#for the game specifically at least

[river-of-wine]

It was just a prank, Han!

[astralleywright]

spent like an hour trying to find a post abt the disparity of origin companion's content in bg3 and couldn't so, hey, this fucking sucks

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

Inquisition: I spend three hours in the Hinterlands fighting bears for their leather to make new armor and weapons for my companions while tracking down every landmark for the Saga of Tyrdda Bright-Axe, Avvar-Mother. My party is Blackwall, Vivienne, and Cole. I'm exhausted. I think to myself, "I miss my man." With one last bear, I finally have enough materials.

I go back to Skyhold, but the armor/weapons and the war table missions can wait. I rush into Cullen's office. I press him for updates, and he asks me if he should be worried about the cake Sera gave him [he should], and I tell him he needs to take a break.

I take in the view as I wait for him. He arrives, and in front of all the Inquisition scouts, soldiers, and the Maker Himself, we kiss. I am content, I am satisfied. Can't wait to do it again.

Veilguard: I spend what feels like three hours fighting that damn forgotten one dragon in Necropolis that I'm clearly under-leveled for but keep trying to kill out of spite. Taash and Emmrich are in my party. I'm exhausted. I think to myself, "I miss my man." We finally kill the dragon, and as we leave, Taash and Emmrich bicker about something that I'm tuning out.

I go back to the Lighthouse. Companions have quests for me, but they can wait. I rush up the stairs and break into a sprint as I burst through the doors, dart across the courtyard to the dining hall. I find Lucanis in his pantry. He's sitting on his bed with a cup of coffee in hand.

As I approach, he lifts his head to look deeply into my eyes, and he says to me:

"I think we're getting low on onions again."

Tears well up as I realize there's no affection to be had. I leave the pantry, leave the dining hall, and go hug Assan for the 2547th time.

I didn't think it was possible to feel so touch-starved while playing a dragon age game, and yet, here I am.

[melita-m]

Thank you all sm for all the love on my last post!! I’ve been a lurker in this fandom for years so I appreciate the warm welcome ❤️

This render is thankfully a lot better quality the only downside is there’s no background.

[allthepandasintheworld]

im begging does anyone have like, any sort of community or discord server or something hghaiuflkjshhlkghakhaklsd i have a need to scream about my boy who has every disease

[network-rail]

A very long complaint about the trains in Stardew Valley

So there is this indie farming game called Stardew Valley that you may have heard of (although knowledge of the game is not essential to understand this post), and there is a railroad with the occasional train in it. The point of the train is that it sometimes drops items (not especially rare ones either), but that's not what this is about. You see, I have many problems with the train from a rail enthusiast perspective rather than a gameplay one (although it could use some improvement in that regard as well) so I'm here to complain about those instead.

Anyway, intro over, time to rant about this stupid train.

So, first of all, let's start by taking a look at the railroad (this image is from the wiki, and shows the station):

Looks mostly normal, right? Sure, there might not be any station buildings –just a platform and a shelter– but this is a small rural town, so that's not too surprising. And it is a little odd how the spacing between the sleepers/ties is inconsistent, but maybe it's just old. Not to mention, there isn't any ballast or track bed, but that does sometimes happen on less-used rural lines. However, if we zoom and enhance, we discover several problems that, once spotted, will bother you forever.

Firstly, if we look at the level crossing sign (the actual crossing is just to the left, out of the image, but it's not important right now) we can see that the image is clearly one of an electric train, with a pantograph more or less the only feature visible (other than the window) at this scale. But when we look at the tracks, do we see any overhead wires? No, we don't, and later on we will discover that it gets worse in regards to what sort of traction is used (no, not battery electric, it's not that bad). Of course, while promising us electric trains and then immediately disappointing us through a lack of wires (and a subsequent lack of electric trains) is not a good look, it isn't too bad – after all, some level crossing signs in real life promise steam trains and then fail to deliver as well. But the problems with the Stardew Valley Railroad (or SVRR, if you will) go beyond misleading signage, as we will see.

