#its like when youtubers post an analysis of a game or something and its just a plot summary. yeah man i played the game too!

[qcellbit]

Love how every meta post I'm seeing is basically just reiterating the fact that human beings have emotions and personality traits that cause them to act in certain ways

[mythalism]

re: my last post but being a little nicer and less pissed off this time. i am really just a vibes girl at heart like truly when i take the myers-briggs i am 99% intuition and 1% thinking and my intuition is always right but thats a post for another time. and i obviously value objectivity and i have done a lot of very logical, grounded analysis of v*ilguard placed completely within the text but i also believe that some things are. just vibes.

sometimes, you can FEEL when something is off. when something is made out of love and when something is made out of... whatever else. with v*ilguard, what comes to mind is fear, anxiety, insecurity, scorn, derision, and hilariously, pride. i feel the fear and anxiety of backlash and being canceled on twitter in the sanitization of the lore and the lack of flaws in its major characters. i feel the insecurity in the way they marketed the game as something it was not and tried to hide the lack of worldstates and wiped out the south of thedas as if the franchise's established history was something to be ashamed of (i havent forgotten the interview where they made fun of zevran and didnt know who he was). i feel scorn in the way lore that people spent 10 years analyzing is retconned, ignored and simplified, or how characters like varric become cheap plot devices and grabs for nostalgia rather than the fully fledged characters they used to be. i feel derision in the ridiculous fucking dialogue that uses the vocabulary of a 4th grader and sounds like a bad middle-grade novel. i feel the pride in ahistoricism of the narrative, in its condescending overall theme that feels intended to punish players who drew the "wrong" conclusions from their past writing, or the way they thought they could divorce a game so completely from its beloved roots as if the past three games that got them their place in the industry was a gangrenous, rotting limb they could not wait to cut off. the only time i ever feel any love from that game is in a couple of solas's better moments when it feels like trick's love for him is banging on the walls and screaming from the basement and you can only hear the slightest echo from under the floorboards.

when i play inquisition and origins, in contrast, i feel how much the devs loved that world, those characters (most of them... and with viv and sera and you can FEEL how much the lack of love from their writers stands out in comparison to the others. also anders.) and perhaps most importantly to the whole experience, ME!!!!! the depth and complexity of the lore and characters feels like a bridge that creates a relationship between the developers and the player borne out of our shared love for the world of thedas. they littered clues and mysteries and puzzles around that game because they knew we'd be smart enough to figure them out and would have so much fun doing it. they gave us morally complex characters because they trusted us to evaluate and draw our own conclusions about them. they allowed us to make complicated and sometimes fucked up decisions because they had faith in their audience to act like adults playing a fucking video game. for adults. da2 is being left out of this because there is definitely some hatred in that game but they managed to spin it to be juicy and interesting so it gets a pass and for the most part you can tell the characters at least were loved and they had faith in the audience to handle a balls to the wall banger tragic rollercoaster of a story. v*ilguard is like if someone made cocomelon knockoff youtube videos for babies except they fucking hated babies and were just using these videos to put on their resume for their next job. and maybe there were a few people there who DO love babies and want this to be something more than cocomelon, but they're the minority, and you can feel how the end product is not just making fun of the audience but of them too.

the whole game feels like an insult to the players and half of its own developers, and is trying to make fun of you for being there and playing the game in the first place. "here is your nerdy gay fantasy RPG slop that you whined about for 10 years, fucking shut up already and leave us alone." and we literally know this is true. gaider has tweeted about this several times now, a new thread a few days ago about how much of bi*ware at large HATED dragon age. the jason schrier article from 2019 uses the term "black sheep". its why half of the developers fucking left over the past 10 years and the only people left to make this game were people WHO THINK YOU ARE A LOSER AND WANTED TO MOVE ON TO MASS EFFECT!!!!!! and even the people who didnt want to move on to mass effect think you're stupid and interpreted the last game wrong and need to be taught a lesson. god no fucking wonder i never want to play this game again. i said i was going to be nicer and less pissed off at the beginning but you can see how riled up i got just writing this. rancid vibes.

[falciesystemessays]

so mark brown, host of the game analysis youtube channel Game Maker's Toolkit, has released his first game, Mind Over Magnet, just about a month ago. in his recent postmortem video of the thing, he says that the common sentiment from reviewers is that it's a solid 8/10. a very polished but very uninspired puzzle platformer, with good design fundamentals but without The Sauce that makes it something special.

and like, even as a genuine fan of game maker's toolkit, who uses its videos on game design as comfort media, it's hard not to be a cynic about it. hard not to say "this is the kind of game that the gmtk approach produces." a game that's good, but not great. a game that entertains for an afternoon, but doesn't change your life. a work of craftsmanship, but not of art.

but i know this isn't fair. most video games are, in fact, like that. not every puzzle platformer can be an INSIDE or Braid. 90% of everything is crap, and mind over magnet is, for all its flaws, a video game that actually released and was pretty alright. that's more than a lot of us can say. and maybe those reviewers aren't seeing the best of the game, i haven't played it yet so i couldn't say if they're really onto something. mark's devlogs are still super inspiring and insightful, and i still like gmtk a lot.

but i think... this is the only way this story could have ended. three years spent developing a game that is simply pretty good. one that probably would have flopped if it wasn't mark fucking brown posting it. not because the game is necessarily bad, but because there's simply nothing special to it that really gives it the pull. that's just how it goes sometimes, you put your mind, body, and soul into developing a game, and it doesn't set the world on fire. most games don't.

when he said at the end "i don't know if i would ever want to do this again, but if mind over magnet is the only game i put into the world, i'm happy with that," that was the realest shit in that entire series. game design full-time isn't for everyone. i don't even really know if it's for me, i definitely couldn't work in The Industry full-time. being a gamedev is a really compelling thing for a lot of people who've loved games their whole life and want to be part of that. but it's not easy, it never is, and it's not for everyone. even the people who obsess over game design. that's not to say you shouldn't try if you really want to, but that the process of making the games you love will probably be a lot more involved than you could ever dream of. if you want hard proof of that, uh, Check Out Developing.

[sharksandjays]

yup thats right folks. its my monthly jay analysis post.

But now!!! Its about Prime Empire.

Ok guys look. Prime Empire is a terrible focus season. Jay had absolutely no character development and no power development. Nada. Nothin. Its just a “focus season” because he came up with the plan to make the villain good again and had more lines than usual (plus his little “abandoned” speech.)

HOWEVER!!! The Prime Empire shorts do say something. So, as we know, the Wildbrain seasons tend to poopoo on Jay’s character and boil him down to the funny cowardice character who is the weakest of the team. But something the shorts do attest to is the fact that Jay is STILL a ninja! The MOMENT he went into Prime Empire and saw something unjust he stood up to it. He tried to warn people. His desire to protect people goes beyond his job its his identity.

(i'm so sorry for the crappy captions. Youtube's gonna youtube.)And like the meme I posted earlier, he handled himself pretty darn well without the others. He didn't even complain about being alone. He accepted his situation pretty quickly and was already starting to fight against Unagami before the ninja found their way in. (Which you could argue could be because he is experienced with the situation in Skybound.)

And about the League…everyone makes fun of it but i beg yall to think about it for a hot moment. Who all was in Prime Empire?

Thats right. Kids.

When Jay fights the red visors in the shorts, you see the squeals of a bunch of players once they recognize him. Its very childlike and you have to realize that these people are just avatars.

