#i will probably open preorders in general at some point but this is more to know if i should have an online shop with stock

[tsundereition]

you might remember i once said i've been busy doing merch for local cons etc. well, this is an acrylic keyring that i did!

however it didn't sell at all so i'm thinking of selling them online, would anyone buy it*, considering the shipping fee? (i am located in argentina)

(*i would offer more products so you can justify the shipping, this riddle keyring is an example)

(if yes but can't, just vote no, i won't get offended, i want to know the actual number)

(also reblogs are appreciated for a bigger sample size)

[rudhira]

I got tagged by @esotheria-sims - thank you!

1. What’s your favourite sims death?

I don’t think that I really like any of them...? Electrocution, I guess, since it’s the easiest and fastest to do yourself.

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Match all the way! Well, most of the way. I guess the hairs I use aren’t really Maxis Match, though they have pretty matte textures.

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

If anything, I cheat to make them gain weight because it seems to never happen on its own. More often than not I have Sims who need a few Body skill points for promotion and they all get fit instead.

4. Do you use move objects?

Sparingly. I like having it turned off all the time, because I don’t want to accidentally place an item that ends up blocking something or being unusable, and then I just turn it on when I need it.

5. Favourite mod?

Same sex pregnancy.

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got?

When I first got the game, I had the Deluxe edition, so Nightlife. I don’t remember what I got after that.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

Like alive.

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

I don’t really make Sims myself, but I guess Naomi, one of my models. She has black hair and tends to wear green, if you wanna look for her in my previews.

9. Have you made a simself?

Yes, but ages ago. Like, a decade and a half ago.

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

Oh, Sims 3? Right now I would probably give myself vegetarian, neurotic, computer whiz, good sense of humour and clumsy.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair colour?

This is definitely not a Sims 2 question. I like the purple colour that’s available for rpchoppy and shortcute.

12. Favorite EA hair?

longpart for sure, an astounding number of my legacy founders had that.

13. Favorite life stage?

Adults.

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

Gameplay! I avoid building as much as I can, and generally will just download lots or copy floorplans online.

15. Are you a CC creator?

I guess? Not because I really want to create CC, but because there are things I want in my game that nobody else seems to be making.

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

Yes!

17. What’s your favorite game? (1, 2, 3, or 4)

Sims 2 easy.

18. Do you have any sims merch?

I have a Sims 3 lanyard that I got from a friend who I think was involved with marketing for the Sims somehow, like a decade ago. I also have a plumbob flash drive that I got for preordering The Sims 3. I used to also have a Sims 3 T-Shirt and some of those rubbery bracelets, but they’re long gone. And some sort of metal container shaped like a house that I think was for storing your games?

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Uh, not really? I have a YouTube channel where I post Sims 2 tutorials, if that counts, but I also post speedrunning content there.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Like, the style of my Sims or the style of my gameplay? For the former, I’ve gotten more consistent in what I download, but I do kinda miss just downloading whatever and putting it in my game. For the latter, I’ve learned to enjoy just sticking to a neighbourhood and seeing how it plays out.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

No idea! I’m terrified of opening Origin ever again so I don’t really know.

22. Who’s your favourite CC creator?

If I’m picking only one, @serabiet. The quality of their content always exceeds my expectations, and it’s also versatile and usable for many different styles.

23. How long have you had a simblr?

I’ve had this blog itself for like over a decade, but I’ve only used it as a simblr since uh... May 2016?

24. How do you edit your pictures?

I resize and crop them. If I posted more gameplay pictures I might edit them more, but I only really post previews for downloadable content and I really don’t like editing those as I want people to see what the content will look like in game.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

Honestly? Something like Sims 3 Aspirations but without the going to work part. I’ve always liked that EP for the tattoos and the laundry, and natively having that in TS2 would be nice.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?

I honestly don’t know. As a child, I think I was the most excited by Seasons, I still vaguely remembering reading through the booklet while the game was installing and barely being able to wait. I guess probably Nightlife, part of it is because I’ve always had it so I couldn’t imagine playing Sims 2 without it, so it adds a lot of features I take for granted.

[mysticdragon3md3]

Everyday I lament that there are still no Nendoroids for Fire Emblem Three Houses, even 4 years after its release.

And maybe I just want to vent conspiracy theories, but I blame Figma Edelgard. Good Smile likes to do this thing where they test out the waters of a fandom. If the first figures for a series sells well, they'll make more. That's how we got so many Touken Ranbu Nendoroids, more male figures, Orange Rouge, Jujutsu Kaisen Nendoroids, and likely all the Vtuber Nendoroids/Figma. We pestered Good Smile for male figures, male Nendoroid accessories, and male figures in general so much, that within a couple months, they had announced the Orange Rouge line, dedicated to male figures, with a mission statement citing "the demand for more male figures". Yuji Itadori's Nendoroid sold out preorders so fast, they had to open a second preorder, before his first preorders even shipped out! Those Vtuber figures sold out so fast, it was all over the comments section of every preorder announcement posts. If the first few figures for a franchise sell well, THEN Good Smile will consider making more Nendoroids/Figma for that series.

Figma Edelgard was Good Smile's first FE3H articulated figure, and Figma usually go hand in hand with Nendoroids. I'm sure that if Figma Edelgard had sold well, then we would have had a whole set of FE3H Figma. And if those sold well, then we'd have a whole set of FE3H Nendoroids. But we don't have any FE3H Nendoroids or Figma. All this points to Figma Edelgard not selling well.

I can see how Good Smile would have wanted to choose Edelgard for their first FE3H Figma. Intelligent Systems mentioned during interviews that early polls into the FE3H fandom showed that Edelgard's house was the most chosen. They even then commented that that seemed natural, since she was the only female lord of the 3 major House leaders to choose. And I'm sure Good Smile, still crawling out of their reputation of focusing on pretty girl figures, heard that and thought Edelgard would be the safe bet. They all thought the house lord most like waifu bait would sell well.

Or maybe Intelligent Systems told Good Smile that Edelgard was their primary focus character, and that's why she should get a Figma, even before the player avatar, Byleth. It's not a concrete theory, but the fact that Edelgard's route was probably the first to spinoff from FE3H's first written route of Silver Snow, the fact that FE3H's opening theme song seems to have lyrics that could be from Edelgard's (or Rhea's) perspective, and the fact that Intelligent Systems said they wanted FE3H to be a story about no one being fully righteous nor without flaws, and Edelgard's route seems like giving an audience a front-row seat to a tragedy with a villain-protagonist---all these seem to point to Edelgard as the intended focus character.

Why shouldn't she have been the best bet for the first FE3H Figma? First of all, FE3H is a game where 3 of the 4 story routes have Edelgard as the antagonist. Some fans see her as a straight up villain. If we assume the FE3H fandom is equally split between fans of different Houses/routes, then the mere setup of FE3H guarantees that 3/4 of the FE3H fandom would not want to buy an Edelgard figure. Most FE3H fans pick a favorite House or favorite lord, and tend to care less for the others. And for the 3/4 of the fandom that prefer routes/lords other than Edelgard, a good portion may actually actively dislike her, while other fans don't consider her their favorite enough to justify spending $70-$90 on her Figma. And that's not to mention the Black Eagles route fans / Edelgard fans who simply don't want to spend that much money on a figure, especially of her Academy version (I've learned lots of Edelgard fans prefer her post timeskip outfit) or are not figure collectors at all. But the most fundamental problem in choosing Edelgard as the first FE3H Figma, is that guarantees that 3/4 of the FE3H fandom either doesn't like her or doesn't like her enough to spend on her Figma. She was never going to sell well.

Honestly, if Good Smile wanted to make good sales on FE3H Figma, the safe bet would have been Byleth. Byleth is the player's avatar and people who played FE3H have an intrinsic, subconscious attachment to Byleth. Plus, Byleth is a character for whose side you are always on, regardless of route preference.

And if I'm being even more honest, I think post timeskip Dimitri would have also been a safe bet. People LOVE post timeskip Dimitri. As someone once posted, there are certain fictional characters that internet artists draw like they're a Renaissance painter commissioned to put murals on a church, and Dimitri was on that list of characters. Dimitri isn't even my favorite FE3H lord, and even I would spend $70-$90 on a Figma of him. He is very agreeable. Also, he's not the villain of 3 out of 4 routes! He's the villain of Edelgard's route, the protagonist perspective of his own route, and though an antagonist of Claude's route at Gronder, he feels less of an enemy than the Empire at Gronder. I can't remember Silver Snow well, but wasn't he an ally to the player's perspective? So if Dimitri is the villain of only 1 or 2 of the 4 routes, then he has a much better chance of not being disliked by most of the FE3H fandom. The people who despise him as the villain of Crimson Flower, are only 1/4 of the FE3H fanbase (again, if we assume an equal split among people's favorite lords/houses/routes). And fans of Claude's Golden Deer route have no real reason to hate him, are on board with Claude's attempts to call a truce with him, and if they've seen the Azure Moon route, even see Dimitri as an ally to Claude. In the same way Edelgard would be expected to be disliked by most FE3H fans, because of the fundamental structure of FE3H, it would be expected for Dimitri to be liked by most FE3H fans. And that equates more figure sales likely with Dimitri, than with Edelgard.

It's such a fundamental blunder, I don't blame Good Smile for seeming to choose their next FE3H figures by following Fire Emblem Heroes' recent popularity polls. I'm sure they were blindsided by the presumed low sales resulting from Figma Edelgard, and wanted more solid proof of which characters were popular enough to sell figures. Fire Emblem Heroes' polls are frequent, up to date, and thus a pretty active guage of the fanbase. This is why Good Smile's FE3H Pop Up Parades seemed to be random, in terms of character roles. Instead of choosing to make Pop Up Parades of the 3 House Leaders plus their loyal retainers, or plus their rivals, which would have made clearer sense, they instead chose to accompany the House Leaders with the other most popular characters from each house. This is how we got Pop Up Parades of Felix, Bernadetta, and Lysithea, even though their roles within each House have nothing in common. The only thing they have in common is being popular characters. And as someone pointed out, they are also the popular characters who made high rankings on a Fire Emblem Heroes popularity poll around the time of their figure announcements.

So I blame Figma Edelgard. She was doomed to have low sales, and discourage Good Smile from believing FE3H Figma/Nendoroid would be profitable or worth making. I don't know what else we can do to convince Good Smile that FE3H is popular enough to sell Nendoroids and Figma. I tried to spread around the official Good Smile figure request form, but it's not working, like it did in the Persona 5 fandom, for even the LEAST popular character (at the time). It leaves me with a sense that the FE3H fandom is too fractured and divided to come together to advocate for any one thing, even Nendoroids of our favorite House Lords.

Right now, Fire Emblem is getting the most sales from Good Smile's static scale figures. (The $250+ figures, not the $40 Pop Up Parades.) I don't have any sales figures to prove that, but Good Smile announced so many Fire Emblem static scales in the past few months. There's no way they would take the chance and expense to make all those high-end figures, unless they were confident they would sell. Maybe past Fire Emblem static scales have had good sale numbers. And Good Smile does love to chase a sales trend.

I really was hoping that the FE3H Pop Up Parades would sell so well, that it would encourage Good Smile to make even more FE3H figures, then hopefully Nendoroids. But it's been all quiet on Good Smile's end. They would have announced more FE3H figures by now, if the FE3H figures so far, had proved profitable for Good Smile. They've already had many figure events since those Pop Up Parades, and still no announcements for more FE3H figures. Maybe those FE3H Pop Up Parades all sold badly, for all I know. It would be the most likely assumption. But I keep waiting for the next WonHobby, the next WonFes, the next WonHobbyGallery, or Anime Expo, for Good Smile to announce that "Oh hey, those FE3H Pop Up Parades did sell well and prove that FE3H figures would be worth making, and here's our lineup for those plans!". But I've been fooling myself, because more FE3H figures never get announced. ;_;

Figure collectors constantly complain that Good Smiles makes figure announcements so far in advance, or their production schedule gets subsumed by more popular series taking priority away from figures that were announced ages ago, and then we're just waiting and waiting for those old figure announcements to finally get some progress. But at least you guys know that there are definite plans to make figures for those characters/series! Before the FE3H Pop Up Parades, there were literally NO FIGURES for Claude and Dimitri. They didn't even have gachapon! I have gachapon for freaking Claymore! And considering how popular everyone said FE3H was, enough to bring lots of new people (including myself) into general Fire Emblem fandom, it just boggles my mind that FE3H doesn't have more figures. What the hell… x_x;

Tangent addendum. During Anime Expo 2023 at the beginning of this month, the only FE3H Pop Up Parade that Good Smile's booth offered for sale was Dimitri. Now for this coming week's San Diego Comic Con, the only FE3H Pop Up Parade offered at Good Smile's booth is Edelgard. It'll be interesting to see what the results of those sales will prove to Good Smile Company. I hope it shows that Dimitri would sell better, because right now, Good Smile is wondering why Figma Edelgard didn't sell well, when everyone said FE3H was popular, and must be thinking all those reports of FE3H being popular must be mistaken. Then they gave FE3H a second chance with those sets of Pop Up Parades, since they're cheap and fast to produce. But maybe the FE3H Pop Up Parade sales weren't enough to motivate them to announce more FE3H figures. Whatever the case, it discredits the popularity of FE3H and makes producing figures for FE3H seem not worthwhile. If the only problem in sales is the choice of Edelgard, then when Good Smile sees other characters selling well, they could call Edelgard's low sales a fluke, and would be incentivised to make more FE3H figures.

I just want more FE3H figures…A Nendoroid of Claude von Riegan…I've been waiting for 4 years. I have so many Nendoroids from obscure anime… Why can't we get some Fire Emblem Three Houses Nendoroids, huh???? …Ok. I'm done venting.

[memryse]

last life session 4: a deep dive

hello tumblr! on account of various personal things, i haven’t really contributed much to the fandom in a while, but here's an idea i've had bouncing around in my brain this whole time and have been absolutely itching to get written. now, 3rd life is absolutely still my favourite series, but session 4 of last life is firmly my favourite session of either series, arguably some of my favourite videos in mcyt history in general. so i've been wanting to write a piece on what, exactly, makes it so objectively brilliant. i just absolutely love writing meta about this series and honestly i will probably not stop for a very long time!

under the cut because it's... a lot :]

to start off, i'll mainly be referencing grian, cleo, joel, and bigb's POVs throughout this, but i'll probably briefly touch on some of the others as well, because this session is wonderful no matter whose perspective you watch it from. i'll be splitting this essay into a few sections, because this session has two primary subplots that contribute to the wider narrative, and it's difficult to write a cohesive essay on them without splitting them.

grian's fall

this session opens on the back of a relatively tame session three. one boogeyman, one death. joel is rapidly earning a reputation for being the least effective (and most frustrated) red name the series has ever seen. all in all, tension was not running too high. grian opens his POV by covering the southlands' walls with cobblestone - "it turns out, all you need to do is set one block on fire, and the whole place is gonna come crumbling down."

