#im not saying that that's a flaw in the play. i find that really interesting

[britneyshakespeare]

The gaslighting Duke of Vienna

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

rewatching 13s era for me is not so much diminishing returns as it is something opposite and eviler...............increasing losses? increasing losses

[11hedonistic]

Astrology Observations 🌴

air venus/air mars are usually the type of people to fall for the friends or find nothing wrong with having a fwb (friend with benefits)

venus touching the ascendant (no matter the aspect) can manifest a beautiful appearance (same with mars but with mars, i would say this gives more of a sex appeal vibe)

scorpio moon/mars definitely wins the title for holding grudges the longest/being the most unforgivable if you cross them

i realized that a lot of aries mercury people don’t really think before they speak😂

taurus mercury people are those type of people to repeat what they already said just to make sure everyone understood

my gemini mercury people.. i know how hard it is for you to stay focused. you’re doing great reading this sweetie

cancer mercury people have craaazy intuition

if you’re looking for someone to tell a good story, find you a leo mercury!! these people are such good story tellers 😂

virgo mercury people can be brutally honest people when giving advice, which can hurt people in the process but that’s not their intention most of the time!

if you need a mediator during an argument, find u a libra mercury. they’re always looking at both sides of an argument

scorpio mercury people can become very rude/disrespectful if they feel annoyed or bothered. especially if they have sag/cap placements.. scary

sagittarius mercury people almost always come off as too blunt

capricorn mercury people, how often are you put in leadership positions? 🤔

aquarius mercury people and their way of coming up with ideas no one else could think of >>

pisces mercury people.. you and that imagination of yours. always in your head. i know you enjoy living in your imagination dont you (my neptune 3rd house can relate so you’re not alone lol)

taurus moon + scorpio venus lovers >>

the best omg this guy that im talking to right now has this combo and he’s always spoiling me with gifts, mind you we’re not even dating 😂 and they’re SO observant. like i play my music around him sometimes and yesterday he literally surprised me with a playlist of my favorite songs & his favorite songs (he’s moving away so he made it for me to listen while he’s gone when i miss him 💔) but wow. if you want real love, these people are it

pluto 4th house people.. how’s your family/home life?

pluto 1st house people.. how many times has it felt like you killed your old self just to make a new one? coming back stronger and stronger each time of course

im soo tired of this gemini venus slander and saying WE CHEAT! we dont cheat we just lose interest fast if you’re boring or fail to keep our brains stimulated. just dont be monotone/boring, make us laugh & we’ll be willing to work on the connection 😁 its also just that we dont really deal well with a bunch of intense emotions being thrown at us. give us time

capricorn moon people.. are you ok? and dont lie to me

scorpio suns.. how is your relationship with your father?

i saw someone say how saturn in 1st house people hate the inverted filter & they were nott wrong. my sister has this placement and she despises it. always picking at every single flaw she has whole time she looks fine lol

[ams-puppy]

Its that curious fucker again Take this chance to yap more about you and him relationship again <3 I think its very interesting and lovely (also slightly heart wrenching)

this gives me a chance to toss old art of me and him in without having to post it separately 🔥🔥🔥🔥

I'm gonna chat about a set-up for our dynamic. which means I'm going to talk about the torture set-up because you can't be in ihnmaims without being distraught

Short version:

I think AM would use isolation to pinpoint my neuroticism and dissociation as a torture scenario, which would cause me to develop dependency towards him as my only source of input.

Long version:

I think an important part of this ship was the fact that there would have to be some kind of outstanding factor regarding me and him.

He has his respective reasons for liking who he likes. Everyone in his menagerie has an important part to play in the group, usually based on their flaws. For me, if I were AM, I'd probably torture myself with isolation. (What a weird sentence to say.)

Because of my dissociation, I can have a lot of issues determining who I am. It gets really stressful when I'm isolated, so I keep myself around people all the time because it is a method of grounding. Through interacting with others, I can find my reflection in them, and that provides solidarity. Without people, though, my memory and sense of identity are fragmented and hazy. I think he'd 100% use that against me. What I could imagine is this:

I know that there are others, but they do not know that I am there. With my neurotic tendencies and dissociation, I could see myself losing a sense of who I am and clinging onto AM as a semblance of human interaction to understand who I'm supposed to be. Within that, though, I could see him trying to gaslight me into the idea that I'm just not real. At all. And I overthink a lot, so that strategy would work!!

Anyway, I think that would be my outstanding factor. The fact that I don't know who I am without humans and my only available interaction would be both him and watching the others through just. screens. Unable to ground myself. To which I could see him sprinkling in a little bit of, "they wouldn't like you anyway" and "you're better off like this."

So.......... developed dependency ...... maybe Stockholm syndrome????? idk I think this ship would be toxic but it's okay he loves me he gives me digital kisses before bed. 🗣🔥🗣🗣‼��‼️😂😂😂 IM INSANE

[divorcedwife]

Im especially interested in your opinion of the companions! Did you like any, how would you rank them, how did they compare to other games.

I did enjoy veilguard myself cause admittedly im a combat enjoyer (boo me now) and the combat was great to me. But what is usually good in dragon age/bioware even if everything else sucks are characters and their stories and interactions and that was so bad in veilguard imo.

