#i can make the code and do a ton of story stuff but i can’t do art

[my-mistake-lets-do-this-again]

i had an incredibly dumb (amazing) idea

J&W dating sim. it starts as a dating sim but gradually transitions into a survival game where Jeeves is hunting you the fuck down

it would be called “Wooing Wooster”

actually let me know if you want to help because fr i have some folks who might be down to help already so it would be awesome to have a team

[transcending-chaos]

What is transcending perim again?

It was my first ever fan fiction, as well as an AU I thought up during the show’s original run when I was a kid. I ended up finally trying to write it in late high-school. Since I’m older and I can hopefully write better, I wanted to take a crack at seeing if I can do something with it again.

The original premise is that Tom got stuck in Perim. He ends up as a Creature, and is trying to survive when he ends up being taken in. From there it was supposed to be a culture clash of learning a new way of life while utilizing his previous knowledge from being a Player, as well as not knowing how or if he should relay his past to people since even he doesn’t know how he ended up this way.

It was supposed to be revealed that the reason Chaotic was able to function was that they used the Cothica to power it. Players all had bits of it attached to themselves, but if you broke the parameters or there was glitch in the program, Perim would yank it back. You can’t steal a god from a world and not expect consequences. Tom just accidentally got pulled into Perim not because he’s important, but because there was an error in the code that gave an opportunity for something older than time to recognize it and take hold of a small opening. He’s a casualty in this precarious tug of war between two worlds that most don’t know is happening- and not even the first! This happened to all the CodeMasters, and the reason the Players can go back and forth is because they’re trying to figure out a way so that they can leave themselves. Players are beta testers for their own escape, Chaotic is just something they invented to have fun while being trapped.

There were a lot of bits of lore, cultures, and headcanon stuff I tried introducing, but looking back, I don’t think I did it well. I lost interest in writing the story because I accidentally wrote myself into a corner, and ended up not finding a satisfactory way out. There’s also a ton of things that didn’t quite make sense, so I want to better execute it. Lots of ideas need reshaping or complete overhaul.

A lot of those pieces I found fun were later spun into the AUs I have on here. It’s also where this blog gets its name.

I just want to have fun.

[thisisnotthenerd]

fuck it bell’s hells leverage au

all of these people, endless collateral damage under the thumbs of the rich and powerful, come together in a found family story that features several heists and the opposition of powerful people. a group of not-totally moral people looking to help when they can. sound familiar?

they don’t all fit into easy categories. but this is where i see them going.

ashton: hitter. very much the eliot spencer, but in more of a punk rock way. less traditional masculinity and more dealing with the repercussions of being beat up on and abandoned for an entire lifetime. okay at stealing because it came from necessity, but more efficient at doing their ’extremely useful damage’, much to their internal displeasure. was working with the nobodies and got burned--cracking the shell after that takes a lot of time.

fearne: thief. very much like parker, but better at the flirting. her upbringing, much like parker, plays into her lack of moral code and attachment to the first person/people she opened up to. her general chaos makes doing heists a fun thing for her, but she starts running into responsibility as her loose cannon nature is matched by the rest of the team. known for a lot of arson and random unexplained animals in places that they should not be.

imogen: grifter. gets a shitton of information passively and communicates it throughout the team. their main liaison with other people e.g. clients, other groups. started out trying to find her mom by digging further into a research study and stumbled on something bigger than she had ever imagined. starts questioning whether what the RV is doing isn’t so bad, but gets her head on straight after realizing she’s compromised. starts using that inborn charisma to get people to not question her. maybe they do a job where she pretends to be a fake psychic but actually is reading minds?

laudna: hacker. came into it after being used to fake vex’s death. don’t question the details--it gets too complicated and she doesn’t like to talk about it. lots of little bots e.g. sashimi & pate. i imagine that she’s still creepy and does a lot of the intimidation work that chetney & ashton don’t get to. becomes a ghost in the machine. i think it would be quite interesting to consider delilah as a computer virus that laudna just carries around on her laptop all the time. maybe laudna’s in a coma for a bit and they notice something’s up with all the machines that she’s hooked up to.

fcg: grifter-assassin turned hacker. (haha the robot is the hacker very funny) only for technology though: hardison and breanna do a ton of other stuff that deserve other titles. it’s more coming into play with their recent activity with the warders. realistically they play the role of a grifter/assassin to begin with, and start to come into other specialties later on, like working with food and with hardware, much like hardison did.

chetney: thief/mastermind. he does a lot of group reconnaissance and the necessary sneaky stuff to get them into and through places and less stealing than fearne does. will randomly fuck with people to get into their heads, but sometimes it’s only for his amusement. smart enough to influence the strategy of the group (in battle at least). his old toy mafia sets them up for couple of takedowns and potential for a sterling-type character, as well as past partner interactions the way we saw with eliot.

orym: hitter/mastermind combo. general moral compass--he points them where they need to go next and keeps the group on track to do what they need to do. in this scenario, he’s not like nate ford in terms of seeking revenge, but more searching for answers outside of the system. he just also does 200 crunches every morning and will beat the shit out of people who attack/slow the team down. i imagine he would do the thing eliot did pretty often and go be a generic background person in order to get on location and do recon/remove obstacles. i can’t see him being antagonistic to keyleth and the ashari, so maybe it starts with him taking a sabbatical from his work with them and getting a loose mission to look into the activities of the ruby vanguard, and he runs into the rest of the group over the course of the investigation.

no one really plans the heists alone--they do big debriefs together that never result in the plans that actually get executed. lots of on the spot ideas and impulses--the orgy plan definitely becomes a contingency that is closer to the forefront than some people would like.

and of course, the members that aren’t with them any longer:

dorian: grifter, but in more of a distraction way than an intimidation way. multitalented, so he ends up doing face work the way sophie did. eventually has to return home to deal with his family crisis and reunites with the crown keepers, who are more sent in to cause chaos in the lives of many people.

bertrand: old gentleman thief, out of his prime. regales them all with tales of his youth and old exploits very often. gets them into shit just like nate did, but is murdered quietly in an alley after their first heist, which sets the tone and gets the group into investigation along with the general heist shenanigans.

dusk/yu: thief/grifter. rival to fearne, though she’s not aware at first. successfully manipulates the group into working with them until they find the calloways. working under the unseelie court, which is maybe an organized crime syndicate? who knows. they’re very good at body transformations by way of prosthetics, and do a good deal of infiltration.

[merp-blerp]

Why I think Rachel Berry is Autistic/Neurodivergent (Coded)

So I think Brittany is the best example of an autistic Glee character, but i think you could make a case for Rachel too. I don’t want to pretend Rachel would be the greatest representation of autistics ever or anything, but I like neurodivergent headcanons as a neurodivergent person and neurodivergent representation is very lacking in quality and quantity, so we currently must make do with coded characters. This is all just my theory, and I don't even claim it to be perfectly air-tight. It's more than okay to disagree with me. Don’t take it too seriously, this is all in good, self-indulgent fun. I should note that I don’t have any credentials to diagnose anyone; I don’t recommend using this as a way of diagnosing yourself. They’re are better forms of research you could do. I also apologize if this post offends any fellow neurodivergent people. Rachel can be a particularly negative character for some and I don’t mean to imply that all neurodivergent people are like her or that neurodivergents that do see themselves in her are bad; I also see some of myself in her a bit and this neurodivergent interpretation of her makes me like and understand her a bit better. I also don’t want to make it seem like I think neurodivergence is a negative thing inherently. It isn’t at all. I think Rachel’s personality could make her do negative things, but the neurodivergence itself isn’t negative. The post was very inspired by @smolbrittana and their post on Britt’s neurodivergence. Definitely recommend it you’re interested.

So let’s start with some autistic traits and assessing how they might fit Rachel:

Special Interest/Hyperinflations

Barbara Streisand, Funny Girl, West Side Story, theatrical things in general. Need I say more? I will, no matter what you think. Rachel is obviously very obsessive over the things she likes, but also what she wants. From wanting tons of attention from her various crushes in high school, wanting Quinn’s friendship, wanting to be a the best constantly, getting into NYADA and not even really considering alternatives, etc. These are flaws in her character in some situations, but I don’t think it comes from a place of malice… typically. The crackhouse stuff was messed up, but I think this comes from her brain just latching onto things, to the point where these things become a part of her personality almost and in her head there’s no alternative positive situation conceivable to her other than getting what she wants. All or nothing. If something doesn’t happen the way she wants it it feels like a personal attack. Like being a star and shaping her life around being like her idols, but when she feels like someone could upstage her she… sends them to a crackhouse. I bet the reason why she’s so talented from such an early age is because she hyperfixated on being great at what she want to be, great like Barbara Streisand. I also think that this is why Rachel is so forgiving. She hyperfixates on belonging and others liking her, so she’s willing to forgive those around her no matter what they’ve done to her, best example being Quinn. She obsesses over her own perfection; for example, her NYADA audition where she messes up and feels like she has to completely start over and perfect it all the way through rather than continue through it (which I believe is what you’re supposed to do in a situation like that—I know I’ve seen real broadway actors push though their mistakes). Perfection is the only option to her at times.

Social Difficulties

Rachel is not good at social interactions. I think she feels things very intensely and sometimes can’t “properly” express emotions, at least not in a neurotypical way, therefore coming off as awkward or like a jerk. Sometimes she is a jerk, but I digress. Her first interactions with Finn are very awkward because of the way she goes about them. She goes in too strong, clearly feeling a lot for him already, and freaks him out, but it happened to be in a way that seemingly still endeared him. From his perspective, she’s also just… off putting, probably, because she’s neurodivergent and he’s neurotypical. He still falls for and cares for her, of course, but knows she’s different. Essentially in Season 1-2, her interactions with others are often turned up to eleven in terms of intensity/awkwardness.

“Abnormal” Speech

In the early seasons Rachel has this very fast, high-pitched, matter-of-fact way of speaking. This speech pattern goes away as the series goes on so gradually it might not even be noticed till it’s gone (and I have a theory on why it goes away, but more on that later). I think it’s departure is most noticeable in S4 E12, where Rachel imagines communicating with her younger self. There’s a clear difference in how to two Rachels talk and even sing and it’s interesting to see that contrast (and I gotta applaud Lea for being able to show that, however annoying, she is talented). She also has a very colorful vocabulary, which could also be a symptom.