Well.

i'm sure that's not at all foreshadowing what happens to the southlands after one member turns red.

nah.

anyway!

grian begins his emergency preparations, namely setting up a bunker where he hides a few dogs. ............wait, this is also foreshadowing.

let's try this again! he passes scar's base, and shoots a few arrows at scar to be irritating. after some banter, in which scar is not scared of grian in the slightest (in direct contrast to, well, everyone else on the server. just desert duo things), scar tells grian that his soul crystal preorder has been cancelled. in response, grian adds scar to his "book" - his hitlist for when he turns red. Fuck this is also foreshadowing

back to some more southerner shenanigans, including but not limited to: scaring martyn, teaching mumbo the value of plagiarism, mumbo brings up his plan to build a ghast farm, martyn asking about the location of grian's wither skull because he'd like to know in case grian suddenly turns red. God damn it not again

meanwhile, joel's traps and murder plans are continuing to fail majestically. eventually, the two run across each other, and joel laments his inability to kill anyone (the infamous "ahahaha! going a bit mental! going a bit mad!"). i'm not going to say it again but guess what this is! lord, grian has more death flags than a sickly little victorian boy at this point. more red flags than scar near a lava trap. but seriously, completely unintentionally on any of their parts, the narrative is building up this same point, again and again: grian is going to die. the southlands will collapse. this is fated, and this is inevitable.

thankfully, after this, we get a bit of a break of grian and mumbo causing (non-fatal) problems in the nether. causing more problems in the overworld. even more stupidity as they build the ghast farm. you forget about all of the tension that was previously building. you let your guard down. forget all about joel. we see cleo's death pop up in the chat (more on that later!) and even this is turned into a joke about boogiemen! they hop back to the overworld for a couple of minutes and come back, we see grian casually complaining about not bringing torches.

mumbo: OH. OH. joel's here. joel's here. grian: what? mumbo-

and just like that, it all comes crashing down. life picks up for joel. everything we had been warned about previously comes true. grian is red.

now, let's talk about the fairy fort.

the collapse of the fairy fort

the boogeymen of this session are chosen: ren and bigb. two people from the same alliance, which already makes it painful enough for the viewers. but what really hammers this in as incredibly painful and angsty is their opposite responses to this. cutting back to etho's psychological warfare tactics in session three: ren tells etho he would get the boogey kill quickly and smoothly (incidentally, he specifically says he would choose the weakest person he could find, and "chop off their head". hmm). bigb, on the other hand, tells etho that he wouldn't kill anyone, that he would go to red. in session four, sure, ren does what he says he would - he doesn't cut off anyone's head, admittedly, and instead goes for a more complex trap, but he does take a weak-seeming target (a lone skizzleman) and executes him. he is also entirely upfront to his allies about being the boogeyman, and assures them that they're safe from him - and for his honesty and loyalty, the fairy fort rewards him, offering him aid. bigb is present in this meeting. bigb chooses to say nothing.

(before i continue, i'd also like to point out that earlier in the session, cleo tells bigb that she is "more scared of joel than the boogeyman at this point", clearly as a tongue-in-cheek remark about how both joel and the boogeyman are not scary. not only is she saying this directly to a boogeyman, that person would go on to kill her later that session, and she would go red from one of joel's traps. but sure, she ended up being glad about it, so perhaps she was right to not be scared!)

from bigb's pov, the session continues mostly uneventfully, until he and lizzie catch ren talking with jimmy. bigb expresses worry that ren will turn on his allies and kill them instead. ironic, huh? he's then given multiple opportunities where he could kill lizzie, but doesn't - he's still holding onto his commitment to not betray his allies.

next point of interest: a conversation with cleo.

cleo: the only thing i can think of is, the boogeyman would want to kill us, if he couldn't get anyone else. bigb: that is true. that is true. cleo: so... it's safe up there for now, but i'm steering well clear of ren. just in case. bigb: yeah. well, i'm glad he told us. cleo: yeah, but why did he tell us? so we'd let our guard down. bigb: yeah... that's what i'm also thinking. cleo: we stay away. you and me. bigb: i mean, would you forgive ren though? if he- cleo: well... probably not to be honest. [...] you and me stay away from him, we'll be alright.

that is... one hell of a conversation, huh.

bigb then laments to the camera that this was a prime opportunity for him, but he couldn't do it; he couldn't kill her. he calls himself weak. he's angry at himself for not being able to get a kill.

more adventures with lizzie as they attempt to lie about their villager, find the green lives' club, converse with the southerners. time stretches on ever further, and we're all too aware that bigb is running out of time - especially because bigb's episodes are long, this session in particular, split into two 40-50min parts. you can practically feel his desperation building, and meanwhile, his allies still trust him wholeheartedly. cleo in particular.

their southern excursion is interrupted by ren's boogie kill, as they all rush back to the shadow tower to find out what happened. ren expresses his relief that his boogeyman kill is all over and done with, the session is getting close to being over, and at last, bigb gets visibly antsy. checking his inventory for fire resistance potions, etc. after a long conversation in which we see skizz forgiving and praising ren's kill - a very strong contrast to what we'll see from bigb and cleo later - ren and skizz finally head down to the base of the tower.

bigb examines the depth of the pit. cleo stands above it on a block of dirt - she's testing him. she trusts him, but she's not sure, and she wants him to prove his loyalty.

bigb cycles through his inventory. a heartbeat sound effect plays. he takes out his axe.

he checks the pit one last time.

"cleo."

she knows what's coming, and she fights back anyway.

she would have let him do it, if he'd asked.

i don't think i need to recount the rest of the scene, but my point is, this whole sequence of events is tragic. ren comes clean about his boogeyman status, gets an easy kill and is praised by everyone for it. bigb chooses to hide, not being able to stomach the thought of killing until it's too late and he's too desperate, and he earns the wrath of a furious zombiecleo after brutally murdering her in a river. earns the title of betrayer to all.

joel's trap goes off. another win for the "villain" of the series. cleo is red. bigb runs.

the new reds

so. we've gone from a peaceful, nonthreatening start of the session, to a session now infamously dyed in blood and betrayal. before i go any further, i just want to point out the reason that the pure horror of this turn of events is so strong, is because of the two specific people who turn red. grian, the infamous troublemaker. winner of 3rd life, and the one with the most kills to boot. unpredictable. loves tnt. died too late in 3rd life for anyone to actually see what he would be like as a red name. need i say more? and cleo, who loves nothing more than empty threats and arson. two things which she is very much allowed to do now. people are very scared of cleo, even though she doesn't always back up those threats: in particular, her former allies, bigb and lizzie. she is terrifying to have as an enemy, especially when she's bearing a firm grudge against you.

all of a sudden, the tone of the session shifts. i'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it's the same feeling as when a character suddenly turns evil (or is revealed to have been evil all along). they're menacing without a shred of empathy. their friendships mean nothing in almost a blink of an eye.

as a red, grian first heads over to scar's mountain. he threatens scar. he reminds him that scar went back on their previous deal - grian's "very generous offer", with all the emphasis and hidden threats that those italics can possibly convey. but scar continues to try to make a new deal, and grian turns their previous exchange against him. "you know what? i'll give you that deal on preorder. i'll see you later, scar." now, whether scar pays much heed to this very obvious threat is one thing, but from an audience perspective, it's quite terrifying.

he meets with joel, reluctantly befriends him, and receives his official exile from the southerners. as if things couldn't get any more tragic for him!

this is just such an image. seeing grian away from the southerners, with joel. hurts my heart. slash positive connotation.

next, grian encounters the green lives club. honestly, not that scary from his perspective. but if you watch scott or pearl's, he is suddenly downright terrifying. singing nonchalantly, asking "what have i just stumbled on?" whilst he laughs to himself. it's honestly one of my favourite scenes, it's scary!

and, at long last, the grian and mumbo scene. you know the one. it starts out fairly sad, them both lamenting what they could have done better. mumbo tries to win points with grian, convince him not to kill him (this is after we see mumbo has left a sign asking the same thing). grian gets an idea. and all of a sudden, once again the tone of the scene shifts to downright horrifying, as grian laughs and gleefully tries to kill mumbo.

mumbo: what, you want me to volunteer myself into being red? grian: i wasn't asking you to volunteer.

what a scene, huh?

anyway, back to cleo! she is disappointed about turning red for approximately [unspecified amount of time before she respawns because she put in a replay capture of her death]. the instant she respawns, cleo is laughing. she's excited about the prospect of getting her revenge on bigb. a little sad about losing the ability to team up with pearl and scott, sure, but she hardly lets that show. (this part really is sad from a viewer perspective, though: we're excited to see her team up with the most functional alliance on the server, who won't betray her like bigb just did, and she dies trying to get to them.)

she runs over to the fairy fort, and meets up with joel - taking the opportunity to first scare ren, her former ally, and then happily proclaims she'd love to join team red. the two of them cheer about her death, as cleo quite literally cackles (and ren laughs along nervously). her episode ends with her assuring joel that she has so many enemies to murder. what a change from her earlier in the session, hiding underground with bigb because she doesn't want to die. as session five would show even further, an angry cleo is not an enemy that anybody wants to have,

oh, and then to top it all off, bdubs goes and dies by accident. another new red! this one is like an easter egg, because it's hardly in any povs with it happening so close to the end of the session, which honestly makes it even worse. the deeper you look into the series, the more povs you watch, the more tragic it gets. there's not really a lot to say because bdubs' red life really begins in the next session, but he does very quickly turn threatening towards tango and etho. as we're all well aware, red bdubs is... unstable. very murderous, very desperate for red friends (but also retaining that general Bdubs Energy). he shows no qualms about betraying his friends. once again, it's rather scary!

if i had to briefly summarise this very long post, then forgive my use of marvel metaphors, but this session is like the infinity war of the series. everything culminates in this one session, with various subplots all interwoven to create one narrative, in which the villain wins. you are not supposed to feel happy about this - you're not even supposed to feel angry about it. last life session 4 leaves you feeling hollow, you're not sure what to make of it. it follows a practically perfect narrative, with the exception of the "villain" (because we all know nobody is really a villain here) winning. you see people quite literally fall from grace, lose everything that they worked for, and join the antagonists with varying levels of regret. it's beautiful to me; no other mcyt video has ever had quite this kind of impact on me. and that's why it's one of my favourites! i hope i have convinced some people to also love last life session four :] thank you very much for reading!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

An imagine for adeuce please! They hang out someplace in their hometown during vacation but awkwardly run into crewel. I think treys family bakery would be a nice location but the setting is your choice in case you want to limit the dialogue and number of characters

Ps. I personally feel like the game needs more interactions between the students and teachers. Hopefully we can get more in the new event

Teacher-student interactions are so much fun! We definitely got more from Vargas Camp (which I’m really thankful for), and I hope we keep getting more!

So far, my favorite teacher-student dynamic has been Vargas and Azul. I’d feel bad for octoboi if I wasn’t laughing so hard at his flying fails--

I really liked this prompt, so I wrote more than my usual ~1000 word imagine; please enjoy!

***Mild spoilers for chapter 4!***

Imagine this...

The Rose Kingdom was aptly named for the flowers that bloomed in nearly every corner of its land. In the summer time, they blossomed magnificently, perfuming the warm air with their heady aroma—but in the winter, those delicate rosebuds were banished by a spell of frost. Without fail, a great cold would wash over the region every year, casting their famous red flowers in a thick layer of white.

It was a pattern that the kingdom’s residents had long since grown accustomed to. This was, after all, their beloved home—amid the roses, frozen as they were.

“Oi, Deuce! Hurry it up, will you?!” Ace called, tossing an annoyed glance over his shoulder.

His friend—wearing so many layers that he resembled a moving blueberry more than a human—lagged several paces behind.

Deuce attempted to return the sass, but his words caught in the scarf bound tightly around his mouth, coming out muffled instead. The puffball on his winter hat furiously bobbed up and down, as though communicating his frustration for him.

“If we don’t pick up the pace, they’re gonna sell out of hot chocolate and fresh pastries!” Ace rushed back, grabbed Deuce by the arm, and tugged. “C’mon!! I thought you were in Track and Field Club or something—so let’s get moving!”

Deuce loosened his scarf with his free hand and, glaring at Ace, declared, “No way am I running with the roads this icy. That’s a recipe for disaster.”

“Hah? You serious? I already got wasted enough time waiting for you to dress in your 101 layers of coats,” Ace grumped, gesturing to Deuce’s ridiculous outfit. “It can’t hurt to be a little quicker about it.”

“Mom wanted me to stay warm,” Deuce countered stiffly. “I’m gonna respect that, no matter what.”

Ace rolled his eyes and waves dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, whatever—enough talk, we really gotta get going...!! I’ll be damned if I freeze out here.”

“The Clover Bakery isn’t that far from here, so we don’t need to rush.” Deuce indicated a warm building at the end of the block, which gave off delicious fumes—spun sugar, baked bread, and spices. “Slow and steady wins the race.”

Ace groaned loudly. At this rate, it would take all day for them to waddle on over. He was about to bury his head in his hands when an idea dawned on him.

A mean, but clever, idea.

“Betcha I could make it there faster than you,” Ace chirped, his voice casual.

“It’s not a competition,” Deuce reminded him sternly.

“No one said it was, dummy! I’m just saying I could definitely beat you at your own game.”

“Tough words for someone shaking like a leaf in the cold.”

“Oh yeah?” Ace’s grin was wicked. “Prove me wrong, then.”

“I don’’t have to prove anything. It’d be dangerous to run in this weather, anyway.”

“I bet it’s way more snowy in Pyroxene—and Jack’s probably totally fine with running through it!”

“That’s Jack, and this is me. I said I wasn’t going to rush things, and I meant it.”

“Yeah? Too bad~” The redhead gave an exaggerated sigh and a shrug. “Backing out, huh...? Oh well. Guess if you snooze, you lose...!!”

“Hey, I never said...” Deuce’s voice trailed off, for Ace had shoved by him, darting off in the direction of the bakery. “H-Hey...!! Ace...!! ACE!! GET BACK HERE!!”

He tore after his friend, shouting at him all the while—and Ace, with his (cheating) head start, only laughed in return. Deuce soon caught up (no thanks to his club conditioning), and they were neck-and-neck for first place.

Windchill, knives upon their faces. The biting cold seeped into their lungs, making it hurt to breathe as they hurtled toward their destination. Yet they sailed on, determined to outdo the other.

Both boys launched themselves at the bakery entrance, grasping the handle at the same time.

“EXCUSE US!!” Ace and Deuce yelled in unison, yanking open the door (struggling to cram through the doorway at the same time) and stumbling in.

They were greeted by a blast of warmth and the smells of sweet cakes and toasted breads. The employee manning the counter glanced up, startled at the duo’s sudden appearance. When he saw who it was that had barged in, he sighed and calmly readjusted his glasses.

He looked a little different than usual, wearing a white shirt with green plaid that showed off his broad shoulders. The sleeves were rolled up to reveal thick forearms forged from years of lifting flour sacks and kneading dough. A brown apron was slung over his attire, four-leafed clovers sewn on the pockets.

“If it isn’t Ace and Deuce. How are the two troublemakers of Heartslabyul doing?” Trey asked, his smile lopsided as his underclassmen approached.

“A-Are we really troublemakers in your eyes, Clover-senpai?!”

“I’m just kidding,” he reassured Deuce. “Well, you are troublemakers, but more for Riddle than for me.”

“Geez... thanks for the vote of confidence...” Ace grumbled, casting the third year a cheeky look. “Some senpai you are, huh?”

“Now, now... I’m allowed to have some fun, aren’t I? We’re all ‘off-duty’, so to speak.” Trey said light heartedly. “Anyway, what brings you guys to the Clover Bakery? I’m assuming you’re not dropping by just to say hello.”

“Hehe. Obviously we’re hungry, so we came by for some grub!” Ace held up his index finger. “One large hot chocolate, and a plate of assorted butter cookies for me!”

“I’m okay with a small spiced apple cider,” Deuce chimed in, “please and thank you.”

“Gotcha. I’ll get you your drinks in a bit,” Trey nodded, “but as for the butter cookies, I’m afraid I won’t be able to sell those to you.”

“Huh?” Ace’s face collapsed. “Why not?”

“We’ve only got a few dozen left, and they’re reserved for a client that preordered them. Sorry.” Trey pointed to a neatly wrapped box already set upon the counter, done up in a bright green bow.

Through the plastic window in the box, Ace could see that the cookies had been converted into little sandwiches. Each pair housed a generous dollop of cream, caramelized raisins threaded throughout it.

“What? Who needs that many butter cookies? And why are there gross raisins in them--“

The door to the bakery flung open, summoning a gale of cold once more. A bell suspended above jingled, ringing in a new customer.

“Ah, speak of deville the devil,” Trey said—while his underclassmen balked in terror.

