#it's basically like the movie game but more frustrating imo lol

[wp100art]

manly sponge

[isagrimorie]

One of the few things I don't agree with in Picard S3 -- just for people to be aware, I love season 3 of Picard-- is the use of the Borg -- or, to be more accurately, the way Seven isn't used as much when the Borg storyline comes in.

It's not just season 3 that this happens, mind, it happens in the two other seasons too. In different ways.

In season 1, it manifested in the way Hugh and Seven never met onscreen, and then pulled punches regarding Seven's moments with the Borg. It's very frustrating because they almost get there but instead of leaning into it --

Seven connects with a Borg Cube for the first time since Collective in season 6 of Voyager. And not just simply interfacing with a Borg Cube but willingly taking the reins and becoming a Queen of a mini-collective.

The moment should have lasted longer and should've, IMO, been more ambiguous and kind of frightening. This moment should have had more weight.

But in the next scene, the power of that scene is robbed.

The next part of it is the Borg Cube Artifact appearing to save La Sirena but IMMEDIATELY gets brought down by orchids. And proceeded to do nothing in the whole battle with the Romulans. The xBs might as well be chopped liver for all the usefulness-- it's like they just needed ex-Borgs out of Alpha Quadrant space so they won't be thought of ever again.

Season 2 started well with Seven and the Queen, and her terror of the alt!Borg Queen. I get the focus on just Jurati and the Borg Queen because if Seven was constantly on guard with Agnes, the Borg Queen would have a harder time. Seven knows all of the Borg Queen's tricks.

Season 3 - they used Seven subtly to gesture toward the Borg but then by episode 9, didn't include Seven in a discussion about the Borg's new strategy. A strategy that Seven is aware of! I know its because the plot needed it to happen but I feel it would've been more efficient, to use a Seven phrase, for her to tell them that the biogenic assimilation strategy is NOT NEW.

Seven of Nine's known this strategy since season 5, Dark Frontier. She knows it intimately because it is why the Borg Queen coerced her to stay with the Borg in the first place:

(Also, LOL, where did the Borg Queen get this image? GettyImages? Borg Stockphotos R Us?)

Seven called this strategy inefficient but the Borg Queen claimed they 'waited this long'. So, the Borg are capable of the long-game strategy. Also, the Borg Queen was both furious and desperate to have one final point against Janeway.

By the way, I've always thought since Voyager tangled with the Borg, I've always thought the Borg has become Voyager's enemy. (Also a lot of things set up for Picard to battle with feels like, it's Janeway's actually. Picard encountering Hirogen in the Alpha Quadrant? C'mon, that's clearly Janeway. But the show is called Picard).

I do get the show's called Picard and is basically the last 'movie' after Nemesis.

Yes, I love Picard S3-- it's my favorite among the three seasons, and it is a particular flavor of Trek I love, with the pacing and story beats I glom on to. But, it's also not a perfect season. (And understandably so, since they only had ten weeks to break and write a whole season).

The main thing I'm worried about in this whole thing is that if/when we finally get Seven of Nine's own show-- fans would be too tired of the Borg thing when it makes sense for them to finally touch on the full Borg / ex-Borg experience with a main character who is an xB.

[havocmadden]

I definitely agree about GMW, the whole third season was a mess but it's also been so long I couldn't tell you anything specific either lol. I haven't read Avalon High but I really want to! And after hearing what you said about it I'm even more interested! Have you read any other DCOM books? And what are some of your fave books in general? 🐭🎅

ooh! i haven't read any other dcom books where the dcom was BASED on the book, but i do have/have read the novelizations of teen beach movie & sky high (not a dcom but. close enough to count imo). i do own a copy of the swap but haven't read it OR seen the film the book's based on and i would really love to read lemonade mouth & its book sequel but my library doesn't have the books & i haven't gotten around to buying them yet. i have read all of the melissa de la cruz isle of the lost series & some of the school of secrets books and the school of secrets books are fun and the isle of the lost ones i think are just bad. but that's just my opinion.

as for my favorite books in general, hmmm! that's a hard question.

in theory i like the hunger games. mostly i like complaining about how bad suzanne collins is at worldbuilding & also representing minorities in her books. do not read the hunger games prequel it is BAD.

in theory i like harry potter bc it's a big comfort media but also jkr is a terf and that kinda ruins the nostalgia for me a lot, which sucks big time.

i LOVE LOVE anything by seanan mcguire/mira grant. incryptid is a big comfort series for me even tho i only read it for the first time in march & wayward children is just. beautiful and i absolutely recommend it if you like portal fantasies. feed is i think the first thing i read by her and shaun and george are just so special to me but also i LOVE LOVE olivia from into the drowning deep (she's so special to me bc i am also an autistic lesbian) and honestly her being an autistic lesbian is a side perk in a book about killer mermaids.

alice in wonderland is so good and genuinely it frustrates me when people assume things about it like it was written on drugs (no. like, yes, louis carroll/charles dodgson was probably on opium at various points in his life bc it was the victorian era and he had chronic migraines but the haha weird quirky stuff in alice is all math jokes and puns and stuff) or that louis carroll was a pedophile (probably not, it's possible but doesn't seem particularly more likely than any other rando victorian man having been one; i have read several books abt this bc alice is a special interest for me so i have a whole collection of alice related books)

i also really love gillian flynn but my favorite book of hers is sharp objects which is her debut. (major tws for like. so many things here)

i recently read howl's moving castle after loving the movie for ages and it was so fun and special <3

not really books but like. i love shakespeare. i wrote my undergrad thesis on the henriad and how henry iv wasn't planning to take the throne from richard and in fact by doing so basically violates his own morals and spends the rest of his life trying to atone for what he did & is unsuccessful. also i think hal is the best parts of richard and henry which is why he's the main character of the henriad despite not appearing in richard ii. i have so many things to say about shakespeare and can and have talked to ppl about shakespeare for hours on end bc i am nothing if not a menace <3

[roublardise]

hiii 🥰 2, 6 and 23 for the books ask 💕

hiiii 🥰

2. Did you reread anything? What?

yes yes yes yes!!!! I've actually reread a lot (when you do a ratio of reread/how many books read i think, idk i don't do maths) 🤔 I'm gonna make a little list:

- Murder on the Orient-Express, by Agatha Christie A classic I had read when I was in high school. I remembered the big plot twist, so it was super interesting to reread it knowing it (and nothing else bc I have a shitty plot memory).

- Détective Conan, by Gosho Aoyama I've started rereading them in late 2020, so in 2021 I've read from vol 20 to 78. I've been having so much fun it's sooo good 😭 my bro is also reading them we can be obsessed together 💕 I'm only at vol 78 by now, bc the scans I was reading changed? like the french is now fansub, and I can't read their typography lol. So I gotta read in english, and it's weird to read this manga from my childhood in english, and I also struggle more to understand the cases 😔 I'm taking my time, but it's there, always in the back of my mind!

edit: the reread is only up until vol 50 or so, with a big lapse between 23 and 51 bc that's the vol I owned

- THE HUNGER GAMES TRILOGY, by Suzanne Collins 💕 Loved loved loved loved loved going back into it!!! I had read it at least three times already, but I hadn't in a few years and idk I felt like it. I didn't plan to, but I took the opportunity to read the prequel as well.

Fascinated bc, well for once I do remember a lot of the plot, but I still rediscovered a lot (with a lot of "wait I thought it went [smth which was changed in the movies]"). But especially when it came to the whole political ideas, like I'm way more political than I was when I've read it before, so I was able to think more about that part of the books. I also had a whole new view on it bc I'm not close to Katniss' age anymore, and I was going "she's so young leave her alone" all along 💀

Masterpiece writing truly Suzanne Collins GETS IT soooo much. And it's not the question but people who gave the prequel two stars on goodreads do NOT get it they can't read imo. All her choices are so deliberate I'm truly amazed it's beautiful, she knows what she's doing!! I was a bit frustrated by the end bc we don't know what the political state is by that point, and I was so curious. But I had to remember that it wasn't the point of the trilogy, not really. It makes sense, it's just a bit frustrating bc I have so many questions about it.

.

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

I wanted to (rere)reread Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo as well, but I know I'll get obsessed so I had to wait. I was already taken by spn, detective conan, and thg, and I was supposed to finish my master 😂

I wanted to read, finally, Les Orageuses, by Marcia Burnier. It's about anger & feminism, it was rec to me by a friend bc it's 100% my vibe. But it's one of these books I'm waiting for the Right Time for, and it wasn't this year.

And the book my big bro got me for my bday it seems soooo cool but I wanted to wait until my master to be done to read it! It's Sur les ossements des morts, by Olga Tokarczuk. It's likely there's an english title somewhere bc it got a Nobel prize, but it's a polish book so it won't be the original title who cares lmao. There's so much in this book deep with meaning I can't believe my bro found that, there's a murder, the main character is into astrology, it's a polish book, it's written by a feminist, and the cover is stunning 🥺🥺 I can't wait to get into it!!!

.

23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

Oh well, an afternoon? 😂 It was a book about gender stuff, but pretty basic, it's about giving notions. I've read it when I was planning an intervention around these topics for work, bc my brain is so academical I struggle to write easy definition for some concept so I needed to get back to a "beginner" level.

It was Beyoncé est-elle féministe?, by Osez le féminisme ! and it's so liberal and racist 😭 I didn't know it was written by this collective when I read it, otherwise I'm not sure I would have bother. They contradict themselves from one page to another, and I'm not over a racist drawing in like, p30 or smth 💀

Otherwise I was a slow reader this year, I may have took 3 days for some books, but overall going more around one week.

end-of-year book ask

[destinyc1020]

Have you seen the Law live he did with another black stylist? I loved it! It happened cause a white woman wrote an article about how they were no black designers at the GG yesterday and only one white stylist used one, so of course she got praise for one small thing when black stylist had to fight for years to make room. They basically talked about how Hollywood always put barriers into black creatives, and Law also praised Z. I encourage everyone to see it, it was saved and Law put a story that links to it.

Girrrrrrrrrrl..... YAAAAAAAS!!!!  👏

GIRL!  LAW  👏 was  👏 going  👏 OFF  👏 in that live lol!!  😂

I loved that live with Jason & Law. They were speaking nothing but truth!  

I didn’t even read the article that they were referring to which was written last night about the Golden Globes, but I was able to get the “gist” of it from their conversation. 

