#its just fun seeing what the common points are and where the differences in interpretation happen

[falmerbrook]

I love seeing people's characterizations of Nerevar because the fella is so important, but he also functionally isn't a character. He has almost no characterization to speak of. You can pull some tidbits out about how he might of been, but he's basically a plot device--a backstory for all the important people. The only accounts we hear about him are from the most biased and untrustworthy sources in the whole game. So it's so fun to see what people do with those scraps. At this point he's Morrowind fans' collectively owned OC

[agatharkn3ss]

the Tarot reading (spoilers)

We have today's clip from ep.7, where Lilia explains the layout of the Safe Passage tarot spread. In one of the promos, there is also a shot showing cards on the table in that same spread, so I thought I'll put the two together, just for fun!

In the clip it looks like maybe Lilia is doing a reading for Billy as he's sat in front of her? But the cards below seem like they would suit Agatha better (though I'll leave the psychic interpretations to you!). So maybe they all get a reading each?

(The card meanings taken from biddytarot.com)

Card 1: "You, The Traveller": Five of Wands [Reversed]

UPRIGHT: Conflict, disagreements, competition, tension, diversity REVERSED: Inner conflict, conflict avoidance, tension release In the Five of Wands, five men appear to be fighting each other, using their wands as weapons. However, on closer observation, their wands are raised but not striking or injuring anyone. It is as if there is no real purpose or outcome in this chaotic scene other than to create conflict and sow discord amongst the group. Each man wears a different outfit, symbolising their diverse backgrounds and belief systems, and suggesting that, because of their differences, they cannot find harmony and common ground with one another

Card 2: "What's missing, the reason for your quest": Two of Wands

UPRIGHT: Future planning, progress, decisions, discovery REVERSED: Personal goals, inner alignment, fear of unknown, lack of planning The Two of Wands shows a man, dressed in a red robe and hat, holding a small globe. The world is literally in his hands, marking the enormous potential before him if he can expand his horizons accordingly. He stands within the confines of his castle, suggesting that while he is contemplating significant opportunities, the man has not yet left his comfort zone to pursue them; he is still very much in the planning phase. His hand rests on an upright wand, and a second wand is affixed to the castle’s wall, a further sign that he is still not ready to venture out. In the background, the land is fertile while also rocky, promising that he has a good chance for success, so long as he can overcome the challenges that will arise.

Card 3: "The path behind, wounds suffered, lessons learnt": The World

UPRIGHT: Completion, integration, accomplishment, travel REVERSED: Seeking personal closure, short-cuts, delays The World card shows a naked woman wrapped in a purple cloth, dancing inside a large laurel wreath. She looks behind her to the past, while her body moves forward to the future. In her hands are two wands or batons, like the one The Magician holds. It is a symbol that what was manifested with The Magician has now come to completion with The World. The wreath is circular, symbolizing a continual cycle of successful completion and new beginnings because, as the woman steps through the wreath, she is completing one phase but beginning another one almost straight away. Around the wreath are four figures (a lion, bull, cherub and eagle), similar to those in the Wheel of Fortune. Both The World and the Wheel of Fortune speak to the cyclical nature of your life and your progression through its cycles. The four figures represent the four fixed signs of the Zodiac—Leo, Taurus, Aquarius, and Scorpio. They are symbolic of the four elements, the four suits of Tarot, four compass points, four seasons, and the four corners of the Universe. They are here to guide you from one phase to the next, bringing balance and harmony to your journey.

Card 4: "The path ahead, space for growth and discovery": Page of Swords

UPRIGHT: New ideas, curiosity, thirst for knowledge, new ways of communicating REVERSED: Self-expression, all talk and no action, haphazard action, haste The Page of Swords shows a young man standing with his sword pointing upwards to the sky. His body and the sword lean in one direction, but he looks the other way as if to see what else is happening around him. A breeze blows through the young man’s hair, and the clouds behind him appear to dash through the sky, bringing dynamic energy to the card. The ground on which the Page stands is green and fertile, suggesting that the Page’s ideas are likely to bring positive change and forward movement.

Card 5: "Obstacles": Wheel of Fortune (btw this card - and the Tower card - was also shown behind William Kaplan in Lilia's tent at the bar mitzvah)

UPRIGHT: Good luck, karma, life cycles, destiny, a turning point REVERSED: Bad luck, resistance to change, breaking cycles The Wheel of Fortune card shows a giant wheel, with three figures on the outer edges. Four Hebrew letters – YHVH (Yod Heh Vau Heh), the unpronounceable name of God – are inscribed on the wheel’s face. There are also the letters TORA, thought to be a version of the word Torah, meaning ‘law’, or TAROT, or even ROTA (Latin for ‘wheel’). The middle wheel has the alchemical symbols for mercury, sulphur, water and salt – the building blocks of life and the four elements – and represents formative power. On the outer circle is a snake, the Egyptian god Typhon (the god of evil), descending on the left side. The snake also represents the life force plunging into the material world. On the right side rises the Anubis, the Egyptian God of the dead who welcomes souls to the underworld. And on top of the wheel sits the Sphinx, representing knowledge and strength. In the corners of the Wheel of Fortune card are four winged creatures, each associated with the four fixed signs of the Zodiac: the angel is Aquarius, the eagle is Scorpio, the lion is Leo, and the bull is Taurus. Their wings signify stability amidst movement and change, and each holds the Torah, representing wisdom.

Card 6: "A potential Windfall": The Hanged Man

UPRIGHT: Pause, surrender, letting go, new perspectives REVERSED: Delays, resistance, stalling, indecision The Hanged Man shows a man suspended from a T-shaped cross made of living wood. He is hanging upside-down, viewing the world from a completely different perspective, and his facial expression is calm and serene, suggesting that he is in this hanging position by his own choice. He has a halo around his head, symbolizing new insight, awareness and enlightenment. His right foot is bound to the tree, but his left foot remains free, bent at the knee and tucked in behind his right leg. His arms are bent, with hands held behind his back, forming an inverted triangle. The man is wearing red pants representing human passion and the physical body, and a blue vest for knowledge. The Hanged Man is the card of ultimate surrender, of being suspended in time and of martyrdom and sacrifice to the greater good.

Card 7: "The Destination": Ten of Swords

UPRIGHT: Painful endings, deep wounds, betrayal, loss, crisis REVERSED: Recovery, regeneration, resisting an inevitable end The Ten of Swords shows a man lying face down, apparently dead, with ten swords in his back. A red cape drapes over the lower half of his body as a sign of dignity as he leaves this world. While the dark sky is ominous, the sun is rising on the horizon, bringing a renewed sense of hope and opportunity. The calm sea in the background also brings solace, suggesting that even in times of darkness, there is a sense of peace and calm to be found.

