#have tone and consequences relevant to the story

[felassan]

Dragon Age: The Veilguard info compilation Post 4

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [another post]

Post is under a cut due to length.

There is a lot of information coming out right now about DA:TV from many different sources. This post is just an effort to compile as much as I can in one place, in case that helps anyone. Sources for where the information came from have been included. Where I am linking to a social media user’s post, the person is either a dev, a Dragon Age community council member or other person who has had a sneak peek at and played the game. nb, this post is more of a ‘info that came out in snippets from articles and social media posts’ collection rather than a ‘regurgitating the information on the official website or writing out what happened in the trailer/gameplay reveal’ post. The post is broken down into headings on various topics. A few points are repeated under multiple headings where relevant. Where I am speculating without a source, I have clearly demarcated this. if you notice any mistakes in this post, please tell me.

Character Creation

BioWare confirmed that even if you make your Rook a short king, the team has done work to ensure animations fit any character build [source]

"Dragon Age's character creator has seen a massive glow-up" [source]. "The volume of choices you get here are frankly insane. As Epler noted, “you could spend forever here,” and he’s not kidding." [source] The art and graphics teams spent a lot of time trying to make hair look amazing [source: the Discord]

In CC we can customise our "bulge size" [source]

Some more detail on the new lighting options to see how Rook looks like in CC when you make them: you can view them in "blazing forest sunshine versus the glare of an underground temple" [source]

"newly mobile, extra-hairy hair" [source]

Faction choice has statistical boons. For example, Shadow Dragon Rook deals extra damage to Venatori blood cultists [source]

Faction choice basically determines why Rook has been called to help in the fight against Solas [source]

All pre-determined character models in CC can be adjusted [source]

You can make a really tall dwarf if you want [source]

"Setting your previous world state is fully integrated into the character creator for Veilguard" [source: the Discord]

Inquisitor appearance will be re-created, there is no way to carry their appearance from DA:I into the game [source: the Discord]

Classes for Rook are not restricted in the sense that you can play any almost class, lineage and faction combination that you want. For example, a mage Rook can be a Crow [source: the Discord] (Fel note: it sounded like Rook cannot be a magic-wielding dwarf, even though the exception of Harding now exists) (Fel note: there is a mage Crow in one of the books)

Story and lore

Here is another article which refers to Rook as "the Rook" [source]

The story is set "9-10 years from DA:I and about 8 years from Trespasser" [source: the Discord]

They have been tracking Solas for "a while. Something else you��re gonna learn about…" [source]

The game does not use the Keep [source]

Shadow Dragon is the faction background with the most in-game reactivity (e.g. from other characters' dialogue) during the prologue section of the game, due to the fact that the prologue is in Minrathous and the Shadow Dragons are a Tevinter-based faction [source]

"I also saw a big moment after the gameplay trailer ends that I can't talk about" [source]

During the more narrative-heavy dialogue choices, "the game will also give a bit of context on what you're about to choose, but doesn't go as far as explaining the exact consequences or precisely what will happen thereafter" [source] "the game shows you how you’ll go about the choice, but it doesn’t tell you the consequence of that choice". [source]

"The game is bringing back Dragon Age 2s dialogue system, which was tone-based and resulted in its protagonist Hawke falling into one of three different personality states. You have three general tones in a conversation: kind, humorous, or aggressive, with slight variations depending on the situation" [source]

"Venatori blood cultists" [source]

"The whole game has the makings of another Suicide Mission [ME2], given that you are up against a god with the ability to collapse dimensions" [source]

"Choices and consequences". "Now, it seems you can see the effects of your choices like never before, and this time, they marry that choice with incredible visuals" [source]

In the bar when you're trying to get information in the opening, if you choose to fight it out and the barbrawl ensues, you then have to run from the pursuers in the bar [source]

A key concern of the developers when creating the environments was to make “a world worth saving" [source]

The prologue is quite linear but there are additional paths you can follow to find additional loot [source]

In the opening section of the game there is a dock which has been attacked and the soldiers that were there have been killed, "but rather than seeing this passively, we walked through the aftermath and had to interact with the scene to piece it all together" [source]

The tone of the gameplay video is a good indicator of the tone of the rest of the game [source]. On the tone: "dark fantasy" [source]. horror & gore is back along with DA's classic dark elements [source]

Tevinter Nights is a better tone indicator for the game than the original reveal/character trailer. Ghil Dirthalen: "Tevinter Nights has felt the most 'DAV' to me" [source]. The gameplay reveal video is the best indicator for the tone of the game (vs the character one) [source]. there is still messy dark shit in the game [source]

Tonally the game is closest to Tevinter Nights and DA:O [source]

Ghil Dirthalen: "[as] one of those unfortunate souls who has latched onto a media world so hard: This game is for me. For the hardcore DA lore nerds, I've been secretly screaming about things I saw for MONTHS now" [source]

The game is true to the DA stories we know and love [source]

Characters, companions, romance

You can choose to engage in companions' own storylines as you progress or ignore them entirely [source]

You will often have to make dialogue choices that will affect how your various companions treat you [source]

Neve is quick-witted [source], measured and elegant [source]

In the opening, you interact with the companions as you move through Minrathous. "your choices during these interactions will determine who goes on portions of the mission with you, along with how “pleased” they are with the answers." [source]

On Varric and Harding: "Instantly the two felt like they’d never been away and avoided the trap of being parodies or fanfiction versions of themselves" [source]

Solas' eyes were always purple hh [source] (yes!)

Gameplay, presentation, performance etc

Some enemies have additional shields that are weak to ranged attacks [source]

When asked about if the war table from DA:I returned, John Epler said "There is a table. Now, whether it works the same way as the table in the previous game..." [source]

Once you get passed a certain point in the game, it opens up dramatically, however it is not an openworld game and they wanted to make sure that all the content mattered and was a more structured, sculpted experience for the player. There is some exploration, some opportunities to get off the beaten path, and some spaces that are fairly wide [source]

The button to press to bring up the skill wheel is RB or R1 (depending on what controller you're using) [source]

"You'll also have access to two skills or spells for each of your two companions that you can command. For a more seamless, uninterrupted combat experience, you can also assign these skills to shortcuts (such as holding the left trigger and hitting the X button) to quickly use them" [source]

"The game is bringing back Dragon Age 2s dialogue system, which was tone-based and resulted in its protagonist Hawke falling into one of three different personality states. You have three general tones in a conversation: kind, humorous, or aggressive, with slight variations depending on the situation" [source]

"booting Fade demons into pits" [source]

"BioWare have revised Dragon Age's art direction to make character models a little more consistent with the series' lovely Tarot-inspired menu art. Flesh is ruddy to the point of painterly; facial features and bodily proportions are thicker and more striking, as though the characters had been cut from clay" [source]

The 3 specs for Warrior are Reaper (has lifesteal/stealing health from enemies, and other freaky powers, does big damage), Slayer (can wield the biggest blade, big swords, big damage) or Champion, which is tanky, shield-using and Paladin like [source] [source]

There are quick-recover prompts [source]

You can roll through puddles of incoming AOE [source]

There are ziplines between some levels levels [source] (Fel note: just like in As We Fly... )

There are also slidey hills to slide down between some sections [source]

There are still some Hinterland-type areas designed for exploration [source]

We can do some home base management to our home base [source] (Fel note: this refers to The Lighthouse, detail in a previous post)

Camera placement is quite zoomed out [source]

Where Rogues have 'momentum', Warriors have 'rage' and Mages 'mana'. When a warrior spends rage in the ability wheel it triggers more powerful attacks. this has been referred to as a build-and-spend mechanic. this system resource gates your use of more powerful skills and is built by getting stuck in [source]. Momentum for Rogues is built by landing hits without taking any [source]

There are big glowing environmental cues for picking up loot or replenishing health potions [source]

"Epler noted that The Veilguard will not be an open-world experience like Inquisition, and instead will have large spaces to explore with quests littered throughout. This allayed my early concerns that they would course correct too hard from the oft-maligned open areas of Inquisition" [source]

Melee and ranged attacks can be charged up [source]

It sounds like there is an option to have greater guidance on when enemies are attacking [source]

The community council gave a lot of notes on the game's art direction to BioWare (gave feedback to the devs) that they were told and shown were changed from the first reveal/character trailer, these made it into the gameplay trailer [source]

The community council asked about having an arachnophobia mode, though they can't guarantee this was implemented [source]

"You’re encouraged to explore and grind for stronger weapons and gear, so your stats and cosmetics improve the further you get into the game" (in the sense that you’ll be rewarded for hard work) [source, two]

Follower information such as cooldowns and health will be visible on the HUD [source: the Discord]

There is a "quick cast" option if you prefer not to use the wheel, should be a chorded action using a controller [source: the Discord]

On PC you can play with keyboard and mouse or controller [source: the Discord]

An accessibility option is the ability to make auto-targeting stronger or weaker depending on your preference [source: the Discord]

The game will have DLSS support at launch [source: the Discord]

Re: hard drives, the game can be played using an HDD, they would recommend an SSD though for the optimal experience [source: the Discord]

There are lots of different interface options you can play with, e.g. combat text size, opacity, when to display health bars [source: the Discord]

Other

The leak from last year or whenever it was (the one that leaked screenshots and a gif from the game) was mainly a lot of outdated stuff and didn't really represent even the early version some community council members had played [source, two]. It was not leaked by a member of the community council, but by a member of another focus group [source]

The community council were given the chance to play the game twice, once in Fall 2022 and a year later in 2023 [source]

There is no information as yet regarding when pre-orders will be open [source: the Discord]

BioWare are hoping to at the very least have the very "best of" the Discord dev Q&A featured on social media and potentially in a blog [source: the Discord]

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[v4lentined4ys]

TGR SPOILERS!!!!!

reading comprehension at an all time low!!!! i seen some people (on twitter) confused about kevin’s “they were supposed to be a warning” line so here i am breaking down the meaning of that and defending my canceled queen.

this line is NOT about what riko did to jean!!!!! yes, the ravens have a way of defending anything that was done to them or to others, they have an excuse for it. kevin is very much included in this. while talking about grayson, jeremy struggles to ask kevin if what happened to jean happened to him too. kevin then goes on to give a detailed reason on why what happened to jean would NEVER happen to kevin.

this matches what jean tells andrew when andrew asks if grayson ever touched neil.

jeremy, rightfully so tells kevin there is no excuse that can justify what happened. “Jeremy honestly wasn’t sure what was worse: that the Ravens thought themselves right for hurting Jean so horrifically, or that Kevin knew what their excuse was.”

there a stark difference between what kevin says and what jeans say, which i will try to explain a bit more. it’s important to note though that both kevin and jean say along the same things when trying to explain the mindset of the nest to an outsider, only one of them (truly) believes it, while the other doesn’t but forcefully follows/enforces it.

kevin tells jeremy he doesn’t say anything in defense of what the ravens said about jean in the spring because he knows better to put jean’s back to the wall.

again, this references something jean tells rhemann.

no matter what jean said or did, the ravens would have always found a way to blame him. jean was forced to pretend he consented to what was done to him, and to undermine jean would be going against riko. they both knew the consequences of what would happen if that was done. they both still use it as their main defense now. which makes sense with kevin’s “i will not listen to it again”. the only confirmation we got that kevin knew more about what was happening was from his conversation with jeremy. we still never got a inside look on jean thoughts at all. the only time he mentions kevin in term of the rumors is when he said in the sunshine court that “ even kevin didn’t know the full story, only the jagged half-lie riko fed him”. jeremy continues to push back against this when mentioning jean’s age.

kevin says this:

which is cruel itself, but unfortunately the truth. jeremy doesn’t know that for many reasons, kevin and jean cannot speak up against riko. like ever. it’s clear that a part of kevin wants to tell jeremy

this is relevant because it’s important to grasp that kevin knows. even if he doesn’t refer to it by name, even when he says it’s “history” in front of andrew (which andrew later mocks) he knows. how much he knows is up to air, it is kept very vague especially when kevin says “all ravens know variations of the story”. but then kevin always say “you don’t even know what his truth is” in a frustrated tone which shows the audience that he knows something and is fighting against what he has to say and what he knows really happened. kevin keeps the same attitude when jeremy turns it onto him.