Law also gave me a real glimpse into the industry and just how hard it is.  Like, I always knew it was hard for black people (especially those who work bts in the industry), but I had no idea the blatant EXclusion that constantly exists in this industry. Like, just to hear that they aren’t even on the LIST of stylists that publicists shove in people’s faces was just mind-boggling to me, because Law is just as talented as some of these other stylists who are out there imo.

Poor Law... I was like “Wow... EVERY day you are worried about messing up?”  Wow....  It’s hard when you feel like you can’t even afford to make any mistakes in this industry because you are a poc and won’t get a second chance.  😔

He really put it out there though...  The article was insulting....  Basically stating that the weight of the change needs to come from black people, but Law and Jason made a good point... Only the people in power can really make the change.  How can you be the force of change, when you aren’t even one of the gatekeepers??  The article was just hurtful.  

I will NEVER forget when a few years back, actress Leslie Jones was complaining that most stylists in Hollywood refused to even work with her/style her for her own movie premiere “Ghostbusters”!  🥴     I was flabbergasted at the blatant racism smh.  🤦‍♀️  Other celebrities have also called out the blatant prejudice in  Hollywood from stylists/houses that won’t dress them whether it’s due to racism or even weight/size.  

https://www.insider.com/celebrities-designers-wont-dress-2019-1#melissa-mccarthy-said-she-couldnt-find-someone-to-dress-her-for-the-2012-oscars-1

I recall too when Zendaya and Law stated that earlier in the game in Z’s career, she was getting refused by some in the fashion/style industry as well.  Now, since she’s more famous of course, they are coming out of the woods to work with them, but Z and Law have paid them dust now.  You didn’t want me when I was not that famous, well guess what? I don’t want you now that I AM more famous lol.  😏  

Speaking of Z....of course, Law just had nothing but glowing things to say about Zendaya🥰:  

“If it wasn’t for Zendaya, I would NOT exist in this industry”    “She continues to open doors and makes sure I have opportunities”   “Even as a girl, she had the integrity to realize that something was not right...”  “She put her career life on the line and had the idea to do a whole all-black fashion show in Paris.” 

I also feel like at the end Law tried to clean it up a little (lol) and did make sure to mention that he’s grateful and thankful to those who have given him an opportunity so that he can give opportunities to other people. He also wanted to clarify that they aren’t angry at all white people lol, and he seemed to thank those few white people who have given him a chance to be their stylist in this industry.  He and Jason were just highlighting the frustration that comes with working in this industry.  

Whewwww....they spoke a word with this live my gosh....  Definitely HIGHLY recommend everyone to listen to Law and Jason’s IG Live together today, because it really shed a lot of LIGHT on what goes on in the industry...not only with them, but also with celebrities in Hollywood. Whew chillle.... .    

[crownandwriter]

Your pinned post says matchups are still open, so I’m taking my shot! But if you’re too busy or tired of all the requests by the time you get to mine, no worries. Tbh, I have almost as much fun reading other people’s results, especially when they’re as thoughtful and detailed as yours!

May I please have a Genshin matchup? I’m bi and use she/her pronouns; I’m fine with any gender partner. MBTI-wise, I’ve mostly typed as INTP with the occasional ENTP thrown in. I think INTP fits better (really, really well actually), except that I’m not (usually) that insensitive or socially awkward. I’m not one to chat up a stranger at a party, but I WILL go to the party and enjoy it (if only for free food/drinks, dancing, and maybe some new music), and if someone approaches me they’ll probably find me funny and a good conversationalist. If one of my loved ones is down, my instinct is to help brainstorm a solution to their problem or suggest nice distractions, but if they just want me to listen and comfort them I can do that pretty well. I do have a lot of trouble expressing my own emotions beyond the easy, shallow stuff, and I tend to get very frustrated and impatient when I see someone’s emotions holding them back from acknowledging facts or doing what needs to be done. That’s especially true when I feel like my own emotions of uncertainty or inadequacy are holding me back from the things I want.

More broadly, some words that describe me are imaginative, adventurous, independent, and I guess ambitious. Some might call me laid back, and I am most of the time, but when it comes to my major goals and dreams I’m actually really determined and honestly a little selfish. Like, if I were up against my closest friend for my dream job, I would still do anything (within the bounds of fairness) to get it, and if I lost I would have hard feelings about it (which I would bury deeply until I die, lol). I love, love learning and trying new things, and my ideal partner is someone who can surprise me and teach me stuff without making me feel like their student or sidekick. I want us to have fun together and help each other grow. My main love language (both ways) is quality time, but I can work with pretty much anything else except receiving a lot of gifts which makes me feel, idk, embarrassed? Or pressured to respond with the right level of of happiness?

Socially, I have a small circle of very close friends (many of whom are also family, including my younger brother and some of my cousins), a slightly larger circle of pretty good friends, and a lot of friendly acquaintances - people I like to hang out with, but would never feel comfortable being emotional or vulnerable around. If I have a conflict with someone I try to talk it out, but if we can’t come to an agreement I’m going to quietly do whatever I want. My most toxic trait is ghosting people, because saying goodbye/breaking up is awkward and inefficient, lol. On the other hand, I think my most attractive qualities as a friend/gf are positivity, spontaneity, and attentiveness to the other person’s likes, interests and dreams.

For miscellaneous, I’m 5’1” with really long dark hair (which I’m a little vain about, ngl), gray eyes, freckles, and (I’ve been told) a sweet face that turns super cold when I’m angry. My style is kind of flashy but practical, if that makes sense? Lots of eye-catching colors and patterns, but everything has pockets and I don’t do high heels. I’m a medical student, and my dream is to be a national delegate to the World Health Organization someday. I have a cat - if my partner doesn’t get along with her then we’re over, but she’s basically the laziest, friendliest chonk on the planet so it’s not hard. My hobbies/interests are games (video games obviously, but mostly board games), beer, cooking, dancing (like, club dancing, I’m not disciplined enough for the formal stuff), and movies, especially documentaries.

Thank you so much, and I hope this was enough info without too much rambling, haha.

I’m jealous tbh Sucrose is, like, the perect girl imo Just need to snip off that rat tail

I ship you with Sucrose!

-Sucrose is more logical than emotional, but not so much that she’s an emotionally unavailable partner! She’s rational, driven, and focused on her work...but, and it’s literally in her game title, she’s an absolute sweetheart. She manages her own emotions and troubles very maturely, communicates rather well, and is attentive enough in her few close relationships to be reliable. She will have her slip-ups occasionally, as everyone does, but she’s understanding about when this happens and when she’s hurt people, and does her best to make it up.

-She herself definitely more on the introverted side, and has a similar stance to you on socializing. She doesn’t always enjoy it because she tends to bring her scientific mindset into conversation and it’s often too fast-paced for her to think about the best ways to interact with people. She does like people, however. So she’s generally more comfortable in an observational role. If you take the lead on conversations, she’ll happily stand at your side and listen quietly--may even pipe in, if she likes the topic enough.

-Your goals, hobbies, and ambitions all line-up really really well! Sucrose would love for you to take an interest in her experiments, and would likely take an interest in your studies without any prompting, too. After all, part of her work in Bio-alchemy is testing how her discoveries much impact or benefit humans. Learning about the human body with you only stands to aid her research further. She’s a student herself, despite working mostly on her own, so she considers you an equal and asks for your help and advice as much as she rambles to you about all the cool stuff she already knows.

-She’d go just about anywhere with you, but by far her favorite dates are documentary nights at home, with pizza and other delicious junk food she doesn’t indulge in otherwise. Bio-alchemy has also led to Sucrose to be very conscious of what she fuels her body with for the most part. She’d also suggest various board games on these nights once she discovers your love of them! She’s fond of them herself, but not always so good. Don’t worry though, she’s not a sore loser. Especially if the wager is a kiss for the winner.

-She very much likes your cat! ...Not just because she’s a cat-girl herself. Sucrose likes all manner of creatures and studying them. She probably conducts various safe experiments on your cat with your blessing, but it’s anyone guess as to what she’s doing exactly. Once she gave your cat some very good brushies and then ran off with all of the loose fur clumps.... Another time she recorded her purring while giving some very good pets!

-Your spontaneity is good for Sucrose! It’s a given that she won’t love all the outings you have together, but she’s open minded and at the very least values new experiences! She has a tendency to stick to her comfortable routines, realizes she might get stuck in a mental rut if she never changes anything up. You’re a blessing for that!

Runner Up: Lisa ....but pls don’t, you and Sucrose are my otp now

[ellinights]

X1 maknae-like as dads (2)

this a continuation from here

junho

definitely an awkward father just like yohan

freezes every time the kids call him

“dad!” and junho immediately faints lol

he’s just ain’t ready with the demands of his own kids jsjsjs

would give those awkward head pats on his kids

that’s the extend of showing his affection to them sjsjs

but he’ll slowly open up more, it takes awhile for this smol awkward boi to come into a realisation that he has kids

he has a soft heart, he can’t scold his kid’s even when they do wrong

once he’s comfortable, he’s like seungwoo

hugging and kissing his kids 24/7. woah that escalated

pecking his kids’ cheeks is his thing, or should i say his daily routine

dongpyo

this kid is already a baby i can’t imagine him as a father :”)

a softie :”)

would give affection to his kids 24/7

never afraid to show his love

“i love you teeny weeny babies you guys are so perfect oh my god” and proceeds to pinch the kids’ cheeks aggressively

makes weird cheesy nicknames for them too

basically the second version of seungwoo

but maybe he’s more affectionate than seungwoo

but also a sassy dad

the definition of looking like a cinnamon roll but actually can kill you

he is a mix of wooseok and seungwoo i change my mind lol

would order them around while he’s relaxing in the living room with his feet on the coffee table

“go clean the bathroom! chop chop!” while he’s on his phone resting his legs on the coffee table

nags too but not as much as wooseok

minhee

he is like seungyoun but cut the soft part lol

the craziest father out of all the members imo

instead of the kids creating chaos, he’s the one creating it

“come on kids this is fun!” while he’s on top of a roof trying to show his kids alien ufo’s

oh god, this one scenario i has in mind. his kids are second hand embarrassed with what he does

minhee would be tryna to moonwalk across the kitchen, as he cooks the kids breakfast

kids would just facepalm at their ridiculous dad

that would be me too lol

minhee would bring out the children to amusement and water parks most of the time

but i think he’ll have more fun than the kids

when the kids are already tired playing, minhee is still sliding down the slide jsjsjs

he is basically switching his role with his kids

eunsang

i see priki boy as a normal typical dad

but really bad at games kind of father

don’t @ me on the pdx whisper game references

every time when the kids ask him for playtime, he shiver at the thought

all the games that he plays with the kids, he loses it all of em.

