#isabeau: not on my fucking watch

[siliconforbrains]

ISABEAU DOING HIS ABSOLUTE BEST TO DISCREETLY SNAP SIFFRIN OUT OF THEIR SPIRALING BY TUGGING AT THEIR CAPE AND RANTING ABOUT STITCHING TECHNIQUES I LOVE HIM

[puppppppppy]

thanks @chipper-smol for getting me ISAT i will be so irresponsible with the looping

[lucabyte]

i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.

i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.

anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.

[beneathsilverstars]

isabeau

[crazyw3irdo]

id like the many many people who said my romeo & juliet uquiz reminded them of in stars and time to know i started playing it and hell fuckin yeah

[waywardsalt]

this has been a good year for new games for me, ironically bc i had a shit time with totk and was able to better recognize what i like. totk is a game i have not touched since beating it, while every other game i have played this year have be considerably better and just. idk good experiences

so some reflection on the games i played for the first time this year that i really liked!

i played fire emblem engage this year- i literally forgot that that happened this year, i've only been counting games since totk, and i've played some good fuckin games after totk, but i honestly had a good silly time with fe engage. the music is great, the story is a bit flat and hammy at times but was still engaging (hah) and i was pleasantly surprised by the development of the main character, and it was pretty hard even on an easy difficulty, which each map sometimes taking an hour to get through as the story progressed. plus i can't deny that the referneces to other fe games with the emblem rings was a cool selling point, i'm not too familiar with the other fe games and it was interesting to see some of the characters from them. loading into lucina's paralogue and instantly recognizing the map layout and music got to me pretty good as someone who was introduced into the series by awakening. it was great!

i played persona 5 royal after totk and. what a fucking palette cleanser it's one of the best games i have ever played and i've... somewhat liveblogged my first playthrough and snippets of my second, it's fantastic (not flawless tbf) and just a lot of fun. the music is great holy shit and it was also just a great story to experience, with some interesting messaging throughout with the confidant stuff and the things brought up by the third semester. i didn't even initally get persona 5 with the intention to play it myself, it was for my sibling, who played it once and put it down and hasn't touched it since while i picked it up on a whim and was hooked by the music and style and gameplay and... holy shit it's so good. i don't even mind okumura's palace too much.

i managed to get myself a copy of kid icarus uprising (and also got the guide book by accident, don't ask, it's helpful anyways), and... they sure did make a third person shooter on the 3ds and it sure does. Handle. in all honestly the controls are kind of a mess but the game feels really good to play when you get a handle on them, even if i keep accidentally sending pit falling to his death in the ground segments because just moving him is a bit rough. the game is also surprisingly hard, and i wouldn't just chalk it up to the controls, and the music (esp the tracks for the air segments and the way its timed to the game events... ugh) is fantastic, and what i've seen of the story and characters so far is charming! i have only gotten up to past chapter 9 out of... 30? because each chapter is fairly long and... those controls. it's great!

i also managed to get my hands on shin megami tensei iv! i first found it through the fantastic soundtrack, played the first through hours after it failing to boot a few times and getting fucking destroyed by the earliest enemies because holy shit this game will beat you into the ground if you try, and was like 'hm i wonder why they went with that specific sound for a lot of the ost' and then got to fucking tokyo and i. i do not know a lot abt smt iv's story and i'm grateful. getting to tokyo was a bit internal 'holy SHIT' moment and i am so desperate to figure out what the fuck is going on with this story and world it's really fascinating. i haven't progressed the story in a while even through i know where to go just because i'm trying to level flynn and my demons and do side quests because i am not going to underestimate any new encounter ever it's fantastic.

did i start playing clangen this year? i might have. it's good. it's fun. i've played it on voice call with my friend a few times. i'm currently hooked on starting with 1 apprentice and 1 kit like a lot of people are doing on here, building cool stories based on it. it's neat.

that's (probably) all of the new games i've played (and enjoyed) this year so far, but i found out that fallout: new vegas is ten fucking dollars on steam (20 with all of the dlc) and i might have to give that a shot after tracking down a bunch of mods to keep it from crashing, and just from what i've seen of people talking about it, it sounds like a game i really need to try either this year or sometime next year. i'm mostly still just floored that it's less than thirty dollars.

