#i for one hope it is just misleading marketing

[successionable]

word on the street is that the tomshiv "nice place you got here. who gets to keep it in the divorce?" party slash "you have hurt me more than you could possibly imagine" balcony fight scene might be in tonight's ep and no way am i mentally prepared for that to happen yet......

[angrykittybarbarian]

About that Dragon Age: The Veilguard audio web series

Thinking back about the marketing for DATV I now realize it was kind of deceptive.

No, it was not literal fraud. They did not make specific promises and then broke them, not explicitely and in a way you could hold them liable in court over. And I get when you are advertising your product you will of course highlight its most favorable aspects while not shoving its negative sides into everyone's noses.

However I do think that EA/Bioware did stretch out the boundaries between regular endorsement and fraud.

It started with the web series Vows and Vengeance they uploaded weekly on Youtube right before release. At that time I was still hopeful and excited for the game. And Vows and Vengeance all but encouraged that excitement.

You know why? Because, and this surprised me, it was genuinely good.

Vows and Vengeance functioned as an early introduction to the companions. While they were not the main characters they did play a key role in each episode. The plot was what could be typically expected from a regular DA installment. It had a dark, gripping story. The dialogue was well written. It dealt with mature themes, it actually discussed the classism of Tevinter.

Lucanis was a proper crow who killed a good man because he was hired to do so. He was positively morally grey. Davrin had actually strong opinions when the main character dropped the Dread Wolf's name. Bellara was interesting in that it became clear how she struggled with her ADHD without using infantile language, Scout Harding acted smart, mature and competent, Taash was a morally grey bad ass, fitting for a freelance treasure hunter and with smart and witty dialogue to go with it.

It was amazing, I found myself excited every week for a new episode. It got me interested in the companions. I already contemplated to romance Taash because they were so cool and charismatic in that series. I thought, if a FREE webseries that was made for advertisement was already this great then the game had to be nothing short of phenomenal.

And then it just...wasn't. There was nothing of the depth that came through in the web series. It was as if I was presented with a sample of a multilayered chocolate cake but got a dry brownie after I actually paid the full price for it.

The sheer audacity behind this course of action is still so inconcievable to me, I sometimes still wonder why they put effort into writing the free thing and not the product they demand payment for. I still don't get it. The only explanation is they purposefully put out a misleading sample to lure in the customers in the beginning to spend money, right?

This fraud adjacent behavior does not stop there.

Remember when we thought we would be importing our worldstates from our previous games? There wasn't even a question about it in the beginning because this is such an intrinsic Bioware feature. But then the info about the three choices in the character creator leaked.

Leaked!

Meaning they never intended for this information to be known pre-release. They fully intended to keep it secret until it would be too late. They also never said they wanted a soft reboot.

This is the conclusion the fandom has drawn after they destroyed their own lore and went scorched earth on the entire south of Thedas.

And the biggesr lie was when they said this was their best work. After all this!

This is the reason why DATV's shortcomings are so devastating. This is why so many feel like the game was a slap to their faces. EA/Bioware gaslit and manipulated us from the very beginning. We have been cheated and betrayed.

The last bit of trust I and many others had in Bioware, they mercilessly crushed.

I personally will never take even one thing they say at face value again. You can only trust their actions from now on.

[saltyfinalboss]

i really hope dead cells fans do not buy the 'windblown' game by motion twin just because it's "by the creators of dead cells", since motion twin actually cancelled evil empire's* plans for future dead cells content which was planned for at least until 2025 including at least one dlc.

(*evil empire have been developing dead cells since 2019/patch 1.3 of dead cells, for those unaware)

in this announcement post MT claims that they decided the game is finished as it is or whatever and don't want any more updates as to not make the game 'bloated', which sounds pretty reasonable until you remember that all the updates from evil empire are unique and distinct & that motion twin doesn't even make the game anymore as of 2019. so personally i think this 'reasoning' is just marketing talk.

not to mention that the whole "by the creators of dead cells" thing they put in their marketing is VERY misleading. obviously motion twin initially created dead cells, yes, but by now there are only about ~3 people at motion twin who worked on dead cells. there are ~50 names in the credits of dead cells.

of course i can't stop anyone from buying whatever they want, but i urge people to at least read this blog post by deepnight, the former dead cells lead dev. it's very informative & i feel like it's important context a fan might want to know before potentially buying motion twin's new game.

[romchat]

In Blossom visual analysis (ep. 1-7): How to film a gothic romance

Although I'm not completely convinced about some of the writing choices of In Blossom, I absolutely LOVE the show's production design and cinematography. @mademoiselle-red wrote a great post about how main character Pan Yue fits the gothic romantic lead archetype, and those gothic elements are not only present in the script but also in the show's visual storytelling.

Lighting

A key element of gothic romance is its atmosphere of mystery and suspense.

Something I really like about In Blossom is that despite its dark subject matter, many of its scenes take place during the day. One of the show's main themes is that appearances can be misleading and the cinematography often plays with that notion by linking light to deception and darkness to truth. Note how many of the emotionally honest beats of Yang Caiwei and Pan Yue's relationship happen at night (e.g., their couple escapades at the Li Residence, Ghost Market, and Life and Death gambling house) while fakery, corruption, and evildoing happen in the day. It's with this subversion of our expectations for light that the show creates an unsettling atmosphere.

And these lighting choices also help set up Pan Yue as a classic gothic romance anti-hero, someone the female lead, Yang Caiwei, fears but still finds herself drawn to.

Look at how Pan Yue is lit when shot through Yang Caiwei's subjective point of view. The strong use of light creates a lot of contrast--through her eyes, he is a mixture of light and dark, his morality as inscrutable as his shadowy figure.

Camera Angles and Shot Sizes

The show's use of low angles and close-ups further reinforces the idea that Pan Yue is unpredictable and even dangerous.

In cinematography, low-angle shots tend to make the subject look more powerful and menacing, and the show uses this technique to great effect.

Even in the intimacy of close-up shots, we can sense the threat emanating from Pan Yue. He’s always shot just a smidgeon too close for comfort.

For example, look at how much Liu Xueyi's face fills the frame in an early "romantic" scene. The shot feels almost claustrophobic as if he's so single-minded about his goals that he has no choice but to dominate the frame (and Yang Caiwei). It's an unnerving moment despite the soft words coming out of his mouth.