he would be embarrassed sjjsjs

but he’s more than happy to lose for the kids since it makes them happy

i see him taking the kids to daily ice cream dates

walking at the parlour to order the kids’ favourite ice cream and the perfect order

“one caramel ice cream without the caramel please. my kids just really like the ice cream without the drizzle”

“but the ice cream i use for the caramel is van—“

“shut up and just take my order, i can’t let the kids know it’s vanilla” he will say that while closing the kids’ ears

would steal the kids’ ice cream without them knowing jasjs

hyeongjun

same with dongpyo, how could be a father when he’s still a baby :”)

anyways another softie father :”) here

would do anything for them to make the kids happy

buy candy? he got it. bring them to see the newest cartoon movies? he’s done it.

spoil them with lots of sweet treats

hyeongjun’s kids, get ready for diabetes

hates seeing the kids sad, would do aegyo to make them happy again

pouts a lot when the kids are sad

also when the kids start to misbehave, he’ll start getting frustrated and cry sjsjs

if the kids cry, he cries. we all know why, he’s such a crybaby during pdx

playtime with toys is his favourite way to hangout with his kids

probably he’ll be more invested with the toys instead of the kids sjsj

dohyun

he won’t be the father, he’s the baby.

jkjk

the first thing i thought about him is, he’ll be teaching his kids english

“dad i want an apple”, “i’ll give you an apple if you tell me what’s apple in english” sjsjsjss

i see him as the rich father? idk why sjsjs

sends the kids off overseas in the uk

where the kids study in a high class boarding school

speaks with them in british accent. (like he always does and have)

would force the children to watch harry potter djjdjd

teaches the kids to rap. oh my god how weird can dohyun be—

“you must have the skills of speaking fast but in a musical way like thy father”

teach them kids those cool beatbox beats too

.

.

.

here is part two! thank you anon for requesting! sorry it took quite awhile cause i’ve been having a writer’s block these days. check out part one here! request are open, just check my pinned before you request. peace out

[oodlyenough]

aight... here’s a pretty long yet tip-of-the-iceberg collection on my overall thoughts on bl3 now that i’ve finished the damn thing, every main mission & every sidequest (dynasty dash don’t interact). 

obviously mega spoilers

the good

aside from that one infuriating difficulty spike when i arrived on promethea, i had a lot of fun playing. i found the gameplay a lot smoother than the others in the series (as it should be), i liked being able to climb stuff, i liked having an easy mode tbh!!

i really liked playing amara and i like the flexibility of action skills and being able to swap on the go without having to respec. the brawl tree ended up being very well suited to my type of play, it hindered me only during boss fights and even then at least i could switch to phasecast y’know

i had a lot of big fears about what this game would do and it managed to not do anything that makes me want to, like, burn and salt the earth, so that’s a win

i thought it was pretty funny! or at least on par with the other main games, which always kind of ride the line between funny and obnoxious and sometimes misstep

i enjoyed a lot of the cast, both new characters and characters who were returning but who i had no particular feelings about before, hammerlock, zer0 and ellie as particular examples

hammerlock and wainwright were cute af and it’s nice to see a gay couple in a triple-a game 

thought the twins were fun and funny af i liked them. because fandom is Like That i was a little exhausted by troy before he even showed up but even then, like, idk i liked them as a duo and i liked the break from jack honestly 

a lot of the new gun quirks were fun. i’m not like a big... gun person... but i found some cool ones i enjoyed playing with. 

loved getting to see different planets, it was a nice break from pandora all the time. and skywell was super fun! love the low-grav playfulness from TPS without the infuriating oz kit nonsense

the little quality of life improvements from previous games were great, like fast travel from anywhere, auto-refilling ammo, etc

some of the side quests were really fun. i liked the ratch quest for rhys, the birthday party quest for mordecai, the claptrap dancing quest was sweet, the buff movie buff quest was fun, the quest where i killed grandpappy 2 seconds in and got a reward was funny as hell esp because i drove off a cliff by accident, etc

lots of people had really bad glitches and stuff but... honestly can’t relate the game ran very well for me. advantages to not marathoning it before they’ve released their first couple patches, i guess, lol 

the less good

i played a solo amara and there are some bosses that seem like they would’ve been pure hell to do alone... i was lucky and able to phone a friend for a lifeline in those scenarios (shoutout to @heavybreathingcatt and @valoscope) but if i couldn’t do that idk i would’ve just broken my controller in rage i guess lmao 

why is resurrecting each other so hard? i don’t think i’ve ever done it successfully, because it takes too long and more importantly bc while i’m doing it some enemy will just toss a grenade or punch me and i get knocked away from the ally, rendering it useless

rest in peace maya, the best res AI in the whole damn game, got me through the rampager fight her damn self

there were a lot of characters and themes and ideas that i liked in theory more than in practice... because in practice they felt like a first draft. very often i felt like i liked a thing, and then on reflection thought about nine hundred ways it could’ve been better, deeper, more emotionally resonant, more developed, whatever. 

the angel stuff was kinda nice but... also... my longest deepest sigh ever @ Poor Sad Jack Some People Terrorize Entire Planets And Abuse Their Daughters To Cope With Their Fridged Wife

like the siren lore... wish i coulda heard it without having to backtrack across every map post-game

while i found the game generally pretty funny,  almost all the emotional scenes fell completely flat for me and there were a number of scenes that SHOULD have been emotional that just were not 

for eg i am actually not upset about maya or lilith dying (or turning into the moon as it were) -- i am ok with those beats for those characters, especially lilith getting a heroic sendoff. however... both of those scenes could’ve been more impactful than they were. maya’s i think was better than lilith’s, but both of them felt flatter, either in the moment or in the aftermath, than those characters deserved. 

related: NPCs reacting to major events is fun. i liked to do the tour and check in with all my buds to get their couple custom lines after a big plot thing happened. HOWEVER... those lines are obviously timed which is *mostly* fine but in some cases really, really weird? the lines about maya should stay in rotation for a lot longer. ava shouldn’t go back to LOL LET’S STEAL two seconds after maya’s gone. i missed zer0′s maya lines entirely bc i didn’t track down zer0 on time lol. stuff like that 

the bad

i miss my girls :( we really did keep only the white men huh

the last act felt severely underbaked. i have to wonder how many rewrites this game went through, and how much the back end was slapped together last minute, or cobbled together from various drafts. a lot of this felt very first or second draft, where the characters and themes are *there* but not refined at all, or they contradict each other. the family theme that goes basically nowhere and says nothing. the way the story handles atlas vs the way the story handles jakobs vs the way the story handles corporations writ large. 

for the twins -- lack of proper emotional resonance or development for them is one of the biggest failures imo, because i think they WERE very enjoyable villains and the core concept of like... evil video game streamers is honestly on-brand and funny af for the franchise... but as soon as troy died everything went downhill? tyreen’s non-reaction to her brother dying isn’t even a reaction, it’s not even “tyreen doesn’t care she’s evil lol” which would’ve been a boring direction to take anyway) it’s just.... “we barely wrote a response don’t worry about it”. her endgame is to be a big monster because... she’s ... fame hungry? huh? her motivation fell apart.w whether they went with “troy and tyreen are shitty people who get caught up in a power struggle but ultimately love each other” OR “troy and tyreen are shitty people who turn against each other in individual bids for power” could both have been interesting stories but they did neither. 

i’m def missing some echos on the twins which brings me to another thing i hate although it’s endemic to the series and not to bl3 specifically -- hiding important lore and characterization in random echos in random places on the map without even an indication of how many there are total, how many you’ve collected, where to find them... frustrating as hell. a lot of those echos are some of my favourite material in the game! at LEAST tell me “1 of 5 echos on this map” if you don’t wanna tell me where they are! why is major lore like the twins’ backstories hidden?????? 

and bc i haven’t heard them i don’t know if it’s fandom doing what fandom always does, or if it really is the game implying tyreen is The Evil Mastermind and troy is poor manipulated brother, but either way fuck that entire noise lmao of course the women of colour in the series are just Born Evil but jack and troy and whoever else are just Sad :( fuck off actually 

typhon... sucks... what an irritating character. irritating to retcon him in as The First Vault Hunter, irritating to have him talk about shit and sex all the time, irritating to have every established NPC be like oh wow my HERO typhon deleon what a HERO i LOVE him, irritating that we skate over his parenting failures, irritating that he has a fridged beloved wife, ESPECIALLY irritating he gets a memorial sidequest and maya didn’t . just. bad.

aurelia is evil now cause reasons... bad... 

vaughn also bad lmao i can’t believe they made amara yell “blood feud”... disgusting... 

the playable had no role in the story. they’re just a fly on the wall in every cut scene. this is whack in general, and a crit i can apply to all of the main borderlands games, however it is extremely jarring to play amara in a siren-heavy game and have no one acknowledge it. 

OVERALL... I guess like a B-? Maybe a B. I had fun playing it and I’m still having fun running around in Mayhem Mode and I am def looking forward to the DLCs. Gameplay is great. But while I had hoped this installment would take the storytelling of the main games a step further, it actually felt like a step back in virtually every respect. 