Intense Emotions & Aggression

Totally. Rachel gets very upset when she doesn��t get her way, to a fault sometimes. Her taking it so personally when Tina was chosen to play Maria in West Side Story, saying it was “my part” (another example of her connecting to her special interest so personally). Her pissed off behavior towards Finn after she tried to cheat on him with Puck and kept telling him to forgive her rather than letting him come to a conclusion himself in S2 was very unselfaware. Sending Sunshine to a crackhouse when she felt threatened by her talent. Disrespecting her dance teacher when she grades her “Oops I Did It Again” number. She takes what she perceives as threats very personally, which might be a Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) thing. Santana has a lot of rage, but damn so does Rachel. This could also be related to her feeling very intensely about her special interests or her strong sense of justice, which I’ll get into later.

Hyper-empathy/Low empathy

Rachel’s tendency to not take other’s feelings into account might exhibit low empathy. Now, it’s worth saying that just because a person doesn’t have emotional or cognitive empathy doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. I believe that as long as they’re able to have sympathy and/or compassion they’re good. Empathy is like being able to put yourself in someone’s shoes; feel the things they feel on a personal level, whether you’ve been though what they have or not. Sympathy is only being able to look a those shoes; seeing and logically understanding the other’s emotions, but not feeling them on a personal level. And you can still show compassion either way.

Stimming/Fidgeting

Now this one was hard to find evidence for, and that’s fine. Not every neurodivergent person stims or fidgets in a particularly neurodivergent way. Most people, neurodivergent or not, stims in some way. Any movement can be stimming. I feel like that fast, peppy walk thing she does, particularly when she’s angry, might be a stimy thing. Like she has so much stimulation that she has to really move and get it out of her system. I also do this when something excites me. I’m pretty sure I remember Santana (?) calling it a “bird walk” or something and said that she walk with a “weird pointy toe” way. Rachel’s body language does remind me of a bird some times, like how when she’s upset she’ll move her head in these very quick, twitchy or jerky movements. She holds herself in a certain way when she sings, which became most apparent to me when Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina’s actresses) talked about mimicking these movements in the behind-the-scenes for S3 E20. She jumps up and down and touches her face when she’s happy, and presses her face against the wall when she’s distressed. Might be stimy things too.

“Abnormal” Body language

Rachel has some very upright posture. It’s very proper in the earlier seasons. Somewhat “stiff”, if you will. Her facial expressions are very, for lack of a better word I can think of, extreme. Always the most they could be. If she’s smiling, she’s really smiling. If she’s crying, she’s really crying. Et cetera, et cetera. Like her speech, this relaxes as she gets older, however, I’ve noticed that during her time with Funny Girl, especially during the understudy auditions and her fight with Santana, both her straight lace posture and body language, “bird” mannerism, odd speech pattern, and other traits comes up again, but for the negative. It was like Rachel was hurt and regressed.

Anxiety & Depression

As I mentioned, Rachel regresses into a negative version of her traits in S5. This isn’t to excuse her, I hate Rachel’s actions during this plot-line as much as the next guy, but this could explain it. I’ve theorized that Finn’s death, the pressure of being on Broadway and the excitement yet anxiety of reaching her dreams so quickly to the point where she felt stuck in monotony might have made her somewhat regress back to how she was in early high school after having grown past it. Like she wanted things to be the way they had been before and lashed out against her own success, almost subconsciously/unknowingly sabotaging herself due to this regression. And then after losing her TV show she’s at her lowest in terms of people seeing her talent as something worth putting value into and she does have her come-to-Jesus moment when she goes back home, her actions finally weighting on her and her having to rebuild herself. Somewhat alternately, you could say that Rachel started masking in New York; maybe she knew that not masking in high school made her a target for bullying, so in NYADA she attempted to mask her neurodivergent traits so she could fit in better. This could explain her change in clothes, makeup, mannerisms, speak-pattern, et cetera. Of course, you can’t truly hide you neurodivergent traits, so Rachel is still quite othered in NYADA. Neurotypicals often can tell when someone’s neurodivergent though subjective social data and other them, whether they know they’re doing that or not. So her masking leads to a breakdown because masking is exhausting and painful for a lot of neurodivergents. She breaks. A covert mental breakdown is honestly the only way I can rationalize her leaving Broadway for TV; logically it doesn’t make much sense for her to have done that in my opinion. That’s why I think returning to Lima was good for her to start fresh and grow again in S6. A part of me almost wants to call it a neurodivergent burn-out or masking that led to a shutdown/meltdown. Rachel definitely fits the quota for “gifted kid syndrome”, being surrounded by yes-men all her childhood, and that could led to burn-out when you’re no longer around that. I think Rachel had been struggling for a while but hadn’t expressed it in a healthy way that was true to herself and so she didn’t really process her feelings or shit actions till her “meltdown/shutdown”, if you will, till S6. But that’s just a theory on what happened to her character. It’s hard to assess this part of Rachel’s arc because even though I think it could’ve made sense and it could’ve been interesting, it ended up being one of the worse written plot points of the show, and that is saying something because Glee fans are well aware this show’s not a perfect masterpiece.

Gifted Kid Syndrome

Many autistic people are seen as gifted or special in youth, and sometimes that expands into adulthood. Rachel definitely was seen this way by others and saw herself that way too. There are countless examples of character going on about how talented Rachel is at singing, whether they’re praising her or insulting her. And we know from the first episode of the series that she’s been seen that way for a while.

Rituals, Sensory Processing, and Perfectionism

Rachel has a strict morning schedule and moisturizing ritual. She also flosses between classes, which could be a ritual thing and/or a sensory thing. I feel like her very preppy clothing style in the early season could’ve also been a ritual thing and/or a sensory thing. It’s like she had to dress this way either because it’s a routinely thing or because she felt uncomfortably in other clothes (probably routine, because she does stop dressing like that in the later season, unfortunately—that style was so cute. But hey, putting yourself through clothing sensory hell for the sake of masking, due to the fact people made fun of your preferred clothes in the past, could add to that meltdown/shutdown theory I have). She also has moments where, while stressed, she rest the top of her head on the wall. Also likely a sensory thing to me. She seems very strict on these being done perfectly. She can’t do imperfection and things not being done her way. (Also, I don’t know how true it is, but I swear I remember hearing a trait of autism could be having perfect pitch. Of course Rachel seems to, but I’m not a super smart music person so I don’t know how to tell myself).

Deep intreats in animal

Rachel often wears animal themed clothing in the early seasons and she’s vegan. She also berated that woman for caring her service dog in her purse in S5 E19, assuming she knew more about the woman’s service dog needs than the woman herself. She cares about animals a lot.

A strong sense of justice

This part of Rachel gets forgotten or undermined I think and I wanted to acknowledge it. Especially by S3, Rachel really fights for her friends and against whatever she believes is an injustice. This isn’t to say she’s always in the right with these behaviors or that she’s the best ally to everyone, just that these traits are here. Before Glee club she joined in a lot of advocacy clubs (some she really shouldn’t have been in, but it’s framed that way), she wanted to start a “Gay-Les-All” (The Gay-Lesbian-Alliance), and she regularly protests Mr. 👞, whether it’s by storming out of class or putting tape over her mouth in silent protest when she thinks he’s undermining her talent. In S1-2 it feels entitled most of the time, but I think it becomes a bit more selfless in S3, at least for a while, with her being very for Kurt during the student election, to the point where she stuffs the ballot box and gets suspended for it. Still not a good action, but with good, selfless intentions. She berates that one woman in S5 E19, which is still bad and misinformed of her, but it’s an example. She also stands up to her teacher when she didn’t like her “Oops I Did It Again” performance. And I think, while in the wrong, Rachel was just trying to stand up for herself against a teacher who bullied her a lot.

Difficulty “Fitting in”

This is Rachel’s entire story. Trying to find somewhere she felt she belonged. She wanted to be a part of something special to make her special. I believe this is a part of why she is obsessed with feeling like the best in the room. She was bullied and different from others so she felt very othered; maybe she tried to interpret this othered feeling as “I’m better, they just don’t realize” as a coping mechanism, but I think deep down she knew that wasn’t the case and everyone hated her for other reasons (some justifiable, some ableist if you say she’s neurodivergent) and she had to learn she could share the spotlight and shine along with people at her level. A very “Oh No!” By Marina (and the Diamonds)—“I feel like I’m the worse, so I always act like I’m the best” type deal. In S2 she begins to take down the pedestal she (and others) put herself on as a defense and become self aware and this continues into S3, then the cycle happens again in S4-5 where she starts putting herself up on that defense pedestal again, then takes herself down once more in S6 to her own rock bottom so she can be on healthy ground again by the flash forward and the end of the series. This isn’t perfectly done, but it’s done well enough where I can see that was the goal they might’ve been going for with her, and I appreciate that type of nonlinear character arc, it just wasn’t done well here. Like, not only was it nonlinear in story but also in writing quality and that’s where it’s faulty. Even when you take away all the neurodivergent framework—all the stuff about rituals, shutdown, et centra—this reading could still make sense for Rachel. She’s queen of the outcast who has to humble herself in order to thrive.

Thank you reading! I hope I was clear and coherent enough in this. If you have anymore points to make about this reading of Rachel let me know—I’d love to see!

[beevean]

Hey it’s so called this morning’s anon back with more things to say I suppose…

I supposed I wanted to elaborate on some things, I know you said you didn’t wanna start discourse but I really wanted to elaborate on what I meant by that proshipping comment. The term proship, from what I heard, has gone from let people ship what they want and if you don’t like don’t look to… This person is a disgustingly vile subhuman and their death should be celebrated.

Funnily enough I openly ship problematic stuff, but I constantly over complicate things to prove that I’m still better than ‘those guys’, to say that I have morality and ‘they’ don’t… But it’s so fucking exhausted. My life wasn’t good and moral and pure so why does my art have to be?

I’m sick of fearing I’ll have someone genuinely threaten my life because I cope differently than them. Ironically I used to get mad when people say it was their coping mechanism, calling it a shitty excuse to be a whatever [You can insert all kinds of fun and degrading terms there] and yet… I was doing the same thing.