Side Note: I live for Pan Yue's (vampiric) long shots. The production design team was smart for dressing the character in dark clothes with such a sleek cut and drape--he looks like a sexy bat.

The Nosferatu references in Yang Caiwei's tomb are also perfect.

Composition and Framing

And finally, like any good gothic romance, In Blossom illustrates how love can drive one to despair and even madness.

Because of this, my FAVORITE scene of the show has to be the introduction of Shangguan Zhi. Her obsessive pursuit of beauty in hopes of seducing Pan Yue has left her a shell of a human being, and the scene's composition perfectly encapsulates this with how it focuses on the elegant lines of her body--not her face or personhood.

Shangguan Zhi is trapped by her delusional fantasy of a life with Pan Yue--see how she's boxed in by the vertical lines of the screen panel she admires--and the show regularly uses architectural lines to show how her desperation has trapped Yang Caiwei as well.

[colorful-white-ideas]

Wishing the next time FKA and Bill appear before the public , they keep defending their work on The crow movie. He did a fantastic job , same thing with Fka. I hope they don't let the haters win and later say they "regret doing the movie" no. Good things have come out of it: a new album for the singer , her role helped her to reconcile with herself and believe in love again ! and Bill is looking more confident and healthy than before ,he's not hiding away anymore. They seemed to have developed a beautiful friendship beetwen two talented and hard working people.

The movie has it's flaws, however is nowhere near to be a piece of gargabe as haters are trying to portrait. I personally have issues with the editing , I feel someone did last minute changes ,even so I give them credit for trying something new and putting their heart while on it.

The box office disaster is due to the poor promotion by lionsgate , same thing happened with BKW , a movie that was even withdrawn from cinemas less than 1 week after it release. The crow now had to compete with Deadpool and Alien , huge franchises, and the marketing team decided to start the promotion one week and a half prior. The trailer was misleading from the start , they initially promoted it as a remake and when they tried to correct it ... it was too late.

I dont think the numbers are due to some type of boycott from the "´94" fandom (let's be honest the first movie is a called a cult classic for a reason). its just that regular people don't even know there's a new Crow movie out and that is in the US , in latin america was worse , the only ones who took the job of promoting non stop and explaining the differences between this new movie, the '94 one and the comics were the distributors in Brazil. I think the movie is doing a bit better over there.

The thing is , Lionsgate should have never purchased the distribution rights if they didn't belive in BKW or The crow. Or at least they could have hired a much more competent marketing team for the promotion. It's sad to see two original stories going to waste like this.

[meeblo]

With the game awards sparking discussion again, I'm once again so tired of seeing misinformation about Arknights: Endfield. People calling it an open world, an action RPG, saying it has an elemental combat system "like Genshin", when none of those things are the case. This isn't just a "people are wrong on the internet" type of annoyance; this could genuinely negatively impact the game on release. If people go in with wildly skewed misconceptions, they are much more likely to dislike the game because it isn't what they thought they'd be playing.

Endfield is not an open world. Looking at shots of the map as well as footage from the CN technical test, the areas are connected linearly with mandatory progression choke points before moving on to the next area. Though the areas themselves have open elements, the game world as a whole is in no way an open world and is not build on open world structures.

Endfield is not an action RPG, and has never been marketed as such. The phrasing Hypergryph has always and exclusively used in official material is that the game is "real-time 3D RPG with strategic elements," not an action RPG. The gameplay, as shown by the gameplay demo and CN test footage, is not action RPG gameplay. It lacks a quick dash or iframes, and is not built on fast paced combat. The combat aims to be more deliberate and strategic by freezing time while skills are aimed, providing area indicators for enemy attacks, and placing a large focus on positioning over reactions. It is misleading to refer to the game as an action RPG.

These are the two more common things I've been seeing around, but I have also seen Endfield's element system incorrectly likened to Genshin's. While Genshin's elemental combat involves applying seven different elements to enemies and triggering reactions by mixing elements, Endfield's works differently. Endfield has a three element system that is a far less omnipresent part of combat than Genshin's ever-present elements. Elements are not applied to enemies in Endfield, but rather can be left as balls of energy on the ground that will explode into AoE damage when hit with another or the same element. From the CN test, it's clear that elemental interactions are just one thing a team can build into, in addition to teams focusing on levitate, grounded, or other status effects that are not inherently linked to any elements or reactions.

I hope people stop spreading inaccurate buzzwords about Endfield. I'm genuinely concerned about it creating improper expectations and hurting perceptions of the game when the game doesn't fall into categories it never was trying to be part of.

[purpleheartskies]

s6 part 1 will be out in a week. I wanted to share some thoughts about what we've gotten so far. S6 SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Trailers, character promos, interviews, etc... they're all marketing. They're usually not gonna give away major or important plot/character spoilers. They can also include misdirects. Regardless, their main purpose is to build hype about the show.

Trailers are out-of-context dialogue and scenes edited together.

Although written from the characters' povs, some of the promos so far had some major mistakes. Jon said the promos aren't canon. In their podcast posted this week, Xolo and Jacob said that the Netflix marketing team wrote these promos. They made it sound like the actors all (at least the younger cast) didn't like/agree with their characters' promo scripts.

Interviews are interesting too. Sometimes they're intriguing, sometimes they're misleading, and sometimes they're just fluff. Regardless, the actors and writers won't purposely give away or talk about spoilers, until after the release. So far, I've been intrigued by some things that Hayden, Jon, Billy, and Xolo have said. Tanner has interestingly been contradicting himself, and sometimes Xolo even looks at him like he doesn't agree with him.

I think I'm most intrigued by Billy's admission in this interview (at 11:30). He has wanted Johnny to evolve and has felt every season he has left something unresolved. It's pretty obvious to those fans who pay attention to the actual canon and details that Johnny, the deadbeat abusive alcoholic father, indeed has something left unresolved: ROBBY. In another interview, Hayden said that Johnny will go through the most growth this season. Obviously, this was expected because they had to wrap up Johnny's story eventually.