All the people we saw get sucked into the game were kids. Of course theyd flock behind a ninja! And Jay had no problem taking them in and entertaining them and keeping them safe because that was his job! And they all dressed up like him and acted like him because he was their idol!!! And Jay wasnt complaining lol.

Jay acts all unsure of himself most of the time, but Skybound and Prime Empire make it canon that he is a great leader! And an even greater ninja! Sure, compared to Cole he's not as strong. Compared to Nya his personality might not stick out. His power isn't focused on like it is with Kai and Zane...and he isn't the main character chosen one like Lloyd. But these small scenes in his focus seasons remind us that he still was chosen to protect people and is very gosh darn good at it!

I mean, look at him kick red visor butt without even an OUNCE of a complaint about being without powers. (WHILE LOOKING LIKE A SOPPING WET CAT THIS MAN) But yeah appreciate this fight scene please.

Anyways, Jay doesn't get enough credit as a ninja. We forget he was trained for longer than Kai, has one of the most dangerous and powerful elements, is the reason the team can handle intense situations without freaking out, is the master of not one--but TWO chained weapons (known to be one of the most difficult types to master!), and is the ENTIRE REASON THE BOUNTY FLIES??? without ever being acknowledged for any of these! Cut him some slack guys he's awesome. Prime Empire does him so so so dirty.

[nostalgebraist]

There's something very charming and unique about this Youtube show called "Resonant Arc"

It's just like, these two pleasant dudebro-ish type guys talking about video games, mostly JRPGs.

But it's very different in flavor from most "gaming content" on the modern internet. They take everything seriously. Just going off their tone, their willingness to go slow and pay close attention, and their level of charity towards the material, you'd think they were in a book club reading Dostoevsky or something.

They do background research. They comb through the dialogue line by line, animated by an unspoken presumption that it makes sense and conveys a unified artistic meaning.

I started watching their Xenogears series at a random point partway through, and the video started out with a 10-minute explanation of some molecular biology concepts occasioned by a single line that mentioned introns and exons, including a section edited in during post-production to clarify that non-coding DNA probably has a function and isn't merely "junk."

The whole thing is like that! The video linked in this post is the first one in the series, it's two hours long, and they don't even start playing the game. Instead they talk about the game's development history, its difficult localization process and how it spurred later improvements in Square's practices around localization, the role of phatic expression in the Japanese language, etc., etc.

It's like, the exact kind of analysis that I (and you?) felt these games deserved back when I (we?) were playing them as 15-year-old dweebs. And executed exactly as I (we?) would have wanted it: not as some ancient effortpost written on a phpBB forum, probably by some other pimply 15-year-old -- no, as two well-groomed, well-spoken adults talking about these games in this way for hours as though it's the most natural thing in the world. Perfect. No notes.

[stiltsthegm]

What if you just had fun?

When I'm really bored at work and need something to distract me, but can't get TOO distracted (due to the aforementioned work), I like to watch challenge runs. This inevitably leads to me getting other videos that are tangentially-related to the game that was the subject of the video I just saw, and that's how I stumbled upon this one:

And it was fascinating to me in a way that made me feel a need to say something about it. Not in, like, a mean way (I'm aiming for a gentle ribbing, at most). There's been thoughts stirring in me for a while now about how disconnected I can sometimes feel between the ways I experience games and how "content creators" play games that are simply fascinating to me.

Although I do recommend watching at least some of the video to get the gist of what's happening, I'll do my best to accurately summarize the main thing that prompted this whole post. The author has played Skyrim a lot, almost always with a bunch of mods, and nearly always played it the same way: stealth archer. However, he recently tried a challenge playthrough that essentially forced him to engage in a bunch of systems he never paid much attention to before: alchemy, blacksmithing, mining, herb gathering, and shouts to name just a few. He even found himself using fast travel less, because it meant he could do gathering and transmutation magic while going to his next destination instead of going out of his way to grind out everything right before he needed it. This ended up giving him a greater appreciation for how an un-modded Skyrim actually works and is deeper than he originally gave it credit for.

My first reaction to this was perhaps a little uncharitable: "Were you even playing Skyrim at all until now?"

In a previous video he made (which I also watched), he talks about why stealth archery is so popular. He posits that it's the only combat method that plays well with Skyrim's other systems, since its damage scales well, it's precise (very little worry about hitting friendly NPCs), it's the easiest way to engage in stealth mechanics, and it's just generally pretty powerful. I'm mostly sympathetic to that opinion, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't find stealth archer to be my favorite way to play.

However, I was completely blindsided by someone saying they didn't engage in so many of these other systems. Like, yes, you can simply buy armor and weapons and potions, so alchemy and blacksmithing isn't mandatory. You can ignore it if you want to. But to not EVER try to engage with it?

I've encountered this sort of disconnect before in a way I found much more frustrating. You see, I really like the Civilization games, but I'm kind of bad at intuiting the systems at play on my own. I often look up videos from much smarter people to help me build a foundation of understanding so I can then at least make terrible choices on purpose rather than on accident. I was watching one particular Youtuber's reactions to some Civ 7 gameplay previews and found myself constantly baffled by the statements they were making. There were several little things that irritated me, but the one that finally made me turn off the video was a criticism of Civ 7 trying to implement story events like Paradox games do. They mentioned they hated that kind of mechanic and completely ignored the writing, just picking whichever choice offered the best mechanical advantage at the time. It was then that I realized this analysis video was going to be completely useless to me. We had very different priorities, and they had no interest in considering the changes from any angle other than the very narrow one they've always used. Like, sure, maybe it will end up being bad, but this is one preview video of one playthrough. Being angry at just the concept of story events seemed absurd.

There are folks out there who like "solving" video games. They find the most efficient, most powerful thing they can do, and they do that. Over and over and over again. I think what hit me most about the Skyrim video was that I wasn't expecting to find that kind of playstyle applied to that game. Skyrim exists so you can play in it. I sometimes make characters that run up to guys and hit them with a big sword not because it's the best way to play the game, but because it's just funny to hit guys with a big sword. I explore the map because Skyrim's world is beautiful, and I like simply being in it. I gather herbs because it gives me something to do while hiking and I like how the plant's graphic changes after I collect it. I do things in Skyrim not because I'm forced to, but because I want to explore what the game has to offer. And lately, I sometimes choose to not do things because I want to play a role.

The more I thought about Thane's Skyrim video, the more I grew fond of it. It starts out as just another challenge run where he's thinking about mechanical efficiency, and ends with him appreciating just how many different things he can do in the base game (Building a house! Marriage! Praying at shrines!) and how these systems interact with each other. That's neat! I genuinely love that someone who plays these games from a completely different mindset than I do can keep an open mind and learn to share my love of these mechanics. I wish I saw it happen more often.

[mer-acle]

Introduction Post

I've been wanting to do an indroductory post for a while, so let's do that :D

Hi, I'm Tasha (she/her) :) ( you can call me Mer, too, if you want)

I basically post art, writing related things and the occasional life-update or thought. Ofc some tumblr shenanigans like tag games and the like, too

Speaking of; feel free to @ me in tag games or other posts as you like :) If you don't want to be tagged, please let me know, I'll note it and ofc won't do it anymore

Asks: By all means, send me asks. I don't want to be like formally doing requests but I don't mind receiving them, if I feel like it, I'll ofc do it, if not, I'll let you know.

