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yayll · 10 months ago

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Hiii i hope you're feeling better soon :(( I was wondering if I could request a Dazai x reader fic where the reader has PTSD? Specifically, the beginning of autumn kind of triggers her (sorry if it's a confusing i dunno how to word it lol) Could it be fluff/comfort? Btw I love your writing style so badly so pls tweak the idea if you think it would work better! And no worries if you'd rather pass :33

hii angel i genuinely am sorry that this took me a while! (work and life happened a little more than usual, GOT SICK and barely had time to sit down and write.) it was so ivover but i am fine now thank u so much bub!

i REALLY hope you like this and that it's what u wanted, i've never written someone w PTSD before and i was just rlly hoping i didn't mess this characterization up for ur request ahhh. i had such a nice time writing it and i rlly wanted to explore the impact it could have around reader and dazai and him going out of his way even if it could be a little goofy and sappy to make u feel at least a little better even if u can't talk abt it.

i love uuuu thank u again! <3

~ a little something about Dazai noticing harmful patterns and loving you through them ~

He's been watching you sit by the window for the past half hour as you stare at what seems like the beginning of the new season outside. You were quieter than usual, more withdrawn and jumpy, which could only mean that you weren't sharing something with him- or rather having trouble processing something to the point where you didn't realize he could tell something inside you was on high alert.

Dazai would rather die than see you in such a state, especially during what's supposed to be such an exciting time of the year that's full of the things you usually love to do. Whatever is impeding you from enjoying the leaves falling has to be dealt with the most delicate of methods, but especially with love. If you taught him anything about the past haunting you to the point of mental distress, something he suffered bouts of every now and then when memories made days grow dark, it's that all you need is one person to truly witness you. Just like how you've seen the ugliest parts of him time and time again yet you still look at him with all the stars in the sky, stars he consumes like a black hole waiting to be filled.

Luckily for you, he has an arsenal of things he can try to soothe you with, because he wouldn't be a good detective AND boyfriend if he didn't keep all those context clues in his pocket for a bad day. Mainly though, he was just completely attuned to your every need. You are his happiness, and your wellness isn't up for debate: It's mandatory. He stands up from the loveseat with a deep exhale as he walks over to you, his lips curled in a lazy smile as he tests the waters to see what you could need from him without asking.

"You know, if you stay any more still I could probably paint you like one of those fancy paintings. What do you say, be my model?"

You look over at him from the window, and he can visibly tell you haven't been at ease lately. He suddenly realizes he's just fallen even more in love with you. That there is nothing in this world that could ever let him see you as anything but his heart.

You murmur, a faint smile decorating your serene face.

"Mm, I'm not sure. I don't think I could pose for that long, you know? It would probably be hard to catch my likeness, heh."

He clicks his tongue and rolls his eyes with a playful smirk. Oh how he wants to lean in and worship your likeness with his loving touch, but he decides to take it easy on the physical affection for now, not until he knows you're feeling up for it. He can be a good boy, something he usually isn't.

"Well, I wouldn't mind being the brave young knight who tries~ Shall we take this outside for better lighting?"

You instantly don't give him a good reaction to that. You shrug, seeming conflicted and unsure of yourself, but unable to really bring yourself to explain with words, something uncharacteristic of you.

No problem! Dazai thinks to himself. If you don't want to go outside, he can bring outside to you in the comfort of home. He'll enhance your safe space, and tailor it to just what you need. He hums, tapping his temple in an exaggerated manner as if he were thinking really hard and when he sees that it gets a small giggle out of you, he knows he's on the right track.

"Hm, I know what we should do instead. Wait here, angel.~"

He disappears into the hallway and you sit there as the sound of cabinets opening and rummaging around fills the air. You smile to yourself, and shake your head at the mental image of Dazai becoming a tornado to find whatever he's looking for right now, hoping he doesn't make too much of a mess. You fidget with your hair, twirling it in between your fingers as you take a deep grounding breath while you wait.

A moment later, he comes back with what seems like art supplies and a ton of mini candlesticks.

He knows you're intrigued when you tilt your head in confusion, but then again that's probably just the confusion... Dazai sets down two canvases along with the candles, flashing you a mischievous grin. If you couldn't process your feelings through words, art was always there! You look over the activities he's laid out for you both, awaiting his silver tongued explanation.

"You know when I want to be the little spoon but I don't say anything?"

You laugh softly, and nod.

"Mhm, you get all moody and weird."

He nods back, a half smile on his face as he rests his hands on his hips. He wants to tell you that the only reason he even knew such intimate luxuries is because you showed him that he's worthy of it, of being loved, but he doesn't say anything. He lets the sweet memories between you swim through his mind as fuel for the day he's trying to create for you. His voice sounds more like he's talking out loud now, lost in a thought..

"You make me moody and weird. You also make me want to grab your soft little face and just..."

He then snaps back to the moment, and his tone picks up.

"... But alas, there is no time to waste! Come, sit, I'll get the other things ready.~"

He zooms off to the kitchen, and your heart softens at how much he fusses over you, though you also hope you aren't being too much. You know he'd hate to hear that, so you simply sit down and look over the supplies you had honestly forgotten you had.

Dazai makes tea, because he knows it helps with your fidgeting and you like how the mug feels in your hands, he also begins to set the candle sticks all over the living room, lighting them one by one. You flash him a look of faint concern.

"Feels like Dracula's castle. You sure this is safe, Osamu?"

He simply grins impishly.

"It's called 'mood lighting', cutie. There is an atmosphere to be created!"

"Yeah, and possibly a wildfire."

"Boo, you're no fun. Besides, that sounds like a problem for future us. We live in the moment."

Dazai would never risk your safety and you know that, which is why you don't push the topic any further.

You two settle in, the candles illuminating you both with a warm flame that feels more comforting than you'd like to admit, you feel yourself becoming more immersed in the random little doodles and brush strokes you create as you both talk for hours about literally nothing while sipping on your tea. Nothing feels nice, for once and Dazai can see it in the way you slowly become less and less tense. So mindful, so beautiful.

After you fill your canvas, you set it down, and peer over at Dazai's.

"What'd you paint?"

He smiles sheepishly, and hides his.

"Not finished yet. No peeking!"

He stands up and in one swift motion, runs outside, while leaving you bewildered at the spontaneity of the situation. A few moments later, he runs back inside, huffing with his arms behind his back. He sits back down on the floor with you, criss crossed. He grabs his canvas, and puts something on it as he slowly unveils his work to you.

It's a single crisp leaf he must have plucked from the grass when it fell, the orange and reddish hue placed on the canvas that shows a cartoonishly painted tree as well. He murmurs, eyes trained lovingly on you but with that familiar playful tone.

"I wanted you to get a little air. It's good for one's mood, you know."

You slowly take the leaf, and twiddle it in your thumb as you begin to smile to yourself. You mutter back.

"The weather changes, moods change, it's so overwhelming sometimes..."

He slowly leans in a little closer and places a hand on the small of your back, inching you closer to him too. He wants to distract you from those thoughts affecting you, but it's getting harder when all he can think about is how much you affect him. He whispers.

"My mood never changes, you're the most precious thing I have ever seen all year round."

You look up at him, your eyes communicating what you feel, and he picks up on it with a silent confirmation. You hold each other's gaze for a long quiet moment and when you feel ready you lean into his chest, nuzzling into him. He envelops you in a hug that feels like the remedy you've been searching for this whole time, and it almost brings you to tears. You don't know it also does the same to him. He gives you a soft squeeze and leans down to your ear, his warm breath feeling like the way life is supposed to feel. You mumble, your voice slightly muffled against him.

"Thank you, Osamu. Love you."

He smiles at that. To be something so soothing to you, to be of use for once in his life, it's a feeling that he could never describe. He'll have to find the words when he covers you in kisses from head to toe later, when he makes sure you feel the full extent of his devotion to you through thick and thin. He exhales deeply.

"Change of season, change of mind... It doesn't matter to me. It's still you. It will always be you."

#i like soft dazai i NEED soft dazai #he's learned through you how to cultivate and nurture a relationship even if he doesnt always know what to so to help #but he sure has an archive in his brain on you and thats enough for him to use #HE IS SILLY AND SAPPY AND GOOFY AND ALSO ALWAYS BRAIN ROTTED THINKING ABT YOU #also respecting ur boundaries if ur going through a tough time when it comes to physixal touch that was important to me #he is a grabby little freak but he knows when and where to do that #he loves u THATS IT #softzai domestizai mwah #THANK U FOR THIS REQUEST ANON U SWEET ANGEL #was kinda thinking abt twilight new moon when i wrote this that segment where bellas absolutely catatonic by her window except...#she has no edward to comfort her wjdjejnd what a freak #bungou stray dogs #osamu dazai #dazai x reader #bsd dazai #anon #dazai x you #osamu dazai x reader #bsd x reader #dazai imagines #dazai fluff #dazai osamu #requests #bungo stray dogs #gn reader #asks #fanfic #bsd fluff #osamu dazai fluff

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sunrisecaminus · 5 months ago

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Tfp Megatron with autobot fem bot reader who tries to dom him but quickly fails 😭 nsfw of course

Message - This is a great idea, I laughed just thinking about it.

Megatron x Vehicon Reader NSFW

Summary - Decepticon Soldier tries to over power her leader. This was plan that she regrets later.

Warning - NSFW

You have been known as a favorite amongst the lower ranks. Megatron has seen you since before the war and you were one of the many first bots to go into the Decepticon Faction. He has been proud of your work and you have been ranked as a Sargent, being able to take charge of your own little Vehicon group. You are still known as a low rank Vehicon, even Breakdown is higher then you. It was a nice rank, not to low and not to high for you to be stressed about and not have too much work. Megatron still respects you as an individual, and doesn't put you in with the other soldiers. You are one of the rare few that could tease Megatron without dying first, which is always an amazing accomplishment.

Starscream, of course, hates you and tries to get you in trouble a lot of the time (If he cares about how much you are succeeding). There was one time he shot a missel, which totally destroyed a mine shaft and blamed it on you. At the time he had a lot of evidence to frame you, so Megatron was surprised you would do something so impactful for their war efforts, but was furious. Thank Primus you quickly explained the situation before he got close enough to hit you, because if you didn't, you would not be here today. After that incident, Megatron asks you if something was true before he gets pissed off. It was also one of the many reasons he doesn't trust Starscream with any report, so he lets Soundwave handle them. Megatron didn't think about you a lot in the beginning of the war; You were nothing to him like every other mech that was not in the high command. Now a days, you have caught his attention a lot more than he wanted to admit. Every mission you have was a 90% success rate, you returned to the ship at good times, and you never got caught most of the time. The one thing he liked about you as well was your personality, cocky, confident, and had a sharp tongue when it comes to wit. He figures he wouldn't be too angry if you were injured, but damn would he be disappointed about it. He has enough patience with you as much as he does with Soundwave, which was pretty good for a soldier like you. The only time he got physical with you was when he was blinded by rage and almost threw you off a cliff, but you soothed him before he could do any damage he would regret later. Megs wasn't even mad about something you did, and after what happened he knew he needed help with his anger problems…and how he uses his strength.

Right now, he was called by Starscream that Optimus was in the area he has been scouting and the soldiers are fighting his squad. Megatron transported there as fast as he could, as it has been a few months since he was able to face his mortal enemy. After the fight, he was told the total death and injure count of what happened at the battle. It was a tie between them, as both had to retreat from the unstable rocky cliffs they were fighting on. Megatron hated draws, it was worse then losing in his mind. He was already not in a good mood when Starscream was bragging about his fighting skills, when he spots you from far away, trapped in between some rocks. Your left leg and arm was trapped, but you didn't want to call for help because you felt like it would make you look weak in front of Megatron if you told him. As you were attempting to carve the rock, your body starts to be covered by a large shadow that is coming from behind you. Turning around, you gasp from Megatron being right there in front of you. "My liege! You do not have to worry about me, sir. I will be able to get out soon." Now you were sweating from him watching you struggle, as you carved a bit of the rock that was pressing against your arm. He stood up straight and stayed where he was, not wanting to help you just yet. "Which one put you in this predicament?" Laughing nervously from the question you get your arm free. "That yellow car, Bumblebee. He didn't have the spark to end me, so he left when he knew I couldn't fight anymore." Megatron rolled his eyes, hating how much of a coward those Autobots were. Thought, he was glad that nothing fatal came your way.

