a few times was the words ‘café’ and ‘naïve’ being shown as ‘caf?/na?ve’. I guess it can’t figure out how to properly show accented letters? ^^;

I was a bit lukewarm towards the game at first, but it grew on me more as it went on, met more of the characters, and got better at the game. The story was good and the characters got well done character development. I think it’s probably best worth getting when it goes on a sale.

Next game being sent is: Super Mario Odyssey.

[tiikerikani]

Nobody has words for any of this (Part 2)

[Continued from Part 1] This has been in my drafts for a while; just too much has been going on in my life to sit down and think of what to say.

I personally don't get emotional responses to the kind of sensory experiences people describe as "spectacles", so I can't really comment on whether or how this experience met those expectations. But that's a word that's commonly used to describe circus performances, and I figured that something was up when I noticed a rope hanging all the way down from the ceiling.

Anyway yeah they'd hired a whole troupe of circus performers who took part at various points in the show, with longer routines at the beginning and end. If your troupe's name doesn't have the words du Soleil in it you're probably never going to draw a crowd of 12,000 to your own performance so this was probably an experience of a lifetime for them as well.

I don't remember why I chose the right side of the stage, probably just that I'm more often on the right than the left, I guess. I think this worked out well because on the left, you have mostly the orchestra doing orchestra things, while on the right you've got the backing singers (and you know how they're often doing fun choreography) and the brass players whom I never did get a good look at when they played. Oh well. But also at one point Senpai ran along the floor to get back onto the stage so we got high-fives and handshakes on this side. And the photographer who took my picture earlier also took several pictures of first row fans, but only on this side. (There's a picture of my elbow next to the Blondes. The Blondes are a very recognizable pair and they've gotten local media attention several times before.)

A disadvantage of where I was beside the catwalk is that everything that happens at the front there, I have to see from behind. As far as I can otherwise tell the band's choreography was mostly the same as it has been, so it didn't bother me so much to be paying more attention to the acrobats. But at the same time, I didn't get to see the full visual effect of the circus action in the foreground along with whatever the band is doing on the stage proper. I know I missed seeing some things on stage because of where I was, for example I have no context for some of the stage background images that I've seen on other people's photos.

(This got long and I don't know where to split it into a third post, so here's a cut)

I also totally missed the stagehands moving a whole-ass piano up there (presumably with a ramp)

They finally performed Ilman mua with the instrumental intro but idunno, it really isn't the same on a violin as it is with whistling (but I'm not sure if it's even possible to whistle, in a single take, as accurately as on the studio recording) and the ending was different.

IIRC they'd promised just 4 backing vocalists on stage but I guess they wanted MOAR!!! so they projected a pre-recorded video of the gospel choir on the screen.

I think it would have been even more impressive if the choir was also there in the flesh, but maybe that's logistically too complicated. They've been working with this choir a lot and including gospel elements in new arrangements, which, to be honest, is a direction that I'm not super excited about, especially if the new songs they're working on now end up being like that too. A large part of what appeals to me about the last few albums is the theatrical/symphonic orchestration so my preference would be to lean more THAT way.

Similarly, I am all over the dramatic lighting, ok

Sometimes his Turisti speech is so impassioned that his voice cracks a little, but I hadn't yet seen him also get visibly emotional during it. In any case, if he wasn't crying during the song, everybody else was. I saw Short Blonde wiping a tear from her eye. I've gotten a bit desensitized to it by now though so I wasn't crying, at least on the outside. I also got a kind of moody picture?

Below is the end of the circus routine from the final act. There's a small gap in the middle of this where I'd stopped recording and started again; I combined the two clips so the music keeps (more or less) the correct beat. I'm really not a fan of stage pyrotechnics so I'm happy there wasn't any of that; torch juggling is a whole other thing. You'll hear them throw the lit torches into a box when they're done with them and slam the lid shut (and throw a fire blanket over the whole thing). It was right by my feet so it was very... warm.

(warning: flashing stage lights at the end)

There's too many people on the stage again!!! (The orchestra is hiding behind them.)

Something I really would have liked was if they'd played all the songs from the album, like they had done for the previous album.

Altogether though this is way too many people. If I couldn't be in the first row or two I'd rather be in the seats on the balcony and bring opera glasses. Being lost in a sea of bodies is not my idea of a good time, especially when I'm below average height and I have trouble breathing in crowds and I want to avoid people jostling and spilling drinks on my outfits.

I met up with the friendly couple on the way out, or rather they found me. (I think that the last time we met we'd already determined that we had tickets for the same section.) They were also in the front and their picture was also published in the newspaper gallery. They're still the only groupies I've met who actually try to have a conversation with me instead of just saying hi. But they're also from a different social background that probably makes it more comfortable for them to do that.

Since I was wearing such heavy clothing, I couldn't roll up my sleeve to write the set list on my arm, so I used my wax tablet instead.

Luckily, I don't even have to decipher my scrawls because they put the list in the concert review so I'm just going to copypaste it from there (with corrections):

Maailma palaa

Kohti sydänpeltoja

Nuoriherra

Suru ei oo ystävä

Samaan mutkaan kaatunut

Tanssimaan

Kellarissa

Se joku jätkä // Ilman mua

Kolme hyvää vinkkiä

Jee jee

Rodeo

Kukaan ei koskaan

Valot eteiseen

Exodus (album version with accompaniment, but which still starts a cappella)

Viimeinen hetki ennen muuta // Faarao

Kiljut riemusta (not quite the new pink ribbon campaign version, which was a bit too gospel for my taste)

Kanto

Onnellinen mies

Hetken ikuinen

// Ei voittajaa

// Reppana

// Turisti

// // Meissä asuu elämä

// // Tummilla teillä

// // Arlandan portailla

P.S. This was my setup the morning tickets went on sale back in January

[Concert write-up archive and master calendar

[starseedfxofficial]