There, in the doorway, was a tall man in black faux leather gloves and a voluminous fur coat—striped, black and white. Beneath that, he boasted a crimson turtle neck and a blazer, half solid white, the other half a black , checkerboard pattern. This, paired with his slicked back hair, steely eyes, and regal face, made him appear as though he had just strutted off the runway, were it not for the leashes he gripped.

Two Dalmatians—one in a blue coat, the other in a red one—stood alert by his feet. They caught Ace and Deuce’s eyes and barked in greeting, but the two boys were far too fixated on the Dalmatians’ owner to gush over dogs.

“Crewel...”

“... Sensei?”

Ace and Deuce glanced to one another, then back at their Alchemy teacher.

“C-CREWEL-SENSEI?!”

“Wh-What’re you doing here?!” Ace demanded, pointing an accusatory finger. “School’s out for winter break...!! You... You didn’t hunt us down to make us do our homework, did you?!”

Crewel snorted. “Spare me your theatrics, Trappola. Your instructors are granted a vacation for the duration of winter break as well. Were you not aware?”

“I-I knew that! I just didn’t know you lived in the Rose Kingdom, too!”

“I thought teachers lived at school...”

“... Seriously, Deuce?!”

“The more you know.” Crewel narrowed his eyes at Ace. “But speaking of homework, I trust you pups are keeping on top of your assignments? Being on break is no excuse to slack on your studies.”

“D-Duh! Of course I haven’t been slacking!” A lie, Ace grimaced, thinking to the piles of homework he had abandoned in his bedroom in favor of hanging out with friends. Whatever, he could just pester his brother for help later. “Right, Deuce? Back me up here!”

“I’ve been diligently studying and working on my homework bit by bit every day, Crewel-sensei!”

“... But have you done it accurately?” Crewel asked, raising an eyebrow. “Simply writing down an answer does not guarantee full marks, Spade.”

“... Errrrrr, okay, maybe I need to work on it a little more.”

“You’ve got your notes and a reliable Science Club member to count on for assistance,” Crewel quipped, gesturing to Trey with a gloved hand. “There is no excuse for why you should not do well. That goes for you as well, Trappola.”

“Y-Yessir!”

“Crewel-sensei, I think that’s enough interrogation,” Trey called, waving for him to come to the counter. Outwardly, he wore a smile, but inwardly, he sighed. For the love of the Great Seven, don’t offer my help for me. “Here, I have your order prepared--oh, but be sure to keep your dogs at the doorway. No pets allowed beyond a certain threshold for health and safety reasons.”

“I am aware, yes.” Crewel’s eyes passed over to the two scared stiff underclassmen. “... Trappola, Spade--come here. Do your professor a favor and tend to my Dalmatians for me.”

“What? You want us to watch your dogs?”

“I’ll do my best, Sensei!!”

“Don’t just blindly agree to it, Deuce!”

“It will only be for a moment,” Crewel insisted, shoving his leashes into Ace and Deuce’s hands. The boys fumbled, but held firm--the Dalmatians eagerly staring up at them.

“... Oi, don’t give me those looks,” Ace grumbled. “You’re... You’re too cute looking and innocent to be Crewel-sensei’s pets.”

The dog in the red coat gave a happy bark, as if pleased with the compliment. Its partner, in the blue coat, panted with delight as Deuce gave it a firm head pat.

Crewel received the box of raisin butter cookies--but allowed his eyes to quickly a scan the glass display case as he strode up. “Do you have dog treats in stock as well?”

“We do.”

“Then add two to my total, please--peanut butter flavor.”

“Alright, you’ve got it.” Trey ducked, retrieved a pair of tongs, and fished out two bone-shaped biscuits. He dropped them into a paper bag and handed them over to his teacher. “That’ll be--”

He was cut off by several bills being fanned out on the counter.

“I’ve ordered enough from your bakery to know the general prices,” Crewel smirked, tucking his wallet away into his massive fur coat. “If there is a discrepancy, you may keep the change.”

“Ah, thanks for that. Hope you and the dogs enjoy--” Trey paused, cut off this time by the sound of several small footsteps from the back room of the bakery. He groaned, already knowing what was coming. “Oh no...”

“Trey-nii!!” A chorus of high-pitched voices piped up, startling Ace and Deuce. “We heard bark-barks!! Did Mr. Fluffy Coat bring back his doggies?”

Three heads of green hair poked above the counter--just barely. One girl and two boys, probably elementary school age, all of them sharing Trey’s mustard yellow eyes.

“Guys, not now. Big bro’s busy with the customers,” Trey warned. He passed an apologetic look to his underclassmen and teacher. “Sorry, my siblings are excitable sometimes.”

“I wanna pet the doggies!”

“I wanna feed’m snackies!”

“I wanna dress them up!”

To the boys’ surprise, Crewel merely chuckled. “No worries. Fellow canine lovers are always welcome.”

“Mr. Fluffy Coat!! Can we feed your doggies?”

“Pretty please with candied violets on top!”

“Please, please, please!!”

Crewel barked with laughter. “Perhaps I can allow it, little ones--permitted that your brother grants his permission.”

All three Clover siblings looked expectantly at their eldest sibling.

Trey heaved a sigh. “... I guess I’ve got no choice. Go ahead.”

Excited squeals filled the interior of the bakery. The Clover siblings nearly tripped over themselves racing over to Crewel’s dogs (they nearly trampled Ace and Deuce’s feet, too).

“Hey, watch it! We’re the ones babysitting these dogs, not you!” Ace cried as the kids descended on the Dalmatians. I’ve only had these dogs for five minutes but if anything happened to them, I’d kill everyone here and then--

“We can share, Ace!”

“Spade is correct. There is plenty of the pups to go around,” Crewel interjected. He produced two dog treats and broke them into smaller pieces, offering them to Ace, Deuce, and the Clover siblings. “Go on, then. One for each of you to feed them.”

The Clovers cheered and eagerly claimed their pieces, holding them out and allowing each Dalmatian to sniff and lick the treats straight out of their palms. As soon as the food was slurped up, the Clovers proceeded to vigorously pet the pups. But the first years hesitated.

“You’re... being awfully nice,” Ace noted, eying him suspiciously. “Are you gonna spring a pop quiz on us as soon as I take the treat?”

“Keep biting the hand that feeds you, and I just might consider it,” Crewel warned with a dark smirk.

“W-We’ll take the treats!” Deuce snatched up two pieces, shoving one into Ace’s hands. “Come on, let’s not worry too much. We’re on winter break, after all. Let’s just relax while we still can.”

“You’re right, you’re right! Let’s not sweat it!”

They exchanged a brief laugh before kneeling and offering up their own dog treat pieces to the Dalmatians. Just as the dogs’ sloppy, wet tongues connected with the boys’ hands, their cell phones went off.

“... Huh? Did you just get a text, Deuce?”

“I think I did. I heard your phone ping too, though. Did you get a text too?”

“I can check. One sec...” With his free hand, Ace fished his phone out of his coat pocket and consulted it. He immediately paled. “Oh, shit.”

(“Hey, language!” Trey shouted--but his protest seemingly went ignored.)

“What’s wrong?” Deuce asked, frowning.

“Check your phone. Check it right now.”

“Is it something seri...” Deuce’s face dropped as soon as he looked at his messages. “Fuck.”

(“I said, language!” Trey tried again, only to be snubbed a second time.)

The distressing text they had received?

SOS SEND HE LP STRAND ED D IN SCAR ABIA CANT GET OUT - Yuu, Grim

Ace and Deuce abruptly stood and bolted toward the exit, much to everyone’s surprise. They paid no mind to the concerned shouts of Trey, nor Crewel, or to the excited barks of Dalmatians no longer held by leashes.

All that remained of where the duo once stood were soggy, half-finished peanut butter dog treats.

[olitech]

Thoughts on the Z Fold 3

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is an interesting device. While it is not the first foldable device made by Samsung, and not even the first foldable device on the market in general (though Samsung certainly was the first real company, I'm not really counting the horrible Royole Flexpai) for me personally, this is indeed my first foldable device.

So what is it like? For context, I am a long term Samsung user, having used the S2, S3, Note 4, S7 edge, S9+, and recently the S21 Ultra. Coming from the S21 Ultra the Z Fold 3 isn't that extreme in size, and folded it lies even better in my hand because it is less wide. Typing on the slimmer front screen is certainly something you have to get used to though.

The weight increase of 44 grams from the S21 Ultra's 227 grams to the Fold's 271 grams is noticeable. It isn't the end of the world or tipping the scale into "This is way to heavy" territory, but you will notice it when you handle them one after the other. The Z Fold 3 is, however you hold or handle it, definitely not a small or light device. Considering you have a foldable tablet in your hands, that fact isn't really surprising - it is kind of the point of this whole thing.

So If you want something small and light, you are definitely in the wrong market segment if you are looking at this phone.

The device can be unlocked with the fingerprint reader in the Power button on the right side, which I massively appreciate. I guess they can't yet fit an under display fingerprint reader into this kind of display due to size constraints and I am happy that's the case. I have an under display fingerprint reader on my S21 Ultra and my Galaxy Tab S6 and constantly have to retry with both of them to unlock these devices. These fingerprint readers have not yet gotten to the same level of performance the old ones are capable of, so I am really glad the "old" tech has made it into this device. If you want to unlock your phone with your face, that works perfectly fine, but in a world full of masks today the fingerprint reader is in my opinion the most versatile option, when done this way at least.

For my use cases, this thing is clearly overkill, I'll be really honest. Watching a Youtube video or TV Show is really nice on this device, especially if you want to watch classic shows like Star Trek The Original Series or Knight Rider, because the unfolded screens aspect ratio of 5:4 is really nice for those old 4:3 shows. 16:9 content is fine too, but there is of course quite a bit of screen real estate you are not using in those cases. But since this is more of a productivity device, 5:4 is the perfect aspect ratio in my opinion.

Typing on the unfolded screen is nice, but takes some getting used to. I have been using this phone since I have received it on Friday the 20th of August 2021, which has been 5 weeks now, and I still mistype quite a bit. I don't know why it takes me so long to get used to the split keyboard I use with Microsoft Swiftkey. When typing or swiping on the screen the crease of the folded display is very noticeable. When you watch or read something it quickly becomes absolutely not an issue, I couldn't care less. But you definitely will feel the crease with your fingers or even with the S-Pen.

Coming to the S-Pen, and the Note package available for this device. I like the S-Pen for the Fold 3. I have the smaller one of the two available since Samsung gave me the Galaxy Z Fold 3 Note package for free as a promotion for preordering the phone. The Note package contains a Super Fast Wall Charger supporting up to 25W, and this should have come with the phone itself in my opinion. I understand the environmental concerns these companies cite as the reason they don't put chargers into the box anymore, but for this price I simply cannot accept that this is the case. It just feels cheap when you open up such an expensive device and there is the phone and a cable in the box and nothing else.

I'm sorry but I have to start swearing for the next section of this article. You have been warned.

The Flip Cover that comes in the Note package is a horrible fucking mess and I don't want to meet whoever designed this thing because I would be scared of that person and the drugs they must have taken designing this thing. The cover doesn't stay closed, flops around like a flaccid dick and just feels like cheap crap. I cannot tell you how glad I am they gave that package to me as a free promotion for preordering, because if I bought this package and actually paid 89,90 Euros of my money for this cover I would have been fucking pissed.

Samsung, if anyone of you is reading this, you can do better than this. Much better. It feels like someone decided 5 minutes before production started "Hey we have this new folding phone, and we decided not to make a new Note, so why not combine the Pen with the Fold 3?" and wanked out a design on a napkin during dinner while the kids were screaming at them.

I am not a massive fan of the magnetically attached pens the Galaxy Tab Series and the iPad use, so I appreciate having a place to actually store the pen in, but the front opening part of that cover makes this thing completely useless in my eyes. And I think they kind of knew that, since you can take off the part of the cover the pen stores in - a fact I didn't see anywhere other then one single Youtube video made by the channel HighTechCheck in his video "Best And Worst Cases For Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3", here is the link, it's a great video in general if you're looking for cases for this phone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2TBKlm-R2E&ab_channel=HighTechCheck

There might be other videos showing this feature of the Note Flip Cover of course, but this is the only one I came across while looking for accessory videos for this device.

Continuing on with the S-Pen, I understand that they had to make a new version because people would've poked holes into their screens with the old one - the new one is spring loaded to prevent you from pressing the pen to hard onto the screen - but what I do not like about the new S-Pen (at least the little one, I don't have the bigger one to test this with) is that you can only use it on the inner screen of the Z-Fold 3. That's right, the smaller of the S-Pens available for the Z Fold 3 does not work on the outer display of the phone when it is closed. I do not know why that is. It works perfectly fine on my S21 Ultra screen, but not on the outer screen of the Z Fold 3. I find that very bizarre. The outer screen has Gorilla Glass Victus on it, it certainly isn't a matter of screen protection. And it works on the S21 Ultra, so what the hell?

I'm a tech nerd, so I love the technology behind the foldable screen and the new form factor this results in. But I don't write 20 emails a day on my phone, or write a book on it, or anything like this. I use the big screen on the Z Fold 3 mainly for content consumption, Google Maps occasionally, web browsing, looking a photos, stuff like that. I am not a productivity monster that actually does multi tasking with a device like this. It is a great phone and the continuation of a new era in mobile technology and screen technology, and I'm glad I could be here to support that change because this means cool things might come out in the future with this technology. Could I still do everything I usually do on my S21 Ultra? Yes, yes I could, easily. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I bought this thing, but for someone like me this is massive overkill, as it probably will be for most people. Most people who buy this thing with their own money might not agree with that I guess. They have to justify the price of 1800 Euro for this thing after all. But I prefer to be honest with myself, and with you.

This is not a sensible device. It is absolutely a fun device and a great look into the future of what will one day be possible with this display tech, not just in the smartphone world but with screens in general. Just like that rollable LG TV this is technology that can be used for so much more than smartphones - it doesn't even have to be foldable. Just being able to put a display around a corner like it is a plastic sheet and having that in a fixed position opens up cool possibilities, once the tech is even better, and most of all, cheaper.

So no, it doesn't make my S21 Ultra look like unusable crap when compared to the Z Fold 3 just because of the foldable aspect. But in my opinion that's not the point of this device. It is to further push along the technology and establish it so it becomes more common place. So it gets better, can be made better, not just because the manufacturer Samsung is continuing to work on it, but because they get feedback from users about the device. The more established and researched a technology becomes, the cheaper it can become, meaning better and new usage forms for this technology in everyday life. Take a screen like that, make it see-through and put it into my car windscreen. It doesn't need to fold for that, but it does have to be durable, and depending on the windscreen, at least bent in some form. Give me overlay graphics on my car window for navigation. Give me glasses not like Google Glass with a small area of a screen but have the glasses BE the screen with this technology in a see through version. Give me a Cyberpunk 2077 style visor. That would really be exciting for me. What this phone and it's display technology represent is what is more interesting and exciting for me than the device itself. But the device itself is still great and I do not regret buying it. If you're into tech and have the necessary funds for it, I can recommend it. Maybe you are even a person that uses this device to its full multi-task capabilities, who knows?

Speaking of which, multi tasking is a breeze with this thing, it's perfectly fine running several apps at once, not just switching between apps but displaying several at the same time since you now have the screen real estate to actually use it. Since I just launched my homepage (this will be the first entry on it, actually) who knows, maybe I will use more multitasking myself in the future when writing stuff on the go, reading and researching in the browser and typing a note on the side perhaps. I doubt it, since for real writing I really don't like to use the touchscreen, but if I have a quick idea on the go and I have time, I could definitely see this being very useful.

Battery life is not an issue either for me, last week I had a day where I watched 6 hours of Star Trek The Original Series on it at around 80% brightness and was around 65% battery when I stopped, which is pretty impressive in my eyes. I have the episodes on my phone, so I wasn't streaming them over the network in case anyone is wondering.

