#but at that point you're not annoyed by how long the quest takes to play

[yandere-daydreams]

Is Genshin worth getting into? I played it when it first came out and then haven't touched it since. I love your fics about it, just wish I understood the characters a bit more! Debating on whether to just read the lore or start playing again. :) love your work!

uhhhhh it strongly depends on how much time you have to absolutely commit your life to a gatcha game for about three and half months. i personally really love genshin, but there's a lot of content and even catching up with the basics (world quests, archon quests, character quests, etc) could probably get pretty exhausting if you're starting from scratch. if you've got a high-tolerance for dialogue and think you can be patient with grinding necessities, then i'd go for it, but know that you'd have to be stronger than me to make it through that experience.

[dvzaiosamu]

Neko Lyney.

neko lyney x fem.reader. Topic: you basically rub Lyney's ears and play with his tail, whatever... You just treat him like a kitty.

hope you guys enjoy! I made this 'cause I saw some fanarts on pinterest about him as a catboy, and I couldn't help to make a short oneshot about him!

Magic, applause, curtain closing, a show at the top! The perfect combination that every magician wants to have in their shows. Lyney, young and playful magician with some feline characteristics. Cat ears, a feline tail, and personality traits, like: he liked to sleep more in the mornings than at nights.

It was not surprising that in Teyvat there were people with different feline characteristics, like his sister: Lynette.

After an arduous day full of quests and problems, your energy was depleted to the point that you couldn't last long without feeling exhausted. You walked home, to your warm home in Fontaine, where you suddenly remembered a very important detail,

"I forgot I left the spare keys of my house in a easy spot to find, shit... I hope no one finds them and breaks in," you though, with some uncertainty.

Suddenly you speed up your pace towards your house and go up a long ramp until you reach your door. You reach into your pocket for your keys and insert them into the sockets, twisting it to open it. You push the door and enter, slowly. You close the door behind you and feel a presence, but you weren't sure who it might belong to.

You decide to gently leave your adventurer's equipment on the furniture in the entryway. You went up the stairs with a silent and cunning step like that of a feline. As soon as you got up, you walked into your room with a yawn, and that was when you closed the door behind you and a familiar voice echoed,

"Hello again, spectator!" He joyfully utters what you turn around, startled and confused. “It's a joy to see you arrive! I thought the sun outside was enough to illuminate the room, but I see that now that another star has set foot here, I find myself captivated by how radiant you look today."

"Why did you sneak into my room out of nowhere, Lyney?" you ask him and his tail just wags to the sides in a relaxed and gentle manner, smiling.

"A good magician never reveals his tricks!" he pauses dramatically to take a step towards you. "I guess I can make an exception for you... Since it's not a big deal."

You remain silent, looking at him, waiting for his answer even if it was very obvious, but for some reason you wanted to hear it said, confessed and explained in depth. You cross your arms and generate a feeling of authority in yourself.

Lyney's ear flicks. "You see... Today I had gone to your house to visit you, but when I saw that you were gone, I remembered that you normally leave a spare key outside your house, and it seemed to be the case that you left them in a very bad place... To prevent intruders from entering, I kindly offered to take the keys and go inside to look for you, but not seeing you, I was too lazy to go out and stayed inside."

"You are definitely not an intruder..." you tell him sarcastically, rolling your eyes with a playful smile.

"But don't be mean, you won't throw me out of your house, right?"

"Be aware that you are breaking a law, more specifically, article 202: Whoever, without living there, enters another's house or remains there against the will of its resident, will be punished with a prison sentence of 6 months to 2 years," you tell him, your tone firm, but maintaining a playful tone.

"Well, well... You have decided to become interested in human rights, right?" A sly grin appears on his lips. "I don't think you're stone-hearted enough to shove away a poor abandoned kitten..."

"Now that you're here, no... I won't kick you out, nor report you. You're lucky to be close to me."

"Well... Thank goodness you're not as bad a person as they say." As if it were his home, he avoids you and walks, sitting on your bed crossing his legs. Seeing your annoyed expression, he raises his hands in defeat. "Just kidding."

"You better be," you snort.

Walking towards him, you take a place on your bed, and lie down on one side, your head resting on the pillow and the rays of sunlight coming from the sun pass through your window gracefully and prostrate themselves on your figure. Today was a hard morning, but it's the only thing you could do. Your priority now was to rest.

An unusual silence forms in the environment with the singing of birds muffled by the closed windows. You try to close your eyes, to have a proper rest even though Lyney is still doing his thing. In a flash, the young boy does not hesitate to play a joke and approaches you, hesitating for a few seconds whether to do what he intended to do. He sits next to you, his body in contact with yours. A light breath coming from him, but his heart racing slightly. His tail lands on your face, just to bother you and take away the feeling that you were going to rest.

"Lyney... What are you doing? Let me rest," you say as you sit on the spot, you lightly rub your eyes and look at him, he just responds with a smile.

"You already know that cats have healing effects. That's why I'm committed to helping you relax," Lyney explains to you, one of his ears flicking before, without even giving you time, he places his head on your chest, his weight making you lay down again. "You know what to do, right?"

"Are you saying you want me to pet you?" you ask, and Lyney nods, even though he knows he'll probably fall asleep before you.

One of your hands goes to his head and you gently begin to caress him. A small, silent but adorable feline sound is heard as a sign of having received the sensation. While you caress him, Lyney tries not to make the moment uncomfortable with the occasional pleasant sound, and only limits himself to purring and warming you with his body.

You had forgotten for a moment that cats usually have sensitive areas, and that is why you decide to change the area and start massaging behind the ears. His ears slowly lowering, giving you more access to pet him without having to move your hand much.

You hear how the purrs intensify and your body feels cushioned, you can't help but smile and let out a light giggle, but you don't realize that your partner had already fallen asleep.

Your eyelids feel heavy and you close them, your hand resting on his head. You weren't expecting to fall asleep so quickly, but when you added his purrs and the fact that he was already exhausted, it made more sense.

A smile curls on Lyney's lips.

This one was quite rushed... Even so, I hope it was not too cringe to read ≽^•⩊•^≼

[dotthings]

Finally!!! Some light and hope returns to S7. Made it through the Casless stretch to 7.17.

Some thoughts on Dean and Cas:

Dean's quest to save Sam leads him back to Cas. The mysterious breeze (we know who that is) shows Dean the taxidermy guy's card, and he tells Dean about Emanuel.

"Screw Cas" -- because Cas knocked down Sam's wall and then abandoned them, by dying, or so Dean thought, so Dean's still angry and hurt. Trying not to care, but he still cares

Oh the staring when they are face to face again. Dean cannot seem to stop staring at Cas. That's not me being poetic with a headcanon exaggeration, that's what's on the screen, I didn't make the rules.

Dean watches Daphne and Emanuel a little bit like how Cas watched Dean and Anna kiss. Less furtive. But the open-eyed wounded baby seal longing sense of wonder on Dean's face is stabbing me in the heart.

"What's your issue" -- how much time do you have Emanuel? Okay, in simple terms, Sam needs help. But the things Dean doesn't say is you!! you are my issue I loved you and you betrayed me and then died and I'm not okay I didn't want to lose you and I'm still mad but glad to see you again and I'm a mess and I've been angry grieving, that's my freakin' issue!!!

The golden-amber light washing over Dean and Emanuel's faces in the car. Light washing over Dean with Cas's return, first invented in S7.

Dean's treading carefully. He wants Cas back, he also doesn't want to disturb Emanuel's peace. And Dean's still upset and hurt and angry and not over it but also he's glad to see Cas again. Dean's going through it. And Dean can open up to Emanuel in ways he's not ready to with Cas. "You're angry...he betrayed you." "Yeah, well, he's gone....I used to be able to just shake this stuff off. You know. Whatever it was. Might take me some time but I always could. What Cas did--I just can't, I don't know why." YES I WONDER WHY THAT IS WHY DOES IT MATTER WHY DOES IT CUT SO DEEP "Well, it doesn't matter why." "Of course it matters." "No. You're not a machine, Dean. You're human." THERE IT IS. After a series of characters telling Dean to suck it up and deal, Emanuel is the one who looks at him and sees Dean's vulnerability and humanity and says it's okay. Some part of Cas is Emanuel, even if he has amnesia, it's instinct, it's things Cas wouldn't be able to open up and say, not at this point, but that he believes. Cas sees Dean even if he doesn't know himself right now.

"Now picture Crowley with his hands on harmless little amnesia Cas" -- soooo interesting how Meg tries to play Dean's worry for Cas into inveigling what she wants. She knows some things.