Second, if we look at the tracks themselves, we notice something unusual going on: the rails appear to have had nails driven through them to attach them to the sleepers/ties, which would make the ride much more bumpy, and if the heads of the nails were worn through by the trains, then the rails could easily be knocked out of alignment. This is why rails are attached at the sides, so that the surface for trains to travel on is smooth and the trains do not wear away the things connecting the rails to the sleepers/ties (and therefore disconnect the rails from the track).

While this might seem bad, it's the sort of thing you would expect from someone who isn't a train enthusiast and has only rudimentary experience sticking things together (perhaps the occasional piece of IKEA furniture). The thing is, once the train shows up, it somehow gets even worse.

Before we get to the epitome of this mess that is the train locomotive, we must first look at the train carriages themselves, of which there are two basic types (by appearance, anyways; there are ): passenger cars and hopper cars.

Now, there are several things wrong in this image, but we'll go over them car by car, so as to not overwhelm the reader.

First, all but one of the cars in this image are hopper cars, of which one is not covered. We'll start with that one: it seems to be filled with cupboards of some sort, which is quite frankly baffling; as furniture would never be transported in aggregate hoppers (The SVRR aren't british rail, though they may be taking inspiration from them). This is a problem with several of the open hopper cars (although none of them are visible in this image), as these hopper cars can drop items for the player, and the contents can be seen from outside. Some of these items, such as coal, stone, iron ore, and copper ore are normal things to put in hopper cars (although the stone drops from hopper cars carrying bricks, which is a whole different can of worms we won't go into), but some items – such as wood – would never be transported in a hopper car (it makes no sense, hopper cars are for loose material, wood goes on a flatcar).

Now moving on to the covered hoppers, there isn't anything really wrong with these, as they appear to be perfectly normal modern hopper cars. Except for when they have livestock inside. (see here, again) HOWEVER, as we will see in the next paragraph (stop reading ahead, learn some patience) this modern appearance is itself a problem.

We're in the next paragraph now (aren't you glad you waited?) and we're going to talk about the passenger cars. First of all, the passenger cars have open platforms at both ends, and generally resemble earlier North American passenger cars, where passengers would leave through doors at the ends of the carriage and disembark from an open vestibule. However, the passenger cars also have side doors, which is very strange, and don't really fit with the style of the car. Next, we have something to consider: these passenger cars appear to be modeled after earlier North American passenger cars, what with their wooden appearance and open vestibules (side doors notwithstanding); but the freight cars appear to be modern hopper cars. Not only that, but the hopper cars and passenger cars are often found ON THE SAME TRAIN, which is a safety nightmare, especially for wooden carriages. If that train derails, those passenger cars will be turned to splinters (and the passengers into tomato sauce) by heavy hopper cars filled with lumber, gold ore, and cabinets. There do also seem to be venetian blinds over one of the windows, although that's not really much of a problem compared to everything else.

You may have noticed that up to this point, there is one part of the train that we have avoided mentioning (except for a passing reference to it not being electric), and that's the locomotive. In case you hadn't figured it out. Why? Well, I'm saving the best for last, and by best I mean worst.

So, without any more nonsense, here's the absolute travesty that is the SVRR locomotive!

This locomotive – a 4-6-0 steam engine – just keeps getting worse the longer you look at it, especially if you know anything about trains (which I do).

There's a lot to unpack here, so for this we'll be using bullet points to keep things concise:

There's a massive gap between the rear drive wheel and the front ones

The middle drive wheel is not attached to the coupling rod

The coupling rod is only connected to the wheels, not to the piston (how is it moving?!)

The leading wheels are incredibly small (WHY?!)

The leading wheels are stuck to a large metal box that I can only assume is meant to be a bogie (what else could it be?) that has very little clearance with the track

There is no coal tender or attached coal bunker (where is the fuel?!)

There's some sort of pipe sticking out of the cab (what is it for? is it a radio antenna?)

What's that box at the front? Is that where the side rods are meant to connect to the pistons? Because they aren't, so it could be a transformer box or a cabinet for all I know.