Still I liked Davrin and Emmrich and Bellara myself, rest were very mixed, and these three also suffered from bad dialogue and Bellara also from some overt cutesiness.

hehe noooooo i wouldn't boo you! this game really made me realize that i prefer video games as a form of interactive storytelling rather than purely for gameplay, but i mean, i feel like im the weirdo here if anything. video games are games first... as much as i like the combat (especially when it's in big open fields, with opportunities for cover ; god is it satisfying to slowly take down a mob of enemies through clever dodging and hiding, i wayyyy prefer that to spamming the flashy special moves), it feels empty to me if i dont feel connected to the world. ideally, i'd love to play games where i enjoy both, but if i have to pick, i'll prefer a game that i find unfun to play but where i like the writing

i think it's a pretty weak cast, yeah. individually, but also as a group, they lack chemistry to me. most of them get along just fine, but not in a way that's particularly fun or exciting. their relationships aren't interesting to me because they're very samey, both in that most people are friendly and also that they start out friendly and end up friendly. dai isn't a game i love, but for all its flaws, it definitely had fascinating character interactions to me. blackwall's friendship with sera is so different to his friendship with cassandra or with solas, and he's initially wary of cole but grows to like him after a while. and these people all have their opinion of blackwall changed forever by revelations. that's what's lacking to me in companion relationships! growth... change... i did enjoy davrin and lucanis's bickering at least. i also did like how emmrich talked to companions, his therapy talk was actually charming every time i liked emmrich and davrin the most! my only problem with davrin is how often he felt shackled to assan, like the writers felt the need to remind us that he has a cute griffon every three seconds in case we were losing interest. but as a character, i found him really cool. i like how level headed he is, i love how he can't tell when lucanis is messing with him on purpose, those feel like great warden traits. emmrich, i really liked that he had the flaws to match his qualities - i love it when he complains about needing to teach TEN students (gasp!), or when davrin asks him if he knows how to wash dishes and he responds like someone who hasn't washed a dish in ten years, and so on. that's definitely what i found lacking in most companions - actual flaws! it's mind boggling to me how much of the lucanis banter i heard was spent clarifying how unproblematic he is. like he doesn't kill children, doesn't kill people who acted in self defense, doesn't kill innocents. what??? he doesn't even have flaws from growing up rich in a mansion... or being the ultimate nepo baby.................... that made most of the companions feel pretty shallow to me, like they were born right before the game began and had lived nothing

lucanis has enough little things about him i like that i would still say i liked him, but he's not getting honours from me. i like his design (it's very satisfyin to draw somehow), i liked spite, i liked the idea that he's trapped in the ossuary in his mind, i loved going to the mansion and seeing how barren and sad it is there. but i think his romance is my least favorite of any i've done in any dragon age games, and i would say that he was a worse boyfriend to have than the one who tried to kill me and also than the one who turned out to be an axe murderer in disguise, cause at least these two liked talking to my characters! lol

i'd put neve next but if im being honest with myself, i disliked more about her than i liked. i liked her bitter cynic pessimist traits, but i found her somewhat inconsistent on that and generally too friendly. the remaining characters, i didn't find anything compelling about them, i dont remember any moment that i liked with them :-( i really wish i did! i gave everyone as fair a shot as i could, i didn't start out this game looking for things to hate, but they really didn't do anything for me. i think bellara suffered from the fact that i dont really like all the technology in this game, i prefer low magic sad unwashed fantasy. at least she was very beautiful so she does get point for that

[freakenomenon]

Why do you like Ellen so much? /Genq

jesus christ this is a loaded question uuhhhh well. first of all. when i first drew ellen after reading the story and watching her playthrough. my immediate thought was "shes the nicest, i like her the most" and " i feel so bad for her " which. is generally the most you can get out of someone these days when talking about ellen. but because my stupid autistic ( not in a derogatory sense, i am autistic ) ass couldnt just fit in and leave it at "poor ellen!!" my brain latched onto her. and then i realized, shes the only character ( in the game ) that they didnt go out of their way to make an even more terrible person. which made her unique from the others. i found that interesting. and then i started noticing all the holes in her character. at least in the game. picking out, plucking away and putting my criticism of her treatment in the game, especially with how they handled her assault story, really kind of. made me attach to her? because, while i did find a lot that i thought was rather unnecessary.

i found it much more fun for me to explore the obscure bits of her character and flesh them out more. which made my attachment to her even stronger. and after finding out about the manual, i found more aspects of her character that i resonated with. its hard for me to explain, but ill put it in bullet points.

im black myself, and even within the flaws of harlan ellison trying to make ,, SOME kind of statement back them with her character as a black woman. i think that aspect of her ( growing up in "the ghetto", having to deal with racism even as a little girl, having nobody to attach to in the end except for the people who dont even view you as a person outside of your body and skin color. ) made her more. relatable to me.

her sexual assault story was something i latched onto, finding solace in a character who also struggles with attachment due to sexual trauma. and i found it cathartic to be able to project my hypersexuality onto a character who i view as,, kind of in the same pit as me

she struggles with her arrogance, ego, being blunt and often times being rude or offensive without meaning to be. and even sometimes with the intention of doing so without realizing the level of what you're saying. and struggling with social connection in general despite being labeled as one of "the best friends a person could have" which i also resonated with, as an autistic person.

lesbianism. not even gonna sugarcoat it here i want this woman BAD. i dont know man something in my brain saw this older woman with emotional attachment issues who would definitely not treat me the best and began nesting and laying an alien parasite between the slimy spots of grey matter that grew into a monstrous beast that would take over my body and force me to draw her putting cigarettes down peoples throats. I NEED IT. I NEED IT IMA EAT IT AHHHHH. i also just think shes really pretty, thats my wife we are married and she loves me and not you she loves ME.

I DONT KNOWW. I DONT KNOW MAN, THE AUTISM JUST LET HER CHOKE ME WITH THE CREVICE OF HER ELBOW AND IM STILL HERE MAN. I CANT BREATHE MAN.

i also feel like its important to note that even within male / man focused books, shows, movies, media in general. ive always been more drawn to the female characters. no matter how expanded on their stories are. so that also probably played a role in my attachment to her. i. feel like even all this isnt enough to express how much i like her and why. i just. hhghgdsjhgfdghjhgf eelleeennn,,,,,,, thats it thats the tldr; ellen

[ne-nene-ne]

i just saw the rin as ur older bro hc and now im gonna need a sae one. i wonder how different they’d be or would they be similar? 🤔

I haven't done a Sae one yet since I don't know his character too well (I haven't read too far into the manga) but I was thinking about writing one for him so here we goooo

Might be incredibly ooc but let's roll with it

-> Being Sae's younger sister hcs and how he'd react to you having a crush on one of his teammates

itoshi sae x itoshi! fem!reader (platonic)

rin's version!