Dean's pissed at the idea of Meg using Emanuel and turning him back into "an angel sized weapon." He wants to do this carefully. He needs Emanuel to fix Sam, but he doesn't want Cas harmed or his peace shattered. This is Dean trying to let Cas rake leaves.

Dean also seems incredibly annoyed by Meg sidling up to Emanuel and trying to flirt. Protective. Jealous even.

"You just met yourself. I've known you for years." The way that's worded. Dean doesn't just say "I already knew you." He says for years. They've been through a lot. It's like Dean is feeling all of it.

Dean is finally persuaded, for Sam's sake, to let Emanuel break out the angel mojo, but he's reluctant. Knowing what this could do to Cas, the pain he'll experience if his memories return.

That SPN used Turn Into Earth by the Yardbirds, which was the band who became Led Zeppelin, for a music video montage of Cas's memories returning, where Dean is prominently featured in 98% of the images. ACTUAL THINGS SPN CANON DID. Making a Destiel fanvid and stuck it in an episode. Okay.

Where did Dean's anger fly off to? "If you remember then you know you did the best you could at the time." He doesn't think Cas is a bad guy. "Don't defend me." -- Cas has always taken responsibility for his screw ups. Always. And takes a lot on himself to atone. That is how the character has been and he's like that all the way through. And he comes back to fix it.

Dean pulling Cas's trenchcoat out of the trunk of the junker of the week and handing it to Cas. Dean kept it!!!! He didn't just stick it in storage, he moved it from junker to junker, for months, keeping the last piece of Cas Dean had left with him and Sam. The ep that aired isn't even as sentimental as the cut scene--the dialogue we saw in a promo "something in me always knew you'd come back"--yet it's unhinged enough as it is!!!!

"I should never have broken your wall, Sam. I'm here to make it right." Cas always tries to make it right.

Dean doesn't know what's going on as Cas walks over to Sam, and asks "Cas, what are you doing" a bit alarmed. Dean wanted Cas to fix Sam, and they both at first Cas could with just a touch to rebuild the wall, but the wall's crumbled. And there's only one way--for Cas to absorb Sam's Lucifer hallucination. It's Cas's decision, and it's done before Dean can even try to stop it. While Dean of course is glad Sam is okay--that's not how Dean wanted to get there.

At the time it seemed a bit cold that Sam and Dean parked mentally ill Cas at the asylum and left--we'd only just gotten Cas back on the show and he gets shoved off screen again. But there are contractual things--Misha was signed for a 4 ep arc. Looking at it in-story, Dean says he's worried they can't protect Cas, with all that's out there, between Crowley's demons and the leviathans, and Dean says they should leave Cas where he's safe. Watched over by one of their former enemies--but Meg is the only resource they've got who can do it and she's at least playing at being an ally and she does seem to like Cas. It's again Dean's version of letting Cas rake leaves, keeping him safe.

[retellingthehobbit]

Your retelling, will it be implying a Thorin/Bilbo attraction?

I ask because I just discovered that ship and when I looked it up on tumblr, it led me to your work lolol

Every time someone asks me this I feel more like I'm making a Real Adaptation! I love the idea of people following this webcomic for years while analyzing the gay subtext as if they're waiting to see if Supernatural will make Destiel canon. a powerful feeling. The short answer is yes! The long answer is that it's complicated, and that if you're not a Bilbo/Thorin Person you should still stick around because I'm going to handle it in a very funky way that is not what you're expecting (also at the rate I draw, it won't be "canon" in the comic for approximately 2039482289798334534534534534 years.) Generally Thorin's role in my version of the story is that he's a living embodiment of The Quest, and Bilbo's feelings for Thorin mirror his feelings for the Adventure. When Thorin first arrives at Bag End, Bilbo is overwhelmed and annoyed and confused-- he finds him both fascinating and horribly frustrating at turns, and has no idea how to feel about Thorin in the same way he has no idea whether he'll join the adventure. As the story continues, Bilbo's feelings on the Quest will shift, and his feelings about Thorin will shift as well. I just really love the general idea of a new take on Thorin where he has a bit more pathos and a deeper relationship with Bilbo. I also think the way LOTR retroactively reframes The Hobbit as a story written by 'unreliable narrator Bilbo Baggins' adds to the possibilities a lot! there's a lot of queer subtext in Lord of the Rings, and it's fun to bring more of that subtext into the Hobbit. Tolkien often refers to hobbit adventures as "queerness,' and makes "queerness" the name for the thing that bigoted hobbits are afraid of; the fact that Bilbo has been repressing the "queer" part of himself that he inherited from his mother is, canonically, the thing he's struggling with in the beginning of the story.

I really enjoy the bit in the Unfinished Tales where Gandalf describes Bilbo like this:

And now I found that he was 'unattached' - to jump on again for of course I did not know all this until I went back to the Shire. I learned that he had never married. I thought that odd though I guessed why it was; and the reason that I guessed was not that most of the Hobbits gave me: that he had early been left very well off and his own master. No, I guessed that he wanted to remain 'unattached' for some reason deep down which he did not understand himself - or would not acknowledge, for it alarmed him.

That feeling of not being "out to yourself" and not knowing what it is that you want out of life is just!!! It's just very compelling to me.

Thorin's still gonna die though. Don't you hate it when you have this whole elaborate coming-out-to-yourself story but then your first gay crush is so Problematic he kiiiinda nearly starts a war so you betray him by stealing the Heart of his Mountain in order to prevent that war, but then the war happens anyway and he dies horribly :/. A universal gay experience.

Thorin is also an interesting character to play with, especially because I'm diverging more from the book (compared to Bilbo or Gandalf.) The way I'm planning to handle him is that he's a character we see only "from the outside," from the perspective of other characters, and no character sees every side of him. The dwarves portray him as a noble king; the elves portray him as a haughty arrogant joke, to the point where it affects Tolkien's own "translation" of the story; Bilbo has his own complicated feelings about Thorin, but even his portrayal of Thorin is heavily biased and he never gets to see the full picture.

But yeah-- the Hobbit is originally a very lighthearted story, but I do think there are lot of darker and deeper emotions you could explore in it if you wanted to, particularly if you bring in the metatext of how it's reframed in Lord of the Rings. And I do want to explore those darker emotions! So I am XD. There already was an extremely book-accurate comic adaptation of the Hobbit that came out in the late nineties (though it's super short and the pages are cramped to fit in all the prose)-- so I don't really see the point of being obsessively close to the original novel, since an obsessively close comic adaptation already exists. This comic is for the Weird Queer Overly Emotional Metatextual Reframing of The Hobbit!! Anyway, it's fun.

[lilbittymonster]

rubs my hands together mischievously — 3, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14

3 - screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

Oh, Amaurotine fashion death squads....

This has become a running joke in my fc and it will never not boggle my mind how you can take "this side quest NPC says that you're dressed funny like a child would and here, take these robes so you'll look more mature" and "Hades compares individual transformations to stripping naked in public" and get "Amaurot has death squads that will hunt you down in the street for being non conformist". Like. What the entire fuck. I am aware that this is the piss on the poor website but this is some other shit lmao.

6 - which ship fans are the most annoying?

Y'know, honestly, the call is coming from inside the house on this one bc I have to say that it's other Estinien fans. Every time I go through the wolstinien tag on ao3 I get hit with "he would not fucking say that" "he would not fucking do that" almost every fic I open. It's dire. Usually I answer with G'raha stans but it's worse when it's about a character you actually give a fuck about. I think I have more wolstinien accounts with bad takes blocked than I do accounts who post untagged Zenos tits.

8 - common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

"Aymeric throwing the eyes off the bridge was a stupid move." No, it was the best decision he had with the information that he had at the time.

Veterans of this blog will know I have picked a bone with this for a long fucking time but for those of y'all who're new here, the naysayers who decry Aymeric's order to the WoL and Alphinaud to discard the eyes of Nidhogg into the Sea of Clouds as an idiot decision simply don't understand how limited perspective in storytelling works. I have yet to hear an actual answer to "well what would you have done?" that isn't Ha Ha Funnie Joaks "weLl My wOl woUld hAve JuSt eaTen tHem".

The scenario is; the finale of the Dragonsong War. Everyone is hyped up on adrenaline. The Sea of Clouds is well known to be nigh inhospitable to any life except the extremely specialised fish who have made their home there. No one has plumbed the depths and we Just Don't Know how deep the Sea really goes.

We also know that the Vault where the Eye (single) had been kept wasn't enough to keep Estinien (a single, albeit extremely strong, mortal) out of it. So what's going to stop a Warrior of Darkness or an Ascian from breaking into it if the Eyes were kept in Ishgard? Not only would keeping the Eyes simply continue to perpetuate the cycle of violence that this finale is supposed to fucking end because this is the entire plot of the fucking expansion we just played through, the Ascians would have still just yoinked the Eyes to give to Ilberd and we still would have had the whole Baelsar's Wall battle just with slightly different steps to get there.

