#maybe writing this down motivates me slightly to actually speedrun all my work

[cconfusedkat]

I'm doing better mentally but at the same time it's because I'm ignoring school 😭 Listen . Times are tough 🗿

[ladysmaragdina]

I know I'm late as hell, but Dishonored 2... Which path should you choose (high/ low chaos) in order to stay the most true to Emily's and Corvo's character? I've always loved reading your Dishonored fics and analyzes, you always make the characters make such good sense =>

So this ask has been sitting in my inbox for over two weeks now. Which I feel terribly guilty about, because I want to give this question the thought and weight and few-thousand words it probably deserves, but… ugh, okay.

Dishonored 1 is my single favorite game, ever.

I’m utterly indifferent to Dishonored 2.

I’m not interested in Dishonored 2.

I have a hard time even saying that I like Dishonored 2.

I’m not going to be able to answer this question, anon. And I feel like I should explain why. (A lot of this is going to be a reatread of what I talked about in my big Dishonored 2 critique I wrote back when the game came out. Whoops)

I played through the game once, the instant it came out – as Emily in a Clean Hands run – and I really, really enjoyed it at first. I loved getting to play as Emily. I loved that the gameplay was objectively better than the first one. I loved how bright and different and rich the world looked. I was so fucking into Dishonored 2! I probably spent an extra couple of hours exploring every nook and cranny of the Royal Conservatory after knocking out the witches, and finding Corvo’s old apartment in the Dust District was a fucking treat. I love the Dishonored world. I wanted to know everything. I was gonna write so much fucking meta and fanfic.

But by the time I got to A Crack In The Slab, I was starting to realize that the story felt… off.

By the time I finished that mission and it was suddenly time to go get rid of the Duke… I mean, I was still having fun! The game was fucking cool! But I raced through the streets leadup to the Duke’s palace without really exploring. I raced through the Duke’s palace like I was speedrunning it. There are entire floors of that level I never saw, and wasn’t remotely interested in seeing. I didn’t care.

I was bored by the time I got back to Dunwall. I was frustrated by how long it took me to work through the many levels of the palace. I just wanted to get to the finale and find out how the story ended. (and then I found the ending profoundly unsatisfying)

I realized none of this mattered.

If this was ultimately a story about stopping Delilah from mantling the Outsider —- as the metaplot seemed to insist – what the fuck were we doing in Karnaca? Why did we care about Karnaca? Karnaca’s problems weren’t my problems, Emily’s problems, at least not in any clear direct way; Karnaca’s problems weren’t even bad. The bloodflies were endemic to the region instead of being a super-scary weird semi-supernatural plague; it might have been a particularly bad year for bloodflies, but it didn’t feel like anything the city couldn’t deal with. The streets were lively. There were nobles sitting in cafes playing guitar music. Shops were open and well-lit. I felt like I could go to the beach and sip mai-tais. Even the most run-down, awful section of Karnaca that we got to see – the Dust District – wasn’t much worse than anything we’d seen on a Tuesday in Dunwall.

And Karnaca wasn’t home. It didn’t feel like it mattered to Emily. Not really. It was in Emily’s empire, sure, but it was an ocean away and it wasn’t under her direct personal governance. And the Emily we met at the start of the game wasn’t interested in governing to begin with. I could never buy the sense that she cared – really, emotionally cared – about the well-being of Karnaca, because Karnaca was relatively fine, and because Emily seemed like she would rather fuck off and abdicate given half the chance. Being exiled from Gristol didn’t feel like exile – it felt like a sunny vacation, a chance for Emily to have cool swashbuckling adventures without the boredom and paperwork of sitting a throne. 

I didn’t understand what I was really doing in Karnaca, and I didn’t understand why it was so urgent and important and needed that I get home to Dunwall. I was just told that I had to get home to Dunwall because Delilah was Bad. And that she was doing some Very Bad Things on the other side of the ocean, and that if she remained unchecked things would get Worse. YOU NEED TO STOP DELILAH, I was told.