[lo-fi-charming]

so i've been keeping up with TMP as it's airing, which has been fun, it's actually really nice to experience this kind of story weekly since i came into TMA late and listened up to the s4 finale in like, a month or two. i've been enjoying the new characters and statements, and while i was worried i'd have trouble actively listening (my attention span/executive functioning can be really variable when it comes to podcasts), it's been surprisingly easy for me to actually listen to each new ep the day it drops publicly

all this to say im enjoying the show! but i've found myself feeling increasingly frustrated with a couple things i keep seeing when it comes to discussions of it

to me, it seems... there's been a pervasive reluctance to take TMP as what it is. and i do understand that. it'd be stupid to pretend TMP doesn't exist exclusively because of TMA and that show's success, that it's a successor that was pitched as being similar. it's a story being written by the same people (plus guests), in the same universe (roughly), going for about the same tone and maybe themes.

i just feel like it's a bit of a shame, though, that so many folks seem unwilling not to carry TMA with them when they're engaging with TMP

i don't know where or when it was said, but i swear there was a comment made by jonny and/or alex about how TMP will have some commonality with TMA in terms of world-building, but also, people who listened to TMA first may find themselves theorizing in the wrong direction because we're judging things based off what is no longer concrete, reliable information; things are going to work differently in the world of TMP, and since we have preconceived notions on what is relevant or how things work, that's going to influence how we engage with information presented in TMP if we let it. and that's not even considering the fact that they've been explicit in conveying the idea that TMP was written so you can experience it fully without having listened to any of TMA at all!

i'm very much someone who tries to engage with media on its own terms, largely taking things at face value until i'm given reason to suspect otherwise. that's something i'm trying my best to still do with TMP, even though obviously, i've also listened to TMA and am basing some of my thoughts and personal theories on what we know from that

but that's what i mean to say i guess, it's something you have to actively choose to do. and it feels like, just based on what i've been seeing in fandom spaces, that a lot of people are having a bit of an odd time with TMP because of a reluctance to do that?

i think the easiest way to explain what i mean is to point to a general acceptance, already on the level of fanon it seems, to interpret the computer voices as Our Jon and Martin (+ Jonah/Elias, maybe). now obviously we have the actual real world reason why their voices are present in TMP, because of course jonny and alex were going to come back as voices in the show in some way. and i 100% agree it's a perfectly logical conclusion to then interpret their inclusion as being related to Jon and Martin somehow. i'm personally very into the theory that it is in no way them - not in any way that matters - but specifically their voices that have been stolen (by the Web?) as a means to help spread fears in other realities. but that's really not how i've been seeing people play with the concept? it seems largely 1:1. and again, i totally understand where people are coming from with that - especially when you consider how it can be a super fun concept for horror and angst, or even just the fact that folks want an excuse to carry their favorite characters into this new show and still play around with them. i promise i don't mean to bring this up as a means of making anyone feel bad or like, chastised for interpreting things a certain way and playing in the space!

it's the biggest example of what i mean though, and was a huge point of frustration for me when we were first being presented with TMP. it's not just that i don't want the voices to be Jon and Martin proper (i am very into their Ambiguous End, i believe it's best to leave that as a space for fans to play in); in all honesty, i think it's kind of a shame and maybe even a bit boring (im sorry!) to be engaging with TMP this way

and it's not just stuff like that - i've been seeing a fair amount of people expressing frustration and feeling disappointed with how TMP is hitting, but i mean, i feel like that's inevitable when you're going into it expecting More TMA? i saw at least one person basically say "ive been waiting for it to make me feel the way TMA made me feel, and it hasn't yet", and i really just feel like that's setting yourself up to be dissatisfied! beyond the fact that we're only 5 episodes in and the story has barely gotten a chance to happen yet, a huge element of this new show is that it's being approached as a largely collaborative effort, it seems, with lots of guests coming in to help shape the story and more writing and plotting influence that isn't jonny

obviously it's fine to not be super into that! undoubtedly it's a question of taste. but you do have to acknowledge that that's the case and adjust your expectations accordingly, or else you're not going to have a great time

i really like TMA, i had a great time with it, but even if TMP is a sequel to its parent podcast, it's not the same thing - and personally, i don't want it to be! i do hope that's a sentiment that is able to be more widely felt by some fans as we gain more distance from TMA while TMP is airing. i just think more people would be able to enjoy it that way, and come up with more interesting theories and interpretations of things! but those are really just my own personal thoughts

[cosmicaces]

i've never been good at writing intros to posts and that isn't gonna change today, esp since only a handful of people are probably gonna read this. i am making this post for me, because this is something i noticed and i wanna talk about it. leave it to me to make a detailed post about a character from a movie from three years ago.

rody has pstd! let's talk about it

[ID: A screenshot from MHA: World Heroes' Mission. Rody is pointing at Deku, winking. Deku looks annoyed. End ID.]

to preface this:

i am not a professional 👍 i have ptsd 👍

analyzing characters is fun for me! this is how i am interpreting rody with what i know about him from the little media he's been in + some additional speculation. feel free to incorporate this into your belief system. or not! all that i ask is that you bear with me.

now, before i get into it (preface...2!):

everyone knows about fight or flight, right? well, did you know that there are actually 5 trauma responses? fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and flop. (there may be more, but these are the ones that have the most information on them.)

fight and flight are the body's primary responses to a bad situation. freeze, fawn, and flop are more complex responses that happen when the first two aren't available. little self-explanatory, but for the sake of infodumping:

freeze: the body is in a state of hyperarousal. the muscles are tight and ready for action but is ultimately paralyzed. think of a deer in headlights.

fawn/befriend/submit: this response involves complying/befriending the aggressor; people-pleasing in an effort to remain safe. this is more common in cases of abuse.

flop/shutdown/collapse: the body is in a state of hypoarousal, aka its shutting down; muscles go slack, brain stops receiving sensory info. this can often result in fainting. you know how some people faint when they see blood? or when they're on a rollercoaster? yeah, it's this.

it's important to have this context. as a matter of fact, you probably already know where i'm going with this:

rody faints when deku is climbing up the bridge. of course, right? he had reached such a heightened level of fear that, when his brain realized it couldn't trigger one of the other four responses, he just... flopped. why bring this up? well, and i think this is easy to miss, but rody didn't pass out once. he actually passed out twice.

when they first reached the train, it appears that, in their brief moment of safety, rody had collapsed.

[ID: Deku picks up Rody to shield him from Beros's oncoming arrow attack. End ID.]

[ID: Deku is carrying Rody, swinging under the bridge in an effort to evade Beros's attacks. At the end, Rody appears as though he is coming to. End ID.]

up until this point, rody had been freaking out during their escape from the police. for him to have no initial response to being physically moved by deku... hell, he looks like he's just coming to. if we're going based off of the dub, he even yells "what's happening?!" simply put: he shut down and, more specifically, he shut down in what had been perceived as a moment of respite.

the reason i point this out is because, while we don't choose our trauma responses, there are events that can impact what they can be.

so... what is the purpose of the flop response?

quoting from an article here, but it's thought to help people in three different ways: to reduce the mental impact of the circumstances, to cause a physical disconnect (thus experiencing the trauma less directly), and to prevent additional assault.

the point i'm trying to make here is, well...

[ID: A flashback showing Rody protecting his siblings. A villain strikes him with a pipe. End ID.]

rody's been assaulted! and this is only one instance that we know of. we don't fully know what he's had to go through when providing for his siblings, but there is no doubt that there have been negative repercussions on his mentality.

did you notice how he startles easily?

[ID: Rody puts his hand on Deku's shoulder, scaring him. His response startles Rody, causing him to flinch backwards. End ID.]

[ID: Bakugou suddenly appears behind Rody, causing him to jump. He flinches back, turning to face him. Pino is also startled, flying to sit over on his other shoulder. End ID.]

with ptsd, some people can develop an exaggerated startle response. this happens when your nervous system gets stuck in survival mode. your brain is hypervigilant; any sudden sound or movement that you don't expect can make you feel like you're in danger and your body has to be ready to react in a given moment.

look at the difference between how deku and rody flinch. deku has a standard flinch, but rody violently flinches, almost as though he's been struck. do you see how he moves his head? his arms? how, after both instances, he's starting to sweat? yeah 👍

continuing along this line of thinking, let's talk about rody's attempted betrayal.