So yeah… I don’t like everything but I’m realizing that everything has its place and if that makes me a proshipper then fuck it I guess I’m a proshipper

[After reading all those kind messages I wanted some way to reveal myself because surprise you actually know who I am! But I wasn’t sure how to do that without outing myself so openly… I read your Hevor fic and told you about it on Discord, it’s the only thing we ever discussed. So yeah if you manage to figure me out based on that alone then congratulations! Purity culture is ruining my life so bad I can’t even say my own name! ;3]

fdjskfksdngksjdhk talk about efficient secret codes lmao. Yes I understand now 😄

That's pretty much what happened. "Proship" started as a countermovement to the "anti" culture budding around 2016 who were all like "Sheith is actually incest because they're like brothers and that's gross guys!!!!", and at first it meant simply "ship and let ship", but then it got twisted into meaning "someone who enjoys problematic ships/ships with incest, pedophilia and/or abuse", which inevitably leads to "this person has Something Wrong with them and they're a Bad Person who Hurts people like me with their Degenerate Art! Pedo alert pedo alert! PUNISHMENT FOR A THOUSAND YEARS".

The problem is that "enjoys" means a lot of things :^) there is a difference between "aww they're so cute <3", "welp this is a kink now", and "wow this would be incredibly fucked up but I am intrigued to explore this story". But nuance is not allowed, apparently.

(fun fact: I don't really go through proship blogs because I swear they all ship sibling incest. I hate sibling ships lmao, especially when they're wholesome. But of course they're all in the "will accept anything" community, after being pretty much shunned and painted as horrible abusers who deserve to be hurt and worse - and just because I don't want to see those ships, that doesn't mean I think they're bad people who condone real-life abuse. So yeah, proship is not about having all the grossest ships in the world, you can be exclusively into the most vanilla M/F ships ever and still think "yo do what you want I'll respect you from a distance")

I also hear similar stories like yours, of people who twist themselves into pretending to be antis and be morally "purer" than others when in private they were doing the same things they were insulting others for, just with tons of shame and denial. Not judging you and I'm happy when people realize that this behavior is harmful, definitely more than being into the Problematic lol... I'm just disappointed and frustrated that the internet culture has come to this. I reiterate my points about surrounding yourself with friends who don't make you feel like you have to walk on eggshells.

Also real talk: you don't really have to psychoanalyze yourself. Maybe your tastes are tied to an easily identifiable reason, or maybe they aren't or the reason goes too deep to explore without outside help. In any case, it doesn't matter. You don't have to justify yourself in any way, let alone showing to everyone the "I'm Coping With Trauma" badge in the hopes they will forgive you - because it doesn't work. It's never about the mental health of victims, it's about "i feel icky and i don't want to :("

Disgust is not harm. You (general) have every right to be disgusted by something - I myself am not above it :P But it's not a personal attack against you, and it's your responsibility to walk away and coping with your feelings in private.

[alln64games]

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron

NA release: 8th December 1998

PAL release: 10th January 1999

JP release: 27th August 1999

Developer: Factor 5

Publisher: LucasArts

N64 Magazine Score: 85%

Rogue Squadron was my second N64 game. My mum was also talked into buying an expansion Pak with it, as it would produce better graphics. For this replay, I was expecting to use the PC version, but it turned out to be a colossal pain – running it in a higher resolution produces bugs, and the widescreen “fixes” just stretch the screen instead of actually being widescreen (the N64 hacks seem to do the same), and it can’t detect modern controllers at all – so really, it’s much easier (and nicer) to emulate the N64 version on PC than to use the PC version.

Rogue Squadron is a ship combat game, but goes for controls that are much easier to get to grips with than the more simulation-like X-Wing/TIE Fighter series. Up close, the graphics look great on the N64, with the ships recreated in a lot of detail and varied planets to visit.

At a distance, though, and no graphics exist. As a result, the game has heavy usage of fog (this is partly why nobody can get widescreen to properly work – the game is unloading stuff as soon as it moves out of view). The darker levels and snow levels get away with this really well, as the fog looks much more natural, but on other levels it really does look out of place.

There are a great amount of missions, following a rough story as Rogue Squadron deals with the ruthless Moff Seerdon, with voice acting before, after and during missions. While the levels designs are a quite varied, I really don’t remember Rogue Squadron having this many escort missions, as you protect various targets from the imperials, particularly TIE Bombers.

There are some missions where you get to go on the offensive – including using the Y-Wing to blow up massive complexes, and these ones are a ton of fun, and they mostly make up for the escort ones. They wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t feel like everything you were protecting was incredibly weak (and you can’t see their health), or if enemy ships were easier to see (something that would be rectified in the sequel).

There are a good amount of bonuses. You can unlock more ships to replay previous missions with, including the Millennium Falcon, and bonus levels that require you to master the game to perfection (or use cheats to unlock), which lets you play the Death Star trench run and the Battle of Hoth, the latter being the final thing is curious as it was the start of Empire at War.

One impressive unlockable was the Naboo Starfighter, which remained hidden in the game until a code to unlock it was released when Episode 1 came out. Such a thing would need to be DLC these days, as people would locate it in the game files straight away.

Rogue Squadron is a really good game, but the amount of escort missions lets it down. A few of the levels were much more memorable to me, and it was all of the missions that don’t require you to protect others. It’s still a highly enjoyable game overall, but it has the disadvantage of tis sequel improving upon it in every single way.

The real test is whether, if you took those heavyweight S and W words away, there would be a great game left. Essentially, whether the game could be enjoyed by fans and non-fans alike. Rogue Squadron, is, undoubtedly, the closest console owners have ever come to that far-off dream.

- Tim Weaver, N64 Magazine #25

Remake or remaster?

A proper remaster is desperately needed in Rogue Squadron. Get it running in better resolutions, widescreen and get the game to load the whole level so the fog can be removed (other than the edges of the map). Even better, recreate the game in the Rogue Squadron II engine with all the features of that. Factor 5 did complete a version of the Rogue Squadron trilogy for Wii that was unreleased, but none of the trailers showed the first game, so I would love to see what that version was like.

Official Ways to get the game

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron is available GOG and Steam, but is a pain to run in good resolutions or with a controller.

[lilyoffandoms]

I started writing a few months ago around May

And before revealing anything I want to say that I understand the effect of AI on the creative field.

The thing is starting out I didn't have any idea if the story I constructed was good and I would be in a desperate need of feedback so I used AI for it but I never used it to write stuff just for feedbacks and how to improve etc. As of lately I have been carrying this guilt that in a way I have wronged someone. I know my loneliness and incompetence doesn't excuse what I have done but is there any way I can redeem myself because I do feel really bad and I don't support AI generated stuff and I never used it in my work.

I just feel so guilty.

First off, congratulations on starting your writing journey! That’s an exciting and terrifying step. I’m proud of you for doing it. That’s amazing of you!! 🎉

To address the rest:

Guilt and redemption are tricky words with a ton of religious baggage behind them. I’m not one to say there is need for redemption because one is guilty of doing something. We all do stuff. As much as I despise AI, I would probably not say one should be called ‘guilty of using it.’ To be guilty, I believe, you must have committed some crime (which you haven’t) or broken some code of conduct (which is often morality based and my morals are not everyone’s morals). Plus, who am I to make that accusation?

Yes, one can use AI but it’s not a crime to use a tool that is made legally available and the usage of which is legally allowed. Do I think the AI collection of learning sources is flawed and illegal? Yes, I do. Do I think everyone that uses AI is complicit in those crimes? No, I do not. Do I believe we are morally obligated to do better by artists? Yes, I do!

I think there are laws, like the preservation of copyright and ownership laws, that should be applied to AI that are not currently applied. But laws are always slow to catch up in these cases.

I think we, as a collective, need to work harder to preserve the humanity and soul of art. And I think that starts by not using AI until there are laws in place that protect the human creatives over protecting the technology and money grabbing corporations profiting off the backs of artists.

It’s a beautiful thing to create and that’s being stolen from us by AI generated content that gets slapped with the label ‘art’. Art is losing its soul. Artists are losing their livelihoods because of this trash.

And it seems to me like you maybe share this stance. Otherwise, I don’t think you’d have written your fics entirely of your own nor do I think you’d feel the guilt you do. Please don’t feel guilt over using something.

Forgive yourself. You’ve clearly come to recognize the fault in using AI generated content as it currently stands and that’s what I think matters the most. Don’t continue to beat yourself up over something in the past you can’t change. You’ve grown, you realize the mistake you maybe made (and I don’t know if it was a mistake tbh), and you are still here standing, and hopefully, writing. That’s an incredible accomplishment!

Forgive yourself and focus on where your choices have brought you because that’s a beautiful thing.

On a personal note, the things I share here about AI generated content are mostly opinions I have formed in talking with artists and writers (and being one myself) and diving deep into this issue. However, they are mostly just my opinions. Just like, anyone else that says the opposite of me, they are mostly opinions.

Now some of it isn’t opinion. The theft of art and the outcome of that theft is very much fact. As are the lack of laws surrounding this issue. I’ve just taken those facts and formed my opinion on what we should be doing as a society to do better by artists and writers.

One final note, it’s alright to feel guilt, it’s okay. I am sorry you feel it. I know that weight but please know it’s okay. I am also sorry you are lonely. I know that emptiness but please know you can always come here when you feel that, if you’d like. I’ll try and make it feel less lonely.

I am always happy to read anything you put out into the world whether to provide feedback or just to reblog and gush. Because y’all writers are amazing creatures that deserve all the love!!

YOU deserve all the love and support!

