#it makes it more immersive and i think thats fun

[mochinomnoms]

So, like out of curiosity, what are the cultural differences of child-rearing in English speaking countries vs. in Japanese society? You mentioned that in your Mrs. Rosehearts post, and now i'm curious.

I can't speak to much on it to be honest, as I only have my experience and the experiences that my friends have told me to compare. I also don't want to make huge assumptions, and since I can only compare between American and Latino child-rearing, I don't think I'm the best to ask 😓

My only opinion on Mrs. Rosehearts is that I think the TWST fandom, particularly the ones from the EN server, overly villainize her, rather than see her as a complicated character. I think that as a parent, she wants Riddle's best interests in mind but is so concerned about something ruining her son, even things out of her control, that she finds it easier to just keep him near and control everything to keep him safe and on the path that she believes will bring him the most success. She's not a good person, as she has absolutely done irreversible damage to Riddle and his social skills, but I think if you aren't raised in a similar situation as Riddle, or come from a culture where her type of child-rearing isn't normal, it's easy to just write her off as a bad parent and person. I'm of the opinion that it's a lot more complicated than that, which is why I'm more neutral about her and when I write her.

[yo9urt]

i know やった is not considered to be part of the onomatopoeic/mimetic word family but it almost feels like it could be

[marsbotz]

i had a dream i had a beautiful loving friendship with gus fring to match the one where i was besties with mike. im so broken take me BACK!!!!!

[hirokiyuu]

idk what the common twst theories are re:why did you isekai etc but my personal fave that ive been lowkey using in the bg of fics that is almost never relevant to the fic itself is like.

yuu is summoned post-prologue pt1 specifically to deal w/whatever the fuck happens to grim during hte obs. smth abt not having magic at all relating to this. idk if this is true whatsoever but i am thinking abt it

[etoileee]

If this is too intrusive I was wondering what method you use to shift

I’m so sorry this might not be helpful at all but I don’t really use methods and im a firm believer in you don’t need them to be able to shift.

the reason I don’t use a specific method is because a lot of the time there is a template outline for shifting methods, its very “do this and this and this and once this happens do this” and as someone that has adhd staying on task is already a challenge, and if it feels like I’m doing a chore, its even harder for me.

using those template shifting methods just doesn’t work for me, but I guess in a way I do have a bit of a method.. but it more of a life style than a shifting method in my eyes.

I like to immerse myself in my dr. for example with my percy jackson dr.

some things I like to do are watching the show, reading the books, creating playlists, vision boards, and IMAGINING!!

watching the show and putting yourself in their shoes, imagining what it would be like, what you would do, how would you react etc I think would be good for people that have a hard time visualizing since its right in front of you, reading the books is also a good way to immerse yourself in it because I think of it has being in their universe but in a different way, you don’t have to come up with your own scenarios because again I know that’s difficult for some people so already having something to work off of and just putting yourself in it.

CREATING PLAYLISTS AND VISION BOARDS OMFG

again this lines up with the whole “If you have trouble visualizing” thing because you can use images, even if you are good at imagining things I’d recommend doing this because really its so much fun, and making a playlist(s) is also something I’d recommend because music helps you feel. having songs you think match the vibe of your dr or your drself and listening to it while you visualize or create your vision board is just so much fun and in my opinion helps you really feel and imagine your dr and your drself

here is the vision board I created for my drself if you need any inspiration!

as for what I do for when I’m going to shift is as follows;

—STEP ONE

set the intention!

I know a lot of people say this but truly I mean it.

don’t overthink it. don’t give yourself enough time to doubt yourself because thats when you start to spiral and think you can’t do it, I know it’s easier said then done but a tip from me to you is when you start to get a thought like “I can’t do this” do NOT pay attention to it. think of your thought as a cloud and you are laying on the grass looking up at the sky, your “I can’t do this” cloud showing up in your sky, (your brain) you can acknowledge it if you want but pay no mind to it and watch it drift away in the wind.

—STEP TWO

be comfortable!

my room is always dark, and in a way I feel like it helps me shift, because it makes me feel comfortable and relaxed. I have this like teal night light and that as well feels as if it helps because the darkness mixed with the teal hue light is not only super relaxing but it’s something my brain associates with percy jackson. also please don’t fear not moving or feeling like you have to lay on your back! you’ll shift no matter what if you believe you can. not moving is recommended because it gets your body in that numb like “body asleep, mind awake” state faster, but you moving to itch yourself will not make you not shift. I promise.

—STEP THREE

visualization!

you can visualize anything to do with your dr and your drself. you can visualize where you’ll wake up for example, but make sure you use all your senses! where are you? inside or outside? what room is this? what are you laying on? what does it feel like? what colors can you see? what are some objects you see? what can you smell? whats the temperature? lose yourself in the visualization!

—STEP FOUR

shift!

keep your eyes closed until you fall asleep or feel your surroundings change, at that point when you wake up or open your eyes you’ll have shifted!

again, I know this could sound easier said than done and having someone tell you that something you’re struggling with isn’t difficult can be frustrating. trust me, I’ve been there, but something I need you to realize is its only as difficult as you let it be.

if you’re one of those people that struggles to tell when to open your eyes, I’d recommend scripting something like “I’ll smell a strong sent of *blank* once I’ve shifted” I also remember seeing someone script that once they’ve successfully shifted that they’ll feel a tap on their forehead. I feel like that would freak me out lmao but if you’re bold enough for it go ahead and do that!

A FINAL TIP

TAKE SHIFTING OFF THE PEDESTAL!!

dont think of it as something untouchable and only few select people can do because it isn’t. again, its only has hard as you let it be. instead of having shifting on the pedestal, put YOURSELF on the pedestal instead!

now get the hell up outta here (lovingly)

[simplydnp]

idk why this matters to me but in the last few months they've been acknowledging so many things I never ever thought they would. pinof and the touching. the phude multiple times. dapc slime (ok they had merch to sell for that one but still)

no but actually. phil literally said 'i thought we weren't acknowledging it' about the phude and now they just bring it up all the time.

pinof reacts... i still can't believe we're in a post pinof-reacts universe. how did that happen. i was changed permanently--like something shuffled in my dna when i got the notif for pinof reacts 1. this is not a physical reaction but a chemical one that cannot be undone. for something that was so... sacred. and integral. to their existence and history. pinof wasn't generally talked about unless it was pinof time. and even then it was 'it'll be up soon' or 'we just posted it' and then Never talked about outside of that. especially not the first one! we freak out about the We Know You Know in the newsletter but it's Always been like that with pinof 1. so to see them--new (& natural 🥺) hair for them both, in a house they bought and built together, in the first few months of giving the gaming channel a second chance--reflect on how it all began? absolutely devastating. and to lean into moments and discuss them in new ways. in territory previously not breached! the 'they're toUching'?!?!? the '11 hour fuck session'!?!? the '£9000 champagne'?!?!? like hey we're not supposed to talk about that, dan and phil might see!! shhh!! but they're the ones saying it!! absolutely wild.