The software has so far given me no troubles, not all apps scale to the screen but they still usually work without issues, and many apps like Youtube for example are adapted to use the foldable aspect of the Z Fold 3 in several ways, like when you half-fold the phone, set it on a table, and have the video on the top and scroll the comments on the bottom. Or multi task by having one app on the top and other on the bottom, stuff like that works really well in most apps I am using, I can't really recall any app right now that had huge issues with the aspect ratio or the foldable nature of this device. Good job Samsung!

The back cameras are on par with the S21 Ultra, so they're in my opinion top, but I'm no expert. What even I notice is the inner camera under the display. No longer is there a hole punch style camera, this one is actually under the display, which drastically decreases the performance of that inner camera. It's usage for video calls I guess, but for a device in that price range I think I would've been fine with a hole-punch style just to get the better image quality. I've made a comparison video on Youtube, comparing the front camera of the S21 Ultra and the Z Fold 3:

https://youtu.be/h5uQ1IQeIvE

The Z Fold 3 is a tech nerds dream come true, and really does whatever you need it to do. Whether you actually need all of that and if it is worth the money is for you to decide. If you already have a tablet you use for media consumption, and if you aren't a huge productivity fan or need one device that does it all and can carry nothing else, then I'd say no, you don't need it. But you might still want it just the same, like me.

Sunday, October 3rd, 2021.

Oliver Weber

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 1: Anticipation

Introduction

What is your most anticipated game? Not the upcoming game that you’re excited about, the game that, more than any other, made you count down the days until its release. No game has ever made me as excited for its release like Fire Emblem Fates did.

Fire Emblem Fates was first announced in January 2015. Back when that trailer was first released, I was still obsessively playing through Fire Emblem Awakening, the game Fire Emblem Fates was meant to be a successor for. The trailer hooked me and I eagerly waited for more information on this bold new entry into the Fire Emblem series. The trailer showed a battle between two armies, a monster destroying a castle, a woman dancing, and a duel between two swordsmen. Between these clips, the trailer showed a return of Awakening’s gameplay, the addictive gameplay that’d taken away hundreds of hours of my free time. This trailer told us nothing, leaving me eager to learn more about this new story.

As the months went on, it was announced that Fates would tell the story of two kingdoms at war. More interestingly, the player would be given the opportunity to choose which kingdom to support, adding a layer of moral ambiguity and complexity to the story. I loved this concept and had no doubts it would be executed perfectly. The game released in June 2015 in Japan, but American fans had to wait until January of the next year to play it.

I bought the game as soon as it came out.

And I loved it. I played through all three routes half a dozen times each. For about six months, Fire Emblem Fates was the main game I played.

I haven’t played Fates in four and a half years. I don’t know why I went from spending multiple hours each day playing it to dropping it and never going back. I’ve played Awakening about once a year since then, but I haven’t gone back to Fates for some reason.

Since its release, Fates has gained a certain...reputation among the Fire Emblem fanbase. Put bluntly, it’s widely considered to be the worst Fire Emblem game. And, to be honest...I can kinda see why. Looking back, the game’s writing was filled to the brim with problems. But still, I can’t bring myself to hate the game like other Fire Emblem fans. I still remember asking my mom to preorder it for my Christmas present when I was fifteen. I still remember devoting hours of my life to this game.

So, I’m left with this quandary. Who should I trust? Other fans, or the memories of my youth? Is Fates really as bad as people say? Well, I kinda want to figure that out for myself. And I think the only way to figure this out is to obsessively play the game.

Over the next few months, I’m going to do a deep dive through Fire Emblem Fates and post my thoughts on this blog. I’m going to go through every chapter, every support conversation, every part of this game to answer the question: is Fire Emblem Fates a good game?

Opening Cutscene

Booting up my copy of Birthright for the first time in years, I’m greeted with an opening cutscene containing much of the footage from the trailer. It’s worth noting that the two armies from the trailer have very different aesthetics, one being heavily influenced by feudal Japan and one being heavily influenced by medieval Europe. The transition from the battle to the woman dancing is done by zooming out, revealing that this battle is actually taking place inside a painting. I actually really like this, it shows that the hostilities that this game is centered on have been going on for a long time.

Another thing to note: the song the dancing woman is singing has been translated into English. I’ll be going through the Lost in Thoughts All Alone’s lyrics and analyzing them when they appear in the actual story. The dance scene leads into circling shots of two families; judging from their different styles and fancy clothing, they are presumably related to the two kingdoms at war. The eastern family has a red and white color scheme, while the western one has a black and purple color scheme.

After that, the camera pans into a deep chasm until it arrives in a land of floating castles and islands, which looks interesting. Next, the opening cutscene shows the dancer in a lake, being choked by a large dragon-like creature. As the creature pushes her further underwater, its scales turn into light and fade away, turning into a humanoid form. Finally, the trailer shows the two swordsmen clashing as the dancer freaks out, setting her up as being an in-between that doesn’t want this conflict to grow. Her necklace flies off as she panics and lands in a pool of dark blue water, bringing us to the main menu.

The opening cutscene, like the trailer, hooked me in and made me excited to play this game. Even though I know that the game is going to bungle the story beats it sets up, I’m still excited to dive right it.

While staring at the dark title screen, which features only the quiet sound of waves for background noise, I get a strange hint of nostalgia. It’s a weird type of nostalgia, though. When I replied Awakening last fall, it felt familiar and comforting. Coming back to Fates, it doesn’t feel familiar. I recognize it, and it’s nostalgic, but it isn’t comforting. It’s like nostalgia for something I’ve forgotten, if that makes sense.

Character Creation

Jumping in, I am presented with three settings each for two types of difficulty. Normal/Hard/Lunatic control the strength of enemies, while Phoenix/Casual/Classic determine whether or not units come back to life. I’ll be checking out the other difficulties in a later entry, but for now, I create a Normal/Casual save file. Yes, it’s taking the easy path. But I barely remember this game and am playing it on a deadline, I don’t have the time to restart every level multiple times.

Next comes the character creator. We’re shown the player Avatar standing at the bottom of a lake and given the ability to customize gender, build, hairstyle, hair decoration (if a girl), hair color, face, scars, and voice. None of the options look bad, but the fact that it’s just choosing from a set list of faces is a bit disappointing. Understandable, considering the fact that these assets are drawn in, but that just raises the question of why there needed to be customization in the first place.

A few oddities about the character creator: hairstyles are sorted on two axis chart of Stylish/Simple vs Wild/Slick for boys and Long/Short vs Cute/Wild for girls. I don’t have time to go into each hairstyle, some are better than the canon versions, some are absolutely ridiculous, some are just boring. The short build is the canon design for Male Corrin while the tall build is canon for Female Corrin. This is probably for the best, because Short Girl Corrin looks like she’s eight. Finally, while both choices have three voice choices, two of Male Corrin’s choices are played by Cam Clarke (Corrin’s other male voice is Yuri Lowenthal, while Female Corrin’s voices are performed by Danielle Judovits, Marcella Lentz-Pope, and Stephanie Lemelin). Later games featuring Corrin stick with Clarke and Lentz-Pope.

I flip a coin and end up deciding on Female Corrin. I go with the generic design, because I really don’t care enough to customize her. Speaking of design, Corrin’s design is a mixed bag. Regardless of player choice, Corrin always wears the same outfit: a grey, black, and white suit of armor with a blue cape. Corrin’s generic hair color is also grey, but like a pinkish grey. I do appreciate Corrin being associated with grey, gold, and blue, making them visually appear to be between worlds, but I personally think the armor looks too complicated, looking more like a striped suit than actual armor. I also don’t get why it has a neck cuff.

Also, Corrin is barefoot. Always. This does give Corrin a sort of animalistic appearance, but that design element isn’t present anywhere else in Corrin’s design. Fire Emblem Awakening was kinda infamous for the fact that none of its characters had feet on their models and I get the vague feeling this game is overcompensating.

Next, we get to the details that actually matter. Name (I went with Corrin, because it’s the canon name and I don’t relate to this character at all), Birthday, Boon, Bane, and Talent. Boon and Bane determine stat growths, but they are labeled by personality traits instead of the actual stars, which is both more immersive and slightly annoying. I made Corrin Quick and Unlucky. Talent determines what Classes are available to you. I didn’t care, so I spun it randomly. It landed on Mercenary.

Prologue: The Ties that Bind

Now that we have our character created, let’s start the game. The game starts with the dancer singing Lost in Thoughts All Alone at the shore of a lake before walking into the lake and sinking below the waves. The song continues as she goes underwater, which means she must be amazing at ventriloquism. As she goes deeper underwater, ruins start to appear, floating in the water. The dancer swims into a bright light and disappears.

Smash cut to the Western prince riding on a horse, commanding an army as they charge into battle. The Eastern prince charges through his army, wielding a sword surrounded by lightning. The anime cutscenes in this game are beautifully animated and incredibly cool to watch. The Eastern prince introduces himself as Ryoma of Hoshido and challenges the Western prince, Xander of Nohr, to a duel. Xander accepts and charges into battle, wielding a sword surrounded by shadowy purple fog. The two clash as the cutscene ends.

We then see Corrin and a Hoshidan Pegasus Rider named Hinoka fighting an enemy, This fight is rendered as an actual game cutscene. Side note, the fact that this scripted battle features Hinoka guarding an attack for Corrin is a great way to foreshadow that mechanic. Hinoka mentions that Corrin looks distracted and reassures her, pointing out that all of Corrin’s siblings are here.

The game then moves onto introducing basic mechanics. If you move your cursor away and look at the other units on the battlefield, you’ll notice that all of them have unique names and designs. Fire Emblem Fates shows both armies off to you during the prologue, which is really interesting. Still, it must be noted that the Nohrian Units are marked as enemies and the Hoshidan Units are marked as allies. This isn’t super important now, but keep it in mind.

Between turns, Ryoma asks Xander why he’s invading and mentions a cowardly attack. Xander tells him to surrender and the two fight some more, both doing decent damage. The camera pans over to Xander’s siblings. The youngest of them, Elise, mentions that, due to a bridge collapse, they can’t get over to Corrin. Her older sister, Camilla, tells her not to worry, because their royal blood allows them to manipulate dragon veins. Camilla moves over to the river and a fireball flies out of her, striking the river and evaporating it. The third of Xander’s siblings, Leo, tells Elise to stay back as they attack the Hoshidans. The Hoshidan royals remark that Camilla’s use of a dragon vein means she’s royalty and the Hoshidan prince Tamuki smirks, saying that he’s always wanted to use a Nohrian royal as target practice.

The two armies of named characters start fighting and a Nohrian general named Hans shows up with an army of reinforcements. He then refers to his own army as cannon fodder and says king Garon sent him to kill them all, because he’s very obviously an evil person. A Hoshidan general shows up and we get some more tutorials as Corrin and Takumi beat up a single redshirt. And then the level just ends.

Corrin and the Hoshidan royals run up to the bridge to help out Ryoma. Xander calls out to Corrin, happy to have found her alive and well. He beckons her to come back to her family, which angers Ryoma, who shouts that Corrin is his sister. Xander counters, saying that Corrin is HIS sister. The other royals argue over which family owns Corrin and Hinoka states that the Nohrians kidnapped her. Xander points out that the Nohrians raised Corrin since she was a child and are her real family. As the two families fight over Corrin, the screen fades to white and we hear voices yelling for Corrin to wake up.

The prologue features some good teaching of mechanics, some bad teaching of mechanics, and an introduction to the game’s plot. It introduces two countries at war and Corrin, a bridge between the two that is caught up in this war. I just have one question.

What even is this chapter? It isn’t in media res, the actual point in the game this chapter is playing off of happens differently. The fact that it cuts to Corrin waking up implies that it’s a premonition of the future, but Corrin can’t see the future in other parts of the game. At least, I don’t remember that ever happening. Sure, this chapter introduces the plot, but it does it in such a confusing way.

Awakening did something similar to this, admittedly, but Awakening is a game about time travel. That scene happened, just in a different timeline. Awakening’s use of media res both set up the plot and helped foreshadow the game’s main twist.

Also, the Hoshidans are allies and the Nohrians are enemies. In a game about a morally grey conflict between two sides made up of real, suffering people, it’s not great to start out by calling one of them evil.

These two traits, aping Awakening without knowing why it worked and failing to be a morally grey story, are going to become much more apparent as the game goes on...

[call-me-rei]

Chapter 1: Let's Go, I Guess?

I was sitting on my couch with my feet propped on the coffee table and a bowl of cereal in my hands. It was a Thursday morning in mid-January, and I was finally home from tour.

My band, Pierce The Veil, had released our fifth album last April. It had been eight years since we’d released an album, so we were taking every opportunity to tour and do interviews. In the last eight months we’d been on four tours and had done thirty or so interviews. Needless to say, it was very nice to be at home.

Misadventures had been a big record, but this album was long-awaited and sold out in minutes of us announcing the preorders. The same went with our tour dates. Fans bought up general admission tickets and VIP packages almost as soon as they went on sale. There were only a handful of shows on each tour that weren’t sold out.

But all of that was over for now. We had a European tour coming in the fall, but nothing was planned for the rest of winter or the spring besides TV appearances and more interviews.

I wasn’t thinking about that though as I scrolled down the home screen of Netflix trying to find something to watch while I ate. I intended on making my time at home for myself. Of course I’d do some writing if inspiration struck, but I just wanted to relax after almost a year of being on the road.

I had finally settled on a show when my phone rang. I quickly pressed play on the show and turned the volume down before I answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey you!” A small smile played on my lips at the voice on the other line.

“Hey Danielle.” Danielle was my girlfriend. She and I had officially started dating about eleven months ago and things were going well.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Not much, just wanted to see how you were doing after tour. And I wanted to let you in on the engagement of the foundation.”

Aside from being my girlfriend, Danielle was also the head of marketing of the Living the Dream Foundation. We’d met in 2019 when I became CEO and I needed to hire some people. She applied for the job and I interviewed her over Zoom because of a global pandemic. Aside from her being beautiful she also had her shit together. I hired her pretty quickly after that interview which eventually led to me following her on Instagram. A couple years went by when we kept it professional, but we couldn’t deny our attraction toward each other. One day we finally admitted we had feelings for one another. One thing led to another and now here we are.

“I’m doing okay; I’m just getting used to being at home. And about the numbers, I was actually about to start eating so maybe email them to me?”

“You’re having a bowl of cereal on the couch, aren’t you?”

I paused my hand from guiding the spoon to my mouth. “No…” How did she know?

She groaned. “If I was in town, I’d take you out for breakfast.”

I smiled. “I’d like that.” I missed Danielle. Even though we hadn’t been official for long, we’d had many close moments since we’d started talking. Then the album dropped and life got crazier so we couldn’t spend as much time together. Now I was home and she was in Redding visiting her mom.

“Or better yet,” she continued, “I’d make you breakfast.” I smirked at the suggestive nature of her idea.

“That’d be even better,” I flirted back. “I’ll take you up on that some time.”

“You’d better. Will I see you when I get back?”

I swallowed the bite of food I had in my mouth before speaking. “Yeah, we’ll plan on it.”

“Great! I’ll let you know when I’m back in town and I’ll make sure to send that email to you.”

“Thanks. Enjoy the rest of your trip.”

“I will. Don’t miss me too much.”

I smiled. “I’ll try not to.”

We said our goodbyes and I focused my attention on eating the rest of my cereal before it got soggy. I turned up the volume of the TV and sat back against the couch, ready to dig in.

I got through most of the bowl when my phone dinged with a new notification. I picked it up and unlocked it to see a new message in the band’s group chat.

The boys and I liked sending memes to each other when we weren’t on tour. Hell, we liked sending memes when we were on tour, but we didn’t do it as often since we were almost always together. Usually whoever sent the first meme was the first one to admit they missed us being together. At that particular moment, that person was Jaime.

I chuckled at the memes he had just sent and scrolled to see some of the ones I’d missed before sending one that I’d saved the night before. I was about to lock my phone and put it back on the table when it rang with a new phone call.

