#i just try to make sure they're all in character which automatically means they're gonna be Like That lol

[feyd-meowtha]

@middlingmay's Fic Rec Questions

I saw this list and thought it would be fun to give it a go!!

1) Fic that's made you laugh the most

He May Be The Reason by @c-goldthorn. It's a Clegan Notting Hill au and it makes me squeal with delight. So cute that I got distracted while reading it and missed my stop on the train.

2) A fic that made you cry

my kingdom for a kiss upon your shoulder by pillar of our community @swifty-fox. I'm sure most ppl have probably read this one but it's such an amazing post-show continuation that really doesn't pull it's punches when it comes to both PTSD and the realities of being gay in the 40s

3) Fave comfort, silly fic

It's a little rogue but I'm gonna say Awake, Alive by the wonderful @whirlpool-blogs. It's a pet sematary au so not exactly what you would call traditionally comforting but the ending makes me so happy and the whole thing is just a joy. The fact that this came to mind when I thought 'comfort fic' is probably pretty telling about me as a person....

4) The fic that made you try a genre or trope that you don't usually read

This is also a bit rogue but it was tricky since I'll read anything, so I'll go with Strings of the Strings of Life by the lovely @weimarweekly, not because of any of the content but because I don't, as a general rule, read Dune fic that was written after Dune 2 released. I've bored everyone to tears with my complaints about that version of Feyd but it is what it is so I tend not to like any fics written about that version of the character BUT the prospect of a feydpaul Berlin techno au was too delicious to resist and the whole fic is so fun. It makes me miss Germany sooo bad.

5) An author who has inspired your own fic writing

This one has got to go to the anonymous author of both Close And Yet Closer and The Replacement. Both of these fics are god tier and their character psychology and willingness to allow their versions of the characters and relationships to be ugly and messy are so inspiring to me. They were also the first person in the John/Hausman tag on ao3 which is currently just me and them. I think about the replacement all the time and it was a HUGE influence on 3am Eternal. If I can ever write half as well as them I will die happy.

6) What are your fave underdog authors? Those that you feel are underappreciated and deserve a bit more love

Hmmm, this is kinda hard cus the MOTA fandom is pretty small so I feel like a lot of stuff gets decent buzz. Imma shout out @whirlpool-blogs again and especially their fucked up clegans fics, I have read and reread all of their works and they're always so so good. I will also add @steeseman for Up In Our Bedroom. It's another great post-canon fic and while it has a lot of hits, I don't think I've seen anyone talking about it on here.

7) What's one thing you wish writers/readers did more of when it comes to fanfiction.

The obvious one is comment, it really does make my day when I get a nice comment, even just a couple words or an emoji mean a lot. The other thing I would say is writing curt/Kenny fic, there's not much out there and I want more please. Also more fics where characters relationships are like genuinely kind of fucked up and toxic. I love that shit.

8) What's one thing you wish writers/readers did less of when it comes to fanfiction.

Oh man, I really do not know. The only thing I can think of is that I hate the word 'yap' or 'yapping' so if I see it in a fic I shudder. Hmmmm, I guess I also wish that there was a little more consideration when writing Gale's dad as an alcoholic because it's often treated as the basis for him being a shitty person. Addicts aren't automatically bad people and I sometimes feel like it's portrayed that way. @blixabargelds wrote an excellent post on this

9) I'm adding an extra one and that is current WIPs I am reading

Sympathy For The Devil by @blixabargelds, it's a modern ghost hunting AU and the set up is AMAZING. I will also throw Superstar in here even though it's not releasing main story chapters yet, everything Frankie writes is so tailored to my personal tastes it's crazy and I am so excited to read @mildharm's John POV chapters too. Literally foaming at the mouth thinking about it rn. When it starts being released fully, I fear it may kill me.

Love Song From A Dog and The Heart Is A Muscle by @swifty-fox. I've only just started THIAM but I'm so hyped for their take on the tattoo shop/flower shop au.

Hit Me Where The Heart Is by @london-cowboy makes me legitimately insane. I jump for joy whenever there is a new update, these versions of the characters and their stories are, as Paris Hilton would say, beyond. I do not have the words to say how much I am loving this fic. The characters and setting feel so real and it's just so creative. AMAZING.

I need to get around to starting let us not desert one another; we are an injured body and also the time skip fic whose name escapes me by @irregularcollapse and also catching up with @weimarweekly's rodeo fic, Looking For Eight

Writing this was very fun and I encourage anyone reading to give it a go if they fancy it!!

[lilianade-comics]

the face of a man who neither regrets his answer nor is aware of his imminent violent demise

[furiroad]

Furiosa spoilers under the cut 🚗

It's actually staggering how much that movie did not need to exist. Gonna bullet point some thoughts

My sarcastic lol @ the lightning fast sisters cameo at the end where they're all played by completely different people. the quick flash of Cheedo's eyes bc they managed to get Courtney Eaton back for three seconds didn't appease me

I guess it technically passes the bechdel test bc right at the start Furiosa says "be still" to Valkyrie but iirc that's the only pass moment. I know not passing the bechdel test doesn't mean the movie is automatically bad I just think it's interesting considering it's following Fury Road

"she talks to her mother" I don't think they ever said her mum's name out loud

You know how mad max fury road could have a silent version w no dialogue + isolated soundtrack and it worked because you could tell what's going on anyway? This movie has the opposite problem. Way too much talking. They over-explain everything

The best bit was the prolonged torture scene at the end where Hemsworth explains Furiosa's entire character arc and the message of the movie out loud to her and also us

Even his teddy had an arm missing, replaced with a barbie arm. Thanks. We get it

Her arm made robot noises

Actually threw MY arms up in disgust when she went back for that boy she supposedly had a romance with despite the film never bothering to actually show/explain that. I'm calling it a romance because the actors did. I guess it was supposed to be a Capable/Nux parallel but it didn't work for me and not just because I'm a dyke and a hater OK, if you're gonna do a ROMANCE, DO A ROMANCE. don't leave me sitting there wondering why Furiosa is risking it all for some guy she's had ONE conversation with, especially after he offers to get her away from the Citadel and back to where she came from, WHICH IS HER ENTIRE MOTIVE EVER SINCE SHE WAS TAKEN

I DON'T GET IT

Them trying to emulate Max and Furiosa's instinctive, perfect we have to trust each other moment by having Jack and Furiosa... look at each other Meaningfully fifty times while they were supposed to be driving cars? Don't make me laugh! You will never be them!!

Max being there for a second wasn't cute! I rolled my eyes

Same at "remember me?" MAKE UP YOUR OWN STUFF

So many things happened because they needed to happen (plot demanded it) and didn't make any sense in context. My favourite was when Furiosa rode her motorcycle up a dune to get away after cutting off her arm and the biker gang couldn't follow her up there for some reason

So much Christian imagery... threw me off tbh

Considering it's Furiosa's movie it sure isn't about her + she doesn't speak at all for almost the first half

This movie was way too long

I called it about the peach seed

I called it that she cut her own arm off

George Miller read some of my blog but not all of it

You know how The People Eater rubbed his nipple that one time and it was delightfully weird and gross and got a good reaction? Well in this movie he's constantly rubbing it, the whole time. Really lessens the impact of the nipple rub

As you can see this movie has made me insane

Like this is not really about the nipple rub but do you get what I'm saying here

Furiosa spends most of the movie hiding her hair (because as we all know, having long hair immediately identifies you as a woman) and then when her head covering gets knocked off and her hair is revealed (omg she's a girl) she leaves it like that and becomes an Imperator. On what planet

The history man frames the entire movie for some reason. Do they show Miss Giddy? Take a wild guess

One of the coolest parts of fury road was that a gang of bikers ended up being hardcore wasteland grannies w guns and loose morals in response to people fucking around for far too long without finding out. Did this movie have anything like that for me? Take a wild guess for a second time

The car fight scenes weren't even that great. Couldn't remember hearing any good music under them (brother in arms truly lightning in a bottle) and they went on for too long which feels wild to say about suped up car battles in the australian wasteland: 2 but oh well. This is how I feel. Fury Road was so good at carefully measuring out high octane action and then downtime and careful, quiet character introspection and this movie had no idea what it was doing either way

Honestly I don't hate it but I feel like it was a waste of time and it doesn't need to exist at all. A real nothing experience. Am I going to see this movie ten times in cinemas? No I am not even going to see it twice in cinemas

I don't know what I was expecting.

oh my god also they played clips of Fury Road over the credits as if to say "remember how fucking good this is in comparison to the dumb shit you just watched"

[nin-deer]

Ch 143

i mean i think we all knew deep down the kiss was gonna happen based on the flow of the story but i think this chap reveals a lot about gorou and sarina

(uh warning this got a little out of hand so its pretty long lmao)

so.

i dont think anyone's completely in the wrong, but i definitely don't think they're in the right either. (not that i condone incest; its just that their motivations led them to this specific point. would the story have been fine without it? hell yeah. please i actually prefer it that way. but this is the direction the author decided to take it, so we have to take it as it is as a point of learning more about the character's motivations)

Let's first analyze sarina and gorou's relationship pre-reincarnation. I think I covered this in my last post where I rambled about onk, but gorou is doing a doctor thing where he "accepts" sarina's proposal just to make her happy. We learn in this new chapter that he basically catered to her every request, and that's what started that infatuation. we know from previous chapters that her bio family's shitty, so the only place she would get this love is from gorou. we also learn in this chapter that it's not actually a romantic love but a fanatic love, for lack of better terms. she sees him as her idol. does sarina even know what it feels to be romantically in love with someone? she spent her whole first life in a hospital, isolated from others her age. she spent her second life very curated and protected because of her mom and her future career; she couldn't really live a normal life. (we'll get back to this point later) all she knows about love is through her idols, so she's channeling it into (what she thinks is) romantic love for gorou.

gorou, on the other side of this, is an actual adult who had an actual life before all this, so he knows what a normal life is like. assuming sarina is one of his first patients, its obvious to see that he got attached, which is a very risky situation for scenarios like this. we see this attachment made her death worse, as he threw himself into following Ai to cope for her death. not gonna go too in depth about this here because, again, i made another post for this that i'll probably link at the end bc im referencing it more than i thought... continuing! he knows sarina doesnt have long left so he wants to do what he can for her, thus creating that "idol" persona sarina has for him.

we see in his regret in this new chap that he actually knows what he's doing and is aware of the consequences of his actions. ruby doesn't. she doesn't regret anything. as someone who reads a lot of isekai/reincarnation stories, its easy to joke that ruby and aqua are their old age + their new age, but that isn't necessarily true for ruby. sure, aqua is old and this could apply to him. but ruby? she didn't make it past 18 before she died. she's like,,, 13 times 2. double 13. she never fully developed in her first life, and she's developing in this current life. it's like a continue from where she left off. aqua actually was an adult, so he has all the knowledge and wisdom of an adult. why does this matter? shift your attention back to the concept of love for a bit. aqua knows what she's doing is bad and is trying to stop her, but the knowledge that she's sarina is making him automatically succumb to her wishes. a part of his brain, because of the trauma, still sees ruby as the sickly sarina he was caring for.

ruby is naïve. she doesnt know what love is. all the love she's ever been exposed to is whatever she saw online: idols. i dont even think she fully knows what the concept of family is. aqua is her brother? nope. aqua is the doctor she proposed to and now she has a chance to follow through like all the shows she's seen. she's closer than ever to him, so why give up the chance? even as ruby, she wasn't exposed to a lot of normalcy because of idol culture. she isn't able to learn about the difference between platonic love and fanatic love. we even see this with ai, who she sees more as an idol than her mom. the joy is in her idol being her mom, someone who's supposed to care for her. it's like shes living a fantasy made just for her. because aqua was so obsessed w revenge, he didn't have the chance to teach her anything, and it's not like he needed to learn bc he already knows. ruby doesn't.