The MACD & LTCUSD Trading Playbook: Ninja Tactics for Winning Trades Trading isn’t just about finding the right setup; it’s about sneaking up on the market like a ninja, ready to strike when the moment is perfect. If you’ve ever had one of those facepalm moments where you hit the 'sell' button when you meant to buy, well, you’re in the right place. Today, we’re diving deep into the advanced, lesser-known tactics of using the MACD indicator for trading LTCUSD — and let me tell you, there’s more to it than just those two lines crossing. Ready for some laugh-out-loud, behind-the-scenes action that even your seasoned trading buddy hasn’t heard of? Stick around. We’re talking about real ninja stuff—hidden MACD setups, emotional battles with your positions, and how to make LTCUSD trading fun again. Why Most Traders Get It Wrong (And How You Can Avoid It) Let’s start by debunking the most common misconception about MACD: many traders think it’s all about buying when the lines cross up and selling when they cross down. Sounds straightforward, right? Well, kind of like thinking that eating one salad a week makes up for pizza Fridays—not quite. The truth is, blindly following MACD crosses is why most traders end up buying LTCUSD just as it takes a nosedive. Here’s where the real magic of the MACD comes in. Instead of just waiting for the classic “cross,” savvy traders use divergence as the secret sauce. Imagine you’re on a hike, and your buddy (the MACD line) starts lagging behind while the price keeps going up. That’s a sign of trouble brewing—momentum is running out, and LTCUSD could be heading for a trend reversal. Not seeing that divergence? That’s the trading equivalent of buying a sweater in summer just because it’s 50% off—not a smart move. The Hidden Formula Only Experts Use A lot of traders don’t realize this, but MACD has an overlooked trick up its sleeve: the histogram. Yep, that wavy thing most people ignore. Here’s the insider secret: the histogram isn’t just decoration. Watching for a contraction in the MACD histogram can give you a heads-up before the MACD lines cross, allowing you to get into a trade early. It’s kind of like getting a secret tip-off that your favorite sneakers are going on sale tomorrow—you’re already in line while everyone else is still at home. Let’s take a real-world example: during the April 2024 LTCUSD rally, there was a point where price action looked like it was going straight to the moon. But a quick peek at the MACD histogram showed momentum slowing down well before the price itself turned around. Traders who knew how to read that contraction bailed early, taking profits while everyone else was left holding the bag. Lesson learned? The histogram is a key player—ignore it at your own risk. How to Predict Market Moves with Precision Picture this: you’re staring at the LTCUSD chart, waiting for a perfect setup. But here’s the kicker: your definition of a “perfect setup” might need an upgrade. Most traders look for basic MACD crosses or even RSI overbought/oversold conditions, but one unconventional approach is pairing the MACD with volume analysis. Here’s the deal—if you see a bullish MACD crossover paired with a spike in volume, that’s like the market putting its money where its mouth is. It’s a sign that big players are stepping in, and that’s exactly where you want to be. Volume is the muscle behind every price move; think of it like the difference between a quiet protest and a full-blown demonstration. One gets a lot more attention from everyone watching—and that’s where you want your money. The Forgotten Strategy That Outsmarted the Pros Contrarian traders know that MACD isn’t just for spotting trend direction—it’s also a powerful tool for understanding when to stay out of the market. Yes, you heard that right. Sometimes, the best trading decision is the one you don’t make. During periods of low volatility, the MACD lines often flatten out and the histogram goes into sleep mode. It’s tempting to try and force a trade because, hey, the market’s moving and you want in. But these flat periods are a warning sign that the market’s more indecisive than you are when choosing dinner on a Friday night. In 2023, LTCUSD had a lot of moments like these. Traders who knew when to sit on their hands instead of forcing trades saved their capital and were ready for the next big move, while the others got chopped up in a sea of false signals. It’s kind of like taking a rain check on a beach day—sure, the sun might peek out for a moment, but it’s better to wait for clear skies. The One Simple Trick That Can Change Your Trading Mindset Let’s be real—trading can mess with your emotions. It’s like a rollercoaster that never ends. But here’s a little-known tactic: instead of focusing on the trade outcome, focus on the process. MACD gives you great signals, but it’s how you execute that counts. Set your entry rules, stick to them, and more importantly, make peace with missing out on some moves. Trying to catch every MACD signal is like trying to taste-test every dish at an all-you-can-eat buffet—you’ll end up stuffed and miserable. To really leverage the MACD, consider using it as part of a trading journal. Record not just the signals, but your thoughts at the time—what did you feel when that histogram shrunk? Were you overconfident during a divergence? Analyzing this will give you a leg up on the competition, because knowing yourself is just as important as knowing the market. Wrap-Up: Becoming a MACD Ninja So, there you have it—the MACD isn’t just a couple of lines crossing each other. It’s a full-blown ninja toolkit that, when used correctly, can provide elite tactics for getting the most out of LTCUSD trading. Whether it’s identifying divergence, using the histogram for early entry clues, or knowing when not to trade, mastering the MACD is about understanding its nuances and respecting its signals. And remember, the next time you’re tempted to hit that button just because the lines crossed, ask yourself: is this the right trade, or are you buying those discounted shoes you’ll never wear? Want to take your skills even further? Check out our free trading resources and join our community for exclusive insights and ninja tactics: StarseedFX Community. Let’s make those trades count! —————– Image Credits: Cover image at the top is AI-generated Read the full article

[postgamecontent]

Devi & Pii (MD Mini 2)

It's been a bit of a busy week, but let's get back to this. We're now officially in the "Bonus Games" section of the Mega Drive Mini 2. This was basically an arms race started by Nintendo including Star Fox 2 in the Super NES Classic Mini. SEGA, trying to double up on its old rival, included two bonus games in the original Mega Drive Mini. With the Mega Drive Mini 2, SEGA and M2 kind of went over the top in general, and that extends to the bonus games. We've got nine in total to look at here, but I'm going to stick two of them in one article for reasons that will be obvious. This is a bit of a long entry, so I'm going to put a "Keep Reading" break here.

The definition of a "Bonus Game" varies in some regards, but one unifying point is that none of these games were released back in the day. Some are games that were mostly completed but never came out. Some are new creations whipped up by M2 or other contracted developers. Some are modifications of existing games. In general, it's probably not best to expect these games to carry the weight of a regular title, even if some of them are more than capable of doing so. Okay, on to the first one.

Devi & Pii was created by Takashi Iizuka (now head of Sonic Team) as part of his new employee training back in 1992. The game was never planned for release, but Iizuka kept a near-finished build of it. M2 found out while working on SEGA AGES Virtua Racing, and figured it would make an interesting bonus title for the Mega Drive Mini 2. And here it is!

It's a unique twist on the brick breaker concept. You've got a paddle on the top of the screen and the bottom, and you need to control them both. The directional pad moves the bottom one, and the A and B buttons move the top one. The top paddle is in charge of catching angels called Pii as they fly up from the bottom of the screen. Most stages require you to collect a certain number to move on, though the first and last stage in each world are a bit different. The bottom paddle is meant to whack Devis that fall from the top of the screen, which sends them flying back up and destroying everything in their path. If a Devi Attack hits a Pii, they will sometimes turn into a helpful item.

If the top paddle lets a Pii pass, the field shrinks from the top. If the bottom paddle is hit by a Devi or another attack, the field shrinks from the bottom. Let the field get too small, and you lose. It is very hard to handle both side of the action at once, but I suppose that's the game. In the first and last stages of each world, you only need to worry about the bottom paddle. It's all Devi Attacks. In the second stage, you only need to worry about the top paddle. It's the four stages in the middle that get dicey.

You might think that the two player mode would spare you, but it just widens the field and gives you each a set of top and bottom paddles. You will rub your tummy and pat your head at the same time! There's also a two-player competitive mode, if that's something you want to try out.

I can understand why Devi & Pii wasn't released back in the day, assuming it was even under consideration. It's a little bit too thin, a little bit too odd and demanding in its mechanics. But I think it's a really neat game to include as a bonus on this mini-console, because it has all those early 1990s vibes while also being something new to all of us. And hey, like him or not, Iizuka did end up being a pretty important guy at SEGA. Seeing his early work like this is fascinating. Did the Pii become the Nightopians in NiGHTS? Only the man himself knows, I suppose. Even if Devi & Pii doesn't quite come together in the end, it's a cool thing to have out there for people to play.

[ordophilosophicus]

Thank you for doing an essay on Bokuto. I think he is overlooked sometimes. And, although this post is ages old, I'll add my two cents. Also to revamp your post again. <3

One of my favourite quotes, besides "we are the protagonists of the world", is actually Bo's: "Do what's fun, not what's easy."

It appears as another weird Bokuto thing to say, and some other characters tell us as such. How can constant training working hard be fun? Winning is fun, of course, but the way to achieve this is so difficult. Bokuto's naive and joyful self, and aspiration to have fun, would suggest he doesn't want that hard work, only the rewards. But this specific quote "do what's fun, not what's easy" highlights that Bo is very much aware of the struggle and hardships. And is not afraid of that or resents it.

