#first screenshot gave me severe brain damage

[hhuta]

[the-drifters]

okay so BEFORE i make my headcanon post about the omens as a whole, i wanna analyze Geist bc he has influenced my headcanons significantly. note that i’m kinda doing this analysis chronologically as opposed to in order of how information is given in-game. I’d also love to have added more screenshots, but that’s tricky to do atm. I’ll probably edit them in later.

Heavy spoilers ahead just in case anyone who hasn’t finished the game yet stumbled upon this. Without further ado:

So, we’re given very little information about what Geist’s first persona (presumably would be called Geist MK-I) was like, but we do get glimpses from Dianthus and Callistephus in chapter 8, and later Geist’s little support robot in the epilogue. Dianthus and the robot say that he was someone who never gave up on trying to solve the problem of Quietus. Callistephus compares Dianthus’s attempts to embrace hope and emotions to Geist’s former behavior.

He was highly determined, and kept trying even as everyone else around him gave up. I like to think he wasn’t unlike Ein when it comes to that. Although, in Geist’s case, it seems that having more and more demands placed on him as he was left to do the work almost entirely alone took its toll. Dianthus states that he became more and more isolated, until he basically went AWOL. He disconnected from the collective consciousness and left for Lost Gaia.

The White Omens state that he was scary because he seemed so inorganic in comparison so them. I’d imagine he gave them a bit of an uncanny valley feeling, seeing that the Seth and the White Omens also look so similar. Even in the sidequest given by Tweedledee, the Seth do mistake him as one of their own.

Despite this, however, I’d like to believe he had become “corrupted” long before his discoveries on Lost Gaia. With all that been placed on him leading up to his disappearance, why WOULDN’T someone break? Seeing The Horrors™ on Lost Gaia probably just broke him even more. He’s a lot like Aria in that regard. They both had to see the world they came to exist at in shambles. Trauma, both physical and psychological, damages and alters the structure of the brain. This makes me think that what the Omens call “corruption” is actually just an allegory for what they believe to be “altered” behavior resulting from damage in their code.

So then Geist MK-II presumably comes into play. A persona not created by a reboot, but rather a combination of severe corruption and a computer virus (which I will elaborate on shortly). We know that the changes between Geist MK-I and MK-II happened very abruptly, as evident by what Dianthus says. According to her, Geist had become this obsessive, volatile person. His support robot says that he became obsessed with biology and evolution because he was forced to confront his limits as AI. Despite this, we also know that he isn’t utterly unhinged, as he retains his intelligence and goes out of his way to ensure Aria is not harmed when he kidnaps her.

Geist states that the Paradise Journal caused a “bug” in his ethical code. I think what he read definitely corrupted him, but I also believe that Gaia could have hidden a trojan horse virus of sorts within it. This is more easily evident in visual cues seen in Geist’s boss fight, but there’s also a lot I can find in his dialogue by reading between the lines.

In Cres’s character story we’re told exposure to Gaia Dust causes a disease called The Quiet (funnily enough, that’s what Quietus means in English), which kills very quickly. Geist, being a robot, is immune to The Quiet, but he’s not immune computer viruses. So, I’d imagine there’s a connection. Plus, it looks like he’s essentially “coughing up” Gaia Dust when using certain attacks in his boss fight. He, along with Harbinger Aria, also seems to utilize the same red energy that Gaia does.

Then there’s the dialogue cues. He swaps back and forth between two ideals:

On one hand, he’s trying to feed the Abels to Quietus in hopes that at least SOME of may develop an immunity, and eventually they will evolve that immunity as a species. He also expresses extreme guilt, likely as a result of believing what he must do is a necessary evil, and because realizing his own limitations meant that there was little more he could do. He goes as far as to label himself a sinner for stealing “their ability to reason” and wanting a REASON to keep fighting. He doesn’t WANT to kill the Abels, but it’s a necessary evil in his mind. I believe he also secretly wanted Ein to kill him if it meant there really would be a better way.

On the other hand, he’s expressing the belief that humans HAVE to die—he’s giving them their “proper death.” Gaia kept trying to kill all humans because she believed they wanted to die. With the latter position, it sounds more like Geist is being forced into carrying out her bidding, but with the former, it seems like he’s trying to fight whatever instructions he’s being force-fed by the virus. When he’s finally stopped, he seems to revert back to the first idea. He’s also surprised that Ein and co. managed to stop him, and they’ve proven themselves worthy of trying to find a solution. I also think that he secretly wanted to die if it meant Ein could find another way, but it’s difficult to prove or deny that. Either way, he gives them his memory chip, and tells them to retrace his steps. Then he drops a random Metal Gear reference and dies immediately afterwards.

Geist ultimately gets rebooted as Geist MK-III. It’s clear that his memories were left intact, unlike Sorbus, an Omen in a sidequest. He’s also been reconnected to the collective consciousness, and presumably wiped of the virus he had. He goes straight back to Lost Gaia and appears to Ein and co. again, much to their surprise. Shrika notes he does seem to be behaving like an entirely different person.

Unlike his past two selves, this time he comes across like he’s rushed and perpetually hopeless. He retains a few traits he had before, mainly his stubbornness and ability to plan ahead. However, there’s some things he says and does that really makes me think there’s more going on within him than he’s even aware of. Particularly, the way he treats some of the party members.

Geist appears to project his feelings onto the others, going as far as to berate them over feeling differently than he does. For example, Dianthus tries to say she hopes there’s a better solution than the Paradise Project, and Geist immediately shuts down her point. He just… nails it into her that her mindset is flawed and dangerous. He’s absolutely not very nice about it, but in his eyes, hope and wishful thinking is what got him into this mess, so why should he adopt that mindset? He’s only trying to protect Dianthus and keep her from making the same mistakes he did. He also calls back to his former self’s obsessiveness and states that hope “consumes your thoughts.”

He also complains about adverse situations, such as Callistephus blocking Dianthus’s signal. Overall, he comes across like he’s very, very miserable. I can’t really blame him, because once again, the weight of everything has fallen onto his shoulders. At the final choice which determines which ending you’ll get, Geist’s attempts to pressure Ein sound very desperate.

Yet, if you get the good ending where Ein wins the debate, his attitude completely changes. He goes from a miserable, self-loathing person to someone who’s affectionate and supportive. He also seems to embrace his past a little bit, as he states that the back and forth conversations with the party make him nostalgic. He’s likely referring to a time when his creators were still awake. He also anonymously expresses how much he loves humans in his final Castle Lewis Times article.

Ultimately, Geist is a beautiful representative of many things: the chosen one who falls from grace, the trolley problem, and humanity’s willpower. Yet, his story is horrifically sad beneath the surface and he doesn’t even realize how much it impacts him. His character development throughout the game leaves me with lots of questions, the most important one being: What would happen if he came to realize how awful what happened to him really was? Would he go mad again? Or would he take a page from humanity’s book and seek support?

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 39 - watching notes

How did this show manage to make me care for these characters in about one episode???

Xue Yang is 100 kinds of creepy

How does he disappear like that? That's a power we haven't seen on this show yet

This whole revenge plot is waaay too convoluted to be only about revenge

Ohoh ... this silence is too ominous

I love how A-Qing still has her rebellious streak, even in death

This is too easy ... he won't die just like this, right?

Holy shit his arm!! 😱😱😱

Um ... sorry but, it's really obvious that the actor just has his arm tugged under his clothes 😅

Whaaaaaaaat???

He's not the guy under the mask???

Who???

Who is that and why does he want the stygian tiger amulet???

I was so sure that that was him

Lan and Jin sword style? I'm wreaking my brain right now who has a strong connection to both, but I'm coming up empty

Oh no, a qing :'(

This is such a brilliant shot! Goosebumps! All over!

And wow

All the awards for song lan's actor 😥

I am ... fascinated by Xue Yang's backstory. Like ... the guy is a goddamn sociopath

With the parallels of his backstory to wwx it's almost like he's wwx without his good heart 😥

So ... all of this is a direct consequence of what happened when they met them in the flashback?