Now, this doesn't change my mind about Johnny. I still want to throw him away, lol. To me, he is too far gone. They made decisions for him that I eventually wanted to see Robby walk away from. That could have been a possible storyline too, and a healthy one in situations like this. I used to root for a Johnny-Robby relationship, but I stopped after s5. It's really gotten to the point that the message is "It's okay if you give your kid trauma after trauma after trauma... you can magically grow eventually and they'll forgive you, no matter." That's a bad message to send imo. Seems like most of the stories that tackle generational trauma take this approach. Don't get why they don't show the parent making amends and healing the relationship as the journey. Why not send the message: "Don't let things get so bad in the first place. Work on yourself, and help your kids recover from the trauma that your behavior has already caused." That can also still make for good comedy and/or drama. Billy and Tanner would have elevated such a story too.

Does this mean that I think Johnny can't be redeemed? The perspectives on redemption are subjective. For me, Johnny's a lost cause character. But from a storytelling standpoint, I'm curious what is to come. Johnny already foreshadowed in s5e10 that he'll lose everything. That's usually what happens in stories. That big loss late in the story that shakes up the character's world and gets them to stop believing in their "lie" and accept their "truth". In Johnny's case, he's been running from the past, using other kids as second chances, and not making amends with Robby. In this interview (and in another), Billy commented that things fall out from under Johnny. Good! Karma's a bitch! I hope this bitch doesn't leave Johnny alone next season.

I still believe, and will always believe, that the baby plotline wasn't written to last for Johnny and Robby. Neither were Johnny's relationships with the Diazs. The story just isnt organically built out that way. Johnny and Robby seem meant to end the series as just father and son and being friends with the LaRussos, but no Diazs. (Given the baby plot is continuing, it's very possible the baby isn't Johnny's. He was impotent or turning down sex for most of the season that Carmen got pregnant. This would be an organic way to handle a lot of the setups so far. Carmen is also absolutely a flawed character, like all the other characters. Fan choose to deny it, though.) This is of course based off of the notion that the characterizations will be explored and have proper considerations as the story resolves, as would be the case in storytelling. There are too many layers coming together in a way that indicates this. Josh said in an s6 interview, "all the tie ups should be satisfying, from a storytelling perspective, whether they're happy, sad or murky."

Anyway, I'm also curious how they'll handle Robby getting back into school. Robby seems to cut his hair at one point in part 1. He has the shorter haircut in that one shot of him in school. Robby's hair seems to have a journey as part of Robby's character journey. Maybe he cuts his hair after he gets back into school, as an indication of a new beginning. Based on the Hero's Journey, s6 part 1 should be The Road Back to the ordinary world. Him being back in school can fit this stage, as his future/educational prospects are being restored. Though, I hope he gets some better resolutions for how the school fight was handled. My main wishes for Robby returning back to school are that Robby is validated for what he has experienced and that these adults who claim to "care" about him finally step up and stop failing/scapegoating him for that fight. After all, this is the last Act of the story.

I liked the Barnes clip. The focus on Robby's reactions was interesting. Hopefully, Mike can be a mentor to Robby and focus some 1:1 time on him. Oh, and a random thought I had yesterday after Sean Kanan posted the bts pic of him and Tanner. If Mike's wife really has left him, is it wrong to ship Mike Barnes and Shannon? lol One main issue is the implied drug use by Barnes in the s5 finale. But if this issue didn't exist, I like this ship. And, Mike would probably/hopefully be a good stepdad to Robby. Anyway, it's just a fun thought. Regardless, I hope Mike becomes a good mentor to Robby. I of course hope Johnny, Robby, and Shannon finally have at least one scene together and that Shannon has more scenes in general in s6. Wouldn't mind a scene of her and Mike interacting, so I can see if they have chemistry. lol

Anyway, just a waiting game till the 18th. Wonder what news and leaks come out between now and then. The s5 leaks were so bad... both because they were major spoilers and because... that plot and how things went for Robby.

At least, there will be new Robby content and more story to pick apart. I hope s6 part 1 will be better for Robby than s5. That he starts to be validated, his experiences start to be explored, and the adults stop failing him.

[b1adie]

thought on firefly drip marketing???

okay i ended up just rambling about firefly in general so this got REALLY long. my bad

well its pretty i like the colors. but i must be honest i really really want her in her armor like at least half of the time. ideally technique skill and ult will have her with the armor on… i am a fan of the dual swords she’s holding in the bg. i kind of wish her pose was different? come on girl you are a badass stellaron hunter. strike a pose. have some swag.

also i had been kind of hoping sam was her real name and firefly was just an alias cuz the kit 🥬 since like a year before the game was even released always had the character named sam. but honestly i do like her picking the name firefly for herself because she is so transgender if you think about it. all the stellaron hunters refer to her only as sam and with he/him and a decent amt of stuff uses they/them too but in the dream world where people can take any form she chooses to be a girl named firefly? despite being created/born for the sole purpose of being sam?

which also makes me wonder like, do the stellaron hunters not know thats armor.. or not know whos actually in it… can she not leave the armor irl or does she choose to hide herself? are they deliberately misleading people by referring to sam as male to hide firefly’s identity so she can more easily like be a double agent if necessary?? she says shes in an icy medical cabin irl, does the armor have some kind of self piloting mode or does she just have to stay in there when shes outside of it…

also i hope she actually has more sam-like personality aspects. like i hope shes actually someone who says shit about setting the seas ablaze and telling kafka not to play with her food and isnt just acting like that to play a role. please be a little fucked up?? please???? i need her to be kind of fucked up i dont want waifu bait i want cool armor warrior ok sorry. like she can still be niceys ofc but i hope her combat voicelines at least are kind of insane LOL

i like the crazy robot that sam was initially assumed to be and i like firefly, so i hope the fact that they’re one and the same doesnt have to come at the cost of diluting either of their personalities/traits/behavior etc.

also wtf do the acronyms in the skills for the sam boss fight stand for. wtf is dgdghr or whatever. is she just growling

[magicwithclass]

Value Boosters in Bloomburrow Part 2 (Continued). Are Value Booster Packs a Gateway Drug to more expensive boosters?