We also know that both Eyes in proximity to anyone, and at that moment especially dangerous to Estinien, and the best solution is to get them as far away from him as possible. This is also very textually canonically Aymeric's closest friend! He has a very personal vested interest in keeping him safe! There is emotional distress on top of the adrenaline and if you think "well this is obviously the time for logic" you're someone who clearly has never actually been in a high stress situation and also you're just plain wrong.

So throwing the Eyes of Nidhogg over the edge of the Steps of Faith into the depths of the Sea of Clouds where no one has any reason to expect they'd be retrieved by ghosts, basically, is the most sound decision to everyone present.

"But we saw the Warrior of Darkness-" shut up. You've missed the point. Just because we, the player, know something has happened in a cutscene, this does not mean that all the other characters will have the same information. The characters are not omniscient and if your criticism rests on them not acting on information that they do not have then you have nothing of import to say.

10 - worst part of fanon

I have another ask with this one so I can break the tie and say "Estinien is stupid". Is it because of the hair tie thing? Is it because he's surrounded by graduate students now? I don't know. But one, buying an overly inflated hair tie from merchants who are clearly struggling does not make him "stupid" because he goes on to do the same thing in the patches by paying way too much gil for that map just to make sure that child eats. And two, wisdom and intelligence are two separate scores for a reason. He may not be book smart the way the rest of the nerds with the tattoos are, but he's probably the most emotionally intelligent one of the bunch, and that's just as valuable as getting a good Sharlayan SAT score.

13 - worst blorboficiation

This one goes to G'raha. The guy is cunning and sharp and tactical and honestly it's a good thing that he just wants to be a storybook hero bc he can be dangerous when he wants to but you wouldn't think it from a surface glance through the wolgraha tag. I don't particularly like the guy but I still get annoyed on his behalf when he's reduced to "lol wolsimp" constantly. I know of exactly 3 people who have an interpretation of him that actually compels me and they are all my beloved mutuals. And maybe it's because they're also poly/multishippers that they have a better grasp on his character depth? It's a phenomenon I've seen across fandoms and across character types.

14 - that one thing you see in fics all the time

Estinien being cruel to Aymeric's cat. Oh my fucking god why do people make Estinien be cruel to Aymeric's cat. Why. What are you doing. The son of a shepherd who likely would have had barn cats to keep rodents out would not be cruel to a small animal! What the entire fuck!

This is a guy who would have been in Aymeric's life for years who would have been around said cat for years as well! Even if the cat didn't like him he wouldn't be mean about it! And I am a very firm believer that if someone, fictional or otherwise, is mean-spirited towards small animals (or big animals or medium animals) then they aren't someone who's safe. And if that's the version of Estinien that you're writing then I have zero interest in anything else you have to say.

Thanks for the asks @nidstiniens I hope you enjoy the essays

Choose Violence

[oh-my-may]

LET'S TALK GENSHIN AND REMURIA AND ARLECCHINO BEFORE I FORGET AND WE'RE ALREADY IN SECOND HALF OF THE PATCH WHY DOES TIME FLY WHEN YOU'RE AN ADULT

I'm gonna start the post with a few paragraphs I wrote just a few days after the patch went live:

So I finished the first Remuria world quest - it was beautiful. And really not as long as I first expected it to be. I probably could have finished it on the first day if I wouldn't have been as tired as I was

First of all the new map is beautiful. You'd think after 3? patches of map expansions where we already got underwater stuff it would feel repetetive but somehow it looks and feels different and refreshing. Maybe because majority of the map are caves where you can walk normally or they're ruins... idk.

I couldn't help but draw parallels between Remuria and HSR's Penacony tho, especially look-wise, the talk of a dreamscape and the theme of music. Especially now after finishing Penacony 2.2 I can't help but feel the two are very similar in certain aspects... the motive of Harmony and Song and Peace and saving a people and Gods? Also the way Remuria looks is so similar to certain things in Penacony? I already said rhis in my post on HSR, this is absolutely no hate whatsoever. I reckon there's only so much you can do with these motives? It's interesting how differently it looks in both games tho.

So yeah, Remuria is beautiful. The music is an out of body experience and encapsulates the whole thing perfectly. I haven't explored all of the map yet, but I like the new mechanisms a lot. The floating books look so cool and just generally the significance of music through it all... *sigh* it's so enjoyable.

So far for Remuria... i definitely missed a few things I wanted to say but it's been like 2 weeks since I played this and I definitely forgot something haha

AS FOR ARLECCHINO THO

First of all she's broken omg. It is kind lf annoying that it'll take weeks to max out her talents, rn for me she's sitting at crowned NA and skill and burst are level 7 each. But she still hits for like over 50k with each normal attack when she has a bond of life. Don't even get me started on her with Yelan MY GOD.

Okay with that out of the way let me talk about her story quest. First of all I find it very intriguing that hyv gave up on the usual pattern of having the second weekly boss for a nation be tied to the Archon and their respective second story quest (besides Mond ig)... i mean yeah Fontaine's archon situatipn is very peculiar but technically Neuvilette has taken over the role for now, right? Neither him nor Furina getting a second story quest makes me think Neuvi's probably gonna get his way later because it'll be HUGE. Again I wanna say that lore wise Neuvi is my fav character... HES JUST SO FNDNDBDN. And Furina is probably gonna get a pretty "random" one at one point kinda like Yoimiya did or Cyno... like its gonna be a good quest but it'a gonna be random. ANYWAY

I wonder how much different I would habe perceived the quest if I hadn't watched the Animated Short about Arlecchino that they put on Youtube... like it's her whole backstory? I could see where the quest was going right from the beginning because of it... that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, tho

Childe's little surprise cameo made me so happy c: MY BOY. He's alive snd well AND IN FONTAINE. Let me remind ypu we last officially saw him in the last Atchon quest gwtting yeeted into a black hole by Skirk. Then it was mentioned at the end that he was being treated and sent gome to Snezhnaya. Well...

The whole cryptic talk between Arle and Childe was quite interesting... so this project by the Fatui, right? (Forgot the name rn bc it's been a few days since I played the quest) Is it fonna be significant for Natlans story? What does it entail?? THE TEASE NNNNGNNGHH

I wonder if at some point in the game we're actually gonna see Lyney become the new head of House of the Hearth. Like... it's mentioned quite a lot in his story as well as in everything that has tp do with the House and Sröecchino herself... I wonder 🤔

Throughout the story I was reminded that one of the first things we heard about her (Childes voiceline that came out in like??? 3.0 or so???). It was that she would turn her back on and betray the Harbingers (AND THE TSARISTA) without second thought. She even says this herself in her voicelines. I just wonder what her ultimate goal is? To free herself from the curse? Which btw they tell us nothing about in the story. Story is all about the House and its inner workings and Arle's feelings about it and plans for the future (which I love btw but still not quite understand)... we also casually get told that Arle is not even that old??? Like the whole thing with Crucabena is so recent that Freminet remembers her???? Amd Arle was maybe a Teenager when she killed her so like??? She's only around 10 years older than the kids????

So how come she's a descendant from Khaenri'ah? I don't know if I read somewhere abput it or if its a rumor but not confirmed or if its said in her personal story which I haven't read yet but... she'a from the crimson moon dynasty? Or has some ties to it? And her curse is definitely related to it BUT WHAT IS HER CURSE EXACTLY. WHY DOES SHE HAVE IT. If she's only in maybe her late 20s she couldn't have been an actual Khaenriahn citizen (same as Kaeya and he still gives me the same headache thinking about this) so how does it all tie together in the end?? Does it have to do with the God of time maybe??? (Nevermind if this is talked about in her personal story in her profile I haven't read that yet)

So yeah... the fight woth her was so cool. The animation??? I saw people get upset about the fact that Traveler couldn't beat her but I actually love that?? Like... She'a #4 of the Harbingers and has some curse probably tied to Khaenriah and she KILLED A HARBINGER WHEN SHE WAS A TEENAGER??? Traveler nlt being this almighty MC makes them so much mlre likeable like yeah... they are obv far from having their actual power back? It took us ... how many times to fight Shuki No Kami before we could defeat it in the final try to learn all the patterns? The game wants to tell us that there's much more powerful enemies in Teyvat and rhis is only the beginning. Let me tell you yeah we beat Signora but it was Raiden who killed her... it was Zhongli who subdued Azhdaha. We only healed Apep with Nahidas help. Traveler has never been able to easily defeat these big enemies, they always had help. Yeah they have been getting stronger, they've been getting access to more elements but the bis enemies are just getting stronger and bigger too... I wonder where that will lead. Maybe the twins are only gonna get their true power bavk once they're united... ANYWAY

Her weekly boss fight is cool too. Using different mechanisms again, with the whole Bond of Life thing and all. She does this one attack in her second phase that I just... can't get behind tho. Someone always has to be the victim, THE SACRIFICE, to get me through haha. Idk how to dodge or avoid that attack. The one where she floats above the arena and then these bombs? Idk? Come down and basically crash down on the whole arena and I haven't found a spot where you can aboid getting hit and therefore killed immediately idk.