now back to what this post is originally about. it’s very clear by now that jean was in love with kevin. i could go through the book and take a bunch of screenshots but then we will be here all day. the most notable one is this:

then this:

kevin is under the impression that jean has a thing for jeremy (which he brings up twice now, one in tsc and once in tgr) and yes kevin is a prophet but also an idiot because yes jean has always been attracted to jeremy, but that is not who riko is referring too. he (once again) mistakenly makes things worse for jean by even mentioning the trojans.

jean simply tells cat that “he got caught and doesn’t want to talk about it”

the sequence of events isn’t very clear but kevin does talk about the trojans a lot. he specifically shows jean interviews of Jeremy from his freshman year. THAT WAS THE WARNING! it makes more sense to believe this happened after riko accused jean of being queer. this was part 2 of kevin’s “it’s easier if he remains heterosexual”

at this point, jean had no idea about what went down fully with jeremy. and he couldn’t back then either because he couldn’t read well enough.

kevin accuses jean of just staring at jeremy’s photograph instead of reading the actual interview , which jean fights back with that he couldn’t. and THAT’s when kevin says “they were supposed to be a warning” and then: “you missed the entire point of me sharing them” the lesson itself never gets expanded on because jean didn’t take the bait.

when it comes to his sexuality, jean is scarred because of what was done to him as a result of it. even jeremy notices the reaction he has to kevin was more intense then him just being his normal shy when checking out cat or laila. because it was programmed for jean to feel so ashamed by riko. he almost says the same thing to andrew, that he should have expected the assault when he claimed kevin.

kevin stance was more along the lines of how the public will react to it, because of what happened to jeremy.

when jean figures out that adi and rhemann have been together for so long, he’s not sure if that makes him feel safer or not. when he compares riko and kevin’s statements to neil, it was more along the lines of “being queer is bad or dangerous” vs neil’s “who cares” it wasn’t stating that kevin believed the ravens assaulted jean as a warning. that’s all riko. kevin thing is all about publicity. because of how he was raised. there ignorance, and being scared to speak up, but it’s not kevin agreeing that jean deserved to be raped. it’s more to show how far the nest brainwashing and manipulation really goes.

this was v long but i felt sick watching people group kevin in with riko. we have long established by now kevin is a victim. sure he is an “ugly” victim but he is a victim all the same. it’s not the same as luther refusing to believe andrew or cass turning a blind eye because it was her son and she couldn’t believe he could do that. they are both victims of the same place and people in different ways. the idea that kevin in any way could have stopped riko is ridiculous. grouping him in with his abuser because he can be rude or demanding isn’t it. jean quite frankly speaks about the brainwashing kevin went through.

leaving y’all with this quote:

“most of Kevin’s scars were branded into his heart and mind. By the time Jean was thrown at Riko’s feet, Kevin had mastered the art of putting mental walls between himself and whatever Riko was doing”

one last thing, jean believed that surviving evermore was possible after watching kevin “be a soulless puppet” but then secretly ask to learn french. he hated kevin for it, but he quickly understood the way kevin shaped himself to to survive. “jean had to simply let go and stop fighting”

because that what both of them did and still doing. learning to survive.

additional note: it’s why jean got so upset seeing kevin drink. kevin would rather be drunk than process the horrors of the nest, even though kevin was supposed to be the strong one.

[midnight-in-town]

A part of me thought that Anya would stay in the same classes as Becky, Damian and his two bff. I'm not sure I see why Endo wanted them separate, what do you think ?

Hi ! Ah, I see your point Anon and I'm saddened by it a bit too, but I think it makes sense !

First of all, within the narrative, it may serve as a goal for Anya herself.

Besides world peace (aka trying to help Twilight because she loves him and is afraid "to be returned back"), Anya doesn't have any real goal to study. Don't get me wrong, that's natural since she's like 4 years old, but being separated from her friends may help her find motivation to get better grades, simply to be in the same classes as them again. :))

It might also help Anya recognize how much she came to care for all of them as friends, beyond Becky.

I mean, getting close to Damian was primarily seen by her to be helpful for World Peace. However, I'd say it's definitely gone beyond that, because she truly became friends with him, just like it's evident she trusts him a lot, otherwise she wouldn't have told him about her powers.

In turn, Anya getting friendly with other kids (read : other boys) will also probably help Damian realize that he's friends with her, too. Obviously they're young kids, so their cute dynamic full of banters is probably not going to change soon, but inwardly they're probably going to be more honest with themselves, which is a good thing ! :D

Secondly and most importantly, I think this change of classrooms is very important for the plot. Beyond Damian Desmond, Twilight had Anya enrolled at Eden Academy because...

...many students have very powerful parents who reunite there. Donovan Desmond on his own is not a real threat, the war he seems to be planning according to WISE is, but he definitely cannot plan a war alone, even with mind reading powers.

So the more kids Anya meet, the more we get hints as to who their parents are and how they might be involved with Donovan Desmond or a war project. Here are some posts explaining some previous examples we had so far, like Becky and George and ch95 overall.

Just in ch112.1, we met Prince Tertius who comes from another country besides Ostania and Westalis, which not only broadens the universe's world building, but might also expand on geopolitics and the consequences of the previous wars on additional countries.

Finally, Arnold Crowley, who's also back (see here for more details about why I think he's plot relevant for now), mentioned that it's not rare for "foreign dignitaries to study at Eden".

In general, I find Eden Academy is a shady institution, not because of its educational purpose, but rather because

they once preached war propaganda (back when Donovan was a student),

they are elitist

they allow powerful adults to reunite together

lastly they might even have ties to organizations like Project Apple and "Garden"

Ultimately, Eden Academy so far best illustrates the whole "knowledge is power" theme of the story and, while the kids are innocent and unaware of what's going on, they are still akin to windows through which readers (and Twilight) might glimpse at a darker reality where war is brewing.

So ch112.1 telling us that kids from elite families from Ostania but also from other countries can study all at the same place can be a good thing, but maybe also hints at a dangerous reality. As always, Endo-sensei tells us in a humorous tone...

...but beware the harsh reality beneath the comic relief. ;)

Lastly, it simply is realistic when you're young to change classrooms every now and then and to meet new friends, so let's wish that Anya will also have the opportunity to befriend new people !

I hope it makes sense ? Have a good day Anon. ^_^

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Are You Sure?! - Episode 1 Observations

Who said it during the Bon Vogaye S3 interviews? "We click". Was it Jimin or Jungkook? Either way, it's clearly mutual and and we've heard iterations of that throughout the years in other contexts, particularly in terms of work ethic.

The first night they spent in Connecticut at that cabin in the woods showed us a different facet, in a more domestic realm. The delegation of each role during cooking pointing out what the other one likes, knowing exactly how to prepare something based on a word. It was like a well-oiled machine that has been functioning for ages. It also gave us a taste of what was to come the next evening when Jungkook cooked pasta, an entire scene worthy to dissect.

But what stood out to me more was what happened next. I know we've all joked and talked about poor Jimin and his stomach bug. A very unexpected topic, but here we are. The level of candidness might have felt surprising (at least for me initially), but they are also guys and perhaps coming from a place socially and culturally in which it's not unusual.

But it did contribute to that element of authenticity I mentioned in my first post about the series. I want to digress a bit here because the entire situation reminded me of a conversation I had perhaps more than a decade ago. I was talking to an acquitance about elements that are usually kept out of films, part of the mundane. What is left out of the story due to its lack of relevancy. And he said that scenes of people urinating are common in films, but we don't see/hear people taking a shit, or even talking about it. Yes, the language was that crude. (And no, Salo doesn't count). Shortly after, Godard's Adieu au langage was released and if my memory serves right, it had that exact scene that my acquitance was talking about. I don't think it was a matter of authenticity, the film was a lot more complex than that in its experimentation, but it did go as far as to show somehow the hidden parts of human behavior on screen, now suddenly at a forefront.

What's the purpose of that in a travel show? What does it say about the choice to show it and about the people? In variety content including surviror type, travel or even food show, issues connected to the body are not something foreign or unusual. But in AYS, it's about the length and how it became a way to show the care a person has for the other and consequently becoming another example of that authenticity.

Both Jungkook and Jimin kept a light tone over Jimin's progressive state of sickness, but in no circumstances has Jungkook ever treated it like he needs to keep his distance. The man was sitting in bed, telling Jimin it's alright, while he was fighting for his life in the bathroom.

Despite keeping a light tone, in Jungkook's case it's often about his actions. His own way of showing that he cares more than what appears to. He might laugh and joke that Jimin is dying, all the while being the one to give him the medicine. He keeps on making jokes as he goes outside, only to immediately decide to build a stone temple so Jimin can get better.

I found it all very moving. I know it might also seem trivial, but I choose to see some gestures for what they appear to be a sign of: complete comfortability, with no uneasyness or shame or lack of aknowledgement. It's a result of seeing that person going through everything and knowing that person intimately, at whatever level any of us choose to interpret it.

To be continued...

[raviollies]

actually no im gonna yap

im trying SO HARD to gaslight myself into liking veilguard but so many narrative choices just make me scratch my head. I AM NOT DONE, I currently gotta go to Weisshaupt.

I'll start with things I like so far:

1. I think the game is really pretty and I like the puzzles :) Antiva is GORGEOUS, I think one of the prettiest areas in the entire series.

2. I really like the Minrathous/Treviso choice. More of that please! some actual drama and consequence!

3. Assan is adorable and I cannot walk past without petting him. I didn't anticipate myself liking Davrin so much since I'm usually drawn to magic babies over warriors, but he's probably my favourite alongside Bellara. I think him having left his clan is very interesting narrative choice (I am totally not biased considering it's very similar to Daee's story)

4. Thank you lord almighty for the wardrobe/mirror system. Godbless.

5. Everytime Lucanis speaks I think of Puss in Boots and that brings me great joy. Whimsy even.

6. When you place Tevinter decor in the lighthouse, they have a Hookah right beside a fresco of Solas killing Mythal and that is mind bogglingly hilarious. I do love that the Shadow dragons know how to unwind. We're turning up after fighting for elf rights.

7. Solas surviving entirely on meat, raisins and honey feels very r/malelivingspace

Things I am Not Liking So Far

1.Minrathous feels utterly toothless. Its described as terrible, den of slavery, conversion therapy through blood magic, treatment of elves being terrible - yet we walk around unimpeded. I expected a similar experience as the Winter Palace, or fights that could be avoided if playing as a human.

LAVELLAN is introduced in the TEVINTER TAVERN, wearing TEVINTER CLOTHING, like it doesn't...make much sense to me? Inquisition set up the cross roads with Morrigan AND the Inquisitior, it feels like it would have made much more sense narratively not just from..."I am the fucking Inquisitor In Fucking Minrathous" but "Solas and the crossroads are a vital connecting point of these characters story."

Speaking of Inquisitor, wildly bizarre to me that neither Solas nor Varric comment on you meeting them. Solas has a weird painting of the Inquisitor chair, but you meet the mf face to face and he just does't acknowledge it. I am not a Solavellan player but I felt Really Bad For Them In That Moment.

I think a good moment of comparison is the difference in tone of DAI and DATV...When we find out the orb is elven in DAI, Solas warns us to keep it to ourselves, with Lavellan even remaking that the world will blame us for Corypheus. In DATV, we inform everyone that Elven gods are attacking, and there's no thought or conversation about the impacts of that on Elves in society. The only one to mention it is Davrin way after we've been spilling the beans left and right.

2. I'm not done the story but hey has anyone mentioned we haven't fought a single Fen'Harel agent, what's up with that... I expected to be fighting Elves based on the epilogue in Tresspasser but ?? ???

3. I'm sorry I HATE THEM DISREGARDING THE WELL OF SORROWS IN FAVOUR OF MORRIGAN WHEN SOLAS MAKES A HUGE DEAL OF YOU BEING TIED TO MYTHAL IF YOU DRANK FROM THE WELL. Oh sorry, if it was unimportant then why the fuck did you go on a monologue about how you're "her creature" and connected to her. It felt like a retcon of the importance placed on it in Inquisition and how much of a deal both Solas AND Morrigan make about it. I'm sorry picking a ROMANCE was more important than acknowledging THIS?? ? ??

"But Ravie, they can't account for Inquisitors personality and making them important would piss people off" then just kill them off. If they're set on Morrigan carrying this piece of narrative, I would have written the Inquisitor off the table before the choice becomes relevant. Have them help you in the ritual at the start of the game and die. I feel similarly about Varric, because he feels like the writers stuffed him in the closet to not talk which just...JUST KILL HIM. Its better than being relegated to furniture!!!!