My asks are usually tagged with #tasha asks

My other #s

#tasha talks : Life updates and the like. Do I mostly forget this tag? yeahhhh

#tasha is not okay actually : Hi, I'm Tasha, and my mental health is shit. These might get a little dark at times, but I promise there's no reason to worry, being dramatic helps to keep the demons at bay

#mer acle art tag : My art

#fic: fighting to be loved : My main EPIC fanfic that's currently being written, I post updates, snippets and ofc when a new chapter comes out :)

#epic “Slipping through my fingers” AU: My Greek Mythology AU about Hera and Athena that is currently in its planning phase. More than just a little obsessed with it lol

#nemori : Posts relating to my original novel "Nemori" which is in progress rn. (feel extra free to ask about it my life will be yours) 

#marielle tag : related to Nemori, tag for my MC Marielle 

#tartarus buddies tag : when you want watch my friend @evermorecatra and me being absolutely unhinged together (mainly about EPIC!Athena) you should check out this tag, we worked hard to earn it.

#chaotic idiots tag 🩷💛💜: Who gave us the power of a groupchat? Who thought that was a good idea? (It was in fact the best idea to ever have idea'd) @evermorecatra @missdarhk ily guysssss

My projects/Other socials:

Here's my linktree

Some explanations:

I post a bunch of art on instagram, you can find some animatics and movie analysis videos on youtube, and ofc an unreasonable amount of my fanfic on Ao3 (masterpost of what works you'll find here, I've got EPIC, and MCU stuff)

Fandoms:

It's tumblr lol. Ofc I have fandoms. EPIC The Musical and Greek Mythology would be the big ones especially atm.

Some other things I have watched/read and can therefore be talked to about lol:

MCU (Infinity Saga mainly), LotR, The Boys, The Promised Neverland, Six of Crows, Hazbin Hotel, Mean Girls (Musical and otherwise), Heathers (Musical and otherwise), Beetlejuice (Musical and otherwise), Saw, AtlA, Encanto, The Fall of the House of Usher, Arcane (Season One so far no spoilers pls), Miraculous (okay I have mostly lore on that rather than Watchtime), It (Stephen King), Hamilton, SIX, The Agatha Christie catalogue lol, Sherlock Holmes, Descendants, Stranger Things, Final Destination (honestly I'm not listing more horror stuff, chances are I know something about it at least), Anne of Green Gables, Dracula, etc... (I already know I missed like a million things, when in doubt, just ask)

Some other stuff:

I can be a little slow with asks or replying to posts, it's not personal at all, my brain is just weird sometimes. If you fear I might have forgotten, don't be afraid to ask/remind me. At any rate, please know if it takes me a day or so it's not bc I don't want to or I'm mad or something <33

xx

Tasha

^ it's meeeeeee

[centrally-unplanned]

To share another thought on the Folding Ideas video I Don't Know James Rolfe from my last post, while I enjoyed it a ton I do think its core "meta" element fails to reach the heights it could. It is never made that explicit so I am making a subjective read here, but essentially while most of the content of the video is textually about James Rolfe, there are dozens of moments where Dan performs actions that mimic or parallel James, culminating in his own parodic angry video game review as the finale. The idea is something of a "there but for the grace of god I go" point, that perhaps all youtubers, and Dan specifically, are too close for comfort to Rolfe's reality of limited creative options and a hostile fanbase clinging to the past .

But I can't really say for sure! Because he is very adverse to making this concrete enough for the audience.

At times the visual parallels are incredibly direct. There is one moment, where Dan is explaining the real skill and craft of being an internet clown on demand, where he mimics Rolfe's style of rant to explain it while projected AVGN videos that were looping in the background flash over his own body:

And it really works, the meaning shines through; it is a moment you can see back through time where the idea for this shot was, spiritually, the impetus for the film, that this idea must have come to him and he built the essay around making it happen.

Other visual parallels are less explicit; when the parody sequence starts, Dan - who has built a 1/12th scale recreation of the Rolfe's "video game basement" aka studio set in order to "understand" him like normal people do - represents himself in that room via a tiny hand puppet

Which is cute if, like probably most people, know him as the guy who makes videos about NFTs or Qanon. But close to a decade ago, when he was first making ~20 minute media analysis takes, he represented himself on screen with a wooden puppet like this:

It is even like the same color, I am confident this is intentional, it is saying "yeah this could have been an alt version of me; I was not so far from this".

All these symbols function to make the emotional impact; but an emotional impact in service of...what? So in the essay he discusses the film Wavelength, a 1967 avant garde film that is almost entirely composed of filming the side of a room with minimal camera movement while actions occur around it. It is a movie that never gives you a meaning, and therefore you must project meaning into it, bring yourself to the table. That makes sense for Wavelength, and the aggressive cinematography of I Don't Know James Rolfe - which is stellar to be clear - is making the film out to be sort of its own personal Wavelength for YouTube.

But then we go back to that text, which is over an hour of Dan directly talking to the camera about a real person. It is incredibly concrete and detailed, with explicit points being made over and over. And through what those explicit points reveal... I don't think Dan Olsen is like James Rolfe! Does he have an hostile fanbase trapped in nostalgia? Do people acuse him of being cucked by his bitch wife? He has evolved as a filmmaker, intensely so, he does things completely differently than Rolfe does and completely differently from how he himself used to. He doesn't have a shitty biography that self-outs his own creative narcissism, he isn't obsessed with remaking his own childhood films - I am pretty sure as a kid he had never heard of NFTs, they didn't really exist! The final line of the film is "maybe you aren't a filmmaker either" - but idk, Dan, I kinda think you are! If documentarians can be filmmakers you have to qualify.

Now I'm not a fool, I understand that the film could be suggesting these are differences of degrees and not kind; that Dan is equally "trapped in the room" making vlogs for the net, just with more outward trappings of success. But, in the ruthless specificity and detail of his treatment of Rolfe...this film cannot be Wavelength. I am not capable of forging my own meaning from the pieces, he connected way too many of them. This is the trap of avant-garde; you are tempted to help the audience, but once you try to answer some of the questions, it forces the hand of the rest, they all have to fit into that schema. And the film is just too coy with Dan's own parallel life for me to figure the schema out. I make my guesses and I lack confidence in them, they feel "contradicted" by the text.

More detail would have been the easier path; less detail and more symbolic expression would have been the harder path. But right now the balance is just a bit too out of whack for it to come fully together.

[zedecksiew]

Mechanics as Bits

EDIT:

Freddie Foulds over on Bluesky found the post for me! It was a Chris McDowall post: Alien Dojos.

This is now a fan post about the genius that is Alien Dojos.

Every martial art described there (for use with Into The Odd) has a resolution mechanic that involves doing something tactile with dice, beyond just rolling.

For "Bafistan Fist Fighting" each punch is a d6, "rolled" by "throwing them into the air and punching them"---but you have to punch them in such a way they still land on the table; if you miss your punch, or punch them off the table, that's a failure.

Or, how about "Five Way Stick":

Initiate: When fighting with a Martial Stick (d6, Bulky) stack 5d6 in front of you and try to flick the top die from the stack. If any other than the top tie fall, fail and treat the roll as 1. Continue down the stack until you fail or choose to stop.

These are:

Functional subsystems (clear resolution mechanics);

Thematically appropriate to fiction they are meant to represent (little minigames of player dexterity to resolve character actions involving martial arts);

Physical spectacle (at the very least you will be focused on the "roll", if not dodging flying dice);

Goofy as shit (a virtue in itself).

I want to make rules like this.

+++

Today I spent a few hours watching this Alien-abduction themed actual play of Dread, on Smosh. I liked it a lot! More than I thought I would!

(Please don't laugh at me too much for my very vanilla Internet media consumption! I am an old, and very uncool. Today I was watching YouTube between digging up banana corms.)