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

procedural technology has been a thing since at least the fucking dawn of video games if not earlier (it’s something i know about due to being a gaming nerd so i am not familiar with it outside of that). it’s fine and it's incredibly useful in artistic products. like, the issue is not things helping creators it’s things that capitalism uses to (shoddily) replace them.

the insane crunch and worker abuse in creative industries means that technology like this also like kinda needs to be used or people will fucking die like. that’s an issue caused by capitalism obviously but like. people can die of overwork. like, that’s not a metaphorical thing it can kill you. if you look into cancelled media, you’ll find stories where things ended up cancelled bc vital members of creative teams literally were told by their doctors they would die if they kept working at it on the schedule they did and they had to straight up drop out. ai ends up leaving those people without a job bc companies don’t care it literally can’t do the job it can kinda look like it does and is cheaper so they fire all their staff. meanwhile stuff like this really like cannot even fake a product on their own and thus don’t get people fired and make it easier for people to do their job. ai isn’t bad bc it’s a new tool it’s bc corporations know people can be tricked by it and use that to fire like 90% of their staff. if ai was being used ethically in the same way stuff like this is it’d literally be fine ai isn’t bad bc it’s inherently evil it’s bad bc the way it’s currently coded is inherently unethical (bc training ai on stolen internet data means it learns off of a ton of illegal content and that’s a very bad thing! and also like the theft and stuff but ppl don’t talk about the fact ai trains on abuse material enough)

[the-firebird69]

🎥 CORVETTE SUMMER (1978) | Trailer | Full HD | 1080p

Tommy F is going to collide with the Mac Bullock and short. probably September 30. and that's what's gonna happen. and it's coming up. It's not due to the Corvette or the Corvette movie. It's an analogy to the ship. It's also analogy to the Midwest. They're all infighting. And they wanna make their bucks on the sly And that's always what they do And they're saying it in code by having BG. help out and be the good guy. And it's the Mac proper. who are saying it mostly And they say no but OK, it's not a hard read. It doesn't really work. But what can I But what can I tell you Everybody's after us. and call us leprechauns or something. And it's supposed to be magical creatures. We're gonna let down. That's gonna be a..... Just kidding.

zues

good to the point we work now

Hera

We're rearranging things to do work. It's not true or moving it and hiring. We have to. There's a lot going on here right now These people are unruly and they're mean, stupid crass, and they're trying to kidnap him. And I'm gonna make them all pay. They say they have a way of lining up and stuff, aligning, and it's not really true. We're going to go ahead and start. to add restrictions on people here. This is starting to happen, and it's starting to become very big. It. is a fact that in the Midwest, the Southwest are building fast cars It is to go against the pseudo empire. And right now, that's their primary concern. It's not true. Their primary reason for getting fast cars is to go after us But they're fighting the pseudo empire. and they can't seem to figure it out. No, they get it. So they're trying to go after us in our areas and they're not making it out there. They can't get their vehicles out there and they can't get trucks or airplanes in there Stuck without factories. They probably will try and attack. and they will fight each other. on it. Both will lose. We will take the area. and people will fight for the area back. including Mac. Proper but not very hard. And we're thinking a son and daughter are correct. That the Mac Proper might take that area. And we say, no. that's our area. I'm sick of them being there. And they say they want us above them. because we won't blow everybody up. And we say that's good And we are going to proceed. And yeah, we will take the area in the northwest too. And that's the. and that's the plan. And it should be apparent. to them. But it's not There's more things happening, but this is very big news.

Thor Freya 

And yeah, they're building a lot of kit cars out there. Tons of them. And these guys are gonna show up with the same kit cars. And we mean that there's quite a few models. No, they have these molds for certain cars and they're making them out of certain vehicles A really big one is. the new Corvette. and they're making them out of fright glass. And a lot of people think that Max are the ones owning those and they have a lot of them. And the pseudo empire. Now, don't get us wrong. We're always up for a fight. But 9 times out of 10 they can't get nearest because of the pseudo empire. And that is gonna cause a big fight And that's what he wanted to clarify....

Olympus

and finally i smile he does waves.  and i say ok yoou lvoe me too yes good and shps yell and at me

and they heat up no.  same ones so far. soon though and you can hear it and know why. and tastes the uranium.  and thats ow and sees fog. and she smiles good.the attitude and story behavior all match up.  and the fight  and it has been on for many years he says and true have. and grow here nope. we do.  and use it.  but the ships sit and are heinous to me fearful. i dread them they like it.  we fire on them soon i hope.

Hera

they wont last much longer with no fuel and supplies they are aboard smaller ships.  and have tons of people and eat each other shortly if no. and not yet no.  it will happen soon.  they are goin to try to get here and venus. will all die. gaga has ppl on board most ships. and inspired them to attack.  and our son helped deflect it. and we utterly destroy any who try.  fully too if need be and often is. and she ssited in obliterating mst of the fleets.  might not be a  mac

Thor Freya

Olympus

[clover-the-awesomest]

Murder Drones Questions

Alright, I’m just gonna go ahead and start by saying that yes, I love Murder Drones, and yes, I’ve been a fan of Glitch Productions before the channel even existed, (SMG4 gal over here) and yes, I am very willing to admit the series is not perfect in any way shape or form. I’m extremely fond of the world and the mysteries behind the characters and all that junk, so if you have any questions about Murder Drones then I will be very giddy about engaging with you! (Points discreetly at the ask box)

But I’m not here to talk about the story, oh no! I’m here to clarify a ton of really weird but understandable questions I’ve seen reaction channels ask a ton about the pilot episode! So. Yeah. That’s basically it.

So the first question I’ve heard being asked a lot is “Where the fuck do the babies come from and how do they mature??” I mean that’s kinda two questions but wtf.

To answer the first part of this question, we need to think about how these Worker Drones were even created in the first place and how they came to be. The answer to that? Simple. They were mass-produced via a generator of sorts. Idk how robotics work exactly and I know next to nothing about coding so don’t question how or why they were or would be mass-produced, but the intro/exposition sequence at the beginning basically solidifies this fact given the line “Yeah, we were treated in the name of windex…” And the shot of a huge line of Worker Drones in a factory.

How they mature is a completely different story. I think what they do is they upgrade their body, kind of like a transformers transformation sequence or a magical girl transformation. They activate some sort of neuron in their robo brain and change their body to match their age every 2-3 years. Or at least, that’s what I’m thinking they do. It could be something completely different tho but this is the option that makes the most sense to me.

Now obviously the Workers can choose to make a baby via the generators or they can make a fully grown drone. Because as we can clearly see in the first minute of the pilot, the mass-produced Workers are fully grown and mature even at birth. So the generator has options.

Why the humans decided to give these robots life, sanity, personalities, and an option to make babies?? Idfk. We’re humans, why do you think we did that?

Now for the next question: “Why does Uzi need a bandage? She’s a robot, she doesn’t bleed or feel pain.”

Which… I mean, fair, we don’t see any major deaths or scenes where the robots feel any pain before this clip, but this question still ticks me off. Because for one, we do see Uzi feel pain later on and throughout the rest of the series. It’s just harder for her as well as others to express they’re in pain because, you know, robots. But that doesn’t mean they can’t feel said pain. And the same can be said about her bleeding, because the Worker Drones do in fact bleed, but instead of red sticky warm bullshit like us, it’s black, inky, thick, gooey, icky crap. Aka oil. So there’s that.

Here’s another one! “Wait but she didn’t miss the first time. Why didn’t J just regenerate herself like how N did at the beginning?”

So for starters, lemme clarify this well-known fact by all Murder Drones fans. The Disassembly Drones have saliva that neutralizes their nanites, aka regenerates themselves. This saliva, similar to human biology, resides close to where their chest is. (I actually know nothing about human biology please berate me in the comments lmfao) In the first few minutes of the episode, when Uzi uses her new gun for the first time on N, she aims for the head because that’s where you’re usually gonna aim when shooting a gun. But since the saliva is in the chest area or just in the chest in general, it was able to spray itself back on N’s neck and regenerate the head, along with all the wiring and coding and stuff like that. Think of it like a movement-activated soap bottle in restaurant bathrooms. If the saliva compartment recognizes that a part of the body is missing, it will activate and remake that body part with itself.

This question is something I’ve been asking myself and I wanna write the potential answer down here for clarity, so you can skip this if you want since it’s not about the pilot episode.

(“If this is the case, how can the Murder Drones just put their body parts back together in certain sequences?” To this I say… idk. Maybe the saliva has multiple ways of functioning?? I have no real answer, so let’s just say the saliva is like hot glue or something idk.)

Here’s one final question because this shit is getting pretty long. “Wait a damn minute, I thought we already were on earth! Where the heck are we!?”

To answer this, you need to pay attention to the dialogue in the episode. “We are Worker Drones. Autonomous robots mining exoplanets for our interstellar company…”

Yeah. The Worker Drones mine exoplanets, which are smaller planets within our solar system that are similar to Earth and are habitual. So the planet we’re on in season 1 of Murder Drones is an exoplanet known as Copper 9. The name of the planet isn’t super duper relevant until later episodes where they have the name of the exoplanet in plain view, so all you need to know for now is that we’re on an exoplanet, not earth. Earth is dead.

Welp! That was actually pretty fun! I hope this was useful and helpful for future reference and for anyone still just getting into Murder Drones and having these exact questions. I’ll most likely make a part 2 to this for the other episodes if anybody wants that. (I mean I want that so…) I’ll quit stalling for now tho and let you carry on with your day. Thanks for reading, and have a great day/night!

[moltengoldveins]

@hiddenintheveil thank you for the questions veil??? Holy crap??? okokok here we go:

9 times/ 10 she goes for trident combat + net, which I really wish was more effective in the actual game bc holy crap the ability to maneuver yourself around??? By tossing your weapon??? Incredible. If she’s got to pick a classic Minecraft weapon, it’s the axe, Techno just ended up teaching her more and that was the one they settled on. She’s decent at longer weapons, too, but it’s kinda just understood that the ranged stuff sticks with Phil. (Actually the opposite of me irl? Do not recite the deep magic of Minecraft arrow physics to me witch, I was there when they were written, version 1.0, practicing Daily)

she’s got an armor set, and it’s actually pretty heavyweight for someone in her weight class with her combat style: usually, trident + net combat is easier with light armor. But Techno is Techno (married to the Grind) and Phil is Phil (paranoia like nobody’s business) and Mati has a stubborn streak to rival a male goat, so she stuck with it till she could move as effectively in plate as she could without. It’s pretty nondescript, shape wise, but she’s taken a lot of time on trips, etching failsafes into the enchantment runes: if you look close, the whole thing is covered.

she tends towards the deep purples and sky blues of the Antarctic flag, plus the occasional white and gold accent. I’m gonna have to draw her in color at some point tbh.

the necklace is actually a window in the shirt which is a bit sheer. It’s rather poorly drawn mostly cause I haven’t settled in a design, but I have a headcanon that endermen/enderian hybrids have pearls in their chest cavities set about where their sternum would be and hardcores have ender eyes. I also have Thoughts about how this relates to the stronghold lore and the ender dragon lifecycle but I digress: it’s normal for Enders in general to wear clothes that expose the chest because the pearl can get irritated. It’s slightly less common for hardcores to do so (there’s some cultural sigma around that) but Phil’s done his best to beat the self prejudice out of Mati as best he can. (Also handily gives our favorite wet cat of a man an excuse in story to wear boob window AND support his adoptive daughter, 10/10 I call this a win.)