[comicteaparty]

January 29th-February 4th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from January 29th, 2020 to February 4th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

Which genre is your favorite for webcomics and which is your least favorite? Why is that?

carcarchu

Romance is without a doubt my favourite genre although i do have a particular soft spot for historical series too (and if it combines the 2 that's a dream come true ). as for my least favourite i guess sci-fi, i'm really not a fan of having to remember a ton of world building details and the backstories of some sci-fi series feel like reading a textbook sometimes. also comedy can be really hit or miss for me if the sense of humour used in the comic doesn't do it for me

Capitania do Azar

Honestly I'll read petty much anything if I'm having fun, not necessarily a genre-related issue. I think nice, interesting stories can be crafted in any genres. That being said, fantasy is usually not my jam and I really like Sci-fi

Kabocha

When it comes to webcomics, I'll read a lot of stuff! But I think Fantasy and Drama have a soft spot in my heart for some reason! I really enjoy it when a creator seems to be having fun (or is aware) of how hammy their drama can be -- and fantasy can be chock full of it! (And as an aside, I love the heck outta romance when done well! A lot of webcomics that classify themselves as romances tend to be more Drama than Romance, mostly bc they don't follow the genre conventions of romance, and instead stick to a more dramatic-oriented plot structure... it's intriguing.) Anyway! I think my least favorite these days is slice of life and gaming comics. A lot of it gets really weird and overwrought and I just... I dunno, there's gotta be a draw. Gaming comics just aren't very fun to read, esp as I've gotten older. A lot of it feels like "hey here's this pop culture reference this small-ish in group gets! how funny! hahaha" or punching down, and... I dunno, I don't have a lot of time to keep on top of memes for games I don't/can't play.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I love fantasy and sci-fi, mostly because I'm a world-building nut. I want to get lost in a new place when I read. This also extends towards historical comics, but those are pretty rare. I won't lie though, I definitely fact-check historical comics when I read them, because I want to know how much I can trust the accuracy of the setting. I also tend to enjoy romance if done well, and especially when blended with other genres. IMO, romances can be kinda samey by themselves, so there needs to be some other plot outside of the characters' relationship for me to stay invested. As for least favorite genres... Definitely comedy and slice-of-life. As someone who regularly watches stand-up, I don't typically find comedy comics very funny most of the time, especially relatable gag-a-day types. As for slice-of-life, it often seems... boring to me. I mean, I might just be mentally unable to process the nuances or something, but what actually happens in slice-of-lifes? That being said, there are always exceptions to these preferences, because I have been completely turned off from certain fantasy comics, for example, and there are definitely comedies that I have enjoyed thoroughly. In the end, all that really matters is if a specific comic suits my tastes/quality expectations, genre tossed aside

Ash🦀

When it comes to webcomics, animal stories and fantasy are definitely my favorites. I like getting lost in a world, I don’t want to stay in my own if I’m trying to escape. Oh, also, and actually being able to read emotions. On animals, because the style and emotion often have to be pushed so much, it’s way easier on me to be able to parse expressions on an animal than a human. Might just be my autistic brain tho /shrug Also, sci fi, heavy dose of “sci” in there. If I feel like I’m learning something it makes it so much more fun. My least favorite genres are romance and historical. To be honest, I find historical pieces rely so much on the politics and the talking and the human nuance I don’t much understand in the first place that I end up getting bored or confused or both. And romance is... well, my mom constantly had hallmark movies on, so I’ve kind of grown to hate the romance genre as a whole tbh. If it’s a side piece in a fantasy, fine, okay. Too often they’re unbelievable and the couple just doesn’t have any chemistry, and I just end up not buying it, so I’d like to yeet it to the side as much as possible in most cases. Now, there are some that are exceptions, here, but they are few and far between. Somehow, LGBTA+ romance just blows past this hangup, however. I dunno, it’s easier for me to care then, it feels newer, and... well, frankly, a good deal of the time they’re written better, I dunno. So, they’re the exception to the rule.

Kabocha

Hard agree on the LGBTA+ romance -- but also other marginalized groups tend to be more thoughtful in romance and tropes they use! While there's a general sort of... uh, set of expectations as far as plot and the happily-ever-after/happy-for-now ending, it's honestly really just sort of nice to see creators be mindful about what they're making, and write stuff that isn't just the same sort of nonsense that gets marketed in the mainstream. ...Now this is making me think about how much I would love to see Courtney Milan or Alyssa Cole's works translated into comics... If they could do Pride and Prejudice, someone pls give me A Princess in Theory (Sorry, I'm... a little bit of an aficionado for the genre, particularly in romance novels)

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I was never able to get into ANY romance until I started reading some LGBTQ+ ones. I never liked the genre before then, but I think it was just because I couldn’t identify with / care about all the cishet couple represented. Once I was reading a romance I actually could connect with, it was completely different. It’s still not a genre I like to read very often because it’s so trope-heavy, though.

keii4ii

I feel like romance gets pigeonholed into a specific (and admittedly prevalent/highly visible) type, kinda like how "fantasy" was pigeonholed as Tolkienish fantasy for years and years until recently.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

As for what genres I do like, definitely fantasy. I especially like dark stories with lots of nuance, twisty plots, and some surreality. I like both high and urban fantasy, though as I get older, I lean more towards the latter. There’s someone really fascinating to me about mixing modern tech with magic and the supernatural. My least favourite (apart from most romance) is probably newspaper-style webcomics. I’m just not into that into punchline-a-strip or art art that has a Saturday-morning-cartoon feel. Not that it’s bad in any way, and I actually do have a few exceptions of comics in that style that I DO like, but it’s just not really my thing. I also can’t really get into political comics or war stories.

@keii4ii Yeah, it definitely does! And it becomes frustrating to try and find Something Different within the genre when the vast majority of it is using the same tropes and set up. I think that’s also why I’ve started leaning more towards urban fantasy as I’ve aged because a lot of high fantasy was becoming ‘more of the same’.

(says someone who creates a Tolkein-esque high fantasy comic )

keii4ii

You can still tell great stories within those prevalent types. Just gotta be mindful about choosing tropes/archetypes because they work for the story, as opposed to just going with them mindlessly. But that's not really extra work; that mindfulness is important no matter what kind of a story you're writing, IMO!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I also say I don’t get into punchline-a-strip comedy and yet have TWO comics in that genre, so I’m kind of a hypocrite.

Oh yes, definitely! I do try to avoid or even subvert some of those very common tropes, though I’m sure I don’t always succeed! Some tropes can be very effective, just not when every story feels like you’ve read this a hundred times before with minor variation.

Kabocha

Honestly, that's one of the great things about self pub and webcomics -- you can get SO many more unique voices without the gatekeepers that traditionally held genres and markets back. Like, y'all might not have heard, but back years and years ago, Borders had someone working there at the corporate level that helped stock genre fiction -- but basically segregated POC authors from the genres that they were actually writing in. Which was a load of crap. (And that's not even getting into issues with queer media and fiction being stocked in stores or even published.) So basically in stores you'd see for a while, kind of the samey sort of stuff that you find in genre fiction -- and I think webcomics helps kind of... break out of those same sorts of expectations for various genres? It's kind of nice on the whole.

FeatheryJustice

Favourite genre of comics: Comedy and Action. If I could find Jackie Chan action and humour combo in a comic I would love the hell out of it. Least favourite: Slice of Life of the drama variety and romance variety. I dont mind if it is slice of life with action or slice of life informative because I am reading for more. If it is a romance between just two high schoolers doing nothing then I get bored. If it is two high schoolers in a slice of life but it focuses on them working on an animation together giving us animation information I would be okay with that.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Lol, as someone who makes a fantasy series that plays with the amnesia trope like it went out of style (spoilers, it did), I totally agree that fantasy and romance can be very tropey.

kzuich

I like comedy and slice-of-life. Occasionally I like drama, but only if it's mixed with comedy. Or black comedy. (Seeing a recurring theme here? xD)

Or drama. With comedy sprinkled in.

I don't know why but I've always felt webcomics were really great for comedy. Some of the funniest stuff I've read was a webcomic. Dunno why. Least favorite genre? I don't really have one. I'll read anything but those are the genres I actually -like-.

DanitheCarutor

I'll read just about anything. I love stuff with some kind of surrealistic or abstract quality to it, like Weaker Sides (https://www.weakersides.com/), Seluda (https://tapas.io/series/seluda) and Hookteeth (https://hookteethcomic.com/). I also really enjoy stuff that is sad, or deals with heavy themes due to the feeling of catharsis they give me. Sun Rising (https://tapas.io/series/Sun-Rising), Rescue Me (https://tapas.io/series/Rescue-Me) and The Dogs on the Railroad (https://tapas.io/series/The-Dogs-on-the-Railroad) come to mind. It's nice to experience difficult emotions in a controlled environment. If I had to be genre specific I would have to say my favorite is the very elusive horror genre. Love me some spoopy shit and pretty much everything else that comes with it, no matter how cheesy it gets! It sucks that horror is so hard to find in webcomics, at least for me.

Least favorite genres? Gag-a-day, slice of life and romance. I have a lot of trouble getting into comedy comics that aren't story driven, so I don't usually read gag-a-days or autobios. I will read the latter two since most of the time they're good things to read when you don't want to turn your brain off for a bit, but all three genres are honestly really boring for me. When it comes to character centric stuff I really want something like a deep character study, although I haven't had luck finding stuff like that. Romance specifically, I have a hate/I don't mind relationship with. Romantic intimacy has always been super gross to me, I hate seeing people kissing on each other in movies due to an issue with how nasty the human mouth is, and the sound makes me sick to my stomach. With comics it's easier to digest, the characters are just drawings so I don't mind seeing them get all buckwild, but it's still not my most favorite. There are occasions where I can't even read a comic due to genre vs. setting. For example (and I'm am not saying this comic is bad, I mean it has over 100k subs) A Matter of Life and Death (https://tapas.io/series/A-Matter-of-Life-and-Death). I really love the art in this comic, the setting, some of the characters and the little bits of lore I saw. But it's a slice of life-esque romantic type of comic, so the world building for this extremely creative looking setting is kinda put on the back burner for intimate scenes between the MCs. Again, this doesn't make it bad. I personally turned out not to be the target demographic because I wanted 'A' and the creator wanted 'B'. Maybe I'll give this one another glance someday to see where the story has gone, I admittedly haven't read it in a couple years so the story might have developed.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

My fave is anything that deals in heavy lore-- most that fit the bill are usually fictional like fantasy and sci-fi, but there are always exceptions that play with some good world building outside those genres! I love to read comics that i can get lost in and want to almost research the world created-- as long as that element is balanced in a story, im usually up for anything! That being said however, my least favourite is the gag strips and strictly comedy. I haven't yet found any that have really made me read page after page since my first looksee with comedy comics (sassy creed and that super smash bros one come to mind so quite a while ago) but I'm sure if i was more diligent in searching through the genre I could find something for myself!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I love history and sci-fi. I have a hard time getting into fiction and I like stories with a firm connection to something real in the world

kayotics

I’m a fan of fantasy stories, and I like romance sometimes as well. I don’t mind gag-a-day strips but I don’t really follow any, mostly since I’m looking for a little more meat in my story. Despite how much crossover sci-fi and fantasy have, I’m not big into sci-fi. If a story engages me in that genre, I’ll still read it, but it’s not a genre I search through. I also don’t read war comics. I have a hard no on superheroes as well, I’m just tired of them.

renieplayerone

I love anything thats a mix of SciFi and history or some other genre (its why i love blade runner, scifi film noir). Weaving history into scifi is a challenge but man does it make for really cool aesthetics and moral questions

RebelVampire

My favorite genre for webcomics is probably a tie between fantasy and sci-fi. Not only do I just personally love world-building heavy material, but I also just think webcomics is a medium well-suited to them. I kind of don't feel things like live action do those genres justice. However, webcomics have a lot of artistic freedom so art style, differing art effects, etc. can all come into play to create awe, whimsy, and a bunch of other emotions that just capture a feeling of wonder that I expect from those generes. As for least favorite genre, definitely serialized comedy - which by this I mean comics that have a story along with the comedy. For me I just...don't find a lot of them funny. A lot of the humor is a bit too trope-y for my liking or imitating comedy without really understanding why the comedy worked in the original source. So for me the jokes just rarely land even if I can appreciate the effort that went into the comics. That being said, there's always exceptions. Like http://sgkdr.webcomic.ws/ is a comic I would've initially passed just based on genre, but when i read it the humor was/is actually really smart and really creative. Just the same, there's plenty of fantasy and sci-fi comics I don't like, though this usually comes down to story execution even if I think the art is pretty to look at.