[chimerafeathers]

the concept of intentional boredom/tedium in video games is very much a "your mileage may vary" kind of thing and i go back and forth about it in different situations. where does it work? where does it feel earned/worth the mental toll? why am i gonna play a game that is trying to make me miserable?

i can understand this not being the case for everyone (ymmv, after all) but for ISaT i was so fucking fully on board with the repetitive tedium of it all. rubbing my grubby little hands together and going yesssss, yesssssss, make my immersive gameplay experience directly emulate the exact frustrations and anxieties and mind-numbing breakdowns of the player character. remind me, at every turn, the toll this would take on the person living it. make me live their inner monologue before it's ever verbalized on screen.

how strong you feel, compared to the party you're inevitably leaving behind, how weak they seem now. how annoying it is to cut down these same enemies again and again, always pointlessly getting in your way (oh, how convenient that Siffrin feels the same way so intensely that you can get an item that lets him scare them off by sheer force of will before they attack you!). since when was the King's battle--so terrifying, so impossible before--so easy? can't this go faster? you've heard this all before.

let me skip ahead, loop around, treat my character my body Siffrin as disposable, take the fast and easy way to reach the next goal when you're on the verge of an exciting breakthrough, this loop doesn't matter anyway. but ohh, this next loop might be The One, better do this one right and follow the script to perfection. make all the jokes and say all the right things to get the lovely bonding dialogue so you can carry the Best Version of Everyone through to the end. that'll give you the Good Ending, right? can't hurt to try, right? you don't really believe it but this time will fix everything, right?

how generous and wonderful to have so many shortcuts at hand! dissociating zoning out to skip repetitive dialogue, splitting your head open on a rock slipping on a banana peel in the town to loop right to the floor you need, suuuuurely all of this stuff is purely for the Player's Convenience and won't have any psychological impact on our dear protagonist such that it gets slammed back into the player's face as a stomach-dropping reminder that someone's moment-to-moment experience in this time loop still matters, still carries over, still gets riddled with scars even if they can't be seen!

i've played & watched enough games that trivialize/hand-wave game mechanics that it's pretty easy to detach myself from the minutiae of video game decision-making. "this input gets the Good Response" -> "i will continue doing this input." "this option will be more efficient" -> "might as well save some time then." but this game would not let me stop thinking about consequence.

picking Siffrin's favorite food makes them happy! :) it's also the option that makes Bonnie the happiest! yay! -> i keep picking their favorite food -> Siffrin gradually grows sick of something that once brought him joy -> oh. right. that...makes sense, huh.

okay i asked the King what i needed, mann there won't be any tears after the fight is over so i'll have to do the whole ending scene again and that takes a while and i reeeeally wanna talk to Loop, maybe i'll just lose on purpose this time -> OH. RIGHT. THIS IS MAYBE THE MOST PAINFUL WAY FOR SIFFRIN TO DIE BOTH PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY HUH. -> never gonna do that again actually!!!!! the ending isn't that long!!!!

banana peel time! we've got places to be and mysteries to solve! -> (you're a living comedy sketch.) (you wonder if you'll ever be able to smell bananas again without wanting to vomit.) -> i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry

it's always cute to see Isabeau's reactions! pick the options that make him blush :3 -> (disgusting. manipulative. it's no wonder he thinks he likes you, you made him feel that way.) -> i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry siffrin NO he liked you before any of this happened please don't think of yourself that way--

maybe it won't hit the same for every player (what game can expect to do that?) but holy fuck it hit for me. the way the mechanics let you fall into familiar gamey rhythms but constantly, constantly remind you that this is Siffrin's life you're playing with. the way you end up perfectly in step in the worst ways. muscle memory and habit built up so well that you both stumble when something changes. devastating and delicious

[str8rat]

(edit: if you saw this being posted twice no you didnt i fucked something up)

OHHH MY GODD YES PLEASE?? YES?? PRETTY PLEASE?? I'd love to talk about and theorize about this AU ;w; I'm super open to more suggestions and ideas!!!