So yeah that's all for now. Very excited to play Cyno's second story quest. Heard only good things so far about it, which is good because I really didn't like his first one 💀 probably gonna get around to play it one of these days. Same as with the rest of Remuria exploration, gonna need mlre Clorinde funds :3

(Gonna add screenshots later, it's been so long that the ones I took aren't saved in the PS App anymore 💀)

[generic-sonic-fan]

in one of your fics, i think it was the funeral talk one with team dark? omega stated that he was going to go play "VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES" did he really play violent video games? if so what kind? if not violent video games, question still stands, what kind?

Oh he absolutely plays violent video games! They're one of the ways he satisfies his urge for destruction when there's no Badniks to destroy. First-Person Shooters are his all-time favorite!

Prepare for a long and rambly post beneath the cut:

He's a sucker for any DOOM game (except for DOOM 3, which is a little too stealth-based for his tastes) and his particular favorite is DOOM 2016! He loves the high-intensity action, he loves the more open-ended approach he can take to each arena, and he loves the gore!!! He also really enjoys how the only meatbag you're forced to interact with in the game is the insane antagonist who you're trying to kill.

(He knows that Doomguy is a meatbag, but he's deemed Doomguy to be in the special category of meatbag that Shadow and Rouge are also in. AKA Omega would be besties with Doomguy in an instant if Doomguy were real.)

Oh, and he also has the original DOOM 1993 downloaded directly on his own hard drive, so that way if he's ever caught having to wait he has something to do. He's gotten to the point where he's unintentionally speedrunning the game because of how many times he's played through it.

Another one of his favorite games is Ultrakill, duh. The movement was a little difficult for him to get the hang of- DOOM's slower run-and-gun style is more similar to his combat IRL and therefore more intuitive to him -but he's mastered it by now. He likes it for a lot of the same reasons that he likes DOOM- guns, gore, and no meatbags to be found. V1 is his personal idol honestly. He doesn't really care for the lore though, which is a shame.

Other games he's played are Halo and Gears of War:

Halo was like a 6/10 for him. It's a tad too slow for him. He actually skips all the cutscenes, which is hilarious. Ironically his favorite game of the series is Halo 5 because that game sped up the movement a little bit, made some of the enemies robots (yayyy destroying robots! his favorite hobby!), and allowed Cortana to go apeshit, which he was rooting for since day 1.

He considers Gears of War to be a puzzle game. (Which is. . . really weird if you know anything about this game.) You see, Gears of War is even slower than Halo, and it's based around a punishing cover system. You have to know when the best moments are to leave cover and shoot or advance forward. Omega plays it when he's in the rare mood for something more cerebral than "Enemies in front of me, must shoot them". He also skips all the cutscenes in this one because he finds all the human characters annoying. If he could turn off the squad member NPCs he would. He too participates in the time-honored Gears of War tradition of shooting Dom on accident because he looks just like a fucking enemy.

Some other games that he's tried but didn't like:

Titanfall 2. The gunplay was fun, but he fucking hated the story and the unskippable cutscenes. He hates BT and Jack Cooper with a passion- they're way too sentimental and whiny for him.

The Call of Duty series is. . . eh? He usually will play them when they come out, but it's a very rare one that he'll actually like. There's usually too many humans and the action setpieces are too tame for his tastes.

He has a love-hate relationship with the original Borderlands. The combat is a blast but the RNG weapons and the quest-taking format was never his favorite. He prefers more linear campaigns without the implication that the protagonist he's playing as is doing any kind of service for the local meatbag population.

And don't even talk to him about Borderlands 2+3. The characters are just too annoying for him.

Anyways, to finish off this long ramble of a post, let me talk about some other genres of games that he could at least sort-of like:

He can't stand normal puzzle games, but he watched a let's play of Portal 1+2 and immediately fell in love with GLaDOS.

Strategy games are off the table but he could be persuaded by a tower defense game. I think he'd like Defense Grid: Awakening if he ever had the patience to try it.

Other games where you cause wanton destruction could catch his interest, such as Kill It With Fire! (A game where you kill spiders. With machines guns and flamethrowers. Lots of fun.)

Minecraft, but only if he's playing on his friends' server, and only if he gets a diamond sword and TNT. He's the one blowing up villages because he thinks it's funny. He might have more fun on a modern patch with the new combat-focused trial chambers.

Among Us, with the friend group, because of course. He's a total troll even when he's not imposter because he thinks it's funny.

These are my headcanons for him! If you have any other games you think he'd like, you should add them onto this post :)

[linguist-in-a-blanket]

I saw so many BBC Ghosts fans here trashing the American version that I finally gave up and watched the original.

Well, thanks, I hate it.

Some of the plots were more amusing, yes. I personally liked how the sister story played off. I mean, when in American version we see Jo from Mythic Quest show up with that "nice" smile for one episode, we know what's up from the first second. When it's a seemingly genuine woman who has a couple of episodes to actually earn Alison's and our trust, it's much better. I also liked most of the ones that didn't make it into the remake.

But the core of this premise is characters. And British characters... They're just bad, I'm sorry, they're bad. They are all one note! There is no arc for anybody! Even the most annoying one, Thomas! His whole thing is that he doesn't know what boundaries or consent are, and this goes on for five seasons! Come on, man! Trevor in the American version has charisma, and he comes a long way in just 2 and half seasons we've seen him. This all really makes up for him being a huge jerk: at least he's a lovable jerk, plus he changes. Julian is not lovable at all, Thomas never changes, he's the same since episode 1 till the finale one. Why should we care about two one-note jerks? Flower has a lot about herself aside from being not-all-here: sex-drive, pacifism, commitment issues, basketball, backstories about at least three close people from her life (two boyfriends and brother)... Kitty is just a stupid cutie who is not-all-here, nothing else.

And this drives me to my next point. Such one-note characters without any development simply cannot have a deep connection. Nobody likes each other in this show. I've seen a lot of takes that American ghosts and Sam are friends, while British ghosts and Alison are family. Well, if you mean an abusive family that you can't get away from, that never gives you any good feelings, sure. But do we really need that? Whom of the ghosts does Alison actually like? She hates Thomas and Fanny (never has this realization about her unrealized motherly feelings, and Fanny herself never realizes why she is like she is and how she can change), she doesn't understand Robin (after spending a day with him and learning what he knows, she just gives him to Fanny as a pet), at the very best she pities Kitty. The only one who actually likes Alison as a person is Kitty, but she has her own projections, she is like a duckling who saw the first person near them and said "mommy". She's actually not much better than Thomas in that way, same level of neediness and clinginess, just more lovable than him, and it's not sexual harrassment, more... platonic harrassment? Yay?..

By the way, Alison also doesn't change. Whenever she sees a new ghost in a new place, she is creeped out. This was okay in the beginning, but after living in a house with 9+ ghosts for a couple of years, she is still creeped out by others! Oh, I'm so sorry for your inconvenience, mam, this guy just, you know, didn't have anybody to see him or talk to him in a couple of centuries, but no, no big deal, sure. Sam is fascinated by her gift, she is always happy to explore and talk to new ghosts, Alison just finds it weird and unsettling, even after, what, five years? Girl, you are a fucking superhero! Talk to the invisible people, damn you!

Sure, it could be about not being able to change, especially after you're dead, but then... why? Why should we look at bad people who stay bad, and most importantly, why should we look at them for five seasons?

When Alison weighed pros and cons for staying, she put "ghosts" in both columns. I'm sorry, but why? We almost never see her enjoying their company, almost never see the ghosts helping her (which is petty, but when American ghosts did this for Sam a couple of first times, that's when she warmed up to them)... They are always an incovenience for Alison. Never do they respect any boundaries, all they can do is do one big gesture (song, dance, theater) and move on to being annoying and needy. Never can they hear "no", never can they respect what she asks of them.

Sam says a lot of times she can't leave the ghosts, and I believe her. Even Jay loves the American ghosts! Sam has this whole group of friends and enjoys their company. They all have connections with each other and with the livings. British don't, they move in a pack and look for somebody to annoy, be that Alison or that poor neighbor ghost.