in a way, it had to happen. especially with where we're at now (them literally selling merch of them holding hands). in order for them to move beyond that... mindset? i guess? that a lot of fans had, they had to defang it. i really see it as one of the biggest walls they've broken down in the way they communicate with us. the 'hey. it's okay. we've seen it. it's not a big deal. we will absolutely make fun of you for it though. but we're good.'

i'm just really curious whose idea it was. (lbr it was probably phil given dans not a react kinda guy. but i'd be lying if i said i didn't want to be in the room where it happened when they talked about actually doing it or not, and what it would mean) (big ad revenue thats for sure 🤣 get it kings)

i will never be able to get phil's 'they touched' out of my head and at this point i wouldn't want to. it's absolutely earned. and i guess it makes me a masochist to enjoy the psychic damage it inflicts on me, but such is life i suppose.

the crafts mention really surprised me! i had contemplated a few different scenarios in how they'd go about it, and i'll be honest i feel like they could've committed to the bit a little more but they're forgiven. like what about glitchy interstitials! cuts to the merch website. found footage inserted between sections! i recognize they don't want to 'scare' their usual audience wirh sudden cuts to intense/graphic content but my immersionnn. absolutely shattered by 'oh we have new merch now btw'. cmon boys you love to lie to us. say theres merch up but you dont know where it came from. just that we should buy it 👀 or idk, something clever. and i recognize i may sound like a spoilt brat bc i just got a 14 minute long masterpiece of an unexpected dapc revival, but my immersion. i mean i already bought the merch before they shilled it anyways so it didn't influence me regardless 🤣

ultimately we really are in a new era. even beyond just the revival. i think they're really finding their stride--not only in their content (evidenced by a semi-regular schedule) but also creatively, in doing what they want to do, how they want to do it, and truly not giving that much of a fuck anymore. and i'm really happy for them. phil talked a bit about this in his 'rating my icons' video, where he's kind of decided he doesn't care what people on twitter think, and how it's been good for him, and i think we're seeing that reflected in not only his content, but also the gaming channel. they play what they want. they say what they want. and it's just fun. dan going on the record to say he's really enjoying it makes me so happy to hear, because literally december 2022 he believed he'd disappear after WAD. and now, instead, he gets to play games and make stupid jokes and smile and laugh multiple times a week, and he's really happy about it. he gets to be silly and goofy and crude without having to Stress about it. i keep saying it but they're so settled now. and as someone who's followed them through big changes and turbulent times, getting to see them happy after everything... it brings a lot of hope. and i know theyre millionaires. but there's something to looking at someone you fell in love with 15 years ago the same then as you do now. but instead of it being something scary, something you have to hide, something that feels like it can consume you and everything you have--it gets to be something beautiful. and regular. and embraced. you've read this far you get to listen to me wax poetic about them.

we've been thoroughly boiled and maybe, just maybe, it's warming our hearts too.

[suenitos]

I need someone to explain the !cdnf lore to me 😔

oh my godddddd how do i even go about this... so much of this is like you had to be there but i'll try my best ok. here are some things that helped me tremendously while writing:

cdnf manifesto (pretty much all cdnf moments compiled into one document with streams attached)

some cdnf moments

cdnf is an interesting case because it kinda emerged a little bit before the time the separation between Lore (plot) and Real Life officially happened (in my opinion this is when dream put out the please use c! to refer to our characters tweet) where a lot of the fandom attitude towards rpf was still being kinda weirded out by it, so a lot of people were drawing dnf "as a dare"/"because i lost a bet" and infamously "only shipping the minecraft skins" slash characters. previous to this/around the time of fundy's wedding video there was no real culture surrounding shipping most characters in a serious immersive way according to the story really up until the election and around the november 16 event. everything earlier than the explicitly described roleplay is kinda shaky at best in being considered canon, except for the kingdom line where cdream tells cgeorge that he will be the next king once they take back the land from lmanburg. theres also someee moments where theyre protective of each other during this war as cgeorge had always been on the side of the americans, kinda like irl which is a common theme in why a lot of people find this relationship fascinating. like. the rituals. we were still in dreams "straight" arc mind you.

a lot of the canon relationship relies mostly on the protective knight and king dynamic around late 2020 in which cdream crowns cgeorge king after he deems him more neutral to every conflict going on in canon over ceret, because of the running joke that irl george slept through every major event and he was building a mushroom house during the november 16 event. the big thing to remember about george is he wasnt super into the rp as much as dream was and we didnt see a ton of designated lore streams from him as a result, leading him to incorporate his sleepy/inactive nature as part of his character to sort of "excuse" him from a lot of the plot and from interacting with other characters. this was later though, but during the time of king/knight cdream was shown to be very protective of cgeorge and doing things like buying him flowers in secret (this was before fundy wedding was retconned but i still consider this one canon), stealing back his fish beckerson from cquackity i believe, and going to war against lmanburg and building obsidian walls surrounding the place AND exiling ctommy BECAUSE ctommy and co burned down cgeorge's house he built before becoming king. at the time people did read that as cdream using cgeorge as an excuse to do build walls and enact exile but i like to read it romantically i think thats more fun.

but as the person who created the server along with dream he was bound to have one of the most important relationships to him no matter what. after a while though, cdream dethroned cgeorge to re-crown ceret as cgeorge was starting to align himself with cquackity, csapnap, and ckarl in making a new independent nation that wasnt lmanburg, dsmp, or the badlands named el rapids (making him no longer the most neutral of the server) and this is the moment cdnf (and cdteam really) kinda split up for good in a way. do remember the reason this even happened is ALLEGEDLY because george irl wasnt super into the lore and dream gave him an out through lore, yet he underestimated the DRAMAAAA george would give as his character which led to a way more compelling story/narrative surrounding dethronement as cdream's complete betrayal of both cgeorge and csapnap to focus on other matters like ctommy or whatever. sadly, no more cdnf proper after this that doesnt come in the form of crumbs/mentions from other characters (such as two times csapnap confronting cdream and mentioning george to which cdream has very Normal responses) or dreams that dubiously affect real life (in canon) but cdream does what he does and cgeorge moves to kinoko kingdom with csapnap and ckarl. but honestly i think the most tragic part of dethronement was probably the fact it was on quackity's stream tbh 😒

the first time dreamxd showed up on the server was during george's tiktok banned me stream due to the fact cdream was in prison canonically but dream still wanted to play with george on the server on the rare occasion he got on, and this was the only stream that featured dream voicing dreamxd without filters, because it was a semi rushed decision. this stream could technically be considered the first cgeorge dream presented to us, but the concept that george's lore streams were dreams came one stream later featuring cniki and cbad as well. anyway this stream is kinda technically not canon because dnf and quackity were rping george getting banned from tiktok so its very much Not lore in that sense but it again featured a lot of dream being protective of george, "betraying" him and groveling and george acting sad and crying irl on command. rituals. ONE MORE THING TO ADD ABOUT THE PRISON THAT IS VERY IMPORTANT: cdream is captured and put into prison before this stream as previously said, but almost EVERY SINGLE character is there to watch EXCEPT cgeorge. meaning, he may have been in deep sleep at this point. HOWEVER, he never visits the prison ONCE in canon. more on this later.