But this isn't how "human affairs" should go or even normally do! Obviously, xue Yang isn't a reliable narrator at all, but all I want to do is wrap Xiao Xingchen in my arms and tell him that not all his good faith in humanity was misplaced 💔

"Stupid, naive, dumb idiots like you, who think the world is a better place just because they did something good!"

But it is!!!! The world on it's own, without humans, isn't inherently good or evil! It is what it is. Good or evil, that's up to us! In the face of the endless indifference of the universe, every act of kindness tips the scale towards a better world!

(Sorry, my atheism is showing)

And that's why I will always have infinitely more respect for the Xiao Xingchens of the world than the cruel and bitter Xue Yangs.

Oh fuck no

No, this will break him, won't it? 😰

Oh no 😭😭😭😭

Oh no

Honey...

"Say something..."

Oh god

Does this show want to set some kind of record for must characters severely traumatised in 50 episodes???

Noooo

No

Fuck

When I wrote that I hadn't seen yet ...

He ... killed himself

I am crying so hard right now and I feel like I haven't even really processed the full tragedy of this arc yet

What is Xue Yang doing?

This is so weird. He honestly looks at Xiao Xingchen like he is a doting husband waiting for him to come home

Ohhh

And now it makes sense that he wanted wwx to restore his soul

And why his soul didn't want to be restored ... because he killed himself. He doesn't want to come back 😥

The way this looks ... that can't be an accident

So NOW he's grieving. Because he can't bring Xiao Xingchen back, can't control him. Xue Yang has such a screwed psychy, it's fascinating ... in a very disturbing way

Wow, he's damaged ...

Oh no ... the candy ... THE CANDY!!!

Holy shit ... what even am I supposed to feel right now? 😨😨😨

Trying to parse that out, I feel like (and this is just my first impressionof thus and my very raw thoughts)... Xiao Xingchen and his kindness they did touch Xue Yang. But he was ill-equipped to deal with whatever feelings they stirred in him, because he had already been so twisted by the world and his own actions. And so he expressed his love the same way he expressed everything: with obsession and the desire to posses and control.

Honestly, I need some more time to really process this ...

They buried A Qing 😭

Oh, Lan Jingyi. I didn't know you had it in you 💚💚💚

Oh god, the Juniors are ALL so soft! 😭

Oh god I want to know so badly. What did Lan Wangji want to say??? "Fortunately... this wasn't us" "Fortunately... you came back to me"? 😭

Omg ... this is a parallel right? From behind they might as well be song lan and Xiao Xingchen!

Oh song lan 💔

The way he takes the pouch 🥺

And Lan Wangji's look. Maybe I'm imagining too much into this but ... if that's not a man intimately aware of what he's going through

"Roam the world. Exorcise evil beings alongside Xingchen."

I can't guys, I'm crying so hard right now 💔💔💔

Holy shit Lan Wangji's actor's performance as he hands him the sword 😭😭😭

IT IS A PARALLEL! 😭😭

look at the screenshot up there again!!

I'm ugly crying so hard right now 😭😭😭

Gimme a moment ...

Tge music in the next scene is really unusual for this show, almost jarring after I've just bawled my eyes out

What is that?

An entrance?

Okay no, not an entrance

Who is that????

Aardgfdgh

The Juniors!!!

The scenery us so pretty :)

Waitwaitwait ... I have a suspicion... no ... nooooo? It can't be ...

The butterfly toy ...

And the comments in the last episode fit, too ... 😳😳😳

OH MY GOOOOOOOD!!!!

The shot of the little flying thing! That's in that restaurant, right??

The comment about remembering stuff from when you're three!

IS HE A YUAN????

@sweetlittlevampire IS HE A YUAN??? 😱😱😱

I'm crying again you guys

Of course he is! It all makes sense

And omg, lan Wangji with the bunny lantern 😭😭😭

And now wwx remembers A Yuan and... the LOOK!!! The song!!! The bunnies!!!

The smile 😭😭😭😭

"Let's buy it" "Okay"

They're a family, you guys!!!! They're a family and I'm ... so ... so emotional!!! 😭😭😭

So much softness between them!!! 💙🖤💙🖤

And wwx smiles as brightly as before this whole mess and ...

Holy shit this episode you guys!!!

First I cry out of sheer devastation and now I feel like my heart is ready to burst!

And it FITS!!!

wangxian got the happy ending Xiao Xingchen and song lan never did. They reunited and even though they spent many years apart they have a real chance now!!!

And this, their child, this is the pay off.

I'm listening to the new album by Nightwish (my favourite band) all the time right now and in their song "How's the heart?" Is this line "now there's one who came from me / A child of light, another tale" and I can't help but think of that right now! The whole song is about how it is worth it, going through the bleak times, fighting through your own darkness because there is light and love at the end of it. It's worth it to keep fighting, just so we can keep meeting others with love. And I can't help but think of little A Yuan/ Lan Sizuhi (and god, I'm almost bursting at the fact that I can write that line!!) As their manifestation of that love. Their "child of light" :')

And even with Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan ... there is this slight hopeful feeling of "we will meet again", if not in this life than in the next ...

Guys, I'm so emotional right now

Sorry for the tengant. It probably doesnt make much sense put in writing 💚

I'm so sad and so happy at the same time ... :')

Oh god, lan Wangji with the lantern is so unimaginably cute!!!

And they gave it to Lan Sizhui!!!

SYMBOLISM!! 😭😭😭

Now, this should be interesting

How much does lan Xichen even know at this point?

Ohhh! That was nie Mingjue in the coffin earlier!

Why is he buried in Yi City???

I'm so confused right now!

(But don't tell me the answers. As always, these are rhetorical questions ;))

Ohhh ...

I have a suspicion about the ghost faced man

And apparently I'm not the only one

He has been "discussing" things with you every single night. Aha 😏

Sorry, this is serious 😬

(This has nothing to do with anything but I paused the stream to type and this was the image I got. I thought i should share :D)

Lan Xichen is so deep in denial

Poor guy

And again with the parallels! There is another Lan who has stuck to someone with a bad reputation and he's standing right there

And jin ling is conveniently reminding us of that 😐

So much drama

OMG!

That was smooth!

No, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Just, "Wei-gongze" :D

"Don't take it to heart"

MY HEART!!!

I feel like Lan Wangji isn't the only Lan who will suffer an aneurysm from repressed emotions one day

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony @kyrrahbird @i-love-him-on-purpose and @sxnshot (should I tag you again next ep? No hard feelings if not 😊)

Honestly, this ep was the most emotional one for me so far in terms of the whiplash from pain and joy it gave me, though I certainly cried harder at the Yunmeng massacre. The prevailing emotion is joy now, though. I am such a sucker for mismatched, found families and wangxian and their child of light isn't exactly that, I don't know what is. I'm going to sleep with a smile on my face now. 💚

[missholland]

Lan Wangji (mostly, his love)

LAN ZHAN! I read somewhere that this was said 102 times by Wei Wuxian in The Untamed. It feels like an understatement, cause I’ve watched the show so many times now I could hear ‘Lan Zhan’ being called in my sleep...

My first time watching the drama, I was full on Team Xianxian. I mean, who would not be? He’s the central character of the story, he’s the first thing you see within the first few seconds of episode 1, and who could resist his sunflower aura? I was not into Lan Wangji at all. I remember this clearly because I just found an old Instagram story in my Archive on the day I first watched this show: a screenshot of Wangji’s face in episode 3 and my caption was: ‘OMG how could Wei sunshine fall in love with this dry and boring man?’. And just like how Wangji eventually swallowed all of the statements he had made about the young Wei Wuxian (’I don’t touch other people’, ‘We’re not close’, etc.), I am not the same person on that fateful day tuning in the first episode on Netflix. I am now Team Hanguang-Jun through and through!