But…. gosh, that was on the other side of the ocean. That didn’t seem to affect anything here. Again, Karnaca was fine! Karnaca’s had some issues, but they were were caused firstly by the Duke, not Delilah! What bad things was Delilah really doing? Can we see them? How are they worse than anything any other nobles and rulers are doing? How would installing Emily on the throne be meaningfully different?

What would Delilah’s plan to mantle the Outsider actually mean? The finale gives us a vision of The World As It Should Be, a supremely alien lotus-eater machine where Delilah is absolute monarch; it comes so late in the game, at the absolute eleventh hour, that it doesn’t feel meaningful. It also comes totally out of left field and is so bizarre and extreme that I had no fear that it could ever actually happen. Everything about Delilah’s ascension and ultimate goal is so bizarre and extreme that I had no fear it could ever actually happen. I didn’t understand how it was supposed to happen. The mechanics of magic had never mattered before; why did they matter now? Why did the half-baked explanation for Delilah’s endgame rely on lore from the previous game’s second DLC? (What the fuck, Arkane?)

What was my motivation? Why were my missions important – why did Emily want and need to do these things? What would happen, actually happen, if I failed? What was keeping me from just walking away?

I’m really not sure.

Maybe, just maybe, we could ignore the weird ascension to godhood plot. Maybe my real motivation had nothing to do with Delilah – maybe Emily just wanted to get back to the home that was taken from her. Maybe this was a “take back whats yours” story. But Emily didn’t seem to really want the throne back. The Emily we met at the beginning of the game was bored with governing and wanted out of Dunwall. If we’d had more time and attention paid to that shift in her character, I’d buy it, but you can’t do a complete and instant 180 on a character’s feelings and call it motivation.

Or maybe my real motivation was to get home to Dunwall to save Corvo. But the opening sequence made it seem like Corvo was dead. That’s not a valid motivation either.

Maybe my motivation was to avenge Corvo? I don’t buy that the way I bought Corvo avenging Jessamine in Dishonored 1; in Dishonored 2, Corvo is not the focus and meaning of Emily’s life, and I can’t see her structuring her entire life around fighting back from exile just to avenge him. Emily has hopes and dreams and a distant love interest and isn’t the same hollowed-out husk of vengeance that Corvo is. Sure, he’s her father figure, but I don’t buy that as her sole motivation.

This lack of motivation trickles down to the individual missions of the game.

If I don’t really know or care about what Delilah is doing, why is it so important to stop Breanna Ashworth?

Kirin Jindosh is supposedly making an army of Clockwork Soldiers, but what does that mean? How soon would they be ready, what are the logistics, how powerful are they, how are they worse than Tallboys or other existing technology, what was he going to use them for? Why is it so important to take him out? Couldn’t we just bribe him or write him a strongly-worded letter? I’m going to be the Empress – couldn’t I make his soldiers illegal or shut down his factories? Why do I have to go to such an immediate and awful extreme?

Sure, the Duke is a dick and should probably be replaced by a better ruler. Doing so doesn’t feel important. I’ve never met the Duke. He never did anything to me. Karnaca’s in decent shape, all things considered. Killing or replacing him  feels like taking out the trash.

Where are the stakes?

Why do I care about any of this?

Tangent – I feel like I’ve got to talk about Corvo a bit here. Would Corvo have a different, stronger, more personal attachment to Karnaca? Sure, but I’ve never played Corvo’s route in Dishonored 2 and can’t speak to it. Personally, I always got the sense that Corvo felt like an outsider in Gristol and that he would have tried to distance himself from Serkonos in response to this, and that returning must have felt oddly alien, like an ill-fitting suit. Now, this is a cool thing to explore. It might make him more invested and interested in some aspects of the game – I’m thinking of the Duke and Stilton in the Dust District, specifically – but I don’t think it fixes the core issues about lack of motivation in the overarching plot.

So, let’s talk about that overarching plot. Would Corvo feel more strongly about getting back to Gristol and restoring Emily to the throne and/or bringing vengeance to her “killer”? Probably! Corvo’s arc in Dishonored 2 isn’t about toppling Delilah and seeking vengeance for his own sake, but rather for Emily’s sake (or at least the memory of Emily-who-we-think-is-dead). That’s less selfish and entitled, more emotional and tortured. That’s honestly more interesting to me. But that’s the exact same story we got in Dishonored 1. Corvo’s entire existence in Dishonored 2 feels like a rehash of Dishonored 1. The vengeance arc in Dishonored 2 feels much more muddled and unfocused and distant in comparison. It’s not as good.