anyway the next stream features some interesting implications about cdream and dreamxd's connection like are they two separate entities? are they split from a singular entity? can cdream take over dreamxd's body temporarily or is it dreamxd mimicing his voice and body (dream was using the same skin for both). also, dreamxd had access to creative mode which led many to characterize him as a god of the server and dream incorporated that into his character as a result, but also that he's a massive fucking simp for cgeorge in giving him items he asks for which again. rituals. this is the stream where cgeorge and dreamxd become friends forever as well.

but before explaining the last lore stream george ever did and also some stuff that happened after on cdream's side, there are also things to address regarding symbols and things that just made cdnf's relationship a lot closer than the others. for example, the wooden pickaxes they left in the nether near the beginning of the server's birth that philza eventually found and eret put in a museum. another is their literal child nugget (this one is a stretch tbh but it makes me smile) a chicken that george had in dream's room during the construction of the community house before a sewer ran through it :/ this one is purely me in that i also consider tnt to be a symbol of both cdnf in that cdream uses it a lot and cgeorge uses it to blow up the world in his last stream, and they both use it to blow up cquackity's las nevadas sign both in the dream and in canon. but the most important one of all is The Shield.

this damn. motherfucking shield. with a blue field masoned banner. was somehow the longest running symbol surrounding cdnf. i have gone to bed sick over this shield. a brief timeline about it: the first time we saw it was when cdream had it equipped during the obsidian lmanburg wall incident and cgeorge famously saying "im not going to be hurt if dream's next to me". cdream doesnt show up again with it to my knowledge but CGEORGE has it during the lil nas x stream (cdream in prison) during which he gets killed and lil nas x briefly equips it before karl gets it back to george near the end/after the stream. we never saw cdream give him this shield, it's kinda maybe implied that he gave it based on the fact its the same design?? who knows. later, the shield gets stolen by sapnap during another dream (this was during george's first year anniversary stream) featuring dream! where he dreams that cdream left prison and joined cgeorge csapnap cbad and ckarl on a tour of the server and kinoko. karl steals it back from csapnap during sapnap's stream with drista in secret, and manages to get it BACK to george MANY MONTHS LATER after an mcc and time travel shenanigans without sapnap knowing. george is GENUINELY happy about this damn shield and puts it in his enderchest, nearly freaking out when cpunz kills him and he thinks he lost it. super normal behavior. anyway. interlude over back to the last stream.

cgeorge's i blew up the dream smp deserved an oscar. seriously. masterclass in acting and streaming. the key point to remember from earlier here is cgeorge had NEVER visited the prison, but a specific moment from quackity's forming las nevadas stream revealed him standing outside the prison, looking inside, before cquackity got his attention, so he was clearly thinking about visiting, yet never had the courage or will to see him again. anyway this stream's inciting incident is cgeorge noticing no one is on the server and encounters cdream LEAVING the prison. they have a confrontation in which cdream asks cgeorge to join him or else he destroys kinoko. he kills cgeorge. after beating ctechno And cdream, cgeorge goes on a destruction spree and also kills cquackity ckarl and ccallahan before finally killing god aka dreamxd, his last link to cdream/humanity. that sequence where he fights him is oddly flirty. anyway he then goes on to go to the End and almost kills the dragon to rule over a world of nothing except.. it was all a dream. cgeorge ends the stream furious. this is the last we ever see of cgeorge.

meanwhile cdream gets taunted of cgeorge on various occasions: with csapnap, with cbad, and at the end with ctommy. one of the signs he has listing his plans has the name george on it, discovered by ctommy and ctubbo before they go defeat him. during the finale, ctommy goes into limbo and sees/hears cdnf during dream's FIRST dsmp stream before he abandoned showing his pov and convinces cdream destroying the world isnt the way before everyone blows up from the nuke L. thats the end of canon before "season 2" which. lets not get into that but them also dying to the dragon when the official end to the dsmp stream happened was really cute :( and its very poetic to note that irl dnf started this insaneeee phenomenon an ocean away and ended it all together in the same house in LA :(

last notes: dream fucking ADORED this ship so much that when he held a fanfic contest (dnf barely being accepted by the mods but allowing lore fics) he chose a cgeorge-centric cdnf fic as the winner. he liked so much fanart of it, and he particularly liked dreamxd and cgeorge fanart. he also accidentally revealed two google searches during one of his geoguessr streams which were "georgenotfound dream smp wiki" and "georgenotfound dream SMP king short story wattpad". okay man. protip ao3 is better for inspiration but whatever. but lets also not discount george here as he was also a freak and liked the famouss king/knight fanart of their characters near kissing and replied "hot" before people really took the concept of cdnf or any shipping super seriously. now, you can debate whether he meant that seriously or as a joke, but based on his streams if you were to find anything to ship, you seriously could not do that with anyone other than dream in either his cdream or dreamxd form unless you were looking to break up ckarlnapity in some way but those ships were less popular, probably because of irl dnf's real life chemistry. cdream is another story but thats not the focus here, though i wont deny there isnt grounding for a lot of other popular cdream ships, which is fine.

over time, dnf became incredibly close as friends and as a duo, and in terms of fandom developments, over the course of 2021 leading into 2022, shipping dnf as real people and not the pseudo heatwaves/accelerate/minecraft skins image of them became much more popularized. as dnf grew closer they did less streams in lore and their real life dynamic became a lot more interesting the closer the face reveal became. but in a way, in my opinion, the lore streams were a way for dnf in particular to sort of deal with their situation due to covid and dream's inability to go outside and do shit, in a sense the prison arc kinda symbolizes dream's irl situation though thats likely not the case. but a lot of their dynamic shone through in their characters via dream being very protective of george and george caring about him in his own way/being kinda obsessed with him in general.

overall, i think the best part of this ship is just how founded on delusion, crumbs, and denial from the fans it was yet how surprisingly supported it was by dnf themselves over time as the server became super mega BONKERS insanely popular??? like it is genuinely one of the only actual canon slash r ships in the story, moreso implied than anything else but holding much more water than something like ckarlnapity in the end which is CRAZY. the imagery and inspiration that came out of the ship was incredible and yet its still a very tragic story in canon that doesnt actually truly get resolved (i like to imagine season 2 fixed this). however in the end, although cdnf didnt get a happy ending, irl dnf did, in meeting/living with each other and officially shedding off this wild part of their life and career as characters in a story coping with their real life circumstances, to living life to the fullest physically together and happy. :)

[honeyhotteoks]

do you have any advice on like getting better with writing?

hey! i definitely do!! i’ve talked about this before but i have a lot of new readers, so ill start off by saying i’ve been writing for my entire life, and im 30 so thats a lot of years. if you’re a new writer, trust me i used to be there and good god if you guys could see the stuff i published in old fandoms 💀 really, really bad haha

i only say that because i by no means consider myself a great writer, there are fic writers in this space alone that i’m always so floored by and look up to…. but people have been very kind about my writing style and it’s something that took time to develop it’s not something i just “had”. outside of fic, i was a literature and creative writing major, and got very used to writing and workshopping pieces.

now! onto some actual advice —

1. read a lot and read more, but read stuff you actually like and not stuff you feel pressured to read. i love high brow litfic as much as the next pretentious english major, but i started writing a ton after reading a bunch of kindle unlimited romance because it was fun and it got me inspired

2. watch well written television for dialogue and pacing. people do not talk in proper english, they don’t say things eloquently, and there’s a lot of filler and fluff. that’s good! that’s real, so i love well written tv to show me how it’s done

3. get comfortable writing in weird ways. for years i used to sit down and be like “ah okay so chapter one” and then i was stuck, stalled out, and just felt bad about the process. when i started writing both aurora and tnt, i started in the middle. i had an image of a scene in my mind (for tnt it was actually the claim attempt) and i just wrote it out and then bounced around later

4. outlines are your friend! sometimes i’ll get a random line of dialogue in my head or an image but that doesn’t mean i’m ready to write it. i throw it in one big outline so i don’t lose it.