[ID: Rody being approached by the oni villain. He braces himself for the attack, clutching at his head. End ID.]

i feel like most people, when cornered and under the imminent threat of being attacked, try to block it or defend from it in some way. rody... didn't do that. as a matter of fact, it looks like he's trying to hide.

[ID: Deku runs towards Rody, shielding him from an arrow. Rody panics and turns away. End ID.]

additionally, in this scene, rody is apologizing. in this moment, he sincerely believed that deku was going to hurt him for his betrayal. instead of trying to run, he just... froze. braced himself again. i know he was very scared, but, despite deku having just saved him, seeing his fear at being approached... psychologically, there's something else going on here.

i think rody had been re-traumatized.

again, we only have that one flashback regarding a violent encounter with villains, but i genuinely have reason to believe that it wasn't a one-off scenario. the only reason rody tried to fight was to defend his siblings. they are his reason for continuing forward. but... what if there were times when they weren't there? and he had to face the villains by himself?

... yeah. i think that's why he responded the specific way that he did. his life was actively in danger, yes, but how many times had he been in that position? pleading, trying to garner sympathy about his siblings, wanting to be let go? i think the severity of his psychological distress in that instant is what caused him to try and hide rather than attempt to minimize any incoming damage.

as for feeling threatened by deku, that can be easily explained, too. rody talked quite a bit about betrayal, it seemed like a very natural thing to talk about. he's probably had to betray some villains and gotten hurt for it. honestly, you could probably argue that this contributed to his confusion regarding deku protecting him instead.

similarly with starting posts, i am also very bad at ending them 👍

tldr; rody soul has ptsd as a result of his encounters with villains after his father's disappearance. this has given him an exaggerated startle response as well as both a freeze/collapse response in times where his life is threatened. who knows what other symptoms he may have! what we can say for sure is that this kid needs therapy.

if you read all this, thanks! i hope you enjoyed me dissecting him like a bug.

[ponett]

Got a spoilery ask about SLARPG regarding Melody's character arc and, to a lesser extent, the ending, so I'll put this below a read more!

Anonymous asked:

Heya! I adore adore adore SLARPG, and have latched pretty hard onto Melody and Harmony's dichotomy for a while... I was wondering whether you saw Harmony more as an obstacle to Melody's growth, or something to be worked on and reconciled with more like Madeline and Badeline from Celeste? Unless it's spoilers of course. It's one of the few threads left open after the game, and as a plural woman myself I was just curious. X3

I'll say up front that I've generally avoided stepping in and telling people what The One Correct Interpretation is for a lot of things in SLARPG. I didn't intend for Melody to be read as plural, since in the story Harmony is a parasitic outside force, but I also understand where that interpretation comes from and won't tell folks they're wrong for relating to her like that. That's just the beauty of art. We can relate to things however we want. I just wanna make sure my personal framing is clear before I talk about the thought behind Melody and Harmony's relationship

Harmony is more of a literary device than a character. While she's not an alternate personality for Melody, she's also not really a full person in her own right. I don't think about Harmony having her own arc. She's a magical force that occasionally externalizes Melody's darker, more self-critical thoughts for the audience, where normally she would keep them to herself. She has her own design and name to make the dialogue boxes easier to follow. I also keep it intentionally vague whether or not other people would be able to see Harmony because I find that understated uncertainty more fun.

On a literal level, Harmony is a magical parasite, and therefore an obstacle to be overcome. She's not supposed to be there, straight up. But because she's just the embodiment of dark thoughts that Melody is already having, there isn't really much point in "defeating" Harmony to me - which is why things play out the way they do.

Even if Melody got rid of Harmony, she would still have to deal with those feelings. It would be a purely symbolic victory. And symbolic victories like that are often satisfying as hell in fiction, but in real life you can't defeat your shadow self to stop those 3am "what if my friends are only pretending to like me" thoughts. So instead, Harmony is something Melody needs to cope with and minimize. It's not about getting rid of bad thoughts forever, but rather learning how to deal with them better. And that's an active, life-long process. And so Harmony remains, but Melody is working on having healthier relationships with both her loved ones and herself.

I'll also say that, while I love Celeste, Madeline and Badeline's arc is mostly irrelevant to the way I write Melody and Harmony. (I don't think this ask is accusing me of plagiarizing Maddy Thorson or anything, to be clear. I'm just on a tangent since the comparison was brought up.) SLARPG began development in 2015, so the Harmony scenes, and Melody's arc as a whole, were already planned before Celeste came out. While I worried about getting compared to a much more popular game, I stuck to my guns, knowing that my story was different enough to stand on its own. If anything, I just avoided specific phrases like "reflection" or "I'm a part of you" to try and keep people from just pointing and going "Celeste reference!"

Unfortunately the "wow this is just like Celeste" comments were unavoidable, as were the newfound generalizations about what all indie games about trans girls with anxiety must be like because there are two (2) whole games that share some common story tropes, and it seems like the ending may have thrown some people off because of expectations created by Celeste. But what are you gonna do? I at least avoided my absolute nightmare scenario of Deltarune Ch.2 doing glitch aesthetics or giving Susie and Noelle a kiss mechanic lmao

[bluegekk0]

Do you think it's funny that the entire au stemmed from a fork boi with bad parenting skills and a lanky boi with tumbler sexy man energy?

I do think about that sometimes, yeah. Though it also kinda makes me realize that it could be interpreted as me making the AU out of spite? Maybe spite is a strong word here, but I won't deny that I dislike many of the very common interpretations of those characters in the fandom. So the AU was a way for me to go "no, I fundamentally disagree" and do my own thing.

Vyrm is a primary example here, his canon counterpart often gets interpreted as a shitty dad who killed his offspring for fun and is a cold jerk towards everyone. And if you compare Vyrm to that, he's like the complete opposite. His actions did lead to the death of his offspring, yes, but 1. It wasn't just his idea (so many people put the blame on PK only when WL was also involved, which I found very frustrating), 2. He did NOT want to do it but had no other choice and 3. He tried his best to be a good father to Hornet, and he did his best there. And he's a very emotional being, he craves affection and he really struggles with his identity, confidence and just about everything else. I wanted to do something different with him from the start, and he's really evolved since then to the point where I completely separate them in my mind. Vyrm and PK, to me, are only the same in principle. Aside from that, they're completely different characters to me, and Vyrm in particular means so, so much to me after all this time. But yeah, it is pretty funny in retrospect.

With Grimm I had similar feelings about a lot of popular fanon, but it wasn't as strong. In all honestly, his AU version's beginnings were rooted in self-indulgence. I loved the aesthetic of the character, I loved how vampire-like he was, and unlike a lot of the fandom, I've always seen him more as a bat than a moth or any insect. And as it happens, I also really wanted to pair him with my version of PK. I guess that's the most self-indulgent part, I just thought they looked good together. Later it evolved into a full on backstory with a lot of yearning, self-discovery, and above all, affection and true respect for one another. No regrets here either, their story lives in my mind constantly and I genuinely love it so much. Funnily enough, with Grimm, I started to get irritated at popular fanon more and more as time went on, as opposed to creating him with the sole purpose of going against the headcanons I disagreed with. But just like with Vyrm, I don't consider my Grimm and the Grimm from the game to be the same.

It's actually slightly conflicting since on one hand, it is a Hollow Knight AU and I love reinterpreting the game for its purpose. On the other, it means I have to inevitably be faced with other interpretations of the characters that I find upsetting or irritating. But it is what it is. All I can hope for is that people begin seeing it more like an OC-esque thing instead of just "PK but gay and fat" or "Grimm but buff and fluffy". Because to me they are so much more than that.

Sorry if this turned into a rant-y ramble, I think about this all the time and this was a good opportunity to put those thoughts into words I suppose.