It's a steam train pulling modern hopper cars (the passenger cars do fit with steam trains though), and in a setting which has the internet, robots, buses, electricity (very anachronistic, especially since it doesn't seem to be a heritage railroad)

It's a steam train that travels through some rather long tunnels. How long? We don't know, but since the railroad doesn't appear anywhere else on the map they've gotta be long (if you don't know why this is a problem, you try breathing in smoke inside a tunnel for several minutes)

And more! Why don't you try to find something else that's wrong with the locomotive so I don't go insane?

One thing that annoys me specifically is that it's a steam train, rather than electric. This would normally be forgivable since steam trains are very iconic and good-looking, but this rather ugly locomotive looks like someone with a limited knowledge of trains attempting to draw a steam train entirely from memory. I would not advise attempting this even if you do know a thing or two about trains, since steam trains are rather complicated creatures. If you don't have a reference of some sort, you should stick to drawing electrics and diesels; since those have far fewer complicated external mechanisms to be messed up in such a spectacular fashion. Of course, since the internet exists, finding a reference should be easy. Should be.

Indeed, the complete shambles that is the entire Stardew Valley Railroad seems to be summed up by the locomotive: a railroad drawn apparently from memory by someone who isn't familiar enough with trains to pull it off convincingly. Of course, this is from the guy who brought us the famous Grandpa's Bed, so I'm not that surprised.

Anyway, this concludes my rant about the train in Stardew Valley. Fortunately, the train is fairly out of the way, and not that important in gameplay, so you don't regularly encounter it while playing the game. If the train actually looked good and made sense, I'd probably complain about how rarely you get to see it, but in its current state, it's fine that it doesn't show up that often.

[liauditore]

Equally Invalid

[hey-hey-j]

a bit ago someone asked how Hickory gets along with Annelise in the Dream AU

short answer: ....it takes Lisi some time to come around to him

I mean, at this point in her life, her only connection to Hickory is through whatever Floyd has told her about him. She knows of him, but she doesn't really know him, you know? So, it takes her a little while to warm up to this stranger once she finally meets him. It's not even that she dislikes the guy or anything like that, she's just.... shy. A little awkward around him to start.

Hickory, for his part, is immediately invested in being a father to his little girl (once he gets over the shock of learning she exists, of course). He'd be lying if he said it didn't sting him a little, Lisi's initial distrust of him, but he understands. And he's patient with her, trying to meet her at her level and letting her open up to him in her own time.

(★ my Kofi)

[front-facing-pokemon]

[moeblob]

cute? D: (thank you so much!)

[the-judicial-assistants-notebook]

not enough discussion about the gavins' complicated relationship with feminine-coded/beauty products, i don't think.

[gingermintpepper]

Okay, let's finally talk about EPIC's Apollo

I feel very compelled to say, first of all, that I do not dislike Epic. In fact, I am very fond of Epic and have been following its production and status very eagerly! I attend all the launch streams, I watch all of Herrans' update videos; I am, at the end of the day, a fan and I want it to be known that my words are spoken out of love and passion as much as they are spoken from a place of critique.

So really, what my problem with Epic's Apollo?

In the briefest possible terms; the choice to have Apollo be defined by his musical aspect in God Games is thematically strange. And not in the 'oh well in the Odyssey, Apollo was important to Odysseus and his family so it's weird that that wasn't kept in Epic' strange, strange in the sense that Odysseus' character arc since My Goodbye has been getting more and more obviously Apollonian and so it is positively bizarre that when we get to meet Apollo, the god seems entirely disinterested in him and his affairs. So much so that he is not even defined by any station that would indicate that he has been watching over and protecting Odysseus and his family.

What do I mean by 'Odysseus has been following an Apollonian arc'? I'm so glad you asked!

Remember Them is the last song in which Odysseus explicitly uses his sword until Mutiny where he must use it to defend himself against Eurylochus' blade. He uses it to help enact the plan to conquer Polyphemus and, due to Polites dying in that battle, Polites who wished for Odysseus to put the blade down entirely and embrace a post-war life, Odysseus also retires his sword. This is an action that symbolically separates him from Athena - and the image of Odysseus as a traditional warrior set for him in Horse and Infant - as much as My Goodbye physically separates him from the goddess and her war-ways - from this point onwards, Odysseus will no longer be leaning on Athena's wisdom or methods to solve his problems. Likewise, he will no longer be able to rely on her protection.