aqua, as the one who understands these nuances, should have sat her down and explained things, but he didn't because of the trauma of sarina. ruby is ignorant and is treating things like a tv drama, now that her dreams as sarina can finally become true. aqua doesn't realize how serious ruby is about this because in his mind this is just a child playing house. ruby is like,,,, imagine you die and you wake up actually being sold to one direction. or whatever happens to you in your fav self-insert scenario/fanfic. idk a better analogy lmao but its like finally being able to play out your fantasies irl. she doesn't realize the real world impacts of her actions because, frankly, she doesn't care. she gets to live out her life as she wants. aqua was shocked after the first kiss with ruby because he realized then she was being serious, but he didn't speak out about it because, again, the trauma™. (we see him again uncomfy with the whole situation in the next page, but his lack of objection could be bc it's a scene in the documentary and he finds it more important to get revenge rn) ruby kissed him then because she purposefully created the mood like that so it would fit in the story she was writing in her mind.

so what does this mean? because of their shared pasts, aqua and ruby are put in this situation where ruby can do what she wants and aqua goes along with it. even if he knows its morally wrong, he can't bring himself to break ruby's immersion in all of this. BUT. big but. aqua shouldn't act like this. they're both capable of living out their lives as normal (barring the revenge and the whole idol stuff). he doesn't need to act like this anymore; ruby's not terminally ill. he's not a doctor. what he should have done was firmly deny her stuff he knows is wrong because then he can educate her about the reason why. as much as their personalities are inspired by their past lives, sarina and gorou are dead. they need to move on and live a aqua and ruby. (Harsh, I know, but because of this scenes like *gestures vaguely to the newest two chapters* happens. if aqua stood his ground and taught ruby about familial love and that what she's feeling is probably not romantic, i think this could have been avoided. but alas, we need it for the ~drama~)

-

sorry that went on way longer than i thought lmao. i think i covered everything i wanted to say but im too lazy to read back so fingers crossed

if you made it this far and are curious about the other post i mentioned in the beginning, its here. i just think its some context to my thought process but not necessary to understand this post

[sunnyie-eve]

16 | Nowhere Near

Series: Significant

Paring: Colby Brock x Original female character

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1.6k

| MASTERLIST |

~

"I told you guys we were gonna be late!" Penelope looks at the guys so they end up having to get a shuttle van to get to the bus and they could tell others didn't like them.

"I hope you don't mind I took this seat." Penelope tells the guy sitting next to her.

"Oh, it's fine. My group is three of us so they're sitting up there together." He tells her.

"There's five of us as you could tell when we got in late. I told them we would be." She laughs, "I'm Penelope." She puts her hand out.

"Fabian." He shakes her hand, "You on vacation with family? Boyfriend? Friends?" He asks.

"Friends. It was my birthday a few days ago so they invited me on the trip. They're all YouTubers so our entire trip will be shown." She explains to him.

"Oh, what's the channel?" He pulls out his phone to look them up.

"It will be on TFIL but Sam and Colby have their channel and each their one and then itsCoreyScherer." She tells him.

"You don't have one?"

"No, I'm thinking of making one for fun. I'm just a model." She tells him.

"I'm a model too."

"That's cool." She laughs so they look each other up and chat.

Penelope has a distinct giggle so when the four hear her they look over to see her chatting with Fabian. Automatically Sam and Corey looked over to where Colby was sitting with Elton, and sure enough he looked annoyed looking at the guy she was talking to.

"Oh, he's going to be so protective off this bus." Sam shakes his head facing forward.

Corey gets on his phone and goes to Penelope's Instagram to see who the guy is because he looks at her followings. He goes through the guy's a bit before showing Sam something, "He knows Darwin."

"How well?" Sam looks at the phone.

"Celebrate birthdays together." Corey answers.

"Oh, we are screwed if Colby goes snooping like you did." Sam glances back to see Colby on his phone, "We might be.."

And Sam was right, they were going to be screwed because Colby was snooping as well. It didn't take him long at all to find the post with the two guys celebrating a birthday. Colby was fuming deep down. Did this guy know she dated Darwin or did he not know.

"There's no way..." Colby speaks out loud.

"No way for what?" Elton asks him.

"He has to know Penelope dated Darwin. The guy she's talking to is his friend."

"Why does that matter?" Elton asks confused.

"Because Darwin is a piece of shit and anyone who is his friend has to be too." Colby watches the two talk.

"Colby, do you have a secret thing for Penelope?" Elton asks him, "Because I mean, I would understand. She's not unattractive and you know her really well." He tells him.

Colby just gives him a look, "No, I don't Elton. You and everyone thinks I do but I don't. Penelope is just my friend and that's all she'll ever be. Plus you know what my type is. You've seen the girls I talk to and hook up with. Penelope is nowhere near them." He tells him not realizing he was getting a little loud trying to make Elton think he didn't like Penelope.

When the bus arrives Penelope and the guys stand together and Fabian had his group stand next to them so they could chat.

"Are you going to be okay not to laugh?" Colby asks Penelope so she looks at him.

"I'll be fine." She says sassy since she heard what he said on the bus.

Being led to the village they had all the guys do something together so Colby gives Penelope the camera to film them. When they were done she gives it back to him without saying a word to him. She was hurt by his words. He would always talk her up and then compares her to the girls he likes because she's nowhere near how they look.

"You okay? Since we got off the bus you've seen upset." Fabian walks with Penelope.

"My head suddenly started to hurt." She lies to him, "I get bad headaches randomly." She tells him which was actually true.

"Sissy, come here." Corey reaches out to pull her to join them.

Elton picks Sam and Corey to volunteer them to play a game with two other girls. Corey ends up winning and Penelope applauds him.

Afterwards, they got a little performance and it was nice to watch before eating. Fabian had his group sit with Penelope's so Colby was annoyed that they had to be by them. He really didn't like it when they all had to hold hands. For Colby, it was because Fabian was holding Penelope's hand and for Penelope, it was because he had to hold Colby's hand.

At the end of the whole visit, the four guys wander off while Penelope goes to the bus, "They're going to miss the bus if they horse around out there." She takes a seat next to Fabian.

"Boy will be boys." He laughs, "You feeling any better?" He asks as he gets a message on Snapchat and Penelope couldn't help but look and was surprised to see her ex snap him.

The snap said; You're with my ex in New Zealand?

"Sorry for looking but you know Darwin?" She asks him.

"I've known him since we were one year old so yeah." He chuckles.

"He's never talked to you about me when we were together?" She tilts her head.

"Actually, I knew who you were when you walked on the bus with Elton, Corey, Sam, and Colby. I didn't want to seem creepy so I pretended not to know you." He explains to her.

"I'm sorry but I find that a tad more creepier that you pretended not to know me." She lets him know.

"I'm sorry." He said as the guys rushed onto the bus.

"Idiots." She tells them as they walk to the back of the bus.

"Thanks for leaving us." Corey messes up her hair while Colby eyes, Fabian.

"I can see why Darwin didn't trust Colby from the start." Penelope just looks at him, "And you after a while. You're with Colby yet you're flirting with me."

"Flirting with you? I've only been nice to you." She says shocked, "Wow..." She gets up going to find an empty seat.

When they get off the bus going back to the RV, Colby tries talking to Penelope while they were alone inside. The other three were playing around outside talking about their trip today. "You were quiet today." He says as she changes clothes up in the bunk with the curtain closed.

She wanted to keep it to herself but she couldn't as she got down, "You're a piece of shit, Colby. You always talk me up when I feel down about myself telling me not to compare myself to other pretty girls. Yet you tell Elton I'm not your type because I'm nowhere near them. I mean, it's okay that I'm not your type but the way you put me down."

"Penelope... I-,"

She cuts him off, "What? Sorry?" She laughs.

"I didn't mean it."

"Then why say that!" She shouts at him and he has no idea what to say at the moment so she walks out while the guys walk in looking at him.

Sam changes clothes before going outside to see Penelope sitting on a curb. He takes a seat next to her and pulls her into his side to rub her back, "I'm sure didn't mean it in that way." He tells her.

"Well, he's not wrong. I don't compare to the girls he talks to and hooks up with. Who knows if Tyson or Darwin were ever attracted to me. Maybe they just wanted one thing because they talked so bad about me afterward." She moves out of Sam's touch.

"You're not unattractive Penelope, trust me. And for starters, your exes are assholes, that's why they talk bad about you." He lets her know.

"As I always say, you and Colby just stay stuff like that because you're my friends."

"No, I say that because I know you're attractive. You know, I was this close to asking you out before Tyson did." He shows her with his fingers, "Then when you guys broke up I didn't try to shoot my shot because I saw I was nowhere near your type. Tyson was a good-looking guy and I was nowhere near that."

"You liked me then?" She laughs, "You should have saved me from all that crap with Tyson, you asshole." She playfully shoves him.

"I'm sorry I was a scaredy cat." He laughs with her as Colby watches them before going over.

"I hate you know that I know that." Penelope jokes with him.

"You could never hate me." He pokes her.

"Also just because you think Tyson was good-looking and you were nowhere near him in looks... doesn't mean I didn't think you were too. I would have easily picked you over him." She lets him know with a smile.

"That makes part of me happy." He laughs as he sees Colby come over to them. "Just see what he has to say." Sam tells her before getting up so Colby takes a seat.

"I said what I said so Elton would stop asking me questions. I just snapped. Everyone always asks if I have a thing for you because I care about you and how close we are. I just said whatever to get him to shut up. I swear." He tells her.

"I wish you said it quietly."

"I wish I said it quietly too. You know I hate hurting your feelings. Do you forgive me?" He looks at her hands.

"I forgive you."

[sokkastyles]

The Azula stans are going to be fucking unbearable when the "Azula in the Spirit Temple" comic comes out, since it hints at her redemption which automatically means she never did anything wrong. I don't consider the comics canon because they are so bad and OOC, but the stans will be rubbing it in everyone's face forever. They aren't going to do it well, considering it took Zuko 3 seasons to change and all Azula gets is a comic series to deal with her far worse crimes. One of the Azula stans, the one you were arguing with on that long ass post also says they are involved with it or something like that, so idk what sorta writing this comic is going to have. Probably gonna have Zuko abusing Azula or whatever, since they seem very happy in their last reblog of that post lol. I almost hope she doesn't change just to spite the stans. If they make Ursa, Iroh and Zuko out to be bad people I will be done.

I actually would like to see an Azula redemption, and part of me does want to see what the writers come up with because I do think that connecting Azula to the spirit world is the way to go there, but I agree that it won't be done well. I foresee a few different scenarios happening:

Azula gets a redemption but it's not good enough for these stans because it's an ACTUAL redemption where Azula has to actually face and admit her crimes and stop behaving abusively, and her stans don't want that and will claim it's not a REAL redemption. I mean, the series has been hinting at it for a while and the stans are still up in arms about how the writers hate her and want nothing but to abuse her. "The Search" does a lot to make her a sympathetic villain but her stans act like Gene Yang is the devil for it. It's still not good writing but it's obvious that the writers want her to be sympathetic to the reader.

The writers try to cater to Azula's fanbase and do a half-assed redemption, which may or may not be accepted. I mean, witness the pushback in recent years to the likes of Kylo Ren or Catra because their redemptions didn't have near the thought put into them that Zuko's did. Either the stans will eat it up or they'll use it to fuel their vendetta because what Azula gets won't be as good as what Zuko got and they will HATE that.

The problem is that bad redemption arcs, if not done carefully, run the risk of running into the same kind of victim blaming that these stans spout on a constant basis. Even if the writing doesn't make Zuko/Iroh out to be bad, there's the inherent implication, that already exists because we see it already in the discourse, that they're horrible for not sacrificing themselves for Azula and putting up with her constant abuse. What Ehasz described, the scenario where Zuko serves as Azula's long-suffering Iroh, is a nice thought, but it carries the implication that this is the virtuous way for an abuse victim to respond to their abuse. I find it hard to believe that Ehasz would even write that, no matter what statements he makes on twitter fifteen years after he had any involvement with the show, because when he was actually writing the show, even redeemed Zuko never became a doormat who only lives for Aang and the others. See also the constant discourse about how he's horrible for disagreeing with Aang or getting mad at Sokka for poking him with a stick.

