#i also don't really like the structure of the game and the story does nothing for me

[foxstens]

about halfway through the game and suddenly i really wanna drop it

[askmerriauthor]

Homie. Darling. Muchaco. Please help me. You're an animator. You've worked in the video game industry. When you get to That One Memory in TOTK (you know which one I mean and if you don't, you will),

Please help me figure out what the fuck is going on with Ganondorf's face rigging

Man, I didn't even need to look anything up: I knew EXACTLY what you were talking about as soon as you said it.

Short Answer: Need more polys.

Long Answer: It's simultaneously a case of limited model structure and potentially some degree of intentional design choice specific to Ganondorf's presentation in this particular game.

Discussion below the jump, just for the sake of not stretching out people's dashboards. No worries about spoilers: none of this is story-relevant.

So! To give a very broad strokes bit of coverage on the wide and varied nonsense that is 3D modeling, this is a case of Topology. The basic thrust is that topology is the overall structure and layout of the mesh that makes up the 3D model's various shapes. The lower the polygon count on that mesh, the more angular its structure and the less capacity for deformation it has. The higher the polygon count, the smoother its structure and the greater its capacity for deformation. The trade-off, however, is that low-poly models are easier for a game engine to render. High-poly models are a massive drain on processing power, to say nothing if they're built inefficiently with a bunch of wasted geometry bogging things down.

Here's an example of a low-poly model on the left and a high-poly model on the right.

So when you want to make a character emote, you're basically grabbing a bunch of those polygons around the face and moving them around to shape the face into the desired expression. If you don't have a lot of polys to play with, it causes folding and tearing issues where the model and its textures do some pretty wonky shit.

Something both BoTW and ToTK have going for them is that they're actually very low-poly games, which is extremely helpful in making the games run as smoothly as they do given the world size and seamless loading. The lighting and texture work do A TON of heavy lifting to make the game look as good as it does. Really look at these models closely and you can see how angular they are. Look at Zelda's outstretched hand or how sharply light falls across the character's features. In the bottom right, notice how you can see the sharp points that make up Zelda's shoulders? They're not rounded; they're angled just enough to give the general illusion of a curve at a glance. Same goes for her eyes; you can count the angles that make up the shape of her eye but, at a distance and at a glance, they look big, round, and doleful.

Something you can also notice is when characters talk, a lot of them have little to no facial deformation. Mineru, for example, basically has a one-hinge Muppet mouth outside of pre-rendered cutscenes. A lot of characters' eyes are basically painted onto their faces and switch between static texture shapes as opposed to being fully rendered and animated orbs modeled into their heads.

Ganondorf actually has a fairly complex character model, especially compared to Link or Zelda, but he doesn't have a lot of model deformation. Basically the only parts of his head that move are his eyes/brows and mouth/jaw. If you look closely around his eyes you can see they're rendered basically as triangles. There's only two or three points along their shape the model can deform at. Further, since the rest of his face doesn't really deform when he emotes, it means the only thing that really moves are those small key elements. Which yields moments like this:

The animators are basically pushing his expression as much as they are actually capable of with this model's limited structure. See the hard fold in the lower eyelid, or the fact that his teeth aren't attached to anything inside his jaw? It does the job though; it overall looks good and, in the moment this scene happens, really adds something to the unsettling nature of what's going down.

I mentioned before that there may be a certain intent as well. Something specific to Ganondorf in this iteration is that, more than ever, he's become an Oni. Ganondorf's character design has slowly been leaning toward more Japanese-specific visual concepts over the past few appearances but he's gone full yokai for ToTK. Not just in his build, but in his clothing and weaponry. Dude is swinging around a kanabo for the first time ever in the franchise.

In Japanese mythology and Noh theater, a Red Oni basically functions as the embodiment of all the worst parts of mankind. They're greedy, brutal, cruel monsters who revel in causing destruction. If you want to look at their good aspects, it's traits like passion, ambition, and a wild spirit. But, overall, they're the bad guys. Ganondorf is 100% depicted as a Red Oni in ToTK. So when you keep that in mind, add in the implications of what Ganondorf just did in that scene, and consider the traditional appearances of a Red Oni...

...then that face-breaking grin makes a lot more sense.

[vermilionsun]

If you are still open for requests..how about Ais and Kuras (or pick which one) with a child/children?

Of course!! Don’t hesitate to send in more if ya want <3

Ais

Father figure of the year

✩ Pretty chill in general

He's the type of dad who will let you have a good time but also make sure you're staying safe.

✩ Always there to lend an ear or offer advice… or constructive criticism—

You can always count on him to give you straightforward and honest advice, even if it's not what you want to hear. Even though he may not always agree with your choices, you know that his intentions are always good and that he genuinely cares about your well-being. Ais may not show his emotions openly, but his love and support for his child would be unwavering.

✩ Seems to know exactly what to say in any situation.

Whether you need help with a problem or just want someone to talk to, he is always there for you (with judgment /j)

✩ Don't even bother to lie to him.

He can see right through any facade and will always know when you're not being completely honest. His ability to detect deception is uncanny, but it also makes him a trustworthy confidant. Besides, what even did you do that made you think the consequences would be that bad? (Or even exist?) Partying? Smoking? Drinking? Drugs? Sex?

✩ “Lame. When I was your age I was way worse—”

✩ CRAZY parent lore.

And he mentions it so casually every time. Like, he's seen (and done) it all before. Nothing seems to faze him in the slightest.

✩ He's the kind of guy who would drop everything to help his kid, no questions asked.

✩ On the other hand, if we're talking about babies…

He might be a bit (completely) clueless when it comes to diaper changing, feeding schedules, or soothing a crying infant. However, his willingness to learn and his dedication to being the best parent he can be are admirable qualities.

✩ He's the type of person who will spend hours researching the best parenting techniques and tips.

✩ He gets the hang of it pretty quick.

✩ He is incredibly patient to the point where it becomes a bit scary. 

✩ COMMITTED.

From reading bedtime stories to playing endless games of peek-a-boo, a cheerleader, a rock, a shoulder to cry on—he's all in when it comes to being a parent. 

✩ GIRL DAD

✩ If anyone dares to think about touching his child, they'll never see the light of day again.

Kuras

24/7 confusion

✞ This begs the question of whether the child would be half-angel.

Let's assume so, because it becomes ten times funnier.

✞ Absolutely  b e w i l d e r e d  in the beginning.

✞ “...Why does it cry so much?”

Another question that often arises is, "Is there something wrong with it that I can't see?" He's just… confused. He doesn't really understand babies. Kuras is used to living a fast-paced, independent lifestyle, so the idea of being responsible for a helpless infant is overwhelming for him.

✞ Incredibly good once he figures it out.

Despite his initial confusion and overwhelming feelings, Kuras quickly adapts. Kuras is always on call to help with midnight feedings and diaper changes, making sure the baby is well taken care of around the clock.

✞ “Uh… honey? The baby is floating.”

Cue Kuras calmly walking into the room and safely guiding the baby back to the ground with a knowing smile. It becomes a common occurrence in the household. 

✞ Eventually takes on the role of mentor, teaching the child how to control their powers and use them for good.

✞ Slightly strict

Believes in setting boundaries and enforcing rules to ensure the well-being and safety of his children. He considers discipline an important aspect of parenthood, as it helps instill good behavior and values in his kids. He may come off as harsh at times, but it all stems from a place of love and protection. Kuras wants his children to grow up knowing right from wrong and understanding the importance of structure in their lives.

✞ Comfort

He listens without judgment, allowing his children to express themselves freely. Kuras encourages open communication and fosters a strong bond based on trust and respect.

✞ Don't even bother to lie to him part 2

If you try to sneak out, he'll be waiting for you at the door, arms crossed and a stern expression on his face. You can try to pull one over on him, but chances are, he'll see right through it. It's better to just be honest and upfront with him, because he always seems to know what's going on.

✞ Consequences

Although Kuras seems disappointed at times, he knows that it is all part of the process of growing up and learning from mistakes. He understands that his children need to make their own choices and face the consequences of those choices in order to become independent and responsible adults. Kuras tries to offer guidance and support, but ultimately allows his children to take ownership of their decisions and experiences.