I think Corvo’s story and motivation are more clear and pressing and straightforward than Emily’s; but I think Dishonored 1 did that exact same story and motivation much much better. Corvo’s story in Dishonored 2 honestly makes more sense to me than Emily’s story. Which feels utterly backwards! One protagonist has a storyline and motivation that has no real weight or drive or urgency behind it. The other protagonist has a slightly stronger storyline that is still a weaker, fuzzier retread of the first game.

I think Dishonored 2 is badly written.

I like it on the micro level – I like the characters and the levels – but on the macro, i think it’s a confused jumble that doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a vengeance story? Is it a story about stopping a supernatural threat? I don’t know, and I don’t think it does either. The game doesn’t manage to mesh those ideas at all, and neither idea holds water on its own. I am utterly confused and turned off by the game’s decision to make the vengeance so un-urgent and impersonal and the villain’s magic-driven plan so distant and obtuse and ill-defined. I think that in deciding to make the scope bigger, it bit off way more than it could chew and lost sight of what matters in storytelling.

Dishonored 1 was a tightly-focused straightforward revenge plot where I understood exactly what I had lost, how much it mattered, and what was at stake. Dishonored 2 is a fucking mess.

I can’t write about which choices Corvo and Emily would have taken because their choices don’t make sense to me; because their existence and participation in this story makes no sense to me; because the story hops from point to point without establishing thematic or plot coherence; because I don’t understand – emotionally, really buy and feel and understand – why I’m meant to give a shit about any of it.

I played the game once, started a High Chaos replay, wandered away from the game after the second mission, and uninstalled. I have no interest in replaying it. I have no interest in ever picking up Death of the Outsider. The fact that the writing seems to be moving away from the vengeance quest and doubling down on its focus on the supernatural (and the fact that they’re dragging back characters – Corvo in Dishonored 2, Daud in DotO – whose arcs had finished) has honestly killed my interest in the franchise at this point. I don’t feel anything about this other than a profound sense of disappointment. 

I wanted to like Dishonored 2. The game is gorgeous and fun and an improvement on the original in many ways. I wanted to answer your question, anon. I truly wish I could, and I’m sorry for how salty this post has become. I’m sure someone else would have fantastic headcanons and insight.

But I just. don’t. care.

[abundantchewtoys]

Hiveswap ‘17-09-17: Walkies and talkies

So, I wonder if, when we're playing as Jude, that we'll have to prep a pigeon with something she could use. A pigeon that, if I remember concept art correctly, will not reach Joey immediately but instead will end up in the kitchen. That will probably be why she chooses to leave her room in the first place. Come to think of it, the motivation might be twofold - retrieve the McGuffin, yes, sure, but also save an animal from harm, as she is want to do as a junior veterinarian. Let's see!

--- Hah, okay, so the walkie doesn't immediately appear in the lower left corner, it's made available to click on next to Joey's avatar. That's good, everything that minimizes the HUD is great in my book! I suppose the icons might be switched when we're being Jude. Heheh, the alert bubble coming out of the walkie reminds me of Pesterchum's. Blaperile jokes that there might be a psyche, that Jude isn't available to talk with yet. It would be funny and remind me of Homestuck, where it took way too long for the two characters to be able to interact too (until the introduction of the KIDDY CAMPER SASH, actually). Also, what if we now see the events from Jude, but slightly in the past? Leading up to him powering up his own walkie. Hmmmnah, that would be too confusing for people perhaps. So, the walkie when shown at the top is no longer available for combining stuff with, I wonde if when it's shown at the bottom, it is? Ooooh, Jude and Joey's text colors are switched with regard to their shirts symbols! Just like how it was with John and Jade! ... Joey doesn't understand blinking I mean morse code! Hahahaahh! Oh, but Jude has his own method of signaling, apparently. I... guess he never gave Joey a cipher. To prevent it from getting into the wrong hands, obviously. Thereby defeating the code of developing a secret code for communicating with others. <image 1>