5. if you’re wanting to write really good smut i have two suggestions but please only do this to your personal comfort level. this is what works for me but do not make yourself uncomfortable— for good smut, i watch porn for reference and for good dirty talk, i listen to nsfw audio. i like to really write the visuals for smut and make it immersive but lol i haven’t experienced everything ive written about and logistics of the body are hard!! i usually find a video or an audio and let that help guide the imagery im writing.

6. be comfortable with the editing process. i know the temptation to post something the minute you finish it is there, but sleep on it. come back and edit it, read the dialogue out loud if you have to. i swear you’ll make the piece better just by leaving it and coming back.

7. don’t be afraid to post. most people are kind, and the worst thing that will happen is you don’t get a lot of notes. that’s okay, it’s a process.

8. research! as i’m writing anything, even a silly little oneshot, im doing research on something. i am hyper aware that im not korean and have never spoken korean or lived in korea, so for my fic i try my hardest to ground elements of that in reality. i truly cannot tell you how many hours ive spent reading like korean case law on revenge porn just for like 3 lines of dialogue. and you don’t have to go that crazy, i’m arguably too intense, but i do think some of that helps the story and the dialogue feel real.

9. describe something real- every place in my writing is based on something real. every apartment, hotel, cafe, venue, etc., they’re all either something i’ve found online or drawn from my life and use that to my advantage. i use apartment listings and save photographs, i do google map walks to see what neighborhoods look like, anything to get the feel of a place or an experience. for the christmas chapters of aurora, i watched hours of gwangju walking tour videos on youtube while i was writing just to understand how to describe their walk in the snow. it really helps me to have a visual that i can put words to.

10. find your weak points and see what other writers do differently. if you want to improve, you should find a small place to start. is it dialogue? overall plot? smut? etc. - i’ll never forget being on a creative writing retreat, and a very important writing professor said to me “everything you write is very pretty but you haven’t said anything. you have to decide to say something.” that feedback hurt, but sent me down a much better writing path when i realized where i was falling short and not challenging myself.

okay i hope some of this was helpful and if it’s a mess im sorry im on mobile. i really just love writing so deeply and will always talk about it, so i hope this was helpful 💗

[yogsandchaos]

I clicked on a video essay about the problems with mcrp by frostbyfreeman, and boy did I regret it, giant rant under the cut

I genuinely think the dream smp as a story and it's failings can only be done by someone who was a fan or at least had some respect for the series. Listening to anyone who doesn't try and talk about it is very...painful, like I'm sorry but the Hamilton homages were really good and fun and helped make sure everyone understood what was going on! I've been listening to the frostbye freeman's video on scripted minecraft videos and i am wincing at the incorrect details and honestly somewhat pompous takes on what counts as a good story.

Wilbur's writing was genuinely good and moving at times, and the smp hadn't hit it's BIG popularity yet when it super was leaning into the hamilton stuff so they still were mostly just goofing around and the scripting was a lot looser. Like he spent the entire opening gassing up the early more obviously scripted stuff as if there wasn't like 30 over a million views yandere simulator knocks via all the yandere highschools, it's the same thing!

By the time the story shifts into Technoblade's allegories the entire genre of the smp has changed from a goofy joke about countries that also tackled things of justice in the background, into a more tense action and espionage story that fits allegories better (which tbf i always thought were a little forced, tommy is not theseus at all really, techno has more in common but thats a whooole other rabbit hole)

Also head writer? Since when was Technoblade a HEAD writer, he wrote the stuff around his own character yes, but everyone else around that was being written by dream quackity and tommy after Wilbur stepped down! It was not or never was his goal to tie all of the dsmp into a cohesive story to my knowledge or according to anything I can find.

While he has some points about people fighting for attention, a lot of the arcs that went nowhere or suddenly pivoted or stopped were for a lot of reasons outside the server's management. While I am sad some things didn't get proper endings, their existences weren't problems or a sign of arrogance, it was people excited to tell their own stories. Some failed, some didn't, that's natural for a collaboration of this size, and while things could have DEFINITELY been organized better 100% its just how its going to go in a project like this that not everything is going to be able to get the attention and streams it needs, people have lives outside the smp and have other things to do or run out of ideas, it happens.

If anything I liked how everyone had their own lore! Everyone had biased versions of events or thoughts and opinions! No one needed to agree on everything because the inherent nature of choosing a streamer is choosing a bias! No one 100% knew the truth, and everyone who saw the same event came out with different interpretations! That's just how things work! Thats not a writing error!

You say none of it made sense but did you actually ask someone who cared about the series about it! People have spent so much time piecing everything together it's actually kind of insulting to flat out state that it makes no sense when so many people could just straight up tell you the entire timeline for their streamer, or of events, or how things led into each other!

God I hate the use of "if everyones the protagonist no one is" like first of all, pretentious as hell. Second of all, the point of the other streamers isn't to just be supporting cast but to ALSO have their own goals and desires, because all characters have goals and desires! While tommy is the quote unquote main character, everyone in the dsmp has clear goals or at least interests that make sense for them to go after! Do you expect badboyhalo and quackity and everyone to just do nothing while tommy's in exile? No! That's stupid and he is ALSO a streamer who needs a story to tell!

It would be completely immersion breaking and so much less real feeling if every single story and every action was just about tommy and if he's not in the area it just stopped until he got back! You can just admit this kind of format isn't for you! Lifesteal isn't "worse" because there isn't one singular main character, that's not how servers work! You pick your favorite and see their pov and how they see events unfold! It's not supposed to be an unbiased telling, it's one person in this world giving their biased and personal accounts! THIS KIND OF CONTENT HAS BEEN AROUND SINCE LIKE 2012 WITH HERMITCRAFT, IT'S NOT NEW!!!

"The dream smp's only lasting legacy besides the amazing countless fanarts is infecting all the wannabe content creators it spawned with a terminal case of main character syndrome." Oh fuck offfff, have you literally talked to anyone in this fandom ever? Songs, animations, cosplay, stories, and CAREERS were launched off the back of the dream smp "and that final folly" say you've never talked to an inniter without saying you've never talked to an inniter.