✞ Always puts his children's needs above his own.

✞ Being the doctor he is and a parent can be a challenging juggling act. Kuras, however, manages to balance both roles with grace and dedication.

✞ T r i p l e t s

✞ If anyone dares to harm their child, he will stop at nothing to protect them. Fuck repentance and forgiveness; Kuras will seek justice with a vengeance that knows no bounds.

[that-ari-blogger]

What's The Point Of A Chorus Anyway? (Loser Baby)

Hazbin Hotel has a structure to it lays out its songs. Each episode has two, with one set piece and a supplemental number to get information across in an entertaining manner. For example, Welcome To Heaven is supplemental to You Didn’t Know, and Happy Day In Hell is supplemental to Hell is Forever. Naturally, this is subjective, as importance varies on reading, but you can generally tell.

However, episode four gives us Poison, a showstopping tune that brings the house down. The type of song that feels like a finale to a story. But it’s the first number in the episode, which means something is going to try and outdo it, and what could possibly do that?

Enter Looser Baby, a song that sets the bar for what the entirety of the series is, condensed into just under three minutes.

Let me explain.

CONTENT WARNING (Vulgar Language, Mention of Sex)

SPOILERS AHEAD (Hazbin Hotel)

Not every song has a repeating chorus, or even a chorus at all. Sometimes there is a refrain, but often there is nothing, and this isn’t a bad thing at all.

Bohemian Rhapsody, for example, has either no chorus, or six different ones, adding to the jumpy thought process of the song. Meanwhile Bitter Sweet Symphony has nought but a consistent riff and a bridge to nowhere creating a feeling of momentum.

Hazbin Hotel has done this before with Stayed Gone, which is symmetrical, but presents no chorus to speak of.

This is actually really simple to explain, but more difficult to examine in detail. The chorus is the most central idea of a song. The audience remembers it the most and highlights its importance purely because of the number of times they are shown it, although musical cues might also imply significance.

For example, Beneath the Brine, by The Family Crest, takes on an operatic tone to discuss a tumultuous relationship, and how it handles personal struggle. This is a song about love drawing you to a person, and then getting caught up in their own downfall and being unable to stop it. It presents itself as a crossroad, does the perspective character delve into the wreck, or do they cut their losses now. As such, the chorus feels painful, like the agony of severing something that was part of yourself.

“Oh young love, young dear, why have you taken me in your fall? All of my love, all of my life Given to you, sacrificed!”

The lyrics give a thematic statement, and are repeated to reenforce that idea, hence why I’m calling this the chorus. But the song itself changes around this to show the song evolving. Each time, it gets more expressive and adding more and more melodrama to itself.

It's becoming the centre of an opera, a theatrical piece, too emotive to be real, too painful to complete. Add to that the progressing difficulty of the vocal performance and you get a song that keeps coming back to itself, keeps begging the question and never truly answering itself.

A chorus is the central idea of a song, you get setup and payoff elsewhere, but if you need to remember something, you remember the chorus.

It's also the term for the backup characters who don't have names. The crowd is the chorus. This is thematically relevant to what I will say later.

Obviously, it is more complex than that, as all things are in life, and I’m sure that those who know more than me would be happy to explain that in the replies.

In pub songs and folk music, for example, the chorus just exists to be memorable for everyone to sing along to. Sosban Fach’s chorus is simple.

“Sosban fach yn berwi ar y tân Sosban fach yn berwi ar y llawr A’r gath wedi huno mewn hedd.”

Or, in English:

“A little saucepan is boiling on the fire A big saucepan is boiling on the floor, And the cat is asleep in peace”

You may remember this as the “silly saucepan song” that keeps getting mentioned in Howl’s Moving Castle. The chorus is fun and booming. You belt it out with mates at a pub or at a football game.

But the song is actually about stagnation and the passing of time, as such, the chorus reminds us how little things have changed and ends on an upwards inflection to set up the next verse. You may also notice that it is morbid as all hell. The only constants in life, according to this song, are overwork and death. Welcome to Wales.

All this leads me to Looser Baby, a song about redemption, in a weird way. It’s not about lofty ideals, just community, and companionship.

“You're a loser, baby A loser, goddamn baby You're a fucked-up little whiny bitch You're a loser just like me You're a screw-loose boozer An only one-star reviews-er You're a power bottom at rock bottom But you got company”

The chorus does change over the course of the song, reflecting a developing idea, so we’ll start here, with a subversion.

Loser Baby opens quietly, and soulfully. Husk is reaching out to Angel and checking off what upset him. You are expecting reassurance, everything is alright, things aren’t actually that bad.

In short, you’re expecting the type of advice that Charlie gives, and hold on to that idea for a moment.

Instead, Husk flips the whole thing on its head and gives us the song’s titular theme. Yes, everything is fucked, but it’s like that for everyone else here. You need to have solidarity with your fellow human beings, or demons, or… you get the point.

That is actually an important element of jazz music, the community of it. Once again, this is more complex than a Tumblr post can go into, but in short, there’s some history here that carries over into the theming of the song.

According to Jazz Observer:

“The beginnings of jazz actually date back to the 19th century. New Orleans was home to Congo Square, a space where slaves would gather and play music. That tradition started a bit before 1820, and it brought together people from a wide array of countries, each introducing a bit of their nation’s unique sound to the mix.”

In other words, Jazz arose amongst the downtrodden as a way of keeping culture alive. It became a melting pot of ideas that were outside of the mainstream, and if you associate the genre with shady bars and speakeasies, there’s a reason for that. The music was created as a means of subversion and community amidst oppression.

Subversion and community amidst oppression? If that ain’t sound like Hazbin Hotel’s entire deal, I don’t know what does.

There is a jarring tone shift in the first chorus as drums are introduced along with brass instruments and a general sense of fun. The song feels like it’s being improvised as it goes, allowing for individual expression withing a general plan. Everyone has their own story, but it's being put together to form something greater.

That vibe continues into the verse, which mentions opening up and that sense of community again, but I’m focusing on the choruses, and so the second one of those goes as follows:

“We’re both losers, baby, we’re losers, it’s ok to be a…” “Coked-up, dick-suckin hoe?” “Baby that’s fine by me.” “I’m a loser, honey, A schmoozer and a dummy, But at least I know I’m not alone” “You’re a loser,” “Just like me.”

Once again, the solution isn’t that none of the bad things matter, it’s that it’s ok to be going through them. Losers together.

That’s why Angel sings along in this chorus, we’re opening conversation, and he’s realising what the theme is of the story he’s in.

Linking back to the instruments here, I mentioned briefly in my post on Poison that the electronic synth feels fake to me. I don’t mean this in an “it’s not real music” way, because listen to the song and tell me with a straight face that that ain't music. I meant that the synth is artificial, there’s a human element that has been forcibly removed.

Even the percussion is electronic, meaning that the only emotionality in this song is Angel himself. He’s blending in and the pitch perfection of the vocals mean that everything about him is fake, until he breaks down.

The last verse of Poison hits so hard because he is alone against an unfeeling backdrop.

Side note, this is why the Poison AI covers annoy me more than usual. Not only is it theft, not only is it cheap and effortless, but it misunderstands the point of the song.

Loser Baby is truly the opposite of this, with a ton of instruments giving the vibe of a full band backing up the characters. Husk brought friends to this, and they are all here to lift up Angel together.

Angel adds his higher vocals to this, but also his vernacular. “Schmoozer” isn’t a word typically associated with jazz, it's Yiddish, a pseudo-Hebrew language that was common among American mobsters and is still very popular in New York. Fun fact, the word “bagel” comes from the same place.

As such, we get that melting pot that is this song and jazz in general. Everyone adds their unique vibe to the larger motif.

“You're a loser, baby” “A loser, but just maybe if we…” “eat shit together, things will end up differently”

Everything is cut off abruptly, except for that piano and the drums.

I do love that little tap of a hi-hat, because on the one hand, it’s establishing a rhythm and reminding you all that everyone else is still here and running up to joining back in. But on the other hand, I can’t help but visualise it as accidental. Like the drummer clipped it as she leant forwards and has to pass it off as an intentional decision. To me, that makes the song seem more human and especially more fallible.