[nientedenada]

Why the Altmeri Commentary on Talos is Important to Lore Discussion (Even if It Isn't the Thalmor's End Goal) 

Originally posted on r/teslore three years ago. To be clear, important in this context means if you're trying to guess where TES might go in the future. And as the years go by, and we now have an almost complete turn-over of developers at Bethesda, it may be less relevant. Still, the new developers will have all these old ideas to rummage through.

This begins with a split among fans, though I don't think it has to be a nasty split. There is a very strong opinion in /r/teslore that Out-of-Game texts are valid if you want them to be, if you find them interesting enough for your Tamriel. And there's another very strong opinion that only official lore is really valid for theorizing. To be completely honest, we all probably dabble in one or the other at different times. Sometimes we are more creative and speculatory about Tamriel, other times we are arguing out the Lowest Common Denominator of agreed-upon lore. (It's never actually agreed upon, but that's part of the fun.)

But there's a third possibility: examining Out of Game texts for the perspective they can give us on In-game lore. A really good example of how this works would be the document: On the Nords' Totem Religion. It was a design document for Skyrim which was not incorporated into the game directly. However, the document gives a lot of insight into the little we do see in Skyrim of the ancient Nord religion. It is useful in interpreting the game itself.

It's also useful for going forward. When ESO returned to Skyrim this year, we could bet that the devs would be taking a closer look at the local religion, as they had in Elsweyr last year. And we could also guess that they might turn to that unofficial Skyrim design document which best explained the original ideas for the Nord religion. As of a few weeks ago, much of the Totem Religion document's lore has been added to the official lore as in-game books in ESO.

The totem religion document is as uncontroversial example of this process as you can find. Most everyone in lore circles has regarded it as a very useful document. You won't find that agreement about all OOG unofficial writings. But I'd like to make the argument for why the Altmeri Commentary on Talos is worth knowing and discussing even if you don't end up thinking it's true.

So, I'll begin with quoting the whole thing. It's pretty short.

What appears to be an Altmeri commentary on Talos To kill Man is to reach Heaven, from where we came before the Doom Drum's iniquity. When we accomplish this, we can escape the mockery and long shame of the Material Prison. To achieve this goal, we must: 1) Erase the Upstart Talos from the mythic. His presence fortifies the Wheel of the Convention, and binds our souls to this plane. 2) Remove Man not just from the world, but from the Pattern of Possibility, so that the very idea of them can be forgotten and thereby never again repeated. 3) With Talos and the Sons of Talos removed, the Dragon will become ours to unbind. The world of mortals will be over. The Dragon will uncoil his hold on the stagnancy of linear time and move as Free Serpent again, moving through the Aether without measure or burden, spilling time along the innumerable roads we once travelled. And with that we will regain the mantle of the imperishable spirit.

What it doesn't say: Nowhere does it say it's a Thalmor document. Nowhere does it mention the Towers. Those two points are pretty well-known in lore circles, but they come up enough to make it worthwhile to point out.

Second thing to notice: its date.

Submitted by Lady N on Sun, 09/19/2010 - 19:53 Obscure texts Author: Michael Kirkbride Librarian Comment: Many of these are in-character snippets taken from various forum posts.

It doesn't have an exact date; the old forums have been deleted. But we do see that it was re-posted on the Imperial Library on 09/19/2010, the year before Skyrim came out. This important detail is glossed over in a lot of the discussion of its relevance. It is not a document written after Skyrim trying to put a creative spin on some details in-game. It's a document published before Skyrim came out, and hence a window on the discussions that were going on in the development of Skyrim. We need to look at the stuff in Skyrim with the question: Does the Altmeri commentary shed any light on what's going on here?

Well, the fact that the Altmeri Commentary suggests that Talos needs to be erased from the mythic makes it very relevant. Maybe this is not the reason for the Thalmor's Talos ban in the game that eventually was released. But it's evidence that during the development of Skyrim, the reason was being kicked around by someone in discussions with the devs. It's that context that finally informs the two lines in-game that might refer back to the Commentary.

The first and most often quoted is Ancano's boast:

You think I can't destroy you? The power to unmake the world at my fingertips, and you think you can do anything about it?

It's pointed out that he can simply be boasting of his power there, without any reference to a supposed greater plan. And yes, that's true. But remember, we aren't interpreting that line in a vacuum. There was a development-related post that brought up a fanatical Altmer idea of unmaking the world before Skyrim, and it's just a coincidence that a fanatic Thalmor member boasts of having the power to do so in the game? These things have nothing to do with each other?

And then there is the other line from Esbern which I think is even more significant.

I don't suppose they want the world to end any more than we do. Or at least, they'd prefer it to end on their terms.

Esbern's statement does not confirm this is the Thalmor's plan. What it does is confirm that the idea this is the Thalmor's plan exists in-universe. And Esbern is not some random conspiracist; he's a lore-master. Dragons were his hobby but we also know from his dossier that the Thalmor consider him responsible for two of the most damaging operations on Dominion soil. He knows his stuff when it comes to the Thalmor. His opinion may be affected by paranoia, he may not even hold the opinion very strongly (suggested by how he corrects himself there), but he is not some random guy in the pub with a conspiracy theory about the Thalmor. If it's a conspiracy theory, it's an important one in-universe.

So, we have a timeline that suggests the Commentary is important, and two references in the game of Skyrim to the idea presented in the Commentary. The references are independent, coming from ideological enemies, Ancano and Esbern. I'd say that makes a very strong case for the Commentary's ideology existing within the universe.

If this concept exists within the universe, the Commentary is important even if it does not represent the Thalmor's ultimate goal accurately.

But where does one go with that? With Michael Kirkbride's historic and ongoing influence on the TES franchise, elements of the Commentary are quite likely to make it into future games. On the other hand, the Commentary may be a window on an idea in development that was tossed around and ultimately abandoned. Maybe it's not Thalmor belief, really. It could even be Blades propaganda. Maybe Ancano believes in it, but he's actually a fanatic who's out of step with the Thalmor in general. etc. etc. etc.

Acknowledging that an Out-of-Game source is relevant does not mean accepting it as the Truth Bound To Be Revealed by TES VI. TES fandom has had enough of that over-certainty already. I think we've all met someone who takes some random developer's post as The Gospel Truth that cannot be questioned. That's frustrating, for sure. But let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater. It doesn't make sense to ignore it completely in discussions about the Thalmor's ultimate goal. There are enough sources to make it worth looking at, both inside and outside the universe.

This post was about the relevance of the Commentary, but if you're interested in how the Commentary's ideology could function within the Thalmor, I can never recommend enough this old /r/teslore post: Analyzing the Altmeri Commentary on Talos.

Additional reply in comments: I thought I'd hedged enough on my statement. I won't claim Esbern as an expert on the Thalmor's ontological goals, although he definitely is more knowledgable about the Thalmor than the random guy at the pub. I do think, however, that his statement confirms that some people within the universe think this is the Thalmor's end goal. I see his statement there as he's not certain himself of it.

In the comments of the original post, a user who has since deleted their account posted a very interesting timeline of the development under discussion. I also recommend this discussion with Misticsan about the post and whether fans give the Commentary undue importance in contrast to other sources on the Thalmor.

This was only the beginning of a very involved journey into the weird fandom status of the Altmeri Commentary and the Towers Theory. It's a lengthy saga, and I've put off formatting it for tumblr but I do mean to eventually copy all the teslore posts over here.

[froot-batty]

Hii! Important question:

How did you start your AU in the first place? Im having some trouble with mine so if its not a bother and if you dont mind, do you have any tips or anything for starting and developoing a AU?