See also the amount of crap that Zuko puts up with from Azula in the Search, but you know how the discourse around that goes. It's not enough because these stans WANT to see her as the ultimate victim, so any kindness offered to Azula can be twisted into actually another way that she's a victim.

I very much doubt that that person is involved at all with the comic. I've also seen them claim that they voiced Azula in some promotional materials, which I also doubt. They seem like the kind of person who naturally vacillates towards characters like Azula because they fuel their sense of grandiosity and victimization. I wouldn't believe anything they say. I'm still not sure they're not a troll trying to parody Azula stan accounts.

[grasshopperdoingdogpaddle]

One thing I really miss from Season 1 Jack was just how snarky he was. Sure he was a Bit of a coward as a character flaw, but he had some Bite to him that made him feel like a credible villain, even if a mostly ineffectual one. Instead of being a flat out Cowardly Mama's Boy, he sassed off about his parents always doing Dumb Parents things and throwing wild parties, snarked back at Wuya, and had an attitude beyond occasionally smarmy coward. Which would be fine if you were to develop him out of that and use that lessening of seeming threat level by making him maybe doubt his clinging to the side of evil and migrate towards good or even just neutrality. But instead it kind of feels like the narrative expects us to simultaneously believe he's both a villain with potential to have his own Evil Overlord Jack timeline and also that he's a simpering coward who's perfectly fine acting like a total stooge to other, bigger baddies.

Yeah, season 1 established Jack as a much more... human character. 

He's an antisocial rich kid who's desperate for the acknowledgement of others, but also actively acts abrasively to keep them at arm's length. He's a genius in robotics and knows how smart he is. He's snarky and cocky, he knows what he wants and feels entitled to the whole world's praises, and if conquest is what it takes to show off what he has, he'll happily do it, because it means less social interaction he has to awkwardly work through.

In fact, he's prone to self-sabotaging or bristling in response to positive social situations, is avoidant of things like parties but still wants to be talked about positively, and automatically meets even polite greetings with snarkiness.

Oh yeah! Can I strut now?

First order of business when I rule the world: vaporize all mimes.

Nice place you have here, Clay, too bad about the sudden change in weather.

Oh, I'm leaving alright, and you're coming with me! (Oh really, who's gonna make me?) You are. Kimiko, meet Kimiko. Or should I say, meet your match.

(No hands.) Yeah. And no game.

You fully get why the monks are wary and unfond of him. He was a smarmy threat and he actively mocks and belittles them unpleasantly. He insults their intelligence and appearance, steals from them and actively tries to kill them, is occasionally creepy towards Kimiko. And he gets pretty frequent W's or near wins, so his threats were not empty threats. It's very clear why there's mutual bad blood.

And then there’s the thing with his parents. He didn't have a very strong negative or positive reaction to his father sending him the puzzlebox, so it's evidently not unusual to get gifts like that from his parents. He’s neither surprised nor completely uninterested. Then, he says it's lame and throws it away when he solves it. 

A sort of distant relationship from an antisocial teenager trying to come into his own. The only parental figure’s gift he seemed immediately impressed and sentimental about was the helibot his villainous grandmother gave him. Otherwise, he’s not particularly desperate for presents from them.

Like the scene you mention, where he insults his parent's boring parties.

Jack: Standard for my folk's parties. Snobfest a-go-go. Ashley: So, are you Jack? the kid they're all talking about upstairs? Jack: (Perking up hopefully) They're talking about me?! Are they calling me a genius?! Ashley: More like "weirdo" Jack: WHAT'S SO WEIRD ABOUT ME?!

He thinks his parents are lame and throw lame parties. He avoids parties because he’s antisocial and doesn’t do as well with people as he does with machines, but it makes him happy to know that they might all be talking about how smart he is up there. And when he hears that they’re insulting him, he doesn’t simper or shrink, he throws a furious tantrum and lashes out.

It’s a far cry from the Mama's boy who "has panic attacks when he's away from his mama for more then one day".

The later seasons feel off because he's more of a simpering lackey and doesn't even pull off any smug attitudes or land any biting insults anymore, he just... shrinks back and cries. Makes the encounters with the monks feel painfully one-sided.

Even entirely separate from the villain decay that all the Heylin character underwent and the massive flanderization almost all the characters had in season 3 to undermine their previous growth, Jack just feels like a different character.

He was always immature in a way that was well communicated, but by the end of the series, it's less "edgy teenager rebellion" and more "uncomfortably infantilized by the narrative".

He was always cowardly and cocksure with an Napoleon complex. Always the type who’s taunt an angry dog while it’s leashed only to scream and run when it broke its chain, but at some point he’s very much just a recurring joke about how pitiful he is. But the type of cowardice changes into something less teenager-who-thinks-he-can-take-over-the-world and more shrinking-violet. He’s very woobified.

And it’s sad, because for a while there was a nice opening for places where he could have gone. He had an episode where he acknowledged that he’s only evil is out of fear of failure and an internal logic that evil is sure to lose anyway so it doesn’t matter if he fails or not.

Jack could have either cemented his desire to have a reason for being on the Heylin side that’s not just that desperate fear, or he could have made the step to the Xiaolin side that every finale teases.

Ultimately they didn’t go either direction though. Like you said, he sort of ends up as just “a simpering coward who's perfectly fine acting like a total stooge to other, bigger baddies.” Especially in his ping-ponging relationship with Hannibal Bean, where he’s either trembling and begging Bean to leave him alone, or groveling unquestioningly at Bean’s brilliant evil plans before walking directly into being betrayed.

[epickiya722]

I think far too many people analyse the content of MHA without considering the context.

That is not to say that there is no meaning beyond that, that it's immune to criticism or that it's simply not for anyone else - it is first and foremost a weekly shonen manga. Yes, I would say it has it unique edge in that it's a "battle shonen" that places a particular focus on sympathising with *all* characters - which are they the way they are? What does it mean to be a villain? Are people a product of their upbringing etc etc - but again, I think this is more than that.

This is a story for young adults+, a story about trying hard, accepting help, friendship, teamwork and becoming the best version of yourself within your means. I think that's important for kids and young adults to see these stories, to know they don't have to fight all of the time and know that they will have support even if they're disadvantaged in life. It's a story that shows changing perspectives and understanding. I think too many adults on the internet see media and automatically view it within their own limited worldview without remembering that they are stepping into something that was not necessarily created for them. This isn't a story that benefits from debating powerscaling (not that many do!) nor complaining about "talk no jutsu" - because it's not for them. You see the same reactions every time vocal westerners get involved in certain types of media. They just need to take a step back and think about why the media is presented in the way it is. Why their opinions differ. Just, they just need to be normal about it!!

Oh my gosh, yes!!!

Even as a Westerner, that's one of my peeves about what other Westerners do. They tend to forget that not everything is made for them and if they don't understand it, try to. Still can't? Don't be an ass about it.

Everything you just said about BNHA, it's how I feel. Now I know some asshat is gonna be like "You're giving Horikoshi too much credit, yadda yadda", happened before and that person is blocked.

But no. No one is saying Horikoshi has perfect writing. But who really does? I write and I say I have flaws. Yet, that doesn't mean that my writing isn't enjoyable to me and to other people.

That's what I feel towards BNHA, as with other stories. It's enjoyable, perfectionism be damned. I also don't know Horikoshi personally, so I don't know how his mind works. Sure, I get confused sometimes and I'll cringe. It happens.

But honestly? Whatever flaws I or someone feels about BNHA, it allows for exploration. It brings fics and art from fans. Criticism doesn't allow have to be a weapon.

Example! Not necessarily a "flaw" I guess, but I liked if Miruko got just as much spotlight and backstory as someone like Hawks. What did that do to me? It got me motivated to writing fics and making posts about her.

There's also the fact cultural differences play a part here, just as much as gender and age does.

I'm a black woman who has never been to Japan. So I know when watching BNHA, created by a Japanese man, I'm not gonna catch and understand some things.

That doesn't stop me from trying to understand so I can follow along. And it doesn't hurt to learn. I don't have to relate to it to understand.

[blazehedgehog]

Do you think Shantae would have gone on to become a series if it hadn't leaned so hard on its cast being full of busty women? Like, the games run the gamut from great to awful for me personally, but I can never shake the kind of gross, soft porn-y vibes it gives me.

Didn't Shantae become a full series? There's like six games now.

Shantae

Shantae: Risky's Revenge

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (remake)

Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Shantae: Risky Revolution (upcoming)

I was fine with Shantae's vibes up until the third game where it feels like they lean way, way harder into the "😉" if you know what I mean. That game opens with a group of girls announcing they're gonna strip down and go swimming in a pond that turns out to be made from drool.

That felt like the moment where you realize "hey this artist sure draws a lot of close-ups of really detailed feet."

I've heard a thing or two over the years from different people about the Shantae team and Matt Bozon. Nothing scandalous or offensive, but he does seem to be a guy that really likes his booby ladies. So the softcore/cheesecake vibe is intentional.

Something I want to talk about, because I've come to understand it better, is that... that's okay. I guess. Like, to me, I grew up as a guy who felt like sex was used in marketing as win button. With the right kind of body, men will automatically line up around the block, even if the end result is garbage. It felt like an insult. I didn't want to be thought of as that easy to trick.

Sexy ladies showing lots of skin in advertisements or movies or TV kind of made me angry as a result. They were trying to buy my approval and I wasn't selling. It became gross and annoying.

In the milieu of social media and getting to observe all different kinds of people in all different places of many spectrums, I finally came to realize that a sexualized appearance isn't always about being tricked. Some people like to look sexy. Some people like to create characters that look sexy. To some people it's just another emotion, like how they can make you happy, or scared, or make you laugh.

Once you think about it from the artist perspective of "I create art to show other people something I like", and some people like showing off their bodies, it all kind of clicks in to place. It's not always about money or even about the act of sex itself. People are allowed to like the shape of human form. It's just, you know, there are side effects of that.

Is it still weird in Shantae? Yeah, a little bit. But if that's Matt Bozon's thing, then that's his thing, I guess, and nothing I've heard makes him sound like trouble, he just likes his booby ladies, apparently.

It's a shame on some level, because despite having my third eye opened to sexuality for sexuality's sake, I couldn't get past Shantae 3's opening drool swim, even in spite of multiple friends telling me that it's still the best Shantae game ever made.

So it goes, I guess. To each their own.

Edit: So I've made it no secret that I heavily use the post queue/scheduling function on tumblr. I answer big batches of questions, throw them in the queue, and let them trickle out over a week. But what I've started also doing is letting $2-and-up patreon donors skip the queue, which is less of an advertisement and more a setup for this extension of the ask that took place in the comments of the most recent Patreon post:

[alligatorjesie]

That rant was sure something. Anyhow, Happy BHM. In honor of uplifting Black voices, here’s a video made by a black person breaking down that article you shared somewhere in that whatever it was, and how white feminism took over the entire tone to discredit poc https://youtu.be/avZ_NC4TrQA

Not sharing this to fuel reylo discourse or anything. This person’s video is pretty neutral on that. Just wanted to point out that your bias, racial or not, can still cloud your judgement to the point of gaslighting poc’s experiences. Yes it was indeed a pain to read. Mainly for women of color who are once again reminded how fandoms despise our presence

Alright, I'm gonna stop you right there because the shit you're saying is exactly the point I'm trying to get across here.

I watched the whole video and nowhere at any point does she 'disprove' anything in the article.

What I posted is still true, an alt-right user by the name of Crogman made a sock puppet account on twitter he then used to harass actors from Star Wars.

Nothing about that part of the article was a lie and I don't need to watch a 22 minute long rant from some rando on youtube to tell me the information in the article is actually correct.

The Author did her fucking homework.

Hell for the most part I totally agree with the youtuber on pretty much every point she makes. Being black in fandom has to suck complete and total cock and balls because not only are they dealing with harassment for simply being black in fandom but doubly so for many of them in the reylo fandom where they're often told they're racist for enjoying it.