The visuals also simplify here. No longer are we on the street, but something more symbolic. Husk is sheltering Angel from the rain, sitting alongside him and enduring the world together. The two are taking comfort in each other.

“It's time to lose your self-loathing excuse yourself, let hope in, baby Play your card, be who you are” “A loser, just like me.”

We’ve brought in the full band for a finale, and added one more instrument, kinda.

“Ooooooooooooh”

I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.

In seriousness, Angel has become part of the group. He’s backed up by everyone else and is now lending his own voice to theirs. He doesn’t get outshone by anyone, he’s not fading into the background, he’s just making the music denser.

He’s playing his card and being who he is. He’s accepting his flaws and trying to improve on them, rather than pretending that they ain’t there.

Here’s my argument, then: I think this song is the chorus of the whole musical.

We’ve had our thesis statements, but this is the thing you need to remember. Everyone is fucked up, everyone is a loser, and they need to bear that together. Community, introspection, and hope.

Remember what I said about Charlie? She’s optimistic, she looks at the bright side of things. My reading of this series is that it is fundamentally about the difference between optimism and hope, and that that difference is something Charlie learns over the course of the story.

I’ve seen a few public figures (whose names I will not give because I think they are eejits) wax philosophical about how hope is fleeting. As someone who grew up in Wales listening to songs like Sosban Fach, I want to firmly disagree.

If it’s fleeting, it ain’t hope. Hope looks to the future, a time that notably hasn’t happened yet, and tells you it will be better. Optimism looks at the present and finds something nice in it. You cannot disprove hope, you cannot say that a future will not come to pass, no matter how unlikely, because you can’t know.

By the same ticket, the nihilist idea that the world can’t get better has been disproven so many times. The world has improved again and again and when there have been hardships, there have always been people who will get in the way of that and work to oppose them. Grimdark isn’t reality, the world may not be kind, but it is fundamentally good. And those things that make the world worse can be changed, progress has been made in the past and is continuing to be made now.

Hope has wings, but it also has talons.

That’s what redemption is. It’s not looking at the bright side of sinners and ignoring their flaws, its making work towards getting better. The musical as a whole is about doing that together.

Essentially, if we eat shit together, things might end up differently.

Final Thoughts

I write these in Microsoft word before I post them to Tumblr, because I don’t trust the draft feature of any website. Ao3 has burned me too many times before to allow for that kind of mistake. However, one caveat of this is that the application can’t comprehend the phrase “power bottom”, which makes me laugh.

On a different note, I am not a Husker Dust shipper. Don’t get me wrong, if you ship the two characters, go for it. I simply read them as platonic. A friend helping out a friend. It doesn’t have to be romantic to mean something. There doesn’t have to be something more for these two to care about each other. Community isn’t always romantic.

That being said, if the ship becomes cannon, I will not be surprised at all.

Next week, I’m covering Hell’s Greatest Dad, and the global treasure that is Jeremy Jordan. So, stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[thefirstknife]

Is there any word on if episodes will stay, yet? Because so far they basically seem like the exact same thing as seasons except more of the story is time-gated and they have some additional rewards for the season pass, so I'm expecting they'll play into the same FOMO: The Game model to try and make sure players don't quit now that the Light/Dark saga ended...

So far nothing has been said about whether they're staying past a year or not. I wish they would tell us.

Personally I enjoy this "act" structure. For now ofc, it's way too early to make a full judgement. I know everyone is right now screaming about time-gating, but I find it more relaxing to play this way. Three weeks of content, three weeks of waiting during which I can do something else or catch up with existing content. This is obviously here to prolong engagement so people don't cram all content in a month and dip for the next three months until the new episode, but I think it not only gives us some extra time to come and go, but it also gives breaks to devs. At least I hope it does.

As for fomo... well. Yeah. It's an MMO. Live service. Whatever we're calling them these days. The company wants us to keep playing. I don't really understand why people keep bringing that up, it's been a thing for longer than Destiny has existed. We knew this going in, no matter what way episodes are constructed, we'd be enticed to play and then wait for new content. If it's like a season, we'd be in a 9 week cycle of weekly updates without pause and then 2 months of no updates until the next episode when you'd be expected to return to keep playing. Right now, at least, we can take breaks between acts.

But yes, at the end of the day, the goal is to keep us engaged and to get us to keep coming back. And it's easier to get people to come back in smaller chunks than to get them to return after they've stopped playing for 2 months. Or at least that's how it is in theory! We'll see how it goes. I enjoy it for personal reasons because it allows for more breaks.

[anim-ttrpgs]

A new video about Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy!

Curtesy of @talenlee!

This video isn’t so much a review of Eureka’s mechanics as it is an overview and analysis of some of Eureka’s goals, such as how Eureka differs from many other RPGs in that it isn’t just a story about detectives solving a mystery, it’s a story about detectives confronting the unique challenge of solving a mystery which has a set solution. The culprit doesn’t change in reaction to who the players thing it is, which goes against a lot of conventional GMing advice.

Which brings us to a related point he made, which is that the default state of a Eureka mystery is “failed,” and that is very much true. If the PCs simply do nothing and wait for the solution to fall into their lap, they will fail, every time. The party must take initiative and work to overcome this puzzle, and how the characters and players react to the challenge of overcoming this puzzle is something Eureka is there to study.

Also, he likes the Wealth mechanic.

To turn this post into something additive that creates an actual discussion, however, we’d like to address one of @talenlee's criticisms of Eureka. Namely, that character creation is the second chapter, while most of the core rules are the first chapter.

@talenlee argues that character creation rules should come as early as possible in a rulebook, which helps a reader get hooked in, because it puts all the rules that come after in the context of “this is what your character can do.” You can watch the video above, and some of his other videos, for a better and deeper explanation.

That may be true for some people, but we argue that putting the character creation rules after the core rules leads to a smoother gameplay and character creation experience, which is why we structured the book the way we did.

Even though character creation in Eureka has been praised quite a lot for being very easy, there are quite a lot of choices to be made, all of which are very impactful. There is almost zero randomization as well, meaning every choice in character creation is one that you must manually make yourself.

But an uninformed decision is not a decision at all. Anyone who has played an old CRPG from the 90s will know what I’m talking about. Those are famous for giving you detailed character creation right there in the first 2 minutes after you launch the game, before you know how to play or really what any of the numbers mean. It will say things like “Strength dictates how much damage you do with melee weapons, how much inventory you can carry, and how much heavy armor you can wear.” Okay, well, how much damage do I need to do with melee weapons to be able to kill the rats in the first area of the game? How thick does my armor need to be for me to survive in mandatory battles, and how much Strength do I need to wear that armor?

“Accuracy determines how likely you are to hit an enemy?” Okay, how much Accuracy do I need to hit my enemies? I can select Accuracy 1-10, but without knowing how much Dodge an average enemy has, or how a Hit is calculated, this knowledge is useless. You have to play the game first to learn any of that, and then start over to make a new character. That’s no fun.

While it is very difficult to accidentally make a totally unviable PC in Eureka, it is very possible to end up making a character whose stats and traits do not represent exactly who you want them to be if you don’t know what the numbers mean, and who your character is is very important in Eureka.

And that’s why we tell you all the core rules before we tell you to start making a character. That isn’t to say that the other way around is wrong, just that that’s how we prefer it.

Comment below if you have any more insight on this! Discussion is great!

And don't forget, we are in the last week of the kickstarter! The Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy kickstarter ends at 2:00PM CST on Friday May 10th! Get in and support it before it's too late to get custom artwork in the rulebook and the option to write your own entry in one of the tables that determines who playable monsters will have the opportunity to eat!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[citrous241]

1.21 is looking fire, but 1.22 has got to be an End update.

Minecraft has always had really good lore and story-telling, but does anyone else feel like the End is just missing something?

It's to be expected, it hasn't been updated for the last 7 years and the last update added more questions than answers. I feel like it's just on the cusp of being as clear as the rest of the game.

It's a dimension that's supposed to feel off, and uncanny. Literally the only track that plays is 15 minutes of warped mash-ups of Overworld tracks. End stone is just inverted Cobblestone.. etc. But even then it's still wrong.