3. Speaking of Morrigan why the hell is so nice. This is not my beautiful mean witch wife. In fact everyone is nice. Even hardened Lucanis has been polite to me.

4. I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH ROOK. I profoundly hate starting off friends with Varric (and him getting shelved like what was the point). It ruins a lot of initial RP for character establishment, because it limits how the player character FEELs about the whole thing, your motivations are GIVEN to you. Furthermore, it feels like rook HAS an established character. I don't feel like I got to play my rook, just say things slightly differently based on an already established character. I dont feel like I am roleplaying a custom character, just as Biowares stand in protagonist. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the level of interaction that BG3 provided me.

The opening sequence is bizarre to me, because IF I MAKING THE STORY....I would have had the introductory quests for each of the companions be the first quest based on the faction you select (Shadow dragons with Neve, Mournwatch with Emmerich, Crows with Lucanis etc. etc.) That way you establish your character based on the faction and immediately get a little tutorial on what kind of character you're going to be playing. I would even keep the introductory quests the same with minor dialogue tweaks. The ritual would come after the tutorial prologue mission and then you start with Harding and the companion you got introduced with, since the order you get them...really doesn't matter or impact anything.

5. I think the Venatori and Antaam following Elven Mage Gods is kinda dumb. Sorry. I thought they both looked down on them for being either Elves or Mages/didn't even acknowledge them. What the hell is their goal anyway

My criticisms comes down to...I don't know what themes the game is trying to tackle? The game SAYS things but doesn't actually do anything with these topics. Minrathous HAS a slavery problem but we don't see it. Treviso is ruled by a faction of assassins but it's like a good thing! Elven gods are responsible for everything wrong in the world, but the narrative implications of what that means for modern elves are acknowledged in passing like acknowledging the weather. The game feels hesitant to actually unpack any of these things despite being the one to put them on the table.

Anyway I am going to finish the game and probably play on Daee with a Solavellan Inquisitor to see if that improves my experience by picking a character who is more tailored to the Rook they portray/not having an emotional connection to the Inky, but atm...Man I Had Hopes. Made me feel stupid for getting so hyped up for a conclusion to a story arc for a character THEY SPECIFICALLY LEFT ON A CLIFFHANGER FOR A DECADE. I'll just draw art, lie face down in the ground and imagine a more narratively satisfying conclusion to my Inquisitors story.

[physalian]

Bringing Characters Back from the Dead Without Pissing Off Your Audience

I don’t know if there’s an emotional rollercoaster out there quite shaped like an audience bawling their eyes out over the death of a beloved character and the livid and bitter turnaround that comes when that character comes back to life in the most ridiculous and lore-breaking way possible.

So, TLDR, some suggestions, not rules, depending on your genre and tone armor and not all for a single story, cherry pick as you please. If this is a kids show or a comedy where “death” is a nebulous concept anyway, ignore this. This is more for dramas.

The point of a good character death and revivial boils down to this, imo: Does doing so serve the character, the story, and the themes? Killing a character should be as big of a moment as un-killing a character, as long of a road as it took to get there should be as long or longer as it takes to get out. Otherwise, you just did it for shock value and everyone noticed.

DO:

Establish that revival is even on the table at some point well before this character dies. The smaller the gap between “hey death is optional” and “oh look, it’s the fan favorite in peril”, the less likely your audience is going to feel all the intended gut-wrenching emotions.

Have the dying character completely unaware that this might not be a one-way trip, even if the audience does. The entire cast might not have any clue, but the audience knows because Character Who Knew Too Much revealed it before they died. There is a time and a place for “I’m going on a suicide mission but I secretly have a contingency plan to cheat death” and it’s very hard to do it well.

Demand some cost, either from the dead character or the person/thing/deity that saved them. It should not come without consequence. Either they’re permanently emotionally scarred, physically scarred, are only back for a limited time, or somebody else died to take their place, etc. If revival has no cost, then death has no meaning.

USE IT SPARINGLY GODDAMN

Let the character be as shocked and horrified that they’re not dead anymore as the audience is ugly crying at their return. If the narrative shrugs it off, it’s going to feel cheap.

Let the characters doing the reviving be unsure if it'll even work. If both the characters and the narrative believe bringing them back is a foregone conclusion, you lose out on a lot of tension on if it's all for moot.

DON’T:

Keep killing and reviving the same characters with the same sad music and the same funerals and day-drinking and expect the audience to really believe it’s for realsies this time, CW.

Keep pretending to kill off characters but they’re actually fine

Pull it out of nowhere and try to bend the plot in post as if this is actually a good thing and not manipulative writing

Controversial but: warn the entire audience ahead of time, for many, many books, that somebody’s gonna die and it’s gonna hurt, and then say “nah just kidding” at the end.

Revive them too quickly. Death is a powerful, dramatic event for the dead character and all those who survive them. Unless it’s like a drowning situation where the character takes a few more seconds to gasp awake, let the story stew in the aftermath properly, otherwise—why kill them in the first place?

Some examples:

Gandalf—This one’s a funny one because it doesn’t establish that death is optional. Gandalf “dies” and then Boromir dies maybe 45 minutes apart. Thing is, though, that Gandalf is a 3000 year old wizard and Boromir is just a dude. Two Towers also begins by replaying Gandalf’s fall with added context so you’re already primed with “well that must be important, his character is still relevant”. The movies certainly have their share of fakeouts, but characters who are meant to die (Boromir, Theoden, Theodred, Denethor) stay dead. Gollum is just made of silly string I guess and invulnerable to high falls, unless they’re into lava. Gandalf isn't the hero, either, his job isn't to save the world, it's to make sure that everyone else saves the world. If Aragorn fell fighting the Balrog and showed up out of nowhere in Two Towers, it would cheapen the whole victory when the gods can just say "nope you're not dead, cancel, undo button" but not smite the orcs for them.

Jon Snow—oh look I’m actually praising GoT for once. He dies in season 5 and comes back at the end of episode 2 of season 6 after a whole campaign of seemingly futile magic and the heroes giving up hope. This series is full of graphic and pointless deaths. The hero getting stabbed seven times in the chest in a mutiny isn’t out of left field at all. But back in season… 2, I think? The Hound comes across a dude who can’t be killed, who attributes that to this Lord of Light deity. The same deity that Melisandre (the witch who brings back Jon) also worships. It’s proper set-up, proper time spent mourning him with a whole break between seasons, proper build up with the impact of his death, and proper consequences once he’s back, dude isn’t the same and I will always miss his fluffier hair.

Leo Valdez—I have no idea if I’m in the minority here but back when Heroes of Olympus was being published, the fandom had five whole years to argue over which of the seven heroes was going to die. It was all over the walls. Yes, this is a series about mythological creatures with gods and gods of the dead and even Death being captured to stop people from dying. “Character cheating death” didn’t come out of nowhere. However. Even though it was properly established, the series spent five whole books promising that somebody was gonna die, and then Leo comes back because the Prophecy didn’t read the fine print. I liked Leo, but I cannot stand chickening out of killing a character and this was one hell of a deus ex machina when the whole last book was a misfire.

The Whole Vampire Diaries and Supernatural—everybody knows the CW is allergic to perma-deaths. There’s infographics out there calculating how many times Sam and Dean and Cas have died. I know more about the background to TVD so herein lies the issue: The creator was allergic to change of any kind and apparently the actors didn’t have the best relationship with her because of it and other reasons. Her characters fell in the same cyclical arcs because who they were in seasons 1 and 2 is everyone’s favorite iterations of their personalities, so they can never have proper arcs with real growth. TVD was a serialized show written like it was episodic, so nothing, not even death, was permanent save for a few characters here and there. Death lost all meaning, the writing was manipulative constantly expecting audiences to believe it this time, and the lore kept breaking each time they did it with new excuses to bring somebody back.

*Gaara—I don't actually remember it super well and his death pissed me off more than his revival but I want to add it anyway. How they brought him back, with Granny Chiyo sacrificing herself for him and him being utterly shocked that anyone gave a shit to bother rescuing him was great, no notes. Even better because I belive Chiyo was like "it's alright I can fix him" and everyboy but Naruto realized that doing so would cost her her life. I just hated how they showed you Gaara dying ~20 episodes before anyone got there to save him, meanwhile the heroes were dicking around fighting their shadow-selves instead of just... running away? They didn't know he was already dead. The lack of urgency for all parties involved, in a show that's legendary for its shit pacing, promptly ruined any chances of me watching it past that arc. But, the revival was well done, so. Have a Gaara.

—

And then you’ve got way on the far end of ass-pulls, characters like Palpatine, heroes in soap operas, or shows in their 11th season that have already checked out or know it’s dumb and don’t care how dumb. It’s the nature of the beast. It’s hard to get mad at them for the single sin of undoing death when they probably already have a hundred other problems.

[hailuchiha]

My Sister's Keeper - Prequel

DEAD DOVE: DO NOT EAT

!! MINORS DNI !!

!! 18 + NSFW CONTENT!!

!! ALL characters involved are ADULTS ; NO minor characters!!

Summary: As the title suggests, this is the prequel to My Sister's Keeper nobody asked for :)

incest; sibling incest; noncon; rape; loss of virginity; blood mention; cherry popping; possessiveness; morally gray characters; abuse; manipulation; control

(2.3 k words)

Enough was enough, Itachi had decided.

Enough of his oblivious sister sauntering around carelessly and striving to prove she was good enough by trying to get chores done on her own while nasty men leered and ogled at her.

While she was still afraid of him, the demise of their family at his hands not something she could ever forget no matter how much time passed, Itachi figured she didn't fear him enough.

Not enough to stick beside him at all times; not enough to fear the consequences of trying to think and want beyond what he wanted her to.

It did pain him to treat her that way, to have his beloved sister fear him, but at the same time, it was a necessary evil. He could not blow his cover- not after everything he'd done.

So, he figured, he had to use the last resort.

Anything in order to keep her safe, he rationalized once the plan had solidified in his mind.

As soon as they reached the next little town on their route, Itachi dragged her to the dingy inn and booked them a room.

"Uh... we could've secured a place to stay after restocking our supplies," she said, giving him a cautious look as he exchanged cash for the key to their room.

In fact, that's what they usually did when they stopped at a town. They'd restock, get patched up if needed, get a proper meal, and then hunt down the local inn.

However, Itachi had a much more pressing concern this time.

"We'll have enough time for that later," he said, keeping his tone neutral and heading up the stairs, ignoring the inn-keeper's calls of asking him for assistance with anything if needed.

With a quiet sigh, she let it go, as he knew she would. He didn't need to turn around to know she was close behind him. The one good thing about this town's inn was that it had three storys, which meant it must have seen good days at the start.

The history of the building didn't matter to Itachi though. All he cared about was relevant privacy; which is what the added floor would provide. The inn-keeper had assured him that the third floor was empty and that it rarely needed to be used. In fact, even when they were busiest, only two floors got fully booked.

As soon as they got to their room, Itachi locked the door behind them and tossed the key onto the low table next to the single bed. For the price he'd paid, the room was clearly not taken care of. It wasn’t the space he paid for as much as he did privacy.

His sister had barely put her bag down when he gripped her upper arm and dragged her towards the bed towards the back of the room.

She made a small, startled sound at the sudden shift, not having the time to even ask what he was doing or why before she was pushed onto the mattress. A faint cloud of dust rose from the sheets as she collapsed, making her dissolve into coughs.

If the lack of fresh sheets and recent cleaning bothered Itachi, he ignored it for now. He had a mission, after all.

Using her distraction to his advantage, Itachi ripped the loose pants off of her along with the white panties.

That startled her out of her confusion and she immediately tried to sit up, her hands flying to her pull her long shirt over her crotch.

"Wait, wait! What are you doing?"

But Itachi was having none of it. He was working hard to be deaf to her right now.

"You've had enough fun, little sister," was all he said by way of explanation before prying her legs open.

"What fun?!" she was almost screeching now, incredulous, as her hands pushing at his chest, nails digging into his shirt to find purchase.

With one hand pinning her down by the shoulder, he used his other one to quickly free his cock from his breeches, giving it a few pumps and lining it to her plush cunt. Her shirt had ridden up in the struggle as he pinned her.