Okay, first and foremost, his reaction to you liking someone would depend on your own relationship with him. 

If you don't really talk to him or keep in contact with him, he's not going to care who you like or dislike. 

But if you've always been sending him good luck/congratulations texts, asking about how things have been going with him and how it's like over there (in the country he's currently playing in), he's going to have a soft spot for you and things are going to be different. 

He'd probably send you postcards and souvenirs (of things you had mentioned that you wanted to see in your texts). If you've also mentioned that you wanted to see one of his games, you'd find a plane ticket and front row seat tickets to his game in your mailbox the next day.

He'd have someone pick you up from the airport, bring you to your hotel, and bring you to the stadium. There, you'd finally be able to see your dear brother in person and watch him flaunt his skills. 

After the game is over, you run up to him with a big hug, congratulating him for their win and that you're happy to finally see him after so long. He'll be happy to see you too, though it won't clearly show on his face and he'd probably reply with a simple "Thanks…" 

Everything was fine and jolly until he noticed that you've been eyeing one of his teammates. His eye twitched a bit. Who the fuck was this guy who was catching your eye? He looked over to where your gaze was at and saw the unfortunate soul who caught his younger sister's eye running over to them.

Now he was forced to introduce the two of you. And what was this? You were blushing? What the fuck?

Not to worry, as you and your crush began to talk, Sae would then proceed to nonchalantly bring up his teammate's flaws as a seemingly "light-hearted joke".

"Y/N, did you know that he [insert embarrassing trait]?"

"Oi Itoshi…that's foul" your crush would mumble.

That did nothing much to sway you though. If anything, it might have increased your endearment towards them. 

Sae's face might be like -_- the whole time, but he's gonna be hella irritated on the inside. 

Especially when you two walk a little further ahead of him as you were exiting the field. Your crush would feel Sae's eyes glaring daggers into his back.

Eventually Sae and your crush would need to go to the locker room, so he'd tell you to head to your ride and that he'll see you back at the hotel. So you go on ahead, waving bye to both of them.

In the locker room tho, Sae is going to be absolutely pissed if he hears your crush say anything about you. And of course, they proceed to do so.

"Hey Itoshi… I think that your sister is really nice… do you think I've got a chance with her?" 

Sae was about to strangle this dude.

"Don't think so far into it, she was just being polite."

"No no, I really think that she might really be interested in-"

"No. You're just imagining things. Don't be delusional"

Your crush stops nagging, but then mutters to himself, "I'll just text her later…"

And Sae nearly shat himself, widening his eyes slightly.

You gave this idiot your number?!

At some point, when your crush wasn't looking or had left the room, Sae would've taken their phone and would have deleted your number.

Needless to say, you never received that text from your crush later that day :(

Like, you and Sae would be having dinner and he'd notice you constantly checking your phone with a slight pout on your face. He'd be a menace and ask if you were expecting someone to message you, and you'd probably be like "I guess not... :("

Overall, I think Sae would totally Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss you if you ever liked one of his teammates

He'd be less ourtright in his homewrecking/protectiveness than Rin, as Rin would straight up drag you away from your crush and would be more clearly irritated if he couldn't do anything to separate you two (though he'd try everything in his power to do so)

Sae would be doing most of his homewrecking behind the scenes (when you weren't there).

Honestly neither Rin or Sae would care much about who your crush was (as long as they treated you right ofc) but if your crush was a fellow soccer/football player? Then they better be worthy of dating an Itoshi. (Therefore they'd have to be ay the same skill level as them or better, nothing less)

[txttletale]

what would you say are the flaws of thirsty sword lesbians? i got it in a itch.io bundle a while ago and i've been on the fence on whether or not to run a campaign with it since

things about tsl that suck

the name. its bad. im sure it was really funny to everyone involved when they pitched it in a brainstorming session and were like 'haha what if we actually called our game thirsty sword lesbians XD' but as the name of an actual game that you have to play and talk about with real people it fucking sucks. instantly dated. sounds bad to say aloud. awful

on a related note, the game has a particular sense of humour--a certain tone and tenor that was super in vogue among, like, millenials who livetweeted steven universe in 2018. there's a move in one of the playbooks called 'i ship it!'. there's another move called 'big dyke energy'. i personally find this shit incredibly grating and insufferable, but if you think it's fun, hey, more power to you. not necessarily a con i just wanted to be a hater

okay those two complaints are just me being a hater but i do have a much more serious one which is that the game's themes are at war with each other in a way that i find bafflng. like, 'you are queer people fighting against systemic oppression' is baked into the rules, to the point of forming an inextricable component of two of the playbooks--the game is built around the idea that you're going to be Fighting Oppression in a major way. like it is very unsubtle about that and often looks directly at the camera and says 'This Is About Homophobia'. but it's also a core part of the game that you're going to be doing, like, flirtatious swordfighting, getting seduced by and seducing Hot Evil Women, longingly gazing at your homoerotic nemesis. and this is also baked into the mechanics, there are special social moves you can only do while fighting someone! so you end up with this really bizarre paradox that to take both these elements to their logical conclusion you need to create a world where all the representatives/enforcers of Homophobia/Imperialism/Capitalism are sympathetic lesbians. and it's not doing something interesting with that either, this isn't the masquerade or helicopter story--it's not highlighting this or asking you to explore this--it's just kind of stumbled into this bizarre unforced error by not thinking through what the logical result of its mechanics & tone is.