I almost never watch actual plays, mind you. I tried Critical Role and bounced right off; I have seen maybe two Dimension 20 sessions ever; the last AP series I followed really was HarmonQuest, which was---what, the twenty-teens?

+

Watching the Smosh Dread thing got me wondering:

How often do mechanics / system talk come up in the course of big mainstream actual plays?

I don't mean:

"Pull from the Jenga tower." (simple resolution mechanics); or

"I cast Fireball!" (diegetic, arguably)

But:

"Okay so let's look it up. Fireball is 20ft x 20ft, and *doesn't* set stuff on fire." (non-diegetic rules clarification); or:

"You have four 'Mercury' symbols, and from last round you have the "somebody will betray you" narrative trigger, let's consult the relevant oracle table ..." (complex resolution mechanics)

This analysis by Trilemma of the transcript of a Critical Role episode [and additional commentary by Thomas Manuel] goes a ways towards answering how much general rules talk occurs, though it doesn't make a distinction between the types of rules talk in the sense I'm thinking of.

+

Here's a (totally untested) hypothesis:

If actual plays are edited / watched for the uninterrupted flow of action / banter / emotion at the table (as ones geared towards general, non-TTRPG-enthusiast audiences like Smosh and HarmonQuest certainly are);

and:

If certain kinds of complex mechanics tend to divert attention into cul-de-sacs of meta-narrative detail, interrupting said flow of action / banter / emotion (these are generally absent from the APs I can sit through, or at least edited out);

then:

The games that work best for actual play are basically party games, with light and (more importantly, for this post) VISCERAL resolution mechanics:

Jenga-d suspense;

The sleep rituals in stuff like Werewolf;

An overdramatic rock-paper-scissors game; etc

Or, alternatively, they are games whose systems can get out of the way enough to function like party games. I'd argue that D&D counts as one such game. It is go-to mainstream TTRPG actual play system because yes, of Name Brand Recognition---

But also because it is possible to not play with any actual D&D rules (and therefore avoid the tedium of looking up what stuff like Conditions mean) and still be playing D&D culturally.

+

Basically:

How suitable a tabletop roleplaying game is for actual play depends on how easily its mechanics can function as bits or performances, in the improv sense.

+++

So this is very shaky ground for me; I don't watch actual plays and I am talking out my ass. But through the sewage of my bullshit is perhaps the firmer ground of a design opportunity, maybe?

Namely:

Could we be designing TTRPG mechanics as performances / for performativity?

+

I'd argue that Dread is so well-known because its simple core mechanic is a novel for precisely this reason: you and your friends enact your suspense around the Jenga Tower physically and viscerally (even if it is anxious silence), for each other (if not for an outside audience).

There is the sense that you are acting. Doing something.

+

How else could we manage this?

Rolling dice or revealing a card are already performances, technically---but for our purposes here I'd argue that they are very "small"; they don't have enough presence.

How can we treat dice rolls with the pomp of ritual, construct more ceremony around a card-based resolution system?

Boardgames are already good at fun counters and tactile props and click-y dials---but these are also small, in that they live mainly on the table. You are still sitting on your ass.

Props that make you get up! Rulesets that necessitate play-fighting!

LARP totally fits. Throwing pouches and yelling "Magic Missile! Magic Missile!" 10 out of 10 no notes.

+

Finger games (rock paper scissors; lat ta li lat ta li tam pong; thumb war) fit.

A chase scene in fiction resolved by a game of tag is maybe too on the nose, but also fits.

+

I've been trying to find this blogpost I vaguely recall, that proposes exactly the kind of thing I'm thinking about.

It suggested a list of unusual fighting styles (or maybe martial arts) for D&D. It has stuck in the substrate of my mind because the proposed fighting styles all had non-standard, action-based resolution mechanics.

Ie: the GM tosses a handful of dice; you (the player) try to punch as many of them in mid-air with your fists; how many you get determines how many hits you score in fiction.

Something like that. Imagine that goofy shit at the table!

I can't find this post any more. Does anybody else remember something like it? Help! I want to find it again!

+++

[antirepurp]

Question: what unfiction series do you recommend?

ohhhh this is a tough one for a number of reasons, including me having been busy lately so im not sure exactly what's new and interesting at the moment. that said...

i've been thinking about petscop again and how it plays with old creepypasta tropes and elements in its presentation, how it presents you with a game you have and will never play, and still evokes a kind of nostalgia within you and gives you an understanding of what is and isn't normal within its context. it isn't for everyone, in the sense that you'll never have a clear picture of the story and are forced to interpret things yourself, but for me that is just. mint shit. i love not knowing what happens in petscop but also knowing exactly what happens in petscop it's great

i also mentioned valle verde recently. similar to petscop it's a game you'll never play, but it goes extremely hard on its presentation and i just have to applaud it for that. there are animated 2d cutscenes for the opening of the game that the player skips, because they've seen them so many times. there are fake games within the fake game. there's a tremendous amount of love and effort that has been put into this series and that alone makes me run up the walls about it. the story has also been interesting to follow and it knows when to get into the scares, instead of throwing jump scares or something at you constantly. each video has english subs but they're also available in spanish. pretty sure it's spanish and not portugese. im going to be real embarrassed if i say it's spanish but it was actually portugese

monument mythos is also a classic! and tends to live in my brain rent-free whenever i revisit it. especially the early seasons fall more into line with analogue horror if that's a style you enjoy. it's alternative american history with supernatural elements and it strikes the part of me that enjoys history despite the fact my understanding of american history is shallow at best. monuments are haunted and there's goofy trees that do fun things it's great

and there's sagan hawkes video on a creepy dinosaur game! i adored this one when i watched it, again a lot of effort has been put into it for the sake of the presentation and watching it without knowing it's unfiction is wild because it feels so fucking real even right up until the end. i long for a dinosaur game that doesn't exist. i long for many games that don't exist it turns out

also some rapid fire takes im also picking up from the top of my head: minecraft alpha 1.0.16 versions (mc unfiction that's still on-going i believe, there's ARG elements so an analysis video could be worth watching alongside it), diminish (another game that doesn't exist made by the player's dead sister, beware though the game is hard and the player is bad and the videos tend to be Long), myhouse.wad (linking a video exploring it since it's a doom mod, but there's a link to it in the description if you'd like to try it for yourself!), angel hare (lovingly animated christian children's show! but oops that angel is your guardian angel and is talking to you, specifically)

i would also recommend checking out night mind on youtube, he covers a lot of unfiction projects to bring more attention to them and many of them are ones that are quite new as well! he also runs the night mind index, a site with information on what unfiction is but more importantly it has a huge list of all sorts of unfiction projects that people have submitted to it that you can check out!

(i did make some unfiction myself too here on tumblr, i don't think that counts as a true recommendation lol but if you're curious the blog is mallardmonster and the first post is here!)

[sparkcentralis]

hii sending u an ask so u can talk about branzycraft outside of that minecraft death post's tags if u would like 👀?

Anon you are a godsend. Ok. Listen. Minecraft death mechanics are one of the most Mechanics of all time in terms of character exploration. Here's what i want you to consider: Branzycraft is in the extreme other axis that of not caring for death at all and even encouraging it. His death means nothing! He doesn't fear dying, or the implications, or the pain, or the thought of it. What he is scared of is the after, the consequences that bites him in the ass, or a setback to a plan he has in motion, and many more. Continue below read more.