Also.. i've done a little thing.. so this ask really got me into the AU atm.. WHICH I SHOULDN'T BE FOCUSING ON CUZ I NEED TO FINISH THE ANIMATIC BEFORE SUMMERBREAK but it really got me motivated to write. And so i did, I wrote SO FUCKING MUCH about the Change God of this au, as well as the fucked up cults it has, and a bit about the Universe as a diety too. Won't be sharing it yet tho!! this post would be too fucking long ._. and this pocket cat thing which is called Chat de Poche in this AU. anyways, enjoy the lore of this harmless uwu kitty below;

~ ~ ~

Chat de Poche – This AU’s version of Pocket Cat, is a sinister figure rumored to steal naughty children from their parents, never to be seen again. On the first floor of the House, the party encounters this seemingly harmless Sadness. Upon interaction, Chat de Poche offers the party a chilling proposition: if they sell Bonnie to it, they will receive a weapon that "will ensure their victory against the King."

The party is horrified by the mere suggestion of sacrificing their lovable little Chef Cooker. But to their shock, Bonnie, swallowing down their fear, bravely insists that they aren’t scared and implies they might agree to the deal. After all, that would prove them to be useful for once, wouldn't it..? The party, however, refuses outright.

Mirabelle, overcome with emotion, breaks down in tears, apologizing to Bonnie for ever making them feel like they weren’t doing enough, and for feeling they needed to sacrifice themselves to be valued. Bonnie, moved to tears, hugs Mirabelle tightly, asking her not to cry. Isabeau quickly joins the embrace, forming a comforting cuddle pile. While this unfolds, Odile turns her attention to Chat de Poche, her expression unreadable.

In a flash, she unleashes a devastating Paper Craft Attack, slicing the entity in half. The room falls silent as the party watches Odile, getting rid of Chat de Poche with one swift attack, leaving behind only a puddle of dark, lifeless goo, like any defeated Sadness. Odile, her face still inscrutable, then turns to Bonnie and gives them a soft head pat before calmly suggesting they move on.

The moment is both chilling and awe-inspiring, solidifying Odile’s position as a powerful, yet ruthless force within the party. Especially towards those that dare to land a hand on her family.

ODILE FUCKING ROCKS

[dasnercaret]

how ISAT makes you feel like going home

so one of my friends said to me "the first time i played (isat) was when i was home sick, i felt like it had curative properties. analyse that mr playstyle 😎" and i took it as a fucking challenge. i've never written an (tumblr-posted) analysis essay before and i'm going into this with a bunch of haphazardly folded ideas and NO OUTLINE fuck it we ball

so to begin with: DORMONT.

isat, as a whole, is extremely a traditional rpg setup. which unfortunately i know little to nothing about, so forgive me in advance if i put my foot in my mouth regarding traditional rpg mechanics. but like many games, you start at a home base, at home. and the whole vibes of the place honestly serve to only emphasize the safe / at home / storybook atmosphere isat cultivates. you wake up in a field, sleepy and tired. your dear friend mirabelle leans over you and tells you to wake up, because you're going to beat the king tomorrow! and you laugh and you're sleepy but eventually you start playing. eventually, you push yourself up and wander around and meet the townsfolk and your party.

now, the player doesn't know the party. they've just opened the game! they don't know these characters. siffrin does though, and it shows in the interactions he has with each one of them. mirabelle teases siffrin about the quality of his nap. isabeau puns with siffrin. odile smiles at him. bonnie... looks away, because of backstory you don't have yet, because you're leaping into this story at its very end. but siffrin knows.

(...)

siffrin knows. which informs his narration, of course, and overall it gives the sense of - you're watching a story already known, with characters who already love each other. like walking into a family home midway through a dinner party, to know and be known in turn.

(you know where you are. you're home!)

siffrin provides some exposition of course, enough to catch the player up and let them know the basics of the world you've set foot into. these people are here because they have natural ties, connections to the land they've been born or raised in or are travelling through. you all are here to defeat the king, who is the epitome of a traditional storybook villain, the big bad evil you defeat at the end of the fairytale. he's just the generically evil guy, with no focus given to the atrocities he must have committed and been willing to commit in order to get where he is. there's no need to be scared of him, not really. (yet.) he's evil, but in the way a storybook villain is evil. all the sharp edges defanged, sanded away, all the humanity and dimensionality and violence inherent in his character compressed into a set of scribbles on the page, words on a screen. it's not personal. it's not.... scary. not to you, and not to siffrin, who's already been floating above it all.