HMMM, that's a tough question!

In my personal experience, I started off small. I had a handful of characters I liked and who's personalities and relationship dynamics I had the basic grasp of and just started posting about them. I didn't start out with a storyline or character arcs in mind, just the characters themselves and how they interacted with one another. All of the rest came after, and even still I don't have that much planned out in the grand scheme of things! I just let ideas take me wherever my brain wants to go, and I add or rework characters as I see fit

For making your own AU, I'd say one of the first things you want to think about (besides a few characters you know you want to include and their dynamics) is whether you want to tell a more linear story or not. If your AU follows a linear story (say the kind you'd find in comics), then think about your characters as devices within the plotline. You might want each of them to fulfill a role to progress the story, so how can you change them up to serve the purpose of the narrative? Of course this doesn't mean characters all need to be a plot device, you can have characters outside of the story you talk about, but the main ones should lead from point A to point B!

If you're going for a "whatever goes" kind of AU like I and a lot of other people do, then honestly, it's up to you how you want to do it! I had no idea where I wanted to go when I first started out, I just knew I wanted to talk about characters I liked and the trials and tribulations they went through. And you never have to stick with the things you first come up with - I CONSTANTLY add new characters, new dynamics, new plotlines, and new elements to backstories. I leave a lot of my AU open to changes like that

For developing characters themselves, I'd look at their canon backstories/abilities/characterization/events as well as fan interpretations of them. A lot of the time you can get good inspiration from what other people are doing - I know I did! But there's no stopping you from completely changing a character all together. In that case I'd say just do whatever interests you that you think you can apply to them. You can take elements of their common characterization and flip it on it's head; give it new meaning. You can make them fulfill themes and character tropes you think would be interesting for them. It's really up to you! All I'd say is have a basic knowledge of what the character is in canon before you do something completely different - it'll give you elements to work with!

But honestly, the main thing is to have fun. You have the freedom to develop the story and the characters within it however you'd like, and I don't think any two people will do it quite the same. Don't overthink the beginning, either! All beginnings are messy and complicated, and your best bet is to just go for it; you'll never properly develop it unless you dig your hands around in there and start playing

I hope that all helped! My DMS and inbox are ALWAYS open to anyone who wants to infodump or bounce ideas off of me. I love seeing the creativity people can have :]

[fioras-resolve]

I wanna talk about how developers have gone about making new games out of Minesweeper.

You know, I love Minesweeper, been playing it for over a decade, but it's the kind of game where you've probably had some problem with its design. Its core interactions are that of a puzzle game, but it's also very common to get into situations where you just have to guess. And if you guess wrong, you die instantly and have to start over. It sucks!

It's very strange design, coming out of the game's random board generation. But that randomness is how the game keeps its variety. Minesweeper is a roguelike, I'd say. It's a turn-based, grid-based, exploratory game with permadeath and random environmental generation. It fits the Berlin Interpretation better than a lot of modern games bearing the moniker. But it's also a logic game, where you spot patterns in abstract numbers and use deduction to solve logical puzzles, even if they're generated. There's a contradiction there, and the games I wanna talk about resolve it in very different ways.

DemonCrawl by Therefore Games is a fun little game that leans into the roguelike aspect of Minesweeper. It's an RPG, kind of, where you play several small Minesweeper maps while gaining items and equipment over time. One item might let you take a hit unscathed, and another might reveal the location of a mine or three. It is a more "fair" version of Minesweeper in many ways, in that it gives you a healthbar so you don't die instantly to mistakes, and that the items let you clear the board in more interesting ways. But at the same time, this RPG layer is unfair in its own right. It's very common to enter a board with negative effects, and to get items that are either unhelpful or detrimental. It improves on a lot of the roughest edges of Minesweeper, but like... Adding this whole extra layer of management and decision-making can make it feel like the mine-sweeping gameplay isn't really the point anymore. It's just the hook to another indie roguelite. An enjoyable one for sure, but not what I really want from Minesweeper. Also, DemonCrawl's method of achieving longevity is to have an account leveling system and like, materials collection. It feels like the game isn't confident in its gameplay.

On the other hand, 14 Minesweeper Variants by Artless Games is very confident in the game it's trying to be, and that game is often terrifying. It is exactly as the title says. (Well, it's more than 14 now but those are secret variants.) Tens of thousands of puzzles with different rules, most of them hard, but all of them solvable. So you might get, for example, "Every clue is either one more or one less than the actual number," or "There cannot be a straight line of three consecutive mines." These are often very intimidating, and make me groan out loud, "Oh, god." But it's a unique sense of accomplishment, figuring out these variants, and learning their intricacies. It's a kind of puzzle that I've never seen anywhere else. It leans hard into the logic game aspect of Minesweeper, by completely ditching the roguelike element. As with most Artless games, it cuts to the bone if you're not deep into puzzle games. But as someone who is, it's a lovely time. Also, Artless Games has a Discord server, where you can actually suggest new variants! Honestly, this dev is really underappreciated, give them their flowers.

The last thing I wanna talk about is actually much more straightforward than either of these. It's a Minesweeper Probability Calculator, by Merrick Huang. It's Minesweeper, but at any time you can press a button, and see the odds of any given cell being a mine. It's still Minesweeper, no modifications to the rules, but it feels more honest than Minesweeper usually is. It actually reveals how much depth there is even to guessing, as true 50/50s aren't as common as you'd expect. It also belies the truth to guessing, that there is always a chance you're just wrong. You can make an educated guess, but sometimes the cards don't fall in your favor.

Now, I could talk about plenty more. There are the various attempts to repackage Minesweeper aesthetically, including through porn. (I have two separate hentai minesweeper games and I will forever bear that curse.) There's the kind of garbage Microsoft Minesweeper you can get through the Windows Store, like they tried their best to sand off the rough edges but that just kind of makes it weak. And there are plenty of small devs making their own variants, to varying degrees of success. But I think I've done what I want to here. This is Angie Nyx, and I have a play to go to. Peace.

[enbysiriusblack]

“severus fights james and his friends because he wants to control/be with lily and he thinks james is in the way of that, even though lily just doesn't like him in that way. and james fights severus because severus is picking a fight with him/severus is bigoted. “

Hey so I was scrolling through the tl ans saw you responding to an ask. I totally agree with you that Lily is more of an important character on most of ur points. But i saw this and was genuinely wondering how you got that from the books? This is genuinely not to attack you or be rude. But I saw the canon completely differently than how you have interpreted it, and I do wonder where you get that point from? Specifically that Severus is the one starting things while James is only fighting back? And that Severus wants to control Lily?

Once again this is not me trying to be rude, and I also do not hate James. But Jkr said that James went after Severus mostly because of his connection to Lily. And in the only scene we really see, its James and Sirius going after Severus first while he was sitting under a tree by himself. I wouldn’t call two vs one a rivalry. And I wouldn’t call that Severus going after James.

Once again genuinely curious bc it seems to be a popular notion and I truly dont know where ppl are getting it from.

the moment we see james and sirius going after severus is what i meant with james pocking on severus for sirius (i mentioned that in the post)

Sirius stared around at the students milling over the grass, looking rather haughty and bored...