See echocraft. Branzy proclaims in his powder snow maze video: the gift for the winner of my maze is a chance at killing me! Isn't that fun? Surely you want to play my games and my traps if at the end you get to kill the one behind it all! And it works! He always offers something for incentive, for people to play his games and his schemes, and his life is simply just one of those incentives he's not above offering. After all, its just for fun! It's worth it to die if it means people have fun with his contraptions! In fact, isn't it thrilling? Having the knowledge that if any of these people pass, you'll be killed? How exciting, playing with his own life like he does to others! The danger is the entertainment, and he can't always get so lucky. But death doesn't matter now, does it? He'll just come back, all peachy, and then begins his next quest on amusing himself somehow.

Which brings us to lifesteal. The thing is, in SMPs, Branzy does not like dying when he did not plan for it somehow. He'd rather not die? Like, it would be a pretty big inconvenience, isn't it? Especially in lifesteal where your hearts literally Gets Stolen Away from you (or just. Extinguish away in the case of non-player deaths). Like. Its a pain! But he does not fear death like other people do, because he doesn't exactly fear death at all, he just finds it real annoying. He likes things going to plan, even though it rarely does, but this is One thing he can make sure Does Not Happen. Do you Get me.

In My view of Branzycraft, he's a bit of a lunatic that enjoys the thrill of danger, playing with lives both his and others. Why do you think he is so attracted to Clownpierce out of everyone else? He's deadly! And he keeps him on his toes that every day is never so dull! Eventually this morphs into a more tame feeling of [QUEERBAITING], but Branzy is a showman first and foremost, and I like thinking that the personalities he exhibits of video is showmanship. It makes him interesting. Branzycraft, traitor and coward, possibly something more? Powerful somehow because of his lack of fear surrounded by those way better at fighting than he is as he leans to trickery and traps to get the better of them in his own way? Everybody likes branzycraft! He sucks at fighting, you wouldn't fight him would you? Hes so easy to kill! So step into this death trap and you'll get yourself a heart!

Of Course though. This is just one interpretation of a character played by a Minecraft Youtuber that can also be interpreted in a different hundred ways..... Its what makes character analysis interesting! I like the idea of "Branzy who chases the thrill of danger and death while trying miserably to avoid unnecessary risks posed by dying" because its fun, comical, and it poses interesting thoughts and scenarios: what if he plans to die? The plan involves him Dying, would he take it? (He would. See: obsidian box) How far does his tolerance of death stretches? Truly the characters of Minecraft Youtubers are an interesting species.....

[tardigradetv]

(This post is gonna be edited in the future because I haven't finished it yet! I want to add some stuff, but I'm too tired to do it now. Sorry if things are cringe here. Please don't judge!)

Since I got tagged by @thedragonofbadasstemple , I'm gonna share 9 games I got into in 2024! I actually didn't watch many shows/movies last year because that year was a "worker's year", I'd say. I was busy most of the time and when I had free time, I'd rather go outside or do something, like creating or playing games (or studying 🙈) (yes, I think it can be fun studying for a few hours a day 😂). That means I barely had any days I'd just... do nothing. 😭 Yeah, on those few days when I actually just lay in bed, I watched documentaries (and I can't remember titles, so Idk how to share in this case 🤦‍♂️).

Some games are "childhood comebacks". (Games I've known since childhood but lost interest in them and got into them again years later)

I try to be as chronological as possible, but just keep in mind that my memory is such a mess. 😭 So I guess everything worth mentioning was said for now. Let's dive in!

Early beginning of the year:

1 - That's not my neighbor

Last year started with my "Fran Bow comeback". What I mean is that I watch analysis videos and think my part on the whole thing (that doesn't cover how the stuff I do look like, but whatever... I write stuff about it... It's called by that game's name because that game got me into analysis videos about anything regarding gaming or artists' works. So I started looking for other people's thoughts on things, too, instead of only interpreting things on my own) At the same time, I was looking for more games/franchises to think about (and writing analysis). Somehow, I stumbled upon That's Not My Neighbor through YouTube videos on my feed (so yeah... you could say the YouTube algorithm got me into the game lol). The concept/the idea behind the game inspired me to write and do my research on topics relating to the game. What I can say about the gameplay is that it's simple yet effective. It's the ultimate "find the difference" game with an interesting lore behind it. I haven't checked if there came any new updates out regarding gameplay or game modes lately, so it can be that I'm talking crap now. 🤡 Well, let's actually get what I want to tell... To keep it short, the game has a lot of potential, even with its few content gameplay-wise. I imagine that they could add a longer story mode where they provide a better insight into the lore.

Spring 2024:

2 - Needy Streamer Overload

Around the time when it was my old "friend's" birthday, I heard from this game for the first time. It seemed interesting to me, so I looked deeper into it. And no surprise, the game has caught my interest since then. The game's art style inspired me to try new things in my art, and the deeper meaning behind specific features/hints is thought-provoking, exactly what I like. Though I don't relate much to Ame, the protagonist, I really liked how much I could analyze and theorize in her story. So many connections make sense and indirectly told me to do some research about mental health topics I wasn't really educated on. Overall, the iconic character Ame taught me bits of wisdom I carry on my journey of life. Yeah, the game was an experience. My my, I couldn't process my early times of getting into this game back then. 🙈 It was a little bit too much for me at first, but after a few months, I could enjoy the game without any further issues.

3 - My Child: Lebensborn

Summer 2024:

OMG, as a German... 😭 Well, that game hit hard... But I love that there's a game that touches that dark, historical period from an insiders perspective. In times when we fear that history could repeat itself, this game helps reflect the harsh reality some people like to deny.

(Gonna write more about this later)

4 - D4DJ

When I installed the Hypmic ARB in February 2023, I got into rhythm games for the first time. Yes, I've never played any rhythm games before, so Hypmic ARB gets the title "my first rhythm game". Since then, I've started liking rhythm games as a genre. In summer 2024, I spent time with a "friend" (who isn't my friend anymore, sadly), a rhythm game enthusiast, especially when it comes to rhythm games for consoles. When I asked them which mobile rhythm games I could try, they gave me D4DJ as a recommendation. I played it for a few months, but one day... it just didn't work on my phone anymore. I couldn't get through the title, and I couldn't even save my account, which meant I had to say goodbye to the game... Yes, I could've started from the beginning again, but as I've experienced before, most games don't even work on my phone once such issues start to occur (I had this with Project Sekai). But in the end, I don't have anything on my phone anymore that could remind me of my old "friend", so I see it as a plus to some degree... 😭 Now, to my feedback! The game has an innovative system that made my gameplay experience really enjoyable. The different notes while playing a show made me think really quickly how to calculate where I should position my fingers. I also like how the game uses the screen you play on. It's important to have your whole screen in view to know how to hit some notes. (That makes the decorative feature of designing your stage so cool imo). The game also has Touhou songs that I enjoy, so I often played these (along with internet yamero). What I certainly like in the game is that... I could actually feel rewarded for just playing. To be more clear, you can get diamonds (or whatever they're called again, I forgot 😭) by just playing a song for a specific number of times. If my phone just worked... Yeah, but something that really bothered me is that... I easily got overstimulated from playing this game. The game is fun, but it won't once I get overstimulated...