I just have to know, Minecraft lore is built off of head canons but I'm just unable to form one that makes sense regarding the End. Endermen make sense, I believe they're warped and "evolved" humans. Eating only chorus makes them teleport, their long arms and bodies to reach the high snaking chorus plants, their larger eyes to see in perpetual darkness, etc. Their aversion to water is a wrench in that but I'm not perfect and my head canon isn't right. Endermen could have nothing to do with humans.

Shulkers and End Cities are what confounds me. Are Shulkers natural living organisms? The Dragon and Ender-men both have black skin and dark purple eyes but this thing has yellow skin and an almost magenta shell. I think they're some sort of automatons, but built by who? The ancient builders, the ones who evolved into Endermen? But the spiral staircases in the End Cities don't seem designed for humans (or maybe I just suck at climbing them) and the ceilings aren't really high enough for Endermen. Maybe Shulkers are another protector mob of their area. But protecting what? Protecting the means of personal flight maybe, but that looks nothing like the rest of the end - its literally made from the wings of the Phantoms of the Overworld.

End Cities themselves do kind of make sense to me, their architecture mimics the branches of a chorus plant. But whilst chorus seems to be the only natural thing in the End, the cities very much aren't. There's no way that structure would work under normal gravity. But surely the End just has weak gravity? Nope, it's the same as the Overworld.

Everything in the End just feels so artificial. The central island; with Obsidian pillars punching through the whole thing, a material that can only be made using 2 fluids that don't exist in the End, topped with a crystal made partially from the tears of a creature in another dimension and some sort of Eye which we can only make by killing an Enderman and fusing it's remains with the ground up remains of another creature from said other dimension. Also, it is so far away from the rest of the End, as if someone destroyed or moved these other islands away. The Dragon itself to, she works like no other mob. People say that she's a machine which I don't agree with, her erratic behaviour is because she is the only mob of her type and hasn't been updated like ever. I don't think she's native to the End though; Endermen, the only other creature in existence that looks like her, can be hostile to her.

Trying to piece this together as I'm writing this is making me think of a new head canon: The End is just a melting pot of travellers who got lost and stuck. Think of something like the Void from the Loki show. I think the End was initially just a mass of floating islands with the chorus fruit, in the Void between dimensions. Then the ancient builders arrived, constructing the obsidian pillars and the bedrock portal frame. I think they found something, maybe it could be whatever made the End Cities. But regardless, something dangerous. Something that made them separate the only way out of the dimension by several kilometres of Void, that made them create a Dragon to guard said way out. Something that made them sacrifice themselves by sealing themselves into the End.

There are a few holes in this. Maybe the ancient builders did build the End Cities before/after becoming Endermen. Maybe the danger was the Dragon, but why would it guard the exit portal? And I've kind of ignored the fact that Endstone is inverted Cobblestone, maybe the whole dimension if artificial? Built by the ancient builders entirely? Or maybe the End was spawned from ancient humanities collective mind, like a sort of yin to their yang.

I would love an End update to add a few things. I don't like most popular ideas or mods for an End update, as they often stray too far from what the End is. I would like to be able to find whatever gravity-defying sentient race built the End Cities, maybe they could also be warped into Endermen like the ancient builders were - but could still have a sense of self and humanity, or maybe they're some sort of Phantom People. I would like to find this danger that caused the ancient builders to sacrifice themselves, a new huge boss at the edge of the End would be awesome. I would also like, if they made them less annoying that is, for Phantoms to spawn in the End just normally. They feed on Insomnia right? What's more insomniac then an entire dimension where it's always night and nothing can sleep?

I would also like purple chorus wood lol.

[mdhwrites]

New Eridu is a Fictional Playground

TL:DR: ZZZ is written like a sitcom primarily and its looseness of world building and the looseness of the world reflects this. It discards things inconvenient for the vibe and mood it's going for with something because that's what sitcoms primarily do. However, this is for better and for worse as the setting does have rules that are treated like a big deal but then also given the same respect as the majority of elements and it causes friction in the details while the whole of it works in the broad strokes.

So let's first clarify what I mean when I say ZZZ is written like a Sitcom. I don't mean this in structure. We are not just playing an interactive version of something like Seinfeld. No, it's actually more based on something I heard the South Park creators talk about and that's how the town of South Park is entirely inconsistent because things will be where they need to be in order for the episode they're doing to work. One episode might portray Chef's house as being right next to Walmart. The next one might have them on opposite sides. That doesn't matter though because the story being told is what matters, not the firmness of the world.

The ultimate version of this for me with ZZZ is the Golden Bangboo City quest, both for its strengths and weaknesses. The quest is one of my favorite in the game. Optimize how to get over 500,000 gear coins, a number that sounds patently ABSURD. All while in this compelling Hollow that has a lot of fun mechanics. If you don't think about it and go by the rules of the mission alone, it's phenomenal.

We do also all remember how the people there admit to having been trapped within the Hollow for a minimum of days, if not WEEKS, especially to accrue the debts they have? Or how about how the guy we need to get the gear coins for wants them... To pay for debts OUTSIDE of the Hollow, despite there literally being lines from characters about being sad that we can't do that and ALL impressions being that gear coins mean nothing in the wider world (even if it makes the gear coin locks confusing as hell). The latter is excusable but ether poisoning, the restrictions of Hollows, etc. like that are a BIG deal but even in main content, like with the thugs just sitting outside Red Fang safehouses, or Koleda's Agent Story where they admit to these raiders just sitting in the Hollow in a supposed 'safe' area and like... What are the rules here?

But you're not supposed to really ask. It's like how you don't question that Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother has all of his money. It's funnier not to have an explanation and for him to reveal his literal wall sized television. It's more entertaining that Homer can be this bumbling idiot at work and get into all sorts of shenanigans and never get fired for more than a week or never have to really worry about finances. On the other hand, these shows never go out of their way to try and make these principal, important parts of the show. Those stay fairly consistent and lead to some of the best moments of any of these works and that goes for ZZZ as well.

My favorite scene in the entire game so far goes to Koleda calling out the prototype's name. Is it more magic than scifi? Kind of. Is it over the top and kind of silly? Absolutely. Does it break what has come before?

...Only in that the prototype has not been corrupted by this much time spent in a Hollow, which is something I'm willing to overlook as it's questionable how much of its AI was actually online by then that could be corrupted. Otherwise? We've literally just fought three different mechs who were empowered by their emotional programming. We have seen how much these mechs mean to all of Belobog Industries and been explained Koleda's complex history with them, not helped by her sister being the one to continue championing them after her father's passing. All of these are played for laughs as much, if not more, than they are taken seriously and so Koleda embracing her heritage, figuring out the truth and believing in her father and the legacy he left behind has me tearing up to think about even now.

The best sitcoms always manage this. Where elements that used to be funny can then be shifted to hit like a punch to the gut. M.A.S.H. is the EASY one to call out for this with shit like Colonel Blake's death but I actually want to go to a different one because it's more iconic to me for how it works. See, the first time I ever heard the gag line "I'm not as think as you drunk I am," was in Scrubs. One of the doctors comes in drunk as a skunk and the others are mad at him. When put that way, it sounds silly and amusing. When you're told that it's their angry, condescending mentor figure, who is arguably the best doctor in the hospital, having breakdown because he just lost like four patients, including a cancer patient he thought he'd just saved (if I'm remembering right) from catastrophic failures outside of his control except for one mistake, one break in quarantine I believe... Suddenly, you're laughing but it also hurts to see him laid this low. The contrast makes the point hit harder than it would in a regular drama.