Genuinely the entire dream smp part of this video is insulting, misinformed, and lazy. Getting key differences wrong and presenting opinion as objective facts. The worst part? You can find every single issue in an old school scripted series. He spends the entire opening talking about the good days when minecraft roleplay was earnest and was well written and had meaning but like?

"its homage" every single yandere highschool series but especially the main og of samgladiator's

"it has too many main characters" mianite

"too many dropped plots" aphmau, just aphmau in general

"the lore is confusing" jurassic craft

in fact, you can sum up ALL OF THAT UNDER THE YOGSCAST

YOU KNOW?

ONE OF THE BIGGEST SOURCES OF THOSE SCRIPTED MINECRAFT EARLY ROLEPLAYS THAT GOT SO HEAVILY PRAISED AT THE START? SHADOW OF ISRAPHEL?

IT HASN'T GOTTEN WORSE AT ALL, EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM LISTED, IS NOT THE DREAM SMPS FAULT, BUT IT HAS BEEN THERE SINCE THE GODDAMN DAWN OF MINECRAFT ROLEPLAY!

Calling all of the dream smp, life steal, all of those smps "crude performance art" is genuinely the most disrespectful thing I've heard I just, how is this video not disliked into oblivion!? You say they've yet to change from genre to it's own medium of art, but that means nothing! That has no meaning! It is the same thing! The medium is just the place the story gets told, it's the lens the story is created with. Writing is a medium! Drawing is a medium! Painting is a medium! Minecraft smp videos are inherently in the medium of the minecraft program!

The utter constant disrespect of the genuine stories and tales people try and tell with minecraft, saying minecrafters have nothing to say, it's cruel! I can find you so many minecraft videos over an hour long that are poignant! I can give you so many stories about minecrafters handling tough themes! To dismiss it ALL as lazy slop is at worst a show of utter pure pretension, and at best a lack of understanding for the genre and a lack of research.

Why are you trying to engage with a minecraft scripted story as a FILM it's NOT A FILM and it is not TRYING TO BE A FILM, it's closer to a tv series! You say people cant be off their cellphones during a film, but you're BINGING something not MEANT to be binged! You are also engaging incorrectly! You would fail to grasp the merit of a podcast because people listen to them while doing other things! Each video he showed of parrot's has MILLIONS of views so clearly, this isnt a universal fact! you just do not like this kind of content! That is okay! It does not mean theres a secret sickness!

Genuinely every word out of this person's mouth makes me want to start biting, he calls the videos entertaining, then DERIDES THEM for not being "actual stories" and that "he needs to sit at the grown up table if he wants to be a story teller" like literally? what the fuck is wrong with this guy? Just because it's not fucking brokeback mountain doesn't make it not a story. A story is just that, a story! You can tell a story in three lines

"Once upon a time there was a dog named spot Spot had a nice nap about chasing squirrels before he woke up Then he went to chase squirrels before taking a nap again"

THAT'S A STORY, that's objectively a story! im being a storyteller! Its not a long story, it's not LITERATURE, but it is in fact. A story. Just because it's not the odyssey doesnt make it not a story! THAT'S HOW STORIES WORK. How can you deride a story taking place in minecraft...for being bound to the rules of minecraft? thats a part of the medium! YOU JUST SAID YOU WANTED IT TO BE IT'S OWN MEDIUM AND YET YOU CONSTANTLY DERIDE EVERYTHING THAT MAKES IT UNIQUE

The lack of self awareness, the lack of care, the lack of understanding why these videos get so many views, it's insidious, it infects every pore of this video. The premise is "i dont like something therefor its bad and im going to ramble about cinema to make me sound smart for saying that" and it's so goddamn blatant that he worked backwards from an inherent bias against a type of medium to condemn it as a whole without taking any real steps to question that bias!

Also the sheer nitpicking against "content creator" vs "storyteller" like i get content creator is an annoying term and everyone hates it, but its literally just shorthand for "makes something for other people to enjoy" like oh my god you don't need to treat it like it's this disgusting plague on the minecraft community. Like you ask why minecraft roleplays have to be scripted smps, and the answer is that some stories want to be told through that lens, while others want to be told through different lenses of what minecraft can be used for. You might as well ask why some people use pens instead of pencil or why people use fantasy instead of sci-fi for all the meaning that question actually has. It's either so benign it has no meaning to ask, or complete apples or oranges!

God, how am I only 30 minutes in. I don't even want to continue. This was only supposed to be me rambling about how the dream smp cannot be understood fully as a story from someone who refuses to engage with it on it's terms, but the sheer audacity of everything this video says is just...disgusting to me and I had to keep commenting on it.

For someone who talks about how important brevity is, this hour long video is full of boring unrelated nonsense that easily could have been cut, false dichotomies being drawn, and far too much time talking about stories you clearly dont want to give even a chance. It's just bad, it's the "why is minecraft boring now" video for minecraft roleplay where it demands it be something its not and never has been, and then throws a fit about it and about people who do like it and holds a nostalgia for something that has the exact same flaws and thus polishes into something Better.

As a story teller myself, as someone who enjoys minecraft roleplays, who has been watching mcrp videos since 2012, it's genuinely disgusting how little respect or care he has for the creators he talks about. As if those creators and all the people who like it are idiots while He is the only one with True Taste that everyone else must go up to meet. It's annoying as hell, and i regret clicking on that video

[satsuki-yumizuka]

in general i think thats what ace combat is good at. its realistic enough to not feel mindless but its arcadey enough to feel accessible. the music (usually) fits the scene so well and its so fuckin good too. the entire soundscape, between the music, the sound effects, and the radio chatter especially, just make everything feel so good to play

it all makes it so immersive!! i really FEEL like an ace combat!! and that feeling is multiplied tenfold when i shoot down a bunch of targets in quick succession or hit an optional objective and the game acknowledges it through radio chatter !! its just super rewarding to have your actions be acknowledged through the games systems...

and the radio chatter also just creates this hectic feeling but it also endears you to your squadmates and it ALSO gasses you the fuck up when youre late into the game and you can hear the enemies recognize you and react to your presence like its so GOOOOOD

it suuuucks tryin to get ppl into ace combat bc im not gonna lie. sometimes tthe gameplay DOES look boring. but when youre in there its the fucking coolest thing in the world

[born-in-hell]

Looking back, i think one the things that brought the hater out of me the most during qsmp (regarding the players themselves and the story) was how so many decisions made, and arguments defended, based on ooc criteria.

Like, ok. I love bagi. I adore bagi. I recite prayers for bagi every night before i sleep. I am not saying bagi — or anyone else that wouldve been invited if other ppl won — shouldnt have been invited to the qsmp. But my GOD the opportunity for the election winner to chooses someone to send to what's essentially an open air PRISION is insane to me. No islander fucking WANTS to be there so WHYYYYY would they subject a loved one to the SAME TORTURE??????? (except like bbh inviting skeppy cuz whatever they have going on is kinda weird and they're both old as fuck so who cares)

It is a fun decision out of the rp. It gives the players a nice prize if they manage to win. And it could've stayed at that, an ooc prize. But NO they had to mention it canonically. More then once. So much that some players (cof cof) argued bbh shouldnt win bc he would invite skeppy in a non democratic way. That was a CANNON ARGUMENT. MADE BY A PLAYER.