What I’ve been enjoying so much these days is watching random earlier/later episodes just to compare how Wangji’s attitude changed toward Wei Wuxian over 16 years-ish. It’s probably so obvious for everyone that he definitely falls in love first, even when the drama purposely made their early relationship a lot more intense comparing to the novel i.e. showing Wei Wuxian somewhat feeling the same way about Wangji in his first life, with the constant flirting and mutual pining (don’t even get me started...). Now that I kinda understand what the character is like, it makes a lot of sense the way he processed his feelings for Wuxian in his youth. I wonder how different he would have reacted without the push from the best brother/wingman in the cultivation world - Lan Xichen. Sure, Jiang Cheng had a lot to say about this too, but mostly out of a slight envy (I reckon) over Wuxian’s new subject of desire. But Lan Xichen sees through his brother, and has been pretty much WangXian fanclub admin since day 1. I don’t have a brother, but man, I wish Lan Xichen could be mine.

In my humble opinion, the fact that we were given 3 versions of Wei Wuxian throughout the series kinda gifts us 3 versions of Lan Wangji too in a way - the straight face, the confused heart, and the national boyfriend/husband. Considering the number of times I rewatched the latter half of the series i.e. episode 33 onward, I just want to write down all of my thoughts about the national boyfriend/husband Lan Wangji, and not just because that version seems to have the most lines comparing to the other two.

There are several details that were not explained much in the series (although shown on screen) so I have to read from the novel later on. But oh my god, the stuff I found... I never realized that the scene before Lan Wangji went to Mo’s manor where his guqin was playing behind him standing on the balcony referred to how he used Inquiry to find Wuxian. What Jiang Cheng said to him about having gone to a lot of places for 16 years and searching for someone completely went over my head in the first watch, and imagine how I scratched my brain revisiting that part. That plus ‘oh I’ve never seen you at a cultivation conference before’ in episode 41 - my goodness, because he was spending ALL of his time LOOKING FOR Wei Wuxian.

Another thing I hope would have been addressed in the series was the hot iron mark on his chest. I thought the story of him drinking wine and giving himself a mark identical to Wuxian’s was the prime work of a broken heart. He must have thought about their conversation in Xuanwu cave, about the mark staying on his skin forever and how Wuxian was convinced Mianmian would never forget him. Was that how Wangji was making a point of never forgetting Wei Wuxian? If that scene made into the drama, I would have thought Wangji’s character song Buwang to be play in the background. The lyrics fit the situation so much.

Personally, everything from episode 33 onward was perfection for me, finally getting to see Wangji embrace his feelings and ACT ON THEM toward the romance-blind idiot Wei Wuxian (yes, he totally is). All the caring touches and details played out so astonishingly. One of my favourite (which doesn’t seem to be a popular one since I have not seen many gifs of it on Tumblr) was when, after interrogating Huaisang, Wangji comfortably moved over the other side of the table and picked up Wuxian’s left leg to CLEAN THE EVIL SPELL - think of the level of intimacy this act is! Although that came after the romantic piggyback under the moonlight, I thought that speaks volume for someone who doesn’t even physically interact with his family members, and serves as a great follow-up right after he, again comfortably, pulled up Wuxian’s trousers to check his leg.

What I thought was always presented so beautifully is every time Wangji serves Wuxian liquor. The way he carefully picks up his sleeve, prepares the cup (I know they’re probably not called ‘cups’ but I can’t find another word), pours the liquor and slides it over to his partner is so well demonstrated and shows how much he wants to properly take care of Wuxian. Would you put so much effort in such a tiny mundane act if you’re not doing it for the most important person in your life? 

In a way, I feel like everything he does is making up for what he could not do the past 16 years, including remembering so many tiny details and keeping all sort of Wuxian-related things. My favourite Wangji keepsake moment, despite being a very short one, is the butterfly talisman at Yunping City which he gave to Wuxian to rescue Wen Ning. I don’t know why that moment makes me really really happy, probably because that was one of the earliest items Wangji could have kept hold of from Wuxian’s. That tells us how way long before he was developing feelings toward this little rebel. Not to mention, we did see Wangji even use this very talisman in episode 11 when he encountered Wen Chao on his way back to Cloud Recesses.

Yes, the ‘I knew he was Wei Ying all along’ while having all the swords pointed at you is highly pivotal as it’s basically the censored version of ‘I love you’. BUT, the moment all leading cultivators of all major and minor clans ran to Burial Mounds just to witness Lan Wangji standing proudly without flinch on the other side with Wei Wuxian makes me appreciate that whole arc a lot more than the big revelation in the last 3 episodes. Wangji ignoring his own Grand Master, Wuxian once again standing against every single person in the cultivation world but with so much confidence this time around - to me, is beyond satisfying. I love this arc so much so I wrote a separate piece about episode 44-45 - if you’re interested in more of my random thoughts, feel free to have a read here.

Thinking about all this, I’m absolutely in awe of how protective national boyfriend Wangji is to Wei Wuxian even before knowing he lost his golden core. They either have insanely accurate GPS, or just really good telepathy. Wangji’s constant attention to his partner (without having to verbally find out where he is) blows my mind every time. Remember how proud Wei Wuxian was having Lan Wangji come out just in time to fight Xue Yang at Coffin Town? That’s how much Wangji’s love and trust empowers Wuxian and makes him so so so secured, even when everyone was walking around in the fog hiding from the most notorious killer and his puppets. 

The one detail that pushed me over the edge completely (thanks a lot Lan Xichen) was the story of Wangji’s mom. Oh my god, baby Wangji sitting in the snow really messes with my head. I cannot believe it took 40 something episodes for us to learn about Wangji’s emotionally damaged upbringing and what shapes him into a stubborn lovebird as we know today. It adds A LOT more context and sadness to his famous phrase ‘bring a man back to Cloud Recesses and hide him’, as well as Lan Qiren’s statement ‘have you not learned from your father’s lesson’. I revisit the ‘bring back and hide him’ scene with a completely new perspective and can sense Wangji’s pain and confusion that Xichen described. The desperation in that statement of Wangji was a lot heavier in my eyes now that I understand the back story. If I were Wei Wuxian listening to all of that from Lan Xichen, I would probably have a meltdown right there at the doorsteps of the Silence Room.

Now we all know the source of inspiration of the infamous ‘I want to bring a man to Cloud Recesses. Bring him back and hide him’ in episode 25:

So after all of Xichen’s effort in telling Wuxian how Wangji actually feels about him through the tear-jerker story about their parents, Wei Wuxian STILL asked Lan Wangji WHY he was willing to seal Bichen and his own spiritual power so that Jin Guangyao would not hurt him. This dense man, of course, brought up the guilt card i.e. ‘Oh you don’t owe me anything’. I mean COME ON NOW YILING PATRIARCH! CAN YOU ACTUALLY BE THAT OBLIVIOUS WHEN IT COMES TO THE MAN THAT TOOK 300 LASHES ON HIS BACK FOR PROTECTING YOUR LEGACY? 

I know it went the other way in the novel, where the big confession happened. Maybe a bite from Fairy could do you some good, or just talk to Lan Xichen some more and then you can start appreciating your soulmate the way he deserves.

The silver lining after being deprived of an epic love confession is everything that happened in episode 50. It might have not been spelling-it-out clear as in ‘I love you’ ‘I love you too’ because of the government censorship, but it’s easily the most obvious yet emotional type of ending the production team has worked to hard to deliver. If you are still having trouble processing the allegedly ‘ambiguous’ finale, I can help with that - here. Just a heads up: it’s a happy ending. 

Good to know Wei Wuxian has the rest of his life making up to Lan Wangji. Everyday means everyday, because Wangji deserves THAT much!

[livin-in-mementos]

After Some Time (...and a break or two)

Ugh... okay, its here. The big one. Let me preface this by saying I wont be doing a count by count story of what happened, it’s too many hour and headaches that I don’t need to be fair. But I said I’d get to it... and boy howdy has it been swirling in my head since.