You feel the rock on your leg gets picked up, Megatron throwing it to the side. "Oh, thank you sir. What do we do now? We can try to catch up to them." Megatron was surprised you were still ready to fight; Your leg was bent a bit, but he could see you clench the knife in your hand to show him you still had fight in you. "No, we will take the injured and get Knockout to do his job. Tomorrow we can start tracking for their base again. We must be close." Megatron turns and walks away, ending the conversation to go through the ground bridge that Soundwave just placed next to him. You go with him and is sent to Knockout to help you with your leg. Knockout tends to you, and you laid there to think about what else you can do today. Your leader is a very grumpy mech that seems to want to do something else other than fight. He seemed bored for so long, wanting something knew to happen. Earth got him motivated again, but after staying here for a few years, he has been getting back to feeling like the days are going by slower. You finally got a risky idea…hopefully you don't die for this plan. Knockout watches your expression changes into a smirk and he sighs. "Don't do anything stupid, I just buffed you."

Megatron was walking in the hallways to go back to the brig, the doors open and he finds something that bewildered him. Soundwave was gone for a mission with others so the only person that was in the room was you. You were sitting on his thrown, knees spread with your back lazily leaning back on the chair. You gave him a smirk, which made him tilt his head. You never did something like this before, it was crazy to see one of his best soldiers do something that would have them killed in seconds. The fact he is able to compose himself, trying to understand what you are doing before he blasts you out of the fucking chair. "What is the meaning of this?" He sounds like he was keeping his cool. Megs hopes to Primus you weren't turning into another Starscream and has a trap for him if he stepped closure. You cross your legs together in a slow, sassy way. "You don't like it? I wanted to protect your space so some jet wouldn't try to steal it again." His eyebrow raised, knowing you were lying out your ass. You did look good right now, but you always did to him. "I feel as though there is something more than that." He walks over to you and stands a foot away from his chair, staring at you like you were not suppose to be there. "I understand you wanted something different, so I thought maybe I could give you some sort of surprise. Nothing more." You brush your pede against his lower leg, rubbing against it to be more sensual while you talked. Megatron now understands what you were doing and narrowed his optics. What a curious little doll trying to act like she owns the place to make him feel such a warm way. You were doing something he knew was a life or death situation, which was a surprise to him how daring you were.

The second you try to raise your leg more to rub against his upper leg, you feel his hand quickly grab you by the throat. You yelped from such a quick motion as you are raised in the air and put against the wall. The fear set in, but his free servo touching your hip got you to know that you won. "What a snake you are, y/n." Megatron grumbles in your ear, feeling him press himself against you. You needed to try to get your way again, so you glide your servo on his cheek to try and keep your dominance, though it was lost immediately when he bit down on it when he felt you. The scream that comes out of your mouth made him understand you quit. Megatron chuckles and licks the mark he gave to you on your palm. "How dare you try to get your way with me like that. You need to know your place." He flips you around, so now you are facing the wall with him behind you. He presses you against the ship, rubbing your aft with his other servo. You moan from the pressure, arching your back a little to show him how much you are loving this. Megatron smirks and pops his panel, pressing his spike in between your legs. Gasping from the sudden touch, you desperately try to open your panel for him, wanting him inside of you this second. He watches every movement you make, looking at your valve coming into light as you play around with it to tease him. The more you toyed with him, the more he was going to be a bit rougher. He slaps your aft which made you straight yourself again and keep your hands against the wall. "You are so disrespectful to your leader. Why don't you relax and let me do the job."

You were going to say something cocky, when his spike is shoved inside your tight valve, making you scream. Grabbing your hip with one servo while gripping your helmet with the other, he pounds you like there was no tomorrow. He loved destroying you like you deserved it, honestly he was starting to feel better than how he was a few hours ago. Watching your valve closing and stretching over and over was putting him in a entranced spell. You released, but he kept going like he didn't even know you just cam. Everything became a lot more sensitive and you started to just become a moaning mess. If anyone was in the hallways next to the room, they could probably hear you screaming, even if the walls are thick. Megatron would keep going until it was his time to cum, but that was going to take while. You feel yourself cumming for the second time, and you needed him to stop from how much you were feeling right now. Your sensitivity was through the roof and he was still pounding your valve without slowing down. "Ah! Megs! S-slow dow-ah!". He hears you begging for him and he quickened the pace. Your back was fully arched and your head was pushed against the wall a bit more before he slams inside you for the last time, jamming all his juices inside of you. He pulls out and takes a breather, letting go oh your helm to let you relax. Your body drops on the floor, your ass aching from the abuse it just went through. Panting, you try to get up with your pedes shakily pressing against the ship's floor. Seeing you struggle, he grabs your frame and carries you off somewhere. You didn't know where he was going, until he places you down on his birth. Holy scrap, you were in the warlords birth room. You looked over to see him open the door again. He looks back at you and gives you a cocky smile. "Stay there, I am not done with you." He leaves, making you lay there to regret all your choices up until this point.

#maccadam #tfp #transformers #transformers x reader #transformers prime #transformers x y/n #valveplug #megatron x reader #megatron

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directdogman · 1 year ago

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Dogman, how do you write SO WELL!?!? I love all your characters and I need to know what/where you find inspo from...

Ha. Every writer is just someone who apes the creative processes of their inspirations. For video game writing specifically, there's two answers for me.

Toby Fox is always gonna be a huge inspiration for me. I've written plots and characters before and had to abandon ideas after realizing I'd accidentally written part of UT again. Even some of the ideas I used were undeniably inspired by UT in a subconscious way and ofc, I included several explicit references to UT in my last series. Toby's a very clever guy who likely pays very close attention to the art he consumes and tries to figure out how to maximize how much his work connects with his audience. Whatever his process is, it works.

The other answer is a lil funnier: Scott Cawthon, but specifically the legend, not the man. For context: Back in the earlier days of the FNaF fandom, people had a hyper-inflated view of Scott Cawthon's writing skills that largely came from how little of a presence he had back in those days. In the vacuum of Scott actually explaining his own process in detail, people got caught up in his genuinely creative way of hiding exposition in his games using cryptid and (then) unexpected methods, and a narrative formed (one that he's since refuted.)

While he never implied it tmk, fans broadly believed that he constructed these sweeping and complex narratives with tons of cohesive moving parts, with the games essentially acting like the mere tip of his lore iceberg. People even thought he wrote so much that he had whole games worth of lore outlined from the beginning! In the first Dawko interview he gave, he clarified that this wasn't the case and explained roughly what his process was (basically just outlining rough theme ideas + aesthetics for future titles.)

However, that legend made younger-me's mind run wild and any time I wrote a story, it became very difficult for me to not keep writing down ideas while completing the grunt work that followed me finishing my scripts. When I finished DSaF 1, I already had DSaF 2's draft written and by the time 2 was done, I had enough lore for a 3rd game on paper (and a lot more stuff that I didn't use.) By the time three was out, I had pages upon pages of unused concepts/story ideas and more or less just had to decide to call it quits or else I'd be pumping out entries forever!

That's why if you go back to those older games, there's references that directly refer to future plot-points in pretty casual/easy to miss ways. (Like Henry's mention in DSaF 1, Dave being heartless in DSaF 2, Jack being soulless in 1, and even Blackjack being Jack's soul in 2. Most of 3's major plotpoints are implied somewhere in 2 and some of 2's in 1.)

DT is much the same. By the time I finished writing it, I had fairly detailed drafts for arcs for each of the characters, some early material ended up getting completely recontextualized (and even modified in small ways to not conflict with the wider ideas I came up with.)

I get really into writing my stories/characters and I always wonder exactly how things ended up where they are, what characters think about but don't say, etc etc. This is why I have an obscene amount of Crown lore that I have very little to do with rn (since he impacted the whole world so deeply.)

This extra stuff also includes plenty of sequel material ideas, though I didn't think I'd even get a chance to use them since DT performed pretty meagerly before the big release and I was expecting to have to move onto something new. Though it turned out that Scott didn't actually write his games this way (by his own admission), it's the correct answer for what my core writing inspiration for writing game narratives is.

Hope this helps!

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thelibraryoflightandflowers · 26 days ago

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The Pain

When Azriel feels the mating bond, even though his mate is dead, it sends him into a spiral that no one seems to be able to pull him out of. Part 13 of 'The Hunter'.

Read on Ao3

Link to Masterlist (for parts 1-12)

Azriel was so tired of everyone around him acting like he had lost his mind. He knew what he felt. He didn’t understand it, but he knew what had happened. He’d felt the mating bond somehow, even after his mate had died.

He’d spent every minute he could of the last week in Velaris’ library, trying to find anything he could on mating bonds. He’d found nothing; at least nothing that could explain why he felt the mating bond again after his mate had died.

Cassian and Rhys had been doing more harm than good over the past week, both worried that this was a sign that Azriel had finally snapped. He knew that they were whispering behind one of the nearby shelves thanks to his shadows as he sat at a table in the library.

“What’s your call? Do we tell Madja?” Cassian murmured.

“Maybe it’s time that we ask Helion for advice. I think this is out of our area of expertise, and may even be too much for Madja to handle. Losing your mate has a devastating impact on any fae, but to lose them in the way that Az did…Fuck, Cass, I don’t know what to do to fix this.” Rhys whispered back.

“Or, you could stop whispering when I can hear you and ask Helion if he knows why it happened.” Azriel calls out, fed up with the judgment.

He wasn’t broken, at least not anymore. He didn’t need his brothers to ‘fix’ him.

Cassian and Rhys sheepishly came out from behind the shelf and sat across from him at his table. He motioned for them to pick up one of the books on the table and start reading, but instead they looked at each other and then back at him in a way that had him sighing and putting his own book down.

“What?” he demanded, already ready for the conversation that they were beginning to be over.

“Az…You know we love you, and we aren’t saying that we don’t believe you. We just think that you need more support than we can give you right now. We don’t know how to help you.” Rhys placated.

“You clearly don’t believe me; at least be honest about that, Rhys.” Azriel cuts back.

Rhys sighs in response.

“Fine. I don’t believe you. I think that you need help that we don’t know how to give right now, and…I’m scared.” he stares down at the table as he speaks.

“Look, Az, the mating bond snaps when you die. Everyone knows that. There is no way that you actually felt it again.” Cassian adds, at least being bold enough to look Azriel in the eyes as he does.

Azriel looks at both of his brothers for a moment.

“I’m going to my cabin. Don’t come check on me, just leave me alone.” he stalks to the door, ignoring Rhys and Cassian’s pleas for him to stop.

He just barely gets to the door before Rhys swoops down in front of it, wings flaring.

“Az, I’m sorry, but you’re not leaving to go hide in your cabin by yourself. I can’t…I can’t trust you to do that right now. I, or Cass, or whoever you want can come with you if you really want to go, but you shouldn’t be by yourself right now.” Rhys is using the High Lord voice that he knows Azriel hates.

“Get out of my way, Rhys.” Azriel snaps.

He’s so tired of them getting in his way, in his business, in his mental health. He just wants some space from the overbearing Inner Circle while he decides what to do next for a few days.

“Az, come on, let us help.” Cassian barks from behind him, obviously fed up with what he perceives as Azriel refusing to let anyone help him.

“Why can’t you just give me some fucking space?” Azriel explodes, pushing past Rhys and flying out of the library, his two brothers hot on his heels.

He winnows to his cabin before Rhys can get there, dropping through the wards. He hears Rhys and Cassian land just outside of them, but the wards do their job; they stop short.

“Azriel. Enough. This isn’t safe for you right now; we don’t want you to feel trapped, but you can’t stay here alone. Can Mor come stay with you, or Feyre? Please?” Cassian calls out to him.