So, what is in these new value boosters? Are these boosters worth it or is a play booster or collector booster the better deal? Is this a decent budget option or are they selling you junk? I want to make it clear that if you are trying to get into the game, then I would always recommend you start with a preconstructed commander deck. The commander decks are, almost always, an amazing value with some commander staples that can be used in multiple competitive decks. In paper, almost everyone plays commander so even though the preconstructed decks are usually very complicated, I would still start any new players with a 40 dollar commander deck. They still get to open a sample pack so there is some amount of random chance associated with the product. I have opened some really interesting stuff out of those little packs. However, I know people who simply want the rush of ripping open 30 bucks. These new value packs are only 7 cards. Aftermath also had smaller boosters and that was considered an extreme failure but the assassin's creed boosters seem to be doing a lot better. 7 card packs are ok because the duplication should be low. Bloomburrow is a set with almost 300 cards while aftermath and creed had much less cards in the entire set. The one issue with this product is that you are not guaranteed a rare in each pack. They have no released the probability of getting a rare per pack but I hope that the pull rate of a rare is 50 percent or higher. I feel like you should get at least one rare in every two packs. The product packaging is purposefully misleading. The packs say you can get up to two rares per pack which is true but the probability of that is probably extremely rare. The packaging should say that rares are not guaranteed but they would not prominently showcase that truth to the public. I do like that you can get special guests in these packs and pulling two mythics in one cheap pack is going to make some exciting stories. Options are good but I feel like this is merely a marketing ploy to expose the youth to an addiction on the cheap. Are value boosters a gateway booster to more expensive boosters? Do the kids that get value packs grow up to buy their own collectors packs and set packs a an adult? Is this good for the game as it puts the game in the public eye starting from childhood? I am so curious to see how low the price is without a guaranteed rare. Could they guarantee a rare in a future value booster without raising the price? Will the audience accept these rareless packs? Do kids even know or want rares or do they just want to see cool art and characters on cards? Time will answer all of these questions. Is this something they will try for universes beyond? People would more likely impulse buy a pack of cards for a dollar if the cards had their favorite ip on them. I will be watching the market on value booster packs very carefully as this might be the introductory product that stands the test of time and brings Magic the Gathering into the zeitgeist.

[horizon-verizon]

Condal will end up using daenaera as a consolation prize for the velaryons and the fandom

"hey... I portrayed the Velaryons poorly but look, your queen consort is a Velaryon"

He might say it's like that and why he wrote Daenaera in, but anyone who read the books would know Daenaera was supposed to be there regardless of how he feels or tries to market.

He'd just be trying to control the impressions of his own competence and honesty by appeasing the green stans of this fandom. Which would fail for the rest bc TG already constantly exposes themselves as absurd in how they read things, but then again, Condal is just hoping to make as best a name for himself in the industry more than be honest.

So if this happens, the very attempt at trying to appease Velaryon and nongreen stan fandom would be him trying to make as if the Velaryon/non greenstan fans are the ones who need the "consolation prize" or the ones who trouble the fandom with stupid shit, and not the greens. Itself misleading and false.

[flowering-darkness]

I FIGURED OUT HOW NOT TO BREAK REBORN'S TIMELINES (MUCH)

TLDR: in my version of events, my self-insert (Adriana) now appears in all three timelines, not just the last two. The first is used for my selfship with Elena, and is reset as normal with nothing bad happening to Adriana; the second is used for my selfship with Luna, and is reset with an extra sacrifice needed due to Adriana’s fate there; the third is also used for my selfship with Luna, and ends in success thanks to the player being an additional presence. Adriana has a different outfit or appearance in each timeline, to help with differentiating them all.

Further explanation can be found under the readmore, if you'd like to know more! ..There will be some spoilers mentioned for the game, but I hope that the things I talk about are helpful for assisting your understanding if you aren’t as familiar with Reborn itself. I'm also more than happy to answer questions if anyone has any!! ^-^

The first timeline (pre-gameplay)

We don't know as much about the first timeline compared to the other two, and it also doesn't get to the same point that the other two do, but it's the one where everything technically kicks off from, so it's still important. In this timeline, Adriana is a Pokémon Trainer of some sort who travels to visit the Reborn region from her home in Kalos, and eventually ends up getting into a relationship with Elena of the Elite Four after bonding over a shared fondness for Ghost-types, gaining a greater appreciation for them in the process. (I have yet to figure out how Corey factors into this; for now, I am saying Elena has two hands.) More details will hopefully come with time.

The first timeline is eventually reset after the continued distortions and earthquakes afflicting Reborn, caused by Solaris wielding the power of Giratina, force Zina to have to fix things, sealing Giratina away in Byxbysion in the process and sacrificing her existence to facilitate the change and reset. Adriana was not a particularly prevalent character for many of the actual ongoing events here.. but this ends up changing after the timeline starts over again.

Anything I make within this timeline - so, anything to do with my selfship with Elena - can be identified by Adriana having a different outfit, and possibly also hairstyle. My first pass for this outfit, made within Pokémon Y, is this:

The second timeline (Episode 18)

This is the timeline seen by Miss Fortune, as well as being the one that has more direct relevance to in-game events, particularly in the postgame. Here, Adriana once again comes to Reborn, but at a slightly different time in her life - specifically, she decides to pick the region’s league as her first league challenge after finding some slightly misleading (in that it’s ten years out of date) marketing for it. From the moment she arrives rather explosively at Grandview Station, her journey goes completely differently to how she was expecting it to, as she ends up entangled in trying to stop Team Meteor while also collecting Gym Badges, eventually succeeding in obtaining all 18 (even if she did have to get two Poison- and Fighting-type ones due to.. extraneous circumstances). She ends up in a romantic relationship with Luna along the way as well, and even successfully rescues her from the Void.

This timeline follows the game’s events as they existed in Episode 18, with two key exceptions - Euphie still exists as Euphie, and Fern either does not join or eventually breaks away from Team Meteor. This is to fit what Miss Fortune sees. It also extends past the gym battle against Hardy, despite the game only being finished up to that point when this episode was the most recently-released one.