"PLEASE REPORT BITE STATUS" Pffffffff. Now that's a quote to remember. As is "WAIT unover". I like how Jude is all formal and military over the comm - authorative-sounding, but also sounding like Karkat, except when he's saying "over"/"unover". I wonder if that's how he always talks or not. By which I mean, is that how he'd talk to Dammek too, once in Hauntswitch? Ah, first branching dialogue path, perhaps? "i'm fine / not great" At one point, these diverting paths will become plot-important, I don't really believe this one is yet. Ah, and Joey now tells Jude the monster's gone down the stairs. I wonder if Jude has a way to lock himself into the tree, beyond perhaps a measely hatch. "CRYPTID VANGUARD", hahahah. Yeah, these things are no bigfoot, but I suppose he could score major points with his webring if he could shoot a clear picture of them. Pfff, Jude has gotten the idea into his head the monster invasion was just a ruse. A distaction, you could say. I don't know what to think, he could have a point, sure, but having uttered the idea to Joey now, maybe it just means to show how paranoid he really can be. "ANTARES-CLASS CONSPIRACY" "what / uh... / what. over." Yeah, I'm with Joey. We're going with option three: "what. over." "TRUST IS CRUCIAL ON THE BATTLEFIELD" Oh, Jude has delusions of grandeur, too? :P You're no general, leave the blowharding to Amporas! Jude has a point to call into question Joey's skepticism - it reminds me of Jane's with regard to the batterwitch. It first started waivering after the last attempt on her life, at the end of Act 6 Act 1, I think. Granted, Prospitian visions were involved, but still. "MUST ABSCOND TO ATTIC JOEY" OOOoh, he wants her to barricade herself in in the attic? But then, there's the point of him leaving the hut's windows wide open. :P Also, yessssss, the first mention of "abscond"! I wasn't expecting it, but here it is. It goes good with Jude's quirk, all outdatedly sounding and such. Then again, Joey might do a youth roll out of Dammek's room later on, if that gets namedropped, then every term from Homestuck's on the table. "WELL STOCKED WITH TACTICAL MATERIEL" Ooooh, maybe Grandpa's artillery reserves are up there! I think we saw a blunderbuss or two in one of the concept art pictures, maybe that's up there too? Also, heh, instead of a submerged bombshelter, their house has a, uh... elevated bomb-crow's-nest. :P "TAKE LEFT OUT OF ROOM GO UP STAIRS / HIGHEST ROOM IN HOUSE / i know what the attic is jude!" PFfffffff, hahahah. Yeah, these were just directions for our own convenience. But from Joey's perspective, it's so weird - it's her house too, Jude! Hmmm, it would almost seem like this thing has been made for speedruns, if the attic is so easily available. Then again, maybe the attic key is missing or something. Well, we know what we must do now: once outside the room, go right, if possible. :D "I WAS WORRIED over" N'awww, for a moment there, it shows he's just been worried sick for his big sister. Oooooh, another dialog option! "call the cops / call our babysitter!" Yeah, Jude probably mistrusts the Hauntswitch police force (and seeing the hints we've been getting, I don't blame him?) PLUS it would be wild if we could call Roxy over. I mean Sitter. Of course, circumstances probably will prevent her from coming. For one, it's Friday night. She's going out without question. We're still choosing option two, though. Of course, Sitter would be of little use fighting monsters, you'd think. But this is Roxy Lalonde, she's probably carrying a home-made laser gun around, the precursor to the one Mom would have in the session. And plus, calling anyone will probably only work if Jude has a satellite phone up there. The landline is probably disabled by now. Okay, the monsters didn't cut the power, but still. "TOO LATE TO REACH HER AT LAB WORKING DAY LONG DONE over" OOOooooh! So she's already working at SKAIANET by now????? So, does that mean she's already older than 18, or just that instead of going to college she took an internship at the lab. Blaperile wonders if it's the same lab as Rose's house would be near. If so, that would put Hauntswitch somewhere in upstate New York, presumably! And yup, according to us, this is the first official confirmation she worked at a lab! Her labcoat + her bed being stationed in the lab were of course huge clues, but now it's been put into words. "oh no, you're right... / AGREED ON BOTH COUNTS" These two, but especially Jude. :P "BABYSITTER CAPABLE STRIFER, COULD HELP TIP SCALES" Namedrop for Strife! And yes, apart from guns she's also skilled in karate or some such, as we saw in Jack: Ascend. But for people unfamiliar with Homestuck, this must be a huge "uh, what?" moment. To think we might not have had this dialogue if we chose "call the cops" back there! "DO YOUR HAVE YOUR WEAPON over" ooooh, what could it be? The ballet shoes? Blaperile commented "I don't think it's her flashlight", but that reminds me she was using it to bop some of the monsters in a trailer, so yeah, that must be it! I would've chosen "sure don't", but talking to Blaperile reminds me that perhaps the flashlight is just a makeshift weapon. So we go with the middle dialog option. "what weapon? you mean my OLD weapon?" Ooooh, so she might have more than one??? "you want me to fight them? with my flashlight?" I knew it!!! "MUST BE BRAVE" Oh god, if we get him to say "I BELIEVE IN YOU", I swear... "YOUR BROTHER BELIEVES IN YOU AND KNOWS YOU CAN DEFEAT THE SERPENTS" Hahahahahahahah, close enough! <image 2>