(the rest is under a cut! spoilers for The Entire Rest Of The Game)

similarly, the exposition is in the form of little childlike drawings, emphasizing the same nostalgia it draws on - fairytales, fables, those stories where the heroes collect the magic sword and slay the dragon and save the princess. you know these stories, consciously or not. you love these stories, (probably), and it all serves to emphasize the familiarity with which you step into dormont. heroic stories are extremely common in the stories we love today, from the old classic prince charming to (somewhat) more modern legend of zelda, and no doubt many people picking up isat have a similar passing familiarity with the overarching story of rpgs. (i in fact was the exception, but that's a whole other essay)

the townspeople definitely do not help this vibe as well. they are practically one and all kind, steady people, precisely the sort of common folk you'd want to save in a story where nothing hurts and everyone is safe and loved. they're happy to gift you a flower or a pan au chocolat and cheer you on in your quest, certain of your victory and at least certain of their continued happiness even if you fail. simple, easy, familiar, comforting in the way redwall is comforting or an old set of childhood fairytales is comforting. there's no real judgement, no anger at you for potentially failing and (almost) none of the gross ugly real emotions that would be present in a more 'realistic' story. simple, easy, familiar, comforting.

(You like knowing what happens next!)

so. i think we all know that isat at its core is a game about homesickness. god's sakes mal du pays is literally right there. the central conflict of this game, beneath the overlaying fluff of an rpg archetype and an evil to defeat, is about siffrin not being able to go home while the rest of his party get to do so. and even at this very early stage (approximately act 1 and i would argue a bit into act 2) you can start to see the cracks. siffrin is shown alone, tagging along with the party because he had "nothing else to do" (read: nowhere else to go.) he laughs and pals and jokes with the party, but like before, like always, he merely mirrors them. he makes puns with isabeau because isabeau likes puns, and siffrin liked making him laugh so much so that he adopted puns into a part of his personality. he comforts mirabelle about her future, jokes with odile about her research, and always, always, avoids talking about himself. when they ask where he's going to go after their journey is over, his answer is always a mirror of their own - pilgrimage, research, travel, comedy. when he makes a wish at the favor tree, there's no option to wish for himself.

because the thing is, right. siffrin never thinks of himself. the only options instead are to wish for his family - his home, his only living and real connections in his life, the people surrounding him that really make dormont feel like a real home and not just another friendly place in vaugaurde he's passing through. cause the townsfolk are nice, sure, they're friendly, sure, but - they don't know him. they're not important enough for him to literally rewrite his personality for them. it's his party instead, that he laughs and jokes with and is known with, even if superficially. he wants to be allowed to go home, to stay home. he's been homeless both literally and figuratively for so long that he's beyond desperate to be allowed to keep what little he's found for himself.

(You want to stay with them!)

except - what happens when you beat the game? what happens when you finish the rpg, when you reach the end of the book, when you grow up and leave this set of children's fairytales behind?

you put it down, right? you go home, right? you go back to your home, you go back to travelling, you go back to your family.

what do you do when you don't get to go home? when dormont and the clocktower and the house are the closest you will ever get to home, are the last moment you will ever have being home before it's ripped away from you forever? (ripped away from you just like before - )

you'd want to stay, right? forever and ever and ever?

siffrin is a character who has a very bad time letting go. just like the king, he wants to have, desperately, enough to kill himself a hundred times over for it. and, through the timeloop, he can pull you, the player, and himself and his hapless party along through the timeloop, repeating the same two comforting days over and over and over and over.

and perhaps after a few loops of settling in you, too, can understand why he would want to do this. it's nice, isn't it? knowing what will happen? knowing that these people will always love you? knowing that you can always get the flower, always get the drawing, always get the pan au chocolat, always beat the tutorial kid and get the jackpot? that the townsfolk will always smile at you, that your party - your family, your home - will never know what you've done?

it's not enough, isn't it?