The Slazo Situation Revisited

 So small backstory for those who haven’t boarded this crazy train of bullshit and migraines, this story is about a fairly large commentary youtuber by the name of Slazo (Or Micheal) who was caught in a controversy when his ‘Ex-Girlfriend’ exposed him in a Twitlonger for being a manipulative, sexual harasser. DM’s and screenshots of chat logs were shown and it made Slazo look pretty scummy. A few days later Slazo releases his defence video outlining the parts that were true and a lot of points that were fabricated to make him look evil in the eyes of the internet, with added proof and conveniently missing parts of his exes proof that would have exonerated him on the spot in the eyes of the internet courtroom. For opinions sake, yes I do think Slazo is innocent of the more damning accusations that were put against him, no I do not think he was 100% innocent. Of what he was guilty of? maybe being a pretty shitty boyfriend.... though at the age of 15-16... its slap on the back of the head material... not cancellation worthy.

Slazo was pretty much cleared of it all and everybody went on with their day... heck it shouldn’t even be called the Slazo situation, because while his name was brought up a lot, he wasn’t really all that key to what happened next... 

Commentary youtubers from all corners of the internet had an opinion on what Slazo had done and how guilty he was (again, I will not be doing a play by play of every accusation) which boiled down to two camps

1. “Slazo is guilty and here is why... Oh and have a bunch of off-cuff situations I witnessed where Slazo was really creepy that I only just now remember and want to bring up.”

2. “Lotta commentary youtubers being liars, snakes or hypocrites up in here.”

Which in turn brought two youtubers under the microscope themselves, ImAlexx and Hyojin.

Alex first as it’s easier and is the least weird of the two. Alex jumped on the Slazo hate bandwagon pretty quickly and started accusing Slazo of a bunch of things that couldn’t easily be proven, while also completely backing up the story that Chey (the ex) has given in her Twitlonger, despite the fact it had been blown open with so many holes that not even a brain dead goldfish could find logic in it. Alex would later admit he had a part in writing the Twitlonger, as did many other prominent commentary youtubers and friends,outing the Twitlonger as more of a team effort rather than just Chey writing it herself.

After this Alex was accused of a bunch of stuff himself including being a social climber to get more popular since he was a pretty good friend to Slazo before all of this happened, as well as a snake since he supported Chey and the Twitlonger until it was criticised as untrue.... and Alex said the same to cover for himself.

To this day there hasn’t been a clear end point to this, Alex has tried to brush away from it all and has taken the bumps of being called controversial, hoping for it to all die down eventually. (While writing this Alex appeared on the Happy Hour Podcast to give a rundown of the situation to the hosts who admitted they knew nothing of the situation. What’s worse Alex seems to have glazed over many of his own wrongdoings that only escalated the drama further.) Opinion? To be honest, I don’t know... Alex obviously tried to ride the controversy to boost himself, that much is sure, yet when it came back to bite him he tried to hide and wait for it to blow over. It’s sad, It IS snakeworthy and since a proper apology hasn’t been issued... it’s not a good look for him at all.

Hyojin to me was the worst of the two to me. While she didn’t say as much publicly, it was was was happening behind the scenes that just frustrated me.

(Be aware, if you like Hyojin and think she can do no wrong, DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT. A lot of hot-takes will be thrown out there and a lot of criticism will be put out there too. I WILL be talking about the aftermath at length which is where the support poured in for Hyojin. I will being ripping that apart just as much, if not more for the bullshit that it was.)

Hyojin sucks, and I mean she really sucks. A lot of what was thrown out about Slazo in the Twitlonger allegedly was orchestrated and was the idea of Hyojin herself, taking what Chey was saying and embellishing it with the rest of their friend group. It’s alleged however and won’t be part of the criticism thrown at her.

While the incident was being investigated, Hyojin was too, including her colourful hot takes on Slazo and how creepy he was. Hyojin would never publicly call out Slazo since at the time, anybody who did was getting rinsed by the internet very quickly. So instead she hid on her discord and talked in DM’s about destroying Slazo’s career so he would never recover and deleting messages that challenged how Chey publicly omitted any evidence that made Slazo look like less of a monster. Shady.

During the internet investigations, it was discovered that Hyojin had an old art Twitter where her fictional character was drawn fucking her friends in several positions. The problem was, several of these friends were underage and despite her defence that none of these friends minded.... it was still there for public viewing as was still wrong. One instance even had another youtuber by the name of Kavos in one of these pictures even though he was never asked, nor gave his permission. The irony of all this being that much of what Hyojin criticised Slazo for, she was guilty of herself. Creepy.

Here’s where it gets controversial... probably more for me. Dog dropping rumours aside. (trust me, it was stupid)

Hyojin was getting major flak for everything that was found out about her and it seemed to get too much for her, which is understandable. Her response to all of this was a tweet telling everyone she was going to kill herself. The public response actually became something that confused me, because in the blink of an eye everyone retracted their criticisms and gave out well wishes instead. To make the trend even more sympathetic the youtubers involved in writing the Twitlonger started urging people to give her space and lay off on the nasty comments.

I for one, did not care. Heartless of me? Maybe. But it was all backed up by reasoning. Here was a girl ready to throw the life of a person under the bus for being a slightly shitty boyfriend and lying to make it sound worse. Helping to write up a statement that grossly exaggerated things to such a degree that Slazo was the most hated person on the internet and was blasted by everyone left, right and centre. After he proved to everyone he wasn’t like that, the attention turned on Chey and the friends that helped her and when their dirty laundry was put out there and they were being criticised.... now it was unacceptable? Now it was too much?

YOU TRIED TO OUT A GUY FOR BEING A SEX PEST! Shit that will follow him for life. But people calling out racist remarks you made? the underage porn you had drawn? The toxic behaviour you exhibited to anyone who questioned you?

....yeah that was too much and the line had to be drawn right?

But hey, it’s okay, you can just back to twitter the second the drama blows over and everything is all good now right?

Now this is where I direct it to the people who think that Hyojin is infallible, that she can do no wrong. She messed up bad, real bad. If anything she’s the true villain behind all of this and it’s shocking the lengths people were going to just to defend her. If every racist, abuser or sex pest threatened their life to be let off, this world would be screwed, but the second a darling Tumblr artist with links to popular youtubers does it, it’s a crime to list the irony that she attempted to cancel a guy with far worse repercussions that would lead to life long damage.

The worst part of all of this was that an apology would have cleared all of this. They knew they were wrong but an apology was impossible for them, so instead it’s made bigger, uglier and dirty laundry is shown. If anything, I’m happy it got to where it did since it showed the ugly side of Hyojin for everyone to see. So my opinion of Hyojin?

Fuck Hyojin.

[mobius-prime]

121. Knuckles the Echidna #22

Dark Alliance (Part One of Three): You Say You Want a Revolution…

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Jim Valentino Colors: Barry Grossman

So fair warning - this arc is very politics-heavy. I've already criticized the inclusion of politidrama plotlines in the comic before, despite my own personal interest in them, so I won't go over it again. What I will go over is that this arc also includes quite a few tasteless references to the Nazi regime of World War II, starting with the intro page. See, every issue in this arc begins with, rather than the traditional intro page that recaps past events and introduces plot points to come, instead a speech or quote relevant to the current story. This one is a parody, if you will (though played completely straight) of the "First They Came" poem by the German pastor Martin Niemöller, referring to how many people stayed silent while the Nazis oppressed and enacted genocide upon groups that those in silence didn't belong to. In this altered version, "Anonymous" claims that Robotnik came for hedgehogs, squirrels, rabbits, and foxes first, during which the speaker stayed silent as they were an echidna and didn't want to get involved, and so by the time he came for the echidnas there was no one left to speak up for them. Of course, quite aside from the fact that this is completely disrespectful to the real-world situation that the actual poem describes, that's not even how the Robotnik coup went down. Robotnik, upon dethroning King Acorn, pretty clearly just started roboticizing all Mobians indiscriminately without regard to their individual species. Not only that, but he didn't even get a chance to start on the echidnas, as all of them were either contained in their pocket universe on the Floating Island, or hanging out in Albion, which it appears Robotnik never even knew existed. I don't know, the whole thing is clearly an attempt to seem really intellectual and deep on Penders' part, but it just comes off as insensitive instead.