[softhanni]

2024 Media: 72. Spiritfarer (2020) - 5.5/10★ This review is going to be a long one and definitely not spoiler free so I'll write it beneath the cut off <3

Pros: - The concept was very interesting and unique - The art was beautiful, the animations of the characters felt fluid and the character designs were so well done - It has a bit of everything. You can grow crops, upgrade your boat, craft things, fish, explore, there's a story, multiple characters that have their own stuff going on, mini games. There's pretty much always something to do more or less! - The Everlight turning into oven mitts, a fishing rod, etc. I know it's only a little thing but I think it is SO cute and fun. Cons: - Some of the controls (I played on PC) felt not very smooth and like they overrode each other - You can't view the map outside of one specific room - You have to travel to a specific location to check your completion progress which is REALLY annoying and even then you don't know what you're missing because it doesn't say the names. - You have to hover over each individual location to check for resources which means whenever you're looking for something specific you have to check around unless you have a good memory. - Lack of instructions for certain crafting things on the ship Now onto the story and characters. I think this game should of been a lot shorter. I feel around the halfway point the characters became less impactful and all the back and forth of the later game definitely became less fun. I know not every death has to be a lesson or something thought-provoking but it felt as if that was the vibe of the game and then...it suddenly wasn't...and then it kinda was again?? Also, I really don't understand why a lot of these characters died which is strange in a game about death? Gwen was the introduction to the entire system essentially so that's chill. Atul's passing was the one that I felt left the biggest mark. Not getting to say goodbye felt like so impactful. Astrid and Giovanni allowed a conversation about how feelings surrounding loved one's death can be messy and complicated and not always black and white. Summer's cancer was of course a topic I'm sure resonated with many people and her conversation around being unable to find peace with it was very powerful imo. Alice slowly losing her mobility and memories due to age, once again, very impactful. Then... it just, for me, went downhill. Gustav felt so flat? Bruce and Mickey, I was waiting for something to happen and it just...didn't? Beverly was just...like a second Alice? Elena's intense challenges didn't fit the pace of the game AT ALL and she didn't feel like a character as much of a way to spice the game up. I LOVED Stanley with my whole heart but I'm still confused as to why he was there? Daria was a very interesting character but once again I'm confused as to why she passed away? I feel like out of the latter half Jackie was the only character to have that same impact. His more antagonist nature was very interesting and mental health is always a topic I'm happy to have more rep for. Not to mention it brought the topic of morality and the afterlife in which go hand in hand. However, I HATE that he was one of two essentially antagonist characters and the reason was...because of his mental health. Of course mental health can be ugly and cause people to be horrible but it being the ONLY rep of it in the game felt so ugly to me idk. As for Stella's story... I didn't really care by the end of it. Once again I think the length of the game and the way the pacing was ultimately worked against the emotional impact of her story. It was like "take her to the everdoor" and then I had to finish other quests for a billion years first which dulled the emotion completely. Also, her ending just felt sad and flat which may have been the point but it felt very anticlimactic either way. All in all I did enjoy this game despite all the complaining lmao, I just think it would have been more coherent at like...half the playtime and with half the characters. Shoutout to my baby boy Stanley <3

[zhansww]

After nearly 99 hours, I finally finished FF7 Rebirth yesterday. As far as the story goes, it left me with more questions than answers tbh. Mind you, maybe I'd know the answers if I'd played the og but I haven't. I only played FF7 Remake and now Rebirth. Anyway, I'm just writing down my thoughts on it and this might get long so I'll put the rest under a cut.

I'm gonna start with what I disliked about the game before getting into what I liked. Gameplay-wise: first and foremost, the mini games. The sheer amount of them annoyed me to no end. As someone who loves exploring every inch in a game, having to learn how to play and get good at minigames to complete certain side quests or explore certain areas definitely put a damper on my usual enjoyment of, well, exploring. And that's just the optional ones, there are also minigames that you can't skip. Instead of just letting me play the actual game, you have to, in between the normal gameplay, git gud at fifty different minigames. And ofc, I stopped (playing the optional ones, at least) at some point cuz it simply became too much but that just sucks. It again takes the fun out of it. The only minigames I enjoyed were Queen's Blood and the chocobo races. Maybe others like this variety of games within their game but to me, it became obnoxious. I actually usually love getting every trophy in a game but I already know I won't do that with this game mainly because of, you guessed it, the mini games. Which is a damn shame.

Another thing I disliked is the illusion of choice. Why bother giving me any choice at all regarding Yuffie when my answers ultimately don't matter? You can reject Yuffie three times but she'll join you anyway because obviously, it's not like they developed two whole different games, one with Yuffie and one without her. Same with the relationship counter thing. I did my best to get close to Aerith, to get that intimate date scene on the skywheeler in chapter 12. But Cloud can also have an intimate date with T*fa. And does the characters' relationship change afterwards? No. Cloud treats them exactly the same as he would have. Again, it's not like they bothered to make different cut scenes or add different dialogue in the rest of the game, depending on who you have that romantic date with. But then why even bother giving us a choice? Imo, you may as well get the date with Barret or Nanaki or Cait Sith. It's not like anything at all changes anyway. The story pretty much makes a romance between Cloud and Aerith canon, regardless. Which in itself is definitely not something I'm complaining about, but it's the illusion of choice or having choices that don't actually matter that annoys me. Also, what's with all the characters being spawned in all the time? I'm guessing they do that to make it more immersive but when you're in a group of seven people, they keep getting in your way, even more so when we're all on chocobos. And it's not even like the characters have any meaningful or important dialogue while you're out and exploring so it just feels completely unnecessary to have them around at all times. It was fine in FFXV cuz there were only four characters and they mostly walked behind Noctis anyway. But in this game, it was yet another point of annoyance for me.

When it comes to the story, there's a lot that I let slide cuz it's a game and cuz it's a fantasy world ofc... but Sephiroth is a really lame villain. Everyone else seems to be impressed by him but I don't find him special at all. Not to mention, he can conveniently teleport anywhere he needs to be at any given time. Also, the characters of Yuffie and T*fa really got on my nerves. Yuffie was just unlikeable with her stupid arrogance and materia-obsession. While T*fa is still a whole nothing burger. She reminds me of any basic, empty, supportive wife character. There's simply nothing else to her. I can't say I was too impressed by Cait Sith either but whatever. Cloud, Barret, Aerith and Nanaki are all good characters at least.

On that note, I wasn't too interested in any character in Remake but Rebirth really fleshed those four aforementioned characters out to the point that I feel way more invested in them now than before playing Rebirth. What I wonder about the most is who exactly Zack is and whether his whole section was even real or if that was all part of Aerith's "dream". Also, there's definitely something wrong with Cloud's mind... he seems to respond to trauma by pretending reality is something different..? Which makes him an unreliable narrator which in turns makes me wonder what else and how much of what he knows is distorting reality. When Biggs talked about Cloud to him, Zack seemed confused and said smth like "are you sure we're talking about the same Cloud?" which immediately made me wonder just how different Cloud was with Zack. If he really lost (or thought he lost) Zack, it could make sense for his personality to have changed afterwards. My point being, I am very intrigued and way more interested in Cloud's character now than I was before. I'm also really interested in Vincent Valentine. I saw him and I immediately wished he would join us. That didn't happen unfortunately but hopefully in the third part.

Anyway, the story and characters were an upgrade for me in this game. The gameplay is still mostly solid. The open world, with the different regions and terrains and climates and chocobos was gorgeous to explore albeit difficult to navigate sometimes. The minigames brought it all down, unfortunately. But I still ultimately enjoyed this and also still look forward to what's next in the FF series~

[nightcrawlerzincorporated]

Yo sorry to bother you about this but I’m genuinely kind of annoyed right now. I know "Rob can't act" is like a joke among the fandom but it actually kind of harmed my experience of watching Sunny. Maybe it's my fault for listening to random people's opinions but when I first joined Sunnyblr a year ago a lot of bigger blogs were really fond of pushing that narrative (I think bc a lot of people just really don't like him). It's just disappointing to see how the access point into this space includes a lot of people telling you that Rob can't act and you're an idiot if you like him or his work and it completely warped my perception of Sunny as a show and Mac as a character. I learned not to trust Rob and his choices when playing Mac and now I am very pissed off that I spent all that time not taking him as seriously. I think I've managed to filter out the unnecessary Rob hatred because I haven't seen it in a while but I didn't realize how ingrained it was in my head until the Liberty Bell podcast episode when they were talking about Rob's incredible performance, and then I watched Mythic Quest and that show changed my entire life. I don't mean to make a whole big deal out of what is mostly a joke in the fandom but like...it heavily affected my very first watch of Sunny and I am. so irritated

I actually have so many thoughts about this.