I sighed when I read the name on the caller I.D. It was Dave, our booking agent. If he was calling me it only meant one thing: he had signed us up for some shows.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved touring and performing. It was euphoric, a high that I couldn’t get enough of. But I had only been home for a week and I was finally starting to get used to being back in my own space. Now Dave wanted to tell me that I had to leave my space for however many more months. I was pretty bummed about that.

I put myself in a positive mindset and answered the call before it could go to voicemail. It didn’t really matter if it did; if Dave was calling it meant that it was important, and he’d continue calling until I picked up.

“Hey Dave,” I answered once I’d put my phone on speaker.

“Vic! How are you doing?” he replied with too much enthusiasm for it being this early in the morning.

“I’m great. I’d be better if you told me why you called.” I wanted him to get to the point, even if it was a point I didn’t want to hear.

“Have you had your coffee? It sounds like you need some coffee.” I scowled at the phone. I hadn’t had any coffee yet, but I didn’t like him telling me that I needed coffee.

Maybe I should get coffee…

“I’ll get some after this,” I said. “Anyway, what’s up?” I tried my best to be nicer to Dave. He really was a good person; I just wasn’t ready to hear what he and our management had planned for us.

“Okay, I’ve got five words for you: PTV. Warped Tour. Main stage.”

I groaned loudly. This was what I was afraid of, although I didn’t quite expect Warped Tour.

“What?” Dave asked. “What’s wrong with Warped Tour?”

I sighed. “Nothing, but c’mon, we just got back from tour,” I whined.

“I know, but hey, maybe release an album more than once a decade and you won’t have this problem,” he said with some sass. I opened my mouth to say something then shut it quickly. He had me there.

“Yeah, so, um…,” I stuttered. “What’s the deal?”

“You guys have been offered a spot on main stage this year. It’ll be a great way to start the tour again.”

Warped Tour had ended in 2018, with talks (and hopes) that it would return. The original owner, Kevin Lyman, was feeling very run down and defeated by it all, which was understandable. It bummed out a lot of fans and bands though.

After the last tour in 2018, people just accepted that it wouldn't be back. Then the rumors started that Fronz from Atilla would buy the franchise, but that was controversial in and of itself. However, Lyman didn't trust anyone else to take care of Warped, so it was signed over to Fronz in 2023. Since then there had been small comeback shows in various cities while all of the logistics were getting worked out with the new owner. Warped 2025 was going to be the first full cross-country tour in seven years and apparently we were going to be on the lineup.

"What do you say, Vic?"

I sighed. It wasn't like I had a choice in the matter. Dave and Michele, our manager, had most likely already confirmed us for the spot. Dave was probably just calling to break the news.

"How can I say no?" i said dryly.

"Wonderful! I'll be calling you when more details are up. Until then, go get that coffee. Make it a venti."

I rolled my eyes and mumbled a, "Whatever," before we said goodbye and hung up.

With a frustrated huff I put my now empty bowl of cereal down on the table and picked up my phone. I went into my messages and found my manager's contact.

Did you tell Dave that we'd do Warped Tour? I texted.

She responded quickly. Yes but you told me you'd do it.

I frowned as I went back into the home screen for messages and typed "warped" in the search bar. Sure enough, there was a message to Michele saying that PTV would want to be booked for Warped if it came back cross-country.

I groaned and leaned my head against the couch. I only had myself to blame for this.

Another sigh left my lungs as I opened PTV’s group chat and typed a message to my brothers:

Looks like we’re on Warped. We need to plan a setlist soon

The messages that came in from the guys were similar to the things I’d said to Dave on the phone. We complained, said a few curse words, and eventually started wondering who would be on tour with us that summer.

Meanwhile Dave was calling a band I never thought we’d be close to again.

[radramblog]

Top 5 Games, ever...?

This was sort of on my mind, considering the recent GOTY post I made. Come explore the hyperfixations that managed to stick around long enough to be my top 5 list. 

5. Uhhhhhh

So turns out I haven’t figured out what number 5 is yet. I suppose instead I’ve got to split it among the honourable mentions, huh.

Kirby Super Star Ultra is probably the best game from the GBA/DS era of the series and is just a blast to play. It introduced Masked Dedede, and all the banging music and memes that come with it, and probably deserves a spot here just for that.

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth removes all the awkward Flash Stuff from the excellent original, and adds so, so much more content- the game’s final expansion still isn’t out yet as of writing but even now there’s just so much to unlock. While some aspects of the game can be pretty unforgiving, you probably aren’t going to be exposed to the worst of it unless you get into it pretty hardcore, and if you do, you’ll get used to it. It’s a roguelike, after all.

Speaking of roguelikes, FTL: Faster than Light is chaotic yet serene, brutal but fair, and a bunch of other pretentious dichotomies wrapped into a neat little bow. It takes some getting used to the mechanics, but once you get the hang of it, building your little ship up and up in the face of all odds is extremely satisfying. Have fun dying hopefully not too many times.

SPEAKING of permadeath, Realm of the Mad God gets a spot here just out of sheer hours I’ve spent with it. After a messy few years with a not-so-great owner lead me to dropping the game, it seems finally to have recovered and has devs and community that actually freaking care about it, which is nice. Also, it’s free, and the recent transition to unity has the game looking better and playing smoother than 12-year-old me could ever have dreamed of.

Terraria isn’t just 2D Minecraft btw, its actually more of an RPG/Metroidvania thing, you probably know at this point, but its pretty good hey. Still haven’t fully dove into 1.4 but considering I thought Red was done at 1.1 I’m not complaining with what I have played.

 4. Fallout: New Vegas

(...ish??)

I’d argue that between the primitiveness of the original Fallout games (I’ve tried to get into them, but I just can’t) and how…meh… the other Bethesda ones are, New Vegas is the only one in the series to stand up strong. Obsidian’s excellent writing and tweaks to the gameplay of 3 make New Vegas feel like an actual world, rich and characterised, which was something I found lacking in previous open-world RPGs I’d played up until that point (which admittedly might just have been Skyrim). It’s a game that challenges you to make choices that actually matter for more than the mere moments of an altered dialogue tree, both in dialogue and character building, which helps make the game actually replayable. It is also the first game in a long time that really sold the idea of DLC on me, seeing as each of the game’s 4 expansions adds an entire new region of world with its own stories and unique gameplay, tying together with the main plot but standing on their own. I am excluding Gun Runner’s Arsenal from this for obvious reasons, though it isn’t like GRA is a bad DLC or anything- on the contrary, the sheer scope of modifications and munitions makes playing a repair/science-based character incredibly fulfilling- but it just isn’t at the same scope as the other 4 (Courier’s stash barely counts seeing as its just oops! All preorder bonuses).

New Vegas is one of the few games I have actually 100% completed, achievements and all, but I’m still pretty sure there are bits I’ve missed, paths I haven’t taken, characters I haven’t talked to. Despite its inhospitability, the Mojave is always a comfortable place to return to.

 3. VA-11 Hall-A

(Hey look, my phone background)

Vallhalla is a masterclass in storytelling, atmosphere, and aesthetic. Like all good cyberpunk dystopias, you get themes of class and transhumanism and artificial intelligence, but they aren’t the point of Vallhalla. Through the window and lens of cyberpunk and PC98 nostalgia is focussed a surprisingly human story centred around the protagonist, Jill, which through multiple replays still hits me in the feels just so. Of course, Jill’s story is not the only one being discussed, as every single patron of the bar has their own life going on, and the glimpses we get imply a rich, often interconnected, world. Glitch City is, frankly, a shithole, and it’s not like you don’t get some assholes coming into the bar while you’re working it. The first patron you serve, in fact, is a great example of this- Donovan D. Dawson, essentially a parody of J. Jonah Jameson, is a colossal prick and knows it- but its clear he has his own system of morals and it is mentioned that he’s excellent at his job, much as he gripes about it. He’s rude and more than a little sexist, but frustratingly charismatic and authoritative, and he’s just one of many people who show up throughout the game. Vallhalla is the perfect game to sit down, grab your preferred beverage, and just relax with.

 2. Total Annihilation

(This image is on the steam page for this one, despite blatantly not being from vanilla TA)

I think I actually need to explain this one. Total Annihilation was a game released in 1997 made largely by Chuck Taylor, who would later go on to produce spiritual successor Supreme Commander. It’s an RTS game featuring exclusively robotic units with a fairly chunky aesthetic, allowing the visuals to age better than some, and a fully orchestrated soundtrack by Jeremy Soule, who would later go on to do work on a whole bunch of stuff, most notably Skyrim.

Total Annihilation is an intensely nostalgic game for me, being one of the first games I ever got to play as a kid outside of edutainment stuff, and I’d argue still holds up today (especially with the excellent Escalation mod). What it lacks in story (it’s pretty basic, but functional) it makes up for being miles ahead of its time mechanically, being the first (?) RTS to function in 3 dimensions- heights of things actually matter, hills exist and certain units climb them better than others, shooting down airplanes is difficult without anti-air but possible if you aim *just* right. While appearing pretty similar and having largely analogous units, the two factions of Arm and Core are well fleshed-out in terms of aesthetic and playstyle- Arm preferring fast and cheap equivalents to Core’s slow but powerful- and the unit variety is sufficient that strategies can vary wildly based on the map. Both campaigns as well as those from the game’s expansions are challenging, but satisfying, limiting the units you can produce to force exploration of different playstyles.

Total Annihilation isn’t something I tend to binge play for hours anymore, but I’ll pick it up for a bit every so often, and I don’t see that stopping for a long time (especially due to the recent steam release).

 1. Pokémon Emerald

(At the top, where it belongs)

Yeah, this was inevitable. Pokémon is my favourite series ever; Emerald is my favourite in the series. Go figure.

Emerald, being the final game for the franchise’s days on the Game Boy, reflects everything Game Freak had learned in the first 3 generations of the series’ history. The game’s balance is challenging but fair, never spiking so tough that it is insurmountable but never holding your hand either. The AI opponents are throwing odd combinations of mons and moves at you from every corner, double battles are everywhere but rarely mandatory, and the variety of available mon both before and during the postgame is excellent. The added features on top of Ruby and Sapphire are great- Battle Tents serve to replace 3 of the contest halls (they should have all been under one roof to begin with) and provide a taste of what would later be available in the Battle Frontier. The Frontier is probably the single most expansive and challenging postgame in any Pokémon game, providing the game with a longevity that is sorely needed due to the inaccessibility of Pre-DS multiplayer. The game also manages to tie together the plot of both Ruby and Sapphire into something that feels natural, and provides the series’ first ever actual cutscene, which felt a lot cooler at the time than it sounds now. The return of animated sprites gives the Pokémon a level of life far beyond the static sprites of RSFRLG, and in my eyes wouldn’t feel the same until Black and White several years later. The return of the Pokégear phone in the form of Match Call, as irritating as it is to some, makes the world feel alive in a way that Sinnoh and Kanto probably never will, in addition to making grinding a fair bit less tedious and more beneficial. It is, altogether, probably the perfect Pokémon experience, and in my opinion only one other game comes close (its Platinum).

Oh also, they got rid of the font from Ruby and Sapphire, thank fuck, that shit is atrocious.

[risottostitties]

Hi! First time here to ask haha! Any HCs for La squadra with an Otaku s/o? Like she watches anime and even buys merch in secret cuz she's scared they might find her hobby lame and immature? (Also,what will be their fave anime? And genre?)

Oh boy let me tell you I have some THOUGHTS about these boys and their taste in anime

La Squadra with an Otaku s/o

Risotto 

at first he’s gonna be kinda confused, not gonna lie. Growing up the only ‘anime’ he knew was like, Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z but at that point he was too old to really get into Pokemon, and he never considered DBZ anime because it aired next to cartoons and stuff.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t appreciate s/o and their good taste. He’s the kind of guy who wants to learn about what interests the people he loves, and he loves you. So he’d honestly enjoy late nights spent binge watching your favorites.

Comes to realize that DBZ was low key his gym goals for the early years of him working out. If you bought him a ‘Swole like Goku’ tank he’d probably wear it to lift in, ngl.

Knowing your favorites he’d probably look to merch for his go to birthday or Christmas gifts. Considering the hobbies and interests of some of his co-workers, a scantily clad waifu figure is honestly a welcome change of pace.

Depending on the style or aesthetic of the anime (ie, is it goth) he would be down to couples cosplay, although he wouldn’t be comfortable with you posting pictures of his face or any identifiable features of him online

His fave is probably the original Dragon Ball Run, followed very closely by DBZ for the nostalgia bit. Something deep like Full Metal Alchemist (Brotherhood and the original) would also appeal to him

Is also a big fan of Beserk, disappointed by the anime. And Vinland Saga, not disappointed by the anime.

Partial to Princess Mononoke as well. He likes some Ghibli films, isn’t afraid to admit it. Thinks the score for Spirited Away is bomb af.

Prosciutto

Prosciutto doesn’t really get it at first either. Honestly? He probably didn’t know the difference between cartoon and anime until you explained it to him.

Unlike Risotto he might be a bit more judgey if you try to get him to watch some with you. So you gotta hit him with the real classics. 

But similarly to Risotto, he at least makes an effort to try and indulge in the things you like. He might not be as patient, but he tries.

Probably wouldn’t do cosplay himself, but would hunt down exclusive seasonal merch to gift you. He’d take careful stock of your collections and do some research to pick out only the finest figurines and posters for you.

Would buy that hella expensive premium bandai apparel for you too, might even pick something subtle up for himself if he really liked the show it came from.

Also back on the cosplay note, if you agreed he’d find the highest quality cosplay possible and have you model some of his favorites for him.

(In particular if you were comfortable in fem clothing, Faye Valentine gets him going)

He loves Cowboy Beebop. 100%, wants to watch it again as soon as it ends. Everything from the characters to the story to the music and the fliud animation that has aged like fine wine appeals to him. Prosciutto is a man who likes the finer things in life. He oozes class. Cowboy Beebop oozes class and prestige.

Also likes Maasaki Yuasa. It was his idea to go see The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl in theaters.

In general his tastes tend to lean towards arthouse type anime or bona fide classics.

Pesci

Pesci knows anime and has been doing his absolute best to keep it a secret from the rest of the gang because they already tease him enough.

He’s one of those secret weebs, you gotta know where to look. Your best bet is to look at his accessories. Is there a watch with a certain symbol from an anime you recognize? A lanyard with a familiar print? Something subtle that isn’t immediately noticed by people not looking for it.

He has a secret box in his room full of blue rays from his faves. He watches them sometimes when he’s home alone. There’s nothing X rated in there obviously, he just doesn’t want people to know.

Thank god he has you.

The two of you probably bonded pretty fast over your mutual love of anime. Hell, you being such an open and proud Otaku probably gave him a bit of confidence in expressing his interests too.

Yall are the weeb couple. Yall definitely go to conventions together. Couples Cosplays, the whole thing.

He’s a sucker for Shonen just as much as he is for the really good heart wrenching painful ones. 

He watches Boruto because he loves Naruto so much.

He would also tear up at Clannad.

Dango Daikazoku triggers almost a pavlovian response of heart ache.

So does Secret Base.

Ano Hana is probably his favorite, although even you’d need to pry it out of him. Its one thing that Prosciutto gives him shit for liking anime, its a whole different ball game if he found out Pesci liked girly anime

Fromaggio

He knows what hentai is. That’s about as far as his knowledge went before yall got together.

He thinks its pretty interesting though, so he’d be down to watch some with you.

Turns out he really likes action shonen. He got really, really into One Piece. Like, instantly. He likes the fact there’s so much to watch/read before he’s caught up too.

Another boy that would couples cosplay and be really into it. Especially if it continued into the bedroom.

He’s pretty go with the flow, so he isn’t picky about what y’all watch. Even if it isn’t his cup of tea he’ll sit through a few episodes on a night with you.