Anyway, onto the actual story. We open in the house of High Councilor Pravda, who appears to be the main political leader of the city. In the dead of night, Pravda is awakened by a window smashing downstairs, and angrily stomps down to confront the intruder, believing it to be "dingo trash up to no good." Instead, he is dragged out of his house roughly by several Dark Legionnaires, while the leader, called Kommissar (her title, not her name), admonishes him for his apparent hypocrisy regarding his anti-technology stance.

Well, she seems lovely! As she has her people drag him away, we pan to Haven, where Knuckles is demanding answers from his grandfathers on his father's whereabouts. To his credit, Sabre is genuinely apologetic to Knuckles, believing that they should have been a lot more forthcoming with him a lot sooner, but Knuckles really isn't having it, and can you blame him?

As a side note, this is about the point in the comic where the eyes of characters such as Knuckles and Tails, formerly depicted as black pupils as in the classic games, start to gain some color. We already saw it with Tails a little while back during the Sand-Blasters two-parter, and it's very inconsistent between issues (for example, you'll notice his eyes are blue instead of purple up there), but you'll start to notice it in screenshots from here out before their designs finally stabilize to their modern forms, similar to their designs from the games.

While Knuckles continues to demand to see his father, we ourselves see Locke, who is dropping off Remington, Julie-Su, Lara-Le and Wynmacher back in Echidnaopolis. Remington asks him how things went with Lara-Le again, and Locke acts like he's all regretful that he couldn't woo Lara-Le back to him or something, which like, really man? You're divorced and haven't spoken properly in years, and she has a new fiancé now, did you really expect to just manage to sweep her off her feet again and get remarried? Julie-Su tries to approach Locke to thank him for saving the whole group, and finds herself recognizing his appearance somewhat. Upon asking, she's shocked to find out that he's Knuckles' father, and asks him about Knuckles' whereabouts. Remington ushers her away before they get a chance to speak further, probably to protect Locke's privacy, and as he jokes with her that it seems like she actually cares about Knuckles, Locke muses to himself that his son is likely furious with him, which, yeah, not far off there buddy. He has an idea of where his son might have gone, and as he speeds off in his air vehicle, we jump over to the Kommissar, who has by now dragged her captive all the way back to the Dark Legion's current hideout… and oh boy, inside we get to see a familiar f- …uhh… okay, well, I won't call him a familiar face, because we've never seen him looking quite this messed up before, but it's Dimitri, okay? It's Dimitri back on his BS.

Guess he had to have some, uh, extensive reconstructive surgery after his rather literal fall from grace. And unfortunately for everybody who doesn't want to be ruled over by a cyborg'd up monstrosity of a dictator, he's got a new takeover plan in mind for the city!

Back in the more civilized areas of Echidnaopolis, Remington is having his driver take Wynmacher and Lara-Le back to their apartment when they find the streets blocked by a protest from dingoes, agitating about their lack of housing and accommodations within the city. Remington tries to resolve the situation peacefully by requesting that if they must protest, to at least let traffic pass while they do, but at that moment a giant flaming fireball comes out of nowhere and starts wrecking the place, and the whole thing devolves into a big brawl between the protesting dingoes and the watching echidnas.

Remington calls Haven for backup, and while I'm not sure who exactly in that nest of grandpas he expected to go rushing out of there for something as simple as a protest gone wrong, luckily for him he mentions Lara-Le over the comm, and Knuckles immediately enlists Archimedes' help to poof him out there to help his mom. Meanwhile, we get to see that Locke has completely, thoroughly misjudged where Knuckles would be hanging out at this moment, having thought for whatever reason that he would be brooding inside the Chaos Chamber next to Mammoth Mogul's ugly frozen mug.

Now this is some well-appreciated character development from Locke. I've been heavily criticizing him this entire time for how he's handled his interaction, or lack thereof, with his son, and I'm glad to see that Lara-Le's admonishments seem to have gotten through to him. While he won't get a chance to catch up with his son right at the moment, at least we know the big talk isn't that far off in the future.

Knuckles and Archimedes poof into the fray on the streets, and Knuckles begins throwing punches at whoever gets close enough, which as everyone knows is the single best way to end a violent brawl - by participating! Despite being an echidna himself, he doesn't hesitate to throw punches at other echidnas in the bunch, with Archy adding some of his own fire breath into the mix. If anything, I'd say he accurately judged the situation, which is that the dingoes were peacefully demonstrating and it appears to have been an angry, racist echidna who threw the first molotov. General Von Stryker makes his entrance, and despite him predictably acting aggressive and blaming echidnakind in general for the dingoes' treatment, Knuckles actually agrees with him that the echidnas are being really crappy, and offers a truce so they can discuss what went wrong and how to resolve it. Meanwhile, back in hell - I mean, the Legion's hideout…

This is probably the single most disturbing page in the comic so far, if you ask me. This guy is begging, screaming, for mercy and they put him under like nothing's wrong and start doing surgery without his consent (obviously) on his brain. Dimitri, watching the proceedings, starts mwahaha'ing to himself about the whole affair, as apparently Pravda is the direct descendant of Menthor, the councilman who denied his and Edmund's proposal to use the Chaos Syphon all those centuries ago. He's determined not to get careless with his power again in the future, and now that he's defeated death by old age through the sheer power of adding more and more cybernetics to his failing frame every time something goes wrong, he's ready to get his long-due revenge.

In another part of the city, Knuckles and Archimedes poof right into the middle of the Chaotix, who are pleased to finally see him and hopefully get a chance to catch up. As he explains what was going on with the protest, Julie-Su arrives and gives him the "why" he was looking for, which is that, naturally, Pravda was kind of a racist ass and wasn't working very hard to ensure the dingoes would have housing built for them in a timely manner. However, elections for the position of High Councilor are coming up in a few days, and Pravda has ever-so-mysteriously been missing since the previous night, with his traumatized wife too messed up to be able to talk about what she saw. She slyly mentions when questioned that "a little birdie" gave her all this information, leading Vector to rather rudely blame her for "having friends in low places" and generally acting as distrustful of her as ever. Seriously, Vector's been kind of a jerk to her ever since she left the Legion, and you just know that situation is gonna come to a head sooner or later. But enough of them - let's head back to the Kommissar, who's having her people reenact Kristallnacht in the streets of Echidnaopolis! (Told you this arc is full of tasteless references to WWII…)

She reports in to Dimitri, who is pleased to hear about her progress on the senseless property damage and random citizens she's beating up for no reason. Like, the regime seems cacklingly evil enough to want to do this kind of stuff, sure, until you hear Dimitri's actual plan for takeover this time - he's implanted control chips into Pravda's brain, and is going to use him as a mouthpiece for the Legion's ideals in the upcoming election!

So, wait. You want to get your new mind-slave to cast your organization in a positive light, and at the same time you're having one of your main commanders go around smashing windows and beating people up in alleys? How is this master plan of yours supposed to work, exactly? That entire Kristallnacht page could be removed from the comic and not only would it not impact the story, it would make it make more sense than it currently does. I seriously think that it was only included to draw more parallels to the Nazi regime, because there's just no way it makes any real sense otherwise. Sigh, Penders. Why do you have to be like this?

[lbibliophile-mcu]

Tony Stark Bingo 2019 Masterpost

Masterpost for the @tonystarkbingo

I got a blackout!

And far more fills and fill types than I expected when I started, including trying several new art methods (ie. drawing with tongs - DUM-E’s Drawings).

Overall I did (some fills with two types):

Fanfic - 8

Drabble - 4

Poem - 5

Art /craft - 7

Gifset - 2

Picset - 5  (moodboards and screenshot collections)

Links and details for each of the fills are below the cut.