“No.” Azriel calls back over his shoulder as he walks to his cabin.

He shuts the door, and ignores the sound of his brothers yelling at him through the wards.

Rhys and Cassian had left after about an hour of yelling at him; he had to admire their determination. He’d been curled up by the fire for the past few hours, reading some of the books he’d brought up here from the library before Rhys and Cassian had tried to stop him.

A few of them had mentioned meditation as a way to improve the strength of a mating bond, and with the warmer weather he thought it might be worth a try to go and meditate outside.

He walked through the nearby forest to a small river he normally liked to exercise by, sitting on its bank. He tried to concentrate on the hole that the mating bond had filled in his chest, on the feeling of the connection between him and his mate, on pushing his thoughts and feelings on a golden string again.

He sat for half an hour, breathing deeply, focusing on the echo of that golden string.

There was nothing.

He sat until his legs were stiff, until the sun had set beyond the horizon, until he knew that he needed to go back inside or he’d freeze. He sighed, standing up slowly, wincing at the pain in his legs.

The walk back to the cabin was a long, silent one. It felt like the last shred of hope that he’d been clinging to had vanished, and his chance at happiness again along with it.

He walked through the door, shutting it behind him, and slumped to the ground. He knew that he needed to change out of his wet clothes before he caught something, but moving felt like too large a task for the moment.

What if he really had imagined it?

You

“Fucking leave him alone!” You knew that yelling would do nothing; it didn’t stop you from screaming until your voice was gone.

This, watching your mate slowly deteriorate before your eyes, was worse than any pain you’d ever experienced, even worse than having to leave him behind in the first place. You didn’t know how this male was doing it, but you somehow knew that it was his fault.

“Why should I, human? You’re not as entertaining as I thought you’d be.” The male responds without even looking in your direction.

You rattle the bars of your cell in frustration.

He laughs, “Don’t worry, human. This is only the beginning.”.

Taglist: @donnadiddadog @chicaconfundidaycuriosa @sunfloweryoufeast

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kcdodger · 3 months ago

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Starfield: A review by KCDodger.

No game has ever touched me the way Starfield has. I firmly believe that it is Bethesda's greatest product and achievement, but I've been here before. I've explained it many times to many people why Starfield is good, actually… but, will you listen?

Maybe this time it'll be different. Maybe this time I can change things. Maybe not.

Starfield is every bit as good as No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous, or whatever other space game you've spent hours on. In the following overview, I am going to use a series of shapes to represent what each game does, and doesn't have.

Starfield: ⬤ Star Citizen: ■ Elite: Dangerous: ▲ No Man's Sky: ⬧

I need you to trust me when I say that I am being objective about this. Starfield does have its problems, but they have been exaggerated. I really do mean that. So, let's begin.

Interesting Worlds - ⬤ ▲⬧ Well thought out Characters - ⬤ ▲ A good story - ⬤ A thoughtfully constructed universe - ⬤ ■ ▲ ⬧ Good Gunplay - ⬤ Good Piloting - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧ In depth Ship Customization - ⬤ ▲⬧ Replayability - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧ Roleplaying Mechanics - ⬤ Base Building - ⬤ ▲(colonization counts honestly) ⬧ Meaningful Progression - ⬤ ▲⬧ Character Customization - ⬤ ▲ ■ Loading Screens - ⬤ ■ ▲⬧

Starfield's not lacking in any of these.

Worlds

Starfield is rife with beautiful worlds that are absolutely photo-worthy, and all of them are procedurally generated outside of specific instances. If you think Star Citizen's are not procedurally generated, you really may want to think that one over. Core instances are not, but the rest absolutely is. (Probably serverside. But you know not every mountain and field is hand crafted.) Starfield's biggest problem there is that it has such a limited array of POIs and interactions. Yeah, it's really weird to find a cave with bones on Luna, and there really should be measures to prevent that. But, that's what happens when you build a single player game designed to compete with overhuge MMOs. I'd have narrowed Starfield's focus quite a bit were I in charge. Be that as it may, my gallery of amazing sights only grows.

I can not overstate the level of achievement Bethesda managed to pull off here, with Starfield's "Settled Systems". The amount of thought and effort put into each planet's properties, orbits, the ways they interact with each other, it's some really mind boggling stuff. Elite's is easily the best of that, but their engine is designed for it.

Somehow, Starfield did that on Creation. I still do not know how.

Characters

Constellation's cast is fantastic. As is The Vanguard's. The Freestar Rangers are great too. UC Sysdef and Crimson Fleet are if nothing else, memorable, and Ryujin's characters, while honestly odd in the context of a space exploration game, was really good too.

I don't know many characters from Elite. Everything they do happens in the background with no meaningful impact on the world. I've never heard of a character from Star Citizen, and No Man's Sky is anathema to the concept of characters. All three of those games are big open worlds where you and the other players are characters. I know that NPCs you can run into in NMS are apparently memorable, but nobody's ever given me a name.

But I can tell you the story of Sam Coe, a single father who's really struggling with it. I can tell you about Andreja, the displaced member of House Va'ruun. I could go on about Sarah Morgan, a woman who's had a lifetime of adventures in the last decade. Goodness knows I can talk to you about Barrett. That's just four examples. They're very well acted, well thought out, meaningfully interactive characters. They'll call back to actions of yours, things you've said, even their romances feel really good. I'm a very married woman who loves my wife very much, and it's actually quite impressive to me how genuine the acting and presentation of interpersonal relationships feels. Given the game is about how we all effect one another, how we deal with loss, moving on with the world and life, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but the characters of Starfield deserve recognition. I really like them all, even the utter bastards.

Story

Elite doesn't really have a story. It has a developing narrative that the devs guide gently. Yeah, the Thargoid invasion happened and those of us who participated in it had an effect - but to say it's a story is… lacking, I think. Star Citizen wholly lacks one, and frankly I'm not sure what No Man's Sky's is.

Starfield, though? Starfield is about discovering a mystery beyond your comprehension, but you get wrapped up in it. Starfield is about becoming part of something more and meeting new people, about learning who they are and what they've been through. You're likely the youngest gun in Constellation outside of Cora Coe, but your accompanying cast is all in their 30s and 40s, some even beyond that in their 50s and 60s. Walter Stroud is a rare character that way. I know this is the story section, but I have to go off about how aged a majority of the case is. Nobody's truly new to the job, but everyone's going into this mystery unprepared and ill equipped. The characters are all mature, and have beliefs and convictions informed by their lives.

You end up discovering what the story about the artifacts is, what they lead to, why they're being collected. It's a cosmic mystery without much of a definitive answer, but the answer really lies in how it makes you feel. On my main, I won't go into NG+. but going through just one NG+ has left a profound impact on me… and that's not even getting into what happened to me when The Death, occurred.

Few games have made me stop everything to put it all down and cry. Starfield has, and continues to. Fallout can make me sad, The Elder Scrolls can make me think and maybe even be mad, but Starfield can make me cry.

Universe

Elite, NMS, and Star Citizen do all have well thought out universes with factions and characters and gameplay that is informed by it. I won't deny that. It'd be intellectually dishonest to assert otherwise. Elite's is far future and a bit blase to me, Star Citizen's world is… I mean as unfinished as the product, and truth be told I know little about NMS' world. But I do know about Starfield's.

Starfield's world, its universe (and beyond) is a NASA Kid's playground (Hi, that's me! NASA kid! Through and through.) Starfield is for the stargazer. For the kid who wanted to be an astronaut, who wanted to be aboard a space shuttle. Starfield is for that person. It isn't for the person looking for a sci-fi military epic or a huge war, it's about the wonder of space, and the universe informs that. I could go on about the "Set design" of the ships, particularly Nova Galactic's interiors (AUUGGHH SO GOOD), about how the food is all thoughtfully packaged, about how the CHUNKS brand is inspired by existing space foods (technically, it ought to be some kind of hexagonal shape. But a cube of Sauvingon is just… chef's kiss), about how the spacesuits are big, baggy, clunky. About how almost every door is an airlock (even if that IS annoying!). The whole world is built around not just exploring space, but living in it. Which I just… don't get from the other games, who feel Transient by comparison. It's such a shame then, that Starfield's outpost building is quite lackluster.

Gunplay

I can not speak to NMS' gunplay, so I will not. Last I played it, it had about ten weapons or something. Elite: Dangerous' gunplay? Don't even bother, it's hot ass. I'm sorry, but Odyssey's release is seen as the game's lowest point for a reason. Star Citizen's? I've dawdled with it, it's very whatever, fairly standard. Oh, but Starfield…

I love Starfield's gunplay. Oh my goodness. As a shooter, it plays wonderfully. The control you have over your character can be iffy, but actually pointing and shooting feels really good. The best any gunplay in a Bethesda game has ever felt, and given how good Fallout 4's felt, that's actually quite impressive. It's helped quite a bit by how fun and interesting many of the gun designs are (and how bizarre some are. No, there are no square bullets in Starfield, you have been lied to, big surprise.) I will complain that there's definitely a set of guns Bethesda *wants* you to use... but that doesn't mean they aren't all a joy to shoot. Except the Disruptor that thing's feel is just garbage.

Piloting

Every single game on this list has good Space Combat. Elite's is thorough and well thought out, Star Citizen's is fast and arcadey (it is), and No Man's Sky is casually simple, accessible and fun. (It reminds me of Starlink.) and Starfield's is also very simple. It's quite ambitious, though, and it does something that none of the other do. It's not that you can disable ships system by system. It's not that you can enter a VATS-like targeting mode to do so. It's not that you can allocate power ala the old X-Wing games and contemporary sims. It's not that you have full control of your movement in all directions and can even maintain heading while turning. It's that you can do all of that, while near-seamlessly boarding with an enemy craft at any time, once you've taken their engines and shields out. I can't put into words how bonkers that is, dear reader. Because not only can you do all the regular space combat stuff, even if it is SLIGHTLY simplified, but you can use all - all the ground stuff you use, in space, when boarding an enemy ship. You don't enter another map, either. No. Yeah, your ship interior probably deloads, but the battle in space rages on outside. The world outside does not stop existing while you clean out an enemy ship (and if you took out their grav drive, you get to even fight in Zero-G aboard a ship, it's VERY cool!). The world continues. Yes, this is true for Star Citizen. But I'm pretty sure you can't do any of that in No Man's Sky, and Elite is honestly just pathetic this way. No shot has ever been fired aboard a ship in the ten years Elite's been alive, but Starfield's ships are riddled with bulletholes. And you can take them. You can own them. You can do hijacking, piracy, you can scrap the ship for parts, sell it, you can loot the contraband the pirates had - reader, that is not something you can do in any of the other games. Not even Star Citizen, because the mechanics in Starfield work consistently, and it's a finished product. Starfield is not scamming you. I can not emphasize enough how excellent the interplay between ships and the space combat itself is. What's even crazier is you're not glued to your seat. You can just... get up. At any point. No, you can't EVA - that does suck! But you don't really need to at any point, as funny as being a bug on a windshield would be. All of this interacts seamlessly with all those RPG mechanics. It's actually insane to me, and they did this on the engine that powered Morrowind. The one everyone keeps saying that they need to replace. I have no true idea what smoke and mirrors make everything work, but I do know that when my camera's clipped around, there are people walking around in my ship while I am flying in any of those eight degrees I can move in. I'm sure the trick has to do with only one ship having a "Real" interior at a time, but it is actually wild to me that they still got all of that rotating in space realistically within the player's reasonable perception. Starfield also lacks Elite's Engineering and unlike SC, is a finished product so... that puts it into the best here, for me, in this category especially.