That shit has to be quite wearing on the nerves. I'm not black and in fandom but I am female in fandom and if the amount of harassment I get, which is considerable, is double the amount a black person gets then they have every right to be absolutely fucking furious.

She is obviously upset about the line of 'Finnreys really seem to have it out for reylos' but I don't recall in the article where the author mentions that finnreys are overwhelmingly black, that's just a conclusion the youtuber jumped to all on her own.

The author of the article ain't wrong about the finnreys hating reylos tho.

For context, this was a screengrab of the 'anti-finnrey' tag on tumblr which you would think would be full of reylos who hate finnrey but instead is ironically full of finnreys calling reylos racist and the only reylos who showed up were me, commenting on how odd it is that so many anti reylos seem to be finnreys and that's kinda weird and one other reylo who adds the tag for blocking because they get harassed by so many finnreys.

I get it, some finnreys are upset that reylo became canon in Star Wars, but harassing members of the reylo fandom isn't going to fix the problem they're having.

The reylos aren't racist for noticing and enjoying a ship that was telegraphed very early on in the movies.

No one in the the star wars fandom is demanding you ship reylo.

Ship what the fuck you want mate.

Honestly considering the end of EP9 I don't fucking know how finnreys could still be upset at reylos.

The finnrey ship is just as likely to become canon as reylo was, which thus far is one instance where they held hands and a single PG smooch.

Rey is still very fucking alive and Ben is pretty fucking dead so who fucking knows, assuming Disney can gather the testicular fortitude to continue telling stories in the sequel trilogy timeline we could very likely get a finnrey scenario play out fully as canon but I'll tell you one thing for fucking sure;

I as a reylo ain't gonna go onto the finnrey tag and blast them for it.

I'm not going to stop finnreys from shipping Finn and Rey. I'm just asking them to get the fuck out of the reylo tag about it.

Just because some people on the internet preferred the romantic pairing of Ben and Rey vs Finn and Rey doesn't automatically mean they racist.

It's Just A Ship.

Shipping isn't activism.

Reylos actually seam to quite like Finn the character or else they wouldn't overwhelmingly write him into their fanfictions. Over Half of the reylos fics I have up on my computer right now have Finn as a character in them.

Someone who hates Finn wouldn't bother doing that.

Hell, I'm making a comic right now where some scenes have over 7 characters in a single panel and I can tell you right fucking now I would not put the effort into drawing the character if I disliked them.

The effort shows care.

What I have seen is a lot of finnreys who make posts zeroing in on reylos to harass them or worse yet, just simply tell them to go die

Shipping isn't activism.

I don't make these posts because I feel oppression for being a reylo. I make these posts because there are a lot of people on this website that say some pretty off the fucking wall bonkers shit about the people in this fandom and other fandoms with zero proof with only their misguided hateful opinions to go on and they've successfully done nothing else but make being in fandom For Everyone Of Every Race And Creed a living hell.

They could be black, they could be white, they could be asian, they could be russian, they could be blue aliens from fucking Uranus. I don't give a good goddamn. What I do care about is why the fuck they're trolling around tags and fandoms they hate to harass the members in it.

There are black reylos. There are white finnreys. Race ain't got fucking dick all to do with the ship and the harassment it sees.

Because

Shipping isn't activism.

You don't have to interact with fandoms you dislike.

Don't like reylo? Then don't go into reylo tags and be a fucking dick. Don't dedicate 7 years of your life harassing EVERYONE in this fandom because you dislike the ship for whatever the fuck reason.

If you're an Anti, and you've been an Anti harassing members of a fandom for over 7 years, you're the fucking problem in fandom, not the fandom.

We as members of any fandom seeing this level of vitriol so often need to stand up and tell these people they're not fucking welcome and they need to fucking leave. There is a lot of us compared to the antis and alt-right assholes who tell us day after day we can't enjoy the ship we like because it's gross to them.

Put them on full fucking blast. I want to know who the fuck these assholes are and everyone should be fully aware of who is causing shit in their respective fandoms.

That shit ain't activism, that's the most fucking basic decency you should be providing in your own fandom to make sure your fandom isn't a fucking cesspool of hate and harassment.



How is any part of that anti-black? How is standing up for yourself and your community racist?

People of color have everything to gain if we all start telling the people who harass members of any fandom to hit fucking bricks.

[zepskies]

Ooooh some great tension in this chapter! Ivy's fitting in just right in this camp...more or less. 😂

This time, I'm just going to go through my thoughts as I had them while reading:

First off, I liked her meeting with Risa. It showed a slightly softer side to Ivy that was refreshing.

“Woah, quite the grip.” She grinned as I let go.  “Oh, uh, sorry.” I chuckled nervously. 

I like that little flash of vulnerability. Makes me think she's had to be "hard" for so long, she's kind of forgotten how to be softer/"normal."

“You’re a damn good shot, I mean, that was-“  “Suicide!” A man who was only an inch taller than me popped up, looking outraged. “Do you know what Dean’s gonna say when he sees a bullet missing-“ His eyes landed on me, and he looked confused. “Risa, who is this?” 

😂😂 That was a great way to introduce Chuck! Love his interjection there.

“I lived, clearly.” I chuckled. “Besides, I had my uncle to help with the worst of it. Until we got separated, and I had to quite literally fend for myself out there.”  We sat in silence for a moment, which was all I needed, if I’m bein’ honest.

I liked this moment as well. Though I think you could've gone a little deeper with this, get us into Ivonne's thoughts and her internal world. I would love to see more windows into her vulnerability. Does she feel alone, having to take care of herself for so long? Is there a part of her that craves this companionship? Possibly a friend in Risa, or at least an ally to watch her back?

“Then rationin’ it out is gonna be extremely difficult. With the amount of people in this camp and enough food to last a week, the women and children are gonna have everythin’.” I frowned. “You need to send out a squad for supply retrieval. Nearest abundance of food I know’s in Missouri.” 

This is an interesting point she makes, and how you develop it into a conflict (and a future conflict with Dean). It made for some great drama.

“We need Dean’s permission for that.” James raised an eyebrow, turning to me. “And he’s on a mission, left this mornin’.”  “Not nearly enough time. He’s hittin’ a Croat hotspot, he could be back after a week and by that time we’ll be in crisis. Scramble a team of semi-automatic experts, take a Jeep, hit Missouri, it’s the only option.”

So maybe this is just a personal preference of mine, but I'd be careful of overusing stylistic dialogue in every line (bolded above). It can veer into becoming distracting for a reader. I try to use things like that strategically, when it's important to create inflection in a character's voice when they're speaking or thinking internally.

“With absolutely no respect whatsoever, I think he made a good call.” I stepped in with a frown, folding my arms. 

Lmfao I loved this line! 🤣

“Oh, yeah, I do.” I nodded. “Cause you’re in no position to order me around, since there’s clearly a power imbalance here.” 

Lol, so she's probably right, but maybe she could have a little more self-preservation here? I get that she's very sure of herself as a character, and she's very skilled in general.

But when you have characters that are very self-assured and good at what they do, they still need vulnerabilities and weaknesses to help us relate to her as readers. (And, to make her more human.)

For example, is she aware that her pride (and her mouth) might get her in serious trouble someday, but Dean's pissing her off so much that she just doesn't care in this moment? Logically, does she know that she could be a little more tactful and strategic in this camp she doesn't know, and is still an outsider here? etc.

Also, as smart as she seems to be, Dean is very smart as well. He wouldn't be the leader of this camp if he wasn't. So I would show more of the balance there as well between them.

My overall feedback is I think you're doing a great job of setting the tone and the setting itself of this Endverse world! I'm intrigued by Ivy's mysterious immunity, and how she and Dean are right now grating on each other lol.

My overall advice is as you continue this story and draw out her eventual connection with Dean, try to reveal more of who Ivonne is. Find moments to make your readers relate to her: her wants, her fears, her strategy for navigating this camp, and in the future, her potential feelings for Dean. And how she may try to deny them at first, considering vulnerability is often difficult for characters like her, and especially for Dean.

(And just a small formatting thing: I would include a "Read More" line break like I did for this review. Not only does it shorten the post, but it also encourages readers to "click to read more" when you place the line break in a strategic place.)

Awesome job, hun! Keep up the great work here. ❤️

𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚜 | 𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚎!𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛 | 𝟸

Summary: Ivonne Rainer hadn’t met Dean Winchester in 2006 after he was hit by a car. No, this time, this universe, they met in 2010, when the whole Apocalypse deal started and Dean was made leader of one of the only remaining survival camps in America. Little did he know, one random raid would change everything.

MASTERLIST

RETRIEVAL

“So…” I was approached by woman my age, her brown hair tied up in a sleek ponytail. “you must be the new arrival. Dean really has a problem with you.” 

I cocked a rifle, passing it to another camper, James Rhodes, who took it, checked it and nodded, seemingly impressed. “That’s me, yeah.” I nodded, folding my arms. “Though I’m usually known as Ivy.” 

“Ivy.” She repeated, then held her hand out with a smile. “Risa.” 

“Nice to meet you.” I responded with a small smile twitching at my lips, then I saw her still-outstretched hand and shook it hurriedly. 

“Woah, quite the grip.” She grinned as I let go. 

“Oh, uh, sorry.” I chuckled nervously. 

“Nah, you’re good.” Then she smiled again. “I don’t see what Dean meant about you being a pain in the ass. You seem like you aren’t.” 

“Just depends on who I’m hangin’ with.” 

“Touché. Dean can be an irritating S.O.B, but you learn to ignore when he’s being a douche after a while.” 

“Promise?” I smirked, making her laugh. I laughed too, feeling at ease around this�� Risa. 

“Hey, uh, Risa?” James interrupted the conversation, slinging a gun clip holster on his chest. “I’m about to head out with the squad to Missouri. I know the boss told me to keep an eye on Ivy here, but-“ 

“Oh, so I need surveillance now?” I raised an eyebrow, pissed off. “This guy’s askin’ to get decked.” 

“Believe me, he is, but it’s just how Dean rolls.” Risa chuckled, then led me away. “You’ll have a much better time hanging around me. I’ll introduce you to the campers, get you started on something, and we’ll all be smiles and giggles.” 

“I hope not.” I laughed. 

“Yeah, neither do I.” She grinned. “Just a few things. Stay away from the hippie cabin at 3 o’clock, it gets hot an’ heavy in there and nobody wants to hear it. If you wanna earn Dean’s trust, you have to save his ass, but he doesn’t let anyone save his ass so you just kiss that sweet thing goodbye. And one last thing…” She rounded on me, “can you shoot?” 

“I’ll fire a bullseye if you give me a target.”

”Alright.” She picked up a shotgun, handing it to me. “There’s a red dot on the wall behind you. Don’t think, just shoot.” I immediately spun around, my eyes locking onto the red dot. The moment I got a visual, I pulled the trigger, hitting it dead on. “Damn!” 

“Eh, it’s nothin’.” I chuckled, handing the gun back. 

“You’re a damn good shot, I mean, that was-“ 

“Suicide!” A man who was only an inch taller than me popped up, looking outraged. “Do you know what Dean’s gonna say when he sees a bullet missing-“ His eyes landed on me, and he looked confused. “Risa, who is this?” 

“Right, I forgot to mention.” Risa gestured to me with a grimace. “Chuck, this is Ivonne Rainer, she’s new here. Ivy, this is Chuck ‘Prophet of the Lord’ Shirley. However, a prophet isn’t much use in an apocalypse. They’re only gonna spell D-O-O-M.” 

“At least I’m the rations organiser! What are you, the boss’ woman?” 

“Exactly.” Risa smirked before tapping me on the shoulder, leading me away. “That’s Chuck for you. He gets a bit sensitive sometimes. Anyway, Dean gets really touchy with the supplies and stuff, goes through ‘em himself to make sure nothin’s missing.” 

“If he’s gonna freak out over a bullet, give me a bit o’ metal and a heat source, I’ll forge a new one.” I grinned, and Risa raised her eyebrows.