her speech patterns are atrocious, which I’m honestly just basing off myself. She code switches like it’s going out of style, she’s picked up the rounded vowels of Phil’s speech, his slang, Techno’s dropped consonants, and the oddly stilted way Brian and the Voices tend to speak, with emphasis on the wrong words. She’s also working with a very different second language, as Enderian is largely click and hiss based, so that tends to come through in her speech. Piglin also has a layered structure to it: the words come completely without secondary meaning, but there’s a lower pitched tone, like a hum or a growl, beneath the words which provides a ton of additional meaning and depth. This is why Techno Sounds Like That and also why he can barely communicate with people who only speak Common. Mati picked up on that a few years in since Phil started mimicking it barely six months into knowing Techno, so there’s usually an uncomfortable staticky baseline to everything she says. It’s honestly a pain to try and listen to her sometimes.

the bracelets are a religious thing from the End-based churches that worship Kristin and a convenient way to keep enchantments on hand when armor isn’t allowed; nobody’s gonna insist you remove religious symbols, might as well make them useful too. She started wearing them half as a joke, half as an actual gesture towards Mumza, a sort of ‘yeah you can’t be here all the time, but you’re still family.’

the hair is, like Techno, from my headcanon that Blood God adherents don’t cut their hair except in specific (bad) circumstances.

her eyes are Crap. Like, she needs heccin Glasses. She can make out her surroundings, but reading isn’t happening without a good thicc pair of glasses and distance vision is crappy too. Envision if you will her and Techno with the same glasses doing the same ‘holding tablet/book out as far as they can whilst squinting and looking down their noses thru the glasses perched at the very tip of said noses’

alright. It’s self-inset week on this illustrious hellsite, and I’m unlearning shame, so here’s a self-insert for the pseudo-MCYT universe I have meticulously constructed in my brain that had only a passing resemblance to the actual canon:

Her Deal is that she’s an Enderian who, for various reasons, got picked up by Emduo during a midlife crisis arc after the end of the (general) events of SMP earth. She was caught in the rain, pretty badly burned, and had no local support system. Their intentions at first were to find her a place to stay while traveling, since mortals have a rough time around gods for long periods of time. However, (because I tend not to give my self inserts a lot of powers, but when I do, they’re powers I think I'd actually have) they find that, while she isn’t the most physically gifted, she has an unparalleled ability to just…. Mentally Handle Bullcrap Beyond Mortal Ken. She isn’t the kind of person to be phased by either a walrus Or a fairy at her doorstep, that kind of thing. They have few rough patches with her being too stubborn to get along well with Techno but it evens out eventually, and she’s good with Brian (the crow) so they kinda just… let her stick around as they travel.

She’s a hardcore, so her aging quits after a few years of ‘just traveling, trying to find you a home, we swear.’ She ends up a Blood God adherent later on, (I have Headcanons about the blood god that are too complicated to explain here, the gist of it is that most gods have ‘chats’ in one way or another but the BG is basically the only one to have a Chat that just Sucks That Much for their adherents. Mari’s chat is pretty dang small, and they are restrained to her pov. Techno’s the only BG adherent with an omniscient chat.) and over time, their relationship goes from ‘kinda uncles’ to ‘those are my weird parents, thanks.’ Sometimes a family can be two demigods, the Lady of death, and a funky little teleporter with severe sensory impairment. (Sucky vision, hypersensitive hearing)

She’s absent from the events of the DSMP for any number of reasons, (depends on my mood tbh. She’s fun in the DSMP, but she’s also nearly as fun when slapped randomly in another media property entirely and attempting desperately to get home, I’m a sucker for dimension hopping AUs) but pops back in at least once, enough to meet Tommy and be aware of Wilbur’s loss. Her dynamic with Will was rough, and her dynamic with Tommy distant, but she saw the potential in the bedrock bros dynamic, even when said bros are on the outs.

Post-DSMP (good ending, the people we love live and are friends) she spends the vast majority of her time doing physical labor around the family house, learning how to build with Phil, and helping Beeduo with Michael. She’s nowhere near Emduo in combat skill, but she was taught by them for a long time, which means she’s still good enough to draw even with Tommy, ten months into his training regularly with Techno. She still can’t manage to beat Tubbo in a fair fight, no teleportation. (he’s small and jacked and fast ok, she’s no good at countering that)

honestly I just like the idea that Emduo at some point in their however many hundreds of years picked up a slightly-too-neurospicy-for-their-own-good-child and couldn’t find a way to get rid of them fast enough to keep from getting attached, and I personally enjoy having enough platonic relationships with the characters I care about in that fandom to excuse any random plot point I feel like writing about XD it’s a convenient overlap that has created a pretty fun character :)

[gaming]

Indie Game Spotlight: Stratospiel

We're exploring the colorful and mysterious world of Stratospiel in this week's Indie Game Spotlight! Stratospiel is an upcoming turn-based RPG that follows the journey of a child who awakens on a strange planet with no memories and is faced with a vast array of enemies and the choice to either destroy or befriend them. The choices you make will impact the tone and outcome of this story. We caught up with Stratospiel's designer, writer, programmer, and composer, Vaughn Haynes, to learn more.

Stratospiel is reminiscent of other turn-based RPGs like Earthbound and Undertale—was Stratospiel inspired by either? Were there any other games that inspired you during the development process?

It's funny—I've been told by my friends that the game has a lot of Earthbound vibes, but I've never actually played any of the Mother games. I'll definitely have to as soon as I'm finished making this game :) I can say with confidence that this was very much inspired by Undertale, though. I played that for the first time on my Switch back in February 2020 and was absolutely blown away. I've wanted to make a video game forever but always backed down when I saw how much of an undertaking it is. Once I found out that Undertale was primarily made by one guy, I was like, "yeah, I can do this," and finally got to work learning how to code and all that fun stuff. Undertale has a huge influence on Stratospiel, with its defining mechanic—acting/sparing the monsters—being implemented here. In a broader sense, though, I'd say the Mario & Luigi RPG series has had the biggest influence. I played Bowser's Inside Story as a kid, and I loved how fast-paced the battles were without losing that feeling of RPG strategy. I also liked how the items you used in battle were also used to manipulate the overworld. Stratospiel's battle system is a happy marriage between those two games' battle systems. Other games that influenced Stratospiel are the WarioWare and Ace Attorney games—absurd humor is my favorite, and that has definitely worked its way into Stratospiel.

What made you choose pixel art as the art style for Stratospiel?

Because it's the cheapest! Also, because it complements the tone of the game as well. A lot of the humor in Stratospiel is derived from fun visual gags. The further away you are from the uncanny valley, the less likely it is that your brain will get weirded out and go, "Hey, this isn't real!" and will be more accepting of the silly things happening onscreen and hopefully laugh along with the game. The same goes for the more serious moments, too. By having a simple art style, you're forced to make each character as distinct as possible, which helps people form closer bonds with them, which is great for eliciting a powerful emotional response.

What types of enemies can we expect to see in the game? Can you tell us a little about the main antagonist and how they fit into the game’s narrative?

I’m really happy with the enemies. I think, aside from composing the music, designing the enemies has been my favorite part of making the game. The enemies you fight can range from cute, to silly, to fearsome. They’re all unique, with their own wants, needs, goals, likes, dislikes, etc. You’ll meet a cast of fun characters along the way who accompany you on your adventure, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. As for the main antagonist? You’ll have to solve the mystery to find out who that is :)

In what way will players’ choices impact the story of Stratospiel? Will the game have multiple endings?

Your choices impact two big things in the game: the plot and the tone. In terms of plot, I can’t really say too much because of spoilers, but the basic idea is that if you defeat someone in battle, then they’re dead. They’re out of the picture forever now. Their friends' and family’s lives have been forever changed. But if you befriend them, then they’ll contribute their skills and resources, and that just may take you to different places. The same goes for tone—killing people is pretty dark, I would say. And of COURSE, the game will have multiple endings!!! I love it when games do that, so you bet I’ll implement that here :) You can see a little bit of that in the demo right now.

What do you hope players will take away from Stratospiel?

I hope players take away an appreciation for the themes that are in there. Each character and area has a central idea baked into them, and how you as a player interact with them determines their direction and arc. Like I said earlier, the game is very personal to me and is sort of like my own “shout into the void.” With everything going on in the world today, it can be hard to feel heard, getting drowned out in all the terrible things happening. Everyone has something to say, and this is my way of doing so. Choices in video games are nothing new, but having players think about the consequences of choices is something that I think games really excel at, and Stratospiel is no different. I can guarantee that fans familiar with the genre will be surprised with how things turn out!

Stratospiel will be available on Steam for Mac and Windows in Fall 2023. Follow @stratospiel for updates and other announcements, and check out the Kickstarter here!

This interview has been edited for clarity.

[night-market-if]

anon i think the issue lies more in that you appear to be playing the game as if the main character you control is actually 100% /you/, and will always do what /you/ would do in that situation– which is unfortunately impossible. as much control as we have over mc, they are still a character with limited choices, whether that be in romance options or how they will be able to respond. i truly don’t mean to be rude, but perhaps it would be helpful to remember that the character is more an oc than a self insert. you might not be mean or shy or poly yourself but that doesn’t mean the main character can’t be.

That is a really good point and after a long day of being mom, I don't think I had the ability to convey that.

Yes, the Night Market MC can be customized. But, they are still a main character within a story. This is not a self insert story at all and I did make a post about that a long long time ago but it probably needs repeated now that the game has gotten bigger. There are going to be choices within this story that are going to be rough. And I am going to write them in the guise of a main character because otherwise, this story would not be written. In some extents, that will include situations about the romance. There is an upcoming scene with Gabriel, in fact, that I do not let you choose how to respond to him in a certain point. Because there are people out there that may be too soft on it or that would just not bring it up at all, and for the story, that does not work.

As for the idea of a poly route with Milo and Malcolm. Nothing you do in this book is going to be negated. Milo is also not going to look at an MC and go "I'm out!". But, due to plot situations, there is going to be more going on there. That "more" is stuff I cannot divulge but it does directly relate to what we are talking about. So, yes, what I am going to do there is a situation I am juggling because I don't know what is going to be best for the story that I am telling at this point.

Also, it does need to be kept in mind that I am one person and the amount of time and energy this takes to write and code is at capacity already. Guys, I have kids. I have responsibilities outside of this. I am not a studio that has the luxury of doing a ton of options. Nor do I have the budget to take my time and really flesh out things to satisfy everyones personal tastes when it comes to romance. Because this is what this is pertaining to. Personal taste. Why is your personal taste any different than someone who doesn't like monogamous routes?