...'This'll liven you up, Padfoot,' Said James quietly, 'Look who it is'

James is very happily playing with his snitch, he only approaches Severus because Sirius is bored and wants something fun to do (Sirius finds fights fun- i mean he's a british teenager with family issues. it'd be surprising if he didn't find fights fun, and everyone found fights fun at school)

i didn't mean this specific scene. but, for instance, severus invented the sectumsempra curse. which is like,, very dark and torture-y. i can imagine him using it on james or his friends (without knowing how bad the spell is, like harry does with draco). i do think he wouldn't have used it knowing how bad it was, but based on being a kid/teenager with people i hate and have ongoing drama with and having drawn their gravestones and dead bodies (i also have a neighbour kid that recently did that exact thing so i'm assuming imagining the classmates you hate dying as a kid/teen is a fairly common experience), i can very much imagine severus would have made the curse with james in mind. and i think he does use a version of it in this scene, where he gashes james' face so deeply his robes splatter with blood.

also, as i said in that post, i don't think when we see people's memories, it is a completely true viewing of the past. i think it's like how memories are- biased and wavering over time. and since this is severus' memory, i wouldn't take it wholly to heart (but that is more my hc, and i don't think jkr wrote legilimency to be how actual memories work)

continuing on this actual scene (i'm reading it rn and i'm trying to focus on answering your ask but i can't help giggling at the amount of times sirius is called handsome, every line is like "sirius handsomely turned to snape", "sirius head turned, handsomely" /j) i sorts get what you mean with james picking a fight with severus because of lily, but it seems to be more for sirius' entertainment in this scene. lily asks him what severus has done to him, and james just says it's the dact he exists- which does show james doesn't really have a reason for this particular interaction, and it was purely for sirius. but he does say he'll stop if lily goes out with him- making it seem as if he is fighting with severus for lily. but i honestly think that line was more james just trying to wind her up- he knows she'll say no. james acts, during this scene, like a standup comedy act. every sentence seems to intentionally said to receive a specific reaction from his audience (his classmates). the line gives me the same vibe as a heckler at a comedy act, and the comedian interacting back with them.

one of the spells james uses against severus (where he dangles him upside down) is in severus' book of spells that he invented. so for james to know that, it means severus must have used it in the past (not sure if it was canon or not about that spell being a trend at this time or not), but severus would have used it on james or his friends previously for james to know the spell.

then what i said about severus picking a fight with james for lily, and james picking a fight with severus because of severus being bigoted/already picking a fight with him. this comes from when harry goes to remus and sirius after seeing severus' memory.

"I think James was everything Snape wanted to be... And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to the eyes in the dark arts, and James- whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry- always hated the dark arts."

"Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn't really expect him to take that lying down, could you?"

sirius says severus picked a fight with james because james got what severus wanted (lily, but also academic validation, with james being naturally talented, which i should have mentioned in the previous post, but i was focusing on lily, not james and severus). sirius then says james picked a fight with severus because of severus' interest in dark magic (and we do see james getting furious when severus calls lily a 'mudblood', james was about to stop before severus said that). and then remus says james, in later years, only went after severus because severus was still going after him.

i didn't mean severus was starting things- more that severus was continuing things. i know they argued when they first met about houses, and i think lily then being put in gryffindor after that argument infuriated severus and caused him to see james as a threat, whilst james found it humorous and would likely mock severus for losing his best friend to gryffindor, which then their rivalry escalated from there and continued because severus was into lily and because james didn't like how severus was into dark arts/severus was already going after him and his friends.

about severus controlling lily. most of what we see of their friendship is very much severus trying to control lily. he tells her she better be in slytherin, he tells her not to listen to petunia because she's just a muggle (this could just be trying to comfort a friend, of course, but the insinuation that lily shouldn't listen to her because she's a muggle, not because she's just jealous and bitter is very weird), lily tries to get severus to stop hanging out with bigoted people that hurt her friends and severus just complains about james and remus, turning the subject to what 'she's doing wrong' instead of actually listening to her, he threatens to sleep outside gryffindor tower unless lily comes to see him, he asks for only lily's life to be spared (not caring if james or even harry, a 1 yr old, die). seems pretty controlling to me.

[golvio]

Current top five Slay the Princess routes I want to try first:

Damsel (Not because I have any delusions about romancing her, but because I suspect there’s something really awful lying in wait further on, particularly since this was THE route we were explicitly warned away from. I’m also a sucker for when “safe” things turn out to be absolutely horrifying in retrospect, when horror takes a crowbar to the boring one-dimensional love interest lady archetype, and Maria was my favorite character in Silent Hill 2 to the point where I still write essays about her existential nightmare of a life at a moment’s notice. Also, it has my favorite track next to the initial theme.)

Stranger (I love visiting the uncanny valley, plus I want to see what happens)

Nightmare (Who doesn’t love that sleep paralysis demon intro? Also, she sounds like fun in the way Freddy Krueger was fun for the audience, not so much his victims.)

Specter (Like Stranger, it’s the route that diverges the most from the expected structure, although in this case the protag flipping off the narrator happens later instead of earlier. Also, Princess is now a ghost who can’t be stabbed, and she might do that American Werewolf In London thing where she decays more and more each time we see her. Finally, I think one of the writers mentioned it was her favorite route to write for, so I imagine it’ll involve some really interesting twists and turns.)

Witch (The way she speaks is fun, and I love a good dark fairytale)

As for the rest, it’s not that I don’t want to see them, but I want to get my top 5 out of the way first as they’re the ones I’m most curious about.

I’m saving Prisoner for last, because…it feels fitting. It was the first ending I got in the new demo, and it felt like…it was maybe closer to the Princess’ actual wishes? I mean, it is an “alternate interpretation” of the Damsel route, and could just be the player still seeing what they want to see and projecting their own feelings of being trapped onto her. But the one thing the Princesses have in common is that they all want to leave the cabin. Maybe I’ll change my mind and immediately flip to Prisoner after seeing how Damsel goes to get the other side of that particular story, I don’t know.

I’m going to try to go through every route to see what happens, particularly since each is supposed to be its own self-contained story. I still stand by my belief that every route’s going to reveal something about the story or the characters that I might not see in other routes, and that experiencing each will give a greater understanding of the story as a whole. If there’s no “true ending,” then every ending is, in its own way, “true.”

I also imagine that my final verdict on Personal Favorite Princesses may look very different from my Most Anticipated Princesses list. I’m expecting that some of the routes I ranked lower will have some surprises in store, or that my opinion on past routes might change depending on new information I gather. There’s also the possibility there may be Secret Princesses we haven’t seen yet.

I also suspect that I may have separate contenders for “Favorite Route” and “Favorite Princess,” as strange as that may sound. It feels like it’s going to be that kind of game—sometimes you love the horror story for the tale as a whole, and sometimes you love it exclusively for the monster.

[lepoppeta]

Are there any role swaps or personality swaps in the hellaverse you think would be fun? Or even an improvement on each characters canon story

swaps in general have always been enjoyable from a storytelling perspective, at least for me. how much would the story change if this character was here instead? or if their job was different? their personality? its very fascinating.

that being said i dont think a swap is necessarily an improvement, especially when it comes to something as controversial as the hellaverse (im interpreting this as hazbin hotel and helluva boss combined). the characters as they are now are completely workable on their own, but their effectiveness relies solely on whos handling them. DISCLAIMER — im not saying im the best person to do that. a lot of the changes i think about for hazbin and helluva are just that, changes, rather that outright swaps.

starting at the basic level, i think one of the most approachable swaps is for hazbin hotel, and its simply imagining how the pilot/comic/beta personalities and occupations of the characters would affect the story as it is now. alastor is a great example of this — in the current series hes a narcissist whos pettier, more insecure, and less powerful that he lets on; in the pilot/comic he channels more of a hannibal lecter energy, where he doesnt actively go looking for fights and will leave you alone and even treat you nicely if you do the same to him; in his beta/zoophobia iteration, he comes across as much younger — a barely-there twenty-something (probably younger, honestly — he has the energy of a 13 year old with delusions of grandeur) whos content with being an edgy chaos-monger without giving a shit about coming off as palatable or gentlemanly. thats three very distinct personalities which would all react to the same situation in potentially vastly different ways.

helluva boss has less character iterations to draw from, but it still has the pilot episode. this would be more of a genre swap than an outright character one — outside of stolas, none of the main characters have changed drastically since the first couple of episodes. the pilot originally advertised an work sitcom a-la the office or brooklyn99, whereas the series now is comparable to a tele-nova. i think if the show had been planned and advertised as such it would have been less of a big deal, but i definitely think we were told one thing and then gradually given something else.