There is one character in Haikyuu which is both so similar and on the other hand different to Bo, that always wrecked my brain. Oikawa.

I think Bo is most similar to Oikawa, but with a special twist. They both strive for validation through Volleyball. Their whole soul is poured into getting the best they can be. One could argue that Bo is special and wants to be "normal" and Oikawa is normal and wants to be "special". (i.e. Oikawas struggle with talent).

Oikawas always appears to somewhat resent the fact that he has to work so hard. Yes, he loves volleyball for the sake of volleyball, but the feeling of accomplishment only arrives through the validations of others give him for having put up the hard work in the first place. Nobody in highschool, now an Olympian player. And everyone he beats in Japan will know he has made it, despite the odds.

Bokuto doesn't appear to care what people think of him, as a product of his results. To go pseudo psychology here, if Bo was weird as a kid, he sure got ostracized from his peers. (Also shown briefly in the manga.) Bo strives for validation by people vibing with him, and recognizing his presence is something fun and inspiring. They don't need to know where he came from and what he did to get here. What he needs is the crowd cheering him on.

But both characters are willing to work *hard* to get there. First it appeared weird to me that Bo is so down anytime he makes a mistake in volleyball, but appears unfaced when his teammates alienate him. Leave him to run on his own etc. Since teammates are a source of validation on its own. (See Kageyama being rejected by his teammates. And Oikawa thriving as captain and role model.)

It was always this difference that made me go "huh? What's going on. What is this character about then??" And my conclusion is that Bo's want of validation and recognition is less about him as a person (as opposed to Oikawa) but about his actions. Protagonists of the world are protagonists because their actions matter and impact people. There is not one type, or "correct" protagonist. What matters is that their actions impact the world and direct the trajectory of other characters. Rags to riches, the hero etc are just tropes of a protagonist.

Oikawa wants people to go: "omg that dudes fucking awesome. He worked his fucking ass off and now he is the best at volleyball." The gasp moment and admiration of his person.

Bo doesn't care what the crowd says about him personally. He reaches for that moment, when people see him play and go: "gasp, this is what volleyball is about. This is what an (normal hehehe) ace is! I feel it, I love it. It inspires me. I want to cheer and feel with them as loud as I can. "

Bokuto's sense of fun and accomplishment is somehow detached from his own person or biography. Therefore the hard work does not carry as many personal connotations ("you are not good enough. You need to work to be good ") It's just what you have to do, if you want to be impactful to other people. Push harder and work harder.

To end it - I think the biggest compliment for Oikawa from a child would be "I want to be like you." Whereas for Bo it would be akin to something like "Because of you, I want to play volleyball."

(Thank you for coming to my ted talk. I love these characters so much.)

A Stupidly Long Bokuto Analysis

CEO of thought dumping and calling glamorized rants “essays”

I already made a character analysis for my kin character (Oikawa) so here’s one for my favorite/ultimate comfort character :)

"The world" is a recurring theme with Bokuto. He has a strange habit of always looking at the bigger picture. By which I mean, he doesn’t really look out for little details. He's simple minded, so he takes things at face value. Tokyo isn't enough for him. Japan isn't enough. Asia isn't enough. He wants the world. He doesn't care if it seems like too much, or if it's unreasonable. He knows what he wants, and he's going to get it.

This is more noticeable in the manga. For example, there's the iconic "No matter what they say, we are the protagonists of the world" . Yes, I know Akaashi is the one the says this line, but it really mainly applies to Bokuto. We know Bokuto has this strange sort of charisma that makes him ridiculously likable to pretty much anyone. Now, I REALLY didn't wanna make this about Akaashi, but it seems like that's actually Furudate's intention. It's almost as though he didn't want to give us direct access to Bokuto's thoughts for most of the series. Instead, how did we get that? Akaashi. Akaashi is the narrator for Bokuto's thoughts. Bokuto is so random, so unique and strange, that it wouldn't make sense for us to have access to his mind. Yes, we get direct thoughts from him time to time, but Akaashi is the one who really tells us most of it. He's there to filter out Bokuto's thoughts because it would be too strange for us to understand. We would never be able to figure out Bokuto because he can't even figure out himself. That's technically Akaashi's "purpose" in the story. I don't mean that in a bad way though. I would explain more, but I wanna keep this about Bokuto as much as possible.

ANYWAY, we can sort of see Akaashi as an "extension" of Bokuto. When Akaashi says "we are the protagonists of the world", he is not talking to himself or the reader. He's talking to Bokuto, because he knows Bokuto wants the world. Another thing about this quote is that he begins with "No matter what they say..." This kind of made me to a double take. Why would someone say they aren't? But then I remembered in the manga, we get a scene of Bokuto running with some classmates. It was probably for a gym class of sorts. It's Bokuto's turn to set the pace for their run, and everybody's upset because he always goes too fast and too overboard. Bokuto doesn't really notice, and he goes forth anyway. However, after a while, he looks back and realizes nobody is running with him anymore.

Sound familiar? Kageyama's teammates left him in the same way Bokuto's did. They couldn't keep up, so they abandoned them. We're more familiar with Kageyama's past, so it's a bit easier to understand Bokuto's if you see that little parallel. I might be reaching a little here, but it's possible that people have told Bokuto that the world doesn't revolve around him in the same way Kageyama was mockingly called a king. It's a common thing said to people like Bokuto, who don't really understand much outside their own head. It's not a bad thing, but many people misinterpret it as arrogance or a disregard for others. Bokuto's charisma apparently didn't work for everyone, considering how annoyed his classmates were; I think it's a possibility that people made some snide remarks.

We also see that Bokuto is actually incredibly desperate for validation. He constantly brags about his amazing talent, always wants people to see the cool things he does, and thrives off compliments. He wants attention, and that's not a bad thing at all. It just means he wants people to acknowledge how great he is, and he feels happy when they do. That's really just scraping the surface of all that quote tells us, but I want to move on to something else.

Another recurring thing about Bokuto is his use of the word "ordinary" It seems that he doesn't really understand what the word means, but I think he knows its meaning better than anyone. Bokuto using the word first stood out to me when Fukurodani player a difficult match against another school in Nationals. I'm not too familiar with the timeline, so correct me if I'm wrong. Bokuto told the rest of Fukurodani that, up until that point, he was "an ace coddled by his team" and now he's ready to be "just an ace". He wants to be an ordinary ace, which seems quite strange. This is Bokuto, and wants to be ordinary?

Bokuto has a different understanding of "ordinary" than most people do. He's simple minded, not stupid. It's not that he doesn't think; he just thinks differently. He's that unique type of person who thinks out of the box by default. When most people think of ordinary, we think of boring, plain, normal. It's been given a negative connotation by most people. Bokuto doesn't listen to connotation.

Remember that he takes things at face value? This is an example. To us, ordinary is boring. To him, it's a goal. Bokuto sees ordinary as what things are supposed to be. He wants to be an ordinary ace. Aces are supposed to be the awesome, powerful stars of the team. Aces are supposed to be the best. He wants to be the best. Therefore, he wants to be an ordinary ace. It took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to fully understand that entire bit, to be honest.