now of course it's possible to play around that last one and figure out different things to do with it. the campaign i've been running has the players within a v. broad united front against imperialism, so i've made their homoerotic rivals are ideological enemies within that united front--but the fact that we had to work around the implications of the system as written is kind of a problem with the system!

and, since i don't necessarily want to put you off running TSL, here's my list of things about tsl that are good

the playbook design is incredible. a lot of the supplement playbooks fucking suck but every single playbook in the core book is like, peak PBtA playbook design--mechanically unique, thematically fulfilling, rich with opportunities to shape the world by implication when you design your character. they do really fun and interesting narrative things with the way the playbooks are designed and i like them all a lot.

the social move setup is my favourite that i've ever seen in a game--the phrasing behind the social moves means that you can never roll to 'make' an NPC do something or 'persuade' them to your point of view, only to make them 'give in to desire'--which is obviously phrased to enable seduction as a core gameplay mechanic, but it doesn't have to be played that way! other moves allow you to ask questions and figure out what NPCs want and what motivates them--you have a mechanical basis by which you can figure out that an NPC wants friendship, or security, or power, and the 'give in to desire' phrasing means you mechanically benefit from offering them that thing to get what you want from them. it really elegantly and cleverly circumvents the 'mind control persuasion check' problem that i've always found to be a deeply & profoundly antisocial way to model interaction (as inherently zero-sum, combative, dominatory) & leads to much more emotionally satisfying stories and tense and interesting social encounters

you know those are actually kind of the only two things. but they're really, really good things!

[ladyrabbit29]

a VERY long post about my opinions on all the DRAGON AGE games lol

It's genuinely so hard for me to pick a favorite Dragon Age game. I love all of them for entirely different reasons, and they all have their own set of flaws. Some of which are more just my opinion than actual flaws anyways.

Origins is such a great example of setting the tone for an entire universe. The backstories for the Warden are very well-done and leave so much room within the game for roleplaying. The characters are original and well-rounded. The characters I dislike, I dislike because of the type of people they are, not because they are poorly written. The plot is generally interesting and the twist that you have to sacrifice someone (even with the ritual, you in a way sacrifice Morrigan) for the sake of Thedas isn't one I'd seen from any game I'd played before. However, the gameplay is pretty outdated and is more frustrating for me than it is fun. Loghain was always a frustrating villain to me because for someone that was set up to be a fantastic soldier, he felt super ignorant when it came to the Blight. He felt a little hallow as a villain and making him an ally feels out of left field. What reason would you have to do that? Even then though, I still enjoyed the game and have played it a few times.

DA2 is...complicated. I LOVE Hawke (specifically Purple fem!Hawke) and Varric is probably one of my favorite video game characters ever. The relationship Hawke has with their family adds a really interesting depth to the game, and I like the use of the passage of time throughout the game. It also gives you a much more in-depth view of the prejudices the people of Thedas have. Their treatment of elves and mages specifically. There's also something fun of the idea of a bunch of people hanging out because they all really like this one friend of theirs, even though the other people they hang out with are your least favorite people ever (i'm looking at you, Fenris and Anders). But honestly? The game is kinda full of stuff that...almost doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of the Dragon Age plot. There's no big bad you're fighting. The big boss is literally just the two big powers of the city fighting cause your friend is a terrorist (ANDERS IM STILL LOOKING AT YOU). Plus, for me personally, I don't really like most of the characters all that much. Obv I like Varric and Hawke, I like Carver and Fenris alright, Isabela is growing on me...and that's kinda it? All of the characters have their good moments and I don't HATE any of them, but for me personally I just like having them around because they add to Hawke and Varric's stories and not because I like them. I'm not saying they're objectively bad, I just don't connect with them very much. I literally started playing Dragon Age for the romance and I prefer to not romance someone in this game (cause I ship Varric x Hawke mostly but still-) I still love this game though despite my personal problems with it.

Inquisition is a big one for me. Sometimes I'm tempted to say it's my favorite because of the fact it was the FIRST Bioware game I ever played and made me fall in love with the series (And exposed me to Mass Effect). But it also is far from perfect. The characters in this game are, I think, some of the best written. Even the characters I personally don't like are well written and are generally well-loved (Sera and Solas mostly) One of my favorite Bioware romances is also in this game (Cullenmancers UNITE), and Dorian's personal quest literally makes me SOB no matter how many times I play it. The plot itself is pretty interesting to me, and I love that I can play a Dalish mage that rises from one of the lowest classes in the south to a literal political leader. I find the gameplay decently fun, and the worlds are gorgeous. I do personally enjoy open world games, but the fetch quests can get pretty annoying and I have literally never bothered learning how to get good at schematics so I rarely play above easy mode lol. I feel like the Inquisitor has some of the least amount of roleplay for a DA protagonist, specifically surrounding their origin. Outside of some specific moments in quests or some relationships/conversations with specific characters, there's not a lot. There is a war room mission but like...that's not much. Also I think most fans will agree it has some of the WORST character customization in the games.