(i think hazbin hotel would have also worked as a workplace sitcom — ive definitely had an idea for that in the past. it negates the redemption storyline and becomes a story about charlie trying to save her favourite childhood vacation spot from dilapidation. in point of fact, that WAS kind of a swap, now that i think about it — hazbin became a workplace comedy, and helluva was a romantic-drama-comedy that was based off of what hazbin set up).

approaching the more drastic swaps, one of the ones ive seen for hazbin the most often and enjoy a lot in concept is where different characters are looking after the hotel, either with or without charlie. there are a fair few characters who have a foil — charlie has emily, alastor has vox, etc. — these are the ones i see the most. seeing how creators interpret different powers and personalities affecting the idea of redemption for sinners is very cool. id like to try my hand at this myself one day, but i havent found the inspiration yet.

similarly, a common swap ive seen for helluva boss is switching blitzo and stolas out for barbie wire and stella. unfortunately we dont know much about barbie or stella for me to have much of an opinion on this version. one swap i would like to try myself is swapping blitzo out for fizzarolli — off the top of my head, i think this would turn more characters into outright bad guys, or at least rivals, instead of simply being misunderstood, and im not sure how many people would actually like that.

as a general closer, genderswaps are also fun, because playing with societal expectations and seeing how that affects things like fashion and personality and relationships is always very interesting.

[enlighten3d]

i know i said id write this post four hours ago but i had to do the merge dragons event. anyway.

WINGS ! how the fuck would they be treated on smps where theres pvp? (this is an au where Everyone has wings. and talons but well get into that Later. this is about the wings sdhkjgl)

(context post btw: here)

they are very much a weak point in combat, id saying. if you fuck someones wings up, they are done for. cant fly away, permanent damage. and theres not many ways to defend them (beyond putting armour on the flesh and bone part of the wing - which would do a lot more than it sounds like!). so i do think that it would be social taboo to go for someones wings in battle.

but even if it is social taboo.. accidents happen, and it works differently on different servers, right? and thats what this post is about ! focusing on smps where theres actual Combat (sorry hermitcrafters and kww collab fans)

first off, my beloved.. the dream smp. honestly! i think people would NOT go for the wings. there may be wars and actually genuinely fucked up stuff, but going for the wings in a fight is taking it too far. accidents have DEFINITELY happened tho, what with the sheer amount of withers and explosions. like phils wings being fucked up! yes i know thats a canon thing but im using it to prove my point here. the EXCEPTION to this 'people not intentionally going for the wings' thing is, well. c!dream. the fucker would INSTANTLY go for the wings whenever he has an opportunity. its a weak point, of course he'd abuse the fuck out of it, like. its impossible to expect anything otherwise.

lifesteal!! this ones fun to me because i think theyd have Concrete Rules on this. like they already do! from off the top of my head, i remember that netherite armour is banned, for example. i think going for the wings would just be... another thing thats banned. and no matter how deep into the Lore that people get, those rules are GEEENERALLYYYYY followed. the wings one for sure is. it may be the dEaDlIeSt SeRvEr, but theyre all there willingly. getting their wings fucked up is not something ANYONE wants. i dont know enough about lifesteal to pinpoint specific times that Accidents wouldve happened but! whatever. this is one rule that they always follow i think. (please dont kill me for this one if you disagree, i havent watched enough lifesteal)

now the life series... naturally, going for the wings is banned. ..but only nominally, really. all bets are off when youre on red, right? i really dont think there could be anything to stop people on red from going for peoples wings in fights. i mean, depending on your interpretation of the life series (as in, does being on red actually make someone Bloodthirsty like most common fanon, or is it just a Thing that lets someone attack others?), this can change, but i like the first one, so with that in mind... yeah nothing would stop people on red from going for the wings. this only gets MORE INTERESTING if you believe life series and hermitcraft to be connected in some way... with the inevitable wing injuries that would come from the life series, if they just... go back to hermitcraft and other servers afrterwards... if those injuries are permanent (which i do believe they are), then... oh that would be Something hehe. keeping this in my back pocket a fic idea, yall are free to yoink it.

and last but not least, bcs i dont actually watch that many smps (esp not with fighting) or whatever... unstable universe. pretty much what i said for lifesteal! like! i dont see any reason why itd be any different. yes unstableverse doesnt have Rules like lifesteal, but... theyre mostly the same people. if they can follow that Rule in lifesteal, combined with the social taboo thing, i think that they wouldnt really go for the wings. thats just a line you dont cross. (..also wemmbu did canonically yoink Most of the elytras on the whole server at one point, and in this context i think it would be funny if he just somehow managed to disable flight for a while, but thats a whole other thing unrelated to wings in combat lmao)

ANYWAY YEAH THATS THAT. I HAVE SOOOO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT HOW WINGS IN COMBAT WOULD ACTUALLY WORK. might write a post about that.

this is all headcanons !! im making shit up, as always !! o7

[clowngames]

i’m a game dev student at an art school and i’ve been really struggling with finding my niche…. i LOVE being a environment/modeler/texture artist, and i want to have more skills in the design/tech side… but i’ve been struggling really hard with learning unreal engine 5 for my classes. do you have any experience in unreal5 blueprinting or just anything more on the tech side? i would appreciate some advice to get through these tough college quarters :’D

Whenever someone entering gamedev on the programmer side is struggling to figure it out, there are generally two reasons for this.

The first is that they're struggling to get into the programmer mindset. Blueprints try to bridge the gap, but code doesn't work like english. It doesn't even work like the human brain. When we think or talk we take shortcuts to formulate or convey ideas because we can trust that when it comes time to interpret those ideas another person (or ourselves in the future) will fill in those gaps. This is so intuitive to us that we don't even notice that there are gaps. Programming forces you to become aware of how many gaps there are and fill them, and quite frankly it's a humbling experience.

I'm probably not saying anything you don't already know, but I want to emphasize that the way coding works is unintuitive to most people and we need to retrain our way of thinking to get good at it. This is unfortunately not a fast process. It's very common especially for new programmers (though I'm not immune even now) to go "I'm a fucking idiot, I'm a fucking idiot, I'm a fucking--I'M A GENIUS" because of the cycle of shit not working for stupid reasons and then finally working.

The second problem is that they're unfamiliar with (and overwhelmed by) the library they're working with.

A "library" in a programming context is typically collection of functions and objects you can import into a project, but each game engine has its own built in libraries which the engines are built around. These are the verbs and nouns that aren't built into, for example, C++, but have been added by Unreal Engine to make it easier to make games.

The better the game engine, the larger the library. Unfortunately, the larger the library the more overwhelming it is because that's a lot of shit to learn.

In your case anon the "library" would refer to the different kinds of nodes you can add to the blueprint. When you're new to it, even an expert Unity dev will struggle in Unreal because they don't know what their options are to accomplish things.

Now the reason I break down the new-programmer hurdles into two distinct problems is because they often seem like one problem, which can make it hard to solve. Both get better with experience so sometimes slamming your head against a wall is a viable way to get through them, but it's not the best.