BadSprite

My favorite genres for comics are action, comedy, drama and slice of life. I'm particularly a fan of slice of life stories that take place in some fantastical world, because the nuances of the setting makes the mundane so much more interesting. Also action comedies are my jam. One of my faves being: http://paranatural.net/. I personally love how comedy is integrated into action scenes to capture the frantic nature of the situations. My least favorite genre are probably romance, it's not that I have anything against it. I just feel like there's an oversaturation of them and there's very few that brings something new to the table. Most of them feel too same-y for me.

eli [a winged tale]

It really depends on my mood~ my bookmarks are all over the place. If I really enjoy the art and the characters, I usually stay for the story. My usual go-to is fantasy, sci-fi or slice of life! I recently got into romance but I’m a bit choosey about it. I definitely echo @Kabocha ‘s statement about exploring different voices and subversion of tropes. Always eager to read tighter storylines and those that take risks in diversity. Least favourite same as @FeatherNotes(Krispy) really! Sometimes it’s funny (love strange planet) but I won’t be binging it

MJ Massey

My favorite genres of comics are fantasy, action/adventure, and romance. Especially if all three are together in one delicious package. I'll read pretty much anything but it's gotta be well paced and well written to keep me coming back

Javi

My favorite genres are action, comedy, fantasy, sci-fi, slice of life and adventure. Also anything with animal characters in it I'm already invested in it but that's just my furry brain talking (edited)

AntiBunny

I would say a broad term of adventure. Be it scifi, fantasy, road trip, or superntural I love a good adventure comic full of interesting characters and locations.

[iant0jones]

i dread to ask but,,, what was so bad abt crimes of grindelwald? i havent seen it yet and the overwhelming reaction ive seen from everyone is "EW WTF NO GET IT AWAY FROM ME"

Okay…..I’d like to preface this by saying that just because I personally didn’t like what they did with the film doesn’t mean I can’t see why some people have enjoyed it. If people can come out of the theater saying they loved the film, I glad of it, and I’m finding reading the more positive reviews very interesting. If/when you decide to see the film, I hope you can ignore all of my opinions and decide on your own lol

Personally what I didn’t like (in the vaguest, least spoilery way possible for me):

the tonal shift between the first fantastic beasts and the crimes of grindelwald. Oh my god, this movie is so incredibly dark (both in themes and in lighting and color choices lol). I’m not saying that these movies shouldn’t be dark because HP has always been dark and has pushed boundaries when it comes to what society thinks children can handle and comprehend and what they actually can handle and comprehend, wisely and maturely. And of course the subject matter they’re dealing with deserves to be taken seriously. But the first film was so incredibly wholesome and fun that the shift between the tone of that film and the tone of this one is so jarring and frankly disappointing. Again, I understand that they have to go dark with this, but I think very few films that are produced these days are able to address difficult subjects while still remaining fun and entertaining and gentle films like the first one did. I would never say it was a mistake to start off this franchise with Newt as the central character because I absolutely adore him, but I do think his kind nature set the series’s tone on a different note than what the creator’s are going for as far as the series as a whole. I simply personally prefer the original wholesomeness

some of my favorite characters were brought in directions that I’m really upset about. I can’t go into that more without being spoilery, but I think the resolve and the strength shown in these characters completely crumbled in this film and it broke my heart. One of them especially I understand has to play the long game with their character development, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it lol. Also I think some character dynamics were developed too fast and they needed more time to breathe

going off of that last point, this is very much an “in-between” film. It’s a set-up for what’s really going to come later. Again, I would NEVER wish for the first movie to not exist, but I think, from the pov of a film student/critic rather than the pov of someone who’s emotionally attached to the first film, I think aspects of the first film and this film could have been combined into one film to make this plot seem more fulfilled rather than having this film be a stepping stone for the franchise

again, going off of that point, there are way too many storylines for this one stepping stone film to handle. Having had time to process the film, I now understand basically everything that happened, but while watching it they were jumping between like…..idk, seven different mini plots or something along those lines. It was confusing to watch in the moment and frustrating because all I could think was how I didn’t care about what they were talking about and how I wished they were developing the (imo) more important arcs. The pacing was just……not for me.

aGAIN lol, going off of that! There were too many minor characters introduced that I feel the film and the audience don’t have time to care about as much as those characters perhaps deserved. There’s one character esp that was extremely and pointlessly Deus ex Machina, which I really don’t think is necessary when you have several accomplished adult wizards and witches at your fingertips

canon? I don’t know her

TL; DR

the tonal difference between the first and the second movie is so jarring. They shouldn’t have started the series off with something so wholesome if they were going to go so dark so quickly

they’re taking some of my favorite characters in directions I’m personally really upset about

this film is only as good as how the plot plays out in later films. It’s too much of an “in-between” film that can’t stand on its own

way too many plotlines

way too many characters to focus on

canon? I don’t know her

That being said, there are some things I really really loved about the film. I’m not going to go too in-depth because if I leave things out on my list of things I loved, then you can put two and two together and start making spoilery assumptions about things I didn’t like

Some of my favorite things include:

Newt as always. He’s my angel and I love him to bits

Jude Law as Dumbledore. Just……………wow. I’m obsessed. I could go on and on but this post is already SO long

the opening scene. Anyone who’s been following me for awhile probably knows that I love dramatic gothic epicness, and oh my god that was thrilling to watch for me

While I’m angry that D*pp was cast and hate him as a person, I’ve been a fan of his work for most of my life and I think the character of Grindelwald is a great villain. I was never a fan of how Ralph Fiennes played Voldemort, so even though I think someone better could have been cast, this is refreshing (morals aside)

Thank you for asking and letting me get that off my chest 💙 now retcon all of that from your memory and watch the film with an open mind lol

[jobsystem-blog]

possibilities for pc agency in choice of games romances

long post under the cut about my feelings about romance in games, particularly choice of games (along with stuff like genderflipping characters based on the pc’s gender and sexuality), basically just wanna vent + organize my thoughts on this! [cw for sex mentions + a single assault mention]

i’ve been playing and thinking about a lot of choice of games recently. i’ve always been drawn to them because nearly every one features lgbt characters and romances, but as much fun as i’ve had with the format, as well as the individual settings and characters, that romance aspect that had me so drawn always fell just a little bit flat. a lack of individuality and character in romantic options. they generally weren’t defined, and were customizable to the point of being boring. even now, even when they have their own personalities to some degree, none of the intimate moments between your characters ever feel real or special, because they are either the same across different romance options (choice of the deathless is a sore spot for me lol), or the moments aren’t integrated into the plot and don’t have any sort of emotional basis (i.e. they’re just tacked on)

i remember my first cog that wasn’t just the basic choice of dragons, romance, etc., heroes rise. you only got one love interest, who looked just like a specific celebrity you chose at the beginning of the game. in the next game, you literally choose another love interest’s name for them. of course, genderflipped chars tend to have this issue worse than characters with established genders, not because of that inherently, but because the lack of characterization and high customizability shows even more blatantly. that being said, even non-genderflipped characters can feel cookie cutter and boring after the first playthrough (again....choice of the deathless*)

over the course of the heroes rise series, you do actually get the chance to have romances with established characters, which really intrigued me. i never actually finished those romances (particularly not jury, which REQUIRED you to nonconsensually kiss him to begin the romance, but that’s a whole nother thing), but i remember being really excited realizing you actually could have a relationship with jenny, jury, and prodigal. especially since they felt like they each had their own sexualities, rather than just being bi for convenience, or straight/gay based on your sexuality**

there was something about those romances that felt, to me, much more integrated in the plot. like i was actually having a real romantic subplot in some superhero movie, instead of it just being tacked on and empty the way some of the romances felt***

over time, choice of games have definitely focused more on character development than their predecessors, with a much higher volume of characters with set genders and sexualities. the problem is....it hasn’t been nearly enough

i get that not every game is going to have romance be a big deal. my issue with this is that if you’re going to include romance, it should feel like it’s part of the story, not just some random aside. if writers aren’t going to give as much attention to romance as other parts of their story, why even bother including it? i think cog authors need to start understanding that there doesn’t need to be romance in their games for people to enjoy them, and boring romances don’t do anything for the quality of their stories

i’ve been quietly frustrated about this for a while now, but after playing heart of the house, with its relatively well-developed romances (and surprisingly detailed sex scenes lmao), my issues with how choice of games typically handle romance have become clearer in my head. i’m realizing now that the level with which heart of the house incorporated romance into the story should be the bare minimum that a game that markets itself as having a romance element should. even the one genderflipped character had a fleshed out personality, and good romantic/intimate scenes.

that being said

heart of the house still falls into some of the same traps that virtually all other choice of games do:

1. “pick this one specific flirty option to begin the romance”

this isn’t specific to choice of games, pretty much any game with romance that’s not a dating sim does this. it’s frustrating, because it only really works with certain pc’s personalities. i wanted to romance bastian in heart of the house with a weird occult nerd who doesn’t quite understand social conventions, but finds himself falling for bastian over time. i eventually had to break character if i wanted anything to happen, because apparently in the world of choice of games, characters can only understand love/flirting if it’s in the form of a saucy pickup line, which again, works for some characters (like the one i romanced dev with in another playthrough), but not for others.

the solution: give players multiple ways of starting a romance that can suit a variety of personality types. allow multiple ways to flirt, allow ways to subtly indicate your interest to your prospective love interest for people who wanna make shy, passive characters, and give multiple points at which a romance can start throughout the story so that people can experience their characters gradually falling in love instead of having to miss out on their chance to romance a character because they didn’t imply they wanted to fuck within the first five minutes of meeting them

2. linear romance

despite giving you a bunch of other personality stats and traits for every other part of the game, romances generally tend to play out in the same linear ways across playthroughs. somehow all these things affect every other part of the story....except for romantic + intimate scenes. it really breaks me out any immersion, especially when my character has to act out of character to even access any romances in the first place.

the solution: give players more agency during romantic + intimate scenes. let them take the lead, or allow the love interest to. let them direct the flow of the scene, just like any other non-romantic scene in the game.