It's actually more clearly stated in one of the last manga chapters after MSBY vs. Schweiden. Akaashi interviews Bokuto for the manga company he works at, and Bokuto tells him that he has become "ordinary". Akaashi is confused and tells Bokuto that he has never been ordinary. Bokuto laughs and makes some remark about how Akaashi didn't realize just how ordinary he's become. We get a little throwback to Akaashi's 0.5 second thought process, and he realizes immediately that Bokuto doesn't use the word "ordinary" like he does. Even more impressive, he seems to also realize exactly what he means by it. Akaashi tells him that he (Akaashi) was mistaken and Bokuto is actually "super ordinary".

THIS PART TOOK ME A GOOD TWENTY MINUTES, AND AKAASHI DID IT IN 0.5 SECONDS. He's the real master at Bokuto analysis. Though Bokuto doesn't get enough serious background, so he's a difficult one to analyze. It's also much harder to put him into words? Again, he's a very unique character. He even has a surprising amount of duality in him. Though we as a fandom perceive him as an optimist, it seems his mood swings often force him into a state of overwhelming pessimism. I actually find it quite funny. It's almost like his left brain and right brain are fighting a battle, and left brain almost loses but summons the strength to momentarily completely overwhelm right brain before it takes back control. I got a very strange visual from that though.

Regardless, it just means I think his mind tries to balance out his naive optimism with intense flashes of pessimism. Bokuto gives his all to EVERYTHING. That's actually sort of an issue for him. If he's happy, he's VERY happy. If he's upset, he's VERY upset. He wants to be the best at all he doesbecause he just wants to have fun. He's not having fun when he loses, so he doesn't want to lose. It's so simple, but it's strangely inspiring. It's the straightforward answer to Tsukishima's question. Why do we push ourselves to be the best when we know there is no such thing? What motivates us? Our desire to win. What makes us want to win? Our desire to win is fueled by hatred for losing. Why don't we want to lose? We don't want to lose because it's not fun. Why isn't it fun? It just isn't. Bokuto doesn't try to dig for those answers. After all, why is anything the way it is? What does it matter? He doesn't care as long as he's enjoying himself.

I suppose that's one of the nice parts of being so simple minded. He's able to enjoy life to the fullest because he doesn't want to focus on things he doesn't like. That means his future character growth will be about having to do things he doesn't like because that's a part of life. It'll actually be quite sad to watch Bokuto grow up. What he needs to do is find a balance for all the duality in him so he doesn't need to give up his childishness or force out his mature side. If he can find a balance, it just means he'll be able to do both when he needs to. If he can do that, he'll get through everything life throws at him. He can still have fun.

He doesn't get enough serious screen time, so I can't really say anymore about him that can be reinforced by things from the anime or manga. This was only around 1.5K, so hopefully it was a pretty easy read? I still don't wanna edit this, so just tell me if things don't make sense! Also, please remember that Bokuto IS NOT AN IDIOT, SO PLEASE STOP CALLING HIM ONE IF IT’S NOT FOR COMEDIC PURPOSES. Thank you :)

[witchprojectap]

-Branching Narrative-

Within branching game narratives the player is made to make certain decisions, these decisions will drive the story in different directions depending on what the player has chosen. Games such as these are usually the most immersive, as they put a lot of pressure on the player to make the correct decisions to have the best outcome.

Games like these could include Detroit Become Human, Until Dawn, Stanley Parable, life is Strange, The Quarry, and Monster Prom.

Detroit become human

In detroit become human you play as multiple different androids made by cyberlife, the game's main mechanic is centred around the fact you can completely change the story based on the choices you make. The game encourages you to complete every possibvle scenario.

The game plot is also very interesting considering it's about AI being able to have a choice.

You really have to think about the decisions you make, as these could give you an undesirable ending.

Until Dawn

In until dawn your choices are detrimental to keeping the characters alive. The plot and endings can be changed slightly based on the choices you make.

The game uses premonitions via the 'Butterfly affect' to show how the decisions can affect personality traits and the story down the line.

Stanley parable

In Stanley parable you make choices by redoing tasks and interacting with objects, without actually being given a choice. Sometimes without you even realizing, this is what makes the game differ from a lot of other branching narrative games.

Choosing to do these tasks and interacting with stuff can give you different ending, giving the game a long play time if you are trying to complete all of the endings.

A way out

In "A Way Out," the story isn't set in stone. Your choices in the game steer where things go, what one player decides doesn't just affect their character, it changes things up for both Leo and Vincent, shaping how the story unfolds. This means you can replay the game try out different choices, and see how the plot twists based on what you do. It's like having a bunch of different story paths to explore, all depending on your actions.

[vickyvicarious]

I feel Phoenix Wright is among the characters who are like,

"If I didn't have constant anxiety, it'd be over for you."

He already seems impossible from the outside in canon when he's often a nervous wreck. Imagine if that anxiety wasn't there.

Take a look at these three sprites for a second. (It takes a little while, but I promise you'll see the relevance.) They're the confident/smiling forward facing for each person. And... there's some interesting similarities, yes? AJ-era Phoenix's sprite is pretty close to being a perfect mix of Godot and Mia's. His hands in his pockets, midway between Mia's crossed arms and Godot's hands on hips. They're all angling their bodies slightly to the side in the same direction. Mia's head is tilted the opposite way and forward a little; Godot's in line with his shoulders and back; Phoenix is in line with his shoulders but closer to Mia's angle. Heck, even color wise - it's definitely more of a stretch but Phoenix has on a dark jacket and necklace like Mia, but his hat is closer in color to Godot's shirt, and it is also noticeable/bright headwear like the mask.

The reason I bring up these sprites is because... well, in AJ we see Phoenix from the outside for the first time and he really does seem very inscrutable. Knowing him, he's definitely still feeling a lot of anxiety over things, but he doesn't show it and thus we the players don't see it, since he's no longer our POV. I think there are a couple factors at play there as well, because Phoenix certainly seems to have gotten better at hiding his flopsweat moments in that game. You could say there's a certain element of detachment, because despite all his machinations, in the end he isn't a lawyer for any part of that game and so ultimately, the responsibility is no longer his. Maybe that's a factor.

But AJ-era Phoenix (or 'Beanix') keeps coming to mind for me. I realized a few months ago that in that game, his relationship to Kristoph (and the plot itself as well as Apollo) strongly mimics Mia's with Dahlia. However, looking at these sprites got me thinking that he also mimics Godot.

AJ-era Phoenix also returns after a long absence from the legal world, which was forced upon him due to the actions of a poisoner who successfully tricked him (Godot actually got poisoned, Phoenix just disbarred). And when he next shows up in court, he is visibly very different (mask and hair vs. beanie/hoodie). He's also a lot more jaded, and takes an interest in a young new attorney closely linked to the poisoner responsible for his absence. He's secretive, often for what seems like no purpose at all, but has a plan that's only revealed in the final case - which itself was a combination of somewhat longterm planning/buildup, and adapting to unexpected situations right at the last minute. He takes risks and works outside the courtroom/sometimes the law to achieve his goal (the bloody ace isn't exactly the same as stabbing Misty Fey, but, y'know), and in general appears quite different from his past self. However, in the end his goals are very sympathetic, and much more than just simple 'revenge', however morally dubious some of his choices have been.

Obviously, Beanix is not one-to-one with Godot. But I can see a rough sketch of similarities there, and certainly in general attitude/vibe they're more similar than Phoenix and Mia seem to be at that point. Even some of the things Godot says seem like they could be a Beanix quote (this came to mind). I think there's at least enough to go on to say that AJ-era Phoenix is once again a mix of Mia and Godot.