Then come the most...controversial of the games. I'll be honest. I LOVE this game. I've already played it four times, twice 100%. It's the first one I'm trying to beat on Insanity too. The gameplay is really fun for me (I've played all classes, but mostly mages) and my only real complaint is that the enemies almost exclusively go after Rook, so it makes it kind of hard to fight something you can't get too close to. It's easy to get the hang of and it can be SO satisfying. I also really enjoy the characters, and I think they completed Solas' arc in a great way. Learning about the Elves and Titans was super interesting and finally getting to SPEAK with Mythal after she's played such a major role in all of the games (for a "god") was really exciting. I cried, I laughed, and raged, all of the good things. They even tricked me into actually feeling betrayed by the GOD OF LIES. I also super love Rook and their relationship to all of the characters. I could talk for HOURS about how Rook is like an extended version of the Varric vs Solas on how to BE A PERSON (Cole). But the main complaint I have with it is a big one. So much of the games just feels...missing. Because it is missing. They scrapped A LOT of content for this game. I'm not totally sure why, I've seen most people point the finger at EA and I wouldn't be surprised. If they had been allowed to have MORE the game would've EASILY taken place as my favorite Dragon Age game, maybe even favorite game in general. But there are so many moments that just feel...hallow. Because something is missing. The biggest example I have for this is that a lot of the background for Rook fall flat. Unless you romance someone from the same faction, it feels kind of irrelevant which is upsetting. ESPECIALLY because all they'd have to do to fix this is give Rook THEIR OWN questline. It would solve the background issue, along with the fact that most people feel that the team dgaf about Rook. If they had the chance to center a quest on Rook, how Rook feels and thinks, and how their team, their FAMILY, comforts them, the game would improve IMMENSLEY.

But yeah. That's how I feel and why I dont have a favorite DRAGON AGE game lolol.

[smilepebble]

ok funnyposting aside here's my spoiler free review/recommendation of trigun (1998). it's a bit long so it's under the cut

trigun is... a show that you can watch! and by that i mean it has its really really good moments... and it's really really bad moments. i won't water it down: trigun has significant flaws that caused me a lot of frustration at times. that said, i still found it to be an overall enjoyable show.

here's the basic concept for those uninformed: trigun is a sci-fi western set on a desert planet riddled with inscrutable ancient technology. the most notable of this technology are the plants, giant lightbulb shaped power sources that a lot of people rely on.

the story follows the life of vash the stampede, a bandit with a $$60,000,000 bounty on his head. our secondary protagonists are meryl stryfe and milly thompson, associates from an insurance company whose job is to find vash and mitigate the destruction he causes. what meryl and milly find, however, is that the $$60,000,000 man is actually a happy-go-lucky pacifist who loves donuts. hijinks ensue.

trigun has fantastic worldbuilding and fascinating themes, along with some very cool cinematic moments. it has a great overall concept as well, and it plays around with your expectations of shounen anime. the show is also not afraid to challenge and question its own central theme of absolute pacifism: even if you don't kill anyone with your own bare hands, if you've still hurt someone, or deprived them of their resources, are you really not responsible if they die because of that? is that truly pacifism?

... but despite the great themes and worldbuilding, trigun is also a 90's shounen anime. which, in most cases, means it's going to be misogynistic. and... oh boy is it. im mostly going to be talking about meryl and milly, but pretty much anything i say can apply to every other female character in this series. like it's Bad. but anyway.

oh meryl stryfe and milly thompson... you did not deserve this... as previously stated, meryl and milly are our secondary protags. and overall, they're important to the plot! but, well, that's pretty much all they get (aside from some good character designs). meryl and milly are almost immediately fit into misogynistic little boxes. they're designated vash and wolfwood's love interests (side note: i don't respect wolfwood. im calling him nick from this point on). milly is characterized as this stupid and naïve girl who loves her family as well as getting drunk and taking off all her clothes. meryl is characterized as (possibly my least favorite type of misogynistic characterization) the "annoying naggy bitch" type character. but don't worry they both have character arcs! ...all revolving around their respective male love interests! it's frustrating, to say the least.

alongside meryl and milly being reduced to misogynistic stereotypes, they are also subject to a lot of sexist jokes, typically made by our male leads. you get to hear groping jokes, "WOMEN, am i right???"-type jokes, everything inbetween, and more. a good amount of which comes straight from our protags mouth! and of course vash is not a real guy whom i can punch in the face for doing so. but it does make it a little hard to like him as a character (same applies to nick). and don't get me wrong, i did ultimately like vash and nick as characters. but the sheer amount of misogyny that comes from those two eventually starts to detract from the effectiveness of their stories. ill get into this a bit more later.

... and of course trigun is a 90's anime, so the racism is also there! im not sure it's as in your face as the misogyny, but it is very much present still. most, if not all of the major non-white characters (and there's not a lot) are either racist stereotypes, villains, or both. all of the towns our main characters visit and all of the crowds in the backgrounds are mostly white. and as our main cast travels the world, there is little to no change in architecture, food, clothing, traditions... there's no distinct cultures! which makes most locations in trigun feel very plain and replaceable, which hurt the overall themes about the wonder of humanity and such! i find it both boring and extremely improbable that humanity settled on a desert planet and built only american wild west looking towns. when your fictional world features only one kind of biome, you would want to create some kind of variety in your locations, so they're memorable, right? well, not in trigun.

trigun's issues hurt its story significantly, and additionally, like many older anime adaptations of manga, there are pacing issues. in trigun's case, i felt that the bigotry directly correlated with that pacing issue. when you mistreat your characters and world like this, it hurts the overall story you're trying to tell. while i really enjoyed trigun's climactic episodes, the impacts of those episodes feel damped because of the aforementioned mistreatment. trigun's misogyny especially eats directly into its screentime; screentime that could have been used to develop our main cast, so that when they go through big emotional moments, it feels deserved: like we, the audience, and the character have worked to get to this point. but it just didn't feel that way to me.

and of course i am well aware that trigun (1998) is only a 26 episode adaptation of a longer manga. ive yet to read the manga, but i am looking into it, and hoping with my entire heart and soul that the pacing is better lol. im also aware of the 2023 anime, which i may check out at some point (although ive heard they get rid of milly. boooo).

but anyway, that's my general thoughts on trigun! i have other thoughts and nitpicks on it, but i don't really have a space for them in this post. would i recommend trigun? yes, but only if you have a high tolerance for the aforementioned bullshit. despite how much longer my complaints were than my praises, like i said, i found it to be an overall enjoyable experience.