(Dormont, unchanging! Dormont, stagnating!)

no matter how hard siffrin tries to cling to the past turned present to stave off his inevitable future, he is still human. under the fairytale setting and pretty lights, even under his own desire to stay with them, he needs that human connection. he needs something to change, to give way. needs to be seen, to be known, to be loved for himself and not because he's learned the perfect pretty words and actions to trick them into loving him. you, the player, the person driving siffrin, can understand this frustration perfectly as well - you need something to change. you need something to give way, because you can't keep doing this. because you can't hear the same lines over and over and over anymore. you can't do the same thing over and over anymore. you're not happy. siffrin's not happy. something needs to change.

i finished isat over the course of about four days, playing about 12-14 hours per day. during that time, i experienced possibly the most deeply intensely felt emotion i have ever experienced. to this day when i look back on my first playthrough of isat, the sheer depth and fury of that emotion takes my breath away.

and it was frustration. just like siffrin, i was trapped. i couldn't look away, because i loved these characters, because i loved their story, because i wanted them to keep going and going and living and i wanted to keep living alongside them. but i couldn't keep going like this. i couldn't do the same thing over and over and over. i needed something to change, but both siffrin and i were desperately, agonizingly trapped in the same few days. the same places, the same faces, the same lines said rote until i was zoning out through every dialogue interaction, only pausing when i needed to make sure that i hadn't missed something new.

because i loved these characters. i loved how homely they felt. i loved them, i loved them, i -

needed them to be real. to change, to grow, to have their future returned to them. i needed to see them go home, not trapped in this same endless time-frozen loop. i had been trapped at home too long, and the cabin fever was eating me alive. my desire to be allowed to keep playing (to stay in the timeloop) was duking it out with my desire to see them change beyond what they were allowed to change in the span of just two days. i wanted to see bonnie grow up, to see isabeau change into someone else, to see odile come to terms with her half-vaugardian nature, to see mirabelle learn to accept her sexuality (or lack thereof). i wanted them to remember us as family.

ah, isat, absolute king of getting in my head and making me think like siffrin.

back to dormont. in the end, dormont only changes permanently in act 6, after the time loop breaks. the only time the townsfolk ever change, ever coherently move to different places and act differently (act 5 is similar, but i would argue that's because siffrin changes, dormont still doesn't really meaningfully change) is after the loops.

and it's fitting, isn't it? by this point in the game, you could recite dormont backwards and forwards. but by this point in the game, you are well aware that you need to give them back a future. their future. the one they wished for in the first place. they've been trapped in their fairy tale wonderland for long enough. they deserve to go home, truly home, to go forward and live their lives and keep moving on. to allow them to change, to grow.

to allow yourself to change, to grow. to allow yourself to go home, to admit that you want to keep your home you have now, to keep the family you've built from blood and death and tears and stars.

(You want to stay with them!)

to leave dormont. to leave this fairytale behind, and keep living.

[openphrase123]

anyway, if you've been reading four eyes, you might be going "what the fuck is other-isabeau doing" and we're far enough in the fic that i got bored and made a handy chart about what other-isabeau is up to emotionally through the story

this should be obvious but. spoilers for four eyes

(swears added because that's my conversational outline tone the fuck word does not exist in isat to me)

Memories and Loop 0: functionally the same as POV isabeau

Meeting Loop: still the same but this is the branching off point

Loop 1: oh shit is that me (confused)

Watching Isabeau and Siffrin try to crack the loops together: oh shit that is me (derogatory)

Losing to the King for the first time: haha why is the rest of the team looking at me so sadly what did i do [knows what he did and is repressing it bigstyle]

Beating the King for the first time: well the loops should be over, right? :) i didn't have to talk to myself that much and everything is - wait why are we looping again

Loop 9: wait what do you mean siffrin immediately tries to kill themselves it's only been couple weeks [squints at loop]

First Friendquest: i hate this fucking timeloop

Loop Hangout: i hate myself. i'm talking about my clone of course and nobody else

Loops 24-49: [in baby jail with loop while the rest of the team tries to break the loops]

Loops 50/51: i'm having the worst time of my life right now and i'm going to take it out on myself in a bad way

Loop 52: you know what. i should calm down because bonnie's really hurt. and i should just be civil with myself

Before Loop 78: loop said to just chill out and let the loops play out so i guess i'm doing that. and i'm definitely not avoiding everyone on the team who has questions about my mental health

Loop 78: you know i still hate myself but maybe i've been too hard on him. i should take over next time

Until Loop 85: i'm helping and this will have no consequences whatsoever :3

Loop 85: oh

After Loop 85: okay back to doing nothing because i can't do anything right........... i guess..............