5 - Snake Pass (childhood comeback)

This game is peak childhood! And the soundtrack 😭 I love it so much! I can't think of any other games where you play a snake with a humming bird as a helping companion to explore different areas of an in-game world. Also that you can change the facial expressions of Noodle (the snake) is such a nice detail! I spent hours on this game trying to get the 100%. Yes, the controls are a bit... uh, hard to get used to at first, but once you do, you have lots of fun solving puzzles. Since David Wise is the composer of the soundtrack, you could expect that there are gonna be bangers. (I mean, think of Donkey Kong...) I remember how I used to listen to the soundtrack for HOURS when I first discovered this game years ago! 😭🫶 It's also one of those games where I just enjoy playing without trying so hard to master it immediately. Sometimes, I take a look at all those details I can find... and I love every single one of them. For example, Noodle is a coral snake, an extremely dangerous snake. And as far as I know, coral snake venom contains neurotoxins that can lead to paralysis and death. So I think you can guess why the small crabs you can find in the game flee when they see Noodle... (kinda funny to think about when you compare that to the game's innocent appearance.)

Fall 2024:

6 - Team Fortress 2 (childhood comeback)

It's a classic. I think many people have at least heard of it through memes. I've been into this game since childhood (but other, new interests gained higher priority, so I kinda forgot about this franchise). Back then, I had a proper device to play it, ah... 😭 Well, before my recent computer died, I had the opportunity to play Team Fortress 2 again. What a wonderful experience it was! There's so much about this game that I've forgotten in the time I didn't touch it that it felt like a complete new experience. Oh, and reading all the chapters of the comic again... (including the recently published one) It brought tears into my eyes. Compared to other games of the same genre, TF2 isn't as competitive as some others. I used that as an opportunity to have fun and just enjoy the game! Especially the casual experience can be so chaotically fun, which gives the game its unique charm. I don't think there's any other game that has the same charm as TF2, so if you like ego shooters where you can be goofy and laugh your ass of in voice chats, this one is for you! Besides, the characters are *chef's kiss*, and the game can be counted as a cultural phenomenon. I mean, when voicelines become memes that reach countless people (probably outside the fandom), then this game is an internet milestone.

7 - Sally Face (childhood comeback)

With my old Fran Bow fixation, of course, I'm gonna find this game sooner or later. I can say that I don't regret finding out about this game at all! The art style, animation style, and lore captivated me. And not to forget, the soundtrack... I still listen to sometimes. I first discovered it a few years ago when I wanted to play something different. As you probably know from my introduction, I'm a Nintendo fan who plays mostly their games, but I touch other games from time to time, too. One of the first games I started getting into besides the Nintendo ones was Fran Bow, to be honest. And I mean by "getting into" that I CONSUMED the game's content like crazy.😭 (That's why this game has a connection to some others I've mentioned here). Well, back to Sally Face. Sal Fisher, the protagonist himself, is such an icon. I really grew fond of him from the early beginning. His personality and his background touched my heart, so it was no surprise that I'd feel devastated after finishing the story. What I really appreciate about this game is the atmosphere. Besides the lore (which I was deeply invested in when I first found out about the game), the atmosphere of the game makes you lean back and think about what is happening while you play. You slow down for a moment to investigate a certain spot to find more information. You might put your device beside to take a moment to process what just happened. Truly breathtaking. The further you get in the game, the more you feel like you're losing yourself in the scenario. It's an unforgettable experience with moments that can you almost make you cry. The strange art style highlights this uncomfortable atmosphere even more. After Sally Face has become a significant part of my childhood, I can say that this game touches many topics that are worth discussing. I could endlessly ramble on any character's specific traits, their background, and context to the story (if I actually could share my thoughts properly 🙈). Exploring the depth of this game back then was an important part of "getting used to thinking". And now, having found my way to this game again feels like I time traveled back to the time I was younger, a time when my life looked so different. To look back and say goodbye to those times, I'd imagine visiting my younger self and just telling that boy how grateful I am he kept going. Thanks to my determined younger self, I could grow into the person I am today. May Sally Face stay a wonderful memory...

Winter 2024:

8 - Yume Nikki

The strange game that made me reconsider all my thought patterns and my life in general. I have to admit, strange things always captivate me, so it's no surprise I got into it so quickly. The soundtrack captures the feeling of endless isolation so well... ah, I know that feeling. Listening to it gives me comfort. The reason why I feel like this is... sad. Well, how should I say it? I... grew up in social isolation, you could say... My childhood wasn't the worst... but it is the foundation of a person's personality, so... Oh- that's not the topic I should talk about right now...

9 - Everything (the game)

Somehow, I've never heard of this game before someone mentioned it not so long ago. It's exactly my taste! I'm sad I didn't discover it sooner! Games with great wisdom behind it always have a sweet spot in my heart. It's really interesting how the game is made. Such a simple style with an intense/immersing atmosphere. The soundtrack really makes me forget everything around me (though the animations in this game make me laugh as hell. The first time I saw how the animals "walk" here got me almost falling from my chair.) I personally think that this game challenges your experimental abilities/creativity. The more you use those abilities, the more fun you're going to have playing this game. Everything seems so aimless (pun intended), but this makes the player think about what the game tries to tell you.

(Gonna continue later)

[vidreview]

VIDEO ESSAY ROUNDUP #2 [PART 1]

[originally posted november 14 2023. NOTE: while migrating the archive from cohost i've discovered that tumblr has a 10 link-block limit, which means i have to split some of these roundups up in order to maintain the embeds. we love websites don't we folks]

hello from the pits of november! between random youtube recommendations and time spent trawling through cohost's video essay tag, i've discovered a lot of bangers this month. so let's just jump in!

"Why Does Attack of the Clones Look Like a Video Game?" by Empire Wreckers.

this is a fresh take on one of the internet's oldest, most time-honored traditions: complaining about the stars wars prequels. fresh in the sense that creator Edan has worked in hollywood VFX, and so brings an eye for hyper-specific details that you'll be amazed you never noticed before. clean, no-nonsense presentation full of surprising insights. immediately after finishing this video i then watched "How Bad Movies Are Made feat. The Rise of Skywalker" whose thesis that "bad movies aren't made on purpose" yields to a refreshingly nuanced perspective on exactly why the third star wars sequel was such a mess without resorting to droll hyperbole about JJ Abrams being a hack or whatever. these are great examples of materialist media criticism, in that they are as much a criticism of the production pipeline as they are the finished product. after watching these videos, i actually think that any other perspective on these later Star Wars is… kind of missing the forest for the trees? impressive stuff all around.

"women who wish they were 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐛𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬: an analysis" by Costanza Polastri.

a quick and honest overview of how straight women often misunderstand the nature of lesbian relationships, thinking them somehow free of the conflict they experience in heterosexual ones. the insight that "you don't want a girlfriend, you just want men to be better" reminded me of when i admitted to having a crush on a cisfem friend shortly after coming out as trans, only for her to get mad at me and end our friendship because "i told you i'm not a lesbian and it's frustrating that everyone mistakes me for one!" this was before i'd even decided on Sarah as my preferred name. she was more invested in my newfound femininity than i was! anyway, Costanza Polastri has an enjoyable screen presence and brings a really interesting perspective to the table-- and in pretty short videos, to boot! not an easy feat by any stretch.

"A real history of video games | Pay to Win" by Jimmy McGee.

an essential deep dive into how the history of the modern video game industry is inextricable from the history of legal gambling. if you think you know how bad it is, trust me, it's so much weirder and more frustrating than you thought. Jimmy McGee is doing some really great stuff on his channel, providing an honest materialist perspective on media analysis that i've found sorely lacking. "The AI Revolution is Rotten to the Core" digs past the obvious criticisms of AI and LLM mania into the much more pressing question of what we, as a society, value in our art. for something shorter, i also recommend "The Dream of the Internet", about the war on the internet archive and why it's such an essential pillar of the open web.