I find this interesting because Phoenix looked up to Mia right from the beginning, and modeled so much of his behavior, strategies, and philosophies after her. And yet, she just as obviously learned a lot from Diego, back when she was the inexperienced new lawyer. The most notable being, of course, the quote passed down to Mia and then Phoenix: "A lawyer only cries when it's all over." (Another Godot quote that seems to apply to Beanix is this one.) And the thing is, Phoenix looks up to Mia so much, and she generally seems pretty knowledgeable and unflappable, but once we get inside her head/play a few cases as her we see she has a lot of nervousness hidden behind her facade, much like Phoenix. Of course, those cases were when she was a rookie attorney, but I think the point stands. Godot also reveals a heck of a lot of issues and self-recrimination later on, but for the most part he's really good at seeming very confident. It's another similarity between all of them.

And yet, Godot's problems are more personal. When it comes to the courtroom, he's actually pretty legitimately confident for the most part. At least, I think so. He loses every case we see him try, but it's not for a lack of ability so much as a lack of care. His strategies are good, if unorthodox for a prosecutor (because he's acting more like a defence attorney). He knows what he's doing in court, and although he definitely gets surprised/owned at times, for the most part he's pretty unflappable and fairly quick to recover. Basically, this meta by @theggning is great and I'm trying to restate it briefly, but go read the whole thing. I also think there's a great argument to be made for Mia being quite similar in court. Less cryptic shenanigans, but the same type of underlying confidence in her abilities/craft to back up her determination to protect her clients. Unfortunately, we've never seen her in a case outside of her rookie ones/being a ghost during brief points in Phoenix's trials, so I can't point to specifics as much.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY... as soon as I read your ask, I thought of Godot. I thought of Mia, too. I think that "a more confident Phoenix" would be a lot more similar to the both of them, than to anyone else. You could even say it's a natural extension of his arc, and that it's at least somewhat represented in AJ. In a funny way, you can also read that very same game's events as the reason why he doesn't seem as confident as you might expect him to be once he returns to law in Dual Destinies (his failure with the ace/getting disbarred leading to being somewhat unfamiliar in the courtroom after so long, the pressure of living up to his reputation, the heavy responsibility of protecting his clients again, etc. - you know, vs. the writers just wanting to go back to lawyer!Phoenix and not always thinking too much about his characterization during AJ and how that would develop when they did so). But certainly during AJ, especially from Apollo's outside perspective, I think we get a lot closer to the image of a supremely confident Phoenix Wright.

At least as far as I picture it! I don't think it would make too much difference in terms of him being unstoppable - since like you said, he pretty much already is. But there would be even fewer cracks for his opponents to poke at, and his mistakes wouldn't cut him down as much as they do in trilogy-era. He would inspire the same type of reactions as Godot did when he first appeared... a lot of people feeling intimidated and noticing just how well he seems to know his way around the courtroom, or people getting caught up in his pace and listening to him even sometimes outside their best interests. And, like Mia in the first game with Redd White, he'd scare villains enough to cause issues, probably. But at least he might (also like established lawyer Mia) actually be able to get his clients to pay him well, enough to buy fancy glass lamps if he wanted.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E129 (March 16, 2021)

Tonight’s guests are Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe!

Matt, on DMing Luc’s Revivify: “That was weird. It’s one thing when it happens because of player action and circumstances and the choices they make. When it’s entirely on me, unintentional, and just realizing different chess pieces you’ve set up, that’s rough.” It was especially rough since this was a child NPC related to a PC. “I was hoping somebody had a spell slot left.” He kept in mind that there are two clerics in the room and that they could resurrect the next day even if the Revivify went poorly. “A good chance, since it’s his first time. Okay, okay, okay, okay, I think we’ll be okay, we’ll see how this goes. It was really stressful in the moment! I did not set out to have that happen, but when I realized what was going to happen, I tried to see it through.” He wouldn’t have prevented a chance to bring him back. “There may have been an offshoot short-run series of games to find a way to bring him back. I would have found some way to correct the circumstance so the players could feel good about moving forward with the story and there was no undue punishment beyond their control.”

Taliesin on Cad’s response: “This is a big thing if you’re a cleric. It was very much coming in like an EMT. Everything should be fine... hopefully. Just focused in and got it done. The minute things started to go south it was like, okay, that’s the next problem.”

On Yeza’s feelings: “It is a very complicated situation. I think he, much like how Veth is trying to figure out what it is that she wants, I think he’s trying to help her find that while also figuring it out for himself. I think Yeza’s also noticing that because Veth’s the more active of the two of them she also takes the weight of the responsibility and the blame for things when they go wrong, unnecessarily. Especially when he himself acknowledges that he’s partially at fault for even dragging everyone in with the Conclave. As much as he’s appreciative for them coming back for him, there’s a lot of back and forth. He’s filled with a lot of regret, too, but he’s very much trying to convince Veth that it’s a burden that she doesn’t have to keep to herself, that they can share it and work through it together.” Matt mentions that, as an actor, he really loves exploring interactions between characters first and foremost. “Especially when you don’t know where it’s going to go.” He also praises Sam as a scene partner - “I really cherish that.”

How does Caduceus feel about Revivify and Speak with Dead? “Speak with Dead is an interesting middle ground, because he knows that it’s not actually speaking with the dead. It’s really just-- it’s almost medical, really. This is just reactivating a brain at a certain point. It’s practically just a muscle twitch at this point. That doesn’t really prod him in that direction. Revivify is interesting, because it had never really come up. At first I thought of it as bending the rules, but it’s not bending the rules. You knock over a plant, you replant it, you don’t stare at it and go ‘Well, that’s over.’ This is just doing the work. No, we can bring this thing back to health. This is all part of the circle of life, that sometimes we can save something. Especially given the stress that he’s put himself through over the past year of being with these people. He’s started to think of himself a bit as a battlefield medic, and triage is just part of the deal, and it’s completely acceptable.”

Did Trent really just want to talk? “Yeah, that circumstance, as it came together, Trent would never have arrived if there wasn’t an indication that there was some kind of infiltration or attack. Even beyond that, it was Jester breaking the concentration on her charm on that one guard when she created her duplicate.” The guards’ job is to inform a member of the Cerberus Assembly, and Trent lived the closest. “He didn’t know who it was, didn’t have any expectation necessarily. The minute he saw the illusion, he knew a powerful magic user was involved.” Seeing Caleb was an unexpected surprise. “I don’t think he wanted to throw down necessarily. He was more interested in figuring out exactly what the nature of this was.” Matt had multiple battlemaps that didn’t get used. “They managed to cleverly out-maneuver him in his surprise of seeing them.” The Nein rocketed up his priority list after that very quickly. Taliesin: “We’re so fucked.”