Ship Customization

Nobody does it as good as Starfield and I'm going to be blunt. Yeah, you can equip whatever modules you want on the ship frames you buy in Elite, yeah you can tweak the ships in Star Citizen, yeah there are even custom ships you can play with in No Man's Sky now. But every... single part in Starfield, is customizable. Color, rotation, position, no matter what you want you can make it work. It does all get blocky and funnily shaped, but it all works. The habs exist inside and out, the geometry can be walked on, you can fit in the gaps of your ship... You can color your ship, name it, rearrange it any which way you want, you can decorate the interior and it'll stay that way (Gods Forbid you move a window, though, whups.), it's actually insane. The thing is, these ships exist inside and out, fully traversible. Elite cannot do that. NMS only does that with bigger ships. Star Citizen can do that, but it's just not a finished product and what, you buy the ships for actual money? Are you really going to spend ninety dollars for a low-mid grade ship with the paintjob you want? For an unfinished game..? Starfield has none of those problems. Yeah, you have to load into the ship but it's a short load, and the outside world continues to exist. It's a non issue. The customization is out of this world. Now, I will be real. There are issues. You don't have strict control of the doors and ladder placement. That is bad. That must be added. But the customization in this game is genuinely astounding. I can't get enough of it.

Replayability

Starfield has a genuine, narrative driven New Game Plus. It's really cool and it's really good. Anyone who gripes about the fact you lose money and weapons and ships - are sort of missing the point of a NG+ anyway. So long as you like Starfield - any game really - it's very replayable. Are E:D and SC replayable? Well, you can always load them again or start a fresh character, but the persistent universes makes that kind of a doozy. I do know that NMS has a kind of reset once you get to the center of the universe, so if you like NMS, it's very replayable too. But yes. Starfield's replayability is very good. Lots to shoot, lots to loot, lots to do.

Roleplaying Mechanics

Starfield is Bethesda's best Roleplaying game. Elite, NMS and SC, are not Roleplaying Games strictly. You may play a role, but it is not necessarily roleplaying. It's hard to be nonlethal, it's hard to be a talk-first-shoot-later character, but you can flavor your game any number of ways. You can smuggle and trade goods, you can play delivery person, you can play mercenary, bounty hunter, you name it. You can even be a lawman, soldier for hire, any number of things, and there are dialogue options, skills, modifiers, even literal powers, one of which lets you see what the other NPC is GOING to say, to facilitate your style of play. Starfield is a true, honest Roleplaying game. It's one of the most easily accessible space RPGs out there, too. If you want a Space Roleplaying game, it's this one.

Base Building

I will level with you. Starfield has an intricate Base Building system that is honestly needlessly complex but if you really like that kind of thing it's pretty intense. And tedious. Much moreso than Fallout 4's base building and truth be told not nearly as rewarding. It is a step backwards... If only for the reason that you can't build an actual colony. The biggest reason to build an outpost is for infrastructure and manufacturing. To what end? This is one of the moments where I believe the vestigial bones of Starfield comes into play. They wanted fuel to be a mechanic, they wanted outposts to be important, they wanted you to network your way through the settled systems. I am simultaneously glad and sad that these features were left on the cutting room floor, because it would have been really cool, but it also would have been very tedious. There's an entire faction - LIST, they even have a quest that introduces you to them, where their whole thing is about buiding colonies on the fringes of Settled Space... and the game just does nothing with them. It kinda' sucks. I hope they add that stuff someday. I'd like to play a version of Starfield where I do actually need those enormous fuel tanks.

Progression

Every quest has a good end reward. You can level into the actual thousands (though, ~314 is where you're going to have every skill maxed out!), and Starfield is pretty cumulative by nature. So much so, that you can very easily run into long term storage problems. Very few containers have limitless mass (and it's why armor and weapon stands are great, because they can store limitless ammo and a few guns. Great way to reduce mass taken in your cargo hold!). Starfield has an issue with inventory. Everything has weight. Some things are stupidly heavy. It's not the most enjoyable system and will pressure you into building an outpost/depot to store your stuff eventually, but that takes resources and Bethesda saw fit to add the *entire* perodic table into the game as harvestable materials. There are 108 crafting materials in the game, and you can't make guns, armor or clothing and that is honestly bizarre to me. Amazing game with some odd choices. But the character progression really is fantastic. Instead of linear "You do more damage!" perks (it does have those, but it's not all it has), Starfield ends up offering effects, every skill has 4 tiers, and you level those up by completing specific challenges. For instance, to max out stealth to get the most (or anything!) out of your sneak attacks (fun fact, you don't even GET a stealth bar without the stealth skill! Love that.) - you have to get 75 melee sneak attacks. Not kills, fortunately. So you genuinely can't just sit there on your stealth archer stint, you have to learn that melee can do x10 damage if you want that x4 gun sneak attack damage. Roleplaying!!

Character Customization

You've all heard it before. "Fucking Pronouns". Let's cover it. Elite is binary, single body type for each, has a solid face customizer. You basically never see it. Star Citizen has an alright customizer, but you rarely use it. NMS, you are just a helmet. Starfield gives you a huge array of body choices. Wanna' be shredded to shit? Go nuts. Want to be wiry, or really fat? Go crazy. You can get huge. You can customize your gait, you can put on a beard at any time, there's an entire vendor in the game dedicated to letting everybody in the world pay 500 credits (cheap as shit!) to change their ENTIRE body. Good golly holly what a bright future we live in to have such autonomy! Body type, face type, skin color, hair type, voice, pronouns (Those two might be tied together?). He/Him, She/Her, They/Them, you get choices. More than most other games. It doesn't ask you if you're cis or trans, it just asks you what you want to be. Isn't that just... Really nice? That all that matters is who and what you want to be and that can change at any time if you so desire? I love that.

Loading Screens

You. Have. Been. Lied. To. Elite: Dangerous is full of them. Star Citizen is full of them. NMS is full of them. They are all just really good at obscuring it. It just doesn't seem like a loading screen. I know Elite best, so I will talk about it. Leaving your ship? Loading screen. In an elevator? Loading screen. Getting in or out of your SRV? Loading screen. Getting into your ship? Loading screen (with big blue circles, at that!!), jumping to low wake? That is a load. High Wake? That is the biggest loading screen of all. Entering a POI, like a conflict zone? Loading screen. Leaving low orbit? Loading screen. Elite, oft compared to Starfield, literally has more loading screens. In Starfield, you can actually get into your buggy without a loading screen! You can leave it midair, try it, it's really fun! Push comes to shove, you are having loading screen after loading screen thrown at you. In No Man's Sky, when you dock, when you enter orbit, you are loading. It has the least loads of all, but Elite has more. I'm dead serious. Can't speak for Star Citizen, but what's there to load? A broken mission? I flew free for a weekend, and everything I did was broken. Who cares if there's no or low loading screens, if the game won't even load in the first place? No, you can't truly seamlessly fly between worlds, and maybe that does suck. No, you can't seamlessly land, but what difference does it make? You will always land at the POI. Maybe the middle man is important, but Starfield saw fit to cut it out, and perhaps that was the wrong move. But goodness it's honest.

Conclusion

Starfield is it. It is the Space game you wanted. But you have to give it a chance. It's exceptional. Just stop letting yourself be lied to. I have had to tell people the truth of the starfield sandwich so many times, and that lie has damaged the game irrevocably. That's just one example. It's all pendantry, that hurt the game. "Fucking Pronouns" this. "Square bullets" that (lies), "Endless loading screens" ad infinitum (just as many as any other space game. It's just honest.) Play Starfield. There will be parts that frustrate you. There are parts that frustrate me. But Starfield is a comfort game for me. It's a game I love. It's also a game that truly challenges me. It's good. It means so much to me. I have a constellation pin opposite to my pride pins on my leather jacket. I have a Nova Galactic mug that I drink out of regularly. I have a Constellation hat. I'm gonna' get that Constellation wall art piece, and I'm gonna' get my hands on that Chronomark edition someday. (If only I knew, reader.) It's not a 10/10 game for me. It's a strong 8/10. But that missing 2 isn't so bad. To Bethesda Game Studios, thank you for the gift that is Starfield. It'll stay with me forever.

#Starfield #Review #Bethesda #Bethesda Game Studios #KCDodger #KCDodger Talks #KCDodger Reviews #Sci-Fi #Science Fiction #Game Review #Gaming #Video games #RPG #Science Fantasy #Added a “Read More” section so this isn't so huge on your dash!

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edgy-ella · 7 months ago

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SONIC 3 WAS SO GOOD!!!

Extended thoughts below:

The action scenes are by far the best they’ve ever been in the whole series. They’ve really improved how they visually represent Sonic’s speed. The only exception is the gravity scene at GUN HQ, which I think dragged on a little too long and overall wasn’t as impactful as, say, fighting a GUN mech with those same gravity abilities would’ve been.

Keanu is ok as Shadow. If you’ve seen the trailers, that’s about the level he keeps it at for the whole movie. I think I would’ve been more sold on him if he gave a bigger “MARIA!!” when she died.

In the first act, I felt like the movie was kind of on autopilot. Things just kind of happened without a ton of buildup, and the script kind of lacked flavor for the expository scenes. For example: when Sonic asks Olive Garden Guy™ about Shadow, he just starts expositing Shadow’s lore without anything like “this information is top secret, tell no one else about this” or “it’s painful to think about…I wish I could just act like it never happened” or even Sonic questioning how/why Shadow came from a meteorite. Just lore exposition without flavor from the rest of the cast. Throughout the movie, the dialogue felt very on the nose. I wish it was a little more subtle, but it’s a kids movie I get it.

On that note, the movie feels like it just has a checklist of SA2 iconography they had to tick off rather than more naturally integrating that kind of stuff into the plot. For the larger story it works well, like with Shadow and Maria, but stuff like the Chao Garden and “talk about a low budget flight!” just kind of felt…tacked on. In the moment it’s fine because I’m too busy aggressively pointing at the screen, but for someone not as invested in the series as I am, it feels a little random and clunky.

The movie really kicks up when Shadow starts having Maria flashbacks. The little montage they have with them together was so good. The cold cut to the record player stopping was so well done.

In retrospect, when just looking at this movie and not the rest of the franchise, I think Maria and Gerald’s relationship could’ve had some more focus. They never mention anything about Maria being sick in the movie, so it’s not clear why she’s there at the research station to begin with. That being said, Gerald telling Ivo “you’re no Maria” towards the end was gut wrenching. My theater audibly ooh’d.

@allshaftsfall and I were betting that the reason Gerald is still alive would’ve been through time travel shenanigans (which would set up the next movie), but, bizarrely enough, it just seems like Gerald is genuinely that old. He mentions he’s 110. But…how? Did he just survive that long? Did he use Shadow’s quill to expand his lifespan? It’s never explained.

I’m glad they had Knuckles and Tails continue to be proactive and do things instead of just being relegated to cheerleaders and/or comic relief. Knuckles in particular wound up hard carrying Sonic and Tails through most of the action setpieces.

There’s a scene where Tails talks to Agent Stone about being Sonic’s friend and not his assistant like Stone thinks he is, and Tails asks Stone “aren’t you and Eggman best friends too?” Stone replies verily sorrowfully “yeah…friends. Totally friends.” I know it’s meant to read as Stone wishing Eggman treated him better but I could not see it as anything other than Stone thinking “he’s my lover!” but thinking he can’t say that to Tails bc he thinks Tails is homophobic.

YET ANOTHER GOD DAMN CASPER REFERENCE. I cannot believe that both this and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, my two most hyped movies of the year, both had Casper references in them. I’m losing my mind.

I am so mad they didn’t actually kill off Tom. The setup was right there. They even parallel Sonic grieving him to Shadow grieving over Maria! But noooo he survives. When will we be free of human cop dad.

DUDE. The Super Sonic/Super Shadow fight was SO FUCKING GOOD. Worth the price of admission alone.

I kinda figured Live and Learn was gonna be in the movie going in from how much everyone’s been #KnowingSmile posting about it, but honestly? I was more hyped hearing Eggman’s theme from Unleashed start playing. It was way more of a “oh my god, it’s the thing!” moment. That being said HOLY SHIT LIVE AND LEARN PEAK!!!!!! The movie’s OST had a lot more of a rock influence and I couldn’t be happier.

I have some miscellaneous “I liked this better in SA2” stuff (pissing on the moon, Shadow’s heel-face turn, etc.), but all of them I understand why the filmmakers did what they did so they’re just nitpicks.