"Wait, just wait! You're my brother!" she was still trying to reason, the panic evident from the shrillness of her voice.

Itachi paused, as if considering, and pulled away slightly. Her body relaxed minutely, sure thinking he was seeing sense.

However, his sister would have to be disappointed.

She was laying across the bed, her lower half dangling off the side. Itachi stood between her legs, staring down at where his cock had just been pressed up against her cunt.

With a sigh, he stepped closer, his body forcing her legs open again where she'd been trying to close them. He bent down slightly, face hovering over her cunt and spit right into the little slit where her pussy had parted due to the way her legs were spread. He spit once more, watching keenly as the thick glob made her sweet walls twitch and glisten.

Satisfied that there would be some lubrication, he got back into position, pressing his thick, mushroomed head against her pussy.

His sister was getting more frantic now, trying to kick at him and sit up, yelling words he had tuned out already. He wrestled her halfheartedly, not wanting to hurt her, till her foot caught him in the jaw.

Instantly, she froze, her eyes widening in horror. They both knew she was simply trying to get him to stop and hadn't meant to strike him.

Under normal circumstances, Itachi would have let it pass easily, perhaps even laughed and complimented her good kick. However, these circumstances were anything but normal. And Itachi had a mission to complete.

Not wanting any more distractions or delays, and he knew she would renew her struggles, Itachi decided to put an end to it.

He raised one leg onto the bed, using it to keep her pinned down by placing his foot securely on her chest, just below her neck. After all, he'd need both his hands to prevent her from flailing and kicking about.

A mix of horror and indignation painted over her lovely face, and despite himself, Itachi felt his cock twitch, very much liking the expression on her.

Quickly, he parted her thighs, pulling her feet wide apart and disabling any chances of her being able to kick out. From being bent in this position, her body folded in half, her pussy lips spread wider, the earlier slit gaping wider. He could see the wetness glistening inside as her cunt throbbed, and Itachi felt a smirk pull at his lips. It wasn't just his spit glistening in there. The little minx was actually liking this while pretending not to want it.

"Look at that," he muttered, his voice a low hum.

Not waiting for a reaction, nor hearing her response or pleas, he shifted, bending his hips to get a better angle to line up, and pushed, groaning as his head brushed her pussy before sliding in. It caught almost immediately, not even halfway in, and Itachi sucked in a breath.

Freeing one hand, he used it to spread her lips wide, holding them open as he pulled back slightly to push back in. This time, there was slightly less resistance and his fat head pushed in, making her tight walls spasm around it, wanting to suck it in and push it out at the same time.

"Easy," he breathed out, watching the strained expression on her face as she clutched at his leg, nails digging into his shin, his leg falling and rising along with the movement of her frantic, trembling breaths.

He pushed in further, slowly moving his hips down, before pulling back till just his head remained seated in her. Ignoring the pinched expression on her sweet face, he thrust a few more times, using a bit more force each time, knowing he had to get her through this pain now so she'd never feel it again.

Her walls were so tight around him, gripping him almost vicelike, not granting permission to enter or leave. Each thrust was almost unbearably painful. Adjusting his hips, he aimed again, knowing this time he'd breech her, he thrust in sharply, groaning at the intense tightness before his cock finally breeched her properly.

Her eyes shot open and mouth dropped in a soundless scream at the invasion, probably having sharply felt the pop as she was speared.

Itachi continued to push in till his hips were flush with hers and paused, taking a moment to breathe. His chest rose and fell sharply while her body trembled and shook under him.

After a few long moments, he eased his foot on her chest, not taking it off yet, but removing some weight so she could breathe easier, shifting the weight onto his other foot which was still on the carpeted floor.

He knew her vision was blurry and she couldn't see him clearly right now, with the fat tears burning in her doe eyes.

"Just wait some more, sweet sister," he stated, keeping his voice steady. "The worst of it is over."

He pulled out half way before slowly pushing back in, watching her face carefully. The movement became easier, this thrusts meeting less friction, and he wondered if her body was relaxing because she'd given up. But after a few shallow thrusts, Itachi caught sight of the streaks of blood coating his thick cock along with the clear sheen of her juices as he was pulling out.

Fuck, he thought. He'd known she was a virgin- that's why he had to do this, after all. But seeing her actually bleed made something burn in his chest.

His thrusts became just a tad more intense, almost like he couldn't help it, and he frantically pushed her loose shirt as high as it would go on her body, wanting to see and feel more of her.

It relieved him to note that her pained expression was quickly being replaced by confused, begrudging pleasure. She was trying to fight the pleasant sensations, but her body was winning the fight, throbbing with pleasure and need around his fat cock.

Wanting to make this awful first time as good as he could for his dear sister, Itachi hooked her legs over his wide shoulders, holding them in place with one hand while he used the other to tease and rub her clit, which caused little shivers to run down her body as her cunt fluttered around his cock. Her eyes screwed shut tightly and her hand pressed firmly against her mouth as overwhelmed tears streaked her face, her other hand clawing needily at his leg.

The mere sight nearly made Itachi come undone, his hips stuttering in their movements, making them both groan as his cock shoved deeper on the next thrust.

Biting his bottom lip, Itachi kept flicking her sweet nub and angling his thrusts so he was burying till that deep spot which made her toes curl each time, bringing her closer.

"Almost there, baby," he breathed, not paying attention to what he was saying.

Her walls gripped him tight, and her hole which was stretched deliciously around his thick length, pulsed rapidly around it. Itachi thrust in, his hips flush with hers, burying himself to the hilt, and stayed there as her needy cunt throbbed around him, trying to swallow him, her hips arching off the mattress as her eyes rolled back.

His own release was not far off, and her abused walls eagerly milked his orgasm out of him, pulsing furiously as he painted them with thick ropes of his seed.

He hovered over her prone form, unable to move, as he caught his breath, watching her chest heave with laboured breaths even as her eyes struggled to stay open.

Unable to hold back, Itachi leaned in, lazily capturing her parted lips in a kiss, reveling in the taste of her mouth even more when she hesitantly returned the kiss.

Itachi pulled away when she made a sound of discomfort, removing his foot off of her and rubbing soothing circles over her chest apologetically.

He pulled out of her, eyes drawn to her abused, gaping hole, which twitched a few times around the emptiness, looking for his cock. Unable to take his eyes off of the sight, he swallowed with some difficulty as a moment later, a pink mix of blood and their cum dribbled out, adding to the earlier stain of her blood on the sheets.

Wordlessly, he carried her into the small attached bathroom, helping her get cleaned. Only later, when she was steady, did he leave her to put a fresh set of clothes on, while he yanked the dusty, stained bedsheet off of the dingy mattress, depositing it in the laundry basket in the corner of the room. That was a mess he’d take care of later.

While making sure to dust the mattress properly so they could at least sleep somewhat comfortably, Itachi caught sight of the bright red stains in the spot where his sister had been near the edge of the mattress, and the sight made him wince. He thought all evidence had been on the bedsheet, but apparently, some had seeped underneath as well.

He turned around to let her know the bed was ready for sleeping in when he saw her staring blankly at the red stains, her hand idly clutching the neck of her sleeping gown.

"I've dusted the bed... Spread my cloak under yourself and just... lay away from that spot."

"Okay," her voice was barely a whisper as she moved past him, not meeting his eyes and pulled his Akatsuki cloak out of his pack which lay near the room’s door.

She spread it on one side of the bed, unfortunately the one where she'd been fucked on, the small stain just a few safe inches away from her legs, wrapped the cloak around herself and lay down, facing away from him.

With a lump in his throat, Itachi turned away, retreating into the bathroom.

Please ignore any typos or errors! Will fix any mistakes as I find them later :,)

Part 1

[indie-ttrpg-of-the-week]

I'm actually not super into vampires which is wht I outsourced this write-up, so shoutouts to my wonderful partner for doing it for me :)

Genre: Post apocalypse fantasy

What is this game?:

Bloodbeam Badlands is a unique rules-lite TTRPG that seeks to tell heroic stories about magical badass sharpshooting vampires and wild desperate adventures in an over the top strange and deadly post apocalyptic wasteland that shines a new light on mythical fantasy by combining magical creatures from folklore and pop culture with the tropes of post-apocalyptic survival.

How's the gameplay?:

The gameplay is loose, basic and imposed checks are rolled during times of drama and conflict to decide outcomes, which means mechanics are usually most relevant in fights. You roll a number of d6 equal to one of your 3 stats (Guts, Guile, and Guise) and compare the lowest die result to one of your 3 sources, which are similar to stats (Blood, Bullets, and Burn), if the result is lower, you succeed.

This simple conflict resolution method is made more engaging with a few inclusions: first of all, your sources are fluctuating, you can lower or “spend” a source to automatically succeed on a roll, the sources can also be lowered as a consequence of failure, and act as a gauge for your survival. If a source goes to 0, you’ll start to face death or mutation. Sources can also be restored by a variety of unique means, such as feeding on blood or bartering for bullets. Each character also has their own unique “Vampiric Bloodline” chosen at character creation that has their own way to spend and regain sources and a set of striking supernatural powers, such as being able to manipulate the demiplane of shadows or being a vessel for phantoms.

Players also further customise their vampires with a unique, personalised gun with a set of magic ammo, like a shotgun with homing shells or a sniper rifle that injects werewolf blood into your enemies. Additionally, while exploring the wasteland, you can pick up items with unique narrative and mechanical tags and usually some sort of magic, some are even strong enough to have their own stats and sources.

What's the setting (If any) like?:

I am so biased, I am going to be honest here, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS SETTING and am very excited to talk about it. The Forever Dawn is a vast, twisted post-apocalyptic wasteland with no end in sight, it gets its name from the blinding, burning, behemoth red sun that hangs omnipresently. The day never leaves and the night never comes. If the sun doesn’t burn you alive, the radiation will start to mutate and consume you. The players are vampires whose blood has been diluted and irradiated enough to leave the underground and search for blood on the outside.

The radiation and consequences of supernatural forces being mutated has left everything in The Forever Dawn, from the land to the people to the monsters, bizarre and twisted. Even the most common mortals of The Forever Dawn have strange mutations and unique features. The setting isn’t bound to just a burning desert, the book encourages GMs to set your campaigns in different environments warped by the apocalypse.

The setting does not have many established locations, the wasteland is too mysterious to be catalogued as such, and the lore usually comes in the form of sparse, unexplained plot hooks to give ideas to GMs or writers to build upon. Yet despite being largely vague and interpretive, the book still oozes with style and direction for the worldbuilding and goes in depth about not only what's in the world but about how the world feels.

What's the tone?:

Like I previously stated, the way the tone is communicated in this book is extremely effective, and lots of love was clearly put in. I feel like nearly every single piece of the text helps establish the tone, mechanical things like the stats being divided into snappy metrics of Guts, Guile, and Guise make you feel like you’re creating cunning and cool heroes, the examples of mechanics describe action packed scenes against mutant dinosaurs, and on the topic of mutant dinosaurs, my favourite example of the type of over the top style this game has is "Revolverface," a mutant t. rex with a flaming revolver cannon for a face. Which is just shamelessly cool and over the top enough to perfectly describe what you’re getting into.

But enough praising the writing, to actually describe the tone in my own words, Bloodbeam Badlands is wacky and over the top, balancing the fun of flashy action with the grimness of surviving in a world designed to waste you away.

Session length:

I’d say about 2 hours give or take, unless you're running full episodes in one session, then maybe 4 or so.

Number of Players:

The book lists around 2+ players and a GM, although it's worth considering there’s only 4 bloodlines in the base book

Malleability:

The rules are extremely malleable, the looseness gives opportunity to add and change mechanics as the GM sees fit, and the idea of sources can be changed or taken in a lot of different ways. It was designed with homebrew content in mind and has spawned a lot of cool third party and bonus content. Even if you stick by the source book you’re encouraged as a GM to create unique magic items and NPCs.

Resources:

As far as I’m aware I do not believe there is a sheet made for this game yet, likely a byproduct of early access.

Bloodbeam Badlands B-Side is a collection of new and third party content curated by the developer, licensing and logo information is also included.