In this timeline, Adriana fully takes on the player character’s position as the protagonist, and experiences everything in the story as it existed in E18. The story then continues until she reaches the final battle with Lin, who drags her into the New World and removes its oxygen; Anna summons everyone’s hopes to make a wish to help her, but it turns out to not be strong enough, and she ends up unable to be saved, leaving Anna and others distraught. Fern then steps up to be the hero, working alongside Cal, Euphie, Arclight, and others to try and counter Lin and the havoc she is playing in the region - but he also doesn’t succeed. As a result, Anna ends up following in her mother’s footsteps by resetting the timeline again to fix the problems caused by Lin, with Nostra (her Jirachi) as the sacrifice; however, a second sacrifice is also deemed to be required to bring Adriana back, and this ends up being Euphie’s body, allowing Shade to exist as he is seen in-game in the next timeline.

Anything to do with my selfship with Luna that is set in the second timeline can be identified in two ways. The first is that Adriana uses a wide variety of Pokémon here, with no clear type specialty; examples include Delphox, Roserade, Ampharos, Silvally, Honchkrow, and Aegislash. The second is that Adri’s freckles are an ordinary dark brown colour; while she does become void-kissed in this timeline, I don’t know if I will say that this has any physical consequences on her here.

The third/current timeline (Episode 19)

This is the timeline that you actually are in when you play the game itself, so it arguably has the most prevalence. Here, Adriana’s first journey as a Pokémon Trainer is around her home region of Kalos, before she then decides to go and challenge the Reborn League. On the train there, she is sat next to another person (the player character), and is therefore able to be saved alongside them by Amethyst at the beginning. From there, Adriana travels across the Reborn region in a way that largely mirrors the path of the player; she appears many times throughout the story and experiences many of the same events that they do, so would arguably be counted as their rival if not for how she doesn’t actually push the dynamic in that direction. She once again ends up in a relationship with Luna, whom she is able to spend more time with here due to not having to experience every single story event, and her presence is indeed able to help make Anna’s wish succeed and save the player from suffering the same fate that she did. (I am only familiar with the Anna Route of postgame, so I tend to treat that as the default when Adri is present.)

Before the postgame begins, Adriana becomes the second person to make it through Charous Hall after the player, so she becomes their reserve (or, Shadow) Champion, having not been able to actually battle them for their title because she achieved this while they were temporarily missing. In the postgame itself, she does a small number of the in-game legendary quests, and eventually fully realises her status as the previous timeline’s hero when reunited with the original Giratina. This property turns out to be key to letting the player reach the grand finale.

My portrayals of Adriana, and/or my selfship with Luna, that are set within this timeline can be identified in two ways. The first is that Adri uses almost entirely Ghost-type Pokémon here; the only exceptions are her Shiny Silvally, her Gothitelle (whom she later gifts to Luna), and possibly some of the legendaries and mythicals she catches in the postgame (like Cresselia and Darkrai). The second way to identify third timeline events is that her freckles are white from the beginning, which was a physical consequence of having to bring her back to life and mess with the timeline to make sure she made it back (since.. Nostra ended up choosing another person, the player, to be the protagonist for this timeline - but it was vital that Adriana also came to Reborn as well as them, despite not having their role this time, because otherwise there might not be enough people to power Anna’s wish again if she needed to make it one more time. However, because Adriana is not from Reborn, it wasn’t guaranteed that she would return there after the timeline got reset. So, more meddling than usual had to happen to bring her back, mostly carried out by Shade, but this ended up having effects on Adri herself - this is how I bring in the whole anamnesis aspect). These consequences also get worse after she becomes void-kissed again, as a white star-like pattern forms all across her face and hair, and culminate in the full visibility of a pair of spectral wings on Adriana’s back, resembling the wings of a Reborn-Shiny Giratina.

Bonus: Another Time

This is the name given to the alternate/hypothetical future that you visit during the postgame while doing the Celebi quest, as the player ends up travelling ten years into the future with Celebi during this quest before returning to the present day. Due to the player disappearing from the present in this version of events, Adriana once again fills the role of Champion in their absence, just as she did before the postgame started. However, she is eventually defeated for the first time by Shelly, some time after the cast are able to figure out that the player travelled through time. She continues to hold her role as Shadow Champion when Shelly first becomes the Champion, but eventually steps down to allow her to select a new reserve. By the time of the player's return, ten years later, Adriana has taken over Shade's role as the Ghost-type Gym Leader of the Reborn League; she takes her battles in Iolia Valley, just as Luna did.

Since Another Time is explored after a ten-year timeskip, Adriana's appearance will definitely have changed in it like how everyone else's does, but I haven't quite decided how yet. However, since it is an alternate version of events within the third timeline, her physical appearance will stay the same as it does there (white freckles, etc.)

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!! Please don’t hesitate to ask me if you have any questions, no matter how big or small!

[ingek73]

A warning to all media organisations’: Prince Harry’s statement on Mirror Group ruling

Duke of Sussex describes slow and painful road to justice as judge rules extensive hacking took place

Prince Harry has landed a significant blow in his battle with the British tabloid press after winning a substantial part of his phone-hacking case and damages against the Daily Mirror. This is the statement read outside the court by his lawyer:

“Today is a great day for truth as well as accountability. The court has ruled that unlawful and criminal activities were carried out at all three of Mirror Group’s newspaper titles (the Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the People) on a habitual and widespread basis for more than a decade.

“I’d like to thank my legal team for so successfully dismantling the sworn testimony of Mirror Group Newspapers’ senior executives, legal department and journalists, who at least turned up to court, unlike their colleagues, who were perhaps too afraid to do so.

“This case is not just about hacking: it is about a systemic practice of unlawful and appalling behaviour, followed by coverups and destruction of evidence, the shocking scale of which can only be revealed through these proceedings.

“The court has found that Mirror Group’s principal board directors, their legal department, senior executives and editors, such as Piers Morgan, clearly knew about, or were involved in, these illegal activities. Between them, they even went as far as lying under oath to parliament, during the Leveson inquiry, to the stock exchange, and to us all ever since.

David Sherborne reads out Harry’s statement after the ruling. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

“The journey to justice can be a slow and painful one, and since bringing my claim almost five years ago, defamatory stories and intimidating tactics have been deployed against me and at my family’s expense. And so, as I too have learned through this process, patience is in fact a virtue – especially in the face of vendetta journalism.