I held up a freshly-forged bullet, examining it for a second before putting it in the cartridge. Risa looked on in surprise, and nodded in disbelief. “You did it.” 

“Yep.” I nodded, replacing the cartridge in the gun and cocking it before throwing it aside. “I’m prepared in a dire sitch. The boss won’t suspect a thing, so you’re safe.” 

“My god, you’re amazing.” She laughed in disbelief, looking at me in awe. “Just where did Dean dig you up from, huh, lifesaver?” 

“Jersey City.” I smiled. 

“Wait- that’s a Croat hotspot.” She sat up suddenly, her jaw dropping. “How long were you there?” 

“Two years.” 

“And you survived?! No bites? You’re not one of ‘em, right?” 

“I’m immune.” I shrugged, frowning a bit. “Never figured out why, but I’ve been bitten at, scratched, and never came out with a single goddamn piece of sulphur in my blood. It’s relievin’, but unsettlin’.” 

“Unsettling? That’s a damn blessing.” 

“It’s that I don’t know where they come from.” I sighed, looking down. “They just came to me when I was nineteen. No explanation, no nothin’, all I knew is that they were there.” 

“Damn, that’s…” She trailed off, frowning. “that’s rough.” 

“I lived, clearly.” I chuckled. “Besides, I had my uncle to help with the worst of it. Until we got separated, and I had to quite literally fend for myself out there.” 

We sat in silence for a moment, which was all I needed, if I’m bein’ honest.

“So…” I heard someone chuckle, and I turned to see James. “I heard you were the new thing pissing Dean Winchester off.” 

“That’s me.” I smirked. “And I wear that like a badge of honour.” Then I looked him up and down, thinking. Dude had a really good body, that was enough to tell under the strained khaki shirt that made his frame look more impressive and complimented his green eyes, paired with fluffy black hair. “Nice build. You ex-military or somethin’?” 

“Uh, no.” He chuckled nervously, running a hand through his hair. “I used to be a detective sergeant. The muscles just came with the job.” 

“You used to be a cop?” I grinned, then saluted jokingly. “Thanks for your service.” 

“No problem. What about you? Any job before this?” 

“Hunting, and more hunting, and more hunting-“ 

“With hunting as the cherry on top.” He joked. 

“That’s right.” 

“James!” Chuck came running up, frantically looking at a clipboard. “I’d ask Dean, but he’s out on a mission. We’re running low on edibles, how should we ration?” 

“Women and children first.” James answered instantly, and I listened carefully. “Then ration with the elders, afterwards divvy it out to the rest.” 

“Wait, Chuck,” I frowned, “how much is left? How much food?”

”Not enough to last a week.” Chuck replied.

“Then rationin’ it out is gonna be extremely difficult. With the amount of people in this camp and enough food to last a week, the women and children are gonna have everythin’.” I frowned. “You need to send out a squad for supply retrieval. Nearest abundance of food I know’s in Missouri.” 

“We need Dean’s permission for that.” James raised an eyebrow, turning to me. “And he’s on a mission, left this mornin’.” 

“Not nearly enough time. He’s hittin’ a Croat hotspot, he could be back after a week and by that time we’ll be in crisis. Scramble a team of semi-automatic experts, take a Jeep, hit Missouri, it’s the only option.”

“The boss is gonna be pissed.” Chuck scoffed. “And how do we know your plan is valid?” 

“It actually works.” James agreed, nodding with a disbelieving look. “We’ve got enough men on hand to form a scavenge team, and Missouri’s the nearest state that we haven’t hit and isn’t a Croat infested wasteland.” 

“Not my fault if your ass gets busted by Dean.” 

“I don’t think it matters.” I retorted. “If people are starvin’, you need to do what’s necessary, not what the doctor ordered. Get a team together and send it out, see if I’m wrong.” 

“You are.” 

“Try me.” 

Winchester’s Jeep came back a week later with the med supplies, unloading them quickly. I looked up from where I was busy hauling a duffel bag, and the first thing he noticed was the people eating in a corner, his eyebrow raising. Then he turned to Chuck, conversing with him for a moment before I pinpointed the exact moment he saw red. His nostrils flared, jaw clenching along with his fist. I turned to James, sharing a look with him. 

We’re screwed. 

“JAMES!” Winchester yelled, now sipping a beer can. “RAINER! YOUR ASSES, MY TENT, NOW!” I rolled my eyes, running a hand through my hair as Risa whistled lowly. 

“Boss man seems mad.” She whispered. “Better go before he gets more pissed off. I’ll take that.” She took a hold of the duffel bag, and James and I made our way into Winchester’s tent, where he was standing there, cocking his rifle in a way that would seem threatening to a wuss. 

“You.” He pointed at James, who instantly stood straighter, the latter’s Adam’s apple bobbing. “You’re my second for a reason. Without contacting me, you authorised a raid that could have gone south so quickly. What got into you, huh?! Are you thick? Or a dumbass?” 

“With all due respect, boss, we would have starved.” James answered calmly, which seemed to aggravate Winchester even more. 

“That’s besides the point! What if we’d lost men? If someone had gotten turned? That blood would be on your hands, no one else’s!”

“With absolutely no respect whatsoever, I think he made a good call.” I stepped in with a frown, folding my arms. 

“I’m getting to you.” He snapped, pointing at me before rounding back on James. However, I wasn’t gonna take that for an answer. 

“I’m afraid you‘ll have to deal with me now.” I retorted, setting my jaw. “Fact remains that I suggested the only plan that worked in your absence when you were gone a week, and your second in command, the one who’s makin’ the decisions when you’re not here, led a squad, and they got back. Alive. Now people have food and water and they can remain sane. I don’t see how that’s a problem for you, or anyone, for that matter.” 

“Shut up.” 

“Ooh, make me.” 

He pulled his gun out, pointing it at me. “Do not make me pull this trigger-“ 

“Dean!” James yelled, stepping in front of me. “Are you insane?!” 

“She’s a smartass!” 

“Hey, hey, put it down!” 

“You don’t give the orders!” 

“To hell with orders!” James retaliated, making me raise an eyebrow. Damn, boy. “She helped. She made the layout for the strike squad. She’s a smartass, sure, but she’s a useful smartass. A really damn useful one, because we could use an immune and/or psychic person right now.” 

“All the more reason for me to blow her brains out. She’s a goddamn psychic, and I haven’t had the best experiences with those bastards.” 

“Just see goddamn reason!” He persisted, holding his hands out. “Look, if she starts to go insane, or whatever it is happened with the rest of people like her, I’ll shoot her myself.” 

I snorted. “As if you could-“ 

“Work with me here.” 

“Fine.” 

“Just…” James left a pause as he tried to find the words, “give her a chance.” Winchester paused for a moment, then lowered the gun, not without giving me a steely warning look. 

“Ok.” He nodded, glancing at me briefly, “But you’re keepin’ her in check. If she steps out of line, it’s your ass.” 

“Again, with no due respect, I can handle myself.” I scoffed. “You don’t need to post a bodyguard on me every five seconds.” 

He let out a dark chuckle, his lips pursing when he stopped. “You’re actin’ like you have a choice.” 

“Oh, yeah, I do.” I nodded. “Cause you’re in no position to order me around, since there’s clearly a power imbalance here.” 

The words made him stop and rethink, and then he gritted his teeth. “Get out.” 

“Gladly.” I smirked, walking out gratefully, happy to be away from that- “Douchebag.” 

“Jackass.” Dean growled under his breath. 

Well, that couldn’t have gone better.

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

Alright. This has been said to death by now I'm sure but I can't not tell you how tearjerking it is as an aspec person that not even a full 24 hours after Yelena makes her debut in Hawkeye - in a very much intentional parallel to Clint and Natasha - that aromantic/asexulity was trending. Almost a year ago today I came out as asexual lesbian only to be harassed and told "I'll never be a lesbian" I'm "larping as marginalized groups of women and being homophobic"?? and essentially any romantic feelings I have for women, just cause I have no desire to have sex, automatically makes it feelings of friendship which is still utter cowshit. Not to mention its completely mild in comparison to what other aspecs have gone through, and while I don't identify here and now as aro I get just as mad at people dismissing aros cause theyre still my people and who, other than us, is gonna look out for each other? So seeing droves of support rolling in to preserve this one piece of us aspec still have - one that hasn't been exploited for views and erased completely without a single care - to a point where aromantics are trending is something I'll admit i never thought I'd see.

I wholeheartedly understand people who genuinely didn't know cause when Black Widow came out and Yelena fics started rolling out, I was none the wiser. I had no idea she was one of us until I saw someone apologizing and removing it - again, which meant so much because that's far more courtesy than we ever get. So I desperately hope people can find it in their hearts to understand we're here and this is something important to us. Our queer rep matters just as much as yours and all we want is to keep one of the very few remaining characters we have, that hasn't been blatantly been allowashed. I'm already weary of the mcu myself - I'm thinking, watch. after all the opportunities they've had to allow two queercoded main characters a genuine, on-screen queer/wlw relationship they're gonna make it out of the aroace character cause why not, right? But I'm trying to stay hopeful. And by hopeful I mean just not think about it and for once depend on Disney/Marvel's cowardice to showcase "typical" queer relationships.

After all, if this really is gonna go anything like Clint and Nat in the mcu than we should be safe, canonwise. But I can't beg people enough to be respectful of aspecs. Romantic and sexual relationships aren't the only valuable relationships, nor are they the only relationships that make us human.

[lazzledazzler]

Lazzle's Rune Factory 5 Review

Alright so here are my thoughts and experiences with RF5! This is a big boy so buckle in earthmates...

Obviously this review will contain spoilers, read at your own risk.

Initial thoughts upon playing...

Great opening! I enjoyed the jazz music~ I did feel like it leaned a bit more towards the male player though. It definitely feels like a rune factory game. It's familiar, and controls are easy to get accustomed to for the most part. The mold is there and rf5 doesn't stray too far from its predecessors which is comforting for veterans. That being said, I'm not going to pull any punches and will critique this game harshly. Keep in mind as updates for the game are released not all things discussed in this review will be as relevant overtime!

Let's hear some thoughts on...

The story/plot. The plot is enjoyable overall. I'm not crazy about the whole Seed organization thing but it was a neat idea. They address the Sechs Territory and it is confirmed that the game takes place some decades after RF4. But by the end of it, I didn't feel like I really accomplished anything because it felt like I barely did anything really. Also they left a lot of stuff unanswered. I'm not even sure I understood the message they were sending, if they were trying to send a message at all. The main story is too short, and it doesn't involve enough of the townsfolk. You're basically doing everything yourself in secret the whole time and the townsfolk barely know what's actually going on. Out of the love interests, Lucas plays the largest part in the story, followed by Priscilla and Scarlett. The story feels targeted at male audiences--at least that's how I felt. You, the player, have a larger role in the game, much like in RF3 and I was glad to see this. As of right now there are only two arcs. Praying for DLC 3rd arc...!

Protagonists. The latest protagonists to join the crew of Earthmates are...decent. Their designs are nothing special unfortunately, though I appreciate Alice's more than Ares's. Appearance-wise they lack personality and creativity. Personality wise I am pleasantly surprised with how sociable they are. They're not exactly quick witted and sassy like Lest/Frey were in rf4, or as endearing as Micah in rf3, but they have a certain realness to them that makes their reactions to things believable. I'm certain Xseed will see to making them a bit more sarcastic in their localizing efforts, so let's all look forward to that. Overall though, while I appreciate their mannerisms, they don't really measure up to all the previous amnesiacs we've grown to love over the decades.

Characters. Overall I enjoy all the characters introduced in Rune Factory 5! I feel like there is someone for everyone in this game on some level. The voice acting was pretty good for every character. The designs are very much Rune factory. Like OG runefa, compared to rf4 ( 4 kind of strayed from their usual style) which I like. Characters still have their own signature quirks that you find endearing. Although I would have liked to see more variety? Like we've had mermaids, univir, half monsters, vampires, etc in previous titles but rf5 only gives us the usual (half) elf, dwarf, and then a succubus (physically she doesn't have unique features aside from the ears and heart eyes), and some were-people. I was hoping for something more unique to really give that classic runefa vibe.