Bloodbeams is a game with a great setting and a good game wrapped around it, it's definitely something worth checking out even if the gameplay isn't your thing, because the setting is just that interesting. It's a fun time for all you vampire enjoyers

[lilmisshellfireswritingblog]

Good Luck Babe Chapter 2: Coffee

Pairings: rockstar!Eddie Munson x popstar!reader

Warning: 18+, start of the fake dating plot (PR), angst, regret, consequences of fame

Song Inspiration: Coffee by Chappell Roan

You were sitting across from your agent, Kate, in her sleek, minimalist office. The soft glow of the afternoon sun filtered through the tall windows, casting a calm light across the room. But you didn’t feel calm. You hadn’t felt calm for days now, not since your performance, not since The Prophecy had gone live and the world had caught a glimpse of the emotions you had been hiding for so long.

The room was quiet for a moment as Kate flicked through a few documents on her tablet, her usual efficiency giving way to something that looked a little more...calculating. Her eyes met yours, and you knew what was coming.

"So," Kate began, her voice casual, but there was a tension to it that you couldn’t ignore. "The performance went well. The song definitely landed. Your fanbase is loving it—especially the vulnerability. But..." She paused, and you could already tell she was choosing her words carefully. "We need to keep this momentum going. You’re in the spotlight now, and the buzz is strong. Your debut album is just around the corner, but if we want to keep the buzz going, we need to get creative."

You sat back in your chair, trying to suppress the tightness that had formed in your chest. You had been dreading this conversation. You had a sense of where this was going, but you didn’t want to hear it.

"Creative?" you asked, trying to sound nonchalant, but even you could hear the underlying tension in your voice. “Why don’t we book another late show? I want to perform "Things I WIsh You Said" live before the album drops.”

Kate tilted her head slightly, her lips curving into a knowing smile. "A PR relationship. You know, something to keep your name out there, keep people talking. It’s not exactly unheard of, especially for artists on the rise. It’s a classic strategy. And who knows, it could inspire some…more not breakup songs."

You stared at her, disbelief creeping in. "Wait, you’re suggesting I...fake a relationship with someone?"

Kate leaned forward slightly, her tone more persuasive now. "Not fake. A strategic partnership. Someone who’s in the public eye. Someone with the kind of profile that’ll generate interest in you. Like another artist or an actor. It’ll keep the press and fans engaged and it'll position you in the right light as you release your album."

You ran a hand through your hair, your thoughts spinning so fast you felt dizzy. "I don’t know, Kate. That doesn’t seem... like me. I’m not that kind of person. I’m not—" You almost wanted to say “desperate,” but that didn’t feel right. Still, the thought of being in some contrived relationship just to get people talking made you uncomfortable.

Kate raised an eyebrow. "Look, you’re not going to be the first artist to do this and you won’t be the last. It’s about keeping the conversation going. Right now, there’s a gap between what you’ve just released and the album. This could bridge that gap. Keep you relevant, make sure people know you’re still here, still important. And with The Prophecy blowing up, you’ve got an audience that’s ready to hear your story. The public will eat it up."

She paused, her eyes softening just slightly as she leaned in. "I know you’re not keen on the idea, but we don’t have a lot of time. You want your debut album to be a success, right? This could make a huge difference."

You exhaled slowly, biting your lip. You hated the idea. You hated the thought of using something as personal as your relationships—your heart—just to generate attention. But at the same time, a small part of you knew Kate was right. You needed to keep your name out there. You needed the exposure. Your fans deserved that, didn’t they?

"Who do you have in mind?" you finally asked, voice quiet. You already knew the answer. You just didn’t want to hear it.

Kate smiled like she’d been waiting for you to ask. "There’s a few possibilities. Someone well known. Someone with a similar profile. I’ve been thinking of a few people…”

You barely heard her as your mind raced. Your thoughts weren’t on who you could be with for this. They were who you’d just spent an entire week trying to stop thinking about. Eddie.

God. This isn't how you imagined getting nto the spotlight. You didn’t want it to be this way.

"Let me think about it," you said, your voice softer than you intended. "I’ll let you know."

Kate’s smile was tight but understanding. "I have to let someone know in 24 hours. Teams are inpatient and we don’t want to lose these opportunities, my little rising star. I can imagine the headlines now: He Changed the Prophecy.”

“Yeah, okay.” You left her office in a daze. The weight of the conversation hung over you like a storm cloud. You’d have to think about it—whether it was something you wanted or something you could stomach. But the entire idea made you sick to your stomach.

Because it would hurt Eddie. 

You knew it would.

The doorbell of the small coffee shop rang as you pushed open the door, the warm scent of espresso and cinnamon filling your senses. You made your way to the counter, ordering a cappuccino and a scone, trying to clear your mind, trying to get some peace before you had to make any decisions.

You found an empty seat near the window, one that overlooked the busy street, and sat down, lost in your thoughts. Your pager buzzed in your pocket, but you ignored it, staring at your hands, tapping your fingers against the tabletop.

And then you heard a voice that nearly made your heart stop.

"Mind if I join you?"

You froze. Slowly, you looked up to see him standing there, wearing a faded black leather jacket and that familiar wild hair. Eddie. It felt like a dream, like you had conjured him into existence. But no. He was really here. In front of you.

He looked the same as the day he left - the day you insisted he left. 

"Uh... yeah," you stammered, your heart skipping as you gestured to the empty seat across from you. "Sure."

You felt sick to your stomach. You wanted to run away, hail the next cab back home but your legs wouldn’t cooperate. You were like a magnet to the chair beneath you. 

Eddie sat down, looking a little hesitant, like he was testing the waters. He wasn’t quite sure what this moment was either. He still had that nervous energy about him—the same Eddie you remembered, the one who never quite knew how to act when things got complicated. But something about him had changed. Maybe the fame and endless parties had gotten to him. 

You both sat in silence for a few seconds, the tension thick in the air. It felt like a thousand unsaid things hung between you. You bit your lip, pushing away your food. 

Eddie was the first to break it. "I... I saw your performance last week."

You nodded trying to suppress the way your heart clenched at the mention of it. "Yeah," you said quietly, feeling a strange warmth spread through you at the fact that he’d actually watched.

He hesitated, his gaze softening. "You wrote it the day we broke up?”

You swallowed. "Yeah. It was. I wrote it, um, the day we broke up. Literally right after. I didn’t know what else to do."

There. You’d said it out loud. Eddie flinched, but only slightly. He seemed to process it, the weight of your words sinking in. The apology, the regret, the love—that was all there, written into that song. You could see him piecing it together, the recognition in his eyes.

"Look, I... I’ve thought about everything. About us," Eddie said, leaning forward a little. "And I know I screwed up. I should’ve fought for you. I should’ve—"

You interrupted, your voice quieter than you wanted it to be. "Eddie, you didn’t have to fight. I wasn’t ready for that. I wasn’t... I wasn’t who you needed me to be. I wasn’t what you needed back then.”

His eyes softened and his voice dropped, almost as if he was speaking to himself. "I didn’t give you enough credit. I thought leaving you like you wanted me to would make it easier... but it didn’t. And I know... I can’t fix what’s already been broken and how you felt. But I want to try. I want to fix it. I know it’s been two years and we’re in different places but your career is taking off and we’re together and I’m here in Los Angeles too not on tour… Baby…”

The words lingered in the air between you. Eddie looked at you as he rambled with such sincerity that you almost believed him. Almost.

“Eddie… It’s been two years. We can’t really just start again like nothing happened. That’s not how it works…” You nearly choked on your words, barely even able to look at Eddie. 

He leaned back, rubbing the back of his neck, as if unsure how to proceed. "Who says we can’t? Can we... I don’t know, get coffee sometime? Talk? No strings, just... I don’t know. A chance to really talk?"

Your heart thudded in your chest, the sound louder than it should’ve been. The thought of seeing him again—of opening that door back up—made something stir deep inside you, something you weren’t sure you could control. 

And you wanted him again so badly but you knew your heart would just lead you down that road of hurt again. 

"I--," you said quietly, meeting his gaze. "I don’t -- I can’t. I’m sorry. I -- I have to go."

It would hurt too much. You still loved him and you could see he still loved you.

It wouldn’t be just coffee. 

There was a long pause, but this time, it was a lot more uncomfortable. Eddie smiled as if he was hurt. He nodded his head before opening his mouth but he hesitated and by time he had the courage to say it, you were already out the door hailing a cab. 

“---I ---still love you.” 

But he was just seconds too late. 

----

The sound of the guitar strumming filled the room, but your mind wasn’t on the chords. Your fingers moved mechanically, the notes blending into the air as your thoughts circled around Eddie. That conversation at the coffee shop had left you unsettled. Eddie’s sincerity, the way he’d looked at you, the raw honesty in his words—it had stirred something inside of you that you weren’t sure how to handle.

You’d spent the next few days thinking about it, trying to get your head clear, but it wasn’t working. Every time you closed your eyes, you saw Eddie’s face. You heard his voice in your head, asking for a second chance, asking for you to meet him, to talk things through. It kept replaying in your head over and over, even as you tried to distract yourself with music.

But you knew the truth.

You couldn’t meet him. No matter how much you wanted to. Not because you didn’t want to—but because you knew, deep down, that if you saw him again, you wouldn’t be able to walk away. You wouldn’t be able to protect your heart from falling back into the same patterns, the same love that had torn you both apart before.

You were still in love with him.

You could feel it in the way your chest tightened whenever you thought about him or sang about him, the way the memory of your time together haunted you, the way your body responded to the thought of him, even now. You weren’t ready to forgive him—or yourself—for what had happened. But you still wanted him, still felt that pull, even after everything.

So you did the only thing you could think of. You buried it.

So let's not do coffee, let's not even try It's better we leave it and give it some time If I didn't love you, it would be fine 'Cause If we do coffee, it's never just coffee It's never just coffee

You finished writing the song that had been on your mind since the coffee shop encounter, pouring all the conflicting emotions into the lyrics. It was raw, personal, painful. A song about love and loss, about the kind of love that doesn’t let you go even when you know it’s destroying you. A song that was too real, too vulnerable to ever share with anyone. Not yet. 

It would go into a vault and no one would ever know of it. 

You played it through once more, letting the final note hang in the air. You sighed deeply, feeling the weight of everything pressing down on you. But then, your phone rang, breaking the stillness.

You stared at the phone for a moment before picking up the landline

"Hey," you said, trying to sound casual, even though you were anything but.

"Hey, it’s Kate" she replied, her voice bright but with a hint of business beneath it. "I’ve been thinking about our last conversation and I think I have a solution for you. I know you’re still feeling conflicted about the whole PR relationship idea, but I think I found the perfect match."

You closed your eyes, feeling your stomach turn. The thought of being in a fake relationship still felt... wrong. But at the same time, a part of you knew it was inevitable. You needed this. You needed the attention. You needed the visibility and as much as you hated the idea of using someone for that, you knew it was what would keep your name out there and your career alive.

"Okay... who’s the lucky guy?" you asked, trying to sound light-hearted, but you could already feel the weight of it settling into your bones and you couldn’t stop thinking of Eddie. 

Kate didn’t hesitate. "Billy Hargrove."

You blinked, surprised. "Billy... Hargrove?"

"Yeah, the action star. He’s hot right now and he’s got a huge fan base. Plus, he’s a bit of a wildcard—perfect for your brand right now. It’ll get people talking and it’ll create this ‘will-they-won’t-they’ narrative that’s really going to keep the media on their toes."

Billy Hargrove. You knew who he was. The action star with the brooding looks, the rumored bad-boy image, and the kind of fame that could make the tabloids spin out of control. The kind of person you never imagined being paired with. But you had to admit, he was the kind of headline-maker you needed.

You shifted uncomfortably, feeling the knot in your stomach tighten. "I don’t know, Kate. He’s not exactly my type..."

"I know, I know," Kate interrupted quickly. "But that’s the point! It’ll be unexpected. It’ll get attention. And the good kind of attention—the kind that sticks. We just need to start slow, a couple public dates, a few photos here and there. That award show you’re performing at… Which I think you should perform Wildest Dreams…. Anyway, then we ramp it up when the album’s about to drop. Think of it like... building the tension for a big reveal. You’re not dating him for real but you are getting the exposure you need."

You sat there, silent, letting the words sink in. Your mind was already working through the logistics, trying to figure out how you could pull this off without completely losing yourself. You had to keep your distance, keep your heart guarded. Billy would be a way to stay relevant, a way to keep things moving forward.