Loop 97: OH HE'S GETTING OUT oh wait they're not FUCK

Until Loop 104: i guess we're mutinying against my partner which sucks but also it sucks to be in this timeloop

Final Loop: HEY IDIOT [directed at self] [which one? ;)]

and then.... oooh mysteries beyond there :) mysterious postcanon development..... oooooooh -

[jarofmoonz]

yeah ofc !!! also don’t mind me I’m normal in the tags lying

any of my mutuals wanna collab with me? Like drawing Isafrin perhaps…..that’ll be interesting me thinks 👀

[lucabyte]

i CANNOT stress enough how incompatible the themes of these two pieces of media are. i promise my media literacy ability is actually good im well aware that these character mappings are absolutely nothing. that said. play with me in this space. in this sopping wet miserable space. its bad luck to kill a piou piou

original screenshots (and hypnosis 1904) for reference

[kosmical]

alr i'll bite what's isat

Omg thanks for opening pandoras box! You will regret this

In stars and time is the recent food source of my brain eating amoeba and it Will Not Leave. before i get into why im rabid about it though ill give a brief synopsis . putting a read more here because i suspect this post will get LONG.

its a game about a classic rpg party on the last two days of their quest to save the country from The King who is freezing everything, including people, in time. the main character, Siffrin, is the party's rogue who, upon going into the House of Change (the game's dungeon so to speak) and promptly dying, finds out that they're trapped in a time loop. they're the only one who remembers repeating the last two days- aside from a star named loop who helps him try and figure out whats going on, why, and how to break out.

Now personally ive never been invested in a time loop story?? Im not sure if thats because i havent consumed much media thats implemented it before as its main premise or if i just havent been interested but i think in stars and time meshes the two different genres a time loop story can fall into really well (the mystery and the emotional conflict).

The mystery is what drives you through the game (and there are other questions unrelated to the timeloop about siffrin's origin and the world itself that i think handle a variety of themes like loss of culture and personal transformation really well but thats a different tangent) but the emotional parts are what really got me. You have to watch almost in the backseat as Siffrin is like. Slowly depersonalized from the people they care about. All while refusing to tell them anything about their misery because they don't want to burden them or drag them into his suffering. Even happy moments that Siffrin doesnt mind repeating become tainted because it becomes a matter of acting so that the "scene" doesnt stray from its path and his party doesnt become suspicious.

and yet they still DO, both in regards to Siffrin's World Alteringly Terrible Case of the Mondays and the actual time loop. they notice how tired and fake he seems. one of my absolute favorite scenes is one where you interact with a closet and it provokes a conversation about where Siffrin got their cloak from and how long they've had it, because its really one of a kind. it has temperature regulatory magic imbued in the stitches and is made to grow with him. And siffrin just cant fucking remember. not only because hes been looping so long that its created a haze over his mind but because he has no true "identity." and as he's scrambling to fill in an answer for this hole in his head, a gust of wind hits his face because one of their friends, isabeau, flapped his cloak while inspecting it to ground him. and he disguises it by commenting on the thickness of the cloak.

Getting this scene by accident on my playthrough made me feel so many feelings dude like . Siffrin isn't the only one trying to hide things. Their friends care about him so much and they try to disguise how concerned thwy are and its just. Im . Im Normal.

its not just about that though . Like if you start finding shit a little too fast they'll start catching on to whats happening. a little sound effect will play whenever you know something you shouldn't know and the others notice and whenever it happened i was like. Twisting in my seat waiting for them to call me out.

it all builds up into this really fucking painful emotional climax that i will not talk about because i don't want to spoil more than i already have but omg. I was writhing. It was. Hhhggnngh.hfg. Glass shards in ym mouth yummy

On the topic of shit i cant talk about: My favorite character is this fucking thing

I have held off from talking about loop's role in the story because i cant describe to you why they make me so ill. Not because i dont know Why but because it is something you should experience yourself. They're really charming and funny and their dialogue is fantastic. Of course that's part of the reason i lauve them but theres also the underlying secondary mystery of why they're here/who and or what they are/etc. And when u know. Its. I Cant Tell You. BUT ITS REALLY GOOD. ITS REALLY REALLY GOOD. Just know that if you get to the end and are still confused about them. That theres more than the main ending . AND IT IS PROBABLY WHY I AM SO INSANE ABOUT THIS GAME HONESTLY. I LOVE YOU FOREVER LOOP . im ok

In short: In stars and time is a game that is good and you should play it :) Im pretty sure its on sale right now on steam so yeah go get that.

if you made it through this fucking dissertation length post on isat CONGRATULATIONS ! heres some miscellaneous doodles ive done of it in the past month since ive played it love love

[eldragon-x-moved]

*insert excuse for you to talk about siffrin and loop intrusive thoughts hcs here*

*shakes like a scared wet dog* ok. uuh watch out because I describe self harm in uncomfortable detail at one point in this.