Dungeons/Battles. I'm pretty split on this one. On the one hand, the dungeons have more depth due to the 3D aspects. They've included more contraptions that are very fun to see even if they aren't executed that well. So I'm grateful for that. On the other hand, the dungeons are insanely short imo. It doesn't take long at all to get to the boss. The puzzles are also pretty subpar and few compared to RF4. Fighting monsters is similar to the other games. You can lock on now but I only use it when I'm trying to use my Seed Circle. The lock on feature is actually counter-intuitive and makes it harder to dodge. Weapon mechanics have shifted a bit. There’s a feature that makes you invincible to damage if you time the R button dash correctly. Axes and Hammers are significantly slower than in older games? Like. I thought I was in slow motion it was so slow. Lances are also harder to use as well? I'm questioning my sanity here. I don't know if it's a bug or intentional either.

Farming. Not much has changed from previous games mechanics wise. They added new types of special crops which is neat. The camera view changes to overhead when you go near your fields though, and it can make you dizzy/uncomfortable. It actually makes it a bit difficult to see at times so I wish there was a way to adjust the angle. If you are tilling corn or dried weeds to improve the soil, you need to place them separately if you don't want to use the entire stack. Otherwise, it will till the entire stack on the land if you place them all down at once. The flower shop is unlocked late in the story. Weird thing to do considering you need flowers to make medicine. Not to mention the fact that you wont have access to the fertilizer that increases defense against typhoons? During typhoon season? Thinking emoji...

The town. I have to say Rigbarth's design is poor compared to Sharance, Selphia, etc. It's too big and it takes too long to get around. Everything is too spaced out and there aren't enough warp points to make it easier on players. I don't want to walk an entire mile up a hill to talk to one person and then walk all the way down to the beach to speak to another. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘town’.

OST/BGM. Music was good, though nothing really stood out to me where I'd go "damn this slaps" or something. I think they might've had some old soundtracks from rf2 or something because it felt really nostalgic at times.

We need an exterminator. (Bugs Bugs Bugs)

Marvelous, I don't know how to tell you this buuut...your customers are NOT your testers. When you release a game, you need to make sure it's not littered with glitches because customers don't enjoy dealing with them and will drop the game!

Here are some of the types of glitches I encountered:

Crashing. Game would randomly crash or freeze and close at any moment. Sooooo frustrating! Sometimes you get lucky with the autosave feature, but the autosave only activates every morning at 6am in your room and then when you warp to a dungeon level/floor. So when you're in the middle of your daily tasks in town and it crashes, you have to start all over. Marveloussss no one enjoys losing their progress in a game I promise you that much.

Lag. The dialogue bar is seriously slow, especially after loading your file. Crafting/Cooking screen lags. When you press the Y button to skip through dialogue it lags like hell. Pretty much after every time you load the game will lag, the audio will lag if you're in a battle, everything is just. so. slow.

Repeating dialogue. So if you close your game entirely (or if it crashes) naturally you'll reload your file to continue where you left off. There's a bug that will cause all NPCs to repeat the last dialogue that occurred from whatever plot related thing you did last. So for example, if the last thing you did in the story was unlock Ludmilla, everyone in town will naturally have some dialogue about her. But even after seeing all this dialogue and even saving, if the game is closed and reloaded you'll have to read all that dialogue again from townsfolk. It got really annoying after a while.

Monster taming. One time I tamed a monster but once I named it and hit 'ok' the monster never showed up in my barns? Just. gone. Okaaaay then...? Additionally, I expanded one of my monster barns but all of the monsters I tamed wouldn't appear in the added room. You get 4 monsters for each room but the monsters I tamed would show up in the original room. Meaning I had like 7 monsters in one room! I tried to bring them into the newly added room but they would just warp back to the other room. Sad.

Pond Glitch. I fished in the pond located in Sasayaki Forest and left the fish I caught but didn't want laying around the water's edge. If you leave fish around the pond's edge and go to sleep, the next morning you will be teleported to the pond and trigger the fairy dialogue as if you had thrown all of the fish into the pond??? So the dialogue of her telling you she wants 'X item, not this!' will trigger over and over for all of the fish you left at the water's edge. RIP.

Party member Bug. I had Martin in my party and I made him leave. Then when I went into my monster barns to get a monster pal to join me instead it showed me Martin's portrait???? Also I've encountered a bug where I can no longer ask anyone to join my party for some unknown reason. The R &L button prompt was just gone when I reloaded.

Errors. When cooking or crafting, the dialogue box shows up sometimes...

Typos. Random average typo here and there. Not a real biggie but there is one instance where the heroine will use the japanese male pronoun "boku" instead of "watashi" which really convinced me that this game was completely intended for men lol.

Let's talk about Pros

The good stuff. The stuff that makes you all warm and fuzzy inside.

Plot Advancing. Now I'm gonna put this as a pro because I'm certain the average player will enjoy this even though I do not. There are now markers on the map to show you where to go to advance the plot. This is all well and dandy, but it also made the story less appealing for me because you don't need to go around town and speak to residents for clues or assistance to advance anything in the story.

3D Graphics The 3D models are all amazing. The interior designs of the houses/buildings are also incredibly detailed and realistic.

Collecting items. Now there's a feature that will allow you to collect items into your inventory just by walking over them. This is pretty neat and welcome for the most part. Once the item is sparkling, you can walk over it and it'll go into your rucksack automatically. This also makes lumbering and mining go much faster. Yay!

The miraculous L pocket. Now you can customize the categories that appear in your L pocket by going to the rucksack tab in the menu. This is a super neat feature that makes things easier on players who want to manage their items in a format that suits them.

Weapon/Tool Toggling. You can now toggle between your equipped weapon and tool by pressing the left or right buttons on the trackpad.

Collecting lumber/material stone. Oh lord this is probably the most welcome improvement moving forward from the previous game. You can now put all of the lumber and material stone from your inventory into its storage at once. This also applies to fodder for tamed monsters. Well done Hakama.

Autosave. This feature is a welcome addition to the series. The game will save your data every morning and every time you enter a dungeon. Autosave has really saved my ass a few times when I made a huge error in judgement so I'm incredibly grateful for this feature. And it doesn't save over your actual save file--there's a separate autosave file at the very top. So if you messed up something but already saved on your main file, you can still salvage your mistake by reloading the autosave! I just wish it activated a bit more often sometimes.

Warping. Now we can warp to each level in a dungeon as well as certain places on the map in town. It's pretty convenient for the most part.

Increased party members. Now you can have up to 3 members in your party! Hooray! Party members act more intelligently than in older games. Scarlett can use the Seed circle to assist you in fights. I think she also tosses healing potions at you occasionally. So far, no one has tossed a dish at me if I haven't eaten like Kiel and Clorica did in rf4. But I have been hit by a failed dish (from reinhardt?) and a healing potion (from scarlett). Scarlett, Priscilla, and Reinhardt are the most helpful when dungeon crawling in my experience. Some of them however, (looking at you Doug) don't shut the hell up with their one line of dialogue they have and repeat it constantly.

Seed Circle. This neat feature allows you to capture monsters. By charging it and releasing you can capture monsters for the bounty system or add them to your party temporarily. If you throw it without charging it, you can stun monsters in place momentarily or grab things from far away. When stunning monsters, it can also give you the monster's drop item occasionally. Unfortunately it uses a lot of RP so it can be difficult at times.

Combo attacks. This is a neat feature that I appreciate and use often for boss fights. They do some serious damage so it's good to save them for the bosses. The actual cutscenes aren't that impressive, and feel kind of subpar when you get down to it but I think it's a start in the right direction.

Farm Dragons. I'm listing this as a pro although I really just see it as a new feature. Farm dragons have fields on their backs that you can place monster barns on and farm on. Giving them certain crystals will give your fields boosts in certain criteria, like length of growth, soil quality, you get it. I personally don't use the crystals because I couldn't give a shit lmao I have men and women to woo here. But if you're into this kinda thing then it's a pro.

Storage. When opening your storage box, fridge, etc. you can actually hit the R & L buttons to switch between ALL of your other storages. Looooove thissss. Great addition. So much faster to put items away in their respective places.

Crafting/Forging. Now we can also use the R & L buttons to alternate between the different weapon types/accessory/gear types instead of having to exit the menu and going back in each time you want to make something different.

Cooking. More recipes have been added. Yay!

Days are longer now. More time to get shit doneeeee ayyyy

Fishing. They've added many more fish to the game! Now the player will shout something when you get a bite, making it easier for you to hit B at the right moment. Nice. Also if you fail or press B too early, the fish doesn't vanish most of the time. Also nice. There is now a feature to fish with another person's assistance. Once a day you can investigate the sign near the fishing station and someone might offer to lend you a hand. Press the B button at the right moments on the slider and you can get a rare fish that can't be caught normally.

Monsters. New types of monsters! Love the designs. Even the monsters that are the same but just have different skins are really neat. They look great in the 3D format too. You can even ride with up to two people on certain monsters! Some bosses had awesome designs while others...were bad.

New Types of Furniture. The carpenter store has a wide arrange of furniture you can buy for your home. It also has wallpapers and stuff which is really neat. Though unfortunately you can't even sit on some of the furniture so that's a shame.

Events. Now there is a system where events are triggered by approaching an icon on the map. This is probably an improvement to RF4's randomized system, though personally I found it annoying because it meant that I had to see the events before I could just enter a building normally. Sometimes I just wanted to get shit done and not have to read through walls of text for someone's love event when I just want to buy something.

Voiced Lines. The protagonist seems to have more voiced lines, as do other characters. Good!

Let's talk about Cons

Not including glitches. Oh boy. So many cons. Where do I start?

Dialogue. Probably the most notable con in the entire game. The dialogue is drastically minimal in comparison to previous games, especially rf4. There is probably a quarter of the amount of dialogue compared to rf4's insane amount of content if not less. Townsfolk repeat themselves. Often. Too often. Am I playing Harvest Moon? Originally I thought it was because the dialogue is randomized, but I think it's actually because more dialogue is unlocked as you raise townspeople's FP. Despite this, there's no linear build up where you start off as acquaintances and eventually become very close like in rf4 because of how sporadic the LP/FP is. Townsfolk don't even talk to each other. One of the greatest perks about runefa is the conversations townsfolk can have with one another. Residents randomly gathering in small groups to talk about anything. Previously you could add someone to your party and sometimes a dialogue will occur if you speak to the right person at the right time with that person in your party. This is nonexistent now. The only time they do this in rf5 is during the festivals. But, it will only trigger if you have unlocked all the characters in each marriageable lineup and they can't be in your party. The residents will talk about one another but that's pretty much it outside of town events. They got rid of all the minor dialogue that occurs too. Trying to sleep in someone's bed while they're right there? They wont comment. Inspecting objects in stores while the shopkeeper is present? Wont say anything. Take a character with you to a dungeon/boss fight? Their lips are sealed. Where's my sense of community? :(

FP/LP This ties into the dialogue issue. The rate at which LP/FP increases is sporadic as hell. You can go from 1FP/LP to 4FP/LP just by giving a gift sometimes. I wouldn't even speak to people and their affinity increased by like triple for no reason. Then it increases by like 2% for the longest time. Argh!!!

Graphics. I don't consider myself very picky when it comes to graphics. I don't really mind that the foliage and scenery are at the level of a ps2 game at best. I tried playing on my television initially, but the lag and camera operability was too much so I fully switched (haha puns) to handheld. One thing that sucked is that I literally cannot tell the difference between medicinal herbs, antidote grasses, and green grasses without the captions because the graphics are so indistinguishable. So when you're trying to pick up multiples of those items by holding the A button, you're just randomly walking over anything green in the hopes that you'll get the right ones...