3. genderflipping and perspective

genderflipping is controversial among the cog player base, with the majority of people relaying a single criticism of it: accusing the author of writing a character as a specific gender (male or female), and then just switching pronouns. another related complaint, is that of authors writing love interests for specific genders of pc (for instance, the way the sex scene with dev is written makes me think it was primarily written for a female pc, particularly with the way your male pc’s sexual preferences are basically decided for him). it’s true that many games do give off this vibe. however, many of the complaints strike me as strangely essentialist, as if a character should have a completely different personality if they’re male than if they were female, it’s true, gender has a huge impact on people, but this essentialism denies the reality that we are all human, we are all suggestible and influenced by our environments (which imo, largely account for gender differences in personality trends), and there is no one personality trait that every woman has that every man does not, and vice versa. i think we can criticize heteronormativity, homophobia, and misogyny without reifying the concept that men and women are intrinsically different on an emotional and personal level. imo, this very essentialism, where characters whose genders are variable across playthroughs (both love interests and the pc) are written from a specific gendered perspective, is what causes people to be alienated during romances, one way or another

the solution: again, this is where player agency comes in. allowing players to define their own narrative based on their own idea of their character will help players feel connected to their character. additionally, having a strong idea of what a character is like is key. rather than defaulting to heteronormative assumptions of how romance and sex must play out for male love interests vs. female love interests, take a minute to actually think through the personality of your character and what their preferences would be like. this is what i loved about bastian in heart of the house, because though he was a genderflipped character, what he was doing in the sex scene felt very in line with who he was, regardless of gender. meanwhile, dev’s sex scene was...well-written, but didn’t really speak much to dev’s character, in my opinion. in some ways, it almost felt out of character, and it was certainly very ooc for my pc, who was an outgoing flirt who liked to take charge. if you have a strong handle on what kind of person your characters are, they’ll seem genuine regardless of anything else.

4. integrating romance with the story

oftentimes, you can tell right away when a romance scene is going to be happening in a cog. the story suddenly gets diverted from w/e you’ve been focusing on until now, onto either some circumstance that has very little plot relevance, but is contrived to bring you and another character together, or a circumstance that does have plot relevance, usually with a brief diversion focusing on your chosen romance, followed up by the consummation of your relationship shortly after. even when you’re romancing a major character, during plot-important scenes, their dialogue with you often does not change, regardless of the level of relationship they have with you (enemies, friends, lovers, etc., it’s often all the same). the fact that you’re in a relationship with any given person generally doesn’t affect the overarching plot (except for choice of romance, ofc), and romances often feel tacked on for extra flavor. i don’t think i’ve seen a game that combines all these issues in one (except like....choice of the dragon but i dont think that counts lol), but most games have at least one element of this. in heart of the house, the first and only intimate/sex scene you have with your love interest always happens during the ball, and at no other time. in dinoknights, you may as well not have had a romance at all, except during a few brief asides.

the solution: this one is more complicated than the others, but even if you don’t want the player’s relationships to directly affect the main story, romantic + intimate scenes often feel much more integrated when they aren’t mainly segregated to defined “romance portions” of the game. a better way of approaching it is letting the story happen as it will, making sure love interests are interesting, well-defined, and relevant to the story, and considering how a romance might affect events as they play out. in my own game concept, there is a choice you can make that determines whether a certain character lives or dies. if that character lives, the aftermath of the danger that threatened them results in a vulnerable moment for them, and is the first point at which you can start a romance with them. this event would happen in the story regardless, but the way it proceeds would change based on your relationship with and reaction to them and the event, making a pivotal part of the story a similarly pivotal part of the development of your relationship.

i don’t know if this is all i want to say on the subject, but i wanted to get my thoughts out and down, for reference and also to help me think through the subject

congrats if you managed to read and stay interested in all of this lol

*ironically, the genderflipped character in deathless was the most interesting romance, iirc **i don’t actually think this is inherently a bad thing, but having characters with a variety of sexualities makes every other character’s sexuality feel more fleshed out, imo ***that being said.....i really did love lucky when the hero project first came out djshkjhs ****i’m referring to bastian with he pronouns, because that’s what he was in my playthroughs, and i don’t actually know what the female version of his character is named

[murfeelee]

Weekend! Replies! MAGNUS!

We’re coming to the finish for this semester. One week to go, and then a few last exams. Am I studying? Uh.... >_>

emmasyd replied to your photoset “All Hail the Chairman - Pt2 Magnus deposited Chairman Meow on the...”                                                

WOW what is this                    

All these Shadowhunters/Malec posts I’ve been doing are inspired by a series of novels by @cassandraclare​​, that were adapted first into a movie (The Mortal Instruments) and currently a tv show (Shadowhunters - Season 3 airs in April, as if I’m not sitting here on effing pins and needles wanting it in January, okay).

The single greatest part IMO is the love story between the 1/2 demon 1/2 human warlock Magnus Bane, and the angel-blooded demon-slaying Shadowhunter Alec Lightwood -- aka MALEC. 

(I will NEVER be over that S01 wedding scene -- GAWD, the screaming I did!!)

simsdestroyer replied to your photoset “Asmodeus Pt3 - Bane of My Existence “My father, who art in Hell,...”                                                

You do such an amazing and creative job!!!  Your sims games look so extraordinarily beautiful... Btw Magnus looks exactly like how I would imagine him too.                    

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! <3 It’s a lot of work and takes bloody forever, but really I just like recreating the stuff I like and sharing it with everyone so y’all can enjoy it with me. Cheers!

declarations-of-drama replied to your photoset “All Hail the Chairman - Pt1 “Chairman Meow deserves my every effort.“...”

Tbh I know not of this Magnus dude, but what I did pick up from picture 8 is that I reckon he's one hell of a diva bitch! Like, it's his way or the high way? Then I carried on scrolling and saw the heels and I was like, yeah, bitch is fierce AF! (His smile told me that I mean, in pic 8)         

Let me make something clear: *ahem*

Magnus Bane is THAT. B!TCH.

Magnus is power and awe and beauty and strength and sex and magic and art and eternal and dark and light and perfection and FRIKKIN LOOK AT HIM

He’ll protect the Downworlders, raise his children, help his Shadowhunter boyfriend/fiance/husband slay a few dragons, eff up some Circle members, summon demons, and STILL be fabulous and party all night! He’s the HIGH WARLOCK OF BROOKLYN.

MY OVARIES, OKAY!?

blackcurtainsfall replied to your photoset “Asmodeus Pt2 - Prince of Hell, Greater Demon of Lust “You wound me,”...”                                                

Awesome.      

declarations-of-drama replied to your photoset “Asmodeus Pt2 - Prince of Hell, Greater Demon of Lust “You wound me,”...”                                                

Wow! He is amazing in these pics! *Nom*                    

Godfrey Gao is one sexy mofo; I tried my best, but lawd. *fanning self off*

alice-and-white-lapin replied to your photoset “All Hail the Chairman - Pt1 “Chairman Meow deserves my every effort.“...”                                                

Chairman meow cute❤️                    

I can’t help squealing every time I catch the Chairman wandering around and meowing; cats are SO cute in this game!! I like them more than dogs, which is crazy, cuz I hate cats IRL (cuz I’m so allergic to them).

davidmont replied to your photoset “All Hail the Chairman - Pt1 “Chairman Meow deserves my every effort.“...”                                                

So beautiful ♥♥♥                    

Thank you! There are 2 bedrooms I included on the penthouse lot -- one inspired by the tv show version in S02, and that one inspired by the movie/S01 version, which I honestly like A LOT more, for keeping the Asian flair.

white-enamel reblogged your photoset and added:

☽🌑☾ Thank you murfeelee for using my stuff , paintings look so good in your game :)

Thank YOU for making and sharing them! <3 They’re one of my favorite pieces of CC now. XD And they matched perfectly with the look I wanted for Magnus’ boudoir.

blackjackgabbiani reblogged your post and added:

Male fashion in general tends to get the short end of the stick. Unless you want all your men to look like hipsters then you’re basically out of luck.

SO true. I’ve been screaming about this for years. It’s especially frustrating since 75% of all of my sims are male. Like...come on people. Stop the sexism already; men like looking cute, too; eff what ya heard. #smh U_U

declarations-of-drama replied to your photoset “Shadow Market - WIPs Pt5 Shadow Markets had sprung up in the...”

I saw this yesterday but couldn't comment on that stupid tablet thing, just wanted to say "WOW!" For making me not hate something associated with Katy Perry! You disguised those Ice-creams into your creepified scene so well! :D                    

LOL, IKR! XD God, that whole SP is anathema, it really is, what a waste of content. We could have had anything, and instead they give us KPST? Why? XP

But yeah, thanks for not minding the silly ice cream and cupcake decor -- I figured they made sense since it’s a candy store, but I still wanted them camouflaged as much as possible. XD As soon as I finish the outside I’ll try uploading the Shadow Market lot.

Happy Simming!

[sleuthingspooks]

im gonna revive my luke skywalker blog out of spite. anyway. rant under the cut dont read if you liked the movie cause :))))) im. pissed.

...so first of all I’ll say this: the movie was not all bad. It wasn’t all bad at all, I enjoyed the scenes with Finn and Rose (she’s so cute!) and Poe is still my fly boy husband, and I thought the scenes with Rey and Luke were really nice and interesting.

But honestly? 