So there's like, the obvious ones like Siffrin having thoughts about harming/killing his friends (which the game straight up refers to as intrusive thoughts) and the dreams he has about cannibalizing his friends.

I also think about how some of the ways Siffrin can die are like, kinda cartoonish but gruesome if you think on it? Like being crushed by a rock or slipping on a bananan peel and breaking their head open/breaking their neck. I personally experience thoughts where I die or get severely harmed through some stupid shit hamsterstyle and they get uncomfortably visceral and since Siffrin does actually die Like That *hits him with the projection beam*

Another one I think about is how, if you interact with the glass shard in Act 6, Siffrin panics and throws it away. Which to be fair is reasonable to do and he did that because he doesn't want anyone to get worried. That being said I can absolutely see them experiencing intrusive thoughts about self harm, specifically in circumstances where he doesn't actually want to do it or where his thoughts are a lot more gruesome than anything he would actually do. E.g. a little while ago I shared a snippet from my fic where Loop thinks about using a peeler to peel their arms open. That one was actually based on me having a thought about using a cheese grater so um. I actually arguably toned it down a little bit for the fic. But you get the point.

In that fic snipped I also had Loop have a thought related to food contamination and it's. Honestly not as strong as my other headcanons on this subject? Like I think you could link it to the cannibalism dreams and Siffrin developing a weird relationship with food during the loops but I don't have a whole lot to say about this one.

Now the Main Reason I hesitate to get into my headcanons about what intrusive thoughts Siffrin and Loop experience is because I can honestly see them experiencing ones about sexual harrassment. Like Siffrin repeatedly expresses that he thinks he's greedy and disgusting for craving touch and affection and he feels like he's forcing Isabeau to love him and grows repulsed towards their own feelings and this whole thing has probably only been worsened with the Bad Touch event and it's a thing where I'm like. it sounds really fucked up but intrusive thoughts just are Like That and it makes sense to me.

And at the end of the day that's why I'm so riled up about people reading the cannibalism dreams as "so Loop probably ate their friends right" because how did you get to that conclusion. Siffrin, and by extension Loop, would rather kill themselves than seriously and intentionally harm their friends. Even when Loop wanted to test how their friends dying would affect Siffrin's loops, they decided to let the King get his hands dirty about it.

[kitcats-1-braincell]

Played start again x3 and holy fucking shit it murdered me and my friend who was watching me play

(SPOILERS FOR SASASA: P)

Ok ok I’m not really here to talk about the other endings but I’m here to talk about the fucking perfect route

Holy shit. My fucking horror when the king just one shotted us instantly and started hold on lemme quote my friend:

“Imagine being frozen and forced to see your friend getting smacked into the ground like a club. Could not have been Siffrin and the gang”

And also

We were both sitting there, jaws dropped, as we read that fucking dialogue of Mirabelle getting repeatedly thrown into the ground.

Like

What. The fuck?? I was not expecting to get one shotted, I thought maybe ‘oh!! Yay I get to win!!’ And then it’s just like ‘nope!! Watch this ;) ‘ and then immediately you get frozen and you can imagine the group watching Mirabelle get chucked around like she’s just a toy.