Fromaggio can’t tell the difference between a high quality figure and a shitty one. Its a crap shoot what he buys for you. Its more a process of ‘oh, so likes this character’ rather than checking the seams and paint quality and how dynamic the pose is/interchangeable parts. 

Definitely buys way too much in the dealers room because of this.

He tries his best.

His fave is probably One Piece, liked bleach a lot but never read the manga, Yu Yu Hakusho is another one he really enjoyed. The Dark Tournament arc had him at the edge of his seat and hype as shit.

Illuso

Had a passing knowledge of anime before dating you. Knew what it was, saw a few of the mainstream ones, thought they were enjoyable, moved on with his life.

Your dedicated interest in anime would surprise him at first, because he always figured it was kind of a niche thing.

Would snoop around your collection of manga/figures/plushes in the mirror world while you sleep.

Winds up reading a lot of your manga like that (he’s good at reading in reverse because of his stand)

He finds he appreciates the art style of 80s-90s manga a lot more than he does the modern stuff. He really got into Ranma 1/2 and thinks Rumiko Takahashi’s artstyle is excellent.

If you asked him to watch Inuyasha with you he wouldn’t say no.

Probably wouldn’t want to do couples cosplay, but he definitely has an appreciation for you in cosplay.

You could talk him into going to a con if you caught him in the right mood. It’d be a hard sell though.

Has a surprising enjoyment for J-Rock. 

Inuyasha is high on his favorites list, as is Ranma 1/2. Also a fan of Ghibli movies although its pulling teeth to get him to admit it.

Melone

This man has watched so much hentai in his life.

He probably actually knows them by title honestly.

He enjoys anime too, and is not ashamed unlike Pesci. Everyone already knows he has unconventional tastes there is nothing to hide here.

Melone enjoys traditionally feminine anime, especially Sailor Moon. That one has a special place in his heart as he has memories of his sister watching it with him when he was much younger.

Its more of a decompress thing than anything else, so he doesn't tend to favor heavy anime with dense plot and more mature subject matter.

He likes Maid Costumes. On you, on him, it doesn’t matter.

Doesn’t know a whole lot about merch and what makes something higher quality but he learns fast. Between you and him the Dealers Room at cons won’t know what hit them.

Is the type to preorder a figure he knows you’d like. And maybe one for him.

Buy him this and he’s putty in your hands for a month straight (SFW don’t worry) https://www.amazon.com/Bandai-Sailor-Moonlight-Memory-Locket/dp/B00UA9XB48

Sailor Moon is his favorite as I’ve said before, his favorite sailor scout is Rei. Is also a fan of Ano Hana, Violet Evergarden, and Toradora although he needs to be in the right mood to watch them.

Ghiaccio

He went down the Fate rabbit hole and we haven’t seen him since.

The gender bending grates as his soul but he is addicted regardless. There’s just so much dense lore that he can’t seem to stop going.

But also seeing how much care and attention is paid to the historical background of a lot of the servants is intriguing to him. Its the perfect blend of accurate and harem trash that infuriates him but also leaves him needing to know more.

He hasn’t played every game but he has Grand Order on his phone and has sunk an ungodly amount of money into the gacha trying to get his favorite (Its Jeanne Alter, in case anyone was wondering) and has seen all the anime (His favorite is the cooking spin off because its surprisingly calming to watch)

Fate Zero is probably his favorite ‘serious’ Fate adaptation. He enjoys the gravitas of the Holy Grail Wars (and hates how it was tossed out the fucking window in UBW/Stay Night/Heavens Feel) and the ritual aspect to the summoning and foreshadowing of future events as well as hints at a deeper magical lore in the universe hit all the right spots in his lizard brain.

The fact every fate anime has a different version of Saber (or a Saber Clone) pisses him off too.

He really loves Fate. And will scream about it for hours at you.

Getting him to watch or talk about anything else is like pulling teeth but he eventually relents because he loves you.

Its difficult to get through a single episode without him grumbling about something or another, but he tries once he sees its important to you. He does his best not to outright insult your favorite anime.

Can appreciate high quality merch as well, probably collects Jalter Figures himself.

If you’re comfortable in fem clothing, Cosplay Jalter for him and he will literally ascend then and there. Keeps pics on his phone. Would probably make it his background. He’s weak

Outside of Fate he finds he enjoys high fantasy shows. Historical fantasy pisses him off too much, and straight up historical drama would also have him grasping for inaccuracies.

Full Metal Alchemist is a non-fate series that he really loves because of the world building. The movie Maquia was one he enjoyed as well. Likes every Miyazaki film, don’t tell anyone. Cried (and raged) when Ushio died in Clannad.

In general he just likes really good world building. It has to be good otherwise he’s going to spend the whole time picking it apart.

[zydrateacademy]

Current Activities in Gaming #222 (and life in general)

Do I even have anyone left to read my stuff? Alright, I’m gonna be real here. There’s a few variables that led to my inactivity on Tumblr. Let’s break down a few. 1) It’s not as fun. And not just because nudity was removed, though let’s be honest that’s certainly a variable. Ever since the Tumblr company shuffling of leadership there’s been a few choice updates that just don’t lend well towards the community. My activity feed is mostly just memes at this point. Also, I love blogging but I’ve yet to find a different platform to do so on, but I’ll be sure to google some alternatives soon enough.

2) I’d rather just be playing. These bigger CA posts typically take an hour or two to write up. I don’t plan them, I just open the post up and let my thoughts just get dumped. An hour or two is a lot of time, and that’s plenty of time to make some headway in certain games. Maybe pausing during an MMO during a dungeon queue or a raid party reset, but I don’t think I’ve touched an MMO in a couple of years so that window has closed.  As a 2a, you could also just say I just very simply haven’t been in the mood to dedicate an hour or two every couple of days.

3) Schedule switchup and fatigue. A few months ago I transferred out of front end at the grocery store I work at, and into the produce department. There was more than one chance. For one, I no longer work morning shifts (often was 7am to 1pm or noonish). That’s 5-6 hour shifts and that gives me my day to play around with. However the produce department needed a closer, so now I’m up to 8.5 hour shifts, typically 1:30 to 10pm (EST, in case that matters). I was getting 40 hours a week but I asked my boss to downgrade me to 32 instead, which is still a few more than what I was getting on front end in addition to a raise, because front end is typically the “bottom” of the retail totem pole for some reason, despite them being pretty damn important to customer experience. Regardless, at the end of almost 9 hours, I typically just come home, turn on an ASMR video on my second monitor and basically shut my brain and body down as I mindlessly plug away at whatever game I’m playing. And yes, apparently I’m ‘essential’. So I’m still working during the pandemic.

Now then. Let’s get to what I’ve been up to, and none of this is in any particular order since I’ve last posted. I must have hopped to two or three different Conan Exiles servers while ultimately settling on Oasis of Pleasure, a very ERP driven place. I spend a good month or two being active and then I just gotta wait for the next server reset and let my personal CE batteries recharge.

I’ve gotten back into Skyrim, and I really should do some scrolling to find my last CA number for that. I’ve more than doubled my hours on the special edition, and apparently it’s been just under four years since I touched it last. Right now I’m playing a sort of nonlethal thief. The Ordinator perk overhaul (which is a must have, honestly) gives the light armor tree some big bonuses to hand to hand and makes it incredibly viable even in higher difficulties. She keeps a bow and knife around for “monsters” but ultimately uses her fists against most humanoids. I’ve been trying something different during the thieves guild questline: Actually sneaking by everyone and not murdering the fuck out of every humanoid you run into. Which is an option, fun enough. You can fail the radiant quests by murdering the homeowners but most of the questline is filled with mercenaries and you can’t really ‘fail’ the main missions (though I wonder what happens if you kill that argonian?) otherwise players could block a shit load of content from themselves.

I’ve also played a hot barbarian werewolf girl, some kind of Nazgul looking woman, and some other stuff.

Hilariously I’ve yet to get a decent screenshot of my current nonlethal thief. Her kit is pretty damn basic, wearing a custom set of the guildmaster armor with the black bandoleers. Honestly she looks pretty unassuming, which is kind of the purpose. Maybe I’ll go take her hood off and get a screenshot. Some day.

After that, I will say I’ve done some preorders. I still await Bloodlines 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. Delays notwithstanding, last time I checked they’re being released at roughly the same timeframe. I also preordered Horizon Zero Dawn which I am enjoying but must admit that some elements of it are a tad underwhelming. Maybe it’s because I played a good chunk of AC:Odyssey again recently, but I grow tired of the random garbage pickup game for basic crafting. Games just can’t really stand on their own two legs anymore, and open world games seem to be stuck on a few trends they can’t shake. Running around mining for ore and picking at tree branches is not fun. It’s a side effect of HZD indeed being four years old already, but I’ll still probably get a good few dozen hours on it. Not sure if I’ll bother beating it, but I do like Aloy and her story, though I’ve been treated with some spoilers since its release so I kind of know where it’s headed. After that... Let’s check my ‘recent’ list on Steam.

So we got some Town of Salem, which has become my go-to night closer before bed most nights. Last time I made a post on it I probably only had 10-20 hours played, of which I now have over 200. I’m sure as hell a lot better than I used to be, but the All Any gamemodes still manage to make my headspin, but they lead to some hilarious moments. All other modes makes it very difficult because of the “no claim space” meta, so I like hitting AA so I can claim whatever the hell I want. I’ve wanted to get back into Dying Light but it does something dirty to my computer that always demands a hard restart. You basically can’t tab away at all, even in borderless mode. And when I try exiting, I can no longer click any tabs. So hard power button it is. It’s such a good game and it feels really good to play, but I just can’t let it force me to do hard restarts anymore. I’ve dabbled into many others and some aren’t worth mentioning too much. We got Star Wars Battlefront 2, which I was approaching with some level of skill. I like the Co-Op modes but it feels like there’s only like three maps for that. Was fun with my brother for a while but that mode needs like ten new maps. But I believe development has stopped (a while ago, too), as the team is probably working on the next thing. I’ve already posted my dealings with the likes of Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord and Generation Zero. I never got around to beating GZ’s Alpine expansion. I got my 40 hours of it and frankly... that was enough. Good game, just lacks some depth. Some reviewers mentioned that the loop became too shallow and I can kind of agree, even though it took me 40 hours to get to that point.  As for MNB, I’m sort of waiting on the more final phases of its early access. It’s basically getting patched every since week and I had trouble keeping up with all the mod downloads. So I’m thinking of doing a full uninstall (mods and all) and waiting longer down the development line. Maybe with workshop support, playing and updating will be more stable. That’s about the last I have within the last few months. I’ll probably get around to finding my last Skyrim post and pick up from where I left off.

[flaminglikeanythingzine]

Some questions from the apps!

Hallo everyone! We’ve gotten in a few questions on folks’ applications, so we’re answering them here:

Most of my NSFW/suggestive artwork are polished up sketches but for the zine I'd do full colored pieces, could I get to send you an example after submitting the form? If that's okay of course!

If you’d like to send any additional examples, please email them (or links to where we can see them) to flaminglikeanything [at] gmail [dot] com; and do also be sure to include the name/information your application is under so that we can properly associate your examples with your app! The deadline for this, like applications, is November 4- after which, we cannot guarantee we’ll be able to consider any further examples.

Just mechanics on ownership of drawings, like are we allowed to share what we're working on on our social media accounts in progress or finished?

Creators will retain full ownership of their works; however, during the creation and preorder periods, as well as for a short time there after, we kindly ask that contributors not share completed versions of their pieces in public spaces. The exact end date for this exclusivity period is, for the moment, TBD; we will of course keep all creators in the loop on this. Cropped previews are fine!

Some zines that I was in required monetary contribution for participants if they wanted to get their copy of the zine and some give participants copy for free, I wonder what the case with this zine (would participate either way tho)

Our goal is to be able to compensate all contributors with a full zine package (physical copies and merch), and more if we are able.

Is it paid at all? If not I'm still up for it, but I wanted to ask.

We are currently putting together a budget for the zine, but as with the previous question- compensation will largely be in the form of a copy of the zine itself as well as merchandise. If we are able to do more for our contributors, however, we of course shall.

Thanks so much for putting this together! The zine is specified to be full-color, but a lot of my comic work is actually black and white. If I was to be selected, I would prefer doing things in black and white + some accent colors as that is my signature style, and I was wondering if that would be frowned upon? If color is what you're going for, I could definitely do that too, though! :)

We would prefer full color work; however, ultimately we will leave this up to the artist!

I'd be interested in knowing the word count you're looking for, but that's probably written somewhere I just haven't seen. Relatedly, would you prefer the work be completely contained within the zine? By which I mean, would one part of a larger story (that will be hosted on ao3 at some point) be acceptable? The segment I had in mind can definitely stand on it's own, however if the idea is for the material to be exclusive to the zine, I have other story ideas I can definitely work with. Thank you so much!

For zine pieces we’re looking for writers between 500 and 2500 words, roughly speaking. We’d prefer pieces that are able to be self-contained within the zine; however, ultimately we will leave this up to the writer!

Will there be a color theme or any general rules to follow with the illustrations?

Nope- only that they follow our given specs! (A template will be provided for artists to use)

How many pages would one short story be able to take up?

We’re looking for a max word count of 2500 words, which usually turns out to seven or eight pages.

No, but you're doing God's work :D

How kind of you to say; rest assured, we thought we were doing someone else’s*. >:}

I was curious how graphic I can be for this when it comes to the sexual stuff?

Generally speaking, as graphic as you’d like. There are a few harder kinks we’d like to steer clear of, but otherwise have at it! Full descriptions and depictions of genitals of all flavors and various sex acts are welcomed with open arms. We’re not tumblr, after all.

This would be my first public piece of nsfw writing if I get accepted. Is that a problem? Otherwise, I look forward to hearing from you!

Not a problem at all.

While I primarily stick to a book-based interpretation of the characters' faces I could bring them closer to the actors.  But I am squicky about RPP so I try to keep them just off that mark.

All interpretations of the series’ characters are welcomed- be it book, miniseries, radio drama, or Other.

*disclaimer: cheeky response intended entirely as a joke, for the sake of a bit of fun, and because we like jokes around here

[legendarymasterwolf]

E3 2019: My Thoughts on What We Saw

Alright, E3 is over this year, which means it's time to go over what we saw and my thoughts on it.

This is late, so some stuff here will be out already.

I'll be going by publisher alphabetically, so first up, we have...

Borderlands 3

I'm so freaking hyped to get lost in this hilarious world again. I've played Mordecai in Borderlands 1, Zero in 2, and Claptrap in Presequel. Still trying to decide who to play as in 3, but right now, it's looking like I'll pick FL4K, since he specializes in long range and has a few cute beasties by his side. Also, we're getting not one, but THREE action skills with each character. Not only that, but you can sacrifice your grenade skill for two equipped skills.

The Children of the Vault look like some worthy successors to Handsome Jack for title of "Best Borderlands Villains", though we'll see how they pan out on release date.

The gameplay that we saw of Moze looks smooth. Heck, everything about this game looks sleek and refined without doing away with the art style. Also, guns with legs.

Anyway, we not only got the gameplay reveal, but also Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary, a new DLC for Borderlands 2 that sets up 3, so I'm scrambling to finish the Handsome Collection on my PS4, which just got a lot more difficult now that I've bought RDR2 finally, along with several other games.

Control

I loved Alan Wake, and this is from the same people, so I’m hyped. The game looks great, has a suspenseful atmosphere, and it seems to play well. I’m looking forward to release date.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reboot

I haven't bought a COD game since "Black Ops 2", though I have played the newer ones with a friend of mine. It looks good visually from the reveal trailer I saw, I'll say that much. No gameplay yet, but I know it'll be gritty, focusing on some of the more shocking moments of the original trilogy, like "No Russian" from MW2 or the nuclear explosion from MW1, so it seems we're bringing in more edge to the series. Still, I'm glad the campaign is back, and I'm interested to see how it will look.