It was such a mess. They were still trying to mash together the original trilogy, and literally basically pushed together Empire Strikes Back with Return of the Jedi unnecessarily. Snoke, after being shown as this really powerful force, dies in like 5 seconds and doesn’t do much of anything. 

And hah, they tease the audience with a force connection between Rey and Kylo that turns out to have been a manipulation by Snoke, constantly making you believe that there’s something between them, only for us to get to the ‘reveal’ and have Kylo say ‘you knew all along, your parents are nobody’ ‘you have no part in this story’ ->no shit i almost got up and walked out of the theater.

why did rey have all these force visions of luke fighting vader, and all this shit. Just because she picked up the lightsaber? Really? It was CALLING to her and you’re going to just? throw that entire thing out and play that game?? the millenium falcon just so happens to be on Jakku because Han lost it. Rey just so happens to find Luke’s lightsaber. you put all these teasers and then literally tell me ‘lol! we’re just fucking with you haha’. 

Luke’s on that planet away from literally everyone because kylo killed his students and took a bunch of them. ...that’s it. he uh, failed kylo (we literally have an ‘I have failed you Anakin’ line from Luke at the end) and exiled himself, even though the reason the Jedi exiled themselves from the galaxy was because they were literally obliterated and the Empire had taken over. But the First Order had not taken over yet, he just abandoned Leia to take care of it and said ‘nah i can’t help you bye’. ...like really? legit i would have believed tht he LEFT REY ON JAKKU after KYLO/SNOKE KILLED HIS WIFE and they were after them or something and it was just better  for his family aka daugter if he stayed away. but no. :)))

Then the uh. Rey and Kylo elevator scene was pulled straight from RotJ, same with the Snoke/Rey/Kylo scene in the Supreme Leader’s throne room. complete with a look at the destruction of the ships. Did we need a repeat? No, why didn’t you spend more time making Snoke an actual character instead of just some kind of weak, blank Palpatine clone. Palpatine is interesting, he’s an amazing character. Snoke was paltry, a blank slate, a nobody. Why waste all of that build up for that. Luke said Leia believed Snoke was behind everything--which he obviously was, but we get nothing out of it. Literally nothing happens with him.

I will say: I am so glad Kylo decided to become Supreme Leader. That’s literally the best thing that came out of this movie, I was so worried for two seconds that we were going to somehow have a weird redemption thing, and then they thankfully killed the thread (you know with...more Empire call backs because yeah what’s originality?? don’t know her).

And the Resistance is am ess lmfao. Poe had every RIGHT to try and take over because ??? who does that. How did Admiral Haldo (?) not tell them what she was planning .That’s literally the opposite of what you do?? Like, how do you just....cause all that mess for no reason. Just tell him what you were planning from the beginning. It was such a stupid plotline, and all to...? what show that Poe is too reckless? Because honestly, every decision he makes in the movie turns out to be the wrong one and I dunno what that proves aside from to say that he probably shouldn’t even have a rank at this point. “he has spunk i like this one” yeah he has spunk because you didn’t just tell him the plan, did you have one?? 

I have nothing wrong really with rose and finn’s whole thing, their plan was pretty solid imo. i thought the thread about her sister was great, and they did a nice job showing why that first part with the sister was so important. like i loved it. I loved rose... that said she didn’t need to have a romantic attraction to finn, that was dumb.

listen, i love all the characters. they’ve done nothing wrong and i love them all. 

Luke’s death was utter bullshit and you can fight me. I liked all his scenes up until that point. Like really?? You should have just had him lift up his x-wing, actually fly off to where they were at and actually die by Kylo’s real blade instead of have that moment where he’s PERFECTLY FINE AND ALIVE AND THERE AND THEN SUDDENLY--he’s gone. ..pretty scene, beautiful scene, but really. What was the point of that? to...what show that Rey is utterly alone?? to show that the jedi are truly dead even tho...he literally said they’re not?? i don’t understand what his death gave to the movie aside from to just continue the thread of killing off the OT trio.

which hey look at that, poor Carrie Fisher didn’t get her part, so i guess you don’t have to worry about giving her a rewarding story either since she didn’t get one at all.

i died laughing when she force pulled herself to safety, like im out bye.

Last thing. This movie had very little depth. In the OT, in the PT (which aren’t even. gOOD GUYS COME ON) i felt the breadth of the galaxy. I felt like the Republic and the Empire actually had a hold of something tangible and that the planets they had existed. Meanwhile, I don’t know what control the Republic had (and why exactly did they only have such a small amount of control after 30 years is still boggling my mind when the Empire controlled everything--yeah sure it was a transition from the Galactic Republic but S T I L L). I don’t know what Snoke controls, nor how they control it. Like--I see Hux and he’s the face of the First Order’s military and i don’t believe anyone else even exists. where’s the chain of command? why did he even question that kylo would be taking the Supreme Leader’s position? aside from being al ittle shit (that had me dying and im so glad Kylo choked him i needed that).

...I need to watch the movie again in order to...analyze it because this is an emotional reaction, but i literally almost cried from frustration when the movie was over. 

it was overrated and you can disagree all you want but i feel like every single set up in the previous movie was pointless and they just toyed with the audience. 

[girls-are-fucking-pretty]

1-30

1. describe your idea of a perfect date ⁃ mm i haven't put too much thought into this, but I think it would be really cute to take a girl to the beach in the evening, and then buy her gelato, and theennn after we'd walked a bit we would like lay back on the sand by a fire pit or somethin, and watch the moon and the stars and talk about life and trivial shit2. whats your “type” ⁃ um I always find myself hella attracted to people with short hair, especially if it's dyed some crazy color. Idky but that seems to be more successful at getting my attention. Also if you have freckles,,, or tattoos oml. But I find all kinds of people attractive, and I would never limit myself in that department:)3. do you want kids? ⁃ One or two probably. But I wanna make sure I take care of myself and do all the things I can do in my youth before I commit myself to something like a family.4. if you do, will you adopt or use some other form of child birth? ⁃ Honestly, I love the idea of adoption, so I'd probably do that with one of the kids, but then I also think I'd wanna experience childbirth or have a child with some of my dna in them. So I guess adoption and artificial insemination are what I'm looking at 5. describe the cutest date you’ve ever been on ⁃ mm well I've only been on like three dates ever, but I'd have to say the first one I've ever been on was the cutest. We went to kerbey lane (which is like a cafe that serves pancakes at night; it's fuckin awesome), and we basically opened up to each other about how much we'd stalked each other in the halls for like the past year (she was a senior, I was a sophomore, so we didn't share any classes). We got to know each other a bit, and then we went and got frozen yogurt. I was a nervous, awkward mess throughout the entire thing, but she was really sweet and comforting about it, so I still felt like. Special:). It was nice 6. describe your experience having sex for the first time (were you nervous? or was it easy peasy?) ⁃ Um. I would need experience having sex to describe my first experience having sex 😂 NEXT QUESTIOOOON, BEFORE THE LONELINESS HAS TIME TO SET IN7. are you a morning time gay or night time gay? ⁃ oh definitely a night time gay. That's the best time to stalk my prey, ya know? How tf a bitch gon catch her hoes in the daylight?(see it's funny because I'm forever alone)8. opinion on nap dates? ⁃ you mean like a date where all you do is sleep and cuddle???!!! UMTHAT SOUNDSFUCKIN AWESOMEBitch I need to go on nap dates more often with myself thooWith another person tho? AMAZING9. opinion on brown eyes? ⁃ Gorgeous af. Whenever the light hits them, they turn gold or like a deep red, and sometimes they have a bit of green in them, and idk I think they're beautiful as helll. They also have this really warm, inviting quality to them.10. dog gay or cat gay? ⁃ Doggo gay. Their only desire in the entire world is to make you happy, and honestly I love dogs so much more than people because they have the purest, most beautiful and loving souls on the planet. Although I wouldn't be opposed to cats 🤷‍♀️. I've never owned one before, but I think they're fucking cute, and also me as fuck. Who knows? we could get along.11. would you ever date someone who owned rodents or reptiles? ⁃ Hell yeah. Why not?12. whats a turn off you look for before you start officially dating someone ⁃ If they're not interested in you, your family, how your day went, your wellbeing. . . Basically I want someone to care about me as a person. I don't want to date, or really even be friends with, someone who only likes to talk to me because I'll listen to all their problems and care about them unconditionally, without really showing the same type of (or any) interest in me.13. what is a misconception you had about lgb people before you realized you were one? ⁃ Lmao I've always known I was into girls, but I didn't know what a lesbian was until I was like in 4th or 5th grade. So once I figured that out, I was kinda just like "oh shit dat me", and uhm didn't really have preconceptions of what lgbt people were before I found out I was one. But I heard people talk about it being immoral a lot, and I didn't understand why, so I used to have this really dumb obsession with looking up YouTube videos of religious people debating activists and scientists about the morality of sexuality. And it would make me so upset, because I would always feel so frustrated and hopeless afterwards. I felt like I needed to change just so I could be appreciated and live a normal life. And I felt so alone, because as far as I knew, I was the only lesbian in my vicinity, and I couldn't talk to anyone about it. So those were my feelings about being gay in the beginning 😂 not good14. what is a piece of advice you would give to your younger self-You're gonna try to like guys in sixth grade. Don't, it's a waste of your fuckin time15. (if attracted to more than one gender) do you have different “types” for different genders? ⁃ lmao not applicable ✌️ 16. who is an ex you regret? ⁃ Uhm if you're only counting ex girlfriends, I've had none of those, soooo 😂 But I've had a lot of "things" where I opened up a lot to the other person because I have a severe condition known as U-Haul Lesbo™, and I regret pretty much all of those because I ended up caring a hell of a lot more about them than they did me, and it was really just a waste of my fuckin time. Not to say it wasn't my fault that I got so attached tho; I'm just a hella clingy bitch, and it comes back to bite me. But idk they also helped me grow a bit, so I guess that's good? I don't let people step on me as much?17. night club gay or cafe gay? ⁃ Night club gay all the way, nnts nnts nnts nnts18. who is one person you would “go straight” for ⁃ UHM EW. NO ONE. NEVER. Penii are gross af19. video game gay, book gay, or movie gay? ⁃ video game gaaaaaayyyyyy SO HARD. I used to read a lot of books, but school has kind of ruined that fun hobby for me, plus I can't stay awake whenever I read anymore 😂 my attention span has shrunk to the size of an apple seed thank you v much20. favourite gay ship (canon or not) ⁃ Wayhaught, and I haven't even watched Winonna Earp. That's how much I ship it.21. favourite gay youtuber ⁃ Ari Fitz probably. She fine as hellChanging my answer to question 1 to Ari Fitz 👌 22. have you ever unknowingly asked out a straight person? ⁃ I've never asked out anyone so, nope. I have had a couple straight crushes (sexualities pending, some of them), but gay people are infinitely more attractive imo 😂 23. have you ever been in love? ⁃ I thought maybe a couple of times, but nah24. have you ever been heartbroken? ⁃ Yeah, but who hasn't? 🤷‍♀️ that's just how the ball rolls25. how do you determine if you want to be them or be with someone ⁃ If I find myself wanting to be held by them or eaten out by them or kissed by them or whatever, then logically they'd have to be . . . Not me. So I guess that's how I determine whether i want to be them or be with them. It depends on whether I see them as competition or game. 26. favourite lgb musician/band ⁃ Mm I don't know of many, but Hayley kiyoko 👌 Also Halsey's a gay too, right ? Idk, but I also really like her stuff:)27. what is a piece of advice you have for young / baby gays ⁃ Have patience. You live in a world where fellow gays are relatively few and far between, so it may take a while before you can really put yourself out there. Also your parents most likely will not understand what it means to be gay, nor will they probably treat you like they should in the beginning. Have patience with them, and remind them to treat you in the ways you want to be treated (if it's safe). Eventually, it will be okay when you leave to find your own way in the world and get in touch with your fellow gays, and won't have to suppress your gay any longer :). Or that's what I tell myself lol, I have yet to actually leave the nest 28. are you out? if so how did you come out ⁃ I'm out to my parents, my sister, anyone who asks, anyone who figures it out, and anyone I'm interested in. I don't really "come out" to people, because I don't typically feel like that's something they need to know about me. Unless they're curious. Or cute. Or tryna hit me up and they got a dick. But yeh, I was forcefully removed from the closet when my parents found out I had a girl in middle school 😂. I had this chick in my phone as "*insert name here*