On Cad being “Uncle Caduceus” to Luc: “It’s the thing he misses most about home, is being a juvenile shit. It’s nice to be able to express that part of him again, as opposed to the serious, life-threatening, constant intensity. I’m very at home just being a little difficult.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Beau! (_rumor_king, photography by kourtyardproductions on Instagram)

On Marion: “Like a lot of people in this whole narrative from the beginning, getting swept up in things larger than her and trying to adapt. This is a circumstance she’s avoided for a long time. She’s having a rough time in some ways, but simultaneously, she’s enduring. Like a mother would. She’s adapting, she’s making it work. Without much of a choice, you just kind of do the best you can and lean on the people around you to help you where they can. Luckily she has a daughter there. She’s probably surprising herself at how well she’s doing given the circumstances.” Matt talks about how weird it is to feel proud of character he’s created. “Of the many things Marion is incredible at, she’s a studier of the human condition. She’s seen and heard the stories of so many. That gives her a very special perspective. She can see elements of that fractured individual within Caleb, and knowing the good that he’s brought to his friends, and knowing he’s possibly saved her life from bad circumstances, she couldn’t not speak up. She very easily falls into that role of maternal comforter, because it’s one of the many things she’s really good at, she enjoys it, and she can see well when people need it.” He’s been enjoying having Marion along for this (despite the difficult circumstances) because he was always a little sad that they only got to see her for short periods of time.

On the Blooming Grove’s safety: “He’s afraid that it’s a premonition. He’s not pinned it down, but he’s happy to let his imagination wander. He at the very least feels like there’s a reason he’s having these thoughts, and that there’s a reason to go there. He’s a big believer that these things don’t just happen. He’s more likely to think that there’s a good reason to go versus a danger to go. He’s had a couple of ominous warnings lately, and he’s not used to them and not a fan. He’s more likely to read something like that as, there is something there waiting for you that you have to discover. There is something that is going to be helpful to you, even if it hurts.”

On Astrid: “While maybe not as readable in overall personality as Trent is, I still want to be careful to not discuss things that are still being discussed within the game and tossed around as possibilities. Astrid is another complicated character, as anyone would be who’s been through the life she has. I can’t say too much. I can say she’s definitely legitimately happy to see Bren/Caleb after all this time.” His reemergence definitely caught her off guard. “We’ll have to see where it goes from there.”

On Cad’s successful Divine Intervention: “He’s definitely hit the ‘on a mission from god’ stage. He’s been that way for the entire campaign of, this, this is what I’ve been waiting for. Even when it sucks a lot, it’s been nice that those things have popped up to remind him, no, no, you’re doing it right, everything’s good. Probably not going to survive the next week, but you’re doing good! Not quite 1 in a 100 chance, but I forget so often to make that roll, and it’s such a great roleplaying roll. I don’t know how at level 20 you could deal with the fact that you can do that every day.” 

On Zeenoth getting his comeuppance: the kidnapping was a concept Marisha brought up for Beau’s backstory, and Matt went with it even though it was opposed to the Cobalt Soul’s philosophy because he knew rooting it out would make for an interesting story. “I felt it was an important beat to bring to her, because it was something that she was wronged by. And to show that there are still some good people out there who are trying to make things right.” After the tentative peace, dealing with this became Dairon’s next focus. “I was glad we finally got to it. So many people don’t have the opportunity in their lives to get that sort of justice and vindication, so if I can bring elements of that justice into our world, even for our own hope, I’m going to do that. Especially for my wife’s character, especially for a character that deserves that.” Taliesin points out that if it had come too early, Beau wouldn’t have believed it.

Cad’s thoughts on the Tomb Taker betrayal? “He knew it was gonna come at some point. There was no way that was gonna last. He was hoping it was gonna last a little longer. He was really hoping they had a vested interest in getting them all the way to the end. Nope, this is apparently as far as we go, and he was not prepared for that.” He was expecting the potential for de-escalation. “Caduceus is the only character in there that doesn’t have a history with Lucien. I think he sees him a little more clearly than everybody else does. They’re all looking for this person that Clay, at least, is of the opinion that he’s just not there. This is a very manipulative, very dangerous infernal human. Just smarter than all of them. Really aware that there is no calculating what the hell is going to happen. Conversation is the only way you can deal with someone like that.”

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Caleb closeup! (rynn_birb on Twitter)

Taliesin on Lucien: “I’m excited he’s the one that’s going to kill us all. Poetic that this is how the game ends.” Matt was delighted when Taliesin handed him carte blanche to do what he wanted with Molly’s past. “I was like ‘shit... oh, wait!’ The character of Lucien was always intended to be an antagonist so that it would have been Molly being chased by the person who wanted their body back. But then it happened that he got his body back.” Taliesin: “He’s so much worse than I ever hoped.”

Matt, on the Holy Avenger: “I hadn’t thought to initially even give that sword.” The good roll was the only reason Kima handed that over. “Well, sure, you get the sword. It was very reactionary, it wasn’t my intent originally. I was like, well, I mean, there’s two avenues she can take with this.” Multiclass into Paladin, or lean into the fact that her subclass is essentially a barbarian paladin. “This really works out in a uniquely beautiful way. Let me see if I can lay out a path for her to earn it.”

On Cad’s attempt at lying blowing up in his face: “He was like that kid that had a really bad day in high school and was like, you know what? I’m going to let loose. This is it. I’m gonna dye a streak in my hair. And then tries to give himself a haircut and ends up with half bangs. Well, okay, obviously I’m not that person. I was feeling a little distraught and I didn’t handle it well. Maybe I’m going dark... no, I’m not going dark. Nope.” Matt mentions how much he relates to Caduceus.

Matt, on the Eyes: “What can I tell you? I’m enjoying the hell out of it. The moment they began to really push to read that book, I was like, okay, this is on you. I’m excited for the point in the narrative where the march continues back to Eiselcross. I am almost impatient - not really - because we’re on the cusp of getting to more of the meat. There’s so much to learn, so much to see, so much to explore. I love instilling my players with absolute terror.”

Thoughts on Jester’s Tarot reading? Taliesin cackles. “Molly made the cards, so. Did it to himself, he did, he did.” Matt: “Once again, another example of things working out unexpectedly and too perfectly for an improvised moment. Fuck.” Taliesin: “Bless the wisdom of chaos.” Matt: “I love that even at this point in the campaign, Molly continues to fuck with people. I’m just so proud. That deeply shook Lucien, for reasons.” Taliesin: “It’s the everlasting gobstopper smoke bomb.”

[gowns]

ok let's go (spoilers ahead)

the problems with this script start and end with "written by greta gerwig and noah baumbach."

first of all, noah b has no business having his little paws anywhere near a barbie movie.

i actually think gerwig is fine as a director, but there can sometimes be problems when a director directs their own script. often the director is blind to the problems in their own script and how to direct out of them or through them. a lot of filmmakers want to be "auteurs" and crave that kind of creative freedom, but this is one of the instances (making a 2 hour barbie commercial) where there needed to be a critical voice in the writing process.

honestly, this script was giving "first draft" and i am a little confused how it made it into production.

(now, the production design is GREAT. acting is great. a lot of good things in there. unfortunately it's all built on a shaky foundation!)

-

so, here's the main problem with the script. it's muddy. the first 20 minutes are pretty good, establishing that there's a barbie-land that is a matriarchal utopia. who is barbie? she's barbie! (tautology) what is her problem? she's thinking about death!

well, what is that problem, exactly? this is a very vague internal conflict set up, and her stakes are never clearly defined. does she want to go back to being a barbie? she seems ambivalent about that from the jump. what does death mean to a barbie? what does change mean to a barbie?

i dunno! does gerwig know?

the script brushes past that, leaving us with no clear stakes for barbie beyond "experiencing vague unease."