If you think your main issue is the first problem, you can work on it through "exercise." This can be in the form of taking programming courses on codecademy (I'd recommend C++ since you're using Unreal, though C# isn't a bad choice) or by playing a game by Zachtronics like Infinifactory or Opus Magnum. These games are "programming puzzle games" and I can personally attest to having gotten better at Infinifactory as I got better at programming.

If you think it's the second problem, the biggest solvent is curiosity. When I get into a new engine, I spend a bit of time learning how it works and then immediately try and figure out how to do dumb shit in it. I made an incremental game in RPG Maker just to see if I could. It wasn't good, but it was a fun educational experience. Sometimes I'll come across a function I don't understand, and I'll open the engine's manual and read about the function and use that as a jumping off point to dive into similar functions.

It doesn't feel good for my advice to be "read the manual" but genuinely there's a point where you realize that you're reading the manual instead of watching youtube videos and it's like, holy shit I'm a real programmer. It's a sign that you're getting comfortable enough in the role that you're learning what questions to ask to figure out what you need to know (youtube is still a great resource of course).

All of that said though, if your aim is to be an environment artist I think it's okay to be bad at programming. Survive college, of course, but if you're in a team with a dedicated programmer (which you will be if you are not the programmer) then all you need is to be able to understand how to communicate with the programmer. It's really beneficial to know enough about the fundamentals of what you're working in to know what info the programmer needs from you and what info you need from them, but you don't have to be good at it to do that!

[zeravmeta]

being thoughtful about media and analyzing it as much as possble is very important and fun but a cornerstone to understanding and performing your own meta analysis on things is that you really do just need to accept that 90% of the times the writer did not think as deeply into the subject as you did and that doesnt devalue any of the weight you are putting into your analysis

writing meta on media and characters and themes and narratives are essentially exercises in connecting information based on what you personally took from it. people can share common ideas on what a piece of work is saying but ultimately they will have different interpretations based on what they have previously consumed and how they developed their critical thinking skills when it comes to understanding stories.

this sideblog is all about writing meta and the way i do it is by just considering what the overall thematic idea of a character is and what that contributes to the story, and i can definitely point to tons of examples from many different franchises on here, and ill also see analyses from people where they do an entire masterfully done literature review style paper essay with sources connecting back to mythology or contemporary works and its all incredibly well done. it's all just exercises in critical thinking and connecting information!

and ive definitely seen it in series that arent truly that deep. in series i personally think suck or do not consider that deep. hell, IVE done the same in applying far more thought and weight into my analysis of series that arent truly that deep, series i would readily admit arent that complex or 'deserving' of the thought put into them, but all of that is simply part of the fun in watching new things. this also applies to series' that i DO think are more nuanced and complex, because to someone else they may not be, and its not always solely because 'they didnt get it.' sometimes stories dont resonate with people thematically, and that in itself can color just how 'good' a series is to someone.

and when it comes to the authors of works, you as a reader can end up putting far more thought into what their story was trying to say then what the author intended, and thats the fucking point!!! sometimes it is that deep sometimes its not. what did the story tell you? did it align with what the author was trying to say? are you asking questions for the sake of understanding or for the sake of asking questions itself? what was the point? all of that matters! you need to eat words in order to acquire a taste for the words and when you get that taste only then can you truly appreciate or even hate it!!

no real point to this post but just remember that you have a shovel and digging in deeper into things you like is always an exercise in passion never stop growing never stop thinking never stop analyzing never stop trying new things to repeat steps 1-3 with

[youve-doomed-us-all-jerk]

and finished it ,got dat true ending yes def had a great time on the game 8/10 (but yeah performance def docked some points as well as some writing threads that felt kinda dropped, but am trying to in good faith piece it together in me mind so just gonna ramble spoilers under the cut:

when people said this is what they wanted the original DD to be i can see that but like i feel like the lead up to the game kept hearing people who know more about the originals history talk about how "40-60% of the original vision was cut down" from dd1 and i feel like my brain unfortunately interpreted that as "oh cool so were gonna have 100 new vocations like the monk and 100 monsters and the parallel worlds(technically true☝🏽🤓) and the moon stuff, neat" thats on me lmao but yeah removing those expectations and seeing it for what it is, its def the spirit of the the first game but its systems deeper and more fleshed out not good at all the techny terms but im not very into or good at action games but this one made me want to be cuz the combat was fun haha hmm writing wise there was a point where i felt like everything just suddenly got dropped once the godbane stuff started happening and youre suddenly barreling to the ending while everything else just wasnt important anymore lmao, but trying to interpret the story as a story the pathfinder is weaving, i think its meant to feel like that cuz we see the pathfinder essentially write us out of problems, give us a griffin to escape slavery, gives us a clue to where were supposed to go and the big one he like straight up changes ambrosius mind about giving us the godsbane when it wouldnt make sense for him too, the old man by harve even alludes to this by saying the real world is much messier when hes telling you about how fake everything is, like the watcher said everyone there is there to play a part in a tale hes laid out and i think he wanted to get to the ending faster. It's definitely another layer they added from the first games cycle, but do wish if that is what theyre going for(and if im not delusional lmao) that they did more like the ambrosius thing just watching as he ass pulls us out of dead ends making us feel what rothais felt when he realized all his feats and hardships didnt matter, also just would have liked more sidequests with fun characters lmao.

Also did enjoy the endings of the 3 major peoples in the unmoored world and felt like their side quests really fleshed them out and led them there to their endings well,mostly, very cool idea to bring it all together like that. elves wanted to stay isolated but they needed outside influence to break tradition, to save their tree and how it all built to them agreeing to seek refuge with the other races rather than die with their way of life. Ironic that disa was half right about sven needing to inherit the throne but ofc she was also half wrong cuz she a tyrant and wants him to have it mainly cuz of blood, but he deserves it cuz his sidequests were about him getting to know the common folk and becoming self assured lmao battahl tbh full disclosure i messed up the queen nadias sidequest to the rose chateau, tried to scare the dick head shopkeeper into giving me the medicine for the beastren and got arrested so idk how that one ends(will find out in NG+ lmao) but based on the ones i did do, it seems like the nations whole thing was about always being in conflict with each other and how the unmoored quests there are about making people put there differences aside and band together, including the arisen teaming with phaesus. Also like the irony of their view on pawns being right at first but by the end of the game they end up being wrong. but yeah do feel like they didnt get into that more, along with what the lambent flame is? (googled that there was lore texts you can find that explain how an earlier emperor is deceiving the people about it and what it really does) they also dont go into the fact vermund was a nation of beastren, started by a beastren and then history was wiped?? and how theres vermundians fear of beastren and human children always look like beastren and yet wilhelmina is a direct contradiction of this?? that seemed like a really juicy plot point but they didnt really do anything with it. and lastly idek where to start with the pawn and arisen ending, found out theres slight differences in the affinity ending (got the high affinity one cuz reds my my gurl i always revive run straight to her to revive her🤗) but watching them talk about how happy they are to have their own will while saying theyd still do anything for you filled me with something, dont even know what but was crazy.

oh also before i forget another way its in the spirit of the first game for me is just like in the original i also forgot to talk to the person i was romancing and giving them flowers before the endings and got diff people appearing there just like my first playthru of the dd1 lmfao( got manela with grigori and sara in the true ending, was going for ulrika this playthru lmfao) def gonna NG+, maybe do a magic archer and get the stuff i missed and try and get the other endings. Also hoping for another expansion/dlc like they did with dd1 down the line with more vocations and monsters.