#i just didn't do what i usually do - have a halloween-specific project. and didn't watch many movies

[bassiter2]

ngl i wasn't feeling halloween too much this year mainly bc of being in the middle of a project that i've been at for months and did NOT want to put on pause - but also bc a lot of changes are happening in my life including my job and that i'm having surgery on nov 5th and there's just a lot of financial/mental prep for it... but tbh i've also realized that i'm at the age where years go by fast and the idea of one halloween being meh just means like, ok well this means the next one will be better. and that'll be here in no time at all. it's nice that i can just feel chill instead of panicked about it

[thecoolerliauditore]

Ngl, I hated pirates smp, it felt so rigid and boring, but even though im a bit wary, i m excited for rats 2. Rats 1 had this cozy and creative vibe, and such a fun setting, and i feel that type of smps is what pow is good at. We got so many fun moments, fun builds, and the lore was well used and while it was scripted, it was often carried by the players and didn´t feel as suffocating. The rats setting REALLY worked in its favour. Pirates on the other hand... Idk everything just felt so forced. There were some ccs that made it far better by focusing in interactions versus the plot (I remember Oli´s streams were a blast), or doing some very cool side projects (Martyn´s newspaper or Ros´ crazy castle for example. gosh i do hope Ros is in rats 2, she was the mvp of pirates), but the necessity for a story really pushed all of that stuff (the kind of stuff that made rats great) into the background, and I say that as someone who actually really likes lore, and doesn´t usually mind when it´s scripted. I also feel like dividing the players into factions really backfired, bc it killed the vibe of community rats had. The npcs were BORING. Finally, i m sorry, as a certified fan of stories featuring pirates, the set wasn´t being used correctly, there s so many cool ways of using that prompt and they just didn´t know how. Idk, I just hope rats 2 doesn´t follow that same pattern of thinking lore is everything that makes an smp good, when it´s only one of several (and not precisely the most important), and brings back the vibes. I am actually hopeful and excited, but we can only wait and see

At some point I need to join tumblr staff just to implement a feature where I can outsource asks to that megabuild guy specifically before I have to admit I actively dislike empires, rats and pirates. Good news about Ros though!

I think most ppl posting about rats 2 rn are in a similar boat in that they enjoyed rats 1 and feel uneasy about the second season cus of the nothingburger with a side of straight man represented as such that was pirates as well as POW being POW.

me being a hater (like. actually) below

I don't like posting about pirates because it breaks my blog rule for myself to not post about anything I full-on dislike and have no love for whatsoever but it really is kind of fascinating how they managed to mess up pretty much everything. the m in this smp stands for mid. You're so right about the pirates setting thing I could swear by like. the second day half the cast had completely forgotten they were supposed to be pirates (partially to blame I think is the fact that they really didn't have anything pirate-y to do).

Their conception of pirates seems to be more akin to a kids halloween costume than historical fantasy. I will always find it funny how scott once again sets up a character with very clear thematic relevance (classism and parental abuse, in this case) and didn't do anything with it and instead kept talking about his brother and expecting me to feel bad for him or whatever. I'm not surprised at all considering Scott has shown in the past he can't differentiate plot and themes it's just that a pirate story without the societal commentary or the moral greyness may as well be about any other group of motherfuckers on a boat. cruise ship smp. Fucking that squid was the most interesting thing Scott's character did and it wasn't even ""canon"".

I also watched a handful of Martyn's streams at the time and the newspaper thing was actually pretty cool but I also kinda?? felt bad for him?? He spends ages online talking to no one. There was this one stream where he spent the entire time doing parkour courses and trying to find where an npc disappeared to. I'm not saying that he was actively excluded or whatever it just felt really sad to watch him pretty much wander aimlessly for hours and discuss c!martyn headcanons with chat with no actual plot to go with those headcanons. I can't even say no one gaf about his oc cus people DID give a fuck about pirate martyn only for him to have nothing to do in the smp except be pansexual and lie. His vendetta against the urchin thing was funny but the start of it was during an event where there were way too many people in the same place all trying to make the loudest funniest quip and it felt like a mess to watch.

I think it's hilarious that scarian tops the ao3 tag for pirates considering grian isn't in it but also like. I kind of get it when Scar's character had the most sense of intrigue and actual pirate vibes to him (despite him only playing for like 2 streams LMAO). That plus the fact that the rest of the cast minus the two who were involved in horrors at the time had a fucking surburban hell homeowner association style list of lawn care expectations on what you could do with them in your fanart/fic like wtf else are people supposed to write about.

And that's not even getting into like. why this sucked in the first place i.e. like you mentioned the weird chatbot NPCs, the weird faction system that discouraged interaction, the "canon" and "non-canon" streams etc I don't really care about any of the other CCs involved if I'm totally honest (I don't count Cleo cus she didn't really. Do anything. May as well have not been on there) so I can't comment further but. yeah

Also this is very petty of me but the skins are sooooo ugly. Gone is the fun in each skin reflecting the players specific personality and taste aesthetics and all. Idk how they managed to make minecraft skins feel like they have same face syndrome but they did it. We're gonna take the thing that gives the players their own self-expression and usually makes your first impression of the character as the viewer and drench it all in sweet and sour sauce and an instagram filter until you can barely tell who's supposed to be who. At least they were smart enough to keep their hands off of Scar's smirk I would've rioted.