"DO YOU RECALL WHERE WEAPON IS over / yeah" PFFfffffff, only one option? Dear god. :D That's helpful, isn't it? "yeah. it's in the closet" ooooh, the clothes closet, then? The one we hadn't opened yet, since there was no one to do a makeover montage with? "OK ALL SET THEN / no, i mean the hall closet" Aaaah, that's why we're not going straight to the attic. I assume the hall she means is downstairs. OOOOOOoooh, her posture and idling pose all changed! N'awww, she doesn't show it in dialog, but it sure calmed her down talking to Jude. In fact, she might have felt guilty for not being near him now, to protect him. It must've been a relief to know he's alright. Blaperile went to look at the hut: "You'd be SERIOUSLY mad if he got himself hurt trying to help you" N'awwww, it's so nice seeing how they interact and think of eachother. It's so different from other sibling pairs we've had in the past in Homestuck, due to them being the same age. The Strilondes, the Harleyberts, Kanaya and Karkat, the cherubs... OOoh, talking to Jude again makes Joey tell him she wants to write in her diary. That would mean the diary key will soon be lost to us, since after writing in it she puts it back into Puppy Surprise. So from here on out, only the Cherub Key will work. Limiting the number of combinations for What Pumpkin to consider, of course. Hah, trying to leave prompt her indeed to consider writing in her diary. "Exciting stuff happens to you once in a green moon! Or was it blue?" PFffffff, Blaperile is right, that's another sneaky reference to things to come, one of Alternia's moons is green! Ooooh, having written in the diary prompts additional dialog from Jude! ... These two XD "CLIIIIIIIIICK dial toooooooooooooooooone" "CAN SEE YOU THROUGH WINDOW / ARE MAKING SOUND WITH MOUTH over and out" It was meta though, since walkies can't indeed be hung up. Or at least, there's no way to turn the walkie off but still know when someone is trying to message you. Then again, that might be something Skaianet came up with. And okay, for now, that's the last time we can use the walkie, from here on out, it might just be us having to wait for Jude to contact us. Time to go out! ---- Oooh, there's the Mansion's music. Not Luigi's Mansion's, but the start of the motif reminds me of it. All these things to click on. And we even seem to have three ways to go, down the hall left (to the attic), or right to a T-crossing! Also, hi Sufferer Muppet. (Suffet?) And Pringles box. And everything. Hmm, those boney skulls, could those be masks from indigenous tribes? ... Jake loves skulls, of course. Tsssh, with those horns and feathory accessories they seem almost alien though. Is that pink penguin figure a Club Penguin reference? All these things related to Grandpa's interests. Conquistador helmet, weird arrow-globe/compass thingy... The horse paintings are a bit of a mystery though. I mean, considering it's more a Dirk/Andrew thing. Ah come on, the red cough in the foreground has horns too. .... Joey or Jude drew a cod piece on the painting in the foreground. A purple cod piece, looking just like Gamzee's, no less. All the alien stickers are testimony that Joey is not the only one vandalizing the walls. Also, I like the detail of the wall being spotted, from moisture. Blaperile noticed the paper men on Joey's room door. 6 in total, so there's one person in there we haven't heard being mentioned yet. I like Blaperile's theory it could be Jude's mother. I mean, there could be another reason Joey took Ms. Claire's name and Jude Grandpa's - she might just be making a statement after all, that she feels