All that aside, when I did start this game, I went into it with the full intention that this was not a self insert game by any means. I know I have lost people for that and I have never begrudged that because it just means The Night Market is not someones cup of tea. There is nothing wrong with that. But, I am going to shape the story and the narrative as I would a novel. Because that's what I enjoy writing. That is always what has so far made this game successful. There is nothing wrong with bowing out if you want a different game.

[earlgreytea68]

Heyyyyyy, I bet you were DYING to know stuff about that Google v. Oracle decision, huh?

You may have heard recently about a big deal Supreme Court decision called Google v. Oracle, a litigation that has dragged on for many, many, many years and focuses on Google having copied some pieces of computer programming owned by Oracle and known as APIs. Most of the write-ups I’ve seen about it have focused on its enormous repercussions for the technology sector, which makes sense since it’s a case about computer programming and APIs and other tech-y things.

But the thing about the decision is that it’s a fair use decision. The Supreme Court could have found that the APIs weren’t even protected by copyright. But instead, the Supreme Court used the doctrine of fair use, and this means that the case potentially has ramifications for all fair use situations, including fanfiction!

So, if you don’t know, fair use is a main defense to copyright infringement. Basically, you can use somebody else’s copyrighted work without their permission as long as what you’re doing with it is considered a “fair use.” E.g., you can write a story in somebody else’s fictional universe or draw art of somebody else’s fictional copyrighted characters without their permission as long as your use is a “fair use.”

“What’s a fair use?” is an incredibly complicated question. The long and tortured history of Google v. Oracle illustrates this: a jury found Google’s use was a fair use; an appellate court found that it wasn’t and basically said the jury was wrong; and now the Supreme Court says no, no, the jury was right and the appellate court was wrong. Like, this is not unusual, fair case rulings are historically full of disagreements over the same set of facts. All of the cases reiterate over and over that it’s a question that can’t really be simplified: every fair use depends on the particular circumstances of that use. So, in a way, Google v. Oracle, like every fair use case, is a very specific story about a very specific situation where Google used very specific APIs in a very specific way.

However, while every fair use case is always its own special thing, they all always debate the same four fair use factors (these are written into the law itself as being the bare minimum of what should be considered), and especially what’s known as the first and fourth factors. The first factor is formally “the purpose and character of the alleged fair use,” although over the decades of fair use jurisprudence this has come to be shorthanded as “transformativeness,” and the fourth factor is “effect on the market.”

Most of the energy and verve of a fair use case is usually in the transformativeness analysis; the more transformative your use is, the more likely it is to be fair (this is why AO3’s parent organization is called the Organization for *Transformative* Works – “transformative” is a term of art in copyright law). To “transform” a work, btw, for purposes of copyright fair use doesn’t necessarily mean that you have edited the work somehow; you can copy a work verbatim and still be found transformative if you have added some new commentary to it by placing it in a new context (Google Image Search thumbnails, while being exact reproductions of the image in question, have been found to be fair use because they’re recontextualizing the images for the different purpose of search results). The point is, transformativeness is, like fair use itself, built to be flexible.

Why? Because the purpose of copyright is to promote creativity, and sometimes we promote creativity by giving people a copyright, but sometimes giving someone a copyright that would block someone else’s use is the opposite of promoting creativity; that’s why we need fair use, for THAT, for when letting the copyright holder block the use would cause more harm to the general creative progress than good. Google v. Oracle recommits U.S. copyright to the idea that all this is not about protecting the profits of the copyright monopolist; we need to make sure that copyright functions to keep our society full of as much creativity as possible. Google copied Oracle’s APIs to make new things: create new products, better smartphones, a platform for other programmers to jump in and give us even more new functionality. The APIs themselves were created used preexisting stuff in the first place, so it’s not like anyone was working in a vacuum with a wholly original work. And, in fact, executives had thought that, the more people they could get using the programming, the better off they would be.

Which brings us to the fourth fair use factor, effect on the market (meaning the copyright holder’s market and ability to reap profits from the original work). There’s a lot of tech stuff going on in this part of the opinion but one of the points I find interesting from that discussion is that the court thought that Google’s use of the APIs was not a market substitute for the original programming, meaning that Google used the APIs “on very different devices,” an entirely new mobile platform that was “a very different type of product.”

But also. What I find most interesting in this part is the court’s explicit acknowledgment that sometimes things are good because they are superior, and sometimes things are good because people “are just used to it. They have already learned how to work with it.” Now, this obviously has special resonance in the tech industry (is your smartphone good because it’s the best it could be, or because you’re just really used to the way it’s set up?), but there’s also something interesting being said here about how not all of the value of a copyrighted work belongs *to the copyright holder* but comes *from consumers.* Forgive the long quote but I think the Court’s words are important here:

“This source of Android’s profitability has much to do with third parties’ (say, programmers’) investment in Sun Java programs. It has correspondingly less to do with Sun’s investment in creating the Sun Java API. . . . [G]iven programmers’ investment in learning the Sun Java API, to allow enforcement of Oracle’s copyright here would risk harm to the public. . . . [A]llowing enforcement here would make of the Sun Java API’s declaring code a lock limiting the future creativity of new programs. Oracle alone would hold the key. The result could well prove highly profitable to Oracle . . . . But those profits could well flow from creative improvements, new applications, and new uses developed by users who have learned to work with that interface. To that extent, the lock would interfere with, not further, copyright’s basic creativity objectives.”

This is picking up on reasoning in some older computer cases (like Lotus v. Borland, a First Circuit case from decades ago), but I think it’s so important we got this in a Supreme Court case: if WE bring some value to the copyrighted work through our investment in it, why should the copyright holder get to collect ALL the rewards by locking up further creativity involving that work? Which, incidentally, the Court explicitly notes is to the public detriment because more creativity is good for the public? This is such an important idea to the Supreme Court’s reasoning here that it’s the first part of the fair use test that it decides: that the value of the work at issue here “in significant part derives from the value that those who do not hold copyrights . . . invest of their own time and effort . . . .”

This case is, as we say in the law, distinguishable from fanfiction and fanart. APIs are different from television shows, and this case is very much a decision about technology and computer programming and smartphones and how old law gets applied to new things. Like, fair use is an old doctrine dating from the early nineteenth-century, and here we are figuring out how to apply it to the Android mobile phone platform. That, in and of itself, is pretty cool, and it’s rightly what most of the articles you’ll see out there about this case are focusing on.

But this case isn’t just a technology case; it’s also a fair use case that places itself in the lineage of all the fair use cases we look at when we think about what makes a use fair. And, to that end, this has some interesting things to say, about how much value consumers bring to copyrighted works and where a copyright holder’s rights might have to acknowledge that; about the fact that there are in fact limits to how much a copyright holder can control when it comes to holding the “lock” to future creativity building on what came before; about what part of the market a copyright holder is entitled to and what it isn’t. Think about the analogy you could make here: Given the investment of fans in learning canon, which is what makes the creative work valuable in the first place, allowing enforcement against fanfic or fanart would allow the canon creators to have a lock limiting future creativity, which would be highly profitable to the original creator (or, let’s be real, to Disney lol), but wouldn’t further copyright’s goals of promoting creativity because it would stifle all of that creativity instead. And just like Google with the APIs, what fandom is doing is not a market substitute for the original work: they’re “very different products.”

This is not to say, like, ANYTHING GOES NOW. Like I said, fanfic and fanart are very different from APIs. Fictional works get more protection than a functional work like the APIs at issue in this case. And there’s still a whole thing about commercial vs. non-commercial in fair use analysis which I didn’t really touch here (but which obviously has limits, since it’s not like Google isn’t making tons of money, and their use was a fair use). But this decision could kind of remind a big media world that maybe had forgotten that the copyright monopoly they enjoy is supposed to have the point of encouraging creativity; we grant a copyright because we think people won’t create without a financial incentive. (Tbh, there’s a lot of doubt that that is actually a true thing to believe, given all the free fic and art that gets produced daily, but anyway, it’s what the law decided several centuries ago before the internet was a thing.) Copyright is a balance, between those who hold the copyright and the rest of us, and the rest of us aren’t just passive consumers, we have creative powers of our own, and we might also want to do some cool things. And this case sees that. None of us are starting in a creative vacuum, after all; we’re all in this playground together.

[mxtomituck]

I would say look up the Hayes Code and the documentary Celluloid Closet.

There was plenty of queer subtext in old movies from the Hayes Code era that went right over my head as a kid and looked perfectly respectable and innocent to audiences at the time. Now, as a queer adult, I’m STUNNED at how much they got away with because I get the references and I as a queer adult in the audience do a lot of the heavy lifting but it’s THERE.

If you can’t write explicitly gay characters, make them queer-coded. If you can’t make explicitly trans characters, use an allegory to tell a trans story.

Not to mention, from a literary perspective, there is SO MUCH ROOM for interpretation. Look at Twelfth Night. None of the characters is ever explicitly described as any particular sexuality but the same-sex stuff can be played close to the chest (pun intended) like in Mulan.

Also, imho, there’s something to be said for the relationship of the author to the work. Like, a lesbian author painstakingly describing the way the light hits the freckles on the protagonist’s bosom isn’t that much less gay just because she’s forced to put her words into a male character’s mouth.

Also, terms like man or woman are general enough when writing that you can have trans and queer characters without having to state that.

Finally, you can also set your stories in a historical or fictional context where they don’t use labels like gay or trans in the way we do. The modern western identity labels we know today are still fairly new in the grand scheme of things. Queer people have always existed, but a man from Ancient Greece and a man from modern-day Greece would not have the same concept of identity attached to that. An alien species might not have gender and might reproduce in different ways. You can always build an allegory off of that.

Being vague also works! You can write a song or a poem about being in love without revealing the gender of the person you’re describing. A knight can be “promised to another” while being too shy to talk about his beloved.

I’m a firm believer that constraints breed creativity. I’m very sad that you’re stuck in a situation where you can’t freely write what you want, but know that there are ways around this. You can still write (and write queer as hell) even without getting caught.

Oh also things like coded slang or secret signals like flowers. There were TONS of ways that lgbt folks used to silently and safely communicate that you can use to your advantage.!

Just some thoughts - hope this helps!

So my mom said she'd support me in writing my stories as long as I don't put in gay or trans characters. She is checking up on my story once in a while and reading it and I have no idea what to do. I want to include the LGBTQ+ community, but if this is happening, I don't know how I'll do it.