But the thought of anyone else—especially Billy—was nauseating. The only person who had ever truly felt like home to you was Eddie. You couldn't deny it.

"I just... I don’t know if I’m ready for this," you murmured, more to yourself than to Kate.

Kate’s voice softened. "I get it. But you know this is the right move. The world has moved on from you a little, and we can’t afford to let that happen. It’s just business, kid. It’s a way to stay in control."

You took a deep breath. "Alright. Fine. Set it up. I’ll do it."

Kate’s tone immediately brightened. "Great! I’ll have my people reach out to his team, and we’ll get the ball rolling. You won’t regret this, I promise. I think you guys should make your debut at MTV Video Music Awards since you’re performing and it’ll be lower stakes. Not really a date, ya know?"

“Okay, Kate. Just send me the information.” You say, bile rising up into your throat. 

As you hung up, the weight of your decision pressed down on you. The guilt began to churn in your stomach, but you couldn’t afford to second-guess yourself now. You’d already made too many emotional mistakes with Eddie and you weren’t about to make another one. You had to move forward. You had to keep going just like he had. You couldn’t let the past keep you from what you wanted—the career, the success, the life you’d worked for.

And as much as it hurt, you had to bury the part of you that still loved Eddie. The part that would always love him - the part that would always long for him.

You glanced over at the song you’d just written, still fresh in your mind, still too raw to even consider recording. Maybe someday you’d sing it. Maybe someday you’d share it. But not today. Not while you were standing on the edge of this new chapter.

Soon after, your phone rang again. You picked up the phone again, annoyed since you had just hung up and you just knew it was Kate. 

“What?” You sigh, holding the phone between your cheek and your shoulder. “I’m not changing my mind, you don’t have to call me every ten minutes to double check.” 

“Woah there, babe. That’s no way to talk to your boyfriend ain’t it? It’s Billy. My agent gave me your number.”

The moment felt surreal, but you knew you had no choice.

This was the life you had to live now.

And you couldn’t afford to look back. Not even for Eddie.

[homestuckreplay]

100 Page Instant Retcon

(page 1258-1268; Snowman theories)

Clubs Deuce has a ‘hat full of bomb, a fist full of penis, and a head full of empty’ and a HEART FULL OF LOVE FOR CLOCKS. Never forget. Even when he is trying to be tough and scary.

Stitch is absolutely right about the C4, I checked it out and that stuff is explicitly designed as a ‘safety explosive’ that doesn’t detonate due to physical damage or heat, only by a shockwave emitted from within. To be honest Stitch’s surgical needle powers could probably do something there if he wanted. And considering Droog thinks Stitch is worth keeping alive and might be able to actively fight against Lord English, he might be one of the more powerful Felt members, maybe able to survive an explosion.

Page 1260 has a title drop! I really like ‘Don’t Bleed on the Suits’ as the intermission title, it hits the tone well and the double meaning of suits as playing cards and formal wear is on brand. Suits are already important to the younger two Egberts, and games are relevant in general, so the title is reflecting motifs from earlier acts which is cool. The line is also good in context because Droog and Stitch, with their mutual interest in clothing presentation and preparation, should absolutely go rogue and make their own gang.

Boxcars’ recurring Red Cheeks magazine (p.1221, 1262) seems like a reminder that the intermission is more ‘adult’ than the rest of Homestuck, with jokes about sex and depictions of graphic violence. I mean, as graphic as it can get given the simple shapes of the art, but we see bullet holes and pools of blood while fights in acts 1-3 just had characters get knocked out. And then we get the introduction of Snowman, which warrants the first flash page since the intermission’s opening and presents the hot noir femme fatale, who literally stops all the fighting and leaves everyone stupefied with her presence.

I’m really interested in what’s going on with Snowman as a character, but I don’t love the whole ‘women are Special and Different to so-called “regular people”’ and ‘it’s not okay to hit girls’ tropes this plays into, whether accidentally or otherwise. Comparing this to the ‘reveal’ that PM is a woman, where AR says it would be ‘quite a pity to blow up that tall attractive female’ (p.1107) and then blows her up anyway because the law is the law, I definitely think the intermission is consciously taking a different tone but in this particular case it becomes less interesting than the main story.

I understand the 8 ball symbolism, although it’s a BIG increase of scale to go from ‘this guy is slow’ and ‘this guy sees near future trails’ to ‘if you kill [Snowman] you destroy the universe’ (p.1268). Jumping between timelines is extremely powerful (gonna circle back to this in a minute), but I still wasn’t aware the existence of the universe itself was at stake. But if so, does this have something to do with Jade’s MAGIC 8 BALL?

‘You might consider smashing it, but you are a little superstitious about whatever ominous consequences that might have, even if the occult talisman in question is a cheap piece of garbage.’ (p.804)

I think destroying the universe is a pretty ominous consequence, personally. I don’t think Snowman is literally Jade’s 8 ball, but I think they have similar magic. And from the same page:

'You guess maybe it could be used as a reverse-prediction device, and always trust the opposite of what it says.' (p.804)

I think there’s a good chance Snowman is a double agent. Obviously she’s a chess piece and not a green man, and would have fought alongside the Midnight Crew within Sburb as they’re all from the ominous planet, but at some point defected. So she needs to stab Slick in the eye as she walks past to keep up appearances that she’s no longer working with him, and also as a general power play, because she was (is?) probably the true leader of the Midnight Crew (some sort of joker or wild card?) but we have already been told that 8 balls aren’t to be trusted, so her true allegiance could be to either gang, somebody else entirely, or only to herself, and she could be giving everyone different stories.

'The MAGIC CUE BALL on the other hand is said to make predictions with alarming precision and specificity. Unfortunately it lacks a portal on its surface that allows you to view the prediction.' (p.805)

And for what it’s worth, this could provide some clues about Lord English, who is surely the Felt’s cue ball, directing all of their moves. Based on this description, he has total knowledge of everything that happens in his domain (the whole universe?), shares this with nobody, and is both completely inscrutable and also hidden away, only communicating with members of the Felt (hence why Stitch needs to be locked away, and why Snowman wanted to become part of the Felt – he’s a very powerful person to have on side).

Anyway the crazy thing is, this whole Snowman scene only happened because Slick pulled Crowbar’s pin, and straight up undid everything that happened across the last hundred pages/twelve real time days. A great little time travel short story suddenly gone, with very little clarification on what, exactly, is different. I definitely think this will be undone by putting Crowbar’s pin back in a few minutes – but it is a reminder of how tenuous this story is and how these two gangs might be smart enough to carry out complex and effective temporal plots, but a single pin can make it all worthless. Feels like a power move from the author in some ways and a reminder to the reader that anything can happen, and also raises questions of which if any timeline is the ‘true’ one.

Also Snowman gets two lines of dialog in her flash! I barely noticed before, but this intermission is FILLED with dialog – it’s not presented in the chatlog format, it’s reported speech but quoted directly from ALL these characters. Which is interesting because WV, PM and AR don’t speak at all, but the chess people here definitely do. And out loud dialog has been so rare in the early acts – I think just Dave’s ‘Stop!’ (p.354) and Jade’s speech to her grandpa (p.919) – that it’s wild that I didn’t notice until now, and I’m interested to see if this change will carry over to Act 4, perhaps if/when John and Rose meet in person inside the Medium.

As a final side note, I noticed this Felt poster on Dave’s wall (p.312, 353) and it gives us a glimpse of missing member Cans, who is totally huge and jacked from the look of it.

[deception-united]

It's me again. Are there proper ways of writing fight scenes that flow well? And are there ways to make fights feel realistic without feeling like it stops the story in its tracks? How do I find the middle ground between realism and injury healing times?

Thanks for asking!

Maintaining realism in fights while keeping the story flowing smoothly is crucial for engaging storytelling. Here are some tips to achieve that balance:

Integrate fights into the narrative. Make sure that the fights serve a purpose in advancing the plot or developing the characters. They should feel like a natural progression of the story rather than an interruption.

Character motivations/stakes: Ensure that the characters involved in the fight have clear motivations and stakes. This adds depth to the conflict and makes the fight feel more meaningful to the audience.

Use variety in fight scenes. Avoid repetitive fight scenes by incorporating different fighting styles, environments, and tactics. This keeps the audience engaged and prevents the story from feeling stagnant.

Show the consequences. Realistic fights have consequences, both physical and emotional. Show the aftermath of the fight and how it impacts the characters and the story moving forward.

Balance action with other elements. Don't let the fight scenes overshadow other important aspects of the story, such as character development, dialogue, and plot progression. Maintain a balance between action and quieter moments to keep the story flowing smoothly.

Keep it concise. Avoid prolonged fight scenes that drag on unnecessarily. Focus on the key moments of the fight that are most relevant to the story and characters, and move the narrative forward efficiently.

Incorporate tension and suspense. Build tension and suspense leading up to the fight to make it feel more impactful. Use pacing, foreshadowing, and strategic placement within the story to heighten anticipation.

Make it believable. Research fighting techniques and strategies to ensure that the fight scenes are realistic and grounded in reality. Avoid overly exaggerated or implausible actions that may break immersion for the audience.

Finding the middle ground between realism and narrative pacing in injury healing times and recovery can be challenging but rewarding for maintaining both credibility and story momentum. Here are some tips:

Research: Understand typical healing times for various injuries. Medical websites, journals, and consultations with healthcare professionals can provide valuable insights.

Consider context: The severity of the injury and the overall tone of your story will influence the healing time. A minor scrape will heal quickly, while a major wound would naturally take longer.

Character abilities: Take into account your character's physical condition, age, and any supernatural or futuristic elements that could affect healing. A trained fighter might recover faster than an ordinary person, while futuristic technology or magical abilities could speed up the process.

Plot demands: Sometimes, the pace of your story might require injuries to heal faster than they would realistically. In such cases, consider adjusting the healing time while maintaining some level of believability.

Show the process: Even if you need to speed up the healing process for narrative purposes, acknowledge the injury and its effects on the character. Show them experiencing pain, discomfort, or limitations even as they recover.

Use time skips wisely: If you need to compress healing times for the sake of pacing, consider using time skips or transitions to indicate the passage of time without dwelling too much on the healing process itself.

Balance drama and realism: Strive for a balance between dramatic tension and realism. Injuries can provide opportunities for character development and conflict resolution, so consider how the healing process can contribute to the narrative arc.

Persistent effects: Even if a character's injuries are on the mend, they may not fully heal before the story's conclusion. Implementing this in your writing involves ensuring that the injury continues to affect the character in some way, whether it's physical discomfort, limited mobility, or psychological trauma.

Plot hindrance: Use the not-fully-healed injury to hinder the character's progress or add tension to the plot. For example, if the character's arm was injured in a fight, they may struggle with tasks that require the use of that arm, such as wielding a weapon or climbing.

Pain and discomfort: Continue to reference the injury after the initial healing period. Describe how the character experiences pain or discomfort, particularly in situations that aggravate the injury. This could be triggered by specific movements, weather conditions, or emotional stress.

Character growth: Show how the character copes with their lingering injury. This could lead to moments of vulnerability, resilience, or resourcefulness, allowing for further character development and depth.

For more tips on writing fight scenes, see my previous post!

Hope this helped ❤

Previous | Next

[lurkingshan]

A Time Called You: A Great Reminder to Go Watch Someday or One Day 

This past weekend Netflix dropped a new kdrama called A Time Called You in its entirety, and I became particularly interested in watching it as soon as I realized what it was: the Korean remake of Someday or One Day I knew had been in the works for awhile. If you’re not familiar, Someday or One Day (SOOD) is a beloved 2019 Taiwanese drama that is widely considered to be among the best dramas the country has ever produced (there is also a 2022 film version of the story, but that’s less relevant to this post). Now, I love Korean dramas, and I know that countries remaking each other’s best shit is very common in the Asian media landscape, but I couldn’t help but feel protective of the original work and a bit resentful of the choice to adapt something that was so original and unique and specific and put that generic kdrama sheen on it. Taiwan has a small film industry, and this is one of its jewels. We didn’t need Korea’s take on it.