more like her mother's daughter than his. Also, you can't make a great pun like "JOEY CLAIRE, EXTRAORDINAIRE" with the Harley surname... or can you? Okay, so the 6th figure was Tesseract, ahahahah. And Joey's door is plastered with photos taken by the babysitter, n'awww. Also, she has a very nice signature! I hope we can get some in-detail shots of those pictures. I don't believe the cat that Tess is barking at is Mutini, it seems to have two eyes and a greying snout, but you never know! Plus, it could still be Roxy's. The pictures, especially the set from a photo cabin, really show how "babysitter" is really not covering what Roxy is to them. It's more, like "au pair". "Nanny", even. Almost, but not quite, "mother". Of course, a neglectful mother, that's drunk a lot of times, but still. It almost seems like she could be more loving to them than to Rose. Seeing as how she was so passive-aggressive... Also, she wrote "Dog don't do that!" on the lower picture, which might mean she cares just a bit less for Tesseract  than her own pets (since she's not calling her by name). Blaperile's right, she's more of a cat person. Welp, we can't take a closer look at the pictures after all. Oh well, it's all for the concept art book, I suppose. Okay, we talked to Jude first before clicking on any items. Yes. Pure golden. Jude pretending to have gone on training mission, and babbling on and on. "over an[CLICK]" The "globe-like structure" solicts the snarkiest response from Joey yet, perhaps. No mention of it also having a compass arrow, relating to her symbol. Wow, cool, I didn't spinning it would work. The artwork blends in so well with the backdrop. The horse painting shows us that Jude and Joey imagine stories behind this painting. When you're bored alone in a mansion as a kid, vandalizing the artwork is just one of many options. I like the contrast between not just Joey and Jude's typing style (Jude uses black not green colors here), but also the paper they used! CHERUB KEY + GLOBE: Hmmm... "you've always felt a difference of degrees is a difference of kind" I know it's a play on compasses, but it reminds me of the hemospectrum, a caste-system built on diverting blood colours. SHOES + GLOBE: "Maybe it's a tap dance detector?" Pfffff Oh, so there's Ms Claire's jewelry box. It's less ornate than I imagined it. CHERUB KEY + BOX Awww, yup, she took the key after her mom passed away. And that OPENED the box, wow! Welp, but we can't look inside. SHOES + BOX : So precious. Also, Pringles. SUFFET: ... Are you KIDDING me??? Jude shot it with an arrow. Just like Darkleer. ... At least Joey had her medkit to patch him up with that patch. 'there, all better' KEY + SUFFET ... Ah come on. Yeah, I think Sufferer would appreciate being let go, thank you very much. "Balinda" is the name of the statue. "Ballet + Belinda" And oh, that's how all the darts got here. "what crueler way to kill a ballerina than to tap dance her to death" WELLLLL she's got a point. (Or pointe, I should say. Well, she hasn't got a pointe just yet.) Also, that could actually happen in a tv murder series. Painting Two: Ah, so it was a naked lady before Joey and Jude scribbled over it. Grandpa, that's a bit in poor taste to leave hanging around. So maybe it was Jude added the cod piece. Is... is that a big foot puppet next to the couch? KEY + WATERGUN: Heh. Gunwater. Watergun. SHOES + WATERGUN: Ah yes, nestled in plush... : 'Look at that, it's not going anywhere' --- We're gonna leave it here, and go to the next part of the house the next time we play! It's a nice, busy mansion Joey lives in, and a lot of fun exploring.