“I hope that the court’s findings will serve as a warning to all media organisations who have employed these practices and similarly lied about them. Mirror Group’s actions were so calculated and misleading that their pattern of destroying evidence and concealing their unlawful behaviour continued into the litigation itself and, as the judge has ruled, even to this day.

“I am happy to have won the case, especially given that this trial only looked at a quarter of my entire claim. Even on just that, it is clear Mirror Group’s persistent attempts to suggest that my claim was, to quote their counsel, ‘fantastical’ and was in the ‘realms of total speculation’ and that there was ‘simply no evidence at all’ to suggest I was hacked – ‘zilch, zero, nil, nada, niente, absolutely nothing’ – were total nonsense and were used maliciously to attack my character and credibility.

“However, as Mirror Group intended, these hollow soundbites were blasted across front pages and across online platforms, and into the next day’s morning television shows. The court has in fact confirmed that all four claimants were subjected to voicemail interception and unlawful information gathering. But no one would have believed that was the case given how this trial has been covered in the UK.

“My commitment to seeing this case through is based on my belief in our need and collective right to a free and honest press, and one which is properly accountable when necessary. That is what we need in Britain and across the globe. Anything else is poisoning the well for a profession we all depend on. The acts listed in this judgment are prime examples of what happens when the power of the press is abused.

“I respectfully call upon the authorities – the financial regulator; the stock market who were deliberately deceived by Mirror Group; and indeed the Metropolitan police and prosecuting authorities – to do their duty for the British public and investigate bringing charges against the company and those who have broken the law.

“Today’s ruling is vindicating and affirming. I’ve been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today’s victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press – it’s a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues.”

“Today’s ruling is vindicating and affirming. I’ve been told that slaying dragons will get you burned. But in light of today’s victory and the importance of doing what is needed for a free and honest press – it’s a worthwhile price to pay. The mission continues.”

Thats one hell of a quote

[kooldewd123]

My New Year's resolution this year was to read more. I'm sure a lot of people around here can relate to this, but I was a massive reader as a child who started to fall off as I grew up. I barely read anything new at all throughout college and the latter half of high school. At the start of this year, I was suddenly hit with a massive urge to try and return to my roots again, and for probably the first time ever, I suddenly had a New Year's resolution I actually intended to follow through on. Still, I knew that my attention issues would make this hard for me unless I gave myself some sort of structure.

Enter Animorphs. Not only was this a beloved series from my childhood that I had been wanting to revisit for a long time, but it happened to fill my needs perfectly: with 54 mainline books total, I could easily pace myself at a book a week, and with each book only taking about an hour or so to read, it would be a nice, low-commitment way to ease myself back in. And for an added kick in the pants, I started a reread thread to hold myself accountable to.

Although revisiting the series that genuinely shaped me into the person I am today has been a magical experience, it was never the main goal. My hope in starting this project was that by weaning myself back in with a weekly diet of quick, digestible books, I would get myself back into the proper headspace of wanting to read more often. And now that we're nearly at the halfway point of the year, I'm so glad to be able to say:

It fucking worked.

Not counting Animorphs, I've read more books this year than I have since... probably middle school. And it's not just me going over the collection on my bookshelf, either - most of them have been entirely brand new to me, some of which I hadn't even heard of until I grabbed them off the bookstore shelf and thought "huh, that sounds neat." It's really thrown me back to childhood experiences and overall been a fantastic refresh of my mental state after stagnating a bit in some of my media-consumption habits. This has been a much longer preamble than I anticipated, but I wanted to make this post to go over the books I've read so far this year and some of my thoughts on them! So here we go, in no particular order:

Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan: This is the reason I said "most" of the books I read this year were new. The Riordanverse is my second favorite book series after Animorphs, and I've also been meaning to reread it at some point as well. The Disney+ series earlier this year really gave me a strong urge to revisit the books, but I wanted to wait until after the show was over so it didn't skew my expectations too much. And, yeah. It's been just as great a series as I remember. I've only finished up through Battle of the Labyrinth so far, but I want to go through the whole Riordanverse eventually. HoO are some of my most-read books ever, and ToA has been itching at the back of my mind for months. The Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase never captured my interest as well as the Greco-Roman stuff, but I'm excited to take another look at them and see if my feelings have changed.

Loki's Ring by Stina Leicht: A space captain travels to a mysterious pathogen-infected planet to save her AI daughter... is what the blurb on the back of the book says. Truthfully, I think the marketing on this one is a bit misleading. I picked it up expecting to get a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a spooky planet, but what I got instead was a more political piece about the crew trying to negotiate between all the different parties laying claim to the planet. It's not a bad book by any means, but just not something that appealed to me personally and I couldn't help but feel a bit burned by the description.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman: I've heard a lot about Gaiman's work, and about this book especially, so this was one of the books I was most excited to start reading. And there was a lot I enjoyed here: Shadow was an interesting protagonist, I loved this take on modern gods, and Gaiman's interpretation of Americana as a concept was fascinating. But for some reason... I dunno, this one was just a slog to get through for me, despite how much I felt like I should have loved it. I hate to admit it after how highly I've heard him recommended, but I think Gaiman's writing style might just not be my thing. I'd be willing to give him another shot if I was in the right mood (the idea of checking out Sandman has crossed my mind a couple of times), but sad to say I probably won't be delving into his works like I was hoping to. One of the biggest disappointments I've had with a piece of media in a long time.

Eye of the Sh*t Storm (The Frost Files #3) by Jackson Ford: Now this one was a surprise in the complete opposite direction. I grabbed this one on a whim, completely missing the fact that it was the third book in a series. The Frost Files follows the adventures of Teagan Frost, a reluctant government agent working in Los Angeles with psychokinetic abilities (or as the book puts it, the ability to move sh*t with her mind). The opening to this book nearly lost me, leaning into some drug humor that's not really my taste, but what followed was a frantically fun adventure with zany humor, strong tensions, and characters that bounced off each other perfectly. I was sold on the series pretty quickly, but by the time I decided I wanted to read the other books, I was already too invested in this one to stop. I have the first book ready on my shelf to read at some point, but I need to search some local bookstores for #2 and #4 first so I can read the whole thing straight through.