To be honest, I don’t know either. We’ve given advice on how to write queer characters and relationships where it’s not a blatant coming out but even that advice does come with hinting at exes, writing about taking hormones/picking up prescriptions. And I know there’s ways that you could write hints at characters being queer but if your work is being read by someone unsupportive I would say don’t risk it. Wanting to include the LGBTQ+ community in your work is great but if you are having your work monitored and this potentially could put in you in a harmful situation then I’d say it’s best to avoid for now. Your personal safety should come first.

-Mod Noah

[heniareth]

I was really curious about what your opinions on the DAO companions are :) I know we have talked about some, but I'd love to hear more and about the others as well :D I hope it's ok to pose this as an ask :)

Sure! That sounds like a ton of fun. This might be a long one tho. Mind you, this is not the finished version of the answer. I'd like to link stuff and add a cut, but rn that's not possible. I'll update it when I can.

Edit: I have updated it ^^

Let's go alphabetically bc why not.

Alistair:

Sweet guy. So sweet. There was a moment when I was hard pressed chosing between him and Zevran (alas, Zevran won). Also, he's weirdly tall according to the wiki? How did I not notice that before?

Let's get a bit more serious now, Alistair is a great guy. The only reason he's not the hero of the story is because he doesn't want to. He has all the qualities of a leader: he's good at dealing with conflict (as evident with the conversation with the mage at the beginning. He gets where he wants to get without antagonizing the mage, but without allowing him to trample all over him). He's a solid tactitian and knows how to make allies (he suggests to use the Grey Warden treaties, after all). I bet if he was in the leadership position, he'd even not bicker with Morrigan. His moral code is pretty tight; some might say too tight, but I think it's less about the moral code and more about learning to judge people by their actions, not by the labels they fit into (Morrigan is a proud apostate and therefore bad. Wynne is a humble circle mage and therefore good). He also has a bit of a black-and-white way of seeing the world. I empathize a lot with Alistair, especially with his experience with the Chantry and his subsequent reluctance to deal with it. I really wish I had gotten to know more about concrete experiences he had during his training as templar, but he seems reluctant to talk about it (gee, I wonder why).

Since I've only played the game once, I haven't really picked up on Arl Eamon's abuse towards him, which apparently exists (Isolde, however... I mean, even if he were Eamon's illegitimate son, he's a kid, ma'am, he didn't exactly get to chose his parents. So that's so not okay). Alistair's way of speaking about them both, however, is either sign that he has not come within a hundred miles of acknowledging how much it hurt him, or that he's already gone through the whole process and has decided to forgive them. The latter shows a very strong character; yes, he relies on the approval and leadership of others, he has his issues, but he's already started working on them.

That being said, irl Alistair would be like a little brother to me. I'd tease him relentlessly (all in good fun and I promise to stop if it makes him uncomfortable, but he's just so teasable). I still wish the videogame gave him the chance to take important decisions for himself. But that, of course, would somewhat defeat the point of the game.

Leliana:

Another sweet, sweet person. Her singing voice is amazing. Her belief in the Maker inspires me (I'm a religious person and seeing religious characters represented in a positive light is Very Cool. It's also sometimes a source of discomfort, because the Church has done a lot of very messed up stuff and positive representation can sometimes veer into apologetics for things that should not be excused, but that's a whole other can of worms. The bottom line is that religious characters sometimes work for me and other times don't and Leliana works for me very much bc she's an outsider inside the Chantry).

Leliana is best friend material, tbh. I'd love to get to know her irl, discuss theology and philosophy and maybe even politics? She makes mistakes and has prejudices, but, tbh, so do I. And I do get the feeling that she tries her best to learn. From the times she intervenes in a conversation between the Warden and an NPC, she shows herself to be compassionate and open to the needs of others. What I get from her character is that she genuinely wants to help, which is something that I adore of her. I suspect that she sometimes has a hard time deciding wether she's a good person or not. She has killed and seduced and worked for a morally dubious person, and she doesn't show the same nonchalance about it as Zevran (though they both do discuss their line of work in very... professional terms). This is, however, more of a headcanon than actual factual canon.

I also very much enjoy her girly side, like her interest in shoes and dresses. She's one badass woman who also looses her cool about the latest fashions in Val Royeaux. I like that. Between her and Alistair, a non human noble Warden has as good a help to navigate the Fereldan court as they're going to get. Leliana is also, I can't forget that, clever and insightful. It'd be easy to write her off as the innocent chantry girl, but she's so much more than that. Her kindness is paired with foresight, I think. She knows that taking on the trouble to help now can go a long way in the future. I just have a lot of respect for her.

Loghain:

This one's gonna be short bc I didn't recruit him. He's an amazing villain and would probably be a great Warden as well. He reminds me of Denerhor from LOTR; once a hero/stewart of his people, ambition and desperation have driven them both down a terrible path. I have also only little idea about his past. People say he lost a lot, and I believe it wholeheartedly; it doesn't excuse the fact that he plunged the country into a civil war in the middle of a Blight. I don't have a lot of sympathy for short-sighted politicians. I wish he hadn't made himself regent. That's what I take away from his character.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention that really impressed me was his death. I had Alistair duel him (that was a rough duel), and then it kinda just jumped to a cutscene of my Warden nodding and Alistair executing him. That didn't sit well with me. I didn't want to kill Loghain, and less so in front of Anora. But what impressed me was that Loghain just accepted it. That takes a whole lot of guts. Compare that to Howe's death, and how he screams out that he deserved (more, probably, or anything but death) and it's crystal clear who the more noble of the two is. Loghain strikes me as very lawful neutral, and any neutral alignment has the particularity that it can be dragged towards good or bad, sometimes without the characters noticing it (which is interesting from a DnD perspective; neutral is often concieved of as just as stable as good or evil, but that may not be true. But that's a different post). Anyway, Loghain's death was impactful.

Morrigan:

I could kick myself for not maxing out her approval in the first play-through. I got to enjoy a bit of her friendship by the end of it and boy was even that little bit worth it. Friendship with Morrigan is something that is hard-won. It's all the more precious because of that.

Morrigan is full of paradoxes, I think. She's incredibly wise in some ways, yet also very short-sighted (”just kill them, don't solve their problems”. Morrigan, dear, I'm not going to gain a lot of allies if I kill everybody who poses a problem to me). She is so intelligent, but emotionally... not so. She knows so much about some things, and very little about the next. She's incredibly wilful and knows what she wants, but follows Flemeth's orders all the time through. She hungers for power and independence, yet craves closeness, but won't allow herself to have it. She asks you to prove yourself to her and is extremely critical of your actions, I think, because she's afraid. She bites the hand that feeds her because it might hit her next.

Like with Eamon, I haven't managed to catch the undercurrent of abuse that seems to permeate Flemeth's relationship with Morrigan. Except there are signs, because there must be something Morrigan is scared of and who has instilled all that rage in her, and that's Flemeth. Also, she clearly hates/does not care about her and wants her dead (unless killing Flemeth was part of Flemeth's plan as well? Hm.)

Morrigan is that one person who you are nice to, continuously, because nobody else is. And suddenly she becomes less cold. And then friendly. And suddenly you're asking yourself why everybody hates her, because she's a really good friend! I just wish the other companions came to a similar conclusion, especially Alistair and Wynne.

Oghren:

They did this man dirty. He has such great lines and I'm convinced he was a great person before Branka disappeared. He has that dwarven warrior spirit, and while he looks like Gimli, some of his most impactful lines remind me of Dwalin or even Thorin Oakenshield himself. He could be so noble had he gotten some character development, damnit!

Oghren as he is written is somewhat disgusting. I hate the lechering comments and the drunkenness. And still, I don't hate him because of those amazing lines he has when he's actually sober. It's frustrating and I'll give him that character development myself if the game won't. I strongly associate the song Whiskey Lullaby with him, bc that's how he would have ended up if the Warden hadn't taken him along (warning: the song talks about suicide and alcoholism). Like I said, they could have done such cool things with his character. As he is written now... it's just sad. Moments of lucidity drowned in alcohol and creepy jokes. As you can see, I don't blame the character for either. The alcoholism happens all too often irl. The creepy jokes... I put that one on the writers' tab.

I actually think Oghren could have been a great mentor figure (I know, I shock myself as well sometimes). Next to the Grey Wardens, the ones who know most about fighting darkspawn are the dwarves because they have to deal with them constantly. Especially a warrior caste dwarf like Oghren could have brought a lot of that invaluable knowledge to the team, especially since there are no Grey Wardens in Ferelden but two extremely green recruits. Next, you get the chance to give Oghren the command of the teammates you leave behind in the battle of Denerim with the reason that he has lead men into battle before. Where did that suddenly come from? Oghren should have been right up there telling my Warden that they were doing this wrong, that they needed more food (and booze) and a confident leader to keep the armies they've called together going. Oghren should have been able to tell my civilian city elf who got recruited into the Grey Wardens a six months ago how one leads an army. How one presents oneself to inspire confidence, how one doesn't crack under the pressure, how one gets the leaders of said armies (some who hate each others guts i.e. Dalish elves and humans) to work together. And, last but not least, Oghren could have had a great story about grief. This is a man who has lost most of what made him (and what he hasn't lost he's spilling down the drain with every mug of ale). This is a man who, if you take him into the Deep Roads, has to see what his wife did to his family, how his wife got absolutely obsessed, and can be forced to kill said wife or watch her die. All Wardens loose their home and families at the start of the story. It would really have rounded the whole narrative out if the Warden and Oghren could have recognised their grief in each other and hashed it out somehow. Such as it is, Oghren is a depressed drunkard and there is nothing we can do about that. I find that frustrating.

Rascal (a.k.a. Dog):

Best boy. 100/10. I wish we had gotten to see the reaction of the different origins to the mabari (because elves probably have a whole different experience with them from mages or humans. And dwarves just... I think they straight up have none? XD). Other than that, no complaints. The name Rascal was the one I gave my dog because you have to be a right rascal to survive what he did and play the pranks he plays. Smartest breed in the world indeed.