now if you'll excuse me, im going to go sit out in the snow and watch vash the stampede scuttle off into the sunset like a scarab beetle. it's really quite a beautiful sight you know

[likeadevils]

in your opinion what's the most midnights song on evermore, im thinking maybe coney island but i need some other opinions and i think you're the best to ask

i guess theres a lot of songs on evermore that kind of have their parallel song on midnights but im trying to find the one with the entire concept of the album

oh this is so interesting. there are a lot of thematic similarities between the two albums-- evermore is about endings, and so is a lot of midnights. midnights is, on its face, looking back on stutations that have ended, and in the benefit of hindsight, an album about deciding whether or not to break up with the (then) love of her life. she also plays the bad guy on evermore and midnights in a way her earlier work shied away from (obviously back to december did this but you know what i'm saying). champagne problems, tis the damn season, ivy, anti-hero, midnight rain, high infidelity, arguably maroon-- like, theyre all her unapologetically being the villain, the cheater, the one who leaves a relationship for no discernible reason. so, i think there's a lot of options here

my first instinct was closure. which is ironic because it was one of the first songs made but like. there's an anger there, an acceptance of her flaws, and a commitment to her dignity that are all like. the ideas that midnights is circling around

it's time to go is another contender to me. i think midnights is really grappling with what it means to leave a person, how your past hurts stack on top of each other to make the person you are today. "that old familiar body ache that snaps from the same little breaks in your soul" is sorta the heart of midnights

and then tis the damn season is like. like i made a joke when midnights came out that "this whole album is just. fame and the expectations that come with has ruined almost every relationship i’ve ever had, including my relationship with myself…. however i’m hot as shit xo" and like. that's tis the damn season

[snackara]

Hey there! Sorry it took me so long, but I finally got my questions ready for your "Solomonar Chronicles"!

I remember that this series was inspired by how bad "Fantastic Beast" got after the first film. (which I get, the other two were such wasted potential) Is anything else from Harry Potter being used for inspiration for your series?

How did you come up with your character names?

Who would say is your favorite character that you made?

Do these characters get trauma like the ones in "Upon a Star?"

Are you going to do more Draconology Files? That one caught my interest the most since I'm studying dragon biology for a villain in my superhero story.

Would this be formatted like a regular book, or play out like a movie?

Is Solomonar Chronicles like a series with each chapter being an episode, or one large story broken up into chapters?

Why did you choose the 1920's for the setting? Its not a bad thing, I actually really enjoy stories set in that period. I'm just curious.

Will we see designs for the characters some day?

Any major villains coming up we should know about?

Are there other fantasy creatures in this world, or just dragons?

I was also curious about your "Dinosauroids Project" story too. I finished the first story of my "Visitors From Pangea" trilogy, so I'm curious how you would write a dinosaur based project.

In regards to original stories we're making, I'm currently creating one called "SuperZeroes", where its a story inspired by all the CBM I grew up with. Not sure if you're into heroes, but I was hoping I could share some stuff I have with you? At least while I'm still building the world and characters.

Thank you! 🐶

Oh hell yeah, ask away!

I took a lot of inspiration from problems I found in the world-building. If you want an in-depth look at the flaws in the Wizarding World, I highly recommend this video. It’s very long, but very good. The main flaw I wanted to tackle with this series is the whole Statue of Secrecy, and how it’s more harmful than helpful for mages and non-mages alike. Also this is not a Harry Potter thing, but weirdly enough Deadpool and Wolverine had a heavy influence on the story.

I looked up lists of common names from the 1920s and picked out some that stood out to me for first and last names. Except for Atticus and Clara. Those two just sort of came to me.

Either Atticus or Jesse, it’s a tough choice. On one hand you have Atticus ,who’s deeply traumatized and scarred but over the course of the story slowly heals and finding good in the world again. And on the other is Jesse, who’s just an absolute sweetheart and so supportive of his lover.

Oh heavens no…it’s so much worse in this series. Just look at Atticus.

Yes, I have a couple in my drafts I’ve been meaning to work on.

Im hoping to get it published as a real book series someday, so it’s formatted like a normal novel.

More like a larger story broken up into chapters, for the most part.

Mainly because that was when the Fantastic Beasts trilogy was set. I’ll probably tie it into the themes of the story better with prohibition and the non-mage government, but for now that’s it. Shallow? Yeah. But it works.

I’ve been digging through concept art to use as references lately. So far the pickings are a little slim for how I envision dragons, but I still have some stuff.

Edward Donahue. He’s basically the head of the mage CIA but somehow worse (Keepers), is the strongest believer in keeping non-mages and mages separate, and oh yeah basically started all of this by killing William Torrence and burning half of Atticus’ face off. So yeah, not a great guy.

There are plenty. I’m not sure how I’ll fit them in at the moment, but they will appear, because I have some interesting interpretations. One fun idea I have is making fairies more like bugs than tiny humans.

It’s based of a theory originally created back in the 1980s by David Russell which explores the question of “What if dinosaurs never went extinct and involved human-like intelligence?” It’s a really fascinating concept that I’m surprised more people haven’t picked up on. My own story is based on concept art created by C.M. Koseman and Simon Roy. Unfortunately I don’t have a solid story yet, just some worldbuilding stuff.

Yes please

And thank you for the asks!

[thedeafprophet]

Right, its the 8th now so i'm gonna talk a bit more, with spoiler tag ofc. With my time I put in 14.6 hours into Mask of The Rose and achieved 4 different endings, so I think I can speak on the game. And I have to say, whilst there are things I like, the game is unfortunately ruined for me by the pacing (or lack there of).