The end credits scene is kind of insane because it’s super long. It just feels like a scene from the next movie. Metal looks a little rough, but I’m sure they’ll polish him up for the next movie. They’re probably going to lean into Amy being a magic fortune teller girl given how she shows up in a dark cloak and floats in the air. I hope she’s gonna keep the fangirl energy, but I doubt it. Very interesting choice to do multiple Metal Sonics, though, especially since Sega only likes using the one Metal Sonic rather than having different copies running around. My prediction for the next movie is that Neo Metal Sonic will be the main villain and he’s controlling all the other Metal Sonics from afar.

#sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonic 3 #sonic movie #sonic movie 3 #sonic 3 spoilers

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wuucchoo · 8 months ago

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Jujutsu kaisen: the good and the bad

Hello!!! I'm out here making essays about jujutsu kaisen once again! And this is most likely the last one I'll make on it :3

((This is a (almost) 4k word rant, read at your own risk >:3))

So, the manga ended - and as far as I can tell, people’s opinions on it are pretty much divided. I personally found it extremely unsatisfying for many reasons, but I'll start with the ‘good’ things first.

THE GOOD

Jjk is a story that's a battle of ideals as much as it is a battle of techniques and fists. And, based on my understanding, the ending that gege chose to go for is the one where no one was actually proven right or wrong. Everyone's ideals and way of life remained the same from the beginning of the story to the end.

Yuji, who's ideal is to save people as much as he can, was able to do that to the very end. Yes, there were hiccups - like the moment where Megumi had to remind him what his ideal was when he almost gave up after the Shibuya incident, but he got back on track right after he heard what Megumi had to say. And so he remained the person he was from the start by helping Megumi and also trying to help sukuna too. His character is pretty straightforward so it's very easy to understand it.

Sukuna, whose way of life and ideal is to live for himself in whatever way he wanted to, did just that to the very end. He refused yuji's offer because he'd rather die than live on someone else's terms. And in the afterlife he only considered trying a different path if there's a next life where his options would possibly be different than what he had in the life he knew. A possibility of a different life, a different path - yet still on his own terms, like he always did. He didn't regret the way of life he chose, he lived the only way he knew how based on the options presented to him in that life. And if there is a next life, he wouldn't mind trying out another path depending on what his supposed next life would have in store for him - as long as he does it on his own terms, and not living through what someone else's version of happiness was. He remained steadfast with his belief and ideal until the very end.

And megumi! I have a lot to say about him so brace yourself to anyone who might read this :3

At first, I thought (after that ending) that his character was all about him wanting to live and letting other people into his life once again and all that shit idk. But now, after cashew (from twitter!) explained their interpretation of the ending I see it in a different way (but slightly the same still).

Megumi’s character from the beginning to end has always been about loving selflessly in a selfish world. As a young child, he had viewed himself as nothing but a commodity, a bargaining chip his father left behind - and his value was in the technique he was born with because that's how every adult in his life has treated him. Gojo went to find him because of his technique, the school accepted and helped him out financially because of his technique, the Zenin wanted him because of his technique - just, every adult who could have made a difference in his life failed him because whether they did it on purpose or not, all of them made it seem like Megumi’s value is only ever in his CT.

Yes, Toji was happy when he found out that Megumi kept the Fushiguro surname because of the implication that he was never sold into the Zenin - but that hardly made an impact on Megumi’s perception of his worth because he never knew who Toji even was. To the very end, Megumi’s father was ‘the dude who sold him to the Zenin as a bargaining chip’ for him ((which i hate btw, but we’re talking about ‘the good’ right now so that rant can wait :3c)). And so, as a kid who was made into thinking that he’s just a commodity - he poured all the love in his heart to the one person who loved him just because its him, which was his sister. And in so doing, he became a person who puts someone else’s happiness above his own at all times.

Gojo tried to get that out of Megumi by telling him to ‘be greedy/selfish’, and he did try to do that during ‘origin of obedience’ where he acquired a domain - not because he wants to save someone else, but because he wants to defeat the finger bearer in front of him. And that was just the one time, moving forward - everything he did has been for someone else again. He almost slipped into the deep end when he almost killed Remi just because he can that one time, but Tsumiki (or the idea of her) stopped him. This made me think that if Tsumiki doesnt exist Megumi would have been so powerful ((and yet evil too at the same time, something to think about i guess))

In a world that rewards selfishness he chooses to be selfless and keep other people's happiness above his own - because to him seeing the people he cares about happy is what peak happiness looks like. So when sukuna tried to manipulate and shame him for everything that happened while he was possessed - he didn't entertain it, instead he decided to do the thing that got him into this mess all over again - to live for other people once again. Living for the sake of Tsumiki’s happiness, trying to save her in every way possible as much as he could, was not a stupid mistake - that's why he will go and do it again. Despite all the pain and suffering it caused him, he will try to live and love again (I'm talking love in its broad definition btw) - because loving Tsumiki wasnt a mistake he should learn from, but a memory he will cherish.

From the very beginning, Megumi’s ideal was to save people unequally because he's not a hero, and he never tried to be - the best way he can think of living his life is to pick and choose who to save because he can't realistically save everyone. And so, this - as well as the first thing I mentioned - was his truth and he stuck to it to the end. And he did have a moment when he gave up on that, after sukuna succesfully wore down his soul through all this careful planning and risks he took from the moment he got interested in megumi. Possessing him in ch 212 (at his most vulnerable and confused moment), performing a bath ritual to drag his soul even further than it already was, killing Tsumiki so Megumi loses any semblance of hold he might have had even after doing the bath ritual, and then using his likeness to fight sorcerers. Yet despite being the one with the most reason to curse sukuna in death, he decided, not just to live his truth, but tsumiki’s as well - by choosing to think about the people he cares about instead of cursing those who wronged him.

In the end, everyone lived and died by their own truth and ideals, and no one was proven right or wrong. ((gojo, yuta and many other characters too had their ideals challenged but never proven right or wrong - but i dont wanna talk about too many characters or this would go on for days))

Looking at it this way, the ending was 'good' in its own right (and as a concept) - but the road that led up to it, and the execution for most of the scenes left a lot to be desired.

THE BAD

While I do see what gege seems to be trying to say with his story, that doesn't mean I agree with it nor do I believe that such an ending was 'earned' when the build up that led to it was lacking in so many ways.

I agree that the world isn't black and white, and no one has the answer on what the right way to live life truly was - but the villains in his story went beyond being ‘bad’, they were clear and pure evil. And yet we see zero comeuppance - both kenjaku and sukuna didn't get the karma they deserve. Because, as it seems, with all the Buddhism values and themes gege borrowed - in the world of jjk karma isn't real, or at least not for the villains. ((And nope, what naoya and the zenin went through wasn't karma - what they experienced was vengeance, imo, more than it was karma.)) That's why Megumi felt like such an incomplete character, because to complete him the way he deserves would be to answer that karma is real.

Despite all the evil things both sukuna and kenjaku did - we instead see them both rewarded (REPEATEDLY) for being evil.

First, kenjaku.

Most people would probably agree that kenjaku is the main villain in the story, despite how the second half of the culling game turned into mostly about sukuna - it was kenjaku's master plan that started all of this. And kenjaku was evil. Pure and unapologetic evil. The things he did to choso's mother alone, warrants him an end worse than death. He lived his long life doing nothing but make other people suffer, all for the sake of curiosity and wanting to be entertained.

And yet the ending we all saw him get was a happy one - dying with a smile on his face because finally after years of living he was finally entertained - and it all happened because he decided to play with people's lives and start a death game.

He was rewarded for being evil.

Playing with the lives of other people was not presented to be as bad as it should be when the villain who committed these crimes didn't even get their comeuppance and was instead rewarded. Just to put into perspective, kenjaku REPEATEDLY forced someone to be impregnated so he can use the cursed children for his experiment. And that is just a tiny drop in the pool of heinous stuff he did. He is beyond evil.

While his way of life and ideal was not proven correct; it wasnt proven as wrong either. Because he didnt get even an ounce of the suffering he induced onto others, instead he was rewarded with a satisfying death. Putting into perspective everything kenjaku did, its pretty insane that he got to have a death where he could have a smile on his face and be satisfied. Gege went out of his way to create an op character (with an op technique that barely got an explanation) out of nowhere with takaba just so kenjaku can have fun. This is what i mean by evil gets rewarded in gege’s story. ((i mean just look at what happened with mei mei vs what happened with nanami. Gege rewards bad people, a lot of the time. And i guess in nanami’s case it can be argued that its coz to gege, death itself is a reward, but i digress.))

And then there’s sukuna.

Where do I even begin…

Maybe at the beginning, to make things easier.

Remember what Sukuna said the first time he reincarnated? He was looking for the 'women and children' celebrating how 'it would be a massacre' - this statement from him suggests that he, not only fights people who challenges him ((like what was implied with his dialogue with Kashimo)) but he was also actively seeking out people leagues weaker than him just for fun or as sports. Which was why the minuscule lore drop we got about him by the end felt really jarring to read - especially when it came from Mahito's mouth. A character who (as far as we knew in the story) barely even knows himself, let alone Sukuna. And yet, for the sake of making things just speed up and over with, we are just supposed to believe that he knows enough about Sukuna to say that his reason for being the way he was was because of 'revenge to the world' 😭. Where did Mahito learn that? When did he learn that? We don't know, so we just gotta accept and sit through Gege's 'tell not show' way of telling a story.

Sukuna is evil, and just like Kenjaku he was not apologetic about it nor does he regret it. Every path in his life he chose was that of the evil route - there was no grey area, there was no question on whether his way of life was good or not. It was evil, plain and simple.

And yet the story Gege wrote kept rewarding him for being evil.

And it seems as if all the innocent people he killed (for no reason!) doesnt matter.

Despite how bullshit it was - he was able to steal an innocent kid's body using a binding vow that should have had him killed (or worse) and yet it did nothing to him. He was rewarded for being greedy. He then had the time of his life fighting gojo, I don't count the jumping that happened later on as him having the time of his life coz it seems to be just a major annoyance to him. And then later on died with the option to walk a different path in the next life. In itself, it sounds great - but looking at the destruction he caused... Where's the karma?

There's none, because gege doesnt seem to think he deserves it.

I really really disagree with this message ngl. Coz the characters in gege's manga holds more sympathy to the perpetrators than the victims themselves - and I just can't agree with it ((coz wdym gojo tried his best 'to reach sukuna'? That shit came out of nowhere.. Like,, why was he more concerned if sukuna had a good time? This wouldnt feel so jarring and out of place if Gege took the time to flesh out the characters more. if he gave us a moment of Gojo sympathizing with sukuna before the fight, before the culling game, before Shibuya. Meaningful character interactions between Gojo and Sukuna, a convincing one, that would make it make sense that Gojo's goal when he was fighting Sukuna was to, apparently, 'reach him' and 'make him understand'. The ending we got doesnt feel 'earned' because this whole time gege never gave us anything about Sukuna's character aside from 'he's very strong and he kills people' until the last two pages of the manga.))

For gege to go with this theme and messaging, he ended up disregard Megumi's character completely and reducing him into this character who had zero feelings on the matter that directly affected him. Yes, he was apologetic and all that - but... That's it? And while i do understand (i think) what it was Gege was trying to go for with Megumi's character, the execution of it just felt so half baked and lackluster - making Megumi's character feel incomplete despite the amazing build up Gege made for his character.

((A similar thing was done to yuji's character for the sake of the 'messaging' gege aimed for, but i will get to that later.))

Sukuna's statement of 'there are consequences to being greedy' never came to bite him in the ass, despite how much it should've considering all he has done- because everything he does gets rewarded. It's like, being that evil is good coz he keeps on getting what he wanted. And like a dumbass I kept on waiting for karma to get him and it never did. Coz karma isn't real in gege's world. ((and no, him being defeated is not karma because the only thing it did is lead him towards the path of redemption - like, the victims dont matter and what matters more is the psyche of the perpetrator. I dont know if i described it properly, but eh.))