-

there's another problem here, which is ken. ken is more clearly defined as a character, with more clear internal conflict, external conflict, and stakes. who is he? a second banana who wants to be more of a main player. what does he want? barbie. who is against him? other kens, and also barbie.

so ken's storyline is actually very compelling, which is a problem when it's supposed to be a feminist movie. we never actually know what barbie is fighting for, what she could or should "win." whereas ken wants something very clear -- respect. and the movie makes you feel for him; yes, he should have respect!

by making ken more defined and barbie less defined, it's ironically actually kind of illustrating a "problem" with mainstream feminism, in favor of men. (w/o actually addressing any of the other problems within mainstream feminism!)

-

there's another major major problem here, which is the powers-that-be and the antagonists.

who are the powers-that-be? is it helen mirren, the narrator (who is only present at the beginning then sporadically near the end)? is it the CEO of mattel? is it america ferrera and her daughter? or is it ruth handler, creator of barbie? or the vague all-encompassing "patriarchy" of both the real world and kendom? they are all different all-powerful forces in barbie's life. very difficult to make an argument in favor of "female agency" when it's hard to outline what exactly is controlling her agency.

who is the antagonist? is it... mattel? not really... they try to put barbie back in barbie land but the attempt is very half-assed and basically just an excuse to have action sequences. why do they care that barbie is in the real world? what does it affect? what are their stakes?

is the antagonist... ken? no, except yes? except no. he's sort of like a trickster character, except with no intent to trick. the best read i've seen of his situation is that it's similar to a man lacking self-awareness falling into an incel rabbithole. but the movie still doesn't make him a flat-out villain. it makes you root for him! which is weird!

is the antagonist....... the patriarchy? what exactly is "the patriarchy"? the movie doesn't attempt to explain or illustrate it beyond a few cartoonish examples in the real world, the cartoonish kendom, and the monologues that characters are forced to make.*

if i wrote this script, i would have gotten out all these characters / forces in the first draft, then pared back until the conflict became very clear. there's no need for a narrator -- the narration was mostly superfluous. there's no need for any of the C-plot stuff at the mattel HQ! no need for a ruth handler cameo, in terms of the plot -- that totally could have popped up at the very very end as an epilogue. i would have had the entire plot revolve around barbie and the mom/daughter and the three of them trying to figure out how to navigate the patriarchy (if that's where i wanted to focus the antagonistic force in this story).

man. this movie would have been soooo solid if they just fleshed out barbie and the mom/daughter duo more! the most we get to flesh them out is... montages!!! and guys, honestly, the montages made me cry! but that was a cheap shot! you can't just show me 5-10 second clips of little girls growing up! yes that tugs at my emotions but it's cheap! it's cheap!!!

like, remember when i mentioned that barbie "thinking about death" is not clearly defined stakes? this appears to be more defined when we find out that it's actually america ferrera's character who's been thinking about death and aging, and that's been popping out in barbie. but what does death and aging mean to america's character?!* i got a fleeting hope that it may have to do with the absence of the husband/dad figure but then we cut to the husband/dad and no they're still happily married. so then...? what are her stakes? who is she? what does she care about? what does her kid care about? i still don't know!

** apparently america's character's name is "gloria"! we hear her name like what, once? who is she???? the secret protagonist...? maybe???

--

those are the macro problems. micro problems:

the cross-promotion product placement was extremely ham-fisted and they could have been more suave with it. or at least made more jokes about it.

the dialogue was not consistent; sometimes in order to throw in a joke about "female agency" or "patriarchy" a character would talk out-of-character. which would be funny if it was a running joke about one character... having it pop up all over the place was weird. broke the world-building a few times for me, personally.

a lot of the feminist jokes i have already seen in reductress :X

* i mentioned up there that the characters are "forced" to make monologues. because there wasn't any internal logic in the script as to why the characters would launch into these monologues. whenever you write a monologue, there has to be a strong compelling reason why the person is talking and talking, and the other people in the scene have to have a good reason to sit and listen. the actors do a very good job with these monologues, because they put in the work to rationalize them to make them work. but the actors are doing a lot of heavy lifting, because those monologues are wooden and forced.

line-by-line, they gloss over things that need to be explained, and draw out things that don't need to be explained.

--

here's another way i would have fixed the movie: gerwig says she was inspired by musicals. dude, this should have been a full-on musical. the movie, in its execution, is a family? comedy? with a couple of musical numbers.

i went to go see this movie yesterday in north san diego, and i had the feeling that the majority of the audience was confused for the majority of the movie. but they ate up the musical numbers!!!

gerwig! you dropped the ball on this one! you should have kicked your boyfriend out of the writing process and made it a busby berkeley dream!!!!! mattel would have been happy, the moms and their daughters would have been happy, the gays would have been happy, mama, you could have made a new corporate hit!

what we have is, well, yknow, it's poppy and fun, but overall inconsistent and falls apart with inspection. it's like a taylor sw*ft song, making a gesture towards self-reflection w/o genuine self-reflection. but great gowns, beautiful gowns.

if anyone wants to hear me talking about the writing in the barbie movie hit the heart button (i will be fair)

[idrellegames]

Hello! Can you tell me, please, if I want to enter someone's romantic route, do I need to select flirt/romance option each time? Or MC can have an affair even if they act sometimes friendly not romantic? I like slow burn (to get to know a person better), but some games requires to select as much romantic answers as possible, so I'm curious. Thanks!

You don't! Depending on the context and character, it may make some romance content harder to unlock, but you don't have to always take the [FLIRT] labels to gain romance points.

Here's an example from Melchior in Episode 2:

In this moment, you have two choices: to either be romantically and/or sexually attracted to him, or not. The first option isn't labeled, but it will give the player +1 to Melchior's romance stat as the text indicates romantic and/or sexual attraction. The second option does not give you +1 to Mel's romance stat as it's a direct refusal of attraction.

If you select #1, you end up on the following passage:

Option #1 and Option #2 have the [FLIRT] label because the MC is unequivocally flirting. Option #3 does not have the [FLIRT] label because the MC isn't showing their attraction so directly, but they still feel it. All three options here raise Mel's romance stat.

Most romanceable characters don't require you to take obvious flirt or romance dialogue options right away. However, it may lock you out of optional romance scenes in the early game if your romance stat isn't high enough to unlock those when they occur. If you miss these scenes, it does not mean you're 100% locked out of that character's romance content later down the line.

You also don't have to be romantic 100% of the time. If a non-[ROMANCE] or non-[FLIRT] option is more in character for your MC at the moment, then you can take that in stead. You'll still be able to access romance content later, provided you have enough points (if you never take romance options and never take the option where you define your MC's attraction to someone, then you won't be able to unlock a romance).

Wayfarer's romance content is designed to be as flexible as possible. It doesn't easily break down into "routes" as it is multi-layered and reflects your MC's choices, actions, and handling of character relationships throughout. Eventually, there will be locks (just for the sake of making the background coding easier), but during Act 1 you're free to explore different characters as you see fit (though some characters may comment on your actions... and have questions)*.

There are a handful of characters you can have one-night stands or "trysts" with that are free from romance indicators or point systems.

EDIT: Sometimes the [FLIRT]/[ROMANCE] options will lose you points, so they're not a guaranteed way to a romanceable character's heart. You need to "read the room" every so often. If trying to flirt with someone doesn't seem like a good idea at the time because of the context, it probably isn't.