This is also why I think Chapter 3 of ZZZ so far is the weakest of the main chapters. It has no emotional core like Koleda or Nekomata that helps make the plot of the chapter work better and for you to ignore the breaks in logic. Instead, they go with tension... Which is also the part of the logic they break. After all, we're told that Pearlman's escape plan is going to only take like a couple of hours. However, canonically, our work with Victoria Housekeeping is over the course of multiple DAYS. At bare minimum, one night passes simply for the sake of interrogating the rebel forces that we pull out of the Ballet Twins. It is already hard to ignore this break in logic when we are mostly not interacting with the stakes, we're just enjoying the gags of Victoria Housekeeping, but it becomes even harder when you're also having to constantly think about the break in logic so as to be able to engage with the big question of the episode. I still managed to like it but it's part of why the anti-climax of Pearlman getting away was so dissatisfying for me because it didn't give a real payoff to what was already a pretty flimsy story. I would argue that for most of Big Bang Theory, the thing I think genuinely makes it not very good, this is its problem too. Even when the jokes are good and the energy is high, Victoria Housekeeping is a fun group to spend time with, you're lacking that real hook to bring it above just something to kill time with. Something to take away once the episode is over. The worst of ANYTHING that's just mid-tier, purely enjoyment based writing comes from this.

That is the for worst element of ZZZ being like a Sitcom. It is far more malleable for anyone to do as they want with than I would argue either Genshin or Star Rail because it leans into its own flexibility. However, that does mean it walks a fine line against potentially having the floor collapse out from under it because it is relying on more ephemeral things like raw charm and charisma, rather than a solid world you can invest in, for its core appeal.

For now, it's working but there's a reason a lot of Sitcoms get labeled with, "It was really good... Until Season X." And I hope Zenless can figure out how to avoid that or else it truly will fall out of its current zone and zero out. See you next tale.

======

Actually going to do a quick bit of additional notes here just because I feel like most people will see "X is like a Sitcom" and think I'm immediately being dismissive. That isn't the case. I love sitcoms. It's what I watched with my parents as a teenager and a young adult. I've seen almost the entirety of M.A.S.H TWICE with my brother (that final season deserves the reputation it has. sigh) Sitcoms are some of the most popular, beloved pieces of television ever for a reason. If you want some recs from me: Rules of Engagement genuinely has a lot to say about relationships, romantic and platonic, though with some wife guy humor from Patrick Warburton that is going to be up to your tastes. Scrubs is a classic, just stop when they try to swap the entire cast out, and while I know How I Met Your Mother gets given shit for its ending, the ride there is still good for most of the run. M.A.S.H... Just go watch M.A.S.H, PLEASE. It's old but it's not dated, nor is it offensive in really any way. Like the one person who wears drag isn't funny because he wears drag. It's because no one cares that he's wearing drag because he's only doing it to try and use prejudice to get discharged from the army and that doesn't make him special because none of them want to be there and that's about as insensitive as it gets as far as memory serves. It is one of the smartest things I have ever watched and has the weird paradox that most of the cast change outs actually IMPROVE the show for most of its running time, rather than diminish it and it starts at a pretty high bar so that's really saying something.

BUT the big thing I want to point out is that... ZZZ actually is using sitcoms for its groups. Belobog is a workplace comedy. The Cunning Hares are any of the billion broke bitch sitcoms out there. Soldier 11 is I think trying to capture some of M.A.S.H. with the absurdity of her quest but also being honest about her having done War Crimes. Even Victoria has that with, and I haven't watched any of this archtype so I might be wrong, being kind of based on shows like The Fresh Prince of Belair with Ellen being the low class person out of place amongst the group. If you're thinking that stuff like Friends or How I Met Your Mother are absent... I don't mean this in the way it's going to sound but Wise is Ross/his archtype and Belle is Rachel/her archtype. Not that they're in a relationship with each other but that they are the only nominally weird but mostly bland people in the group that grounds everyone else around them. The straight men comedically that bounce off everyone else.

And again: This is not a criticism. I could criticize how well each of these are done (Ellen suffers pretty badly from Wise being written as the milk toast guy that girls will just throw at themselves for no reason) but they are taking from good inspirations, at least in my opinion and I wanted to defend that. I feel like Sitcoms only really only ever get talked about negatively and I wanted to make it clear that that's not what I meant here and I even think it helps provide the unique vibe of ZZZ versus others around it.

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I know some of what I listed might not be technically considered sitcoms but I would argue for any of them that they're bare minimum close enough to the formula and concepts and priorities of sitcoms to be useful references.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[aoxizu]

i have, completely accidentally, finished all of the currently available wuthering waves main questline

meanwhile i still have not touched the 2.2 plot in star rail but shh i'll get that scene finished eventually and then i can start questing

but anyway. obviously jiyan and jing yuan have many similarities (general, initials jy, ponytail, voiced by sun ye, chinese, once knew a guy with white hair who later became a criminal), but jiyan just doesn't quite get to the same level as jing yuan does (also jing yuan showed up for me twice. jiyan has shown up 0 times.)

this will go into jiyan backstory spoilers kind of if you haven't yet seen that part of the main quest, and also tone warning: i'm going to complain a lot, and i am very biased.

but like. geshu lin did nothing wrong change my mind

it's like if the luofu was fighting phantylia and there was no astral express, jing yuan tells the army to guard the frontline with their life if necessary and then goes off to fight phantylia alone, and then the soldiers all have terrible morale so fu xuan decides to have everyone retreat and then jing yuan becomes a criminal for giving that order and fu xuan becomes the general

except fu xuan at least has some higher position in the leadership structure of the luofu, but jiyan does not. jiyan was literally just some random doctor in the army who said "hey what if we didn't lose our lives like we signed up to do and all ran away instead" and for that he was appointed general through magic dragon

it's like the game is trying to take a "war bad" stance at the same time as glorifying the military so they can sell the general and convince people to pull for him

and then (main story spoilers) when you go fight the not-bloodborne boss in the north wilds (i play in cn so i have no idea what anything is called in english) at the very end of the quest, jiyan pretty much does the same thing as geshu lin

he has his soldiers stay back while he goes to fight the big bad and the only difference is that jiyan takes 3 more people along with him and he also has the power of a prophecy on his side

i get that the game is trying to paint geshu lin as this kind of like war crazed general but like jiyan and geshu lin are in nearly the exact same situation here, making almost the exact same decision

i am being told that jiyan is different from geshu lin in some way but it's really hard to believe that when it looks like they're doing the same things

chinese culture doesn't like to glorify leaders who only focus on war and nothing else (see: han wudi, qin shihuang) (note that mao zedong and the cultural changes he brought do not agree with this attitude) and i suppose that's the reasoning for why geshu lin is a criminal while jiyan is fine since jiyan knows when to retreat or whatever, but i do not think the game does a particularly good job of showing that

this inconsistency may have also had something to do with the amount of changes that jiyan's character went through during development, since his (cn) va was originally sang liuze (ratio/neuvillette) (which i think would have fit jiyan better. personal opinion), and was later changed to sun ye, and his character was also originally just supposed to be a doctor in the army without the sudden becoming general part, so to a lot of cn players it just feels like kuro's trying to coast off of jing yuan's popularity

i don't think that's necessarily true but it is definitely affecting how jiyan is being seen in the chinese community

though i will say that despite the whole ???ness of jiyan's decision making process, the not bloodborne boss fight was really cool, and i really liked exploring that area

hsr on the other hand avoids the problem with trying to say war bad but also trying to sell a military general by simply having jing yuan focus on strategy, and clearly placing more importance on outsmarting the enemy rather than throwing people and resources at the enemy until it dies

but anyway. i'm still going to try and get jiyan, since i kind of like his playstyle despite it being burst based, though havoc rover does look cool enough for me to seriously consider using them for as long as possible

right now the game is in the weird place of being so new that i can't take a lot of it seriously, since it's still finding its place in the massive 2d-adjacent mobile game environment, but i'm sure it will either a) grow on me or b) become genshin, where i am a "day one player" but barely touch the game

or a secret third option, where it displaces my star rail addiction to plant a wuthering waves addiction, but i find that unlikely since i don't tend to like open world games as much

i'm excited to see where wuthering waves goes and if it can finally provide a challenge to the behemoth that is genshin

you know what the actual problem i have with wuthering waves is? when i take a picture with the in game camera and hit save it doesn't actually save. so i'm restricted to screenshots for the time being

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2024-07-29

Undisclosed reasons

Listening: Protodome does cute chiptune jazzy stuff. It's good room-filling music

Reading: among other things, rereading a significant chunk of Questionable Content. I dunk on QC a lot so I'm not going to here. It's a comic I care about a lot and that I read because I like it, even if it no wait not doing that. Yeah despite the enormous revolving cast it manages to be pretty well plotted on an arc-to-arc scale even if between arcs there is almost no continuity.