So the way I see it, a combination of several things happened all in conjunction with each other: Rob always calls himself the worst actor of the three, which to me just reads as him being insecure, but him saying that makes the idea stick in people's heads and makes them look for reasons he's a bad actor. Our brains are giant pattern machines, so when the brain gets new information like "I'm the worst actor" it looks for ways to process the new information, which means your brain is going, "hey, be on the look out for this guy being a bad actor" in a way it isn't doing for the other actors. I mean maybe this is definitely projecting, but it reminds me of when I first started writing "professionally" (I freelance) and I would worry that my work wasn't good, so I would tell clients "I know it's not that good", "I know someone else could've done better", "I know this part doesn't make sense", etc and it would just make them have no confidence in me and so they would agree and complain about my writing! But then my therapist told me to stop doing that, that it's not actually more honest or more humble or whatever to self-deprecate, and once I stopped saying that stuff I got way more compliments and way fewer complaints AND way more recommendations and way more clients as a result. Things I thought were "obvious flaws" it turns out people only noticed when I pointed to it and said "this is a flaw!". So I think there's some of that happening.

Another factor is that a lot of people didn't like how Mac was written in season 13. But instead of saying, "the writing team collectively decided to write Mac in a way we don't like this season", a lot of people placed the sole blame on Rob as the actor who portrays him. And I think part of that is that a lot of people were waiting a long time for Mac to come out (I wasn't a part of the tumblr fandom back then but I was a fan of the show and I. For real thought he was just never gonna come out lol I remember Glenn specifically really wanted Mac to stay in the closet because he thought it was funnier so I was like ok. Guess this character is just in the closet forever. Hero or Hate Crime? I remember watching as it aired and genuinely being so shocked Mac didn't go back in the closet at the end, especially after Goes to Hell which I also watched live and was convinced was the ultimate proof it was never gonna happen lol) and so they had a lot of expectations of how Mac would or wouldn't change after coming out because there had been so many years of build up and will-he-wont-he about the whole thing. Hell, I wasn’t really in the fandom like I said but I’m sure just like today there were people who specifically started watching after season 12 because they heard there was an out gay character. And then season 13 aired and every single character (probably because of the changes to long term writing staff) felt kind of… off. That’s the main criticism of season 13 I hear to this day, that all the characters feel wrong in it or feel like they just exist to parrot various political movements first and be character’s second. That’s not a Mac exclusive problem. BUT because Mac had the most obvious and easy to understand change (being openly gay) a lot of people latched onto that as “what made the season bad”, and latched onto Rob for “ruining the character”. Yes, both the people who complained he was “too gay” AND the people who complained he “wasn’t gay enough” did this. Suddenly, it wasn’t about the seasons’ overall writing, it was about the fact that Rob, a straight man, was doing a bad job playing a gay man. Which made it even easier for people on tumblr to justify complaining about his acting.

And that led to people going back through the seasons and criticizing his acting in other episodes too (like I talked about above, it’s that confirmation bias. Going into something actively looking for ways it’s bad makes it way easier to be overly critical). Which led to this narrative of, “Rob is and always has been a bad actor”.

Now, some of you may be screaming at your screens, “nightcrawlerzincorporated, are you seriously gonna sit here and act like the only reason people dislike Rob is season 13 and his own self-deprecation?” No! Rob has done plenty of shit worthy of ridicule. He publically supported the racist All Lives Matter movement, is (or at least was, idk how he feels about it at this exact moment I’m not inside his head) pro-NFT, and less crucially but still a factor, he says annoying shit a lot. And I don’t think we could ever get along even in some fantasy scenario where we met. I’m not trying to convince anyone they have to like Rob and I’m not saying every criticism of him is just people looking for stuff to complain about. There’s some real shit there. Probably a lot more shit than I mentioned, even. But. None of that stuff actually has anything to do with his acting. I think after fandom opinion of him started souring, it was just emotionally cleaner for a lot of people to act like Rob had very little to do with the show they liked, actually, and his acting wasn’t even good and had nothing to do with how much they loved Mac (even though… yeah sorry if you love Mac it’s at least partially because you love Rob’s acting. You’re telling me all those great faces he pulls, his improv, his delivery, his hand gestures, and his chemistry with other actors all have NOTHING to do with liking Mac as a character?) 

I completely understand your frustration with having your opinion influenced by all that mess. That’s pretty much the whole reason I don’t interact with a show’s fandom until I’ve seen the entire thing at least once through myself, because fandom opinion really can influence how you see things, even if you try not to let it. I genuinely think a lot fewer people would think of him as a bad actor if it wasn’t such a Thing in the fandom.

And yeah, I think because Ian is. Y’know a character who was clearly planned to have this whole arc and tragic backstory from the very beginning, Rob just has a lot to work with as an actor. Whereas Mac’s narrative purpose has shifted dramatically over the course of Sunny and the more tragic elements of his character were added after the fact instead of always intended, which makes the way Rob plays him feel less consistent to people, because the character is just less consistently written. When Rob’s acting is allowed to fully shine with a well thought out character like Ian, pretty much everyone agrees he’s fantastic. Plus, the Mythic Quest fandom is a lot newer and smaller and so doesn’t have almost 20 years of expectations and opinions about how these characters “should” act like Sunny does. And I think that’s why Mythic Quest fans in general tend to disagree with the Sunny fandom opinion that he’s a bad actor. Because we all know that’s not true. You’re completely valid in seeing it as a whole thing because well. It is a whole thing. Look how many thoughts I have about it just off the top of my head lol.

[gamingofkenna]

Playing Thimbleweed Park, finding it absolutely delightful, and then going online to see lots of people complaining about it? Baffling. I wasn't planning on making a post-game thoughts post, but now I am anyways

*mild spoilers follow*

I'm particularly primed to enjoy meta storytelling, apparently. I don't know why, but often when I see people complaining about meta stuff in stories, it's the kind of stuff I find enjoyable or interesting. This is a meta story and maybe some aspects are annoying and I just can't see because Gilbert and I have the same style of humor

Thimbleweed Park is not an 'ironic' game, it's not making fun of gaming or 'punishing' players for buying into the game situation (a wild take imo, did we play the same game?)

Thimbleweed Park is a game that loves games. it's a game that loves making games and playing games. it's all about how fun these kinds of games are. poking fun at gaming logic even as it's completely reliant on it; it's saying 'this is silly. isn't that so fun??' you're collecting dust because isn't it fun to collect pixels?? we set up these elaborate puzzles to entice you to the ending because aren't elaborate game puzzles fun??

I don't know how to properly verbalize my thoughts on this topic, just to say that, to me, the characters acknowledging openly that they're in a game doesn't feel a like a cop-out. It feels like it was making genuine what was, up until that point, just a joke. at no point in the game was it not commenting on being a game, from 'the corpse is pixelating' to 'that highway was long, i hope we dont have to walk down it again' to 'heres a flyer about a hintline, i have no idea what that means'. but all of those comments are just kind of jokes. we laugh at the cosmic irony of knowing something the characters don't

once the characters know it, it's not ironic anymore. it's a thing that's always been true, that they've always kind of known, and that's getting directly addressed finally. and once it is, we can start thinking about the vehicle of the game medium in how the story is told

because on the one hand this is a story about free will, kind of, but it's not about how these characters don't have it because they're in a game

like, what really sells the ending to me is how every character's personal quest gets completed. we're in a game and everything's going to get wiped? well I finally got the evidence I needed to clear my father's name, and that's how I'm going to spend my last twenty minutes. Ransome spends the whole game being a scumbag, and his last act before everything is over is to acknowledge that there is a lesson to be learned from this, and to try to make up for it

my interpretation is that it's about the free will to be a better person. Uncle Chuck uses and abuses everyone around him and throughout the ending there's a part of him that's fighting the 'evil' side to beg his niece to free him. it's cheesy and overdone, but the whole genre is cheesy and overdone. Ray and Reyes are direct foils, cold and condescending vs warm and enthusiastic, but even Ray's personal quest ends by giving someone an award for being Good At Games

maybe I'm overthinking this, but for a game that spent so much time expressing how much it loved games, and fun, and cheese, saying the 'its all a game' ending is a 'so it doesn't matter' ending seems to be missing the point. it's all a game; isn't that fun??