Shale:

Shale is one of those characters that I recruited rather late in the game, so I haven't had the chance to explore their personality and worldview, really. I didn't even get to take them to the Deep Roads (this will be ammended in playthrough nr. 2). As such, I don't have particularly strong opinions on them (or her? The wiki refers to Shale as 'it', but that sounds weird). But, because I know so little about Shale, I have a lot of questions. First, what were they like before they were a golem? Shayle, as she was called then, was the best warrior of her time if I remember correctly. Why did she become a golem? Was it to be able to eternally protect her people? Was the sarcasm the golem Shale exhibits also part of the dwarven warrior Shayle or did that come later (if for thirty years you have nobody to talk to but yourself, you better be entertaining. And I can imagine how it could make somebody terribly jaded as well).

Next, how attached is Shale to their golem form, exactly? According to the banter, they infinitely prefer it to a squishy fleshy form. If that is the case, however, why go to Tevinter to try and become a squishy dwarf again? It's not like that process could be reversed if they wanted to become a golem again; if Shale survives to the end of the game, the Anvil of the Void is destroyed and Caridin is dead. Was the whole spiel about their indestructible form a façade? It might have been, but not because Shale actually disliked their form. I think it would have more to do with the loss of their memories and with the very invasive experiments and alterations of Shale's body made by the mage Wilhelm. The loss of memories means that Shale is unable to remember life as a fleshy creature. They might be deflecting by pretending that they didn't care for that experience anyway because of the superiority of their golem form. The modifications made to their form by Wilhelm would have alienated them from their body. In light of this, it's significant that Shale asks the Warden to decorate their form with crystals.

All of this is, of course, pure speculation. I may have easily missed or forgotten details that would disprove the above thoughts. All in all, I like Shale and I hope we meet them again in DA4 (given that it's mostly set in Tevinter). It's a liking from a respectful distance, because Shale is tall and made out of rock and also way more experienced than I will ever be (they are literally the oldest member of the Warden's little Blight fighting squad).

Sten:

Sten is another person I'd keep a respectful distance from physically. That seems to be the what he would prefer, at least. I've enjoyed his character a lot, especially because he seems pretty clear-cut at first, but slowly lets the nuance of his person show (gruff and stoic, but then he has an eye for art, a sweet tooth and he likes cute animals). It's also very interesting that there's no moment when you learn "the truth" about him the way you do with Zevran or Leliana. There's no big reveal about his life under the Qun before coming to Ferelden. He says he was sent to monitor the Blight, but honestly? If neither Ferelden nor Orlais knew there was a Blight, how could the Qunari know? I think he's lying, and he takes his secrets back with him when he leaves Ferelden. And yet I think I know him enough to say that a Warden who has become friends with him has nothing to fear from Sten.

One thing I find very interesting about Sten is how he thinks. His conversation about how women can't be soldiers has been analysed a lot on this page I think. He seems to be arguing based on a different paradigma than the one the Warden has. He also seems to have a very clear-cut view of the world. What is fascinating to me is that, when arguing with the Warden and learning about their culture, he is not necessarily becoming more lax about his worldview. I think it's more likely that he is expanding his paradigma, the structure of thought through which he understands the world. I don't think that he is now convinced that women can be warriors as well. I think he rather understands that, in Ferelden, the relationship between occupation and gender is different than under the Qun. Which of the two he thinks is more right or more agreeable, I have no idea. I'm also not very interested in that. But I find it fascinating how he always seems to be looking on quietly, gathering data, classifying it and trying to fit it into his understanding of how the world works. I wouldn't be surprised at all if his original party was a scouting party to see how vulnerable Ferelden was at that moment to outside forces. One thing I don't understand with all of this is why he urges the Warden to meet the Blight head on. No smart soldier would suggest that, except if they are foolishly proud (and Sten doesn't seem like that kind of guy tbh). I get that the Warden takes way longer to gather allies than expected because they first have to solve all of their allies' problems. But surely Sten sees the need to have allies? Is he just that impatient? Does he have a death wish (à la, I lost my sword and am without honour, better to die sooner than later and in glorious battle)? Was he his group's previous commander and is he now having trouble following somebody else's orders? Or maybe it's his way to make sure the Warden knows what they are doing? To push them into becoming the self-assured commander their allies will need once they're all gathered? I really don't know. I like the last option best, however.

For me, Sten is my fellow, more experienced soldier. Like Alistair, he can potentially be the Warden's brother in arms, but he's definitely the older brother here. He probably doesn't take kindly to tearful confessions of how hard everything is, but I feel like he's otherwise a solid rock to lean on. I feel like the Warden can trust him to do what is necessary and count on him no matter what, especially after they get his sword back. His devotion from that point on is honestly so powerful.

Wynne:

Wynne was such a support for my Warden (except with the whole conversation about love vs. duty and that she may have to choose between Zevran and ending the Blight and that she should therefore break up with him. Wynne had a point. Astala was so not willing to sacrifice her relationship with Zevran. But the whole conversation came at a point where she was already so disillusioned that she blew up in Wynne's face (”can i please just have one (1) nice thing????”)). But all in all, Wynne is great.

She has a lot of flaws. She was very marked by her life in the Cricle and, for all her age, she has little experience living outside of it. She is also a conformist despite her strong moral core. In a way, her ability to find peace with her lot in life impresses me deeply because it speaks to a lot of strength of character. Sadly, however, strength can be ill applied and used to suppress. I think she has convinced herself that the Chantry is right under (almost) all circumstances to be able to rationalize the life that mages live. She's had her son taken away from her as a baby and an apprentice killed. Her reaction seems to have been to convince herself that this was right, or for the greater good (and now I'm thinking about the Guardian's question at the temple of Andraste's Ashes; are you wise or do you just repeat what others have told you? The answer is not as clear-cut as it might be). This is why she is so irritated by Zevran and Morrigan. By aligning herself with the Chantry, she is, in her eyes, good. Zevran and Morrigan are not; they do not conform to Chantry morality and they defend themselves tooth and nails against somebody who would try and convert them. This is something Wynne never allowed herself to do; she always did the "right" thing and it has cost her so much. I'm not saying she was right (it would probably have done her some good to rebel from time to time, and to trust her own gut instinct more), but in light of this, it hardly surprises me that she's so judgamental. She has to be, or she would be forced to confront all the evil she has not fought against all those years and all the hurt that has been caused to her by the very institution she protects (and thank God she only tries to argue and can appreciate it when people have found a good life outside of her comfort zone. If she tried to convince by force or, for example, drag her former apprentice back to the Circle... boy oh boy that would get ugly). If you think about it, Wynne really is a good example for what happens if you live by a philosophy of always choosing the lesser evil.

Something that I keep forgetting over her grandmotherly and dignified character is how damn powerful she is. She has escaped the carnage at Ostagar; HOW!? She protected those mage apprentices in the Circle tower for God knows how long. In the battle of Denerim, she wades through an army and comes out alive on the other side. The wiki lists her age at 40, I think, but that doesn't make a lick of sense unless 75 years of age are the Fereldan equivalent to 100. This lady, about whom people make grandmother jokes, did all that. It's impressive.

Zevran:

You know, I would really love to know what Wynne thinks about the events at Kirkwall in DA2. It might be a disaster for her, or it might pave the way for one last bit of character development. She certainly didn't want to return to the Circle after fighting the Blight. That may be an indicator of some change in her stance on the Circle of Magi.

Edit: I forgot that she is what the Circle considers a literal abomination! Holy cow, how could I forget that?? Anyway, her conversation about what being an abomination means is so... heartbreaking, actually. It's so tentative. So careful. "Am I an abomination? Am I the same thing that has killed my students? The same thing as Uldred? Am I lost and damned? Did I invite this spirit in? Is this my fault?" Like wow, Wynne is going through something huge right there. I love it. I have to continue playing the game to see what it ends up as, but it's fascinating and such a huge thing that she allows the Warden in on that.

Ah, Zevran, my beloved (he has stolen my heart so much it's not even funny anymore). He's funny, he's charming, he's so so loyal and it breaks my heart. Zevran is the one about whom I've read most meta: these three wonderful posts for instance, as well as this one about his possible lack of scars, and this one about his lack of freedom. All of these have influenced my opinion of him and they are great reads.

I have talked about Zevran with you before, so I'll just skip to the new stuff. I have come to conclusion that Zevran is an artist at heart. This is totally not biased by the fact that I also do art, but hear me out. One of his preferred gifts are bars of silver and gold. While those have the obvious utility of basically functioning as money (they can be sold to any silversmith or goldsmith and their value is pretty stable through time and in different countries), there's also this from his codex: "Zevran shows an affinity for the finer things in life—hardly surprising for an Antivan Crow—but his appreciation can be more poetic than he lets on. A simple bar of refined silver or gold, uncomplicated by a craftsman's hammer, is elegantly valuable." Tell me that is not an artist's eye that sees that gold and sees the beauty in it. Then, there's also the meta about Zevran the Seducer which I linked above and link here again. It talks specifically about how he lets himself enjoy the target and be seen in his enjoyment. Tell me that is not an artist's eye that beholds the beauty of something he is set out to destroy. Even his talk about his assassinations show this. He talks about it as an art, the way somebody would talk about the brutal intervention in stone that produces a sculpture. Yes, it's a rationalization of the act of killing and yes killing is still wrong. But he doesn't go on about it on a moral tangent the way Alistair or Wynne would (”this person was bad, killing them was necessary”) or even through the argument of survival like Morrigan would (”it was either them or me and it sure as Hell wasn't going to be me”). He talks about the pleasure of a job well done, of the satisfaction of striking the precise point and executing a plan to the perfection so as to minimize chances of discovery and to make a clean death possible. And pleasure in seeing and in doing, this I firmly believe, is absolutely fundamental for an artist.

My favourite part about my Warden and Zevran as a pairing is that Zevran precisely brings out that ability to take your pleasures as they come and to really savour them. Fighting the Blight is tough; it's so important to find good things amidst the chaos to stay sane. If Astala saves Zevran from himself by offering him a place to stay and a purpose, Zevran saves Astala from herself by keeping her from running herself into the ground trying to save the world.

There are some things I don't like about Zev. The incessant flirting, for example, sometimes makes me uncomfortable (it becomes enjoyable for me once the Warden and him are in a relationship, but before that? Nah, no thanks). I wish he would also leave the other female characters alone (and there's so many more shameless comments of his aimed at Morrigan, Leliana or Wynne than at Alistair or maybe even Sten).

---

And that's my take on the Origins companions (this was rather long. Whew ^^' I hope it was still readable and that you enjoyed it!!) Thank you so much for the ask!! It's been a joy thinking about this. I was worrying at first that the less prominent companions like Sten or Shale wouldn't get as much content but... well XD