Lack of Sound Effects. Something I noticed is they got rid of the sound effects that will play when you complete a puzzle or add someone to your party. When you try to brush a monster there's no sound for the '♪' they make when you successfully brush them. So it was hard for me to tell if I had actually brushed them or not. I was a bit saddened by the lack of cute sounds.

Too much free range. From the very beginning of the game, you're allowed to go pretty much wherever you want when leaving town. It was too easy to stumble into high enemy level territory without knowing, so when I was like level 5 so I got KO'd immediately.

Artwork. The portraits seem to be lower in quality somehow. Runefa has always had shitty portrait art imo but this time it's even worse. Many character's eyes looked fucked up. Though the 3D models are insanely good for mostly every character except Terry. Terry's 3D model looks Terryfying and I prefer his portrait.

Festivals. They've added some new festivals. Some I enjoy. Some not so much. They changed the format of the eating contest. It's horrible. Good luck with that one.

L pocket + R button? They got rid of the feature that lets you skip to the other end of your items when opening the L pocket by pressing R button. I really liked that feature because it made it faster to reach my items so I was bummed that they got rid of it.

Gotta go fast. Now when you speak to someone, it doesn't 'stop time' as you might say it did in previous games. So people are still moving about as you speak to someone, making it harder to catch up to people! Annoying!!!

Catch and release? Not in my farming simulator! Say goodbye to being able to toss a fish you caught back into the water. In fact, say goodbye to tossing anything you don't want anymore into the water. Now you just have an army of fish flopping on the ground around you. And with the auto pick up feature, they're probably going to end up in your inventory anyways once you try to move. There are still certain ponds with fairies that you can toss stuff into, but you'll have to deal with the fairy harping at you for giving her something she doesn't want.

Shop Hours. Oh god. The shop owners don't even open their stores at the correct hours? It says open at 9am. If you speak to them they won't open their store until like 9:07??? But Priscilla and Lucy will show up to work their part-time jobs at around 8:30am and you can buy stuff through them before 9am. So the actual shop owners (for the bread shop and general store) are pointless usually. Additionally, if the store is empty (but open) you can no longer add a shopkeeper into your party and then enter their store with them to buy things from them. Why. Just why. When you want to buy something that only a specific person sells (Only Hina sells fish, only Heinz sells misc items) you have to wait for them to finally decide to work in their own store. Wonderful.

Monster Item drops. Maybe I'm crazy but the monster drops are seriously a lot harder to get than in previous games. Especially boss drops. It's almost impossible to get the rare drops now. I don't even want to try anymore. And as far as I know, the only place to buy monster items is through Heinz, but his items are actually misc. items, not specifically monster drops. So you'll be lucky to check his store (whenever tf he decides to actually work) for any monster items you might want instead of farming for the drops. Sighs.

Difficulty. This game is too easy. There is little to no challenge whatsoever. I had to increase the difficulty setting to hard mode and it was still too easy. I beat it at level 139, never once did I need to grind or level. In fact, your character levels up way too quickly for the pace of the story. I had zero trouble with any of the bosses and even the final boss was a breeze. Quite sad. Though because I am not new to the franchise, it's likely that newcomers would have some trouble in the later parts of the story.

Fishing cons. Idk how you fck up fishing but they sure did. You have to stand further back now because the pole is so long that you'll miss the fish you're aiming for. In fact, it's seriously hard to aim period. You'll end up recasting more often than not. Fish come in the various sizes but they don't seem to have the darker or faded characteristics that can indicate whether it's a rare fish or not. The graphics make it hard to tell. The pros that i've already mentioned are welcomed but it doesn't negate the fact that I do not enjoy fishing like I did in previous games.

Mining/Lumbering Cons. You can no longer strike three times consecutively when mining/lumbering. This sucks lol. Even when you upgrade your axe or hammer, powering up the tool does nothing for getting wood and material stone--it only expands the area of your strike. So it takes longer to get wood/stone from stumps and rocks now since you have to strike the full 9 times but it's not too bad. It's also harder to aim now as well so that's also unfortunate.

Seasonal Fields? Kiss them goodbye! That's right, there are no seasonal fields in rf5 because devs are insane! You instead have the farm dragons that seem to look seasonal based on the fact that they are designed after elements like earth, water, and fire. But no, these dragons are simply extra fields for you to use. Here's a spoiler: you're not going to use those fields. You're just not. They're kinda useless unless you're obsessed with farming. Now you have to grow your crops out of season like the sad farmer that you are.

Farming cons. Seeds no longer tell you how long it takes to grow the crop. Why. As of June 29th, they fixed this with an update. But I still had to play the whole game without it so fuck you marvelous. The joystick is really sensitive? So when you're trying to use a fertilizer or something on your field you're likely to place it on the wrong 4x4 tile, wasting your fertilizer. So it’s best to hold down the R button when farming. Also the crops look uglie as hell.

Sleeping and warping cutscenes. Just like in rf4 there's a cutscene when you go to sleep that can be skipped easily by pressing A. In rf5, there's a cutscene to sleep and a cutscene when waking up. It takes a bit more than a second to skip these scenes so it gets annoying after a while. Warping is this new feature that replaces our beloved escape spell. Overall I appreciate the feature but I hate it for two reasons. One: there's an annoying ass cutscene for it each time you use it that could be much shorter. And Two: townsfolk now use warp even when inside the town. In previous games, someone exiting your party in town would just manually run to wherever they need to be. So you could easily chase after them if you need to talk to them or give them something. Now, party members use warp regardless of where you are at the time. So say you have someone at 7 hearts and you want to try confessing to them. You would have them join your party, save your game, and then have them leave your party and immediately speak to them and confess before they can run off. If it doesn't work you reload until it does. In RF5 this wouldn't work anymore because they will warp. Now you would have to save, run around town trying to find this person and hope they accept the confession. Otherwise you'll have to play hide and seek again because reloading your file will randomize the resident's locations (if they are not working in a shop)!!!! I often just waited until a festival day because then they will be at the plaza for most of the day and it has a warp point there.

Crafting/Forging/Cooking. They've removed the feature where you can press Y on the ingredients in the menu to add more of that particular item. I miss this feature :'(

Lacks incentive. There is no trophy room from my knowledge. The final dungeon that is meant to be like the sharance maze/rune prana isn't that hard to beat for skilled players and is only 20 floors. After you beat the main story and this dungeon there's not much else to do really.

Request Board. Unlike in rf4, you need to make sure you have accepted requests before you complete them or else it will not count. Previously, you could complete all sorts of tasks and Eliza would still recognize your work even if you accept their request after the fact. ie, shipping goods, harvesting crops, etc. So make sure you don't harvest your special crops before accepting the request it's for!

Return of the "Loli" Dragons... Yeah you read that right. We got more dragons in children's(???) bodies with skimpy clothes. I don't know anymore????¿¿¿

Can't marry the Milfs or Dilfs. Tragic.

Still no homo. Grow up Marvelous.

Reverse Proposal? Reverse Uno card-- Laid low by the patriarchy. You now have to buy the double bed and craft an engagement ring to propose to your man if you're playing as Alice. Marvelous this isn't what we meant when we said we wanted equal rightsssssss This can be seen as a pro if you're a softhearted babey who doesn't like rejecting bachelors' proposals because you feel bad :'( But this is a con for me because I don't want to spend money and materials on a double bed dammit!!!

Misc. Still can't stack dishes or fish. There's no green elemental fairy???All the other elemental ones are there except the green one? why??? Still can't tame the giant Wooly. Some bosses that have insanely awesome designs cannot be tamed and makes me wanna eat glass.

Let's talk about Love~

Relationships. We want them. And half of us only play these games for them. I've only played as the female heroine so far but I'll be updating this review as soon as I finish with the bachelorettes as the male hero.

Confessions

As usual, we must raise the love points of our beloved to 7 hearts before we can attempt to date them. However unlike in rf4, if you fail at a confession once, you will need to raise the LP up an entire level before you can try again with any chance of success. It's imperative you save before attempting a confession now.

Love Events

Each love interest has two love events that must be seen before you can date them. They're reminiscent of older game's style but I felt they could have been a biiiit more interactive or so? Or involved the town a bit more for some of them.

Dating

Once you get your honey to be your bf/gf, you get to choose the nicknames as usual. Then you can go on dates. The first three (non-festival) dates are actually events. You need to see all three events to get married.

Marriage Event

The final event you need to clear before you can marry your sweetie. In my honest opinion, so far for the boys, these events were rather disappointing. They lacked the drama and angst that sort of 'test' the love between the two when compared to rf4. Also this is a huge con for me personally and a minor spoiler but there are no special cutscenes at the end of the marriage event like in rf4. Instead, the cutscene takes place during your actual wedding. I was saddened by this because it took away the depth from the marriage events and the actual character? As it is just a cut and paste type of thing instead of an original cutscene for each person. They lack individualism this way. Also it kinda felt like a way for devs to avoid gay relationships and cut corners :^/....sus.

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...

Children!!!!!! This is actually one of the coolest additions in the game. Just like in rf3, you can have up to 3 children again! Your first child will resemble you, and you will have the option to choose its gender as well as its personality. There are 6 different children, (3 boys and 3 girls), all with different hairstyles, mannerisms, and seiyuus. Your answers will determine which child you get. A year after your first child is born, you will get the option to have a second child. You'll end up with twins, both resembling your partner. You won't get to choose the genders (it will be a boy and girl) but you will get to choose the personalities once more. The children all have canon names too and each kid is incredibly cute. And of course, you're still able to take your kid with you in your party~ ...Though you can only take one kid with you at a time.

So is RF5 good?

Yeah it's a fun game! My theory is that Marvelous forced the devs to release the game earlier than they were ready for, and that's why it's so lacking. But that doesn't mean it's not worth playing! I'd rate it 3.5/5 stars hehe. Not nearly as good as RF4 (full stop 5/5), or RF3 (4/5) but enjoyable nonetheless. I wouldn't recommend it as a first game to play from the series for newcomers though, I feel it's best for vets who can overlook all the cons thanks to loyalty and nostalgia. By the time it’s released in the West, the bugs should all be dealt with too.

So! Definitely buy this game! We want the series to continue and we want RF6 to be better than this--and hopefully Marvelous will make sure of that next time. If you're not a picky person I think you'll enjoy rf5 a lot. If you're like me and have high standards then, well, still pick it up and let it run its course. Then dust off rf4sp and cleanse your gaming palette >;^)

[nakedbibi333]

I've realised that I have this subconscious belief that some things are too good to be true for me, that everything always has a catch and while some things work out perfectly and easily for others when it comes to me something will go at least a little wrong and I'll never get exactly what I want how I want it. Like this voice in the back of my head "don't get your hopes up, it'll come crashing down eventually, I knew this was never gonna work anyway, why doesn't anything ever work for me?" Etc. And this has come out in a lot of my manifestations so far, bc yes even with this bad self-concept I've been able to manifest things. But about 70% of the time they're not exactly what I asked for, just close enough to it that I feel satisfied and sure that it worked, and I think this is happening because of that belief I have. All of my manifestations so far have been pretty small too. For example, I wanted to manifest seeing a green elephant and instead I just stumbled on a clip of an actor talking about how much he likes elephants. I wanted to see a pink cat and instead I just see a video game character in clothes the exact shade of pink I imagined, and then someone shows me a picture of their WHITE cat. It's like that meme "he a little confused but he got the spirit" lol like yes that is what I asked for, sort of, but not exactly? And I don't even mind that much because I only started this journey a few months ago and I went from being constantly anxious each day worrying about my manifestations to starting to view myself as the god of my reality and building a solid list of small everyday success stories. Then I heard about the void method, and of course like everyone else I wanted to try it, because it's literally instant and foolproof and simple to do. I know I'm more powerful than any method and I can give myself results instantly if I want but that's still hard to believe for me. I'll have to spend a lot of time working on my self concept and working through limiting beliefs for that whereas with the void method it doesn't matter how bad my self concept is or how much I don't believe, my results are 100% gonna come and that's what makes me want to do it so badly. But the thing is, this belief I have that things will not work out perfectly for me is messing it up. The void method sounds TOO easy and perfect. My brain automatically goes "yeah this is gonna work for other people but not you. You can't have something this easy and great. It's not possible. There's always some sort of problem when it comes to you." I also have the belief that it's hard for me to focus on one singular thing which is also making it hard to get into the void state and so far on all of attempts I've only gotten some random twitching at most. I'm starting to feel really, really frustrated and tired because yes I can confidently manifest small things now but even that doesn't work out perfectly all of the time and I have so many BIG things I want to manifest like health and beauty, and yes I know there's no such thing as a big or small manifestation, I mean big in terms of how much it means to me. Do you have any advice for any of this?