(and I want to add that the 'final boss' of the game being the game itself, which I imagine some people will think contradicts my point, really just seems like a continuation of the theme. the characters act like this is going to work even though the player knows 'shutting down' the game isn't going to destroy it - because they're still in a game, and I still want to be able to play it

the real villain isn't the existence of the game itself, but the ideology of 'its just a game so our actions dont matter'. Chuck's evil side is brought on by the AI revealing the nature of the game (though he was a dick long before that); he kills Franklin and Boris because 'this isn't real so my actions don't matter'. he orchestrates this mystery to get Delores to break into the wireframe and shut down the whole game... but of course the game recovers itself. because the game wasn't the problem. it was the dismissal of people and their well-being that was the problem)

[aero-sense]

I'm enamored by how games interpret stories (especially from other titles) and how I interpret those game mechanics, so I decided to start a series of my little observations/speculations on games I like. To start off is first game in the Atla trilogy series.

The first game in the series is a bit unique, taking place after Book 1 finale instead of adapting straight from the show. Its an original story, so I'm excited to play it.

I will be playing the PS2, DS, and PSP versions of the game. The PS2 version will be the main reference for my notes. The other versions will be denoted by brackets. The main posts will be divided by levels.

This is not meant to be a critical review or a detailed walkthrough. All I will do is point out little details I notice or like. I'm doing this for my own fun, not to be accurate.

Now to get into the game!

Waterbender Village:

The game starts off with some pretty backgrounds and snow. The particle system for this game is great. Love the character models and how expressive they are during cutscenes.

The title map says it's the Waterbender Village, but I think Waterbender Temple would have been a more interesting title. The people there refer it to be a peaceful training village.

The Northern Tribe does seem to exist, as the trader downtown references Zhao's invasion. It's suggested or assumed as the biggest city around. It's nice world building, changing the water tribes into several disperse settlements rather than just two large collectives.

Sokka in the cutscene and on lookout acts rather.... quiet and standoffish. It's suggested that he misses his father. If we're following the events of the Book 1 finale as well, you could assume he's mourning Yue too.

The most out of character detail is how player-controlled Aang starts off by fighting wolfs.... let's just assume he's playing with them.

So cute how Momo will cling to Aang while he walks around. If you shake him off or fight, he'll fly off and immediately come back again when you're done.

As Momo, you can shriek at the enemy and catch their attention? Funny if this is how he interacts with most living creatures.

You're given a lot of different items to wear to increase attributes. It would have been fun to see the gang accessorize this much in show.

Increasing certain attributes can increase the damage for certain characters in the following order: Agility for Aang, Strength for Sokka, Life (maximum health) for Katara, and Focus (chi) for Haru. It matches well for their respective traits.

This is the friendliest the Water Tribe has been portrayed. Aang befriended many of them. He sled with a fellow fisherman last week. Likewise, the people around the village know what Aang's up to for the day. Many of them give him space and ask how he's doing or how was his meditation. Overall, they're all comfortable with each other.

This portrayal of the Water Tribe really displays their strong community. A lot of the characters are named or titled, and have friendships with each other. Don't know someone? Form a search party anyway, with just as much concern you'd have for a family member. Half the town overhears a rumor about an old woman without supplies and ask if the avatar could check it out. It's sweet.

One of the reasons I chose the PS2 to focus my notes on is because of the voiced lines from the characters. It's a different atmosphere running around and overhearing small talk. Their voices give so much life to the world, between being happy, exhausted, distressed, and annoyed for implied reasons. The dialogue is great in this version, because it changes throughout quests and major plot progression.

Common dialogue of the village are people often lamenting about the cold, gory jokes about firebenders (hah), day to day life with hunting and friends, and how the war affected them for so long.

A plotline quest is we have to find a missing waterbender named Hiryu. What we know about Hiryu is he's well-liked around the village, one of their best hunters, and a bit of a storyteller. He's friends with quite a lot of people and a lot of them are concerned about him missing.

The marks leading to the tunnel looks like an animal crawling out, or sadly, a man dragged in.

Immediately when the Fire Nation attacks, the snow turns to soot.

It's sad seeing the destroyed village (especially with how much time I spent running around for quests ε=ε=┌(;￣▽￣)┘).

The soldiers, nonbenders with weapons, are stronger than the firebenders. It implies a lot, that having a well-trained nonbender is better than a couple of low-ranked benders and that bending doesn't throw the war in your favor...

The fire comets can hit the fire benders themselves... yeah I'm reiterating my previous comment.

[DS]

Very cute models, but so far the dialogue doesn't stand out much.

There's little animations for cut scenes and the like that are really cute (look at Sokka's face!).

Momo will eat your discarded items.

The icons are just the redrawn icons of the PSP character art.

[PSP]

Cute that both PSP and DS include the otter penguins. You can't attack them.

I really like the music outside of the village. It sounds like echos of the tundra with wind chimes mimicking the ice.

The character art is great by the way, it's very expressive and cute for the main characters.

In this version, Katara looks sad not to go penguin sledding and happily promises to go afterwards. If you talk to her again while doing other quests, she actually starts to get ready. I prefer this version the most. It's very fitting for her character.

Katara's waterbending master is referred as Pakku in this version.

HP is called honor points which is cute. The MP instead is called chi. Makes sense.

The dialogue for the PSP version is a little more pleasant and smooth compared to other versions. I wonder if the writers got more time to polish the writing.

[pangolinheart]

Well since you’ve given me a chance to ramble about my boy, you got any little quirks or story things that you want to talk about for Rhiki? I saw some drk stuff, so maybe like how does she handle that whole plot?

Whooo boy I would LOVE to talk about the DRK quests. I apologize if this runs long i will try to contain myself. Behind the scenes, I actually started playing the DRK quests at a recommendation from a friend. Towards the end of HW I had maxed out my DRG levels (before the cap was raised to 90) and didn't want to waste msq exp. I had been telling a friend of mine all of my thoughts about the plot and my character, and in her infinite wisdom she said "Oooo you should unlock DRK I think you'd like it." And she was RIGHT.

I know that "canonically" the first set of DRK quests is set before the start of HW, but for Rhiki as a character I have them set in my head as taking place after HW-proper, proceeding and bleeding into the post-patches. The level 30-50 questline really tapped into a lot of things Rhiki had been feeling since the ARR post-patches. Around the time of Moenbryda's death, Rhiki started to get the feeling that her "friends" in the Scions didn't really know her at all. (Specifically, Minfilia has a line that goes something along the lines of "You're so strong. I can always lean on you for support" which, for the way i had imagined Rhiki as a character, was laughably inaccurate.) It felt to Rhiki like everyone, including the other Scions, looked at her and, rather than seeing her as she was, projected their vision of the perfect hero, the hero they needed onto her. It got her wondering: if she wasn't the Warrior of Light would they even like her at all? At the same time, being treated like the solution to all of Eorzea's problems put a lot of pressure on her. People treated her like a hero, but she didn't feel like a hero - she didn't see herself as any stronger, or smarter, or kinder than anybody else. She definitely didn't think she was qualified to weigh in on complex geopolitical issues like the refugee crisis in Ul'dah or international relations with Ishgard. But she didn't want to let people down (and she didn't want them to be disappointed in her) so she just kind of talked herself into a "Fake-It-til-you-Make-it" attitude. But, even though she never acknowledged it, t little bit of resentment started to creep in. Why does she have to be the one who's strong for everyone else's sake? Who is she supposed to lean on when everything goes wrong?

She kind of held it together until Haurchefant died. Haurchefant had been just about her favorite person for a while by that point, and the two of them were close (they were probably in love but neither of them ever said it in so many words). So his death absolutely gutted Rhiki. She let shock (and a shiny, brand new thirst for revenge) carry her through the the chase to Azys Lla and the final confrontation with the Archbishop, but after that, when the battle was already won and there was nothing left to do, she kind of fell apart. She really struggled with grief and regret, but also with anger. Rhiki had never really hated anyone before - she'd disliked people, been annoyed with people, but never truly hated them. But oh boy she hated Zephirin and the Archbishop enough to make up for all the years of hate she'd missed out on. And the hate and anger didn't go away once they were both dead - they lingered in her even aft there was no one left to be angry at. She had never thought she was capable of those kind of violent, ugly feelings, and it scared her.

That was the backdrop when she found Fray's body (in my head, she spent a lot of time holed up in her room, but would sometimes sneak out at night so she could get some fresh air without having to worry about running into anyone she knew, which was when she heard about the trial). At first, she was totally on-board with what "Fray" taught her - at least this way she could channel all of those terrible emotions into something good. But the more time they spent together, and the more disparaging "Fray" became of her desire to help others, the more she started to think that, hey, maybe this person might possibly be a little unhinged. But, everyone's got their stuff, and in-for-a-penny and all that, so she stuck with it. The confrontation at Whitebrim was REALLY good for Rhiki. Somehow, seeing herself as another person who was hurting, made it much easier to treat herself with the same kindness she would treat someone else. While the negative feelings didn't go away after reconciling with Esteem, she learned to recognize and accept them rather than trying to bury them inside herself.