The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins: Can you believe I've never actually read these books before? For some reason, my mom took a super hard stance against these books in particular and never let me read them, and when my dad told me she was being stupid and gave me the entire trilogy himself, I just... put them on my bookshelf and never actually got around to reading them. I admit I was a bit worried going in. I don't often enjoy romance in stories, especially since figuring out I'm aro, and these books have a reputation for kickstarting the entirely overdone dystopian YA love triangle trope. I was very pleasantly surprised, then, that the romance wasn't actually as major a part of the story as I expected, and the extent to which it was used was entirely in service of the story's themes and message. In that vein, one of the most interesting parts of these books to me was being able to see the origin point of so many tropes of the genre. It's clear why this trilogy is a masterpiece, and finally being able to take it all in illuminated all the ways that Collins inspired the YA writers that came after her. Katniss is a remarkable protagonist, and the story resonated in ways that are even clearer to me now than they would have been to me if I had read it back then. I feel like I got a surprising amount out of these books. I downloaded the movies to compare, but never worked up the motivation to actually start watching them.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: At one point, I decided to try and go back to some books I read in school to see what I would get out of them now that I'm more educated on the subject matter they're tackling. I was actually looking for 1984, but couldn't find it (I guess Barnes & Noble must have gotten rid of those look-up computers during COVID or something so I was basically just wandering around blindly trying to figure it out myself) and ended up with Fahrenheit 451 instead. So how did I feel about this one? Weirdly ambivalent. Censorship and the preservation of information are two of the issues I'm most concerned with in the world today, but for some reason this book just did absolutely nothing for me and I can't really say why. Nothing about it really stuck in my brain the way I expected it to. I did eventually find 1984 and Animal Farm, so hopefully those ones give me more to think about. I actually never even read Animal Farm in school, so that'll be a new one for me.

The Arc of a Scythe Trilogy by Neal Shusterman: I'd heard this trilogy come up a couple of times before as the big new YA series. For the uninitiated, these books take place in a utopian future where all of humanity's problems have been solved: crime, poverty, corruption, racism, disease, even death itself. The only arbiters of death left in the world are Scythes, an order tasked with taking the lives of others in order to maintain the value of life and curb overpopulation. And let me tell you, this series is absolutely a new favorite of mine. I brought these with me on a road trip and chewed through Thunderhead, The Toll, and Gleanings on the bus in a way I didn't even realize I was capable of anymore. The world is well fleshed out in an incredibly elegant way, with boundaries loose enough to provide for amazing twists yet firm enough to still provide stakes. The differing philosophies the Scythes each have on death and duty in a post-mortal world are an absolute delight to see unfold. And the story plays its cards excellently, slipping in details at just the right moment for them to slide under your radar before suddenly exploding into prominence. Thunderhead and The Toll in particular use the medium of text in much more interesting ways than anything else I've read recently, leading to some amazing scenes I couldn't stop myself from flipping back to and reading all over again. I'm gonna be thinking about this series for a long time, and I really hope we get another companion book like Gleanings as an excuse to take another plunge back into this world.

Lore by Alexandra Bracken: Every seven years, the Olympian gods are turned mortal for a single week, and anyone who manages to kill them takes their power. if i had a nickel for every book on this list about gods in the modern world- I haven't really gotten that far in this book so far, so it's only here as an honorable mention. It hasn't hooked me yet, but I feel like I'm only just starting to get out of the intro section and into the action, so there's plenty of time still left for it to pick up. Plus, I got distracted with life stuff and couldn't give it my full focus for a while, so I'm probably not giving it as fair a chance as I should.

It's been fun reading them, it's been fun talking about them, and here's hoping I can keep having fun with them in the future.

[winedark-dear]

07.05.

I haven’t written anything here in far too long.. I have been taking notes, of course, a lot of them!, but putting things into proper words has been difficult. My mind has been more chaotic since we moved into the big house, and while that has been calming down over the days, my thoughts now feels.. slow. Sluggish sounds like a fitting word - I watched a real slug a few days ago, and it felt very similar. In a way, I assumed it’s just supposed to be this way, which.. wouldn’t have been great, but I would have gotten used to it. It’s nice there, of course, but everything is so slow. Seeing the same things for so long with pretty much nothing changing - except for the flowers, I like the new ones that have been appearing - feels so wrong.

Yesterday though, when we decided to go to this market (where you can’t buy farmers, as I have learned. The name is misleading!), it was very odd, it felt like a heavy blanket was slipping off of me the longer we walked. There were so many things to see, like a massive tree that was split right down the middle by a lightning, as EO explained, many kinds of bugs and birds, and, when we came close to the town where the market is, we saw big, square things with dots. One of the farmers at the market had some of them for sale (sale means you can trade something to get another thing) and I was allowed to touch it. She said it was a ‘cow’, and that the dots aren’t dirt even though they look like it. We didn’t have enough things to trade for a cow, but the farmer said I am allowed to pet them again if we come back today. I hope we can do that. One of the cows even licked my hand, which felt very warm and wet. It was like touching a fish that likes you.

All in all.. I don’t know what I’ll do next. Thinking of going back to the house makes my chest feel very heavy, but we don’t have any place to stay here and I don’t want to make EO upset either.

I’m sure I will figure something out, even if all of these feelings don’t make a lot of sense at the moment.

— DELPHI

[maybuds]

Believe me I’m no fan of late-stage capitalism, but I do feel like that last anon is in a particularly doom-laden mood with regards to creative works right now?! Yes of course the big studios and streaming services have a stultifying effect. But step even a tiny bit outside the mainstream big-budget stuff and there are amazing films being made. Not to mention that non-English language independent films are exciting and interesting and able to reach a bigger audience than ever before, thanks to the internet. Additionally, the sweeping statement that “the music isn’t even that good” just seems…unjustified? There’s loads of amazing music out there right now, even on the most mainstream labels. And you have the opportunity to fund a massive range of creators directly via Bandcamp and Patreon! But beyond that, what about all the people who don’t go to gigs just to take insta-content? What about all the people who go to watch tiny local rock bands play in the pub? Or folk bands play in a barn? Or world music played at a night event in a museum? If you spend a lot of time looking at instagram and TikTok, of course you’ll see the shiny people who only go to activities in order to film themselves there. But there are so many people who don’t do that, who listen and watch and pay attention in the moment. Who close their eyes against tears because they’re finally seeing the band they loved when they were 13, and weren’t allowed to go. Who use VPN to hunt down obscure Hong Kong movies from the 90s. Who go to themed film festivals at their local independent cinema. Yes it’s annoying that the Western mainstream is largely so shallow, but there are so many ways to access more interesting art these days…I just feel like a completely negative view is misguided and misleading. I hope the other anon can find joy in turning their attention away from the most dominant (and chronically online) Western pop culture in favour of things they value and love.