Thankyou to the organisers/mods for encouraging and spreading so much great content!

Babysitting

S1 - WTF Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic [500 words] Characters: Obadiah Stane x Tony Stark Tags: Pre-IM1, young Tony Stark, pillow fort, Obadiah Stane’s B+ parenting Summary Obadiah looks at the construction before him and suppresses a sigh. Apparently, it’s going to be one of those days. Carefully ensuring his jocular ‘Uncle Obie’ tone is in place, he approaches.“Hey, Tony, how ya doing in there?”

Everything and Nothing

T1 - Jealousy Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic - drabble Characters: Tony Stark Tags: Public image, retirement Summary: People think Tony Stark has everything. But their ‘everything’ isn’t what he wants.

Arm Catalogue

A1 - Shopping together Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Image edit for Veto Power Characters: Bucky Barnes x Tony Stark Tags: Bucky Barnes’ metal arm Summary: Tony is maky Bucky a new arm, and has so many ideas for the paintjob. A pity Bucky doesn’t like any of them.

Understanding

R1 - Cannon: MCU (Pre-CA:CW) Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Gifset Characters: Pepper Potts / Tony Stark Tags: Iron Man 3, PTSD Summary: She tries, but she doesn’t understand what it’s like. And that’s good. Because if she understood - truly understood - that would make her as broken as I am.

TON-E’s Valentine [DUM-E’s Drawings]

K1 - Arc Reactor Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Art  Characters: DUM-E x Tony Stark Tags: Tony Stark has a heart, method drawing Summary: DUM-E was learning about Valentines day. He knew that you gave a card to someone you care about. He knew that it was supposed to show a heart. So that’s what he drew.

Aftermath

S2 - Writing format: Unreliable narrator Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Poem and moodboard Tags: Avengers (2012), collateral damage, outside POV Summary: When real life superheroes saved New York, it was like a something out of a story. But then the cleanup began. And continued, and continued... New York, Greenwich, Sokovia, Lagos. Suddenly, superheros are a lot less exciting. Rubble all looks the same, whether it was made by the heroes or the villains.

RUI (Rescued Under the Influence)

T2 - Confessions under the influence Link/s: AO3 Fill type: Fanfic [1300 words] Characters: Bucky Barnes / Tony Stark Tags: First meeting, rescue, non-consensual drug use, drugged confessions Summary: When Bucky entered the base, he expected to find Hydra agents (to be destroyed) and computer files (to be copied if useful, then also destroyed). He was not prepared to find a drugged Tony Stark. Nor was he prepared for Stark's reaction to seeing him. How does he deal with someone being excited to meet him?

Lab-yrinth

A2 - Labyrinth Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Art / Puzzle Characters: DUM-E Tags: Maze, Tony’s workshop Summary: Help DUM-E find way through the lab to get TON-E a smoothie.

Avalanche

R2 - Sharing body heat Link/s: AO3  Fill type: Fanfic [1600 words] Characters: Steve Rogers x Tony Stark Tags: Steve Rogers needs a hug, nightmares, touch-starved Summary: Sometimes, all it takes is little things. A minor annoyance that leads to another and another and another. Until it all comes crashing down and you are helpless to stop it or escape.Waking up in a new century was hard, but Steve thought he was coping. (He wasn’t.)

Befriending a Cat

K2 - Cat!Tony Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic - drabble sequence  [600 words] Characters: OG6 Avengers team x Tony Stark Tags: 5+1 format, Domestic Avengers, metaphorical cat Summary: Befriending Tony Stark, the Avengers decide, is rather like befriending a cat.

He loves me, he loves me not...

S3 - image [’Proof Tony Stark has a heart’ plaque] Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Art Characters: Pepper Potts / Tony Stark Tags: IM1, pining, arc reactor Summary: Pepper Potts knew she was falling in love with her boss, and tried to find subtle ways to show it. What she didn’t know, was if he liked her back…

Flashbacks

T3 - Sickfic Link/s:  Tumblr Fill type: Poem and moodboard/image edit Characters: Tony Stark Tags: PTSD, mentions of torture and near-death Summary: PTSD flashbacks are never fun, and now his brain has a whole selection of scenes to choose from…

Iron Man themed braid

A3 - Free Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Craft Tags: Iron Man theme, weaving Summary: Tablet woven braid made with crochet cotton. Iron Man colours with pale blue triangular ‘arc reactors’.

Shoot for the Moon

R3 - Galaxy Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Image edit / gifset Characters: Tony Stark Tags: Quote, story arc Summary: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars “

DUM-E’s list of what not to put in a smoothie  [DUM-E’s Drawings]

K3 - Historical Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Art Characters: DUM-E Tags: DUM-E at MIT, method drawing Summary: It took a while for DUM-E to get the hang of the whole making (edible) smoothies, so he left himself notes as a reminder.

Honestly, Pepper

S4 - Writing format: Non-linear Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic [960 words] Characters: Pepper Potts x Tony Stark, Avengers team  Tags: Dialogue only, non-linear narrative, domestic Avengers, disaster Avengers, crack Summary: Pepper Potts, CEO and sometimes superhero-wrangler, walks out of the elevator onto the Avengers Tower common-floor and stops in shock. How is this even her life? And why is she not surprised?

Cuddle Pile (Whose limbs are these?)

T4 - Puzzle Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Poem and moodboard Characters: OG6 Avengers team (including Pepper Potts and Bucky Barnes) Tags: Avengers family, romantic/platonic OT8, song parody Summary: After a hard day/night/fight, nothing is better than curling up in a pile with all your friends… at least, until someone has to get up

Hey, Remember Me?

A4 - Amnesia Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic [560 words] Characters: Scott Lang x Avengers team Tags: Based on the Endgame teaser trailers, time travel, post-Snap, amnesia, open ending Summary: The Snap didn’t just kill half of all life, it erased it from existence; first the physical form, then their more intangible presence. For those who remain, it’s hard to maintain the drive to fix things when you don’t remember what you’re missing…

TON-E’s Hero [DUM-E’s Drawings]

R4 - Tony in workshop Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Art Characters: Dum-E x Tony Stark Tags: Tony’s workshop, DUM-E’s fire extinguisher, lab safety, method drawing Summary: TON-E is not very good at remembering about lab safety. That is why DUM-E has to be ready to protect him!

Curse of a Superhero

K4 - Clint Barton / Hawkeye Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic - drabble Characters: Clint Barton x Tony Stark Tags: Family, angst Summary: Sometimes Tony wonders how Clint did it; managed to be both a father and an Avenger, balance duty to his family with duty to the world.

No Shit, There I Was, Undercover at a Gay Bar...

S5 - Undercover in a gay bar Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic [1200 words] Characters: Clint Barton / Tony Stark Tags: Pre-slash, identity porn, undercover as gay Summary: No shit there I was, undercover in a gay bar... and you'll never guess who I ran into and how.

Legacy

T5 - Confessions in desperate situations Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Poem and moodboard Characters: Pepper Potts / Tony Stark, James Rhodes x Tony Stark Tags: palladium poisoning Summary: Tony is dying. It's an inescapable fact; the clock ticking down with every burnt-out reactor core. He tries to tell them, but the words won't come. He can only give them pieces of his legacy, and hope they forgive him.

I Came Out to Have a Good Time...

A5 - image [bruised Tony in the F1 racing suit] Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Gifset Characters: Vanko x Tony Stark Tags: Iron Man 2, Monaco race, car crash Summary: Tony is Done with villains interrupting his days off.

Status Report

R5 - Last chance Link/s: AO3 Tumblr Fill type: Fanfic [1300 words] Characters: JARVIS x Tony Stark, OG6 Avengers team Tags: Dialogue-only, Major character death, heavy angst, self-sacrifice, AVALON protocol Summary: Iron Man is a superhero, but Tony Stark is only human. And sometimes, what is asked of a superhero is more than a human can give. So Tony makes contingency plans. He makes the AVALON protocol. He makes sure that Iron Man is able to help the Avengers even when human Tony Stark… can’t.