Sukuna bets his life with a binding vow? He gets rewarded with the body he wanted with zero consequences - doesn't matter that gege had to go through a MASSIVE plot hole just to get there. Because in no universe was the thing he did to Megumi (and to hana) not considered ‘harm’, but it all got shoved under the carpet because gege doesnt know what to do with that. Gege needed that binding vow to not punish Sukuna, so despite the established rules he wrote in his own story that warrants that binding vow penalty to trigger - it just didnt... because??? If it was coz 'yuji didnt include himself in the people that cant be harmed', as Sukuna guessed, then i guess yuji didnt include Megumi and Hana in it too? But doesnt that neglect the point of yuji's character as being 'kind'? 212 was a massive plothole and i think thats really where the writing began to get... bizarre.

Sukuna kills yorozu/tsumiki just to drag Megumi further into the abyss? He gets rewarded with a weapon that (surprise, surprise) saved him from higuruma's CT. A CT that before that moment, he doesn't even know about. Good thing killing tsumiki's body rewarded him with a weapon, amirite?

Sukuna never fails to show his hatred for Yuji and would always try and make him suffer whenever he gets the chance? He gets rewarded by Yuji suddenly giving him an option to live again even though the entire story Yuji had always said he would kill sukuna. And i understand its coz yuji was able to know sukuna has a soul ((coz gege gave him the power of the mc punch)) and was able to conclude that he’s still human despite the HEINOUS crimes he committed, and megumi having been possessed by sukuna the longest was able to see that sukuna was desperate to live too - so i do see where gege was going with it. It just feels like the build up towards that conclusion wasn't earned, because even though it can be understood it just wasnt SHOWN to us. All thats being done is TELL and never SHOW.

Everything sukuna does gets rewarded and it just doesn't sit right with me. Its like saying the war criminals are just lashing out coz the world wronged them, that they deserve sympathy too. Okay, and what about the people they wronged, tho? Sukuna deserves sympathy for the world that wronged him, sure, but it doesnt absolve him of the crimes he committed - he deserves karma just as much as he deserves sympathy. And yet we see him walking away from everything he did with a smile on his face, zero regrets, zero repercussions and the possibility of living a better life in his next. ???

the ending

((Im sorry in advanced if youre a yuji fan coz im gonna say something you might not like 😢))

Imagine your sister got killed by someone and then your classmate comes in and says they forgive your sister’s murderer and wants to give them a chance at a better life? That this classmate of yours would be willing to turn his back on everyone else just so this criminal who killed your sister (and so many others in cold blood) can live? That even if no one else is willing to, he would give solace to this murderer - just so this murderer gets his second chance? What would that feel, you think? Thats a pretty weird scenario you might say, but thats exactly what Gege made yuji say and do by the end there.

Gege tried to portray 'kindness' with that speech yuji did, but ((imo!)) he ended up making yuji's character sound insensitive and cruel not just towards sukuna but mostly towards his victims and to all the people that died trying to stop him.

In itself, maybe in Gege's head - it sounds like a "good" thing to say - but when you look at the chapters that happened before that, its not something yuji nor sukuna earned because yuji was not sukuna's only victim and he wasnt the only one who defeated sukuna for him to decide and say all that. Knowing the things we know about the story that led up to that moment, gege just made yuji sound selfish and cruel - by having zero regards to everyone else's sacrifice and suffering. Which is a very weird thing for gege to do because before that moment, yuji was talking about the people who died - and then disregards that in the next chapter just so gege can write those lines.

Yuji's character is far, FAR, from selfish and cruel, and yet that speech gege made him say to the dying sukuna unfortunately made him sound like that.

This would all land better IF we saw yuji SEE sukuna go through the life he had during the heian era - like maybe what he went through was enough of a reason for someone like yuji ((who was supposed to be kind)) to suddenly offer all that, knowing damn well the amount of people who would possibly be hurt by that decision.

Im really not digging gege's exploration of good and evil - coz he almost always rewards evil and make good people suffer (with zero payoff, mind you). This 'trying to understand the villain coz he's human too' route just fell flat because we were never given the chance to understand sukuna except in the last 2 pages where he was given vague lore drops - and a statement from mahito who, before that moment, doesnt even know anything about sukuna except that he's strong. How and why the world 'wronged' him, we'll just never know, coz instead of showing us, gege kept on just 'telling' instead. But i guess for the sake of just ending the story we all just gotta accept that mahito, of all things, somehow knew of sukuna's reasons. lmao?

And the reason why i keep referring to the lines as 'Gege made this character say this and that' is because by the end, and even in some chapters before that, the characters lost their identity and are instead talking through a script gege made them say. Yes, a story is essentially that - but a good story is where characters feel alive and are speaking through their own soul which the last 5 chapters of jjk lacked tremendously. The characters felt like they were locked in a fixed role gege chose for them, and then they were given scripts to say, and then they were all rushed to say those lines because of tight deadline, and they have to say those lines just so the story would end. I know i dont make sense... but it probably would make sense to anyone who have read a good story where characters actually feel alive and not just there as the author's mouthpiece.

I know this is gege's first series, and its bound to have some flaws - drawing and writing a story weekly requires immense skill and discipline, i respect his craft a lot. Its why the disappointment i felt was great, because the story in the first half had such a good thing going and so i placed such a high expectation on it. Still, for his first series, its not bad... I probably wont be looking forward to his next series though, i find im not the biggest fan of this writing style that leaves a lot of things unresolved and just lets the readers write their own headcanons to fill the void.

((if anyone read up here, uhhhh hey there! thank you for reading my (almost) 4k word rant lmao, i actually have more to say but ee.. there's too many. This is my last rant on jjk (probably) feel free to fight me on this, one thing i wont back down on is the plot hole in 212 - that was a stinky plot hole and we just went past that like, damn..))

bye for now!

#jjk rant #i didnt edit this #ty for reading if anyone did

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armybratz123 · 3 months ago

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The Netflix Devil May Cry show: Why I Think it's Utter Trash

Okay, this is usually not my thing. My sister, Froggy, is the one who usually goes on rants about stuff. Usually, her gothic stories and Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss stuff. But I need to get this out somewhere. My sisters don't know the story as well/don't want to/are tired of hearing it. My brother hasn't seen the show (and no way in hell am I letting him), so he only barely understands when I manage to explain it to him.

So now I'm finally using my account for something outside of my quick ideas that I need to get out and decide are good enough to post.

First off, I want to start on the subject that has the most controversy and mixed reactions among the audience of the Devil May Cry Netflix show. The Makaian refugees, I was wierded out by the concept at first, honestly.

The reason why I didn't care for the Makaian refugees in the Netflix show is that what made Devil May Cry so impactful is that Demons are born bad. With these instincts to hurt and kill and make others miserable. It's what makes stories like Sparda, Trish, and Bradley (a Demon who fell in love with a human in the 2007 anime) so impactful.

Because despite their instincts, their heritage, and how they were raised, they chose to be something different. Something good. It felt out of place, but I could deal with it...... until they started using the refugees to pretty much spit on Sparda's name. The White Rabbit's whole motivation is that humans are ruthless creatures, in his eyes they are the true Demons, and Sparda is an idiot and the real Bad Guy because he chose one helpless, but cruel/unworthy race, over the other helpless race that are suffering, dying, and of his own kind. Another thing that took away the impact of Sparda's deeds.

I didn't entirely care for the Makaian refugees at the start, because I saw them as what I thought them to be, at the time, a tool. Mary (I'm not calling her Lady, that woman in the show is not Lady. She's no Walking Arsenal, she's a fake) was written to hate Demons to the extreme x10, they needed something to the extreme to knock her down a few pegs. Thus, the Makaian refugees.... And then I watch what basically was a reenactment of the Holocaust at the end of the episode. When I was watching the show, there was one part that really stuck with me. It was when the Darkcom soldiers were loading up the refugees under Mary's orders onto the trucks, you know, the ones meant to hold demons with flamethrowers on the inside? I was getting nervous. All I could think of was the stupid flamethrowers, but I had to remind myself that this is supposed to represent change, the humans, overall, are the good guys here. Seeing and helping the refugees will help them see the bigger picture- oH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!?

The Vice-President ordered them to kill them all, and they fucking lined the ones left in the building up, and my mind kept blanking out, the images from the stories I read, the stories I learned growing up, of how Jews would be lined up in the streets, in broad daylight even, and executed for the crime of existing. There were tears in my eyes because I saw what was coming next. My gut was screaming about it since I saw the refugees being loaded up in those damned trucks, and I was reminded of the showers in Concentration camps, only this time, instead of gas, it was fire. Which could be argued to be a worse, more painful death. I was crying in the end, not sobbing though, my mouth was too busy hanging beneath my shoulders in horror to be sobbing while I cried.

I wasn't the show's biggest fan or anything, but before that point, I thought the show was okay. I could deal with it, it's not canon, no skin off my back. It could be a what-if Dante never knew his Father and who he is, and Lady had already killed hers since the beginning, so she was no longer after him for revenge. But they did that.

Whether or not the Makaian refugees wrecked the Devil May Cry universe and the impact it was meant to be, we still had reason to cheer for humans, for our people, for justice to come out on top. The whole point of Devil May Cry is to push the boundaries of justice, of what's considered right and wrong, because Demons don't consider those boundaries, so sometimes, tough decisions are made. The point of Devil May Cry's lesson was to reveal the shades of grey that make up the real world and that we alone are in charge of making up our identity. Instead, the Netflix show decided to dig their heels in, shovel themselves a deeper grave, and show us that there is a Black and White, but both are to the extreme that you can't even tell what was right and wrong anymore, with just of sliver of Grey in the middle and the grey is actually just Dante.

And right after that episode, we saw the White Rabbit's and Mary's backstories. It was cool how they did it with the music, little to no sound, music was great too. And then they hit me with the ending again and I just wanted to groan.

I was already emotionally tired and done with the show because the extermination of the Makaian refugees literally just happened at the end of the last episode.

By the end of the show, I just settled for cheering for Dante and hoping he beat the White Rabbit so the divide Sparda made wouldn't be destroyed. He did, and then he mentions him and Mary partnering up and fighting Demons together, protecting humanity. I though I saw Lady, that we were going to get out duo, they will build the Devil May Cry shop together, okay. Alot of sucky bits, but I can be happy with this ending- Mary just betrayed Dante and drugged him to unconsciousness.

Vice President stole the White Rabbit's portal device and is now using it to invade Makai because his Ego is the size of a continent.

And now Dante has been put on ice, like he's a weapon being put away until ready for when is in need to be used again.

You can't- You can't just give me the one thing? Just the one? Seriously? Are you for real? I was ready, I was ready and willing to give you a chance. I am a hardcore Devil May Cry fan who looked into the lore outside of the games and was willing to give you a chance. In fact, I gave you multiple! And in return... You Give Me....... THIS FLAMING PIECE OF HOT GARBAGE!!!

For over an hour. I was pissed for over an hour and felt like I just wasted four hours. Of. My. Life. I wasted four hours of my life right there, because, of course, I binged it. They nerfed Dante, Mary killed more high-end demons than he did, made Lady a backstabbing bitch with a potty mouth worse than Nero's, twisted just about everything that made Devil May Cry what it was, and just pumped up everything to the extreme.

Down in the comments, tell me, did anyone else just give up and start cheering for the demons at the end after Dante was put away? Because to be honest, when Vergil showed up, I wasn't happy he showed up because I like Vergil, no, I was in relief because I was FREAKING CHEERING FOR THE DEMONS AT THE END OF IT!!! I should NOT be cheering for the demons! I was even imagining how Vergil would rescue Dante due to this ending. Just-! JUST-! uuuUUUURRRGGGHHH!!!!!

So yeah. Not a fan.

And yes, being a Devil May Cry fan did make me hate the show. I am aware of my own bias, but I also know myself. I don't like the writing of this show, even if I weren't a Devil May Cry fan, I wouldn't like this show. I wouldn't feel hot burning rage and as if I wasted four precious hours of my life, but I still would dislike the show. I don't know if I would still call it trash if I weren't a fan.

But I am a fan.

So, it's Trash.

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silver-wield · 25 days ago

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Sorry for ranting in your asks but I need to get this off my chest!