12 Minutes

A twelve minute time loop where you're forced to relive the death of your wife and the only way to break it is to find out why she was killed? Sign me up.

Code Vein

I remember this one from last E3. Still the same opinion, too. Anime style souls game that I might buy for the story, which looks interesting.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

So this looks REALLY good. It's like a deep RPG, deeper than Xenoverse was, with mechanics besides fighting like fishing, and as for the fights themselves, they seem to be more strategical than before, with a healthy dose of classic DBZ fisticuffs in there for good measure.

Elden Ring

A Souls game written by George RR Martin? Don't know too much about it besides that, but it looks cool based on the trailer.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan

Basically, another Until Dawn, but on the open sea during a storm. And I'm totally okay with that.

Deathloop

Another game from Arkane? The guys who made Dishonored? I'll take it. Besides, another time loop premise sounds interesting.

Doom: Eternal

If Fallout 76 was any indication, Bethesda desperately needs a win now to restore faith in their studio. Besides a few of the other games announced at E3 2019 that could do so, there was one that stood out in particular: Doom Eternal. I’ve already played all the Wolfenstein games, with the exception of one upcoming entry on this list, and based on what I’ve seen of Eternal, I’m going to like it due to the similarity in gameplay.

GhostWire: Tokyo

The presentation on the new game from the makers of Evil Within, another series to try now that I have a PS4, was memorable for a few reasons. First off, Ikumi Nakamura, the game’s creative director, was the main presenter and she was adorable. Seriously, it’s probably one of the best E3 presentations I’ve seen this year. I can’t remember the last time I saw one so genuine like hers, plus it helps that the Internet has fallen in love. As for the game itself, it looks great, with people disappearing in Tokyo and it being up to some guy with a bow and supernatural powers to find out why. The reveal trailer was all we got, but still, I can’t wait to play it.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

The first game I’ve ever preordered, and this comes from a guy who never preorders on principle. It’s a Wolfenstein spinoff with BJ’s twin daughters, so yeah, I’ll buy it. Plus, it’s co-op, so I’m playing this with my best friend. Still trying to decide which twin to play, though. Probably Jessie, since my friend is gonna want to play Soph.

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory

Looks interesting, plus the gameplay reminds me of Shadowrun Returns.

The Sinking City

This one’s already out, but it looks good. Hopefully, it’ll be received better than Call of Cthulu before it. Plus, I’m all for a game where the protagonist is losing his mind, like Dead Space.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood

Set in the World of Darkness universe, like Bloodlines, except you're a werewolf instead of a vampire and it's from a different studio. Gameplay was revealed behind closed doors, but it looks good from what I've heard. We don't have too many werewolf games around.

Cyberpunk 2077

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!

Yeah, this might be the first game I preorder for myself, since now we finally have a release date: April 16th, 2020. The new trailer we got gave us a glimpse of a default male V as well as what may be Jackie’s death (please don’t kill off Jackie, CD Project RED, I like him too much already). After V’s employer tries to double cross him, V tries to kick ass with his twin arm blades, which look really unique, before said employer shoots him in the head. The trailer ended with a major surprise: as V comes to in a junkyard, a figure in jeans, a tank-top, and a silver left arm approaches, and kneels to reveal a face and voice that sounds suspiciously like Keanu Reeves.

Yes, that’s right, for those who haven’t heard by the time this is posted, Keanu Reeves is in Cyberpunk 2077 and he’s playing Johnny Silverhand, a legendary rocker in the world of 2077 who may not be what he seems.

After the trailer premiered onstage, Reeves came out onstage to promote the game. He could barely get through the start of his speech, people were that excited to see him in the flesh. There was even a great moment where he described the game as “breathtaking”, to which a fan shouted out, “You’re breathtaking!”, to which Keanu responded in kind. We don’t deserve this man.

Anyway, at the end of his speech, Reeves gave a new look at gameplay as well as the game’s release date. The glimpse was only about 20 seconds long, but still, the new look at the combat, hacking, and what is presumably a digital afterlife or something like that was enough to get me even more hyped for this game.

Seriously, I couldn’t be more hyped. This game is gonna be massive and I just might preorder it.

My Friend Pedro

Switch game, but still looks cool. It’s already out now.

Sea of Solitude

I need to play more games that make me feel like this. The art style looks gorgeous and the theme is depression, so yeah, I may buy this one if I like what I’m hearing.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Honestly, EA's part of the the expo was kind of depressing, especially when it got to Anthem. However, we did get more of Jedi: Fallen Order, and for that, I'm grateful, because this game looks great. Both the combat and lightsaber look slick as does the gameplay in general, and the voice acting is on point, from Cameron Monaghan to Forest Whitaker. We need a good Star Wars game for current gen consoles, and while The Old Republic is still my favorite, that's for PC. Also, while it has been announced that there are no microtransactions in the game, I'm sure EA will find some way to screw it up, but for now, it looks awesome.

Greedfall

I’m interested. Story and premise have me, a mix of 17th century colonialism with horror and the supernatural. Gameplay looks like my kind of jam, and we may be getting romance options too, based on some trailer observations.

John Wick Hex

Gameplay seems unique, plus it’s John Wick. I will always take more of Keanu Reeves.

Grandia HD Collection

I like JRPGs like this one, though it’s for Switch, so I can’t play it.

Way to the Woods

Looks like a cute adventure puzzle game. I might get it for PC.

Wasteland 3

This series looks like tactical Fallout, so yeah, I’m likely to give this one a shot since it looks good.

Blair Witch

A Blair Witch video game? That’s psychological horror?! With an adorable dog companion named Bullet?!?! Yes, please.

We didn’t get much besides a trailer and some gameplay, but I’m eager to see more.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel

Ugh, why is it that last year I was complaining about not having a PS4, now this year I’m complaining about not having a Switch?!

Anyway, this looks great and I want to see more. Especially since I’ve heard it’s going to be scarier than Majora’s Mask.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Looks good on the graphics front, plus the gameplay additions looks promising.

And once again, I can’t play it.

Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Out of all the games on this list, this is the one I want to play most that I can’t play because, you guessed it, I don’t have a Switch.

I loved the original Ultimate Alliance games, so I’m sure the new one is gonna be a hit, what with the new combos, character designs, and references to the MCU, plus it’ll tie us over until Marvel’s Avengers.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

The Pokemon look cute, it is set in the world’s version of the UK, gameplay looks improved, and once again, I can’t play it.

Empire of Sin

It looks cool, plus I need more Mob style games to play. It’s also made by the people who are responsible for the next game on this list...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

It’s only in pre-alpha, but still, this one looks good. The original is on the Steam store, and there are fan made patches that improved upon what was originally a disaster. The sequel looks like a smoother version of its predecessor, with a few new abilities and mechanics put in. Again, it's in pre-alpha, so the final product will look much cleaner, but for now, I'm excited for its release date.

Shenmue III

First off, I’m royally pissed that Epic stole this one. That being said, the game looks great and I’m looking forward to continuing Ryo’s story on PS4. The gameplay looks great, the atmosphere is enthralling, and the English dub sounds good this time around. Still pissed about Epic, but at least I can play it on PS4.

The Outer Worlds

This still looks great. Since Fallout 76 took a nosedive and kept on going, we need a game like this to get that bitter taste out of our mouths. This still looks like a cross between Fallout and Borderlands, the true New Vegas spiritual successor that we need right now. The companions actually look helpful, have personalities of their own, and the Flaws System sounds really interesting, giving your hero a perk in enchange for a debuff for the whole game. Also the humor is great, too.

Marvel’s Avengers

Yes, the character designs don’t look so hot. However, those can be changed on the road to launch. That aside, I liked what I saw. The gameplay looks great, the voice cast has some top tier talent for the industry, and the promise of more heroes to be added after launch without the attached microtransactions has my attention.

Dying Light 2

I only played the demo for the first one, a game I still need to play, but I liked it enough to want a sequel. The usual free running mechanics look smooth, plus the addition of player choice shakes up the game, making your playthrough unique, so yeah, more of the good old stuff with a few new things sprinkled in.

Final Fantasy VII Remake and Remasters

The remake of FF7 looks AMAZING. The hybrid combat system looks like a dream, plus the character designs look top notch. In addition, the voice cast sounds on point for their respective characters. The hype around this thing was evident from the incessant cheering, we want it that much. We even have a release date: March 3rd, 2020. It’s been a long time coming, but it seems the wait to experience this classic for the second time on a different system will have finally been worth it.

Also, there was content announced for FF14 as well as two remasters: Crystal Chronicles and FF8.

Bet your ass I’m buying the remaster for FF8.

Biomutant

This has been described as Fluffy Devil May Cry. It’s accurate. I didn’t know you’d be able to customize your character, to! Combat looks fun, and it appears there is humor present if the narrator is anything to go by, so I’m interested.

Destroy All Humans! Remake

I never played the original, but I did read about it and hear about it from a friend. From what I’ve seen, the remake looks fun! Good parody of the 1950s and the updated graphics look great. Plus, Krypto seems like a fun, grumpy protagonist.

Gods and Monsters

This looks like a cross between Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Legend of Zelda. Considering it’s being made by the same creators of the former, I can’t wait to see more of this in the future.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

I’ll be honest, I still haven’t played any Ghost Recon games, so maybe here would be a good place to start. Gotta say, I like the way Jon Bernthal presented. He just seemed at ease onstage. Plus, Bernthal’s dog looks adorable. Bam Bam is the real hero of the Ubisoft press conference.

Anyway, it seems Bernthal is playing Cole D. Walker, one of the antagonists of the game. Didn’t see any gameplay, but still, the game looks good. I need to play more tactical shooters in general.

Watch Dogs: Legion

I played the first Watch Dogs game. Thought it was cool, but overall it was a bit disappointing. I still need to play the second one, but I heard it was a major improvement, even if it wasn’t a financial hit. Still, this one put a smile on my face. The ability to recruit and play as anyone? A sarcastic AI as your companion? A grandma assassin? I will take all of it, thank you.

Also, grandma assassin.

Did I mention there was a grandma assassin?

Can’t wait for March 6th.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

The LEGO Star Wars games were some of the first games I ever owned back when I played on the PS2, so I’m hyped for a collection of all 9 films in one game. We don’t know much beyond the announcement trailer, but hey, I’ll gladly take this one when it comes out next year.

Baldur’s Gate III

A video game that plays like a DND game? I can’t wait. Haven’t played the other games, but I’m sure I’ll be fine once I play that tabletop prequel they mentioned.

Battletoads

It’s an Xbox and PC exclusive, but still, glad this is getting a remake.

Bleeding Edge

This looks like an Overwatch reskin. The combat itself looks unique, though, so we’ll see how it goes.

Gears 5

We got a little more on Gears 5 this time around. We’ve got a look at Kait and how the Locust influence is threatening to tear her apart (that’s what I’m assuming, I’ve never played the Gears games). We also got a new mode, Escape. I might get it, since it’ll be available for PC.

Halo Infinite

If this is what Xbox Scarlett looks like, then Sony might have actual competition for once. This is the best the Halo series has looked in years, and considering how let down some felt after Halo 5, it’s about time. We’re getting the same badass Master Chief back, this time with no AI companion, as Cortana has suffered corruption due to being around for longer than normal and has gone psycho as a result. Regardless, the graphics look amazing and I can’t wait to see how it looks when it releases Holiday 2020.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I never played the original, but I might have to now, because this looks cute. The art style looks great and I’ll always be interested in games where you fight things ten times your own size. Plus, it seems to run smooth, and just by the sound of the story, it already has my heart.

Psychonauts 2

To cap things off, let’s end with a game I’ve been excited for since I finished the original months ago. The game seems to be coming along great, if the first level is anything to go by. Returning voice cast, new enemies and powers, new environments to explore, Jack Black voicing a Brain in a Jar, need I say more?

Also, this game looks to explore the water curse put on Rasputin’s family, so it will be a more personal and chilling story as well.

________________

So, there you have it. That’s my thoughts on E3 2019, half a month late.

What are you guys excited for? Leave a comment letting me know, especially if there was something I left out!

Until then!

[kitcat-italica]

The State of My Ships (please also read the caveats at the end)

My shipping pendulum is swinging away from Thorki. It makes me sad, but I know there's nothing for it. We can't help who we ship, or which fandoms we like.

I think the Thorki fandom, and the Avengers fandom in general, has reached that critical point of toxicity. When any fandom stays around long enough, divisions among its fans are all but inevitable. Add in the fact that hate and tribalism is addictive to our brains once it takes hold of us, and the anonymity + rewards of extreme opinions that the internet provides, and soon enough you've made fandom a not-fun place to be. Even with the people who are supposedly "on my side" with their opinions are hating the "other side" while calling others out for doing the same thing and I'm just. So. Tired of it.

I think the Avengers fandom has opened itself up to this for two main reasons: its longevity/perpetuity, and its subject matter of conflict. The longevity is kinda self-explanatory? Since it's this perpetually-running machine of movie after movie after movie, and now we're getting Disney+ TV shows into the mix too...it just feels exhausting to me rather than exhilarating. I think the fact that Infinity War/Endgame ended the stories of lots of my favorite characters (often in brutal, unforgiving ways) just compounds the exhaustion for me.

But as for the subject matter, that's to do with how the storytellers think that crazy twists, gut-wrenching deaths, boatloads of angst and suffering, and constant infighting among the heroes is what people love about the story. Newsflash: it's not! It may be what gets people to pay attention to something not usually on their entertainment radar, or gets them to preorder an opening night ticket rather than waiting for the second or third weekend. But it's not what makes us care. It's not what makes us fall in love. The characters and the team are what does that! And if you're just gonna break them apart and rip our hearts out every time they get to a happier place together, it's gonna turn people away. Maybe not enough for the bean counters to notice, but it'll happen to an extent. It's been happening for me, as much as I tried to fight against that, because I didn't want to lose a fandom's place in my heart.

But now Good Omens has wormed its way into my wittle fandom heart, and said heart has grown three sizes. I have noticed that Aziraphale/Crowley and Thor/Loki do share some surprising similarities (two magical immortal beings hanging out on Earth, trying to blend in and grudgingly working together to save their home while bickering all the way) (yes I think I have a fandom Type 😆). But, I think the two reasons why Avengers has become toxic and exhausting, are the two reasons why Good Omens hasn't.

The longevity/perpetuity? Not an issue at all, because it's a miniseries, and was always intended as such. There won't be a second season, because the complete story was already told in the first one. So there probably won't be any further material to divide people as time goes on. We're all still in love with the same stuff. Plus, having that sense of completeness is so satisfying to me! All stories need to end, and it's a shame that because of the business side of entertainment, successes tend to drag themselves into overstaying their welcomes because it'll make the producers more money in the meantime. So Neil, if I ever get wind that you're making GO Season 2, I'll be worried. Part of me will be excited, but I'll be mostly worried. Take note.

Then there's the subject matter and approaches to conflict. In this respect, Good Omens is the complete opposite of Avengers. Instead of the constant mean-spirited conflict that Avengers builds its stories on, Good Omens builds its story on love and friendship carrying people through.

Avengers' idea of good storytelling is: Let's have Steve and Tony TRY TO KILL EACH OTHER! Let's have sweet teenage Peter Parker HAVE A MENTAL BREAKDOWN! Let's have everyone quip to COVER UP THEIR PTSD! Let's have Loki DIE IN FRONT OF THOR FOR THE THIRD TIME! Let's have EVERYONE LOSE A LOVED ONE AND BECOME FROZEN WITH GRIEF FOR HALF OF THE NEXT MOVIE!

Meanwhile, Good Omens says: Let's have Aziraphale and Crowley decide to save the world because they've grown rather fond of the place. Let's have the Antichrist name his Hellhound "Dog" and turn it into an adorable terrier who loves him forever. Let's have the Four Horseman be defeated by the belief of four eleven-year-olds that they can make the world a better place. Let's have Adam stop the Apocalypse and save everyone by rejecting the dad who was never there for him, in favor of the dad who was. Let's have the most formidable forces of Heaven and Hell be defeated by a Witch/Witchfinder couple who love each other, a Witchfinder/Psychic Prostitute couple who (secretly) loves each other, four kids and a dog who all love each other, and an angel and a demon who love each other.