[atomickrakatoa]

Episode 7 - “And I have no idea what a Willa is.” -Chips

Bryce

I guess Liana voted me? how odd. Colin voted Nicholas I presume but uh me and Quillynn lived which is all that matters tbh! Im happy that we get to live another round I was scared(pumpkin)

Colin, from the grave

fuck these hoes

QuilLynn

So.. I survived tribal! I'm super happy that we were able to get out Colin, as much as I love him as a person and would have wanted to work with him under different circumstances it was the only thing that made sense. Basically Bryce and I put ourselves in a position where we were the swing votes between Colin leaving and Nicholas leaving. Although there were benefits with both options, we knew that Colin would be harder to convince to also vote out Liana if we lose again, and we feel safer (for now) with Nicholas. At this point I feel great, I don't want to sound cocky, but I now just don't see either Bryce or I leaving before merge! 

Dana

Hello Dads and lovers! I don't have too much to say about the game, except the tea is that i'm ready af to merge. The fastest way to kill me is to make me go to tribal on this tribe. Chips hates me, Jay O knows about my friend group premade, and Kelsey is inact af. Zach and I want to convince Kelsey to vote with us, but umm basically i'm going to pressure him into playing some advantage. I'm going to make him king of paranoia and tbh it won't be hard. Also i'm an actual slut for letter # like i crave it. So thanks hosts!

Trixie

hi my tribe is gonna lose this challenge xx

**Malam loses immunity**

Bryce

We got 2nd in immunity thats iconic. but im afraid ppl will see me as a threat but like.... I had to score since quillynn and liana did nothing and nicholas wasnt on much.Im just happy we won and are one step closer to merging where i can try to meet back up with bryan!

Bryan

So me and trixie fought our hardest but we still weren’t able to win. EMPHASIS ON ME AND TRIXIE AND NOT OUR ACTUAL FUCKING TRIBE! THESE BITCHES DIDNT DO JACK SHIT! I was talking to trixie about it, how we are fighting the hardest when we aren’t even the ones at risk and they don’t even care. But the votes are probably going to be heading towards Willa.

Zach

WE WON IMMUNITY! WIG! I expect Trixie to use her idol that I provided her... my impact. I shouldn;t have, and I kind of regret it but I don't. It's weird. I want merge to come pleASEeee

QuilLynn

One step closer to merge! My team of icons won immunity again! Although, to be honest I didn't really try or participate, because I would rather us go to tribal again. We have the numbers on our tribe to vote out Liana and I want to do that before we get to merge and she just acts as Chips' double vote advantage. 

Trixie

My tribe loves going to tribal apparently! We’ve lost/come close to losing every single challenge that I’m praying to the furby gods for a mercy merge. 

Being a villain, naturally I have satan on my side. Although I had described zachary rae as being an angel, he’s more akin to a devil because he’s left me a gift that I don’t know what to do with yet. I feel like I have Bryan and Christian down to vote Willa. Willa, on the other hand, thinks we’re going to vote Christian and is “willing” to go to rocks, which is a big fat lie imo. I feel like he’s going to try and flip the heroes on me, and I’m hoping they won’t listen. After all, I do a lot more for my tribe than he does. 

I’m always worried something will happen, and I don’t wanna be that fool who plays the idol when unneeded, but I also don’t wanna be the bigger fool who goes out while holding one. help

Willa

I'm being voted off is this necessary 

Chips

Alright, so the challenge was the one where you get letters and then you make words from them. In general, I'm pretty decent at it... but also I never have any time online for that sort of challenge so I saw if I could sit out... and I did. http://imgur.com/dYxDGuG.gif And then I wasn't added to the chat or whatever so I was kinda in the dark about our team's score (which is odd, because I believe that in the show when they sit out they are still at the challenge) but I was hoping that we could be successful and not have tribal. Then the results were posted and our team was number one! So no tribal! And the marshmallow tribe is going to tribal... https://68.media.tumblr.com/744c19eadd3d19f73b4dfece4e0ae798/tumblr_olvj861Lu01u2ragso1_500.gif On that tribe are Bryan, Christian, Trixie, and Willa! Bryan I'd like to stay because I think he's most likely to work with me in a situation where we are reunited. Christian is here and there, but would likely stick with me as well. Trixie is basically QuilLynn so if she were to go it wouldn't be bad for me. And I have no idea what a Willa is.

Bryce

I hope Bryan plays his idol

Christian

I don't know why Willa doesn't like me, when I've never spoken to him or even played a game with him. Unless he friends with someone in the community that hates me lolol. I lowkey feel like he has an idol, and I'm gonna get idoled out. But I guess we will see. If I do go tonight, I'm not mad about it. It is what it is. But once confessionals are released, Willa feel free to tell me why you have it out for me. Ctfu 

Liana

I'm so glad we won because if we proved anything the last tribal, it's that this tribe is a mess.

Jay

I just got out of work ahhhhhhh!!!! Anyways im super happy my tribe pulled out a win because i did NOTHING in the last challenge. I've worked for the last 4 days so i was either at work or tired af during the challenge. Hopefully (!!!!) That changes and i can start pulling my weight.

**Willa is voted out, round 8 begins**

Bryan

Lol at Willa thinking we were going to rocks when in actuality he was going

Kelsey

The sitch is that once again; the foxy lady gets to stay~! I feel very grateful that I was able to stay out of tribal the last week. This streak of safety is sooooooo nice to rely on and now...we're heading into the top TWELVE of the competition! I can't say I ever saw myself making it to this stage of the game and gosh...merge can't be far away! At this point, I just want to break away from this sort of "tribe" game and I just want to get started on playing in the final traction of the competition! You know what? I DESERVE to make it to the end and, at the very least, I deserve to FIGHT for it. On this tribe, I do believe I've tightened my relationship with Dana as well as with Chips. And if I do have to vote someone off, I'm quite comfortable switching over with the villains to eliminate Jay as I trust him less than Zach. I just...I feel CONFIDENT! I feel so ready to keep going! I'm filled with excitement and I just wanna- I want to be in the heat of it again soon enough! I said this earlier, but they're going to have to rip and TEAR me away from the crown and I'm pumped to fight for it! Send home the next hooker already, I'm raring to go! And THAT'S all there is to it~! But who are you pointing at? -Kelsey V Mikaelson #TeamIBelieveInYall #TeamBEES #RIPColin #RIPWilla

Bryan

VL DR: YA BOY SLAYED THIS DAMN MAZE! "Hard AF maze" YEA RIGHT

**Malam loses immunity again**

Bryan

JKNFCDBEJLWBFCHJLBWEHJCLBHWJBC I GOT FIRST PLACE AND THEY BOTH GOT LAST!! THIS IS SOO DAMN FRUSTRATING!!! but i dont want to vote out Christian or trixie. Christian has been loyal to me. and trixie is so nice. i have my idol and i want to use it but i also dont. im afraid trixie might flip christian on me. and thats scary. 

Zach

kisses we safe xx kay now i'm expecting trixie to idol, considering i think bryan/christian are friends. whom will she vote? idk?

later...

I kind of feel really good on my tribe. I do want merge though cause I think it may get more interesting. It's kind of bitter sweet because A) It's SUPER boring tribal wise rn, but that's because of B) my ass ain't going to tribal - and i wanna keep it like that!

QuilLynn

We won immunity (well second place but w/e we’re safe!) that means we’ve probably made it to merge which I’m super excited about! We still have Liana, but her joining up with chips might make her and more importantly chips easy targets. I like them both but see 0% chance of us working together in this game at this point so they’ll definetly be the first people that i’ll be wanting to take a shot at. 

Bryan

Ok so. Christian thinks I’m voting trixie. And trixie thinks I’m voting Christian. Or there is this epic blindside coming. But I’m leaning more towards keeping trixie. I can def count on Christian to be a loyal goat but I know trixie has the skill to be able to make big moves with me.

Bryce

Um liana ditching last second was scary but we won so im happy. Malam keeps losing so its awk LOL. But im happy me and quil are safe with nicholas

Liana

Haha, Malam sucks. Enjoy tribal!

Christian

I'm pretty sure I'm gone tonight lol. There's not much to say, considering there's only three of us left on our tribe. Everything is just open I guess. 

Bryan

VL DR: Trixie is such a troll. I was wondering why she never goes on video chat. But i know now. She is one of the trolls from that shitty animated movie so called trolls. 

**Christian is voted out and round 9 begins!**