As someone who isn’t involved in the fandom LTD and has been a massive FF7 superfan since OG back when I was a kid, it’s mind boggling to see how badly CA fans warp and misunderstand the story. I honestly have to wonder if they know any of the plot beats outside of their CA bubble. CTs see the big picture, while CAs isolate moments from the overarching narrative without any contextualization. This, for me, isn’t about shipping. I don’t care who Cloud is endgame with as long as it makes sense to the rest of the story. What I do care about is the absolute butchering of story I love to champion a myopic view of the narrative.

The way they downplay every other character as blurs in the background to Cloud & Aerith is frustrating as well. CAs only bring up other characters in context to those two without at all championing their original stories. Do they just mash the buttons through every scene featuring anyone but Cloud or Aerith? It’s mind boggling to witness, especially as someone who cherishes each individual character arc and understands that everything is integral to the narrative. It’s not the Cloud&Aerith show, it’s Final Fantasy 7.

Anyway sorry hope you have a lovely day lol

They don't play the game, so no button mashing to begin with. They watch edited scenes on YouTube and tiktok and then go on twitter to scream at anyone who tries to explain why they're so fucking dumb.

And I would say the erasure of the party is because the party all go on about Cloud and Tifa's bond. Not to mention aerith ignores bonding with the party aside from some surface level convos about herself. She has no meaningful conversation with anyone, and that includes Cloud.

I honestly don't understand why the devs made this whole premise of how cherished she is when she spent 3 weeks playing around and not getting to know anyone. If it isn't about her then she spends her time trying to steal Cloud from Tifa or high fiving while giggling.

She's a character of zero depth.

The more I think about it, the more I question why they couldn't use Ifalna who is an actual cetra. They party could've had a mother figure along with them who ultimately dies and imo that would've had a more solid lasting impact than "she was pink and sparkly and we feel bad she died."

Vincent has attachment to Lucrecia, the mother of Sephiroth.

Cid was attached to Ifalna thanks to some random paper thin story stitching in Rebirth.

Reeve was estranged from his mother Ruvie, but we know he loved her from the handkerchief he showed Denzel in case of Denzel.

Barret has Marlene, who is motherless because of his actions.

Tifa's mother died young.

Cloud lost his mother in the nibelheim incident.

Yuffie's mother is never mentioned, so the assumption is she died in the wutai war.

Red adored his brave mother who died defending the canyon.

See? The connection to mothers was present in OG because they made Jenova the anti-mother, but never considered using an actual mother character in the opposing role. Instead they stuffed a character who acts like a 12 yr old while claiming she's motherly, but never showing that. Not ever. Not in AC, not in OtWtaS, not in OG or 7R.

You can't just say a character is motherly and not show it. Even lil kids know to act like a mummy when they play mummies and daddies ffs. They should've just used Ifalna and left Aerith in the monster bestiary for ffv where they dragged her out from.

#final fantasy 7 remake #ff7r #ffviir #final fantasy 7r #final fantasy viir

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historybunnny · 10 months ago

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𝙈𝙮 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 & 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

A while back I received this question asking if I'd mind explaining what my creative process is like and some wanted further explanation about what goes into planning multiple generations & arcs. I do apologize that this is so overdue, and it's literally taken me months to get to. My process is always changing, and I'm constantly adding in pieces that help make the process easier. Because of this, the way I answered the question back then is also quite outdated, at least in terms of how I plan each shoot/post, and I'll hopefully provide further clarification below the cut.

However, first and foremost, I want to say I am by no means an expert and different processes work for different people. Your creative process might look totally different than mine, and that's okay! Whatever keeps you coming back and sharing your work is always going to be the best & most efficient way of doing things.

But I do think it's helpful to get insight into what works for others when you have no clue how to plan things like this, or where to even begin. So, without further ado, here is my process.

Mainly, I use a website called Milanote. It's super helpful for organization purposes, and it's mostly free. They have free templates you can use, or you can make your own. The only downside to it is you're limited on the number of "cards" that are available to you. They do have a promo that you can use where if you get someone else to sign up, you get more cards, which is what I did.

My main folder basically looks like this:

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙍𝙀𝙎𝙀𝘼𝙍𝘾𝙃

The research folder is an unorganized, organized mess and basically just looks like this:

This is where I keep all my resources, and all of the things I've researched for my story. As you can see, this includes various sources like YouTube videos, various articles, quotes, photos and even some music as well. I like having this all in one place so it's easily accessible for me, but you could just easily keep all of this in a Google or Word doc if you're low on 'cards'.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘼𝙍𝘾𝙎

Next we have these two sections. Obviously, I had to cover them up to avoid spoilers but I did label them to hopefully provide insight. Essentially, for this decade in particular, there are going to be various arcs happening at once, especially since the children will be growing into adults and laying their foundation is going to become crucial to the story. However, I'm trying to limit myself from having too much going on at once, which is why I try to limit myself to only four arcs playing out at once.

I will also say that Plot's A through C are interconnected, or at least they will be eventually, while Plot D concerns one of the children and will impact things later down the line. This is super important for really tying different ideas together, and making sure random plots don't seem to just pop up out of the blue.

The table for myself helps a lot with this, so that I can easily see what arcs have been started, and how many 'scenes' each one has. I find this to be useful because then I know that none of the arcs are stretching too long, which ones might need more fine tuning and which ones have yet to flourish or even begin.

Each arc basically has something like this going from beginning to end, essentially following the classic three act structure. Not all of them have five components, some more or less, but generally it ends up being five. Now, this doesn't mean every plot is only five posts or anything like that. Most of the time, the timeline of events needs to be broken off into bite sized pieces and that's okay.

The resolution doesn't always mean a happy ending, and can also serve as a way for me to introduce any new arcs for a specific character, which would then start the process over. You can kind of think about this when watching a lot of television shows. We watch all this build up starting on episode one, and things get more and more intense until we finally reach the season finale. And then woah, with two minutes left of the episode, we see that the character they just thought was dead is actually alive?! Which then leads us into season two.

I do think planning this way could feel really tedious for some, but I like to map things out before I start introducing any arcs so I at least know it isn't a quick "one shot" plot, something without actual purpose or an arc that doesn't really seem to have any sort of end goal that makes logical sense. It also just helps me remember what everyone's up to, especially when there are so many characters to keep track of.

𝙎𝙃𝙊𝙊𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙂 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙎𝘾𝙀𝙉𝙀

Before I go into the game, I basically write out a "rough draft" of sorts. This includes dialogue, any background noises (things like a clock ticking or the tapping of a pencil), a brief description of each shot/photo (including any post-editing things like adding blur effect), and a summary of what's happening in each panel.

Because I only use one document for this, and clear it out once I complete a scene, I do not have any examples to show from The Baudelaire Legacy, so I created a mock-up scenario in which Ozzy flunks a difficult test at school, as seen below.

Once I have that written, I plug it into my 'scene planning' board. However, I only include the shot/photos, and the short summary. On Milanote, I also plug in the location, time of day, attire and any pose accessories I might need (so that I remember to create an extra outfit for it). This ends up looking like the example below.

I typically will only have this open on my second monitor while I'm shooting the scene, and I just tick the boxes as I go along. This is really nice if you have to stop mid-shoot, and helps me pick up where I left off without getting confused.

I do also edit each panel in-between shooting to make sure I'm getting the shots I want, however, I don't encourage everyone to have Photoshop and Sims 4 open at the same time.

𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘼𝘾𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙎

Then we have the character sheets for each of our characters. Right now, I'm only focusing on Lawrence & Winifred (though, the children's arcs are in a 'idea dump' document).

For me, this is the most important piece of the story. One of the reasons shows like The Sopranos and Breaking Bad are considered some of the best writing in television history, is mostly due to the fact that, in my opinion, they prioritize this as well. It's always good to have a strong character in mind before you begin, and this is because you don't want them to step outside themselves.

Of course, your character can change and bend within their environment or plots happening around them, and they certainly should, but you also need to ask yourself if it's being done logically. Asking yourself, 'Why did they end up this way?', 'How did we get here?' and 'How would this character specifically react to an intense situation, stress or hardship?' is crucial when writing a character that feels alive.

Having something like this helps me build their "character arc" and map it out so no one ends up being left in the dust and makes sure that everyone is important in some way. Each of the children will have a sheet created for them once they reach the teen life state as well.

I also use this page as a way to record any quirks, or habits they have. These don't have to be major or super important either. So for example, on Lawrence's character sheet, I have it written down that he wears glasses to read; a very small thing casual readers probably wouldn't even pay attention to, so it feels like an important detail to me.

𝙈𝙔 𝙎𝙋𝙍𝙀𝘼𝘿𝙎𝙃𝙀𝙀𝙏𝙎

In addition to Milanote, I also Google Sheets/Docs. This is where I keep my spreadsheet and write / keep a hard copy of my story.

My spreadsheet is basically broken up into four different tabs - one for the main sims information (the Baudelaire's), side household information, my story posts and my ageing table.

My information tables look something like this:

For story posts, I use @aheathen-conceivably's method of tracking, which you can read about here. The only thing I have added in addition to what she has is a "notes" section, and this where I include any sort of post that doesn't specifically fit into any arc but is still important - things like birthdays, marriages, holidays, etc.

𝙈𝙄𝙎𝘾𝙀𝙇𝙇𝘼𝙉𝙀𝙊𝙐𝙎 𝙄𝙉𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙈𝘼𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉

In addition to all of these things, I also use Pinterest to create moodboards for each decade, as well as each character. I like to include all sorts of things like any inspiration I'm drawing from (so, things like Greta Gerwig's Little Women or HBO's Gilded Age), photos, quotes, etc.

Annnnd that's basically it! I'm hoping this provides some good insight, and is helpful in some way. I know it seems like a lot, but the more you do it, and the more you plan, the more natural it will start to feel. Again, I am not an expert in any way, and it's always difficult to explain your process in this way (and probably why I put off trying to do so for such a long time). So, please feel free to ask for clarification in regards to any part of the above.

Happy Simming ‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃

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thewritingofspencerrose · 2 years ago

Text

Behind the Scenes: A Woman's Guide to Sports

with Emily Hughes

Max had known his father was somewhere behind him as he and Kelly talked with Christian and Geri.

Jack had known his sister had gotten ahead a few steps on their way back to the Aston Martin area they were meant to be spending the race in.

What he wasn't expecting was what he, Trevor and Cole would stumble upon when they reached her.

There was no warning, no hello or greeting, just my body being roughly thrown into the wall outside of Redbull's hospitality, my body releasing a grunt on impact.

"Jack!" Is the first thing I can think to yell out, not even processing who now holds me by my shoulders.

"Who sent you here? If you think you're going to get some money out of me, or out of your brother you must be één stom kind (one dumb child)," the man in front of me bites, a thick accent on his tongue that can only be of Dutch origin.

"What?" Is the only question that comes to mind as I realize just who's in front of me.

Jos Verstappen.

Max Verstappen's father.

What the actual fuck.

"Hey! Get your hands off my sister!" Jack's voice cuts through my thoughts, bringing attention to where we are as Jack and Trevor pull Jos from me, Cole pulling me into his side protectively, chin resting on my head.

"Are you okay baby?" He whispers, moving to look into my eyes, one hand cupping my chin.

"I'm okay, my head just hurts a bit," is my answer, eyes not leaving my fuming brother as Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, his team principal and both their wives approach where Jack is now.

"Who the fuck do you think you are laying your hands on anyone, let alone my sister?!" He hollers, although Jos just looks smug, rolling up the sleeves of his button up before even considering a response.

"I don't know who you think you are," He begins, a scary smirk taking his face, "But I am the father of a two, soon to be three, world champion and I can have you removed from this paddock -"

"What is going on here," Christian Horner questions, looking between Cole and I and my brother who is now being slightly held by Trev.

"These kids are threatening me," Jos states, still looking smug, and I can feel every muscle in Cole's body tense.

"You shoved my girlfriend into the wall hard enough that her head hurts and you're trying to put this on us?" Cole questions, eyes on fire as Max and Christian look at me for confirmation, my being in shock, in part over what's just happened but also over having two F1 drivers right in front of me.