Odysseus thusly solves most of his upcoming problems through diplomacy and avoidance. He approaches Aeolus - a strange and ambiguous god (both in gender and in motivation) and appeals to them for help. Circe too, he approaches not with wishes to conquer or for revenge, but for the safe returning of his men and an alternate way forward. In all of these scenarios, there is some Apollonian element which is subtly interweaved alongside the influence of other gods; it is with a bow and arrows that Polyphemus' sheep is slain (and thus it is this Apollonian element which is at the root of Odysseus' spat with Poseidon), it is a vision of Penelope that warns Odysseus that his men are about to open Aeolus' wind-bag, Circe's peace offering to Odysseus is to refer him to a prophet of Apollo who has since died.

In this way, Apollo is walking alongside Odysseus for all of his journey after Athena departs - even in the Underworld, he is guiding him. It is Tiresias' proclamation that is the last straw for Odysseus, it is by the power of a mouthpiece of Apollo that Odysseus decides to embrace his ruthlessness. It is with the bow and arrow that Odysseus subdues the siren who sought to trick him, likewise, Odysseus does not attempt to undermine or escape the fate of paying Scylla's passage price - he knows of the doom about to befall the six men and quite unlike the rest of the journey until this point, he does not fight against it. This all comes to a head on Thrinacia where it is a blade which sacrifices the sun god's cow and brings destruction upon the crew once more.

My point with all of this is that when I heard the teasers for God Games years ago, it made perfect sense to me that Apollo would be Round One - he is not Odysseus' adversary and has no reason to oppose Athena's wish to free him. From other teasers about what will happen in the climax of Epic, Apollo will still be walking alongside Odysseus - it is Apollo's bow that Penelope will give the suitors to string. Likewise, it is Apollo's bow that will prove Odysseus' legitimacy and identity. That bow will be the power by which Odysseus hunts his adversaries and cleans out his palace - it is Apollo who is the avatar of Odysseus' ruthlessness, not Athena.

So tell me, truly, what was the point of having Apollo raise a non-argument in God Games? Why have him appear unconcerned, aloof and slightly oblivious? Why have him appear in his capacity as the Lord of Music at all?? And if the intention was never to make Apollo an active player in Odysseus' life like he was in the Odyssey, why keep Odysseus as a primary archer?

The answer of course is that Apollo is inextricable from the fabric of the Odyssey - his influence and favour exudes from Odysseus just as much as Athena's. In Athena's ten year sulk, it would have been Apollo who kept Telemachus and Penelope safe. It would have been Apollo protecting Odysseus from Poseidon's gaze as he travelled the seas (according to the Odyssey anyway)

Forgive me for not being excited about something that I thought was being purposefully set up. I was extremely ecstatic about all of the little Apollonian details that litter the sagas because I know where this story ends up (loosely) but all God Games did was reveal that maybe those Apollonian details were not intentional at all, but merely the ghost of the Apollo who persistently haunts those he favours, even if he cannot explicitly come to their aide in an adaptation.

[viviandarkbloombartylusversion]

Love to make my favorite characters with shitty life's have even shittier life's, like oh ok! let's add some torture, eye gore, waterboarding, kidnapping, tongue loss, forced cannibalism, etc!!!!

[meamiki]

Happy Anniversary In Stars and Time!! Have some Friend Quest based drawings :D

(These have specific quote picks related to them! And there's also a long ramble on why I like those specific quotes below if interested)

(And by long, I mean roughly 2k+ words of proper ramble total, so be warned before clicking keep reading this link right here to the rb!!)

[felassan]

I'm excited to visit Treviso (<- DA:TV spoilers at link) :D

[some burblings about Treviso here in this now somewhat-out-of-date post hh (ctrl-f Treviso)]

[nippoisalien]

I made a Celeste game Free Paper for Comic Square 7 event in Thailand last Sunday!~( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

it's basically just me talking about what Celeste game is 'cause i want more people here to know about it! 😆