Faith, Against all Logic

K5 - Robots Link/s: Tumblr Fill type: Poem - drabble Characters: FRIDAY x DUM-E x U, Tony Stark Tags: Post-IW, bot feels Summary: Tony is lost in space, and Friday doesn’t know what to do. Her big brothers give her some advice.

[thelongestdamnreviews]

Tactics Ogre: One Vision (mod)

As far as I know, One Vision is the only mod for the PSP version of Tactics Ogre.  The intent behind the mod was to balance things, make the OP things less so, change things around, make the game different but not change it at its core.  This review covers v0.91a, the latest version available when I started playing again.  There's now a v0.92 available as of August 15 2018, so that's worth consideration.  Download is available here. 

The first biggest change is that characters in battle no longer get 0.1 added to all stats when the class they're in levels up.  Instead, classes confer a percentage of given stats at each level regardless of their taking the field or not.  So if you have a character class change to a Lv20 Dragoon, they would have comparable stats to one who was a Dragoon from level one. 

A screenshot of the patchnotes, but this is still a good guide to follow.

Hired generics also are set to randomly be set under four different base stat distributions, for frontline fighters with lots of STR and VIT, archers with lots of DEX and AGI, mages with lots of INT and MND, and all-rounders.  You have to look at the blue bars on the hiring screen to tell what archetype they fit into, and they change each time you enter the screen too. 

Magic changed substantially too.  You're no longer able to use grimoires during battle, so you can't have your Warrior throw out Exorcisms when your Cleric is busy.  If you want magic, you actually need to field people that naturally use it instead of stocking up on one-shot spells.  Instill spells are now learnable Skills that cost TP and quite often I'd get an Instill off after moving and attacking someone instead of sacrificing my attack to power up.  Elemental magic now inflicts Averse of the opposite element so it's possible to set up elemental volleyball combos with two mages.  Reagents are no longer used and use MP/TP/sometimes HP to fuel them instead, though the buffing Ninjitsu still requires them plus a pittance of TP. 

Healing got buffed.  It now scales slightly with MND but it also heals a percentage of the target's maxHP as a secondary effect, but this won't happen when using heals to hurt the undead.  This makes enemy Clerics straight goddamned bats because they can and will undo a lot of the damage you're dealing to the enemy leader and several fights field one or two in the very back.  Enemies still have a ton of HP so enemy healers are priority one...or you can trick their AI and beat the crap out of another enemy in range so they heal that one instead.  I seriously exploited this several times since rushing Hawkmen to deal with them was potentially fatal for my guys.  Knights lost the ability to heal too so thankfully all of the enemy leader Knights won't tank and heal all the hurt you'll bring.

Oh, and resurrect magic no longer exists as far as I found.  You can save someone from death with two new items, the Lifeline Gem that Shiftstones them from the field (but never to return), or the Lifeline Gem that revives the ally and restores their HP, but removes the user instead so you're still permanently down one ally for that fight. 

Magic availability got shuffled around too.  Wizards and Spellblades get access to missile spells, but Warlocks can only use indirect magic.  Draconic Magic now uses the caster's weapon power in the damage formula and I often had it dealing the most damage between plain elemental magic and using the weapon normally. 

Items got the biggest change.  Gear is now normalized and every class of weapon or armor now does the same thing with higher tiers having better stats.  So 2H Swords all deal damage with a chance to inflict Stagger, and they give a bonus to AGIL, so late-game ones would do more damage and give more bonus stats--weight and RT stay consistent.  Armor is split between cloth/caster, light, and heavy.  Light armors boost evasion, while heavy armors boost HP and VIT for soaking up damage.  Ranged weapons have much higher RT values across the board, to make up for their users not moving as often as your frontliners.  

The Cutlass, Khora, and Damasc Sword are all the same weapon, but their stats are different.  I didn’t mess with crafted weapons but I imagine they break the ‘same thing, better stats’ pattern.  

Crafting got overhauled, so instead of getting +1 gear that's clearly better than the original, you get sidegrades.  2H Sword sidegrades are heavier and more damaging, but come with an AGIL penalty, Hammers have a high change to knock a target back, Cudgels trade caster bonuses for bonuses fighters would enjoy, Fists damage the target's MP as well as HP, and so on.  Armor is a bit different, such as light armor getting a slightly heavier and more protective version to heavy armor getting even heavier and tanky.  Some caster armor is different, like the standard Wizard Hat's sidegrade having a sharp RES penalty but innate Absorb MP.  Crafting also doesn't require anywhere near the dumb number of steps like the original game--Wootz Steel for example can be done in one step and crafting is intended to be 100% successful (but it wasn’t in the early chapters for me, so possibly a bug) too. 

Purified Ore isn’t very cheap, but it beats repetitive stress injury. 

And of course Skills got changed around quite a bit.  Fortify, Strengthen, and the other +stat skills are entirely gone (though enemies currently have dummied-out versions applied), Instills are skills as said above, skills that level up by use do so much faster now (I got Steal up to 2 before the end of the game, even), racial skills are now changed around so you can't stick Anatomy on everyone now (so demihumans have a use for your team), and activateable skills were either changed in function or swapped around between classes.  Some skills like Bash or Counterhit or Field Alchemy had entire tiers removed, so Bash/Counter start at 50% and Field Alchemy I grants you use of most items instead of slowly unlocking them through the four tiers.  Status Effect resist skills are gone and -Proofs unlock much earlier, and they allow you to cast a 'free' single-target cleanse against that type too.  You'll generally have more SP than normal since you're not dumping them into +stat skills. 

Finishers were balanced and Brimstone Hail is no longer the be-all end-all it was in the original.  Each one inflicts a status effect or hits twice, and accuracy or damage is determined by current TP. 

And there's a bunch of other small mechanical changes like changes to RT, cost, range, area of effect, and so on.  Many things have new names now too. 

Some character sprites were changed.  Catiua now wears blue pants, Vyce has a red coat on Chaos/Neutral, Folcurt has a new sprite, Sara and Donalto have different portraits and have permanent sprites like unique characters, Tamuz was made into an interesting hybrid Hawkman that has access to Orc classes and he ended up being a pivotal part of my team as a Juggernaut.  Templar Knights were given distinctive colors so you could see at a glance what they were capable of--red Templars were either Wizards or Warlocks so could cast magic, green were Archers or Fusiliers, so they could snipe you, blue with a black collar was Cleric so kill them first, etc.  Given how many you have to go through in the last part of the game, having this kind of information is extremely helpful so you don't need to keep checking all of the identical mooks to see who's dangerous and who is easy pickings. 

Please brain enemies with your giant hammer, flying heavy armor man.  He can get Battering Ram to ignore Rampart Aura, but flying units kinda do that already. 

I think the difficulty as a whole was increased somewhat, mostly at the start when you have terrible gear and skills.  For example, the very first real battle has Canopus join you as a guest...and he died my first time in that fight.  Uh.  Canopus, the gamebreaker, died in an easy fight.  I wound up making Denam a Cleric and fielded a second one and I still had quite a few incaps.  No deaths, but I had to use the Chariot more than a few times because things went south fast.  The Chapter 2 Chaos fight against Vyce 1v1 wasn't bad with Cleric Denam, mostly because I used whatever to inflict Falsestrike and gave myself Truestrike, so I could whittle him down.  The Chapter 3 Neutral fight to save Cerya was made easier by her being given armor and leggings, but I had more trouble with actually killing Oz than keeping her alive (since you can use Lifeline Gems to ensure your guest lives).  That was one of the instances where I had to grind. 