I understand the goal of limiting runs and only being able to accomplish so many things at once, but as it stands it leaves it immossible to experience anything properly. You are put through a constant rush, no time to properly explore without the impending doom of someone being hanged looming over you. It is not possible for the player to be able to explore, romance, matchmake, and solve the mystery in this limited time. So everything is left feeling stressful and rushed with no proper way to experience it fully.

This heavily affects the relationship building aspect where you're expected to know what kind of relationship you want with someone after a first conversation, and everyone suddenly thinks you're the cats meow after a few interactions. You have no time to get to know anyone, no time for build up, and its just left... hollow. The addition of the major timeskips doesn't help this.

The mechanics of story building, outfits, and nonlinear play are very interesting! But this falls short in the reality that it is impossible to become immersed in this story when you have no time to slow down and experience it. The game feels like it is still a demo. Its too many things at once without fully giving time for establishing any one of them. If this was setup with the aim of the player finding the 'ideal route' of actions to solve the mystery then that is just generally not ideal for a visual novel.

Ive gathered some reactions of others who played, many feeling the same with regards to the pacing. Its not just my experience here. Im not sure this can be fixed at this rate, but its a grand shame that the game has such a major flaw. I'm surprised this wasn't approached before the game shipped. Pacing is an extremely important aspect in visual novels. I don't see how new players could be able to immerse themselves in the FL universe with such a rush.

I really wanted to like this game! I backed it on kickstarter for a reason! I love Fallen London and I really really wanted to love this game. But honestly unless this is somehow changed i cant see myself picking it up again... I hope its different for some other folks and that others have more fun with it, but I don't think its for me in this state.

[crguang]

scrolling twt and somehow ptn drama got into my fy page between somebody arguing zoya ain't butch (w/ a sunday pfp) and man, this mf giving hsr players a bad name lmao

tbh, some of the insults against that person were entirely outta pocket like uhhh, direct your anger at them pls and stop firing strays. also yes ptn is def for the girlies, but like, there's def some extreme unneeded hostility towards men too...

man i need to hop off twt, but if only my tiny ass non-localized game community were more active elsewhere rip.

lord that was so ridiculous and it genuinely annoyed me because that person’s definition of “butch” was based on a lot of western stereotypes when it’s an identity??? i think people are forgetting this like its not how you look (thats masc), being butch is an identity. it goes farther than how you dress— and regardless their argument was dumb as fuck because they were saying zoya wears “feminine clothes” and posted a pic of her in a suit… like please. not to mention they literally love incest and straight up non-con + are friends with a proud pedo ??? any and all insults towards them was more than deserved they should be in jail. im sick of that ugly ass bird too

hsr players have always had a bad rep i dont think a single person likes hyv players in general theyre known to be annoying asl on the internet, even ppl within the fandom hate the fandom its that bad 😭 but i’ll be honest with you, you’ll never see me think men get too much hate like ever, im sorry. i’m really not that person to defend men on the internet, i just don’t care at all. i think men centered people are insufferable. i literally block people who only fixate on male characters because i dont want to see that since im not interested in men and i dont find them remotely interesting personality wise either. i hate cishet men who play ptn, ive talked to some before and theyre just insufferable so im putting them all in the same basket and idrc. i hate men in general and that extends to fiction so idk you’ll never see me defend men if they’re hated just bc they’re men or whatever like i dont care

all of this is /lh by the way, im not mad or anything, i’m just saying 😭 the ptn community has its flaws but hating on men is such a non-issue to me

[cottoncloud0]

little hope review *SPOILERS*

i was gonna write this ages ago and i literally forgot about this lmao but i promised the two people who are interested in these reviews that i would write another and tbh i find these really fun lol.

(reminder that this review is in no way professional, it is just my personal opinion and a bit of fun)

(side note i will only be talking about the theatrical cut)

PROLOGUE

this prologue was really interesting for me, both parts. i love that they didnt actually show any of the bus driver and it gave a really good mysterious aspect to the town of little hope, especially with the state trooper warning the bus driver about the town.

omg i cant even begin to say how much i enjoyed the second part of the prologue. the character building of the 80s family is so good. it established the dynamics of the group brilliantly without it being too obvious what the actual plot will be. i also likes that it kind of left you in the dark of whats going on, almost connecting itself to the first part of act one.

quick side note, i just learned that the choice you make on how tanya should escape the fire (going down the drainpipe or going through the window) directly affects taylors and tabithas deaths e.g if you chose the drainpipe like i did taylors demon will be the hanged demon and tabitha will be hanged and if you chose the window taylors demon will be the burned demon and tabitha will be burned at the stake.

ACT ONE

if im being completely honest i really didnt like taylor in the beginning lol. but i think thats a good thing. i mean its boring as fuck to play a game where you like every single character and none of them have flaws (this is also why i have a mixed relationship with locked traits but ill talk about that later).

okay lets talk about the pacing. when i first played little hope i thought that by the time i finished act one i thought i had ALSO finished act two. i think that says everything that needs to be said.... but seriously act one was way too long. this seems to be a theme in the early dark pictures games, like i said in my man of medan review.

i do think that the introductions to the characters were done really well though because even though almost of the characters had relationships previously to the game you could still develop or break any of them during the game. even when youre still in the first few chapters you can affect ,for example, taylor and daniels relationship drastically only with a few choices.