Start a mental diet! Flip your negative thoughts into positive ones when you can. When you start to think “it’s too good to be true,” say instead, something like I’ve gotten successes before and I’m determined to get exactly what I want this time. Don’t allow yourself to be a victim of manifestation, you are supposed to the master of manifestation in your life. You have the power, you are the boss, your subconscious mind obeys you, not the other way around. And the next time you get only half a manifestation, don’t accept it. Keep persisting. Because then your subconscious mind thinks, oh that’s what they wanted okay lets move on, instead of continuing to work to get you the actual thing you asked for. Literally ignore it or say, that’s not right, I’m asking for this and then persist that it’s coming.

[nexyra]

RWBY Analysis - Ozpin & Ruby, on the concept of leadership

In her song "Burned out", Dodie sings of her fans, how they look up to her and how uneasy that realization made her. For everyone is at the end of the day just as human as their neighbour; and having the hopes and expectations of others put upon you when you're just as lost as them can be a frightening thing. And this... made me think of Ruby & Ozpin.

On the subject of leadership, Ozpin tells Ruby the following : “Being a team leader isn't just a title you carry into battle, but a badge you wear constantly. If you are not always performing at your absolute best, then what reason do you give others to follow you?”

While I love this quote, I also have to analyze the drawbacks of this mentality and how they align with both Ozpin and Ruby. At the time, Ruby is a newly appointed leader and unsure of this reality. Ozpin's counsel give her the confidence needed to step up as a leader and take her duties more seriously, which in return appeases Weiss' and make their team all the more balanced. It is, in that context, good advice. A good leader should strive to lead by example and work hard to be worthy of the respect others give them, both in and outside of battle.

However there is one aspect that I find much more complex and that is... what does it mean to "always perform at your absolute best" and to have others follow you ? Note the use of follow, people letting you lead alone as opposed to "standing by your side" or a similar expression. It showcases in my opinion one of the biggest problem of Ozpin's leadership, but one that I feel has been inadvertently repeated by Ruby's.

- - - - - - - -

To cultivate hope and lies

When it comes to Ozpin's lies, I am of the firm belief that he had good intentions. Soo if you think he's the scorn of this earth, this might be a good time to tap out :D Now, this said I have a lot to say on the subject but I'll keep this short to stay on track (& make another unrelated post to develop my thoughts.)

In my opinion, at the core of his lies stand different beliefs. And on the subject of leadership, I think one stands out in particular and aligns with the advice he gave Ruby : the need to perform at your best to give others a reason to follow you.

Ozpin is the reincarnation of a centuries-old wizard and the headmaster of a school : what is one aspect almost every character agrees on upon meeting him ? "Oh, he's wise. He's knowledgeable. He has the answers. He has his shit together. He can tell us what to do."

Inherently, Ozpin's existence inspires respect and reassure. Just like to a child, a parent is all-knowing and unbreakable, Ozpin's status automatically give others the assumption that he knows what he's doing. And this, in my opinion, is one of the core problems of his leadership.

May it be with his inner circle, with RWBY, with ANYONE really; as soon as Ozpin reveals himself there are unspoken expectations that will chain him. He has the knowledge, he was here when it all began, he's the one calling the shots so he HAS to know exactly what to do. In that situation, breaking down and revealing to everyone how lost Ozpin is, how out of his depth... is unconceivable. And this is where Ozpin's conception of leadership becomes a problem as well. If you always perform "at your best" then you keep your doubts to yourself, you hide your sorrows and you put on a brave face. There are expectations in place that Ozpin wants (needs even) to meet. And thus the hopes of others and Ozpin's desire to fulfill them feed one another, as a perfect recipe for disaster. Because the more time Ozpin spends acting as if everything is under control, the more the expectations pile up... And coming clean about his humanity, the fact that he's just as powerless as the rest of them, becomes impossible.

And in that sense, breaking down the pedestal Ozpin had been put on was probably one of the best thing to do for his own mental health (though the method lacked a bit of compassion in my opinion xD)

The other part that somehow causes problem is how RELIANT on him his inner circle is. Despite their apparent friendship, Ozpin is the clear leader and as soon as he's out of comission, everything falls apart. Ironwood is the only one to call out Oz but in the end still wishes for the wizard to tell him what to do in period of stress. Qrow plays spy and takes order but doesn't seem really interested in stading at Ozpin's side as an equal. Glynda is stern but still defers to him etc...

All of them FOLLOW Ozpin but are just a few steps off from standing at his side. And this is something I see reflected in Ruby.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

Following optimism up until it fails you

In Vol6, as secrets and lies are brought to the light, the loss of Hope that Ozpin feared so deeply happens. Is it worth it ? What are we even going to do with an immortal foe ? Maybe we should just go home. In that situation, Ruby is the simple soul who manages to keep her optimism, stand tall and say "No. We are taking the lamp to Atlas." And from then on her position as a leader and a bacon of light is reaffirmed. As Jaune put it in V4 "You gave us the courage to follow you."

Now is that, in itself, a problem ? Of course not. In fact I loved seeing Ruby come into herself and take the lead in Vol6. The problem in truth comes after, from the ramifications. From Vol6 onward, Ozpin has essentially been rid of his leader position and Ruby inherited it. And on a surface level sure, they are pretty different. Ruby is certainly closer to her partners : they're a family and they care about each other.

However, she is still clearly put at the lead. The others relied on Ruby's optimism and resilience to get to Atlas, and continue to do so. Setting foot in Ironwood's office, Blake tells Ruby "We'll follow your lead". They trust her, and whatever Ruby does... goes. They lie to Ironwood and Yang expresses some hesitations but eventually rally to Ruby's decision. And I emphasize this again : it is Ruby's decision. They did not pre-emptively discuss this as a group and then let Ruby be the spoke-person. Yang herself in Vol8 criticizes not their actions but Ruby's choices. Ruby calls the shots, Ruby is responsible for what happens, Ruby is their beacon of hope... Ruby is the new Ozpin.

Ruby has to be optimistic, and make the decisions and take risks because she's the leader. When Ruby leaves the room to break down, conversation & strategy stalls : the others don't take the lead. When things go south, it's Ruby's choices that led them here. Ever since Ruby has left Beacon, the only person who consistently encouraged Ruby to express the BAD, to share the negative has been Oscar. Even her silver eyes ask her to focus on only the happy memories to go off without a hitch ! The others comfort, they smile, they trust, they love even. But they don't want depressed Ruby finally grieving, they don't want honest "I don't know what to do" : they try to bring back confident and optimistic "we're gonna try" Ruby Rose. They want their earnest and happy but ultimately perfect leader that gives them reason to follow. In the end, even if they deeply care for her and have no shortage of warm coated reassurances for the teen, they still chain her down with their expectations. Ruby is NOT built for this. And I don't even say that in the "why is a kid calling the shots" sense, but "why is a kid put in a position where she's RESPONSIBLE for calling the shots ?"

Ruby is the youngest of the group apart from Oscar. The others should not rely on her this much to function. Blake telling Ruby that she looks up to her and that they'll follow her lead is admittedly sweet, but still builds up the pressure weighing her down. Blake calling out for Ruby's help when the teen has just been crashed to the ground by the Hound isn't even sweet anymore. They're all supposed to be equals. Blake is just as capable as Ruby. Calling out to your mind-controlled friend to bring them back from the edge is good. Calling out to your 17-old sister who's been beaten up because you need her to fight isn't.

They need to recognize that Ruby should not hold up the place alone. Because yes, they love her. But at the end of the day, Ruby is still the one bearing the weight of their decisions... Alone, even surrounded.

✦ ✦ BURNED OUT - DODIE ✦ ✦

He was certain; So was I There was comfort in her sighs

Dreams and ideas should not be the same thing You waited, smiling for this?

Oh, she'd want it, if she knew She could take it, I thought too Be careful, be cautious but you just wished harder You waited, smiling for this?

"But they love you!" Over and over, "they love you!" Thousands and thousands of eyes just like mine Aching to find who they are

"Oh, they love you!" Oh, you can feel how they love you ! Coated and warm but that's all they can do Words only get through if they're sharp

Oh, how fitting For one so fake Make me a fairy Whatever it takes

And just like a tale my dream was a scam You waited, smiling for this?

I am burnt out I smell of smoke It seeps through her cracks and so I start to choke Sentences sit in her mouth that are templated You waited, smiling for this?

Oh, maybe I'll talk about it... (maybe I'll talk about it) I can just talk about it... (I can just talk about it) I'll never talk about it... (I'll never talk about it) No, I cannot talk about it...

Don't build hope on something broken I am not cartoon. Cry for help, I am not joking I might just leave soon

[hms-no-fun]

what exactly do you mean when you say "june took over the direction of the story" and things like that?

oh! ok, i get what you were asking. the answer here might be kinda complicated.

the way i tend to think about writing dialog is that i'm taking pieces of myself, dressing them up in the clothes of a character, and dropping them into a scene to see how they react to one another. this isn't something i do consciously, writing is just sorta automatic for me? but this is basically how it works. anyway, sometimes it's stiff and awkward, which is how i know that my understanding of these characters isn't quite right. but other times, they practically wrest the keyboard straight out of my hands! vriska did this in gf2.1, as i didn't originally intend for that to literally be vriska in the void and for june to be a sort of cognitive fusion of two people's lives and memories, but when it happened i thought it was too interesting and had too many weird potential implications to not go with it. same with june taking jade to the battlefield and inadvertently creating harbinger silverbark.

but really, those are superlative examples of how my writing process manifests. it's the same phenomenon as when my version of dave makes a dumb joke that i decide to run with, or when karkat invents impenetrably innovative slurs. it's not that "i" as the author have given up control of the ship, or that somehow the characters in the story are literally writing themselves (though i do often describe that state as being like they're writing themselves). in the sense that all of this is happening inside my head, "i" am still totally in control of the act of writing. i just follow where the energy is and go with what feels right!

i used to really strictly outline my stories. there was a 12 book werewolf mythology cycle that i planned back in high school, i would spend hours taking notes and planning things out so that i knew the shape of the story i wanted to tell... and, invariably, all those projects stalled out. because when it came to writing the thing, i already knew what was gonna happen. there were no surprises left anymore, and i thrive on spontaneity. my favorite moments as a writer are when my characters surprise me. writing in general is just a really impulsive act, it's like a magic trick that falls apart if you think about it too much.

so, with godfeels, i have been extremely careful to outline the story only in very broad terms, and to make sure that even the spine of the thing is at least a little bit flexible. in gf3.2 for instance, i know where june will be at the start, i know where she'll be at the end, and i know pretty much all the major beats she will need to hit to get from A to B. but there are a lot of things i deliberately don't want to know until i write them, because i want to FEEL as surprised as june IS when something shocking happens.

this facet of my process is partly why gf3 has taken so long to continue, because the transition from slice-of-life to epic space opera requires that i be way more aware of the... let's call it lore of this universe. there are a lot of balls in the air all at once and it's not easy for one person to keep track of them all! which is partially why going forward i'm bringing other people on to help me finish this thing.

this is why it's important to develop an editor's instinct (or to just have an editor). homestuck fic is obviously very indulgent by nature, but i still try to polish each chapter up to 3rd or 4th draft. you want your first draft to be flexible and impulsive, and then work overtime to fix it into something that feels like it fits into a logical whole afterwards!

so no, the characters are not co-authors.