I cant stress how much i hate this decision. I can't stress how much i adored the story and these little things broke the immersion so much for me.

How did NO ONE go against inviting someone to basically be a little lab rat???????? Not even like cellbit. Or baghera. Or anyone else.

The mods thing is less insane. Also very ooc, but not as infuriating in lore, bc it is just a fun decision thing and not like,, idk, choosing a friend to send to an open air torture house. Still broke the immersion for me a lot tho.

And now with fucking purgatory. Oh god.

This time it wasnt even Qstudios' fault (which sounds insane considering,, well, the array of poorly analyzed decisions). It was the fault some of the players that decided that "in meta this doesnt make sense!!!!! they wouldnt do this!!!" is a valid argument to bring into an IN CHARACTER DISCUSSION.

All the things tubbo said abt the cursed team were in character. All his arguments were perfectly cohesive w the things qtubbo was supposed to know, and all the times he talked to them he was playing the character. Just for them to reply w "i think ur wrong bc qstudios wouldnt do this in meta bc there HAS to be a winner"

NO THERE DOESN'T????????? Purgatory was a poorly planned and poorly executed event that id argue shouldve never existed but oh my GOD.

This is gonna sound corny but if you look at the cursed team in a completely meta perspective, the objective wouldve been very clear — force the teams to unite so that the cursed team would win (remember that if the cursed team won they could get all the eggs back instead of only 1) .

The moral here wouldve been that friendship is magic ✨ (< sorry)

And to be honest, that would've been a much more tolerable event. I wont elaborate; u all know why.

Idk if qstudios shouldve been more clear abt it, or even if they thought as far as i did — considering, well, everything that we know today. I just think not listening to someone saying things w proof bc "in meta they wouldnt do that" is dumb and breaks the immersion so much for me.

They couldve discussed it like that in their ooc convos. But they did it during rp and thats what i dont like.

Anyways sorry for this rant i woke up a hater today,, i hope this makes even a little bit of sense. Also this is not a hate to the ccs, still adore (most of) them. Sometimes ppl make mistakes and thats totally ok!!!!!!! Regarding the elections i think it was mostly a poor decision and direction from qstudios then the players' fault. Purgatory was the players themselves (in this specific case) tho..

Yeah thats it 👍

[marxtheimpish]

a question i love to discuss with other people (sorry if its weird): what do your rogues smell like? ( 'o' )^

dont apologize!!! i think its fun too ::) jervis definitely depends. his mental state and how immersed he is in his delusions heavily impacts his ability to care for himself properly and also his ability to realize when he needs said care, so when hes havign an episode he smells. pretty stank. other than that the scent of tea permeates through his whole being in a way that no soap can fully mask, but when he is more in touch with reality he actually takes great care with his hygiene and enjoys perfumes! very light, floral scents. so he either smells like tea and flowers or pure unfettered ass dependign on the day jonathan is similar i think. when hes really into his work and creatign new toxins he foregoes self care in favor of more work time, so he smells horrid. but i think jonathan understands that all senses can create fear, not just sight and sound, and so he very carefully formulates his scarecrow smell. makes it so there is a bitter note on the wind to signal his arrival. the smell of fresh hay with that bitter chemical note on top is definitely a basic scarecrow smell headcanon but its Strong imo waylon unfortunately lives in the sewer . i shall say no more . he wants a bath so bad (when given the choice he grooms very regularly and enjoys woody colognes with a nice sweetness at the end) joker smells like very chemical-y sour green apple with some gunpowder at the end. its the kind of thign that makes your nose hairs stick up because your body knows it should not be inhalign any of those molecules i think two face wears cologne pretty consistently. im sure harv and harvey have different tastes but overall i think they lean towards warm, spicey scents ik thats nowhere near all the rogues but im honestly not very good at describign smells lol ::P when i was tryign to find the words to say how i thought two face smelled, my brain was like "he smells Low" and i nearly typed that until i realized its incomprehensible to anyone but me probably and thank you for takign the time to send an ask and (assumedly) readign all of this ::333

[acerikus]

thinking of my own personal headcanons makes this v funny to me lmao

trying out ts!underswap now! oughhhhhhhh frisk ;]

[ganondoodle]

so i sort of half accidentally did the end of totk on monday, i had over 130 hours and slightly over 50% of the game done and did the second to last fight with 3 hearts left and no way to heal but fairies after i gave up multiple times thinking the game might be trying to force me to fight a certain way xD

so im still playing it and am aiming for the 100% but i dont think theres gonna be much more to discover story wise the game is really fun and has a lot of detail and love put into it that you can really see, the music is fantastic as well, some of the characters get more love which is great but the story is … well disappointing but not surprising, especially in its treatment of ganondorf, who still feels incredibly flat as a character, which was to be expected but also … you cant fault people (including me) for faintly hoping theyd do something more interesting tho i will say the end fight is really well done and i cant think of a way to top that in terms of epicness xD

anyway, some unfiltered thoughts and opinions in no particular order (keep in mind i know its viddy game logic uwu but still some things can really destroy the immersion; and also i like to think too hard about the stuff i care about so take this with a grain of salt, i never expected the story to be world changing but i want to remind you that i am criticizing it bc i love this franchise)

--what the hell happened to all the sheikah tech?? botws story gets mentioned a few times but never is it mentioned what happened to all the tons of tech lying around everywhere? if they dismantled the towers for purah to build her new ones around i guess thats fine, but all the srhines? the titans ??? THE SHRINE OF LIFE??? its all gone, esepcially the shrine of life irks me bc the cave is still there and its still called by its bame but its nothing but a cave in a vague shape of how the buidling was it absolutely drives me crazy bc its so dumb?? even if it all stopped working for some reason why would you dismantled it all and even then where did the material go?? why would you dismanlted an neitre building like that anyway?? if you want to have a cave there just have it be half collapsed, if all sheikah tech has gotten useless just leave it there but overgrown?? and why is all of purahs tech still working then? zelda doesnt seem to care about it anymore either even tho shes been so obsessed with it for so long? the titans how would you even MOVE them?? you CANNOT tell me that all this tech that survived tens of thousands of years just went poof within a few years; and sometimes it even feels .. insulting? like you know how much robelo cared for cherry and now shes tiny and just serves as a way to buy fotos for your collection? the fact that the shrine of life is fully gone but the cave is vaguely shaped like its interior and where the bed used to be is a healing pool of water too? like idk if im just insane but it feels like 'haha lol remember what used to be here? get it? the water heals you like the bed in the shrine of life and lol there was the stairs HAHA remember? its gone now for no reason.lmao.' to be clear i like having some mysteries and all but that is just …. so weird? when i discovered the shrine of life i was so taken aback i didnt know what to do, it really broke my immersion, by alot even, it just makes it feel even more like all sheikah tech was replaced by much cooler (tm) sonau tech

--what happend to the sonau people? we only know that rauru and mineru are the last two remaining ones back then but … what made them die out like that? this is by far not as important to me as the issue with the sheikah tech but still feels like a point that could have been mentioned

--as much as i like the open world and how free you are to do things your own way but, regardign the dragon tears i think they should have been locked more behind story progression, i got all of them rather early on and it made it a lil frustrating to play through the other story parts bc you know the truth but you cant tell anyone and everyone around you is acting like a dumbass running after fake zelda while the real one is floating around above you, and i know thats partly my fault for getting them all so early but it still felt like some could have been more well hidden or locked or something since theres no hint to when it would fit to do which one; i expecpted impa to travel to each one but it seemed like she appeared on only a few here and there- additionally i fully expected her to be more important, that she would have an actual involment trying to help zelda undragonfy but that turned out to be very wrong lmao

--why are the enemies in the underground mining sonanium? ganondorf didnt seem itnerested at all in any of their tech, only in the mystery stones (only one too, he didnt seem to want any more of them either) they dont use it for anything? at least the ones on the surface collected stuff they could eat or use for fighting?