Ok rant over, have some things i thought was funny:

"Siffrin, I have now stolen your English and your words. You may never speak again." - me saying this as Odile because whenever I tried to voice her my words would die

"As always, you don't get a chance to catch your bry- blegh." "We've been climbling up the clastl- THE CAST- THE- THE- THE BLUH, THE....the castle! It's a castle!" Again, me struggling to form words

"Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior Siffrin Christ?" - The tears probably (I kept on running into tears and we had a running joke about the wine and Siffrin)

"I feel bonita" - Siffrin wearing a cheap ass Barbie dress (we looked at the dresses in Miras room)

"Y'all love it when heroes get to turn their lives around, but you're not a hero, Siffrin, you're just you YOU LITTLE BI-" I don’t actually remember this but I found it funny when I was looking through the chat so hehe

"We've all died like 2000000 times already, I wonder how we'll die this time. Maybe we'll get grated like cheese?" Tears and time and Blood and stars ending joke hehe

“SIFFRIN CHRIST LES GOOO” the wine joke, we immediately thought of Jesus because of an inside joke

“Bro doesn't have natural white hair the creator is lying that mf's a blonde in disguise” we kept on calling Frin dumb for some reason I can’t remember

“Thou heart was ripped in twain, never to be mended again ✨” when Siffrin was getting comforted by everyone in the true ending :> (The Mirabelle one im pretty sure, wow there’s a lot of Mira in this post)

“THEY CAN SET MY CARPETS ON FIRE IDC THEY'RE SO SWEET” my friend wanted to adopt Bonnie so badly lmao

Adding onto the original post lmao

"There, go drink a beer, have a headpat, now get tf out I'm watching my telenovelas" - Odile (When Odile was comforting Siffrin and shooed him away after a bit, we joked about how she was your typical wine mom)

The Isabeau and Siffrin holding hands thing melted our fucking hearts lmao 😭

THEY ARENT WRONG.

There’s all I have for now, but expect another one SUPER soon because I was actually dying because of this one joke/quote

[basilpaste]

hey hey do yall want my incoherent classpect rambles for the isat cast that i wrote while half asleep at 2 am?? too late!!!

odile is a heart player. 'oh but basil!! shouldnt she be a mind player or something?' no. the core of her character is her identity and lack thereof. shes intelligent and strong willed and has an innate understanding of many things. she cares for others deeply in a way she keeps close to her chest. mage of heart? she understands people but feels separate from them. i think her repeatedly almost clocking siffrin is also something that feels right for a mage of heart. despite sharing a classpect with meulin, shes less of a leijon heart player and more of a dirk one. if that makes sense.

mira is a maid of hope. this is an easy one. she could also be breath, i also see breath, because… change. but her character is so tied to the idea of hope that its gotta be. other peoples hope for her, the pressure she puts on herself because of that, that stuff. shes a maid not just for the housemaiden thing but because maids are 'fixers'. it ties nicely into her quest to save her home and also the fact that shes the only one who can. i also think her lack of belief in herself is a very 'hope' thing. jake is a pretty prime example of a hope player who doesnt hold hope for themself as much as for others.

i!!!! like mind player isabeau!!!! i think odile heart and isa mind is very good!!! im thinking heir of mind isa. heirs are passive which works well with isa being the character who gives the team the most buffs! heir of mind reads 'im going to weaken my enemies and bring up my team' to me. hes a smart guy. he knows hes smart. even when he lets people walk all over his intelligence. hes shockingly bad at handling his own emotions despite being good with other peoples. hes a loyal and trusting guy who often finds himself lost within the gap between who he is and who hes perceived as.

bonnies a range player. thumbs up. anger and fear are their driving forces for a lot of the game. theyre deeply emotional at the best of times. theyre a kid with a lot on their plate. this makes sense. i kind of like rogue of rage for them? their feelings tend to instill emotion within the rest of the party. even the idea of them being hurt drives a protectiveness in the adults. in the same way, they can steal away peoples emotion and mellow them out by being the most emotional person in the room.

also i like the symmetry of two aspect pairs with sif being alone. which leads me to:

sif is a time player. an argument could be made for him being a space player. but they are a time player because of the fucking. time loops they manifested for themself. sifs a knight. hes a knight of time. yes like dave strider but also because they are. every action they take is for their family. the time loop they stick themself in is because he wants to continue to be with them. knights serve. they push away their own thoughts and feelings for the sake of protecting those they feel an obligation towards. get back to the stage, siffrin.

loop is also a knight of time! hope this helps!! but theyre an arguably less stable knight? their influence in the story is mostly from the sidelines. they dont have control over anything anymore. they watch as the same thing happens over and over and over again. i think that seeing that and knowing that you not only caused it but you cant directly do anything to stop it is the worst punishment a knight could possibly receive.