I haven't reread much of QC in a long time and I don't think at all since I moved out on my own which makes it stand out as a very different kind of thing. While I had friends through high school and university, we didn't exactly hang out, whereas I do occasionally just have a random friend over at my apartment or find myself hanging out on an odd weekend.

Watching: Nothing really, bleh.

Making: Got the core features of LuaLED up and running! If I don't lose focus for weeks at a time again it should actually be a useful product soon!

Revived a couple laptops that have been between operating systems and kicking around the house. Currently typing this on the ARM tablet because it's finally in a position to be used like a normal computer. It's a little slow but it handles my normal tasks great, I was using it to flip through photos and read QC.

Speaking of Photos, went out to take photos around Nuselsky Most (keyboard isn't set up for accents sorry) near Vysehrad. It's a pretty dead area at street level but there's a huge concrete bridge crossing the valley that adds some texture, I've been trying to come up with interesting photographic assignments to improve my architectural photography and I figured trying to capture something that high up was going to be interesting. That was only yesterday so it'll be a moment until I dump those photos out and get some up here.

Playing: Paradise Killer! Paradise Killer is mostly pretty good. The main gimmick of Paradise Killer is the extremely hands-off investigation system. You have an assistant computer that tracks all your relevant facts, categorizes them a little, and helps you see whether you've exhausted all your dialogue options with someone, but you really do just have to dig around the island looking for clues or you can end up in a situation where you just never find a particular clue.

The fact that it tracks loose-ends for you does soften this somewhat, if you've still got a ton of loose ends it tells you where to tug, and I think getting rid of that might have made the game more interesting but it's a good accommodation towards playing it over more than three days like I did.

Because of how the investigation is structured, you have to really put in the legwork to find out the full story, it's very easy to feel like you've probably got everything on lock with a couple odd ends but then you find a new clue and suddenly the whole shape of the case changes.

There's also the aspect of mechanical friction. The game is really does not make anything go quickly. Menus are intentionally clunky, interfaces are slow and full of animations and confirmations that can't easily be tabbed through, fast travel is involved and costly and requires planning in advance, resources are plentiful but ultimately limited and if you're not careful you absolutely can spend yourself to empty. It's a little bit of internal commentary on what you might do if you have to design a place where you can live forever.

I think if you like mystery games, or catchy city pop, it's a good game to check out.

Tools and Equipment: You can dramatically increase the fineness of a rough mushroom chop by whacking them with your palm or the flat of a blade and then chopping.

[shatcey]

Midnight Cinderella

On August 26, without any warning (now that I think about it… there was a warning, I just ignored it), Cybird stopped servicing the Midnight Cinderella. You will no longer be able to download the game or play it if you have it on your phone. I am very upset about this because I like the game and I plan to finish at least a few more routes. Unfortunately, I didn't finished Rayvis' route (just a little bit), so I think I have no right to talk about my impression of him, it will be incomplete. It's a pity that I won't have the opportunity to read the stories from his POV, I was really looking forward to it...

But… there's no point in being sad about things you can't change. So I decided to collect everything I wanna say about a game that no longer exists. This will be my last post about MidCin.

First of all… this is what the loading screen looked like

I haven't taken many screenshots outside of the routes, but just for the history, I'll show you what I have.

The suitor choice page, the main page, the endings and a dollhouse (there was also a garden with the suitor, but I didn't take screenshots). Surprisingly, they are all from different routes.

This game can be called a pre-version of Ikemen Prince. All the boys are at least remotely familiar, and the beginning of the story… turned inside out. A commoner was chosen to be a princess (there is a tradition in this country), and she needs to study a lot AND choose a prince consort. Familiar, isn't it?

The princess is very different in different routes. On some of them, she was annoyingly stupid. And I seriously wondered why Giles (pre-Sariel) chose her in the first place. But on some… she was really good, and her qualities played a huge role in the moving of the plot and the development of relationships.

Yes, sometimes the wording was extremely primitive, but it just made you think about how young MC probably is. Both her reaction and her naivety fit so well into this picture.

There were huge gaps in the plot and backstory of the characters, I had a lot of questions about the role of the king (what exactly he does) and political structures… But since the project was released 10 years ago and it was one of the first games they published, I find that this was a huge success.

At the time I started playing, the game was no longer supported by the developers, so there were no events and no updates. There were no voices, crystals (or whatever they are called) could only be bought with real money, and it was very difficult to get stories from his POV in the gacha. I don't know if all or at least part of it was the same as when the game was still active.

But despite the fact that there was little lore in the game, and how difficult it was to understand the boys (they had too little expressions and explained almost nothing about their actions and emotions), this game had a special vibe. Something that you can't mistook with anything else.

And one phrase from each of the boys I played.

I couldn't find Giles's words. I have literally two screenshots with him… But I don't want to forget about him, so…

My sad non-knight with a mole near his eye… maybe…

This was the first route I read, and I didn't expect to stay with this game for long so I didn't take screenshots… And I definitely didn't expect to stay with it til its last breath...

And because I don't wanna finish on a sad note…

Cutely blushed and naked. What could be better for lifting the mood.

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🔝 Start page 🔝

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[kaasiand]

It's kinda weird how, compared to Metroid Dread, Metroid Fusion was so much more blatant in

its prioritisation of linear story progression over exploration

its linear presentation (literally naming the areas sector 1–6), though it still does the classic "linear game pretending to be nonlinear" thing by taking you through them in a different, but still fixed, order

the way it literally directly tells you your every next step constantly

yet when playing the games, it felt to me that somehow, despite all of this, Fusion felt a lot less frustrating in its linearity to me than Dread. In Fusion it was immediately clear that I would just be sticking to a single sector for each part of the game and those sectors themselves would still be mostly freely explorable in a way that felt more similar to Metroid II, but in Dread there was just no telling AT ALL when the path behind me would be blocked off and it also felt wayyyyy less justified than in Fusion, especially with just how often Dread would be doing this.

With Fusion's extremely tense atmosphere being present throughout the entire game and so much of the story taking place and developing during the game itself, I was totally understanding of its structure and restrictions. Dread on the other hand just kinda made me feel nothing, except

frustration at the lack of exploration with every single door locking behind me constantly for no good reason. Even some obstacles don't *go away* but instead switch from blocking the path forward, to blocking the path back: the thermal doors, the lifts that go down if you stick to their spider magnet walls, the big boxes that you had to move with the charge beam (or grapple beam idk? or both?) it just gets soooo annoying

frustration at how you need to use 3 buttons simultaneously to perform one single god damned action

frustration at how abilities felt extremely underused in the level design—you rarely grapple your way across the ceiling to cross a pit like in Super (which is the kind of level design that allows for sequence breaks in completely natural ways that encourage player experimentation), no, you just open the grapple beam door lock with your grapple beam door key. Literally every single ability in dread relies on this WAY TOO MUCH in painfully obvious ways, including literally every single power beam upgrade

frustration at how missile tanks feel worthless because getting only 2 is just not worth my time (yet the total number of missiles is similar to the other games... a sign of the game being too long/padded compared to the old games)

frustration at how energy tanks feel worthless because every boss does 100+ damage per hit; you're just not allowed to be tanky and the game is forcing you to play in only one specific way. The full energy tanks are just straight up given to you at way too hard-to-miss points—it's not a reward for exploration, it's forcibly scaling up Samus's health so it can scale up the next bosses' damage accordingly and absolutely nothing ends up feeling different. And to make things worse, the energy tanks that you DO get to find on your own don't actually DO anything because they're fucking energy PARTS. They just deliberately made exploration as unrewarding as it possibly could've been

frustration at how almost every area looks the goddamn same and has no music to stand out with either

I must say Dread's final boss was actually really reasonable though, it was really generous with the heals/restocks provided in between & low damage numbers making it so that my collected energy tanks FINALLY felt like they were actually making a difference. I will hate that one arbitrarily locked door in the escape sequence though

[purplerakath]

Dissecting an Adaptation - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder

Adaptation is one of those weird topics. It's 'bad' because it changes things. But if it doesn't change things, its still bad. A no win scenario as you turn one thing into itself from a new angle. And a lot of the time people don't look at why it made changes, or what those changes do. Or how those changes play into the nature of the story.