--did mineru really build herself a robot body just to fight ganondorf for a bit and then leave? as the last of the sonau, even tho long dead too, why wouldnt she tell their history and knowledge or something and instead if just helping a lil in the fight and then go poof (i half expected purah to be a surprise sage since the spirit one would have fit her i think)

--the zelda being the white dragon plot point lost alot of weight to me when it was just .. resolved like that in the end, i know she spent thousands of years like that and all but it seemed like a much heavier decision that later on felt a little less flat after fidning mineru even tho i felt like i didnt care at all at first bc of the way i found out ,and i half expected there to be an extra mission to try and find her soul again since that apparently gets lost when you do the whole dragon thing, but in the end that wasnt a problem at all, two ghosts and link (somehow naked again) blasting her with some magic(tm) and boom shes back and well and fine woohoo it was a non problem after all i didnt expect her to stay dragon since that would mean the end of the legend of zelda basically, but still it took away alot of the weight of her decision to me? like i get undragonfying her before the end would be difficult since you can get material off of her but still i hoped for something other than boom it resolved itself and i thoguht and worried about it for nothing honestly a post game or even another title where the main focus wouldnt be desstroying yet anyother one note evilest guy of them all and isntead the goal is to bring zeldas soul back and undragon her or something would have been a cool idea tbh tho i know its unrealistic

--did ganondorf think turning himself into a dragon would end the world somehow? did he mean the lil evil goo clouds he spit at you in the last fight to end the world? and how come that he was vunerable to fight? none of the other dragons could be hurt and for an 'immortal' dragon he sure went down fast also how did the stone get back on his forehead? you need to eat it to dragonfy yourself and zelda doesnt have her stone out either (i know viddy games logic but still) (on another note, gan shoving half his arm in his own mouth felt really cursed to watch)

--into WHAT exactly wanted gan to reshape the world into?? only destroying it is such a non reason if you want to rule it? theres nothing left to rule if you kill everything in it?? he just gonna play cards with some bokblins or what -i really wanted to fight ganondorf on the surface, not in his lil miasma incubation cave again :(

--so …. why he evil? are we really doing the and WHOOP suddendnly theres the eviliest guy of the world and he hates your guts for some reason thing again? no tension with the gerudo that seemed to follow him in the lil cutscene we see and the ones that went on raurus side? no actual origin? does he have ANYONE to talk to normally or did he just surround himself by monsters all the time or abadon everyone that once followed him once he got his power up?? you can make any design or fight as good as it can possibly be but in the end its still gonna feel hollow if the character has no character besides evil even the fake zelda wasnt actually him and just a lil puppet made of miasma so even him fucking with people is a little less interesting when he was actually just marinading in his lil goop cave, and the lil hand wink he gives you at phase two can only do so much lmao

--ganondorf is cool and all, but tbh he feels more like the evil miasma goop guy than anything else --why are the old sonau ruins in hyrule so different from the rest? like we know now that they arent actually a civilization from the sky alone but were even in the underground too, and all of their ruins have that blocky white style to it, the supposedly sonau ruins in phirone for example, albeit they share the dragon theme the style on the outside is very much different? and the ancient ruins from the other races dont match it either --are the sheikah descendants of the mixing of sonau and hylians? the white hair and third eye theme would fit to the only alive sonaus we see having white hair (fur?), the literal third eye and their affinity to techonology similar to the sheikah, and zelda having both light and time powers would make sense if its yet another descendant thing, but that would mean zelda was at least part sheikah .. (ngl white haired zelda might look pretty neat actually) but also … it didnt seem like sonia and rauru have been together all that long and no mention or even hint to them having children … which given that both of them die would be an important thing to mention no?

--why cant you do anything with the dongos but feed them????????? i wanna ride them :(

--where is kashiwa????????????????? they talk about him like hes a lost legend

--putting in all the amiibo stuff is cool and annoying at the same time, i spent 5 hours fighting my way throguh the underground to follow treasure maps and found 3 nigh identcal link hats from past games in a row, then two other parts of similar, then two aiimbo weapons and then jsut yesterday another one from a bigger quest that i expected more of; getting the armor sets of past games is cool if you want them but if i did i would have just gotten the amiibos back in botw, my inevntory already feels super bloated with all the new and old armor sets and now the amiibo stuff as well even tho i have like .. half of it all atm (and dont go and argue 'oh so complaining about more content for free???' yes. yes i am.)

--whats with this game and making link almost naked? rauru saving you from death? naked. (annoying) survival shrines? naked. weird teleport to alternate ghost dimension to blast zelda with magic power tm to solve all problems? naked.

--(added in edit) im glad dorephan didnt die!! i fully expected him to have died offscreen or something to make way for everyones favorite fish

--(added in edit) so are definitely other lands besides hyrule if yona came from there, also lol

--the story feels, espeically once you see the last cutscene, very …. uncomfortable to me if dare to think about it more than just taking everythign as its said to you, like … the oh so perfect descednants of the gods(what) marry a normal hylian lady and sourround themselves with perfetly obedient faceless servants of the other races so the perfect and good kingdom tm is born and oh suddendly theres an evil brown man (makign him grey doesnt change the implications, if anything, it makes it worse bc they wont even stand for it and instead are trying to hide it behind uuuuh no no its fine hes blue actally kinda way) from the desert that attacks the perfect good kingdom and king, then he swears alliance to them only to betray and murder da queen right away to get his hands on a super power the perfect and good king held and would have never never used it in a bad way nono and now they need to defend it by all means and at the end woohoo zelda has now again the perfect kingdom with no opposition except the yiga who are (as much as i love them) mostly played for laughs or .. well, evil(tm) as epic and cool the dragon fight was, zelda being the slim tiny white/gold/blue dragon and ganondorf being the evil spiky big black and red dragon and them literally being called white/black dragon feels like wow they arent even trying to hide the black and white storytelling huh (i know its a design trope to the bad be black(color) and the good anything else and spiky vs round and soft blah blah but that doesnt make it any better .. maybe even worse? idk)

the way nintendy was keeping stuff a secret and hinting around so much made me feel like it would finally be a little more nuanced and then it turned out to be even flatter than before and all that secrecy(?) was only to keep dragon zelda plotpoint a secret, something that was resolved no problem in the end anyway (i didnt need zelda to stay dragon but .. it all just lost so much weight the way it was done at the end)

-- (added in edit) master koga is the best character and no one can beat him, the most joy i felt was seeing him again and i am not joking, i wish i could talk to him normally tho without him being able to see through my yiga disguise :( im so glad he didnt die tho bc if he actually went to gan he would 100% be dead within seconds

--(added in edit2) i forgot to mention but was just reminded that link getting his arm back felt super weird too, so really everything that meant major changes got reversed basically ... coool ...back to status quo i guess, couldnt he if he wasnt missing it at least have it be discolored somehow? or scarred? any reminder? zelda too even, could she also have some sort of scar or similar due to her transformation ??