On one hand, we can end a story with a broken and battered team of heroes saving the day by punching it really hard, mourning whoever died this time, and going their separate ways. On the other hand, we can end a story with two old people moving in together, two young people finally forging their own destiny, a boy and his dog running off to have fun, and two immortal beings eating good food and drinking champagne. All of them gently, peacefully celebrating the world they still get to live in—especially the fact that they get to live in it together.

I've got a new job as a crisis counselor, which is quite emotionally demanding. Forgive me if I want my entertainment at the end of the day to feel like a warm fuzzy blanket, rather than like walking in the dark through a floor full of Lego pieces.

*A caveat: I am by no means done with writing the main Thorki story I've been working on for the past few years, What Makes a Marriage. That fire is too out of control to be extinguished in my heart. But I think it's an exception because 1. It's an AU that's pretty far removed from canon, and 2. I always strive to have the gentleness in that story come to the fore, even if there's darkness on the edges. I've just been procrastinating on the next chapter because I last left our boys in a super dark place, and I need to build up the emotional bandwidth to write how they climb back toward the light.

Part of building up that bandwidth has been me writing the Softest, Sweetest, Fluffiest fics about the Ineffable Husbands, so if you're only here for WMAM and are tired of my GO headcanons and gif reblogs, don't worry! It's all for your benefit too, in some roundabout way. And I do what I want 🙂

**A second caveat: I am still here to talk about all the Thorki things, if you ever want to reach out! It's just probably not gonna be the main focus of what I reblog or post about anymore. But I still adore the lovely parts of that side of fandom, and the lovely people I've met who feel the same ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[kae-karo]

Hi I used to be into the phandom so much but fell out in like??? 2017??? Maybe??? Has anything big happened at all? Has anyone died/caught on fire ( ;) )??

oh dear god where do i begin??? well fortunately both our lads are still alive. let me just start with saying 2018 has been like. probably the best year for dnp to date? i’ll try to go in some kind of order here but bear with me i’ll touch on a bit of 2017 stuff and then go into 2018 for ya

so first of all i’m not sure when you left the phandom in 2017 but the lads moved out of their previous flat in april of last year (x) (april-ish it was def before they posted the vid)

also our dear lil dani snot on fire is no longer not on fire (x) so uhh is he on fire now ig? i mean yeah that’s arguably true

*insert phil’s badaladala sound bc on the scale of Significant Things i don’t think anything else massive happened*

day one of demon month, we got this amazing vid from phil wherein viewers (aka dan) picked his outfits n he looked like a snacc and a half (would’ve been 2 snaccs if he’d embraced the quiff sooner but that’s getting ahead of things) (x)

!!!! then a week or so later dan posted his vid ‘daniel and depression’ where he opened up abt his struggle with depression (x) which was imo the start of him just being more open about himself in general. he also started working with young minds (a mental health org for young people in the uk) and shortly thereafter with prince william’s program to help prevent cyberbullying

then! on the day love was invented! dnp released their board game, truth bombs (x - yeah i linked the second vid and not the first, and wot) which u can buy if you’d like but it’s a lot of fun (x)

then these idiots did a conjoined jumper baking challenge and didn’t fucking wear shirts under the jumper like what dumb gays idk (x) but it was real funny and Good Content

then early nov dnp announced the interactive introverts tour (x) and then uhhh it happened (like 80+ shows??? in a ton of countries???) (x) and they’re releasing the filming of it along with some bonus content like a director’s commentary and u can preorder it (x)

also pinof 9 happened which as a legacy phan u know is always a Thing but this year it was especially a Thing so i recommend catching up (x, and the bloops - x)

and phew okay that’s the majority of 2017 Important Events but before i go on to 2018 i’ll just recap a few important events from dapg (basically just some gamingmas stuff):

wherein dan smacked phil in the face

and phil crushed the presents but dan helped him up

where phil pretended not to remember gamingmas was happening, leading to the most iconic simultaneous heart eyes howell/love eyes lester to date

dnp singing baby it’s cold outside together whilst playing yasuhati

iconic pinof 9 moment

dnp play charades but it’s phil’s turn, and he’s touchy

the not my arms challenge!!! playing mario kart

okay! and before anyone starts yelling i know there’s more but god if i put every iconic thing in this post would break there’s Too Much so let’s hop into 2018 bc it’s gonna be a long one

first i cannot believe dan fucking gave phil a philussy cake and phil’s parents asked phil what it meant jfc dan (x)

THE EARRING!!! dan’s first selfie with the lil hoop and it never leaves and we love it (x)

phil is just trying to take a selfie and dan ruins it (x) spoiler alert: phil gets him back in colorado (x)

okay big sigh two large events happen in march: the first, dan’s ‘trying to live my truth’ vid (x) it basically dan saying ‘i’m still figuring things out but i want to be more authentic and true to myself, and also authenticity is important for some people to feel happy in life’ vid that a lot of people hyperfixated on the end line of, where he said he would go ‘laugh at a joke with a chocolate bar and...something else in my mouth’ which people assumed meant a dick and therefore it was a subtle coming out vid, dan did a liveshow afterward (x) wherein he said that wasn’t the point of the vid and people got mad at him for ‘backtracking’ (if u want more of my Opinions on this feel free to check em out - x)

the second v v big event happened at the end of march when phil posted this iconic selfie that would be the downfall of the fringe (x) this has been titled the quiffening by some

shortly after that he began styling his hair in a quiff permanently which was probably the best decision he’s made since responding to one of his obsessed fans back in 2009

quick detour dan’s proud of his hubby (x) for winning fortnite and ‘fuxkung’ is now what ‘fucking’ autocorrects to in my phone

we also had dan releasing his merch (x) which is basically all black and themed around the eclipse logo and ‘don’t talk to me’, though he just released the exist line for world mental health day which has his quote ‘have the courage to exist’. he’s also mentioned possibly wanting to do more creative things like wide-necked or asymmetrical shirts dan just do a fashion line pls oh and he mentioned in a recent ls he might do an internet support group mug sometime soon

and then,,,,,pigeonfest. we watched. five hours. of phil livestreaming their patio. and literally nothing happened bc someone was like down on the street feeding pigeons so there weren’t even any pigeons for like 90% of the liveshow. but he literally didn’t talk it was just five hours of their patio and we all watched it. we all just watched it like the whipped phannies we are (x)

and then we got a brief but overwhelming dose of,,,,,,something from the easter baking vid (x) phil was hopped up on sugar and also confidence from his quiff and probably smth else as well

everything just blows up from there we have giving the people what they want (x) where, in preparation for ii (for which the underlying theme was ‘giving people what they want’), dnp reacted to pinof 1, swapped clothes, did the ‘yoga challenge’, recreated ditl manchester, ‘got a dog’, and made phil say fuck. honestly it shook the entire phandom to its core at the time but like. i’m less shooketh now? it’s sort of just fallen by the wayside in terms of how unpredictable dnp have been this year

then phil drops week in the life of dnp shortly thereafter which is just very very domestic even for them and their ditl style vids??? (x) phil filming dan in bed being one of the big demon highlights at the time

it’s right around this time too that insta stories start and my god it just goes jfc like i don’t even have the mental capacity to recall all the Iconic ones but i recommend checking out this playlist (x) which has all the ii tour stories goddamn there were a lot though they really put out that content didn’t they

in early may we get phil talking about why he changed his emo hair (x) and arguably the first official vid of the casual rebrand - phil’s more open and genuinely vulnerable about his fears about making a change to his hair, and i don’t think we’ve ever seen him that open before. the vids don’t stop being open though, with what dnp text each other (x) giving us coop and doop along with other iconic stories, dnp basically sitting on top of each other in that and other gaming vids on the tour bus, phil being very open abt his attraction to men (x) and the iconic final google feud vid with way too much of a specific kind of Energy (x) (ofc again there are More Vids but i don’t have the time/mental capacity to recap them all so i’m pickin the Big Ones)

monochrome mates (x)

phew okay so the tour in general as well - like if u don’t mind spoilers, i did a big ol analysis of what that was all about (x) but one of many many highlights is dan calling he and phil “best friends and soulmates” 

finally finally finally after months of waiting we also get some phil merch! (x) plant and animal themed, and he even released a lion plushie which sold out like instantly and he claimed he’d do more of but we have yet to see that. he says he’s got more ideas for other merch as well

now okay fast forward to october after the tour’s over bc i think the insta stories and the analysis cover it but then. then. then we get the pizza mukbang (x) thirty three minutes of dnp being more open and honest and casual than literally they’ve ever been on camera maybe ever, and i’m including liveshows in this statement. no holds barred, authentic vulnerable dnp. a religious experience

end of october spooky week hits us and i think the key vid to call out here is the creepy mind of phil lester bc i think it was another open honest authentic vid (x) where they talked a lot, casual domestic w.e got some insight into phil’s mind it was v good

and then they carve pumpkins jfc which was an experience (x) there were a lot of innuendos but also one of the first years they didn’t do a halloween baking in a while (though they have hinted at possibly doing christmas baking) idk i’m fully overwhelmed at this point lmao like a Lot happened this year

phew okay and Then just yesterday philly dropped his vid on why he went to (the) hospital (x) idk soz that’s a british thing i think like we say ‘the’ anyway. which i’ve been talking abt quite a lot lately but it was another very open and honest vid in which he expressed a lot of vulnerability and fear and perceived flaws and it was just a quality like. open vid.

jfc okay hope that helps obviously there’s a lot i didn’t mention, but this should at least get you caught up on some of the big stuff!! and while i’m at it have a few more Important Gifs from this year

a very important moment of communication whilst on tour, deciding whether or not they’re okay with doing a ‘third wheel’ pose

dan flinging himself off the chair in anger whilst playing getting over it

nose boop from phil’s instagram explore pages vid

subsequent nose boop from the extreme tetris vid

and a cheek boop from the overcooked 2 vid

dan pulling phil’s hand off the mouse in fear during spooky week, swamp simulator (shrek slender)

touchy!dan during pizza mukbang

oh god. okay. again, this is not everything, just a big list of some big events over the past year-ish. i’m sure i’ve missed some important stuff but i think i covered most of it! hope this helps ya get caught up dear!

[twentysevenletters]

The Last Life of Prince Alastor by Alexandra Bracken

(OFFICIALY POSTED ON WEBSITE HERE)

What evil can come from a choice made with a pure heart and the best of intentions?

If you know me, you know it's essentially impossible for me to talk about books without talking about The Darkest Minds. Ergo, it's impossible for me to talk about my favorite authors without bringing up Alexandra Bracken. From dystopian worlds to time travel troubles to middle-grade Halloween-ish adventures, I've never once walked away from a Bracken book without being absolutely and utterlygobsmacked. And, unsurprisingly, The Last Life of Prince Alastorwas no exception.

By the end of The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding(which you can read my full review of here!), we're left with endless questions - most of these pointing to the mysterious world that is the Downstairs. The Last Life of Prince Alastor follows Propser as he attempts to navigate a realm in which he was clearly not invited to, while also following Alastor as he tries to reclaim what he deems as his rightful throne. At this point, I feel like I sound like a broken record because I always seem to suggest that it's best to read an Alexandra Bracken novel blind. But, in my defense, I reallydo think that in doing so, you're setting yourself up for the best wild ride possible.

I'd made mistakes, I'd been misled, but I wasn't some helpless victim in this story.

Admittedly, and I think a majority of book lovers can agree, sequels have a way of being incredibly nerve-racking. Personally, my biggest fear with sequels are the dreaded recaps. Even though I'm pretty sure I have the worst memory of all mankind, I don't want to spend 50 or so pages being spoon fed what happened in the last book because it simply becomes repetitive or boring.LLOPAdoes remind us what happened in the last installment, but only in small side notes and not full chunks of a chapter. This may seem like a small thing to notice, but it already puts the book on my goodside. (That, and the fact that I get to revisit some of my favorite characters with my favorite author. I might just be a little bit biased here).

In the same vein, because we're falling into a whole new realm (we are quite literally falling through an open mirror),some substantial world building hasto be done. From the moment we're in the Downstairs with Prosper and Alastor, we're immediately introduced to the off-putting smell, the perpetually-dark sky, and how the land is laid out. We're right there with Prosper as Alastor explains the Downstairs to him and how their overall hierarchy works. And because of Prosper's completeinability to keep himself out of trouble, we meet Ogres, Fiends, and Ghouls along the way. The description to this new world feels natural, realistic, and instantly drew me in.

I am always right, Alastor said. There are only degrees of how correct I am.

I truly cannot stop thinking about how well Prosper was written as a character. There are countless complexities and realistic tendencies woven into him in this sequel that I can't get over it. Prosper goes through a constant internal pull when he's trying to decide between what's right and wrong, and it just felt so humane. Similarly, there were often two different Prospers because, at times, he felt like he needed to put on a brave face when other times all he really wanted was a little bit of help. Even though I'm now 22, I could relate to so many of the thoughts that Prosper had.

When I read books with the intentions of reviewing them, I take notes in my phone, and my favorite note taken for LLOPAwas definitely: "Honestly just talk about how much you love Alastor." As weird as it is to say that I missed reading in the voice of a parasitic malefactor, I reallydid. I missed his clever insults - some of my favorites from this book being "Gorbellied, crook-plated measle" and "Abominable, crusty thumb" - and his cunning schemes. I can't delve deep into the specifics of why I loved him so much in this book for fear of spoilers, but you've got to trust me on this one; his character development is unreal.

Alex aways somehow finds a way to introduce side characters that embellish the story and add to the main characters, not take away from them. We meet elves, shades, new changelings (friendly reminder that I still love Toad with my whole heart), and they each add a new level to the story. And with that, they add even more plot twists that will be sure to leave your jaw on the floor. Furthermore, Alexandra Bracken brings in her ability to discuss big problems readers of this genre might encounter in their own lives, but she stays on track with the plot; it doesn't feel forced whatsoever. There's one plot point with Nell that I really think every single reader can relate to; I know I can.

"You're a good friend, Prosper Redding."

"You're a better friend, Nell Bishop."

It's important for a story to be entertaining. It's fun to escape to a world that's not like your own, but it starts to get really impressive when an author can include elements of our world into a fictional one. Even in a world filled with monsters threatening to take over the human realm, we can still afford a lesson of how we should treat others even when they're different than us.

And again, without giving too much away, the plot is so intricately planned and executed. When you think your questions are close to being answered and the story is going to start wrapping up, yet another plot twist hits you in the face and pushes you forward. You're right there with Prosper as he looks for answers to his questions and tries to make his own connections. The twists will even keep you guessing until the very end.

When a castle is crumbling, you do not stop to find the crack that began it all, you try to hold all of the fracturing walls together in any manner you can, to the best of your ability.

The fantastical elements of this book are nothing short of amazing but, what really grounded this story for me, where the natural moments between Prosper and Nell. There were small conversations of reassurance and general friend banter that made them feel like real people. I could even see myself having these same chats with some of my own friends. Nell also even has an incredibly realistic experience with a Barbie Flower which genuinely had me thinking, "that's me! that's me!"

AH!I keep having to press the delete button on so manysections of this review because I don't want to spoil anything, but there is just so much I could talk about. This could probably easily turn into a 7 page, MLA formatted literary analysis. So please, please, please go pick it up so we can talk about THAT ENDING, and I can stop rambling about it here.

The Last Life of Prince Alastor officially comes out on February 5, so make sure you run out to your local bookstores or place a preorder!

The absolute BIGGEST thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for providing me with an arc to review!

Overall: 4.5 white foxes out of 5.

Want to talk about this book or see me review your favorite? Just let me know!