I don't really have anything negative to say about the mod.  I had to grind a bit and that was off-putting, but I think that was what killed my interest in the original game.  The changelog is set up logically, but there's no rolling "this is everything that's different as of this moment" sort of list, so you kinda have to read from the bottom-up to get an idea of how many changes there are.  And there are a lot.  The PDF changelog is 67 pages long and 65 of them are patch notes, though not all of them are full pages.  Still, there's been a lot of work done on this mod and it really shows.  And it's not even done.  It is kinda annoying to have to actively overwrite your own memory of "oh, well X is different than what I read a few minutes ago" while you read, though. 

This isn’t a change that the mod made (as far as I know there’s no text alterations) but this is something that happened while I was going through a second route and I never knew this was possible. 

The changes to gear kind of makes new tiers unlocking less exciting, not that they really were much in the original.  Every standard upgrade does more than the prior one, but I don't really think it's a negative.  The author has also tried to use the crafting system to give direct upgrades to some items that have big gaps between levels so that does help to keep things feeling consistent.  I felt the light helmets gap between Circlet and Damasc Helm was pretty wide but that's something that can be addressed later.  At least the system is otherwise pretty consistent instead of having one item increasing one set of stats and the next iteration increases something else. 

One Vision is definitely worth a look if you're kind of tired of standard Tactics Ogre.  I think it does a fine job of cutting off the chaff and streamlining things, but you should take some time to look over the extensive changelogs so you're not going to get your ass handed to you when the tried-and-true tricks of old cease to work.  I'd suggest downloading a save that has classes maxed and so on so you can get a preview of all of the differences, if spoilers are no problem for you. 

I honestly feel like trying a for-fun run where Denam only has monster allies for some reason now... 

Edit:  Hi, I’m an idiot and I guess I thought it was the same name as the Deus Ex mod, but nope!  I fixed the name here almost a month after the fact. 

[runjakkrun]

I am my “TBI brain,” but my “TBI brain” is not me…. This is a screenshot from a link my neurologist gave me…. First, I suppose I should catch you all up on the situation…. I am a 24 year old U.S. Army vet- turned- Paramedic, with severe PTSD, addiction issues, and as of Nov. 8, 2016, a traumatic brain injury that changed my life…. I am a K9 handler for my local K9 search and rescue team, and I’d let my K9 SAR prospect puppy- a 4 month old long coat Sable GSD named Godric- out to potty around 2200. It was dark. He was young, clumsy, and unrefined. At the exact moment I started uptown concrete back porch steps and issued him the “come” command (hier!), an uncharacteristically large Virginia opossum came tromping out of the woods, looked in his direction, and spooked him. He then darted, at full speed and weighing in at a good 40lbs vs my 110lbs, across the yard, up the steps, and between my legs. I started to go down, reaching out for the hand rails that weren’t there due to the remodeling we were in the process of completing, and slammed both the top of my skull and my forehead on the edge of what I believe was two or more concrete stairs…. The events that followed are a blur…. 
The next thing I remember (which is a pretty solid indication of me losing consciousness for an unknown period of time), is trying to sit up. My head was pounding, I was a bit disoriented, and Godric was pacing back and forth, alternating between licking my face and pawing at the sliding glass door. I’m a medic, and everybody knows we make absolutely terrible patients, so of course I truly believed that I was no worse for the wear…. I stood slowly, let myself and my boy back in the house, crated him for the night, and went into the bathroom to clean myself up. I was bleeding pretty heavily from my forehead and upper lip, both my upper and lower lip were starting to swell, and I’d completely shattered my glasses frames and lenses, so I couldn’t really see much of anything. I popped about 4 ibuprofen and climbed in the bed.
My girlfriend at the time got home from work around 0200 that next morning. Shortly after she got home and snuggled up against me in the bed, I began violently vomiting, losing chunks of time, and drifting in and out of consciousness…. About 8 hours later, I started stuttering and having difficulty recalling things from my short term memory. At that point, it became chillingly apparent that something wasn’t right…. I had my girlfriend drive me to our local emergency department, where they did an MRI and CT scan. I was given norco and fioricet to help alleviate the excruciating headache, zofran to tackle the nausea and vomiting, and a dark and quiet room to await my results. About an hour later, a PA came in and informed us that my scans showed swelling in my frontal lobe, damage to my Broca’s area, multiple skull fractures, and were 100% consistent with a grade three concussion and TBI…. By this time I was sporting a small cut and a lump the size of a golf ball above my right eye. My speech was barely understandable. I was having severe lapses in memory…. I was absolutely terrified…. I spent the next few months rushing between appointments with my PCP, my neurologist, another neuro specializing in frontal lobe TBI’s, and repeat CTs, MRIs, EEGs, and follow ups with all of the above. It’s all honestly extremely difficult to keep straight…. Now, let me give you a quick run down on how all of this has affected my life…. Now.... Before you judge me or blame me for some of the things I do or say sometimes (POST- frontal lobe TBI/ last November), understand that it’s just as frustrating and unappreciated on my end as it may be on yours…. 
A lot of the time, I’m extremely reckless and impulsive. Not because I’m an idiot or don’t care or because I have no self control, but because the part of my brain that controls impulsivity is physically damaged. I’ve done and said several things extremely out of character for me, because if it even crosses my mind, the TBI brain grabs it and runs with it. (reference Jack Sparrow “I’ve got a jar of dirt” scene where he’s running down the beach from the savages.) Sometimes what it runs with makes no sense whatsoever…. 
My moods are all over the place from one minute to the next, for no reason whatsoever. Sometimes I’m overwhelmingly manic and nothing can bring me down, sometimes I’m so depressed I can’t see straight, and a lot of the time, I’m just really, REALLY numb. I’m on several medications to help balance that, but there’s only so much modern medicine can do. 
I get unbelievably angry over the stupidest little things. Today, I was going to ride with my grandparents somewhere and I could hear the trailer chain rattling as we drove, and it literally made me so agitated and emotional and stressed out that we had to turn around, go back to the house, and I had to take my own car. 
I lose focus easily and I forget things. All. The. Time! Especially “short term memory” things. A conversation I just had not five minutes ago. Details I should remember. Names. Faces. Dates. I tell someone I’ll call or text them back in a bit then I completely forget until I’m reminded again or someone gets butthurt. 
I stutter due to damage to my Broca’s area (controls speech) and not only strangers but people I’ve known my whole life look at me like there’s something wrong with me now. They try to pretend they don’t notice but I’m well aware that they do. It takes me a full minute to get a single sentence out sometimes. Sometimes I get hung up so bad on words that I’ll find another word I can get out easier instead. A lot of times, it takes me too long to get things out and whoever I’m talking to will get impatient and finish my sentence or start throwing out words that MIGHT be what I’m trying to say. I can’t stand that. I KNOW exactly what it is that I want to say, it’s just that it gets mixed up somewhere between my thoughts and the physical action of speaking them. Because of this, I barely talk any more. Some people take it as rudeness, me not being very polite or personable, or aloofness. I can assure you, it’s none of the above. If you went from being the articulate whiz kid with a way with words to your own brain being the reason it takes you 20 minutes to say what would’ve taken 2 or 3 before, all while somebody stared at you with a fake politeness, how would you feel? So yes, it’s physically and emotionally easier on me to text, write, or sign. 
I get super frazzled and nearly melt down when things change or don’t go as planned. Any little hiccup in routine or plans or how things should be sends me into a full blown rage or panic attack. It’s just extremely hard to adapt sometimes. 
I hit things…. Which I’ve always done, but it’s gotten so much worse since the injury. Any sudden emotion whatsoever, I get overwhelmed and can’t handle it. I have never and will never hurt anyone else, but lord have mercy on any door, wall, mirror, car, tree, or life-sized cardboard cutout of the Biebz within striking distance when something trips my switch because it’s done before I even realize what’s happening. Yeah, it’s all frustrating for you, but it’s even more frustrating for me. When I have to live it every single day. It’s been a huge adjustment and I still have no idea what’s going on with any of it half the time. These are only a few of the every day struggles somebody with a traumatic brain injury faces. You wouldn’t hold having asthma or a broken arm against someone…. So please, don’t judge me for what I can’t help, either…. -KBW, 2017