When she first met Sid, she thought he was kind of a tool. (He was.) But he DID remind her of a certain other tall, dark tool-ish friend she had recently failed to protect from being possessed by a dragon, which endeared him to her a little and made her more willing to hear him out. Then she met Rielle and decided she couldn't not help. While trying to find a way to keep Rielle safe, Sid and Rhiki bickered A LOT, about things like the merits of mercy, but also about how he treated Rielle. She definitely tried to keep Rielle's spirits up and treat her with as much warmth and kindness as she could, though neither of them were really qualified to be in charge of a 12-year-old, so how much good it did is debatable. (Also, she was a little worried that Sid might start rubbing off on Rielle, so she kind of tried to temper his influence when she thought he couldn't hear them. "Listen, I know Sid says a lot of stuff about forgiveness being a weakness and the world being terrible, but you've gotta understand he's working through some personal issues and he's projecting.")

Their encounter with the moogles put into words something Rhiki had been thinking about but couldn't find a way to express: that the root of most pain and anger is love. Love for a person, love for a homeland, love for an ideal, love for the person you were or could have been. When something we love is taken from us that love has nowhere to go, and it twists and grows into sorrow and anger. But it's important to keep sight of the love at the center of all of those feelings, so as not to be consumed by them. Being able to hear that sentiment out loud was something Rhiki really benefitted from. (She did feel pretty bad about what happened with Rielle's mom, and got into a bit of a tiff with Sid about it. She knew it was probably what had to happen, and it was Rielle's choice to make, but... "Did you have to behead the woman right in front of her? What is WRONG with you?!You couldn't have waited for us to, like, turn around, or walk twenty feet away or something?!") Anyway this is already super long so I'll cut it off here and not go into the Stormblood quests (though I'm always happy to give my feelings on those too!) As a side note: if you haven't already, I highly recommend reading the Journal entries for the Stormblood DRK quests. They're good stuff. Anyway, thank you for the ask and, if by some miracle you made it to the bottom of this post, I'm sorry for how long it was!

[kingofdinosaurs]

3 6 8 9 12 14 24

feel free to answer however many of em you want for any media you're into (that I actually know)

sorry, unrelated, I just found out they let you DM people images now? What the fuck?

no yeah you can send people images now it rocks thank you for the bridge. going through all of them because im airport bored

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

ok well the worst one EVER was someone saying they thought potemkin should have died in xrd IN THE TAG which was. fucking rude and also totally stupid. honourable mention to that time so long ago i barely remember how it happened when i saw a pokespe fan assert that "wally could never have done what emerald did!" hey why do you think that. when wally was literally in the oras version of the battle frontier (I know oras was out because that's how i was a fan of wally. is it because he's disabled. i want you to fucking say it.

6. already answered!

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

hmm... idk if it's even a common thing anymore because i avoid it like the plague but if i ever have to see "the knight doesn't have a mind or will" arguments again I'll like find whoever started it and put them in a jigsaw trap fuck you fuck you fuck you did you even play the game??? the delicate flower quest alone should be enough to prove you wrong. if the knight can't have its own agenda why the fuck would it go out of its way to do this small unnecessary kindness? also the narrative itself doesn't make sense if you assume the pale king is right about the knight, both in terms of "what was the fucking point then?" and because of the fucking. REASON THE KNIGHT CAME BACK TO HALLOWNEST. BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO HELP THEIR SIBLING. idk if this one is even common anymore but it was frustratingly common back in the day

9. worst part of canon

for persona there's so many choices i feel paralysed, as with blazblue, so I'll go with a wild card: dead cells! anyway anytime when someone acts like the beheaded is just cut and dry easy peasy The King like it can not be that fucking simple that's fucking stupid. he's literally the ship of theseus but a slime piloting around a headless corpse. like at this point you're just giving annoying youtubers ways to be more annoying quit itttttt

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

SYSTEMMMM i love system so fucking much I'm crazy about her. nobody gives a fuck about her because she's a relatively easy boss in a fighting game many people do not like (a crossover, no less!). but she fucking rocks so hard!!! she's so funny in every scene she's in, i really appreciate that about her. she's kind of like queen from deltarune if that helps anyone. it's not even hard to go watch like cross tag story mode it is literally all on youtube everyone who hasn't go meet her! she deserves some attention!

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

actually i can't lie i just like don't have it in me to trawl the fanfic mines anymore so idk what they're doing right now like it is No Longer my problem

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

oh god i have no clue. i don't get involved in arguments like this anymore for my health so i have no clue

[coolwali]

Minor Gaming Pet Peeves: Mandatory Story Breaks in Open World Games.

Hello everyone, today I want to talk about a pet peeve of mine I've seen in 2 open world games in particular, Spider-Man PS4 and Cyberpunk 2077. The feature in question is that certain points during certain missions, the game will tell the player to wait for a while before the next stage of the mission can begin. In Spider-Man's case, it's mostly limited to the main quest where after a major climactic event, Peter will say something like "that was intense, time to cool off for a while and go on patrol". Then the next main mission will not pop for a while, encouraging the player to partake in side activities. In Cyberpunk it's a similar case, only it can happen for any class of quests, not just main and the time to wait isn't consistent, seemingly being anywhere from a day in-game to several days + a few minutes.

Let's consider the pros; firstly it allows for story sanctioned breaks that may allow for more optimal pacing than if the player took the break during say, an urgent series of quests. It communicates to the player they can take a break now and it encourages the player to do some side content. It's also a nod to realism that some stuff takes a while to happen

But I find it not worth it and more annoying than anything.

Firstly, I like to play open world games by doing EVERYTHING before touching the main story and then blasting through the main story. So in Spider-Man, the game expects me to go out and do some side activities like finding backpacks or research labs, but I have already done everything. So I'm left just sitting there playing on my phone until the game lets me play the next story mission. For Cyberpunk, it's often not clear how long I have to wait. So I have to use the in-game sleep thing to sleep for 2-4 days at a time and then go around walk around for a while and hope the mission updates with the call. I imagine most players probably have some quests left when these breaks pop up so it's less of an issue but still.

Secondly, I find it interrupts the story more than it helps. Like in Cyberpunk, I want to see more of Panem's story, but there's frequent breaks and even if I have other quests to do, it feels like an interruption so I either have to go do other quests for a while or sleep for 4 days and then go and do another quest before I can finally get back to the storyline I am interested in. I'm going to go do all the quests anyway. This just feels unnecessary and it takes my agency. Plus it can seem punishing if you do some side questing before you get one of these waits, like if you had done your questing a couple missions later, your time wouldn't be wasted.

Imagine if you're watching the Mandalorian and part way through an episode you have to go the bathroom. Instead of just pausing the show to go to the bathroom, the Mando turns to the camera and goes "If anyone wants to go the bathroom, go now, I'll do nothing for the next 7 minutes aside from stand here and polish my guns or something". While that is generous, it wouldn't really be a fun or efficient idea. And if it did do that, most people would probably fast forward through it every time it happens because they don't have to go the bathroom at that moment. It's the same with video games, if I want to take a break to go do side quests, I'll do it anyway. I don't need the game to force me to do them. Plus if I do them early, I should be set for the rest of the game.

Now, I understand this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things. The time wasted in doing these waits isn't so long. But regardless, are there ways to compromise so you maintain the positives while minimizing the negatives.

Solution 1: The Cyberpunk approach (ironically).

Cyberpunk has a solution for this. Some quests that ask you wait have a marker at the mission start area where V will sit and wait at and the next quest will start automatically. As an added bonus, it also adjusts the setting depending on the quest (like spawning NPCs and cars that are required for the quest). This helps because it maintains the appearance that time has to pass while still letting the player play on.

Solution 2: The Batman Arkham Knight Approach.

In Batman Arkham Knight, instead of asking the player to wait at certain points, the game just goes "Master Bruce, things have gotten quiet for now, you can use the time to go do side quests or keep investigating the Arkham Knight/Scarecrow i.e the Main Quest". The beneifit here is that it tells you the story is taking a lull for a short while but still gives the player full agency in what they have to do without wasting any time whatsoever.

But if we must have some waiting, there is one option:

Solution 3: The GTA V approach.

In GTA V, quests for heist prep activate after a while with a text message. But normally you have other quests also active or given to you at the same time so you always have something to while you wait. The smaller number of timed quests given at specific times also mean there is way less of a chance the player has nothing to do but wait even if they do all the side content first. Personally, I'm still not fond of this because it means I have to step away from the heist missions I'm so interested in.

So what are your thoughts?