"I Played EVERY Star Fox Game… Here's What I Learned" by wizawhat.

starfox 64 has been my favorite video game since i was a child, so naturally one of my favorite genres of youtube video is "Let's All Gawk At All The Ways Nintendo Has Catastrophically Mishandled The Franchise." wizawhat does a good job giving each game its due, mostly avoiding hyperbole while still acknowledging that picking favorites in a history this checkered is an inherently emotional, subjective process. the highest praise i can give to entries into this genre is that i was nodding along violently the whole time AND actually learned a lot of stuff i didn't know before, which i genuinely didn't think was possible! his other video "I Miss the Old Nintendo" is the closest i've seen anyone else come to really hammering home why i've soured so hard against nintendo over the last few years, despite having been a nintendo defender most of my life. my only complaint is that he uses some hack corporate language at times ("content" instead of "media," "consumers" instead of "audiences," etc), but i'm gonna dig deeper into that in a dedicated vidrev another time.

"Why We Can't Stop Mapping Elden Ring" by Ren or Raven.

a great little exploration of what maps in games do, and what they mean in an era of video games dominated by post-release patches and balance tuning. i'll be brief here because i've got a full length vidrev queued up for this one too, but it's worth stating that creator Renata Price is a games writer who has turned to video essays after being laid off by Vice earlier this year. as the first entry in a presumed corpus by an experienced critic from a very different critical tradition, i find this video exciting because it's an opportunity to study how the medium affects one's message. right now it feels like Renata Price doesn't quite know how to take full advantage of the video part of the video essay just yet, and that's a great place to start from. i just find it to be such a privilege when you get to watch someone grow their craft in real time!

"Death and Thriving - Discussing 920 London" by Wolf Witch.

just a solid textual analysis of the graphic novel 920 London, Remy Boydell's followup to their devastating prior book The Pervert. digs into serious questions about the death drive, and whether or not people can change or recover from trauma. not much else to say except that Wolf Witch is on Cohost doing speedruns of Snake Farm. Snake Farm rules! support your local Snarmers today!

"That one speedrun where you change your gender" by Minoan.

an astonishing little coming-out video in the form of a Dark Souls 2 speedrun tech overview. i don't have much to say about this one except that it put a huge smile on my face and gave me some serious vicarious gender joy. i love the sound of trans women's voices!!!

[trans-luis-serra-navarro]

Hii!!!

Thank you so much for tagging me before, I hope this isn't too late (?) Days are hectic for me but nonetheless, I would very much like to touch up on your tips and advice you have when writing for Luis. I loved him in the remake, and I would very much love to do him justice in some form of written work!

Thank you for reaching out, this really helps me!!

<3

HIHIHI ITS NOT A PROBLEM AT ALL!!!!! And don’t worry it’s NEVER too late!!! I have stuff sitting in my inbox from like. December HCNEHNDJDJJXNS

I Must admit I’m not really an expert nor am I much of a profession fanfic writer or anything- I only do it for fun!!!! So if you want something like, more specific PLEASE pretty please feel free to ask I’d be more than happy to help!!!! But in terms of general tips and tricks??? Here’s a few that I have under the cut!!!

As weird as this is gonna sound a lot of time I’ll just go and watch Luis’ voice actor André Peña’s streams on Twitch to try and pick up on lil mannerisms or speech quirks that get shown in-game!!!! If I can find an example I’ll put it here, but just generally picking up on what Luis would theoretically sound like if he were talking in a casual conversation helps me out!!!!! (Also he’s just in general a very lovely guy and his twitch streams are always fun so I reccomended them if you’re able to catch one!!!)

On a similar note, if you’re watching any cutscenes and any small characteristic sticks out to you- use that to your advantage!!!! I’ve always noticed how he kinda smiles differently when in different situations/levels of stress/talking to different people so I use that to my advantage when writing scenes with him!!!!

OR OR EVEN, if you’re able to and have the time, go look at older livestreams where the cast talk about their roles in RE4R and see what André has to say about Luis!!!!!! I’m more than happy to link the streams once I can find them again if you want!!!!!!!!! Seeing the actors be so genuine and passionate about the characters and putting their whole selves into the role truly does make them feel just so,,,, h u m a n <<<<33

Also, I know everyone and their mother says this, but research truly does help!!!!! There’s a LOT of things people miss about his character if you only view him on a surface-level or go into his character assuming he’s just a cardboard cutout ‘bad-guy-turned-good’ Typa character, so reading analysis posts on him to get a better idea of why he does what he does and how he is as a person will really help!!!! (Obviously I’ve got my own posts under the tag #luisposting or #othersposts, but the lovely @blveherb has some amazing posts of their own I can’t recommend enough!!!!)

There’s a LOOOOOOT of just. Very incorrect misinformation out there HXNSUSJ (staring at you resident evil fan wiki. Staring at you. VERY HARD) so if you ever come across a post that seems to only lean towards a negative view of Luis as a character or never gives him the benefit of the doubt,,,, it most likely won’t have been made with good taste in mind or properly researched HCNEHENDUDJ

Also also also, looking for things that he was directly inspired by!!!!!! I C A N N O T make this post without mentioning the 1957 Don Quixote film- it’s free on YouTube and it is SOOOOOO SOSOSOSOSOSOSO GOOD!!!!! Capcom TRULY put their all into the Don Quixote symbolism in his character and if you’re able to get your hands on a copy of the book, it’s well worth the read!!!

AGAIN on a similar note- looking at his culture and history is SOOOOOOOO important!!!! For example, the beginning of Seperate Ways features Luis doing a style of Flamenco called ‘Seguiriyas’- and once I’m awake in the morning and fully able to navigate the horror of the tumblr tagging system I’ll look for a post that goes deeper into this HCNEHWNEUDJDIS but Indigenous and Spanish culture are full of such rich and beautiful history you can pull from it is SO worth taking a look!!! Not to mention, you can play around with the fact that Luis was raised pretty Hardcore Catholic or the fact that it’s implied his Grandfather fought in/would have survived the Spanish Civil war as concepts a ton!!!

And if you’re writing specifically for Serennedy, taking a look at the Queer history of Spain/Europe as a whole is DEFINITELY worth your time!!!!! Looking back and remembering the people who came before us is always important and lends a hand to how we perceive our own funny lil fictional guys BCBEHENEJDNXJ

That being said, I only ever see this with writers who already have bigoted views and you seem like literally the nicest person EVERRRRRR so this TOTALLY isn’t directed at you!!!!!! But it’s super important not to fall into just straight-up racist stereotypes- calling Luis a predator, saying he’s a sex-driven animal, generally referring to him as ‘dirty’ etc is stuff that unfortunately you don’t JUST see with Luis but with many other POC characters too (like Carlos for example- he gets the brunt of it a LOT) so when you see stuff like this, don’t be afraid to call it out!!!!!!

I HOPE THIS LONG ASS POST DIDNT SCARE YOU OFF OR ANYTHING AHDNWHENXUDNXIX I TRIED MY BEST TO COVER ALL OF MY BASES CUZ I WASNT SURE WHAT KIND OF TIPS YOU WANTED!!!!!!!!! Again if you want something more specific feel free to ask!!!!!!!!