And having watched the adaptation in full now, I am feeling pretty justified in that initial feeling. Let me just say upfront: A Time Called You (ATCY) is a perfectly good drama with a solid cast and competent storytelling. Had I seen it absent the knowledge of what it was adapting, I probably would have liked it a lot. But I have already seen and loved Someday or One Day, so I feel compelled to break down why it is the better version of this tale, both for my fellow SOOD devotees who are wondering how this adaptation stacks up and for folks who have only seen the kdrama in the hopes that you’ll decide to watch the original. As usual, I did the most, so reader be advised that this is long (tagging @troubled-mind as promised and @smittenskitten because I saw you were looking for a comparison of the two dramas). TL; DR: if you liked ATCY, or have seen neither version and are wondering which to watch: go find Someday or One Day, because it’s an overall superior and more satisfying execution of the same story.

The Vibe

Let’s start here because it’s the most obvious and immediately striking thing as someone who has seen both versions. SOOD has a bit of a rough and unpolished feel, which makes it feel more grounded in reality (important when you are getting into fantasy elements like time travel but you still want the characters to feel like real people). We open our story in 1998 in a record shop with a young girl playing Last Dance by Wu Bai and China Blue, a 1996 mando pop rock ballad, and thus setting the tone—this will be a somewhat raw and bittersweet story about grief and hurt and longing that will invite us to wallow in our feelings. And that melancholic vibe stays throughout the drama, even in the explicitly happy scenes, because you are always aware that the joy you are seeing has already been lost. 

By contrast, ATCY feels… emotionally flat. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very faithful adaptation. The early episodes are practically a shot for shot remake of the original drama. But it’s too polished, too shiny. The filmmaking is bog standard kdrama fare; everything is soft focus and warmly lit and too beautiful and consequently nothing feels real. It feels right in line with the standard aesthetics of recent mainstream Korean dramas, and that choice undermines the emotional weight and grit of this story.

A great example of this can be seen in the way the two dramas handle the iconic scene where our female lead runs in the rain, looking back over her shoulder to smile in delight at the male lead before continuing on her way. This is a moment of realization for him about his feelings for her—one he will later immortalize in a painting that becomes part of the mystery of the past she is trying to unravel. In Someday or One Day, this scene takes place on a regular street, in the utterly mundane surroundings of their everyday lives as they walk home, and she runs down the middle of the road as puddles gather in the uneven pavement; in A Time Called Love, they are in a picturesque park for this scene, surrounded by green and encased within a grove of giant trees, and she runs right down the middle of a tree lane that looks like it came straight out of a fairytale. One story is very much about a love grounded in a reality we can recognize; the other is pure fantasy romance.

The Music 

I already mentioned the song that anchors the Taiwanese drama above. Last Dance is hugely important to the story, both thematically and as a plot device, and in its ability to set the mood and tone of the drama. 

The Korean remake similarly uses a real 1996 ballad as its main song and time travel mechanism: With My Tears by Seo Ji Won. And, uh, the vibe is a bit different. 

Discerning listeners might recognize this as one of the many classic love ballads performed by our favorite doctors by day, rock stars by night over on Hospital Playlist. It’s a perfectly fine song. But it sets quite a different tone for our story, doesn’t it? It also is meant to be a song that a teenage boy is hankering to listen to on cassette, and listen, I wasn’t living in Korea in 1996. I have no idea how culturally accurate that may be. I’m sure there were in fact baby Lee Ik Juns running around trying to get their hands on this cheesy love song. But the edgier sound of Last Dance definitely sounds more in line with something the teenage male lead would listen to and what the music is meant to convey. And frankly, since we hear this song about 30 times in the drama, it matters that Last Dance is just an objectively better song. 

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, because beyond the classic song each version chose to use as its centerpiece, there is also a stark difference in the quality and tone of each drama’s OSTs. Here is a compilation of the Someday or One Day tracks, including the utterly gorgeous main theme by Shi Shi. The music is hugely important in the Taiwanese drama and is used to set the mood as well as emphasize its themes, and the tracks feel specific to this story.

And here is a compilation of A Time Called You OSTs.

If you’re familiar with kdrama OSTs, you will recognize most of the artists on here, as well as some new covers of old songs. And again, the vibes are quite different. Whereas SOOD was very intentional and specific in its music choices, ATCY just sounds like every other kdrama. There is nothing on this tracklist that stands out or evokes the kind of feeling that the SOOD tracks do.

The Main Couple

The name and timeline situation in this show makes this section unnecessarily difficult, so let me just make a little reference sheet here: 

Someday or One Day

Alice Ke plays Yu Xuan (2019) and Yun Ru (1998)

Greg Hsu plays Quan Sheng (2019) and Zi Wei (1998)

A Time Called You

Jeon Yeo Been plays Jun Hee (2023) and Min Yu (1998)

Ahn Hyo Seop plays Yeun Jun (2023) and Si Heon (1998)

All of the actors here are seasoned and very good at their jobs, so I am not casting shade on any of them—they are executing their performances based on writing and directorial choices. But I cannot deny that the Taiwanese version of these characters are more compelling all around. In SOOD, the main characters have a real spark; despite the melancholic undertone of the story, there are moments of genuine joy and when they connect with each other, you feel why this bond is strong enough for them to find each other through time and despite all the trauma they endure. In ATCY, however, the characterizations are muted.

This is most evident in the difference between Quan Sheng/Zi Wei and Yeon Jun/Si Heon. Greg Hsu plays Zi Wei as magnetic, playful, mischievous, utterly lovable, and very intense about his feelings for his lady. He has a real joie de vivre about him that clearly brightens up Yu Xuan’s life considerably, and his devotion to her is not just shown, but deeply felt. Experiencing their memories, you understand immediately why Yu Xuan can’t move on from his death; he was the joyful, relaxed counterpoint to her more ambitious and serious personality. Si Heon, though? He is a nice dude and a generous partner and he is very good looking. But he doesn’t have the playfulness or the intensity that his Taiwanese counterpart does. His personality is just more moderate all around. One great example of this: upon discovering that he has traveled forward into the body of the person that would become Yu Xuan/Jun Hee’s boyfriend, Zi Wei (in Quan Sheng’s body now, are you still with me?) actively decides to find her, love her, and try to solve this time loop quagmire they are in; Si Heon (in Yeon Jun’s body) waits for a moment of fate to give him a sign, and only makes the decision to pursue Jun Hee after running into her by coincidence.

Similarly, Jun Hee is not quite as spunky and sassy as Yu Xuan and Min Yu is not as dark and awkward as Yun Ru; when Jun Hee travels to the past and takes up residence in Min Yu’s body, the differences between the two characters she is playing are not as evident. In SOOD, I could tell at a glance who is in Yun Ru’s body; in ATCY I need more context to be sure. Where Yun Ru had more of an edge, Min Yu simply reads very shy. It’s not as compelling. One scene that really stands out as an example of this: when Yun Ru is pretending to be Yu Xuan in 1998 and looks in the mirror to practice smiling, it looks downright creepy and sinister; when Min Yu is masquerading as Jun Hee and looks at herself in the mirror, she just looks awed and happy, if a bit awkward. It’s subtle, but it changes the way you feel about the characters. 

The difference in Jun Hee and Yeon Jun’s characterization also affects the couple chemistry, which is just not nearly as strong in ATCY. The characters are more muted and thus the expected sparks are more like smoldering embers. The relationship feels cozy and warm and nurturing, but it doesn’t feel vital. It doesn’t feel like the kind of relationship you would fight through time or break the rules of the universe to return to. I recall gasping or crying or laughing out loud throughout SOOD because I was constantly taken aback by Greg Hsu’s arresting presence and the chemistry he and Alice Ke generated was just emotionally riveting. When Yu Xuan told Zi Wei (as Quan Sheng) that they were officially together, that man literally jumped for joy and shouted out his love for her; Si Heon (as Yeon Jun) reacts to the same moment with a quiet smile and a hug. When Zi Wei saw Yu Xuan in Yun Ru’s body again in the finale, he knew instantly that it was her and the smile overtook his face as he reached for her; Si Heon initially called Min Ju’s name before getting closer and taking several beats to realize it was Jun Hee (ruining this iconic moment is perhaps this remake’s greatest sin against romance, my god). 

Everything between the couple in SOOD was just more, both in happiness and in despair. I liked Jun Hee and Si Heon, and Ahn Hyo Seop and Jeon Yeo Been are very competent actors whose performances I have loved in other dramas, but they didn’t achieve that level of chemistry here, the writing and directing choices worked against them, and I didn’t feel that same desperation for them to figure this out that I did with Yu Xuan and Zi Wei. 

The Story 

The Korean version is a very faithful adaptation overall (I haven’t mentioned Jun Jie and In Gyuk because his character and story is more consistent across the two shows), but does make some small tweaks to the story, some of which seem to be out of necessity due to a shorter run time (one episode and a couple hours total less than the Taiwanese original) and some just… because? The shorter amount of story time does lead to them having to cut corners on some aspects of the mythology and time travel lore, making it all a bit less clear for folks who don’t already understand what’s going on, and they put in a few nods to typical kdrama tropes like amusement park dates and hand of fate stuff that we really didn’t need—they are already trapped in a time loop together, we get it!

ATCY also messed with the timelines and ages for reasons I don’t really understand and that don’t really track. In SOOD, Zi Wei traveled forward from 2002 to Quan Sheng’s body in 2010, met Yu Xuan, and then died in 2018. In ATCY, Si Heon traveled forward from 2002 only to 2007 and did not die until 2022—but the relationship dynamics are all the same. It made sense for a young couple who had been together about 7 years and who were in their mid-20s to be having the kind of relationship problems they did—fighting about prioritizing careers and time abroad and whether it was time to get married. But a couple who has been together nearly 15 years? Who are in their mid-30s? They would have already been married probably and had a couple kids to boot. The choice to change the timeline like this had me scratching my head and accomplished nothing for the story. 

But neither of those things are the change to the story that is weighing on me most. That occurs in a very small and brief backstory for the real Yeon Jun, where the drama introduces an original character who has no counterpart in SOOD: Tae Ha. 

In SOOD, the real Quan Sheng is a closeted gay teenager who meets a tragic end: he confesses to his crush, gets brutally rejected, then gets bullied when the crush tells others about his sexuality, and ultimately decides to walk into the sea in an attempt to end his life, a choice that leaves his body in a coma until Zi Wei’s consciousness takes it over. In ATCY, this backstory changes and Rowoon is brought in for a brief but impactful cameo as Tae Ha, Yeon Jun’s cram school friend. We see that the two have mutual feelings for each other but are both struggling to confess. One day as they are driving together, they finally explicitly acknowledge their feelings, holding hands and smiling at one another—and then immediately get hit by a Truck of Doom (easily one of the most tired kdrama tropes), Tae Ha dying on impact and Yeon Jun ending up in a coma with Si Heon’s consciousness eventually taking over his body like in the original story. 

Now on first glance, you might be inclined to give the show some credit for including a new gay character and giving the original Yeon Jun a happier experience with his crush. Explicit gay representation? In a mainstream kdrama? Still very rare and a big deal if done right. But if you think for a moment longer you’ll realize we can’t give the show credit for this, because this is a textbook execution of the Bury Your Gays trope and the narrative punishment that befalls gay characters who act on their attraction. Essentially, what the Korean remake did here was reveal these two characters are gay, killed them both immediately after they decided to pursue a relationship with each other, and then had the het male lead character take over the body of this gay man and use it to enter into a relationship with a woman. Some aspects of this plot were present in the original tale, but this choice to add an additional gay character only to kill him and tie it to their moment of acknowledging their mutual attraction? Made it significantly worse. It was badly done and I will not applaud the drama for representation when they did it in such a cruel way. 

The Ending

SOOD ends on a hopeful but somewhat ambiguous note, with Yu Xuan in 2020 finding a way to go back and save Yun Ru (and Jun Jie by extension) and then breaking the time loop, sacrificing her relationship with Zi Wei in the process even as it breaks her heart (because the only way for them to meet and fall in love in 2010 was to stay in the loop). She sacrifices their romance, and all their memories together, because it’s the right thing to do—she inadvertently destroyed Yun Ru’s life with her time traveling, and she couldn’t live with that knowing there was a way to fix it. We are left with a broken time loop, original teen Zi Wei meeting child Yu Xuan again in 1998, and the hope that they will find a way to make their fates align again and be together without time travel complications. It’s just the right bittersweet touch to end the story on; their previous relationship was lost and their sacrifice was real, but there is hope for another version of a happy life together, someday.