"Ik probeerde net terug te gaan naar Aston Martin (I was just trying to get back to Aston Martin)," I mumble, eyes meeting Max's in the knowledge that he knows what I'm saying. "I was minding my own business when he shoved me into the wall, claiming I was sent here and out to get money from him or 'my brother'," I repeat, Max nodding slowly.

"That's-"

"Probably exactly what happened," Max interrupts his own father. "Jos, leave."

"Max-"

"Do not make me call security," Christian steps in, stepping between the two men, and it's in such a fatherly, protective, manner that you can see how much he cares.

And Jos listens, storming off after shooting me a dirty look that has me curling closer to Cole, Jack and Trev coming over to our sides when he's far enough away.

"You okay, Kiddo?" Jack asks, a hand on my shoulder and eyes softening.

"Yeah J, I'm fine. It's just spooked me," I assure, him nodding, kissing the top of my head.

"You're Emily, right?" Norris is the one to ask, glancing to his friend. "Emily Verstappen?"

My eyes shoot wide, freezing my being.

"I am, but how do you know that?"

"I've heard of your podcast, one of the drivers, Logan, is American and listens when you have guests," Lando explains, and I can't help but blush. "Also I'm pretty sure you're interviewing my teammate Oscar and I tomorrow before the race," Something that I nod at in confirmation, knowing that's one of my obligations for being their guest.

"You here that kid, your little F1 drivers listen to your podcast," Trevor teases, earning an eye roll.

"This is why Jaime is my favorite Ducks player."

He gasps, hand to his heart, "You take that back right now."

"I've listened to some of your episodes," Kelly, Max's girlfriend admits, making me pause. "Max, my daughter and I actually listened to the one where you interviewed Taylor Swift and Kylie Kelce, Penelope is a big Taylor Swift fan," She adds with a chuckle.

"I am too, I could barely get through that interview without freaking out," I admit, her smiling warmly. "You should have seen Cole when he walked into our kitchen and saw Taylor and Kylie sitting at the counter with our cats talking about how Kylie wants one."

"Hi, I'm the Cole she's talking about, Cole Caufield, Montreal Canadians," Cole introduces himself with a little wave, arms coming to rest around my waist. "And this is her older brother, Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devils and our friend Trevor Zegras, Anaheim Ducks. Since she apparently forgot introductions."

"It's the autism, interpersonal interactions are a bit different with her," Jack jokes to the adults in front of them, although it's clear that the joke doesn't land.

"No, it's okay, he's not insulting me, he's just being honest," I assure, trying not to let Jack look like an asshole. "If anyone else joked like that he'd kick some ass."

But Max still looks uncomfortable, his eyes still on me and it's now that I fully process that he hasn't spoken except to send his father out of the paddock.

"You have autism?" Are the words he used to break his silence.

I just nod, shrugging slightly. "Diagnosed since I was six."

"You must have gotten it from Jos' side," He explains. "I was never tested, he couldn't admit that there may be something less than perfect about his ideal racer, but I've been told countless times how I've always shown signs."

"How- why are you connecting us through your father?"

I know the answer. At least I think I do. But there's no situation in which this is real.

"I hired someone to look into you after Lando introduced the grid to your podcast. They made one too many jokes about how similar we were for it to be a coincidence, so I looked for confirmation without speaking to Jos."

"That's not creepy at all," Trev mumbles, Cole slapping him on the back of his head for me.

"I pulled some strings to have Mclaren be one of the teams to invite you four when Max got his answers," Lando chimes.

"I would have invited you personally, but with Aston and Mclaren already inviting you, there was no reason for Red Bull to," Christian also adds.

"Are you trying to tell me... that I'm related to you?"

"Half sister, yes," He nods, as if this is normal. "Apparently your birth mother relinquished custody to my father after your birth, and he gave you to the placement company that put you with the family you're with."

"Put her with her family,"Jack corrects, a cold look in his normally soft eyes.

"Max didn't mean it like that," Kelly is quick to correct. "What he's just trying to establish is that they are related, not at all that you and your family are not hers."

"He knows," Trevor assures, elbowing Jack for being Jack. "All the boys are just super protective of Em. Always have been."

"Speaking of," Cole mumbles, pulling my phone out of his pocket and looking at it. "Quinn's calling."

"He probably saw a video somewhere of this whole mess," Jack grumbles, looking as annoyed as i feel.

I can't help but glance to the people across from us. I need to take this call, but I don't want to leave this conversation here.

"Do one of you have a phone on you?" I ask, looking between them all. Max and Lando are in their race suits, but Kelly starts digging in her bag, pulling out her phone and handing it over with a smile.

"Here's my number, and we'll be in Aston Martin the rest of the day and then we'll be in Mclaren tomorrow. I'd like to chat about all of this," I offer, looking to Max as I hand Kelly her phone back, taking my own from Cole and pressing answer on Quinn's third call in the last five minutes.

"Quinn, do not get on that plane."

And she walks away, phone to her ear as she talks down her older brother and Cole runs after her, wrapping his arm around her waist to keep her from wandering again.

"You should use that," Jack supplies after a moment of silence. "She's a little quirky, but it's worth it. You can't get luckier in the sister department than having Em in your life."

#Max Verstappen x sister!oc #jack hughes x sister!oc #emily verstappen #cole caufield x hughes sister #cole caufield x oc #cole caufield #original character #the writing of spencer rose #nhl fanfiction #formula 1 fanfiction #best friends to lovers trope #formula 1 #hughes sister

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mikailys · 10 months ago

Text

MCL NewGen Ep 8 Commentary

Ik it's late and that several days have passed since the episode's release, but I wanted to wait a bit to let my thoughts simmer and write my review with a cool head. I need to rant about it so sit tight 'cause this one in particular is though lol.

As it was advertised, the whole episode revolves around Roy and a peculiar hobby of his: skinny dipping. Thomas is the one who spills the beans -as always- and everyone is curious about it. Roy explains that he only does it after the swimming pool closing hour and you know what: that is fine by me. Is it weird? Yes, but I'm not supposed to care what my co-workers do in their freetime so I personally don't mind.

And, unfortunately, that's all. To sum up, the plot is "co-workers try to go undercover to spy on their other coworker while he's skinny dipping :|

Since I don't like Roy, the premise of this ep didn't really appeal to me at all. But, weirdly enough, it had the opposite effect 'cause I've spent its whole duration feeling sorry for him. He gets the possibility once a month to train alone in a professional pool, and the six of us -which I recall you are his co-workers and his boss- have nothing better to do than to go spying on him? Just because they thought he subtly implied he wanted them to come see him?!

One. It is false since during the whole workday they kept "catcalling" him and joking about it and he wasn't really pleased to say the least. He put on a brave face, endured the working hours, and then left the office asap.

Two. You're adults, fully grown adults that are acting like literally teens. It's not normal for grown-ups to feel excited, see Elenda and Thomas, to play spies to see your co-worker naked. It is weird and creepy.

I'm glad at least I wasn't the only sane person to comprehend this was wrong and absurd on so many levels. Paradoxically enough, the only one I found myself agreeing with was Amanda, a character I couldn't stand until now, she gained a tons of points in my eyes + she's also a girl's girlie so gg.

Also, special mention to the hint of peer pressure put on Candy and Amanda by the quartet. I didn't like it at all and it shouldn't be even a thing considering the context.

No is no, even if Roy supposedly enjoys voyeurism, I personally do not.

This is really a shame cause they butchered so many characters with this unnecessary sketch, Thomas being the worst of them in my eyes. I'm not sure if my perception of him was wrong from the start, but I don't recognize this character at all. Silly jokes, creepy hobbies, and an immature, teenage-like attitude were never traits I would have attributed to him. I know I keep repeating myself but it's truly a shame that such poor writing has impacted the perception and development of the characters, which now seems clearly different from how they were portrayed in the beginning...

Going forward, I made then the choice to leave with Amanda and warn Roy about their ambush. It was nice to have that option tbh. The whole scene afterwards, sneaking into the public pool and hiding in the lockers, was utterly embarrassing because it’s not the kind of behavior you’d expect from people in their late twenties, but whatever the problem it's the whole context so I can't complain about it too much.

Then Roy catches the sextet and pulls off his counter-prank. After snitching on us, we all decided it was a good time to play with water guns. Again, the idea was fun and silly in a good way, but context-wise mmh...

Now the long-awaited moment I've been patiently waiting for: the encounter with Jason.

Look at him I love him sm nsgsg

I had no idea how they would include him in the episode since he practically had nothing to do with the Devenemential gang. And honestly -unpopular opinion- they probably should have left him out of this messy episode because the reason they gave for his involvement didn’t fully convince me, and the special scene was disappointing.

Apparently, he also has deals with the guards -worst security protocol ever if you ask me- and he goes there once a week to train. And here I was thinking that the CEO of a famous and well-known company would have a private pool or the means to rent one lol. Looks like everyone's feeling the pinch these days. Good job Jason, saving money like the rest of us poor unfortunate souls, such a relatable boss.

Fun fact, it appears one of his dreams is to defeat Roy? In a swimming competition?? Like, okay? I'll gladly be there to root for you the day you actually succeed then dear.

Well maybe not everyone shares the same hobbies as you and Roy, Candy. Besides, why would he know about Roy's interests?? He's not as deranged as Thomas, who keeps tabs on his colleagues' private lives...

ANYWAY. Candy feels cold and needs to get out of the pool if she doesn’t want to catch pneumonia. Jason offers to help her by closing his eyes, but she’s not fully convinced. Again, NOT EVERYONE IS A PERV, CANDY. You're just the unlucky girl who's got to work with them. In fact you should bring him to Devenemential to have him teach your colleagues the art of not being crazy maniacs, I'm sure that could be of help.

I won't spend too many words on the next scene since I've already made a whole ass post ranting about it and sharing my headcanon. However, regarding the mistress scene, I will say that yes, it was poorly executed. But if the entire episode had followed this direction I would have gladly signed off on it because, all things considered, it’s not even remotely comparable to the plot we've endured so far.

Now for the special scene I am conflicted. Ngl I really thought for a split second that we actually managed to kiss him, but I quickly snapped back to reality when I realized it was just Candy being delusional and I am just as much as her. She must have ingested way too much chlorine to be having such a mental trip lol. Anyway, I didn't like it very much because it was clear that BV didn't know what to come up with. The fact that they managed to incorporate Jason into the plot was something, but asking for a well-written special scene was apparently too much.

On a side note, I’m DEAD TIRED of having to endure the worst humiliations in every single episode when we’re on Jason’s route. It's pretty embarrassing, and, at lest for me, it’s not easy to move forward without cringing every few minutes. Moreover, it always seems like he has to have the upper hand in every situation. When is our Candy going to stop acting like a fool and step up her game??

And that's all, the episode ends with Candy leaving the pool, wondering if she and Jason will ever stop meeting in the most weird way spoiler: you won't i assure you.

Now for the next episode I fear we’re in for another ‘fun’ plot since it’s called A Child at Heart, but honestly I have no idea what these interns will actually get up to. Maybe the theme will revolve around generational differences, since they seem to be Gen Z while our colleagues are more on the border of being Millennials? Idk but I do really hope the writing will be better than in this ep.

All things considered, I still have faith in BV. I know they have the ability to write a good story with a solid foundation when they want to—it’s just that I don’t know what’s happening with this series in particular. As other players have pointed out, it feels like this plot was originally conceived when NG was still set in a high school, and now they’re trying to repurpose it in a more 'adult' way. The problem is, it’s just not working.

The Halloween event is approaching, and let’s hope it can alleviate some of the discontent in the community. Hopefully the upcoming episodes will be better since they’ve addressed the topic in the forums but we'll see.

#ah another reminder: candy has a pool at home #and i remind you she had the whole home for herself for three whole episodes...#i wanna forget everything and only think about jason's sprite #they already spoiled us but to see it in game with my eyes was *insert seagull meme*#mclng #mcl new gen #amour sucre new gen

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