[zombiebastian]

Introduction

My name is Sebastian and this blog will mainly be about my artworks (although I occasionally will probably post things like character headcanons or random character analysis essays) I draw a lot of stuff but mainly fanart of my favourite shows, characters and video games such as:

Beavis and Butthead

Jojos Bizarre Adventure

Lilo and Stitch

Resident Evil

Gorillaz

Sally Face

Sonic The Hedgehog

My Little Pony

South Park

Alice Madness Returns

Attack On Titan

Street Fighter

Black Butler

Highschool DXD

Helluva Boss

Hazbin Hotel

Death Note

Saw (I don't draw much fanart of Saw either but again this may change

What else am I gonna be doing? Well I really like Halloween and I may draw some halloween themed stuff even when its not October, I'm the type of guy who suddenly gets into the Christmas and Halloween spirit when its not that time of year yet, I especially like zombies and vampires

Rules about comissions

If you want to commission an artwork from me that's totally okay as long as my asks are open, but here are the rules

I will not draw anything too explicit like hardcore sexual activities, I will draw things that are risqué like characters in revealing clothing or suggestive flirting, but if it involves nudity, intercourse or anything like that then I will not do so, if you're not sure about something you'd like to commission just ask in your... Well ask

I will draw gore but it will be mainly cartoony, and I'm a bit iffy when it comes to stuff involving torture, when I draw gore I mainly do zombie or Frankenstein's monster type creatures and not people being tortured or murdered

You don't need to pay me, I'm not interested in money this is all just for fun

I do draw ships, even most of the ones I don't agree with. However if the ship is sibling x sibling, adult x child, stuff like that, I'm not comfortable drawing it, I'm not big on the whole "anti-proship" thing and if you yourself are a proshipper I honestly don't care, but drawing things like that makes me kind of uncomfortable

I draw both already existing characters and OC's, it should go without saying that if you want me to draw an OC you should show me a reference lol

DNI

I think most DNI lists are a bit stupid because unless you block people it doesn't really stop anyone from interacting with you, for example if you put "DNI racists" I understand not wanting those types of people interacting with you but its not gonna magically stop a racist person from associating with your posts, if you see someone saying something racist or something you think is discriminatory just block them, in fact if you put DNI in your bio they'll probably want to interact even more just to troll you

However this is the time for me to say I want politics to be kept away from my blog. This blog is all for fun, I use it to post my art and I use my art to escape from all the crap going on in the real world. I will worry about political and serious stuff when I'm not in the mood to draw and have fun, thank you very much

I have autism

About me

I have a lot of interests but you already know that

My favourite colour is green

My favourite YouTubers are DanTDM, Stampylonghead, Markiplier, Kub scoutz, LaurenZside, Bijuu Mike, SML (Super Mario Logan), Memeulous, Saberspark, Daz Games, CoryXKenshin, Phantomstrider, Superhorrorbro, Penguinz0 and Tuv

I'm a guy, but you've probably figured that out as well because Sebastian is a more masculine name

I am a brony

Ever since I read it when I was 11, my favourite book is Holes by Louis Sachar

Some of my other favourite music artists and bands (apart from Gorillaz) are Evanescence, Linkin Park, Simple Plan, Three Days Grace, Lady Gaga and Alan Walker

I also like songs/soundtrack from movies/musicals like The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Anastasia, The Lion King, Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, Tangled, Aladdin, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Heathers and Little Shop Of Horrors

Despite many of my favourite movies being Disney movies, I hate modern Disney with their stupid remakes and dumb modern movies, heck they couldn't even get their 100th anniversary right, what kind of universe are we living in where a Disney movie is beaten by an Adam Sandler film?!

My favourite Beavis and Butthead character is Butthead

My favourite Jojos Bizzare Adventure character is Dio Brando

My favourite Lilo and Stitch character is Pleakley

My favourite Resident Evil character is Leon S Kennedy

My favourite Gorillaz band member is Murdoc Niccals

My favourite Sally Face character is Sal Fisher

My favourite Sonic The Hedgehog character is Shadow

My favourite My Little Pony character is Fluttershy (in the Equestria Girls universe my favourite is Sunset Shimmer tho)

My favourite South Park characters are Kenny McCormick, Butters Stotch and Timmy Burch

My favourite Alice Madness Returns character is Alice Liddell

My favourite Street Fighter character is Chun Li

My favourite Black Butler character is Sebastian Michaelis (guess why, lmao)

My favourite Highschool DXD character is Asia Argento

My favourite Helluva Boss character is Stolas

My favourite Hazbin Hotel character is Angel Dust

My favourite Death Note character is L

My favourite Saw character is Adam Stanheight (aka very fucking confused)

Anyways

Thanks for reading my weird introduction, I appreciate it and even if you don't want to commission anything or stick around thats totally fine, I wish you well mate

[kaddyssammlung]

Rain – Analysis

"For so long, I have waited So long that I almost became Just a stoic statue, fit for nobody"

I feel this! I've been single for nine years now. But I don't even care anymore. I learned a lot being on my own. I don't feel lonely.

"And I don't wanna get in your way But I finally think I can say That the vicious cycle was over The moment you smiled at me"

The vicious cycle of reincarnation? I wonder what he means. Or maybe about ending with someone / something that is bad for you just because you are familiar with not being treated the right way?

"And just like the rain You cast the dust into nothing And wash out the salt from my hands"

Salt makes me think about alchemy here again for some reason. Maybe he used it maybe he did not. Maybe he does not want to use it anymore?

"So touch me again I feel my shadow dissolving"

Shadow meaning his shadow self according to Carl Jung again. At least that's how I see this. An example from live is finally realizing that I dealt with abuse in my early life but did not remember that. It was hiding in the shadows. Once I was able to see this again it started to dissolve. I don't think I will end up in a toxic relationship again after discovering this. A vicious cycle did end for me.

"Will you cleanse me with pleasure?"

It would be a great pleasure to teach you some things, Vessel but I doubt that you need that from me.

"It's that chemical cut that I can get down with"

No sex my dear humans?! Idk why it makes me think of this. I posted a strange video in here some time ago.

If you feel like going down rabbit holes then watch this. Funny enough that this is still on YouTube.

You unlock something when you don't sleep with someone or do other things....let's just keep it that way.

"Up like the moon and out like the hounds A dangerous disposition somehow"

I can relate to having a dangerous disposition. You can call BPD that in some ways. I look back at how I used to feel and behave with not the slightest control over my impulses and it's just scary. But gained that back or I am gaining that impulse control back.

"Refracted in light, reflected in sound"

This give me sleepless nights XD. Not really. But I don't know how to interpret this. "I'm coiled up like the venomous serpent"

Raising the serpent...activating your kundalini. It's an etheric (running in the ether) force within you that is lying coiled at the base of your spine.

Spirituality and stuff....you know XD

To me this is just another hint on spirituality, that's all.

"Tangled in your trance and I'm certain You have got your hooks in me"

We had so many times. Themes of being caught and tangled. I'm sure it had its hooks in him.

"I know, I know, the way that it goes You get what you give, you reap what you sow And I can see you in my fate"

Okay?! I have nothing to add here.

"And I know, I know, I am what I am The mouth of the wolf, the eyes of the lamb"

Is that how he sees himself? Seems like it.

"So darling, will you saturate?"

Yes. Sure. But I don't think you need me Vessel and also you probably are not talking about me.

"Nobody can say for certain If maybe it's all just a game"

I get this. I'm past the point where I doubt humanities ascension. But I used to. I can feel it happening. But I understand his doubts.

"When I open my eyes to the future I can hear you say my name"

Does he want us to maybe say his name? His real one I mean? Idk who he means though. It makes you think if he meet someone else or maybe finally understood that only he can save himself and that he does not need anybody else. Idk. This could mean anything.

So rain down on me