By contrast, ATCY goes for a more explicit happy ending: Jun Hee makes the same choice to go back and save Min Ju, and to break the time loop and sacrifice her relationship with Si Heon, but in ATCY we then jump forward to 2011 to a happy epilogue to see Si Heon and Jun Hee meet as adults. And look, I love a happy ending! But what I said above about the sacrifice Yu Xuan and Zi Wei made in SOOD really resonating because of its bittersweet ending? That’s absent here, because ATCY decided they needed to put a bow on it and reassure us they would get back together. ATCY was just never willing to let us stay in the grief or commit to the darker and sadder aspects of this story, and as a result, the whole thing loses some of its impact.

[chrysanthemumgames]

I’ve been apart of the Choice/Hosted games community for years and I just want to say that your story is in my top 3!

I was literally just saying to myself that I would like an IF that really had characters that had a full life outside your character that interacts with you naturally and isn’t so heavy on the constant stats check, and I got my prays answered and MORE.

First time I played, easily I knew I was going after Hades. I played 3 other times and went after Pyri Charon and Hermes (I will be playing it again for the more Olympus type choices). But TRUST it was hard cause your girl kept wanting to go back to Hades XD.

You’re a wonderful writer and I am invested and patiently waiting for the sequel! May I ask for a few suggestions?

- Character tracking: I love that it’s not stats heavy but I think it would be great for the MC to have journal of some sort in the stats page to keep track of characters and how the MC feels about them as certain events take place. There were a lot of characters to keep track of and it was hard to remember the ones I needed to remember.

- MC Traits: I love how you kept the traits simple *chef’s kiss* but during my play throughs, I definitely tried to be extremely different and subtly different. It didn’t feel like there was a distinct diversity of negative or positive consequences for your flaws. Sometimes it felt like there were and other times I wasn’t sure if I triggered one or not. (I was playing with tone indicators off so maybe that’s why I didn’t really see a difference.) Ya girl just wants a super clumsily MC that everyone wants go catch or be annoyed with cause she’s so clumsily ahaha! Which leads me to my last suggestion~

- Character development: PACING *triple chef’s kiss* its the main reason I kept running back for more ahahaha! (Hades just fully accept me as your wife already T^T) My suggestion for this is that it did feel like the Underworld Pals were too nice. I loved that they are but I would definitely like to see them have flaws that make it reasonable for your MC to dislike them. I legitimately was having a hard time being mean to them because none of them felt like they deserved it.

Thank you so much for giving us such a wonderful experience with this story. There is so much to love and I’m excited to see it expand. Also there are probably others but for the most part you are the only author that actually took the time to add the knowledge of protective hairstyles in your book. You are truly heaven sent. Thank you, now Imma go back and be mean to the my man Hades TT-TT cause I gotta see all versions of this amazing book!

Hiya, and thanks for the ask.

I'll take the suggestions under advisement, but fair warning: I'm probably not going to be doing anything to make the characters less 'nice.' They all do have flaws, and perhaps some of those will be getting a little more airtime in the sequel, so to speak, but I have no interest in changing their core personalities. I consider the fact that they are generally kind and understanding to be a feature of the work rather than a bug, so to speak.

It's not everyone's cup of tea, and I understand that, but I wanted to write a story about fundamentally kind people, and that's what I did.

Adding more opportunities for traits and flaws to be relevant is definitely on my list for the next game, and the character codex/journal/tracker is a suggestion I've gotten before and would like to implement in an update. I appreciate the suggestions!

[runespoor7]

Jiang Cheng brings back WWX to LP after his resurrection because LWJ wasn't around

Five Fun Facts About The Fic I Might Write About It, This Is A Slowburn(?) Version, For Other Versions Ask Again:

WWX insists that he's not himself far past the point of it being sensible. The thing is, it's not the first time JC decided some random demonic cultivator was WWX and dragged him home to demande apologies and play house? Last time was over half a decade ago, so not everyone in the sect knows, but those who remember are pretty wary about it, especially because of what it means about JC's mental state. Is Sect Leader getting worse again? They're also very wary of WWX, some of them openly contemptuous - WWX has the feeling that if it weren't for JC's protection he would be dead - and some of them almost pitying. I think he overhears them talk and that's how he pieces together the backstory, and also learns that the demonic cultivator whom JC is convinced are WWX and that he treats as such don't... end well. Sect Leader takes the "betrayal" badly.

WWX realizes that YMJ doesn't have a second in command. the sect has a person who performs the tasks associated with the job, but JC doesn't have a "second-in-command", never did. it just stuck that way. it sure doesn't mean anything. probably. how weird of JC though.

the Ghost General intrudes on Lotus Pier. There's a fight, JC tries to take down WN, WWX orders WN away from JC, JC freaks out. WWX keeps swearing up and down he's not WWX, honest!!! but... on the other hand... the Ghost General recognizes him as its his master... this is what breaks JC's hopes, finally, and also WWX's heart. You get JC crying as he asks WWX "are you really not him?" and WWX doing the equivalent of Cyrano's "No, my sweet love, I never loved you!" but for who he is, with less clear-cut emotional consequences than in the play (this is because WWX is not dying and thus more invested in keeping the lie up and JC is way less certain that WWX cares about him than Roxane did about Cyrano). They sort of compromise on the understanding that "MXY" is kinda-sorta WWX, but without most of WWX's memories. (WWX is telling himself that's not what he wanted but in fact he's much more comfortable/confident with himself and being in YMJ afterwards!) this is probably when WWX realizes that while his room may not exist anymore, his things are in JC's room.

JC struggles with this WWX being an innocent lamb who has no memory of doing anything wrong in his life ever. He should've expected it. How convenient. But, y'know, a WWX is a WWX, and this also extremely conveniently lets JC off the hook of this pesky "remember how he orphaned your nephew?" thing! It's mostly JC's own guilt now. Mostly. He's not going to do anything against WWX even if it wasn't anyway. Also it's. terrifying. Because WWX has no memory of him, but WWX is around, and also there isn't anyone to judge JC for wanting-- ANYWAY.

They end up having to leave Lotus Pier and catch up with the main plot when WWX gets a spider sense that WN is in trouble. There are no words to explain how little JC likes 1)that the Ghost General is still a thing, 2)that the Ghost General is still a thing when it comes to WWX, 3)that WWX is planning on leaving LP to help WN, so he comes with. WWX tries to convince him not to, but surprises himself by accepting JC's help when JC insists in a clipped tone. The trouble that WN got in also involves JL being in danger. This is my fic so it would turn out that WN tried to protect JL before WWX and JC caught up. Possibly JL and WN have been getting in plot-relevant shenanigans offscreen for a while now, and there's definitely a fic there, what with WN thinking A-Yuan is dead and projecting on JL and JL getting conflicted feelings about the person/thing that killed his father, but that's not the focus in this story. At some point - because by now he's pretty certain JC will not either kill him or reject him - WWX "admits" that his memory has been returning. Not all of it, but enough. If we're all very very lucky JL has been in sufficient danger that JC can lose his head a little and kiss WWX for saving JL's life, or something along these lines. If we're not lucky that part happens beyond the scope of these five things.

[northoftheroad]

Talking about how comic book characters don’t have agency, I recently read how Hank Pym of the Avengers, (Ant-man, Yellowjacket, Goliath etc) accidentally was made a wife-abuser. An artist mis-interpreting the script has coloured the stories about the character up to this day.

I kind of like Hank and his then partner Janet van Dyne (Wasp), and was sad to see their story take such a turn. Hank sure was never always a roaring success, but a smart man trying to work for justice but having mental health issues problems. Janet grew from a fun-loving girl in it for the love of adventures and of Hank, to an excellent team leader.

Avengers # 213

And now I see that if the artist had realised what the intention was, or if there had been time to redraw a panel, they could have had very different stories in the decades to follow. Yeah, I mourn the chance to read those stories. Because main-universe Hank Pym will always have that panel in his history, and later creators never tried to retcon or tone it down.

And I think… What if Batman creators had kept those panels of Bruce hitting Dick when he came to talk after Jason was killed relevant for storytelling going forward? Or for instance when he recently put Jason in a machine to make him scared when he has heightened adrenalin (or any of the other times he has mistreated his “family”)? If Batman had had to face consequences for things like that, what stories would we have seen?

The New Titans # 55 (one of several times when Bruce has hit Dick, as you know)

Batman vol 3 # 138

[mtkay13]

I accidentally sent a keysmash! I'm really sorry but I hope it can bring at least a laugh to you. I opened your askbox to make a consideration about TYK: I'm not sure if anyone has already talked about this, but I think Faraway Wanderers is a romcom with a wuxia subplot and not vice versa. I don't know how to articulate this more but I really feel like all the gruesome details make the romance humourous in a way (WWX and ZZS flirting often happens during very violent fights and the consequence is that you can't take neither the violence nor the romance very seriously) but also give depth to it thematically (the need of finding peace in one's own life as opposed to a lifetime of struggle and cruelty). It's like the wuxia setting is functional to the love story.

Helloooo!! Haha yeah the keysmash was very interesting hahaha, thank you for that <3 .

And thank you for bringing this up!! I have given it a bit of thought today, and I feel ready to respond now, haha.

First of all, it was great food for thought, and I personally think it's a great way to look at TYK.

There is definitely a play on genres within TYK, and I think that the wuxia-ness of the story is absolutely taking a backseat for the human relationships and dynamics to happen at the foreground. If anything, it initially does feel like an accessory or an artificial setting to put the characters in and let them do their thing while nearly ignoring most of the background plot during the story.

I also fully agree that there is a surprising lightness and a lot of humor in the way the story is presented; not only are WKX and ZZS quite funny, but the whole cast is often made fun of, turned into a joke--the LLJ (glazed armor) itself is a rather ridiculous McGuffin, and on top of that Priest really likes to tank her climaxes and emotional beats with either jokes or sudden events that both give whiplash and considerably defuse the tension (or outright turn the whole scene into a joke, LOL).

I think the twist I find in that is: WenZhou mostly deal with everything that happen in their lives with lightness because… it's what they are used to, it's maybe not that big of a deal, and it's also a way to not make it so serious when it threatens to be overwhelming. The extreme violence is normalcy, and it's that "casualness" that can suddenly make it jarring once recontextualized. The same way the wuxia genre is subverted in TYK (in the way the story doesn't follow the typical wuxia storyline, in the way some themes are turned on their heads), I'd argue that the romantic comedy genre is also subverted, and at times borders on…. tragedy, to be honest?

I feel like the latter part of the books, although some scenes like WKX's aborted confession (when he tells ZZS he'd like to spend the rest of his life with him, but then laughs it off like it was a joke, for the tone of the scene to then flip and be about the loss of WKX's parents); the scene where ZZS sings Li Sao, and many more later, and of course not to mention the entire last ark and extra 4---all of those passages send the message that actually, most of this was serious. In a way, those scenes, and the latter part, reframe the narrative to make that lightness serious, and as it turns out, the romance, the violence, all of that was serious and meant to be taken seriously.

The humor was there to cover for sorrow, frustration, disillusion, investment, and all of those more serious, deeper feelings. The ridiculous wuxia plot was no joke and was the core of WKX's entire life story. ZZS has a very serious backstory when it comes to attachement, to love, to commitment, and is going through a lot regarding his own ambitions, goals, and what living means to him, etc. On top of that, the wuxia story responds to Qi Ye's themes and storyline as well. So---the wuxia "subplot" is irrelevant until it becomes sadly relevant.

So to summarize… I almost want to say that it's a tragic love story set in a dramatic wuxia setting disguised as a romcom set in a setting of wuxia subversion, hahaha. Like you put it very well, actually; the way both genre are articulated around each other, and the way the romance and relationship between WenZhou take precedency over the wuxia narrative allows for it to be explored with depth.

I feel like the gradual deepening of seriousness is also to signify that, when people start mattering, when the characters care for each other, the events of the story start mattering in ways that they can't just be light and comical. The way the romantic comedy topes and the mockery of some wuxia archetypes only serve to amplify that and make it even stronger, more apparent, in contrast.

Anyway!!! Hahah thank you for raising those considerations and discussion points! I actually really wanted to engage properly and think about it thoroughly to the point I asked some people around to see what they thought and what they had to say as well. I really enjoyed it and I thought it was a great angle to go about the story. If you have anything you want to bounce off from this or feel like responding, I'd also be very, very pleased.

Many, many thanks for reaching out!!!!!!