i love those descriptions, and they give me a lot of hope; they’re actually a much needed reminder about what meaningful engagement with creative works out there can still do if we just look for it. but at the same time, i also understand where the other anon is coming from, because there really is something to be said about the state of creative media production these days in general and especially the media engagement that currently happens a lot on social media. so that even if it wasn’t the barbie or oppenheimer movie but, say, some other foreign independent arthouse film from the late ’90s, or of one of the local rock bands, the way people ‘aestheticize’ it and flatten it out on social media is … frustrating to say the least. and the fact that this is one of the surest ways to really get more people to listen or watch is just so bleak to look at right now when you want to share your art to people. in a sense, it’s difficult for those who want to create meaningful art and live off of it, when all you get is this celebrity-obsessed culture. it’s like the way you can earn sufficiently from it is if you made ‘creative content’ that’s as consumable and as palatable to profitability as possible, plus you have to have your ‘identity’ (branding) down too. and even if you decided to exit the mainstream and wanted to go independent, you will still need income anyway. art is not separable from the material world, no matter how abstract it is. the way so many creative minds and energies are being ruined right now by branding and market logic is just a grim reality we’re being faced with more and more, even outside the west. and we get this excess of shallow media, and it’s what’s everywhere right now, and it’s melting all our brains, no matter if we still engage with meaningful art whenever we can.

still!!! i do have to thank you for a very hopeful message re: creative work and genuine engagement to works of art. despite everything genuinely loving art really is what it’s all about! just have to keep looking for more hehe

[flustered-victorian-gentleman]

complaining about the state of modern book covers

In other news, I made a very sad personal discovery about a very niche and stupid topic and need to yell about it

(readmore because shit gets LONG)

I was a HUGE fan of Canadian sci fi trilogy The Quintaglio Ascension back in school. I remember specifically picking up the first book while browsing the school library and being immediately captivated by the cover art.

This shit goes fucking hard. In addition to going hard it's also a useful reference for what the sapient dinosaurs actually look like, since there's no illustrations of them within the book. Obviously the characters describe each other but like, they're all the same species so no one is walking around like "this is my friend Tim he looks like a T.rex with human hands and thumbs and has fingernails instead of claws," so this helps. Here's the other two covers just for our personal entertainment.

Anyway, about last week I remembered the series again out of the blue and wanted to pick it up again because I haven't read them in so long and the cover art is so fire. Enter the tragedy I discovered on my local library website:

What in the hot crispy kentucky fried FUCK is that. HUH????

I am by no means educated in marketing or design but this just seem like...anti-marketing?? This just looks like the most generic sci fi shit I've ever seen. Tells you jack shit about the extremely unique setting, which is kind of the whole fucking HOOK of the series. Is the publishing house EMBARRASSED that the book is about talking space dinosaurs?? Also very misleading considering nobody goes to space at all in this book. Everything is on the ground on one planet.

ALSO CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH BUT THIS COVER IS A FUCKING **SPOILER** FOR A VERY IMPORTANT TWIST LATE IN THE BOOK

So, understandably I was a little miffed. I thought to myself, why don't I just check Amazon instead. I could just purchase the full series with the good cover and keep it forever.

AND IT GOT WORSE ON AMAZON

ok, I'll admit this is better than the library cover. there is at least a Mesozoic reptile here, although we still seem to be coyly hiding the fact that all of our protagonists are dinosaurs for some stupid reason. So this gets a very small pass on account of it's not objectively bad but is still quite lazy and underwhelming compared to the original cover. But this cover in particular isn't why I made this post. Don't worry, the other two covers by this artist (I'm assuming it's the same person?) get steadily worse.

first of all, these silhouettes slapped onto this background looks like shit. on first glance they look decently well integrated into the background, but have a look at the bottom dinosaur. it's just kind of...floating...on the rocks. I would give it a little pass if it was obvious the dinosaurs weren't intended to be part of the environment, but the way they've just slapped silhouetted bargain bin Leaping Laelaps onto the bottom half of the cover makes it seem like they were just hoping you wouldn't look to hard and realize there was no effort made to make them look like they're part of the environment.

For reference, here is Leaping Laelaps, painted by Charles R Knight in 1897. If I were in a kinder mood I'd call the cover a callback or reference to famous paleoart. But the laziness, silhouetting, and weird proportions compared to the Quintaglios in the books makes me feel like they didn't want to come up with an interesting dinosaur pose and just a slapped together a worse-posed version of an existing famous panting with as little detail as possible so they could claim they were doing a reference. I would give them a lot more good faith benefit of the doubt if it was anything other than a silhouette. Don't get me wrong, silhouettes can look very good and add unique visuals to cover art, but it seems very clear to me that that's not what's happening here.

And now for possibly tonight's worst offender.

My first impression was that this shit was just goofy as shit. The clouds hurt to look at (no seriously, take a good look at those clouds) and the pose is so stiff.

Wait.

Hey.

That pose.

I've seen that somewhere before.

And so, like a normal and well-adjusted adult, I rushed to my extensive collection of dinosaur figurines.

Enter the 2005 Papo Tyrannosaurs Rex (Brown).

(taking these pictures off an ebay listing because my figure is waaaay at the back of the Virgin Loser Dinosaur Toys Display Case and moving him would require moving like 30 other figurines)

hey.

HEY.

H E Y WHAT THE FUCK

of course, I can't prove anything in court. i don't have any plans to *do anything* about this. It's just...sad, to me, that thirty years ago we were getting beautiful, detailed, original paintings for book covers. even for niche Canadian space dinosaurs sci fi. and now what. you can't tell me people don't make art anymore, that artists no longer need jobs. I guess we've just decided we don't give a shit anymore. Why not just trace an image of a fucking children's toy instead of drawing a fucking dinosaur. Who cares.