TV, Film, Books, Comics, and Video Games have different tools, different rules, and different ways to do the same thing: tell a story.

This will have spoilers for both the first book, and the for season one of the series. I won't spend a lot of time on changes that impact books 2 and 3 (there are some) and won't go far enough to really qualify as spoilers for those two works.

Adaptations of Structure

The biggest change is the tools a work has to use, and the costs those tools have to use, which covers a lot of the bigger changes in the first season.

(I read the US version of the books, but won't be discussing anything to do with how those read differently from the international version.)

The books switch between three forms of writing over the course of it, narrative prose as normal for a novel, log entries written in character for Pip, and interview transcripts/text exchanges. These change the flow of how the book reads as they are written in different styles. They're very good for a written book, but won't do nearly as much good in a TV show.

Even just stopping for Pip to listen to a full interview wouldn't actually do much visually in an audio-visual medium like TV.

Which covers why almost everything from those is missing. The interviews Pippa does are all done in narrative without a break to a new format to make it clear what's going on. And this is, overall, fine. As much as Pippa's catfishing email exchanges are really good for showing how clever and duplicitous Pip can be, they don't play well in video.

Adaptations of Tempo

Books can cover a longer space of time than a TV show does, TV shows want some continuity of motion. Nothing as exact as 24's 1:1 time flow, but you want an episode to be days not weeks. A season to be months not years (back when seasons were 20+ episodes and not 6-8 episodes).

Which is bad if you're, say, unraveling a mystery. And you want the story to circle back to previous lies, previous interesting characters who graduate to suspects. Lies that become motives. But six episodes means we can't spend too much time chasing our tails.

This also means that a lot of characters who are there to fill space... can just be rolled into another character. Chloe Burch's role in the story being rolled into Nat's character is a good example of this. Ant Lowe being exiled from Pip's friend group is another good one.

There are problems, Stanley Forbes is entirely absent from this version. Similarly we don't see Mr. Singh or Mrs. Bell. And Jason isn't remarried. These all matter to a degree, but they also don't matter right now. And the room for these characters to show up in later seasons (if renewed) is there, so they will be around when we need them.

It's just a little bit of a problem.

Adaptations of Tone

Books have a tougher time with subtext, probably due to them just being text. You have what's there, and nothing else. The audiobook has a fullcast so there might be some read directions on dialog, but you can't rely on that to tell you anything if you're reading the paperback or an epub. So a lot less of it can be about what isn't there.

But when you have actors you can do so much with things that aren't being said out loud. The difference between Book 1 Pipravi as a relationship and Season 1 Pipravi is huge. The book didn't focus on Pip's feelings about Ravi outside of how he was impacted by the case, series Pip is awkwardly trying to work out her emotions over this boy pretty much out of ep 2 and it doesn't stop until she tells him to shut up in Ep 6.

Emma also brings a different sort of intensity to Pip than Book Pip seems to contain. Pip in the book is headstrong, certain of herself (until facts break her), but her need to solve this case is a little less clear in the book (where she's doing this because she thinks its right) vs the show where it's something inside her she has to struggle with.

The other tonal shifts are one of who gets treated kinder by which version of the story. Andie of course is a lot more complex in the books, while the series paints her as a well meaning terrible person. Changing her relationship with Nat is a pretty big one (and really the only shift in the series a fully dislike).

Meanwhile the book spends a lot of time treating Elliot Ward like a good man in a bad situation, that what he did was all moments of weakness and he didn't mean to. The series more firmly paints him as a man with a darkness he hasn't come to grips with, his breakdown in the books makes him less monster than the show. In turn Naomi is given more moments of helping Pip in the series, to lessen her hand in Sal's fate, making her less villainous in Pip's eyes.

These changes on who is framed in kinder light is fairly small on paper, but huge in practice. Changes born (in part) from the tempo of the series being faster. Naomi dodges Pip's questions more in the book, turning her into a more valid suspect. While in the series she's so desperate to tell anyone what happened she let's it slip in the first episode.

Overall...

Each version does different things well, most of the changes I find indifferent. Because as much as the changes are changes, adding the parameter of acting to it means that they can make characters like Max and Daniel skin crawlingly creepy. And while later books Max is very, very creepy, that's because of what Pip knows not how he was written.

While Henry Ashton knew exactly what he was playing and exactly how to sell it with just his presence on set. And that's got it's own value too.

[utilitycaster]

A lot of people who try to analyze religion in Exandria need to watch the Adventuring Academy episode where Brennan and Matt talked about worldbuilding, specifically when Matt said “In a game like dungeons and dragons, or a lot of role playing games where ultimately part of the game is to overcome villains and rise up and become a hero, there has to be some level of universal antagonism… there is a pure and defined entity or force that is evil, it may not be realistic to some stories out there, but that’s [how it works in DND].”

This is true, and it's really interesting to watch this happen because Matt will make a huge, unambiguous evil like Lucien or the Vanguard, or Brennan will do so with Asmodeus and people will do everything they can to try to come up with reasons to woobify them or argue why they're justified...but I haven't seen this happen in most of the D20 seasons, and I think it's because the villains in most D20 seasons have been things that reinforce people's beliefs, namely, capitalism and abuse of religious power. And to be clear, capitalism and abuse of religious power fucking suck, but it's telling that people assume the villain is capitalism in places where that doesn't apply on a wide scale, or in some cases, exist (EXU Calamity, Neverafter); or that the Ruby Vanguard or Tomb Takers, both of which have pretty much every single hallmark of a cult but just aren't affiliated with the main pantheon, are actually the good guys.

Incidentally: this is like, quite literally how people get sucked into cults. One of the leading cult researchers in the world, Janja Lalich, is a survivor of a now dissolved explicitly leftist/anti-capitalist cult. Abuses of power, which is, ultimately, what both Brennan and Matt lean on as their Universal Antagonist traits, rely on confirming people's existing biases and exploiting them - even if those biases are broadly good! This is in fact why I can get so fucking adamant about what is mostly silly fandom shit, because I do, on some level, look at some takes that completely lack critical thinking and am like oh you'd 100% buy into all kinds of dangerous patterns of thought if someone packaged it nicely; even something as stupid as the Caleb Werewolf Theory relied on circumstantial evidence and false information that you could easily verify was false. And it's annoying but mostly harmless in the context of fandom, but it always makes me wonder - does this person do this with political posts on social media?

Anyway getting back to the main point, I think watching/listening to Brennan commentary on Adventuring Academy is generally a really good idea because he is a very smart guy with a philosophy degree and has a strong grasp of the genres in which he works as well as TTRPGs as a storytelling medium, and talks to other people who also have a good understanding of the morality of fantasy stories. And if you listen to this, you will in fact get that the basis of evil in these stories is not something as specific as "capitalism" or "religion"; it's quite literally as basic as "exploiting other people simply because that is an option available to you and you don't care about them." And obviously that's the whole basis of capitalism, and it's a serious problem that exists within organized religion, but like...not to repeat myself from this weekend but I keep thinking about the "Suvi without the imperialism" and it's like...she is a 20 year old woman whose parents died for a cause and we have had ONE episode with her as an adult. We know nothing about the Empire except that it's an empire and it is at war. Like, can you look at imperialism and understand why it's bad? Can you separate the concept of imperalism - which, to be clear, is based on power structures - from say, your 21st century understanding of empires in the real world? Or do you see the word Empire and go "Bad Thing" without any capacity to analyze because that's how you end up looking at two flawed things in a story (well, if we're lucky; see the middle paragraph) and deciding one is perfect and correct for no reason other than because it opposes the thing you think is worse. And Brennan is REALLY good at skewering that, and Matt is REALLY good at portraying multiple complicated and flawed perspectives, but you do have to like, use your brain slightly.

[eqt-95]

19 46 48? :D

Thanks for the ask sides!