*The exception here is Aeran. You're going to miss out on romance content with him if you don't flag your MC's romantic interest in him during his Episode 1 introduction. But Aeran is also not an official romance option, so... it's complicated and for spoiler reasons, I can't go into it more than that!

[lokiondisneyplus]

Yes, Loki series director Kate Herron knows about your fan theory about the show, the analysis you posted to social media. No, she won’t tell you what she thinks about it, or whether you were right.

“I follow all the conversations on Twitter,” Herron told Polygon in an interview shortly after Loki’s season 1 finale. “I don’t always weigh in on them, because I made the show, so they don’t want me weighing in like, ‘Actually, guys…’ I think that’s the whole point of art — it should be up for debate and discussion.”

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for season 1 of Loki.]

Loki has been a hit for streaming service Disney Plus — episode 6 of the show, the final installment for this season, was reportedly watched by more households than any of the platform’s MCU finales to date. The series has been a popular source of fan conjecture and argument, with one particularly big rolling conversation focusing on whether the budding romantic relationship between trickster Asgardian Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and his alternate-universe counterpart Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) is a form of incest.

Herron is willing to speak up about that one. “My interpretation of it is that they’re both Lokis, but they aren’t the same person,” she says. “I don’t see them as being like brother and sister. They have completely different backgrounds […] and I think that’s really important to her character. They sort of have the same role in terms of the universe and destiny, but they won’t make the same decisions.”

Herron says thematically, Loki falling for Sylvie is an exploration of “self-love,” but only in the sense that it’s Loki learning to understand his own motives and integrity. “[The show is] looking at the self and asking ‘What makes us us?’” Herron says. “I mean, look at all the Lokis across the show, they’re all completely different. I think there’s something beautiful about his romantic relationship with Sylvie, but they’re not interchangeable.”

Directing the final kiss between the two characters was a complicated process because it had to communicate something about each of them over the course of just a few seconds. Herron says the primary goal was creating a safe, comfortable environment for Hiddleston and Di Martino, and after that, she had to think about how to bring across Loki and Sylvie’s conflicting goals in that moment.

“It’s an interesting one, right?” she says. “Emotionally, from Sylvie’s perspective, I think it’s a goodbye. But it’s still a buildup of all these feelings. They’ve both grown through each other over the last few episodes. It was important to me that it didn’t feel like a trick, like she was deceiving him. She is obviously doing that, on one hand, but I don’t feel the kiss is any less genuine. I think she’s in a bad place, but her feelings are true.”

Herron says directing Hiddleston in the scene mostly came down to discussing the speech Loki gives Sylvie before the kiss. “That was really important, showing this new place for Loki,” Herron says. “In the first episode, he’s like, ‘I want the throne, I want to rule,’ and by episode 6, he isn’t focused on that selfish want. He just wants her to be okay.”

Loki writer and producer Eric Martin recently tweeted that he wished the show had been able to focus more time on two of its secondary characters, Owen Wilson’s Time Variance Authority agent Mobius M. Mobius, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer. “I wanted to explore her more deeply and really see their relationship,” he says, “But covid got in the way and we just didn’t have time.”

Asked if Loki and Sylvie’s relationship suffered from similar necessary edits, Herron says it’s true that the show’s creators and audience still don’t know everything Sylvie went through to make her so different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s original version of Loki. “We’ve seen her as a child, but she’s lived for thousands and thousands of years, in apocalypses on the run,” she says. “I think there’s so much more to delve into with Sylvie […] You’re filling in the blanks. You see [her on the planet] Lamentis, and it’s horrific. And you’re like, “Well, what kind of person would she be, growing up in apocalypses? What kind of personality would that give her?”

Herron says Sylvie’s backstory actually reminds her of the 1995 movie Jumanji, where a young boy is sucked into a magical board game in 1969, and emerges 26 years later as a full-grown man, played by with typical manic energy by Robin Williams. “It’s such a weird reference, but…” she says. “He’s a little boy when he ends up captive in that game, and when he comes out, it’s obviously been a life experience. With Sylvie, it’s similar. She was a child when she had to go on the run, so she’s had a very difficult life. I would love to see more of it. As Eric said, she’s a rich character, there’s so much to be explored.”

Herron says, though, that during her time on the show, material about Sylvie was added rather than cut — specifically, those scenes of her as a child, being kidnapped by the TVA. “This was before my time, but I know in the writers’ room, there were lots of avenues exploring Sylvie on the run and what her life was like,” Herron says. “I wouldn’t want to speak more to those, because I wasn’t there when they were being discussed. But something wasn’t in there that was important to me — I felt we should see her [history] in the TVA. Me and the team were talking about how it made complete sense, because episode 4 is all about twisting the idea that the TVA might be good on its head. And so that’s something that came in later, once I joined, was seeing her as a child. I think we needed to see that, not to understand her completely, but to get an idea of her motivations, why she’s so angry at this place.”

Talking more broadly about the series finale, Herron says the last few episodes weren’t as heavily referential as the first episodes, which she intended as “a love letter to sci-fi.” While early images like the TVA’s interrogation rooms had specific visual references from past science fiction, episode 6’s locations were drawn more from collaborations with the crew.

“The idea of the physical timeline being circular, our storyboard artists came up with that,” Herron says. “I had in the scripts, ‘We move through space to the end of time,” and then me and [storyboard artist Darrin Denlinger] discussed how we could play with the idea of time, while also adding MCU nods. He was like, ‘What if the timeline is circular?’ I think that’s such a striking image, like the Citadel at the End of Time is the needle on a record player. I just thought that was such a cool image, but it wasn’t necessarily taken from anything.”

Episode 6 focuses heavily on the mysterious figure He Who Remains and his citadel, a space she says was largely conceived by production designer Kasra Farahani. “I remember he brought in the art of the Citadel, and I thought it was beautiful,” Herron says. “He said, ‘The Citadel has been carved from an actual meteorite,’ which I thought was such an inspired idea. And He Who Remains’ office is the only finished portion of it.”

She says there are only a few direct homages in episode 6, including the zoom shot through space, which directly referenced a similar sequence in Robert Zemeckis’ 1997 film Contact.

“And then I have my Teletubbies reference for episode 5,” Herron says. “I wanted the Void to feel like an overgrown garden, like a kind of forgotten place. And I realized I’d pitched it as the British countryside. I remember trying to explain it to ILM, who did the visual effects, and saying, ‘Oh, you know, it’s like the Teletubbies. It’s just rolling hills, but they go on forever.’ That actually was quite a helpful reference in the end, which is funny.”

Asked for her favorite set memory from shooting the season, Herron says it comes down to Tom Hiddleston starting a mania for physical exertion before takes. “Sometimes he runs around set to get himself in the right mindset before he performs,” she says. “He does pushups. You know, you’re going into an action scene, you want to look like you’ve just been running. And it became infectious across all the cast. We’ve got so much footage of — I think Jack [Veal] ended up doing it, who plays Kid Loki. I’ve got [shots of] him and Sophia doing pushups and squats, just to get ready. It was so funny watching that echo across all the cast. I think all of them ended up doing those exercises with him at some point. It was so funny.”

“That might be my favorite set story, but it’s honestly, not a sweet one,” she adds. “I would say my favorite thing is his enthusiasm. He’s a very kind empathetic person. We were filming this in quite tough circumstances, a lot of people were far from home and isolating, and he brought this warmth and energy and joy to the set every day. And I think that made everyone feel very safe and very bonded. I’m forever grateful to him for doing that.”