--(added in edit2) so where did the mystery stones even come from? gans and zeldas are gone after dragonfying i guess so ...what?

so in summary, im not eloquent enough to properly analyse all the problematic/questionable stuff and put it into the right words, but these are my random thoughts just spilled out, theres gonna be things i missed, forgot, or gonna think about later, maybe ill add it maybe not

again take it with a grain of salt, the game is still one of the most fun games i have ever played, my problems with it lie majorly in the story, its still very much worth playing!

[momo-shut-the-fuck-up]

Long post discussing/critiquing the unicorn/nightmare hell event story. Spoilers ahead of course

I dont mean to be a hater here. I love shining nikki and the story its tryin to tell, and i dont know if this is a new development or not- i can t remember anythin about the last lore relevant event but i do remember i had a LOT of fun with desire/leonid- however.

I feel like unicorn/nightmare was poorly written. The structure for a great event story is there, there s no issues in that regard, but it s just- how can i describe it.. the writing feels amateurish? I didnt quite get the emotion in everyone's nightmares. I didnt get the feel that this nightmare was as bad as the narration tried to make it seem it is. I didnt even know the entire world was plunged in a nightmare and i feel like thats kinda critical info (and if they did tell and i forgot, disregard this whole sentence)

We kinda jumped through unconnected nightmares and thats ok, i guess, but it felt like nikki and player kinda just. Decided to fix everyone and immediately had the correct answer because of course they do, its nikki and player. I think dodora s nightmare was the best out of the bunch, but even with her, i didnt feel that emotion that i shouldve felt.

I was thinking while reading that in comarison to life makeover, sn's story isnt presented that well visually. They sure got better! Aloysius' vines, all the different lights that appear due to whatever crystal the current story is about, yknow, all those vfx they added. Thats super good and they should do more. But that s the thing, they need more. At the moment i feel like the story suffers a bit because not only is it not voiced, it feels quite static and inexpressive.

Ima use dodora s nightmare again as an example, but she was havin a whole breakdown over here, and her sprite looked just like the usual dodora... not even a pose change. And with how short it (and every other one) was, it really felt like the importance of the whole shebang was diminished.

I do appreciate that they seem to be makin an effort though. As far as i know sn makes way more money than life makeover, and their story presentation was fuckin great. I aint even askin for the same gameplay element that lm has (for context, you can investigate rooms for clues. They re 3d, linear, and can be skipped, but they re nice for immersion) or for live2d models, but i Am kinda asking for more sprites and more animations of the sprites. Make em bounce a bit! Or shake! And i wish we saw the old god.... maybe an abstract representation of them in the bg... just. Something... we were fighting a blank arena while the narration was trying to convince me some epic shit was happening.

Oh and also write the story better. I feel like i didnt explain that great but i think its the biggest downfall atm even though i didnt focus on it much on this post.... narration is very flowery and detailed, dialogue does the job, yet there s something missing from it all imo. U can have the blandest visuals ever but if ur writing is good it doesnt matter... thats why vooks exist yknow. At the same time, you re a visual novel sn, so u should be usin the visual part better... anyway this is long enough. Post

[unalloyedmiquella]

**i am 30 hours into da4 at the time of writing this post. i just finished the seige at weisshaupt**

oh dragon age the veilguard, how i have mixed feelings about you

idk who thought it was a good idea to hire someone who has absolutely no experience making fantasy rpgs and almost no experience making games period as one of the lead directors. its extremely obvious.

the best way i can put this is that this feels like a game that was made for a younger audience, a demographic that was not the original or majority of the fanbase. if corrine busch wanted to make a more “accessible” game, she should have worked on a different or original title (no im not talking about the difficulty choices)

this is a 15 year old franchise with a huge fanbase. i think its okay if people need to do some hw before playing.

and the other one? john epler, having him as a director was effectively useless. as a former qa employee and cinematic designer, he wasnt the right fit for the role of “making sure it felt like dragon age”

when it comes to plot, its solid. i love the lore reveals, but this is like you took thedas and made everyone on your side abject “good.” everyone here uses therapy speak, and there is no conflict. even if you piss a companion off, there virtually no difference in how they treat you like it feels like disapproval doesnt matter

what happened to the game that let me tell off a homophobic clergy woman? the game where a mage defended the circle? the game where you can PUNCH a companion?? sera was one of my favs from dai bc she was a mean lesbian, (and now everyone is passive and playersexual. snore) da is so impactful because of its complex and nuanced characters.

i want companions to feel like real people, not archetypes. in some ways da4 feels like a step back with character interactions. the nuance is gone here.

rook and the team is abject good, you cannot be evil, mean, or morally gray. you cant be bitchy, you are good, you are the teams therapist. i think this hurts the narrative and imerssion. i think the player should be able to actually craft a personality for rook, and not have the devs morals thrust unto you.

this game is so afraid to be problematic that it ends up turning something that could have been the best in the franchise, into an at times mediocre game.

the visually stunning graphics, stylized and saturated art style, and intuitive + fun combat mechanics, and lore /reveals/, keep me playing, but i cant help but roll my eyes when rook or the companions talk like they watched a bunch of pop psychology videos on tiktok.

edit: something else that actually truly drives me insane about this game is the hand holding. you will watch a cutscene that very obviously tells you what to do next and what will happen next, as soon as its over, rook and your companions all seem to have dialogue telling you want to do. this is my biggest, and imo most valid criticism of the game.

you’ll enter an area thats obviously a puzzle, and you destroy the crystals or turn a mechanism or destroy blight, and you get more dialogue counting how many more things you need to destroy, or tell you what to do despite the mere visual of the puzzle making it obvious what it is you need to do.

i hate it when games treat you like an idiot. these devs dont have any faith in the players intelligence to figure out very simple things.

if the dialogue is not plot relevant or if its not relationship building, it is unnecessary. stop telling me what to do, i know what to do.

i’ll probably make a separate post about how i despise the way trans narrative is handled and how corny and dumb the dialogue choices for that are.

i love that the option is there, i wanted this to be part of the game since dai has a trans male npc, but can i like … be normal about it? it feels inauthentic and i personally dont think the actual word “trans” belongs in a fantasy setting. come up with something else. it pulls me out of the world, it is immersion breaking. it makes it feel less medieval fantasy