19. Top 5 favorite books? (the nerve!)

Edit: i just realized i only listed 4. apparently i don't know how to count

I'm cheating and instead of listing my all-time 5 favorites, I'm naming 5 that fall under the same theme: varying narrative structure. I adore when the story structure becomes it's own character so much. This is in the order that I read them (all are works of fiction):

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski This is a narration inside of a narration and none of those narrators are reliable. I love it. If you ever read it, you MUST get the physical book. Reading it is filled with footnotes and formatting chaos and the experience is a labor of love. It reads with authority yet nothing makes sense. It has a quality of being sourced yet none of the sources exist. It's magic.

Breakfast of champions - Kurt Vonnegut The narrator is omnipotent. The narrator is omniscient. The narrator is a character. Let me repeat that: THE NARRATOR IS A CHARACTER.

Vonnegut gave this book a C, and I disagree. There was something a bit mundane about the story, yes, but the story-story is never the real point with Vonnegut - it's about all the small themes and satire and dark irony and obscure lines that are bingeable and slurpable and chewable and leave you mulling it over and bring you back to chomp down again and again (imo).

Heartburn - Nora Ephron This isn't the most outrageously obscure style, but I can't not include Nora Ephron, my beloved. If you like When Harry Met Sally, this is that on steroids. The narrator spends most of the time speaking to the reader; filling them in with her inner thoughts and comedic turmoil over her failed marriage. The funny bit? It's also supposed to be a cookbook, so recipes are randomly interspersed.

A Visit from The Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan Disclaimer: I read Manhattan Beach before this and I was so turned off that I almost didn't read Goon Squad. I am STOKED I ignored myself.

The narrative style of this book was pure genius to me: each chapter is a different character. This isn't revolutionary, but what feels revolutionary is that: 1. each character's perspective never repeats 2. each chapter is written in the style of that character (POV, prose, everything) and 3. everything is connected but the chapters are not sequential. They all build onto each other from different points in time to establish a world/web of links.

The cleverness and layering of the narration style was, for me, the story. It was in the way the author crafted each character with a unique take and perspective and set of motivations that really drew me in. There was the realness and pettiness and aspirations of the characters paired with the 'how does this all fit together' at play. So many layers and the author spoon-fed NOTHING which made me read more intently. It became a game: I wanted to build a mental map of all the relationships and felt a jolt of excitement when another link was made.

Bonus recommendation: Candy House is the sequel. It has the same qualities (I actually started reading this one first by accident, and the funny thing is that everything would still make total sense if read in the wrong order). Candy House introduced some concepts that I wasn't as fond of, but still absolutely worth a read.

46. Who is your favorite author?

Oooh, this is hard. Can I cheat and say I haven't found my favorite author yet? I've tried for years to pretend Vonnegut isn't my favorite author, but it's Vonnegut. 100%.

48. What line has stuck with you for years? "All this happened, more or less." Speak of the devil. This is the first line of Slaughterhouse-Five, and it's a line worth reading again once you've finished the book.

[cursedvibes]

When it comes to the Shinjuku fight it kinda reminds me of how I felt reading Madara during the 4th Shinobi War Arc. Where it’s like “Well I’m not mad that Madara is strong, that he keeps getting stronger, I just wish the battle was better paced and that Madara was better set up.” same with Kaguya.

Also I’ve noticed that the reading comprehension in this community is straight ass. People seem to not really care about the narrative outside of the main main characters. People are willing to overlook flaws in the main characters writing but will be very loud and it flaws outside of them. Vice versa, people are fine with the rest of the narrative being sacrificed if it means an exciting moment featuring their favorite character (cough Gojo cough).

It’s behavior similar to what I see in idol or band communities, which boggles my mind because JJK is a story. And should be read and analyzed like a story, not an idol group or gacha game.

It does feel quite similar to the 4th Shinobi war although thankfully not quite as bad. I think we have way too many people running around to the point that they have to come up with dumb reasons for why Angel, Hana and Inumaki can't participate for example, but that's still way better than the thousands of fodder ninja Kishimoto expected us to care about, while making it clear that only a handful of people could handle Madara, Kabuto and Kaguya anyway. Not to mention killing who was very clearly supposed to be the main villain only to introduce a completely new villain, who hasn't even been so much as mentioned up to that point and needed a total reboot of the world building to make sense. Everyone knows the thing that this series about ninjas desperately needed was aliens...

JJK also has the advantage that while Sukuna is insanely strong and the protagonists only slowly chip away at him, overpowering him isn't the goal here. So it isn't like with Naruto, where the main characters have to unlock some new type of cursed energy to beat him or whatever, it is much more an ideologically driven battle, where what really counts is undermining Sukuna's philosophy, which you can do best by not buying into the obsession with strength. The problem is just that Gege is getting a little too caught up in throwing around techniques than tackling what really matters. Kind of similar to the Gojo vs Sukuna fight, although not as bad yet. Having Yuuji involved has definitely improved things. Still, I think you can again feel that Gege is struggling with writing an overpowered character and finding the balance between showing his strength and focusing on the thematic aspects of the story like they manage to do in pretty much every other fight. Again, the foundation is there, but the formulaic structure of the Shinjuku fight is not really helping. Plus you have some unnecessary intermissions like Yorozu dying to give Sukuna a weapon that does nothing and only serves as a get-out-of-jail-free card (seriously what was the point of all that, it had literally 0 zero consequences and only robbed us of a chance at seeing Sukuna in a scenario where he can't rely on his strength).

Agree that there has been unfortunately very little good analysis on these chapters. I don't know how it looks on reddit, but it's getting quite hard to find some good meta on tumblr and twitter on this fight. A lot of commentary I see boils down to either "why can't Sukuna just die already??" and "Gojo has to come back to fix everything, here's a 38 page essay on all the foreshadowing of his return that will happen any day now". I can understand the first point, these people mostly just seem fatigued by the structure of this fight (new character pops up, gets killed/gravely injured by Sukuna, someone else takes their place) and they just want it to be over. The problem is just that killing Sukuna here would for one not make sense for his power level because while it is true that the protagonists have thrown a lot of force at him and tried different strategies, he's clearly not been trying very hard ever since Gojo died (which frustrates me a lot). That has to change first. And also if he died now that would make for a very unsatisfying, premature end of this story. Nothing would be gained with that, no character arc properly resolved. It would hurt especially Sukuna's character because it would mean he really was just a strong big bad with not much motivation besides wanting death and destruction for its own sake, who had to be killed to avoid further danger and go back to status quo. Far too easy and all the setup for Sukuna being a more nuanced character gets cut off. Like I set before, it would be worse than Kenjaku's death, since that at least had meaning and found some kind of end for Kenjaku's character arc. Kenjaku changed, while Sukuna has very firmly been the same this whole time with only a very brief moment of reflection on what he is even doing here. So yeah, more needs to happen before Sukuna can die and first of all he needs to take Yuuji seriously already and be pushed to his limits, challenged. That would vastly improve the tension of the fight as well.

And Gojo coming back is just...I understand wanting your favourite character back, but even if for some reason he was revived, he shouldn't help in the fight. Him overpowering Sukuna would mean exactly nothing, contradict the whole message of the story and also means the characters regress to letting Gojo solve everything again and direct their decisions after what he wants. That's why it was so important for Gojo to die or get depowered, so the other characters could progress and make real change in the world. He was a necessary stepping stone they had to overcome. He can't defeat Sukuna because he is essentially Sukuna, but in a different, slightly more humane font.

And as for your last point, I don't think it's bad to have a character you really like, are even obsessed with, that's why we have another popularity poll coming up after all. Engaging characters are very important, it's just a problem if people warp the story in their head to revolve around this character and then get seriously upset when the story doesn't follow their headcanon and blame the author for that. I like headcanons, I like writing fanfiction, but you have to differentiate that from what is actually happening in canon and accept that canon plays by different rules. Liking your fanfics more than the actual story is fine too, you just can't mesh these two together and lose sight of what is actually happening in the manga. As long as the story follows its own premises and rules/events it has set up, it is perfectly fine. There is legitimate criticism to make about jjk, I do it plenty, but things like wanting Sukuna dead and Gojo alive and getting mad at Gege for it not happening the way they want are just not it.