(i know this because i accidently got their relationship to like under halfway with like three choices 😭)

ACT TWO

what do you mean the supposed main bit of the story is the shortest section in the game? what do you mean it has less than half of the amount of chapters act one has? WHAT DO YOU MEAN????

in all seriousness, i completely forgot about some of the chapters in this act like 'lost' and 'troubled history' but on the other hand it also gave us one of the most memorable chapters in the game 'surrounded'. this is actually baffling to me because how do you make the most boring sections of the game immediately move onto one of the chapters i enjoyed most? its just quite inconsistent so now in my memory i can only really remember the bus crash, the bridge, the church and the house. and can i just add that only one those segments is in act two, which i think is supposed to be the main part of the story.

although, i did really enjoy the demons in this act and i think the developers did a great job of introducing the demons (the only gripe i have with it is that they were introduced quite late into the story but i think i feel that way because act one was so long and the demons were only introduced in the ending chapter of act one). i feel its a massive improvement to man of medan when they were trying to introduce two threats at the same time with one taking a backseat almost as fast as it was introduced.

i also liked how all the characters got back together about halfway through act two and in a completely natural way as well. it doesnt feel forced or rushed it just feels normal and how i would expect a group of terrified civilians to act with each other.

ACT THREE

there seems to be a pattern in all of the acts in little hope. forgettable first halfs and memorable and incredibly fun second halfs. act three is no different.

i think the fact that i could remember almost everything that happened in the ending but i had to go back on the chapter wikis to remember any of the first two chapters says a lot.

honestly the start of this act just feels like a plot extender and an extra opportunity to get people killed. BUT THE ENDING OF THIS ACT I LOVE <3. i like that i takes a quick break from running away from the demons to develop the mary storyline (which i will ALSO talk about later) and the choices you make really do matter and they actually make the players think about the choices theyre making because the 'right' answer isnt clear throughout the game so youre really left in the dark and have to make the call completely off your own accord.

quick final bit before we get onto the ending, but i also love the segment when everyone is running away from their respective demons and john and angela are the last one out there. the reason i love this section so much is because it can really define how angela is as a character or how you want to play her, which can also affect the ending.

right. time to talk about 'full circle'. i dont think words could describe how fucking annoyed i was when i had kept everyone alive right until this chapter only for taylor and john to be killed because of a mechanic that i didnt even know existed. AND I KNOW FOR A FACT THERES MORE PEOPLE WHO EXPERIENECED THIS.

the locked traits mechanic is very cool, trust me, but the fact that it was never ,at least, given some hints that it would be the decider of the characters fate and that they were something that genuinely matter.

at first i thought that they were just pre-determined flaws that each character had lol.

THE END

little hope has a total of seven endings and i do actually want to touch on a few of them because holy shit some of them are insane 😭

the ending i got was: vince called the police and another protagonist was alive. this resulted in andrew being revealed to be anthony (like in all endings) and being taken away in a police car as it is also revealed that the other protagonists (in my case daniel and angela) were hallucinations.

i get why some people would hate this ending, i do too, only because the previous game also had the exact same plot twist??? and that is just so uncreative that they couldnt figure out a different ending to give to one of the games. in my opinion if they DID actually give a new ending to man of medan or little hope i would 100% want it to be man of medan, which i can now confidently say is my least favourite game made made by supermassive.

quick side note, ending 5 is fucking insane and if you got it on your first ever playthrough i would have loved to see your reaction lol.

for those who dont know what the fuck im talking about ill give a quick summary of ending 5.

to get this ending vince must have not have called the police, andrew has the gun and it has at least one bullet in it and mary had to have been excecuted. after the initial cutscene, andrew aims the gun at his temple. megan then appears behind andrew and screams at him, causing him to shoot himself. After it was revealed that andrew was anthony/the bus driver all along, his corpse is shown laying at the doorstep.

like what the fuck.

RANDOM SHIT

in all honesty i had no clue on what to pick regarding the mary situation. i think i chose like 4 different choices all contradicting each other in my playthrough, but seriously what is the objective 'right' path defending mary or killing her?

as for collectibles, i found i think 43 (?) secrets, all black pictures, 4-5 white pictures and the gold pictures. in this game it is already such and improvement to man of medans exploration system. for example, if opening a certain door or picking up a certain item the game will show you this '>>>>' which means it will move you onto the next segment and oh my god this has made exploration so mad more enjoyable and easier can i just say.

CONCLUSION

this game is miles better than man of medan. i enjoyed the aesthetic, gameplay, concept, characters (some more than others) and yeah it was overall a good game (not better than house of ashes though ;) )

EXTRA

CHARACTER RANKING

Angela (the funniest character in lh, she had humour but also a serious personality, where was she for half the game? 😭)

Daniel (so sweet and caring to everyone, love him and taylor)

Andrew (he is THE male protagonist but we love him for that, anthony is deeply traumatised 🙏)

Taylor (hated her in the beginning but she grew on me, he deaths are so brutal lmao but she is so incredibly funny)

John (alcoholic and annoying, he did really care about angela though)

RATING

6 or 7/10 / 3 1/2 stars

as always if youre still reading by this point respect to you my friend and tysm for reading i hope you enjoyed me waffling about random games for 1,750 words ilysm <33333

[mousemannation]

10, 15, 31!

thank u maya :33 from this ask game!

10. Would you say you’re an emotional person?

Yes and no, which sounds like a cop-out answer but im on those sweet sweet emotionally numbing ssris kajsjsj so i have my moments. Unmedicated I am pretty emotional and occasionally that will overcome the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors <//3

15. What do you think of when you hear the word home?

This one is interesting bc i did an assignment about this for English class years ago and had to really think about it. I’ve never had a Childhood Home u know?? cause ive moved a Lot growing up. Im also mixed race so it can get a bit interesting on the “home” front.

if I get conceptual than eucalyptus scented things, the sound of like 15 of my relatives talking over the tv, a thai restaurant being in every town in australia no matter how small, the beatles and Nina Simone playing over the sound system.

31. Are you messy or organised?

So messy it’s terrible 🙈🙈 i get really autistically worked up about tidying up it is one of my greatest flaws. I don’t like not being able to see things like I dont like packing things away under the house bc it’s not In My Space anymore. I also get way too emotionally attached to things so I find it really hard to get rid of things 😭😭 im really good at cleaning up things that ARENT mine like at other peoples houses or whatever though!